FREAKBAiT's 'Today's Mission'

About

FREAKBAiT's "Today's Mission" refers to a series of viral TikTok and Instagram videos uploaded by the account @officialfreakbait which give the viewer an absurd "mission" for the day. Each mission is demonstrated by a VHS-style animation that shows silhouettes reenacting each task while a male voiceover speaks. The tasks are similar to pranks. FREAKBAiT started posting the animations in late 2021, continuing into early 2023. Then, TikTokers started posting duets and stitches with FREAKBAiT, using the TikTok sounds to show themselves completing "Today's Mission" with the voiceover.

Origin

On October 28th, 2021, the TikTok^[1] account @officialfreakbait posted a video that was a VHS-style animation showing a single purple silhouette dancing. A voiceover on the video stated, "Today's mission: See how many times you can sneak the phrase 'Legend has it' in a conversation." Over the course of a year and a half, the video received roughly 3.2 million plays and 543,900 likes (shown below). On the same day, the animator posted the video to Instagram,^[2] where it earned roughly 1,100 likes.

Spread

After the virality of FREAKBAiT's TikTok^[1] video, they posted more thereafter, which also earned millions of plays. For instance, on November 1st, 2021, FREAKBAiT posted a "Today's Mission" TikTok^[3] that tasked its viewer with holding the door open for someone far away. The video received roughly 1.3 million plays and 304,100 likes in a year and a half (shown below, left). Going into the new year, on February 16th, 2022, FREAKBAiT posted a "Today's Mission" TikTok^[4] that earned roughly 4.7 million plays and 745,400 likes in one year (shown below, right).

Starting in early 2022, FREAKBAiT's "Today's Mission" videos were reenacted by other TikTokers who used the sounds of the original videos. For instance, the first notable instance of a creator doing so was uploaded on March 3rd, 2022 by TikToker^[5] @embfam who successfully completed the mission that was stated in FREAKBAiT's February 16th TikTok.^[4] TikToker^[5] @embfam's stitch received roughly 32,000 plays and 3,400 likes in one year (shown below).

Going into early 2023, FREAKBAiT's "Today's Mission" videos continued to gain virality. For instance, on March 5th, 2023, FREAKBAiT posted a "Today's Mission" TikTok^[6] that gained roughly 12.7 million plays and 2.9 million likes in 12 days (shown below, left). On March 9th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @pabl0_131 posted a stitch with the video, showing him completing FREAKBAiT's mission. Over the course of eight days, the stitch gained roughly 2.5 million plays and 541,900 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References