Couch Guy (TikTok)

About

Couch Guy refers to a viral video of TikToker Lauren Zarras surprising her boyfriend Robbie at college by showing up to his apartment unannounced. When she walks into the room, he's on the couch with three women next to him, but Zarras ignores this fact and the two embrace. The video became a massive subject of discussion and parody on TikTok in early October 2021 as people gave Robbie the nickname "couch guy" and accused him of cheating on Zarras based on the video. The two disputed these claims.

Origin

On September 21st, 2021, TikToker^[1] Lauren Zarras posted a video captioned "surprising my boyfriend at college" where a friend films her entering her boyfriend Robbie's apartment without him knowing. When she enters, Robbie is sitting at the closest end of the living room couch playing a Nintendo Switch. Three girls are sitting beside him on the couch, and a male friend is in the room as well on a barstool. Robbie, or "Couch Guy," sees Zarras, smiles, and puts down his Switch controller. He then stands up with a cellphone in his hand and hugs her. The video gained over 51 million views in two weeks (reupload shown below).

Over the following days, viewers began commenting on the video accusing Couch Guy of cheating on Zarras, mainly because of how many girls were in the room next to him and because of his lack of visible excitement. Some of these comments gained hundreds of thousands of likes during the viral debate. On September 26th, TikToker Nicki Baber commented about not liking the "sneaky phone pass," ​referencing a moment in the video after Zarras walks in and before the embrace where Couch Guy allegedly sneakily takes his phone from the girl closest on the couch (shown below).

Spread

The hashtag "#couchguy" became notably popular in early October as users began posting videos critiquing and examining Couch Guy. Many TikTokers^[3][4] made skits comedically recreating the video, highlighting the cheating aspect (examples shown below, left and right).

On October 2nd, Couch Guy responded to the controversy via his TikTok page @souljawatchambassador. The video displays on-screen text reading: "Couch Guy here. You're welcome for getting you off Berries & Cream TikTok, but remember: Not everything is true crime. Don't be a parasocial creep. Go get some fresh air. Take care," gaining over 3.1 million views in two days (shown below, left). Many viewers accused him of gaslighting them in the comments. A day later he posted a video accusing commenters of gaslighting him by thinking they know his relationship better than him, gaining over 1.2 million views in a day (shown below, right).

On October 3rd, TikToker^[2] @kimcastro posted a video where she zooms in on the moment of the alleged phone pass, gaining over 11.4 million views in a day (shown below).

On the same day, TikToker^[5] @thinksplendid posted a video criticizing the girls on the couch, saying they should have been just as excited to see Lauren and saying they're not her real friends, offering her the advice "people stay in hell because the street signs are familiar," gaining over 4.6 million views in a day (shown below).

YouTuber Observe uploaded a video examining Couch Guy's body language, gaining over 76,000 views in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References