About

Here's 5 TikTok Dances You Can Do to Help is a parody article headline that presents itself as a listicle providing different TikTok dance trends to "help" end a military conflict. The original headline came from the satirical news publication Cinch News" and read, "Here’s 5 Tik-Tok dances you can do to help Ukraine fight Russia." After the article was published in early 2022, the headline led to shock and outrage among some online, as many did not know the headline was satire. In the following months and years, the concept was then parodied and referenced in other memes about various conflicts.

Origin

On March 1st, 2022, satirical publication Cinch News^[1] posted an article titled, "Here’s 5 Tik-Tok dances you can do to help Ukraine fight Russia" (shown below). The article opens with the lede, "As Ukraine repels the Russian invasion, many influencers and social media stars are wondering how they can make this about them."

Spread

The headline began spreading on social media without the context that it was satirical in the days following its publication. For example, on March 8th, 2022, Twitter user @ManMilk2^[2] posted the headline out of context, gaining over 10,000 retweets and 131,000 likes in 18 months (shown below).

Over the following year, it was reposted to several communities out of context, including Reddit's /r/shitposting,^[3] /r/awfuleverything^[4] and iFunny.^[5] On March 11th, 2022, YouTuber Optimus posted a video discussing the headline as part of an actual fundraiser for Ukraine, gaining over 162,000 views in 18 months (shown below).

On August 17th, 2023, the headline was then debunked as satire by Snopes^[6] following its virality.

On October 11th, Twitter user @SonicAids^[7] posted a similar fake headline that read "Here's four TikTok dances you can do to help Hamas fight Israel" amidst the Israel-Hamas Conflict (shown below).

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References