About

The Hand-Fist Challenge, also known as the Hand Challenge or the Hand Swap Challenge, is a social game based on an optical illusion in which one wraps their fingers around their open palm and in one motion moves their hand and makes a fist, appearing as though their fist is pushing through their hand.

Origin

On August 21st, 2018, Twitter ^[1] user @kay_dera posted the earliest known instance of the movement. The post (shown below) received more than 30,000 retweets and 80,000 likes in less than one week.

Spread

People resonded to the post by attempting the motion themselves. For example, the following day, Twitter user @djpupdawg posted a version where they attempt the trick by switching hands. The post (shown below) received more than 150 retweets and 1,500 likes in less than one week.

Others responded to the tweet with images of people confused. Twitter^[2] user @monki_GM tweeted a picture of Beyoncé with the caption, "I watched this 10 times in a row and I still don't get it." The post (shown below, left) received more then 350 retweets and 2,500 likes in two days.

Twitter user @Instratic tweeted^[3] a GIF of Zach Galifianakis with the caption "me, watching everyone & they mom do it while im sittin here struggling:" The post (shown below, right) received more than 350 retweets and 3,300 likes in two days.

Several media outlets coverd the challenge, including Mashable, ^[4] PopSugar^[5][ and more.

On August 23rd, Twitter^[6] published a Moments page about the trend.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References