About

The Time Warp Effect is a visual effect on TikTok which allows the user to make the subject of a video appear to ripple across the screen.

Origin

On May 12th, 2019, YouTuber LifeWith Erick uploaded a video tutorial on how to use the effect on Snapchat to eventually upload it to TikTok (shown below). In a comment, LifeWithErick announced that TikTok finally made the feature available on the app that week. The video gained over 17,700 views in a month.

Spread

Noodle Dance

On May 13th, 2019, TikTok user ParkerGreenHill uploaded a video of friends using the Time Warp feature to make it seem like they were twisting around each other to the 1973 song "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone (shown below, left). Using this feature to music came to be categorized by #noodledance.^[1][2] Over the next two days TikTok users @cash.baker and @mistermorley uploaded their own renditions gained over 433,700 likes and 184,100 likes respectively in a month (shown below, right).

Cats Jumping

On May 17th, 2019 @howdyari upload a video of their jumping up using the effect (shown below, left). The video gained over 193,600 likes in a month. That same day @pastyasscheek uploaded a similar video of their cat which gained over 342,200 likes and 36,500 shares in a month (shown below, center). Over the next few days, other users uploaded videos of their cat seemingly flying upwards. @Margaretscott8's video accumulated over 169,800 likes in a month (shown below, right). Their videos were shared on Twitter and r/youtubehaiku.^[3][4]

Compilations

On May 19th, 2019, YouTuber meem uploaded the first Time Warp compilation (shown below, left). The video accumulated over 2,100 views in a month. On May 24th, The TikTok official YouTube account also uploaded a compilation video (shown below, right). The video gained over 3,000 views in three weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References