About

Maury Camera Man Parodies refers to a series of parody videos on TikTok in which TikTokers act out skits where they play a cameraman on the American television show Maury. The videos are set to an original sound consisting of audio from an episode of Maury featuring the titular host saying You Are NOT The Father and the audience cheering. The videos first became popular in mid-2019, and experienced a resurgence throughout 2020.

Origin

On June 12th, 2019, TikToker avila_squad^[1] uploaded a skit set to an original sound recorded from Maury, in which Maury says, "When it comes to one-year-old Isaiah, Amir, you are not the father" followed by the audience cheering. In the skit, a man and woman with a baby sit on a couch and act as if they're on Maury (shown below). When Maury announces the outcome of the paternity test, the man (playing the mother) tosses the baby aside and runs into the next room as the cameraman follows behind frantically, replicating the way the cameramen in Maury regularly chase after their subjects. The man then dives out of a window. The video gained over 942,000 views in 17 months. Although the video is not focused on the cameraman, avila_squad's original sound is used in subsequent videos following the format.

On July 20th, TikToker temclout^[2] uploaded a duet to a video in which a man plays an exaggerated version of the Maury audience. In temclout's duet he plays an exaggerated version of the Maury cameraman, holding a cardboard box over his shoulder as a camera (shown below). Leading up to Maury announcing the results of the paternity test, temclout gets into a starting position as if he's about to take part in a race, then runs off as the results are announced. The video received over 362,000 views in 16 months.

Spread

TikTokers continued to create Maury parodies using avila_squad's sound, with an increasing focus on the role of the cameraman. On October 12th, 2019, TikToker leethe4th^[3] uploaded a Maury parody, garnering over 769,000 views in just over a year (shown below, left). On December 19th, TikToker felix.og uploaded a Maury parody with the on-screen caption, "Maury's camera men be like" in which the cameraman runs after another person in the same style as Maury's cameramen, garnering over 896,000 views in just under a year (shown below, right).

The format saw a resurgence in April of 2020, when multiple high-view-count Maury Camera Man parodies were uploaded.^[4][5] On November 5th, 2020, TikToker snacksandlex^[6] uploaded a Maury camera man parody, garnering over 1.3 million views in a week (shown below). As of November 12th, this is the highest viewed video following the format. On November 11th, Redditor bannanaduck^[7] posted the video to the /r/TikTokCringe subreddit, gaining over 3,800 upvotes in 14 hours.

Camera Man vs. Pet Parodies

As the trend took off, some TikTokers began filming Maury parodies with their pets. In the videos, the TikToker films their pet as avila_squad's original sound plays. One Maury reveals the results of the paternity test the TikToker chases after their pet like the camera person on Maury and films the results. One of the earliest of these was uploaded on September 30th, 2019, by TikToker diper_911^[8] in which he chases his cat through the house (shown below, left). On April 1st, 2020, TikToker joshbutlertv^[9] uploaded a version with his dogs, garnering over 714,000 views in 7 months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References