About

I Performed "Rick and Morty" by Soulja Boy For X refers to a trend on TikTok where TikTokers perform the song "Rick and Morty" by Soulja Boy, among other songs, to an absurd audience, like a famous dead person's grave or their pets. The trend most notably started at the end of July 2021 and carried into August 2021.

Origin

On July 31st, 2021, TikToker^[1] @theboyraabit01 posted a video (shown below) of himself performing "Rick and Morty" to the grave of Woodrow Wilson. Although @theboyraabit01 had been posting cemetery rap videos as early as July 14th, 2021,^[1] this TikTok featuring President Wilson kicked off the trend, receiving roughly 7 million views and 1 million likes over one week. TikToker @theboyraabit01 did not actually film his video in front of President Woodrow Wilson's real grave, as Wilson is buried at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C.^[3]

Although this TikTok from @theboyraabit01 started the ironic trend, the true origin of the trend came from rapper Yung Smiley, who posted videos of him rapping to gravestones as early as June 20th, 2021 (shown below), though his TikTok is now deleted. It's likely that TikToker @theboyraabit01 drew inspiration from these Yung Smiley TikToks for his video.

Serving as a precursor to this trend, the song "Rick and Morty" by Soulja Boy trended on TikTok as a sound as early as June 2021. As of August 2021, the sound now has roughly 347,000 videos made with it.^[2] The familiarity of this song on the platform aided in the spread of this later trend. Singing the song without the accompanying beat behind can also be seen as a late ironic stage of this original TikTok trend.

Spread

The trend continued to spread in the following days and weeks across TikTok as more users participated in it. On August 2nd, 2021, TikToker^[4] @silvr_surfr_ performed "Rick and Morty" to his house plants (shown below), receiving roughly 620,000 views and 119,000 likes in one week.

Continuing into August 2021, more TikTokers would join the trend, performing "Rick and Morty" for such varied audiences as a Chevy Trax, Father Junipero Serra, stuffed animals or the entire city of Pompeii.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References