About

The Design Is Very Human is a catchphrase popularized by Chinese TikToker @humg….0, who makes weird and unrealistic contraptions as life hacks meant to solve minor day-to-day problems. The creator first began posting videos sometime before May 2021 prior to his account @hmg….4 being deleted by TikTok in 2022. He continued to post new content under his new username @humg….0 in 2023. His inventions are often called Doodads, Thingamajigs, Thingamabobs, Whatchamacallits and Doohickeys in memes that use videos of them.

Origin

On May 26th, 2021, thr YouTube^[1] channel Actions Lover posted a compilation of TikTok videos made by the TikToker @humg…0, previously known as @hmg…4. The video, titled, "Funniest Chinese Inventions From TikTok," gathered over 17,000 views in over a year (seen below, left). On July 24th, 2021, the YouTube^[2] channel TikTok Compilations posted a video titled, "The Most Useless Inventions Ever | @hmg….4," gathering over 80,000 views in over a year (seen below, right).

Early TikTok uploads by @humg…0 from his deleted account can be accessed via TikTok duets, with TikToker^[3] @mojomuffinman64 posting a duet on November 26th, 2021 (seen below, left), and TikToker^[4] @maiv0303 posting a video duet on January 18th, 2022 (seen below, right).

Spread

On April 12th, 2021, an unknown Redditor created the subreddit /r/TheDesignIsVeryHuman,^[5] gathering over 12,000 members in over a year. The top-voted upload to the subreddit was posted on May 4th, 2021 by /u/Jotaro_Kujo_11, gathering over 2,500 upvotes in over a year (seen below). The post appears to be a repost from @humg….0's deleted TikTok account, as are most of the posts on the subreddit. On February 21st, 2022, a video from TikToker @humg….0's deleted account was reposted to 9GAG, where it gathered over 5,800 upvotes in over a year.^[6]

On September 13th, 2022, TikToker^[7] @humg….0 posted his first video to his new account, gathering over 300,000 plays and 40,000 likes in four months (seen below, left). On September 15th, he then posted his first video to go viral,^[8] gathering over 4 million plays and 230,000 likes in four months (seen below, right).

On January 20th, 2023, Twitter^[9] user @kofybreww quote tweeted a video of a joke-engineering concept similar to @humg….0's content with the phrase, "the design is very human," gathering over 2,000 likes in a week (seen below).

The design is very human https://t.co/SwUBMdRNr9

— ericdoafan39 (@kofybreww) January 20, 2023

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References