Frog Army / Thinfrog

About

Frog Army or @thinfrog is a user on TikTok who documents himself purportedly building a "frog army" using frog eggs he saves from shallow ponds. Thinfrog began documenting the frog army in February 2022 and regularly posted updates over the following months, claiming to have hatched around 1.4 million frogs by June. The creator has been criticized by some viewers for lacking the resources and knowledge needed to properly hatch and care for this many frogs, seeing it as potentially disastrous to the community and ecosystem surrounding him. There is evidence suggesting the account is a hoax as at least one video by thinfrog uses footage of tadpoles from a 2017 YouTube upload by another creator.

History

On February 22nd, 2022, TikToker^[1] @thinfrog posted a video where he scoops some eggs out of a pond, captioned, "I noticed some type of eggs in a shallow pond.. I have no clue what they are… they have brown dots inside anyways I might hatch them and see what they are follow to see them hatch," gaining over 274,000 views in four months (shown below). On February 25th, the TikToker^[2] posted a video where he takes more eggs from under a lily pad home to hatch them, gaining over 800,000 views (shown below, right).

He continued to post videos scooping frog eggs and placing them in a pond leading into March 2022. On March 6th, @thinfrog posted a video to TikTok^[3] where he shows "thousands of frog spawn" that he added to his pond and singles one out as the "president" of the army, gaining over 1.2 million views in three months (shown below, left). On March 7th the TikToker^[4] posted a video deciding on an egg to be "the king," placing it with the president, gaining over 6 million views in three months (shown below, right).

On March 8th, he then posted another video to TikTok^[5] where he scoops frog eggs from a pond that is drying up to add to the army, gaining over 1.5 million views in three months. On March 20th, he posted another video to TikTok^[6] scooping several more handfuls of eggs from a pond that he claims is polluted with oil and drying up, saying through text-to-speech, "I'm going to create the biggest frog army in history," gaining over 12.7 million views in three months (shown below).

On May 8th, thinfrog posted a video to TikTok^[7] showing some fish eggs he found in the frog army pond, deciding to hatch them in their own tank, gaining over 1.6 million views in a month. On May 14th, the TikToker^[8] posted a video summarizing the story behind his frog army and showing footage of the frogs as tadpoles, gaining over 30 million views in a month (shown below).

On June 6th, thinfrog posted a video to TikTok^[9] purportedly showing the frogs, now hatched and with legs, leaving the pond and hopping around the garden, writing, "I don't think I can walk on the grass anymore. This is the biggest frog army ever but I kind of regret this now no one can go in the garden," gaining over 9 million views in a week (shown below).

On June 7th, 2022, TikToker^[10] @bigmackdaddyg posted a video where he walks around his yard as many small frogs hop around, gaining over 9 million views in six days (shown below, left). On June 10th, thinfrog posted another video to TikTok^[11] showing the clip then footage of his purported frog army, captioned, "do think this was my fault because of my giant frog army?" gaining over 7 million views in three days (shown below, right). Thinfrog commented under bigmackdaddyg's video, "I swear I'm not responsible for this."

Online Presence

The frog army attracted media attention in June 2022. On June 8th, Distractify^[12] reported on it. On June 9th, MemeBase^[13] then covered the story, followed by LADBible^[14] on June 13th.

Criticism

The frog army gained increasing attention and reactions as the account grew in virality. Amid this rise, it was criticized by some. For example, on May 14th, 2022, the H3 Podcast highlights channel uploaded a clip to YouTube^[15] reacting to the account. At one point, Ethan Klein says, "this is going to be an ecological disaster." The video gained over 68,000 views in a month (shown below).

On May 31st, TikToker^[16] @froggiebiologist posted a video where he says the frogs could be an invasive or protected species. He also says there's a "whole host of issues" with having millions of frogs in your backyard, including potential disease problems and that the creator doesn't know how to care for them. The video gained over 1.7 million views in two weeks (shown below).

Evidence of Hoax

On June 12th, 2022, TikToker^[17] @greenerbee posted a video where she compares footage from one of thinfrog's posts with a 2017 video titled "Millions of little frogs!" by YouTuber gmikeg123, showing that thinfrog purportedly used the footage, gaining over 100,000 views in a day (shown below). She ends the video by saying, "I don't know if it's all fake but that video definitely is."

Search Interest

External References