About

The Upside Down Smile Trend is a TikTok trend where users attempt to show an upside-down smile expression, achieved by frowning and smiling at the same time. Filipino TikTokers began the trend in May 2022, spreading to English-speaking users later that month where it then received media coverage in June.

Origin

It is unclear who started the downward smile trend, but early iterations began appearing on Filipino TikTok in May 2022. For example, on May 16th, Filipino TikToker^[1] @kyleespammmlabyu posted a video on-screen captioned, "you are beautiful," followed by her reacting with an awkward "upside down smile," gaining over 370,000 views in three weeks (shown below, left). On May 17th, TikToker^[2] @sixxtnth posted a similar video, captioned, "cute downward smile," followed by her doing the smile, gaining over 1.8 million views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On May 18th, Filipino influencer and TikToker^[3] @rcsilvestre_ posted a video captioned, "so i guess everybody's showing their downward smile?" showing his, gaining over a million views in three weeks (shown below).

Spread

The trend continued to spread across Filipino TikTok over the following days. On May 21st, TikToker^[4] @crlinksh_ posted a video doing the smile, gaining over 2.3 million views in just over two weeks (shown below).

The trend spread to English-speaking TikTokers later in May and June 2022. On May 30th, TikToker^[5] @jordan.natae posted a video doing the trend, gaining over 60,000 views in a week (shown below, left). On June 3rd, TikToker^[6] @btriixx then posted a video doing the trend, gaining over 2.3 million views in three days (shown below, right). On June 5th, HITC^[7] reported on the trend.

On June 5th, TikTokers^[8][9] @l1nzo and @savannahraedemers posted videos following the trend, gaining over 2.4 million and 1.6 million views, respectively, in a day (shown below, left and right). On June 6th, Dexerto^[10] also reported on it.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References