About

Chopping Dance or Questions I Get Asked is a TikTok dance trend in which the dancer sways their hips while acting out a number of stylized chopping moves with their hands, beginning with chopping on a cutting board, followed by stacking their hands and chopping as if cutting wood and ending with finger guns. The trend began in March 2021, going viral on TikTok over the course of the year. The dance is set to the song "The Magic Bomb" by Hoang Read.

Origin

On March 28th, 2021, TikToker^[1] @themanhngo_ posted a video (shown below) performing "the chopping dance," a dance that he created set to the song "The Magic Bomb" by Hoang Read.^[2] The dance mimics various forms of chopping, while the TikToker also sways their hips. The video gained over 106,000 views in four months.

Spread

The dance blew up across Chinese TikTok over the course of the following months, resulting in a number of popular videos performing it. For example, on April 8th, TikToker^[3] @c.0214 posted a video performing the dance, garnering over 40 million views in three months (shown below).

The trend soon gained worldwide popularity in the following weeks. On May 13th, TikToker^[5] @1facerussia, a deepfake Vladimir Putin, performed the dance, garnering over 46 million views in two months (shown below).

On May 17th, TikTok^[4] dance group @urbantheory_ posted a video performing a version of the trend, garnering over 196 million views in two months (shown below).

"Questions I Get Asked" Trend

In July 2021, the Chopping Dance became a framing device for a trend in which TikTokers answer questions they're frequently asked regarding a profession, hobby, belief, etc. that they take part in, often with tongue-in-cheek answers. For example, on July 3rd, TikToker^[6] @turtlewithhat posted a video captioned "Questions we get asked as lesbians" following the trend, gaining over 8.1 million views in three weeks (shown below, left). On July 8th, TikToker^[7] @mickyxsigns posted one captioned "things i hear a lot as a deaf creator," in which she jokes about not being able to hear anything, garnering over 13 million views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On July 15th, TikToker^[8] @jamishio posted a video following the trend answering questions about having a Minecraft girlfriend, such as whether he was the smelly kid in school while wearing a Minecraft Creeper hoodie, gaining over 7 million views in six days (shown below).

Jamishio continued to perform the trend over the course of the month, resulting in a number of popular videos. On July 18th, he posted a video answering questions about living with his parents at 24, gaining over 8.8 million views in three days (shown below).

Tutorial

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References