'Dark Reddit Confession’ Videos Reveal A Little-Known Side Of TikTok That Thrives On Morbid Humor

Recently, there has been an increasing number of dark Reddit confession accounts popping up on TikTok. Most of these accounts curate unhinged, disturbing posts from Reddit’s /r/confession board (and related forums like /r/AskReddit), screenshot them, slap them over some b-roll Minecraft parkour footage and have a soulless text-to-speech (TTS) voice read through them.

While it might not be the most laborious or original content out there, these videos tend to do well for creators. As a viewer, they’re entertaining, easy to digest and somewhat addictive, saving you from having to do the pesky task of sifting through the massive pile of posts on /r/confessions for interesting stories.

The more shocking the confession, the more views the video tends to get, hooking people in with a tantalizing title and keeping them glued throughout with the juicy details. It’s the perfect format for drama addicts, and while most “Reddit post” accounts on TikTok don’t solely go the dark route, reading through more lighthearted, interesting and informative posts from around the site as well, nearly all of these accounts dabble on the darker side.

Videos like this have been continually going viral on TikTok for months now, but what’s more interesting than the content itself is the way that TikTokers are using the content, revealing a somewhat darker side of TikTok that thrives on hearing the TTS voice say horrible things.

One of the more well-known examples of this is a video known as I Hate My Autistic Son. Posted to TikTok by @reddit.guy in March 2022, the video features a TTS voice reading a dark Reddit confession, originally posted in September 2014, where a man talks about how much he hates his autistic son.

He writes, “I can’t help it, my life is constantly terrible. I spend as much time as work as possible. The worst part is that I am supposed to pretend that I am happy about it,” ending the post by asking why God did this to him.

It’s a brutal read that received only 1,000 upvotes on the subreddit. It’s unclear how popular the original upload on TikTok was since it was deleted, but its original sound remains, which has been used over 2,000 times at the time of writing.

A short browse through the sound shows hundreds of videos using the story as background audio to absurd, low-quality viral clips, edgy and cursed memes, cringe content and goofy ahh videos.

The top video under the sound, for example, is a slideshow compiling seemingly random ironic and absurd memes. Another top video follows the same premise, showing a compilation of abrupt, out-of-context memes and videos that feel like they were pulled out of a dumpster as the TTS voice talks about how miserable his autistic son has made his life.

Running into one of these videos for the first time on the For You Page is likely to be a little bit confusing as opposed to running into the original video, where the context is on display up front. Even when you find the original sound, there’s still the lingering question, “Why are people using the sound this way?” For those who aren’t into dark humor or “edgy” memes, there’s the even more pressing question, “Why is this funny?”

The TTS voice is a large part of why these videos end up as successful as they do. Over the years, the TTS voice has become one of the most overused features on TikTok. Many creators won’t use their own voice at all, simply defaulting to the TTS voice, which now comes in a variety of nationalities and variations. Some creators even use TTS voices from elsewhere on the web.

While the voice does a pretty good job of reading short sentences, its uncanny and soulless nature really shines as it reads through longer paragraphs. The total lack of emotion as the voice reads lines like, I tried to get rid of my autistic son by dumping him near the Delaware river, is darkly funny and entirely distracting from whatever is happening in the video itself.

It almost doesn’t matter what the creator puts in the video, the second the listener realizes what they’re hearing it takes in all your attention, especially the first time you hear it, demanding further context. To find that context, many TikTokers will click on the sound, introducing yet another person to the meme side of dark Reddit confessionals.

Unlike many memes, especially viral videos where the visual element is the main draw, the audio is the star here, with the video simply filling space most of the time and the use of absurd memes telling the viewer, “this is okay to laugh at.” It also helps that the confessions are anonymous, adding an important level of separation between the person laughing and the person telling the story. For all anyone knows these confessions aren’t even the truth, so why not laugh when they’re paired with cursed videos?

At this point, dark Reddit confessions have far crossed the line into ironic territory, leading to usage beyond meme compilations. The most popular ones have also spawned remixes where a dubstep or house song’s drop is introduced by the TTS voice.

One sound, in particular, that’s inspired over 4,500 videos including skits and lip dubs since March takes the “Delaware River” Reddit post and does exactly this, dropping it right before the beat takes off. Another sound by @notlance01 takes a dark Reddit confession where a user admits to giving a kid brain damage by hitting him in the head with a bat and adds a hype beat around it, contrasting the serious diatribe with something that makes you want to dance.

The videos are like an assault to the senses, condensing the much studied desensitized gen-z and millennial sense of humor into a single trend. Lots of people won't like it and the biggest haters will call it cringe or try-hard edgy. There's an argument to be made there, especially considering how lots of these videos are likely made by zoomers who are going through their first "edgy phase."

Regardless, the genre is undeniably successful and hits a chord with a large subset of TikTokers, giving those who don't get it or like it a glimpse into a side of TikTok that's not run by samey lip dub skits and dance trends. At the very least, you might find some new, obscure viral zoomer humor memes out of it, especially if you take the opportunity to keep delving into the weird side of TikTok with closely related trends like Quandale Dingle and Goofy Ahh meme compilations.

The explosion of these videos and the rabid use of their original sounds shows a darker and more trollish side of TikTok hiding behind some of the most popular videos on the platform. Dark Reddit confessions themselves are about as mainstream as it comes on TikTok and their engagement levels and comments sections prove that.

The comment section of @redditruins upload of the Delaware River sound, for example, features almost entirely genuine conversations about the confession and the situation around it. However, by pulling back the curtain and exploring the original sound, users are quickly transported to the “weird side” of TikTok, a confusing landscape of people laughing at brutal anonymous confessions mashed up with bizarre memes and skits that go out of their way not to mention how weird it is that a robot just admitted to kicking someone in the head and putting them on an oxygen tank for the rest of their life in the background.

Dark humor isn’t a new concept, especially in the world of memes, but it’s not the first thing that comes to mind when most people think about TikTok. Rest assured, it’s there and it's a lot more popular than you might realize.