About

Fake Screaming Behind People is a social game and trend that started on TikTok in February 2021. It involves TikTokers opening their mouths as wide as they can while fake screaming behind people without them noticing. Most of the videos use the It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia theme song as the background music, starting from a TikToker who used the sound for a video in August 2021. The trend gained more traction on the platform going into September 2021.

Origin

On February 3rd, 2021, TikToker @alejwho uploaded the first known instance of the trend, performing a fake scream behind his mother. The TikTok^[1] received roughly 2.3 million plays and 563,000 likes over the course of seven months. However, the video was removed by @alejwho and reuploaded by him again on September 26th, 2021, captioning the video, "What started it all." This reupload^[6] (shown below) received roughly 4.6 million plays and 1.2 million likes over the course of one day.

Spread

On March 13th, 2021, @alejwho uploaded a second TikTok of him doing fake screams behind his friends at a party. The TikTok^[2] (shown below, left) received roughly 917,000 plays and 251,000 likes over the course of six months. Later that year, on August 17th, 2021, @alejwho uploaded another TikTok of himself doing a fake scream behind a woman at a baseball game. The TikTok^[3] (shown below, right) received roughly 9.5 million plays and 1.7 million likes over the course of one month. This TikTok was also the first one to use the It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia theme song.

On August 27th, 2021, TikToker @.whyty uploaded a video of himself fake screaming behind his teacher's back. The TikTok^[4] (shown below, left) received roughly 799,000 plays and 254,000 likes over the course of 27 days. The trend gained more traction in the days following, with most TikTokers following the trend using the same It's Always Sunny theme song. For instance, TikToker^[5] @charlesgatewood_ uploaded a video (shown below, right) on September 12th, 2021, that received roughly 9.6 million views and 8.9 million likes over the course of 10 days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References