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Short newsy pieces on viral TikTok trends, Reddit & X controversies, interviews with creators and influencers. 
As seen in The Daily Dot, Mashed & more. 

The Daily Dot •

'The American mind can't comprehend this' meme has Americans and Europeans beefing

An image of a quintessential English terraced house led to a deeper discussion on X recently, regarding differences between European and American lifestyles. It’s part of an ongoing trend best summarized as ‘The American Mind Can’t Comprehend This’ meme—that, while often fun and lighthearted, hints at a growing gulf between the two regions online. Tom Forth posted the image of a terraced, redbrick house in Leeds, UK, on April 29, 2025, saying, “Incredible to think that many Americans will look a...
The Daily Dot •

People are feeding AI the same image 100 times, and it keeps changing race, gender, and weight. Here's why that's a problem:

The internet has a new AI-image generation trend, and as usual, it’s proving highly divisive. The craze began with a now-viral video where a user inputted a picture of his friend into ChatGPT—instructing it to “create the exact replica of this image, don’t change a thing,” over 70 times. The results were strange and unexpected, but also led to renewed questions about the ethics of AI, on both an environmental and broader cultural level. The original video was posted back in March, but a repost o...
The Daily Dot •

'It's like a Sims world': Edge of Las Vegas videos are TikTok's latest obsession

If you’ve been on TikTok lately, you might have noticed a new unexpected fascination taking over your feed: the “Edge Of Las Vegas.” It all started with a viral video showing how abruptly the city gives way to open desert, prompting comparisons to video games like The Sims, or movies like The Truman Show. Since then, TikTok creators living at the borders of Vegas have been posting their POVs, sparking both admiration for the landscape, as well as an eerie, existential dread over how surreal it a...
MediaCat •

Morbin’ time! When brands misread internet culture

Speaking the language of internet culture is crucial for any brand — something we’re all, hopefully, well aware of in today’s late-stage social media era. But something you might not know is that in 2020, the global meme industry was valued at an inconceivable $2.3 billion dollars, and this figure is projected to almost triple by 2025. Or, that businesses who use memes in their marketing are 60% more likely to land sales than those who opt for traditional graphics. It’s a no-brainer — meme marke
MediaCat UK •

Why is print coming back?

Just like the printing press before it, the internet promised the global delivery and dissemination of information to improve public knowledge. And for a while this worked, until its incentive — to make things uniform, standardised, stuffed with facts — led it to gorge itself into incapacitation on a mukbang of SEO-driven content. Now, we live in fear of a dead internet — an online landscape devoid of creativity where content is generated by bots, for bots (take shrimp Jesus, for example), and w...
Mashed •

What's Up With People's Love Of Protein-Packed Everything?

Undoubtedly, this craze is connected to the recent, broader shift toward diet culture on TikTok, where creators are swapping out everyday snacks and meal ingredients for "healthier" alternatives. You only have to look at similar crazes like Watertok — which has faced extensive criticism for encouraging disordered eating — to understand why protein-packing has taken off in such a big way. Add to this the continued popularity of bulking content and meal prepping on TikTok, and it makes sense why p...
Mashed •

The British Chinese Food TikTok Controversy Explained

When you think of Chinese takeout, you might imagine a fold-up paper box overflowing with sweet and spicy kung pao chicken, beef and broccoli, or veggie-packed lo mein noodles. That is, if you're American. If you're British, your meal will look a little different. Your food will usually arrive in Tupperware containers, for starters, which you'll then decant onto your plate. You might have ordered crispy chili beef, fried chicken balls, egg fried rice, and, to the horror of everyone across the pond, salt and pepper chips (aka fries). All topped off with a generous drenching of bright yellow curry sauce.
Mashed •

McDonald's Mukbangs Are The Cringey Yet Satisfying Trend Taking Over TikTok

McDonald's Mukbangs Are The Cringey Yet Satisfying Trend Taking Over TikTok

People have consumed vast quantities of food in single sittings from time immemorial, whether as part of hedonistic ancient Roman feasts or at competitive eating contests for cash prizes across America. The genre of mukbang, though, is a relatively new invention in comparison — first appearing online around the early 2010s in South Korea. In fact, the term "mukbang" itself comes from Korean — it is a portmanteau of the
Mashed •

TikTok Needs To Chill Out With The Trendy Water Recipes

TikTok Needs To Chill Out With The Trendy Water Recipes Quirky drinks typically go down well on TikTok. Whether it's a viral mocktail that will make you sleepy or a DIY bubble tea you can make with store-bought gummies, users on the app love sharing their tips for creating the zaniest drinks imaginable. There was even a Pepsi milk TikTok trend last year, which, while not particularly aesthetic, didn't taste as bad as you might imagine. However, it's a bit more rare that a beverage frenzy complet
Mashed •

Uniquely Nostalgic Candy On TikTok Is Having A Moment

Uniquely Nostalgic Candy On TikTok Is Having A Moment The colorful, youthful nature of TikTok has always made it a natural home for candy-themed trends — whether that's candy-coated grapes reminiscent of Chinese street food or "candy salad," which is far less green than its name suggests. In the last year, the social media platform's sugar content has truly exploded, with videos tagged #candy now reaching over 48.3 billion views as of April 2023. Major creators include online candy stores, such
Mashed •

The Hilarious Costco Cake Fail Has Reddit Cackling

Ordering a cake from Costco is a sweet thing to do for special occasions — whether that's birthdays, graduations, baby showers, or workplace events. While the wholesale retailer exists primarily for customers to buy stock in bulk, they are arguably more famous for their food court, which includes pizza and hot dogs, as well as the iconic half-sheet cakes with creamy white frosting. Costco's cakes — which can serve up to 50 people — are in fact so in demand that not only are there copycat recipes
Mashed •

Is It Weird To Bring Your Own Ranch Bottle To A Restaurant... On A Date?

Is It Weird To Bring Your Own Ranch Bottle To A Restaurant... On A Date? Ranch is the perfect accompaniment for most savory meals, whether it's slathered over salad, stirred into mashed potatoes, or served as a dip for wings and otherwise inedible pizza crusts. There's a reason why ranch is America's favorite dressing, with 40 percent of people naming it as their favorite in a 2017 study, ahead of its next highest competitor, Italian dressing (via The New York Times). But when you think about dr
Mashed •

The Viral Calming Mocktail That's Putting Us To Sleep

The Viral Calming Mocktail That's Putting Us To Sleep With the rise of people binning alcohol and choosing to go sober, or at least go sober-curious, mocktails have soared in popularity as a way to deliver on all of the fun, and none of the nasty side effects the next morning. But they're also more than just a tired substitute for boozy drinks — they're vibrant and refreshing in their own right, with nutrient-rich mocktails proving a popular choice for anyone wanting to stay hydrated and boost t
Mashed •

The Viral Whipped Hot Chocolate Recipe That Has TikTok Divided

Hot chocolate is one of the coziest drinks imaginable, especially on a chilly day when the weather's bad outside. Recipes for the richest, smoothest hot chocolates you could dream of have gone viral on TikTok before — such as this French-style hot chocolate that will have you feel like you're soaking in the crisp winter air on a Parisian street, or this two-ingredient hot chocolate that you can easily make at home with a Toblerone bar.
TikTok's latest hot chocolate creation is a little unusual,...
Mashed •

TikTok's Cartoon Cakes Look So Real They'll Make You Do A Double Take

The latest viral cake trend, which, according to 614, has an incredible 124 million views on TikTok, involves creating 2D cartoon cakes that look like they've jumped straight out of the screen. In a TikTok video, Melbourne-based cake artist Tigga Maccormack (@Tigga_Mac) demonstrates how to make the cute cartoon creation. She cuts the cake into triangles and lines each layer with frosting, before stacking them together to achieve a classic, exaggerated slice shape. She then frosts the cake and co...
Mashed •

A Dunkin' Customer's Grilled Cheese Mishap Is Disturbing TikTok

There's arguably nothing more comforting than a good grilled cheese, especially when dipped into a steaming bowl of tomato soup. Although we all love to enjoy it at home, fast-food restaurants are typically hit and miss when it comes to recreating the heartwarming lunchtime classic. Most of America's favorite chains have made their own versions to varying levels of success — from Dairy Queen, whose Texas Toast grilled cheese is a secret menu item, to Five Guys, who controversially slap two hambu...
Mashed •

TikTok Is Furious At A Starbucks Barista Dumping Tons Of Product Down The Drain

In the controversial video posted to TikTok, user @angry_barista is seen pouring a large number of Starbucks syrup bottles down the drain, before also emptying the contents of various spice jars into the trash. The video, set to audio from "Turn Down For What", by DJ Snake and Lil Jon, is labeled "getting ready for spring launch," suggesting that these are winter products being thrown out after the promotional season has ended, in advance of new spring beverages arriving on the menu. 
"All those...
LADbible •

Salad Fingers creator never meant for the seriously creepy character to be scary

“It's weird to think how primitive the technology was,” David says of that era. “I think you might have had to copy the link from MSN Messenger into your browser. Before the days when you could even have multiple tabs.”

“I don't really think about that as being an appeal,” he says. “I don't think 'people are going to be scared by this', but kids are. It's hard to think like a little kid. Kids are scared, and they'll share something that's scary.”

Eighteen years on, David continues to expand th
Tagg Magazine •

Gay Garden Gnomes: Pandemic Protest Grows Thanks to TikTok

While some of us were baking banana bread or growing sourdough starters during the first quarantine, Maura Bennet-Martins was laying the groundwork for a different kind of hobby: turning straight garden gnomes into queer icons. Two years later, Super Gay Gnomes is a thriving small business selling hand-painted, glitter-coated garden gnomes in a rainbow of colors.

Bennet-Martins, who lives in Boston with her wife, explains that the business started out as a silent protest against a bigoted neigh