About

The I'm Busy Challenge refers to a trend on TikTok collected under the hashtag #ImBusyRightNow in which a subject (typically a celebrity) films their phone screen as they call a number of their contacts and ask if they can call them back later, resulting in confusion.

Origin

The origin of the "I'm Busy Challenge" is unknown, but videos of users performing it started popping up around April of 2020. For example, on April 28th, 2020, @rachel_beyda uploaded a video to TikTok^[1] where she calls her friends on FaceTime and then asks if she can call them back, resulting in confusion from all of them (shown below). The video gained over 13,000 views in 10 months.

Spread

The trend saw mild popularity throughout 2020, with users occasionally posting new variation of it to high views. For example, on May 7th, 2020, @robbieandjhana uploaded a video to TikTok^[2] following the trend garnering over 630,000 views in 9 months (shown below, left). On September 28th, luisanunez6 uploaded a video^[3] following the trend that garnered over 500,000 views in 5 months (shown below, right).

On December 2nd, Khloe Kardashian performed the trend on Instagram,^[4] calling celebrities including Justin Bieber and Tristan Thompson, garnering over 17 million views in 2 months (shown below). This helped spread the trend to others, including celebrities.

In early February 2021 the trend saw an increase in interest as celebrities began performing it with their famous friends. For example, on February 1st, 2021, Vinny Guadagnino of Jersey Shore fame uploaded a video to TikTok^[5] calling the Jersey Shore cast and asking if he can call back, garnering over 13 million views in a week (shown below, left). On February 2nd, PopBuzz^[7] published an article on the trend, followed by Bustle^[8] on February 3rd.

On February 4th, James Charles uploaded a video^[6] performing the trend, calling celebrities like Kris Jenner and JoJo Siwa, garnering over 11.4 million views in 4 days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References