Skeleton Brunch

About

Skeleton Brunch refers to a faked TikTok trend that was made up by a Twitter user in February 2022. Similar to Goblin Mode, the meme was portrayed as already existing when in reality it was coined by the original tweet that identified it. The meme spread across Twitter and was eventually covered by several news outlets who fell for the trend hoax. Following coverage, the challenge is explained as essentially eating brunch with one or more skeletons at the table, including influencers wearing skeleton masks and posing with food in TikTok videos, thought little to no examples exist on the platform. The purported "dangers" of the trend were also faked and no such coverage actually exists.

Origin

On February 27th, 2022, Twitter^[1] user bear_wrongdoer posted a tweet that first mentioned the term "Skeleton Brunch," joking about desperately trying to come up with a viral meme, resulting in the utterance of the phrase. Over the course of two days, the tweet received over 140 likes (shown below).

Spread

Roughly 10 minutes after the initial tweet by bear_wrongdoer on February 27th, 2022, Twitter^[2] user meowmeowmeuw picked up on the trend, posting a reply to bear_wrongdoer stating, "im going skeleton brunch on your ass in the quote tweets!!!!" earning 19 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter user meowmeowmeuw then aided the trend further in a separate tweet^[3] posted on the 27th that directly referenced Goblin Mode in relation to Skeleton Brunch, earning roughly 4,000 likes in one day (shown below, right). Twitter^[4] user LeezartTime then posted a Skeleton Brunch meme, captioning a photo of a skeleton waiter and receiving over 100 likes in one day (shown below, bottom).

On February 28th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user DoctorPenisBoob posted a tweet that attached a photoshopped screenshot of trending news articles from publications like The Sun, Insider and the New York Post. All were posed as writing articles on the new TikTok trend "Skeleton Brunch," proposed in the meme to be harmful to teenagers similar to other TikTok trends that have caused parental worry in the past year like the Milk Crate Challenge and the Devious Licks trend, among others. The tweet (shown below) earned roughly 60,300 likes in one day.

More Twitter users picked up on the nuance after the above tweet going into the remainder of February 28th and into early March 2022. For instance, Twitter^[6] user incognitofinito posted a meme that referenced Skeleton Brunch, layering text reading, "Brunch Time," over a stock image of a skeleton pointing handguns, earning roughly 6,500 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter^[7] user meowmeowmeuw posted another Skeleton Brunch centric tweet, creating a photoshopped DM conversation with Rudy Giuliani where he asks about the fake trend, earning roughly 69,800 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Developments

Coverage By Media Outlets

On February 28th, 2022, a journalist named Abhishek Joshi wrote a piece titled, "What Is Skeleton Brunch On Tiktok? Trend Explained," for the website Show Biz Corner,^[9] which covered the fake TikTok trend as if it was real. Whether playing into the joke or not, Joshi's article effectively made a news outlet cover the story. Twitter^[8] user tinywienerbabe tweeted about the article on the 28th, earning over 100 likes in one day (shown below, left). On March 1st, 2022, The Sun^[10] then covered the trend in an article, potentially playing into the joke but still covering it nonetheless (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References