What Are Your Icks? / Ick Challenge

About

What Are Your Icks? and What Are Y'all Icks? refer to Twitter posts that ask users to share aspects of their hobbies and fandoms which they find off-putting. Appearing on Twitter since 2020 following the online popularization of the term "The Ick," the trend achieved virality in December 2022 when it sparked numerous viral debates among various communities.

Origin

In 2020, following the popularization of the slang term "The Ick," used to describe the moment someone notices or pictures an aspect of someone or something that makes them off-putting, "ick" threads started appearing online, primarily on Twitter. In the threads, users inquired what parts of fandoms and hobbies constituted "the ick" for them. For example, on October 16th, 2020, Twitter user @JavonReal2 posted a tweet^[1] inquiring about others' gym icks, which gained 90 retweets and 300 likes in two years (shown below).

Spread

Prior to the format going viral in December 2022, several "ick" threads were posted online, including threads about dating icks,^[2] football icks^[3] and job icks (examples shown below, left and center). For example, a thread about icks when joining a new company launched by Twitter^[4] user @ccieby30 on November 29th, 2022, gained over 300 retweets and 3,000 likes in one month (shown below, right).

The format achieved widespread participation on Twitter in late December 2022, when several "ick" threads, most notably about artist icks, music icks and video game icks, went viral. For example, on December 28th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @butchjpg made a post about artist icks that garnered over 1,200 retweets, 15,900 quote tweets and 23,800 likes in one week (shown below, left; viral responses shown below, left and right).

The format maintained its popularity online in early January 2022, itself becoming a subject of discussions and memes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References