Sometimes I Run

About

Sometimes I Run refers to a series of TikTok videos set to the 1999 Britney Spears song "Sometimes."^[1] The audio clip used includes the lyrics, "Sometimes I run / Sometimes I hide / Sometimes I'm scared of you / But all I really want is to hold you tight." In the videos, users perform a series of actions that line up with the lyrics of the song, often for comedic effect.

Origin

Before the Sometimes I Run trend, the song has been attributed to videos across TikTok. As far back as March 2020, a dance set to the song featuring stylized running-in-place and hiding was popular. One example of this is a video from March 18 by TikToker chelcielynn^[2] (shown below) that garnered over 278,000 views and 18,000 likes in six months.

On May 10th, TikToker tova_leigh^[3] uploaded a version of the Sometimes I Run trend captioned, "Mom life in song." (Shown below.) In the video, she pretends to run and hide from her children in time with the relevant lyrics. She finishes the video by wearing a helmet and standing in front of her pillow-fighting children, lip-syncing to the line, "sometimes I'm scared of you." The video garnered over 548,000 views and 33.4 thousand likes in four months. This is one of the first instances of the song used in a format other than dance.

Spread

On July 29th, 2020, TikToker the_horror_cub^[4] uploaded a video set to the song (shown below). In the video, the_horror_cub runs from a man dressed as Michael Myers from the Halloween film series. At the end of the video, he transforms into Michael Myers and embraces himself. The video gained over 899,000 views and 111,000 likes in under two months.

The trend steadily gained traction, until late September, 2020, when #sometimesirun started trending on TikTok. Videos across the hashtag garnered over 907 million views by September 21st.

Animals are frequently the subject of this trend. On August 17th, TikToker yeedasu^[5] uploaded a video featuring clips of his Shiba Inu fitting the trend. The video garnered over 65,000 views in just over a month. On September 9th, TikToker thatcatbobbie^[6] uploaded a video featuring cat Bobbie doing the same (shown below). The video hit over 885,000 views and 147,000 likes in under two weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References