No Poop July

About

No Poop July is a fictional month based around an internet challenge that involves participants not pooping during the entire month of July. Originating in 2020 but primarily going viral on TikTok in mid-2022, No Poop July is similar to other challenge-themed months such as No Nut November and No Fap September. The trend, which started as a series of viral videos, has since grown into a wider platform-wide joke on TikTok with each passing year.

Origin

On July 1st, 2020, TikToker OkCron^[1] uploaded the first instance^[2] of the challenge, captioned "Day 1 of No Poop July" in which he is seen sitting in a chair with the camera slowly panning across his face and the song "Monster" by Meg & Dia playing in the background, earning over 85,000 likes and 770 comments in two years (shown below).

OkCron continued posting updates to the "No Poop July" situation over the following month, using the Duet feature to look back at his previous days while showing how with each successive day his face was starting to get more strained, his body starting to sweat and visible discomfort starting to grow, as well as the views and likes with each post. His day six update^[3], for example, garnered over 100,000 likes in two years, showing that the trend was growing as he consistently uploaded updates (shown below).

Spread

No Poop July 2021

In July 2021, OkCron proceeded to continue with his series, posting daily updates on his situation while participating in No Poop July and getting more and more red-faced and uncomfortable. He also attracted much more attention than his initial year in 2020. For example, his day 13 update,^[4] which he started to do as standalone videos instead of Duets, gained over 445,000 likes in one year, helping the trend to grow in virality near the middle to end of July 2021 (example shown below).

No Poop July 2022

When July 2022 started, OkCron and others attempting to do increasingly desperate daily updates on their journey through No Poop July kicked back up again, though more prominently than in previous years. Interestingly, TikTok itself took notice of the trend and deemed it to be a hazardous activity, as the "Day 5" update from OkCron^[5] was flagged by TikTok as a dangerous activity to not try, issuing a warning similar to what was seen on the Milk Crate Challenge in 2021 (shown below).

Throughout July 2022, No Poop July videos on TikTok appeared en masse as the challenge's virality grew. As of July 27th, 2022, the hashtag "#nopoopjuly" accumulated over 129.8 million views on TikTok alone (examples shown below, left and right).^[7]

On July 26th, 2022, NBC News^[6] covered the trend in an article titled, "No poop July’ jokes are all over TikTok, Some doctors urge users not to try it for real," as the challenge continued to grow in prevalence online.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References