JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A "Mr. Bean"-style comic, a Filipino teen who's been doing dance videos since she was 9 and a baby pygmy hippo - these are a few of the residents of the Global South who have been making waves on TikTok this year. Reporter Ari Daniel brings us this roundup.
ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: Let's start with Khaby Lame. He was born in Senegal and grew up in Italy. At the start of the pandemic, he began making comedic videos on TikTok and has steadily grown into possibly the most followed account on the platform. A lot of Lame's content pokes fun at so-called life hacks, and he never utters a word.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELVIS PRESLEY SONG, "BURNING LOVE")
DANIEL: First, he shows a clip from the original life hack video, like this one, where someone empties out their deodorant stick and refills it with melted butter. The butter turns solid again in the fridge, and the deodorant stick becomes a seemingly perfect tool for spreading butter on bread. Hard cut to Lame in the kitchen with an expression that conveys just how stupid he thinks the butter-in-the-deodorant idea is. He takes his own stick of butter, unwraps one end...
(SOUNDBITE OF SCRAPING)
DANIEL: ...And scrapes it against a piece of toast - no antiperspirant required. Lame's humorous contempt for these life hacks is evident on his face.
PAYAL ARORA: He's just burst the bubble and said, hey, hang on. They're the idiots, not you. You're doing the normal thing.
DANIEL: Payal Arora is a digital anthropologist at Utrecht University, and she says his performance as a mime gives him a global audience.
ARORA: If you talk, then accent, language, all this gets held against you, which is why you see a lot of the creators coming from the Global South who are circumventing these sort of barriers - but also allows for virality.
DANIEL: Next up is an account run by the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand called Khamoo And The Gang. The zoo posted hundreds of photos featuring their animals, but the star of the show is without a doubt Moo Deng. The pygmy hippo was born this summer, and her name roughly translates to bouncy pork.
(SOUNDBITE OF WET SLAP)
DANIEL: That's the sound of Moo Deng getting a playful pat on her rump.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NARAK MHAI MAI ROO")
BUTTERBEAR: (Singing in Thai).
DANIEL: In this video with music, one of Moo Deng's keepers gives her a tender face rub. This kind of content has a broad appeal for all ages, as evidenced by the zoo's 3 million followers.
Each year, TikTok puts together its own list of trends on the platform, which includes the top 10 global songs. This year, "Alibi," by Iranian Dutch singer-songwriter Sevdaliza, made the cut. The song has found its way into the hands of TikTok creators the world over, like Arthur Paek. His parents immigrated from South Korea to Brazil, where he grew up. Paek's TikTok videos pair quick cuts of him preparing a dish to the tune of a pop song, timed to the chops and splashes of the recipe. For the song "Alibi," he and a companion prepare a potatoes au gratin dish.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIKTOK VIDEO)
ARTHUR PAEK: (Speaking Portuguese).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Portuguese).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALIBI")
SEVDALIZA: (Singing) Alibi.
DANIEL: Spuds fly through the air. Ham is diced. And the dish is baked to perfection, all in a video that clocks in under 30 seconds.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALIBI")
SEVDALIZA: (Singing in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Portuguese).
DANIEL: Another case in point - 18-year-old Niana Guerrero, one of the most followed TikTok creators in the Philippines. She makes dance videos. Sometimes her original routine gets picked up and copied by people all over the world who post their own videos on the platform, another example of the internet spawning more internet. Last year, Guerrero was interviewed by VICE Asia. She offered this tip for creating viral content.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NIANA GUERRERO: Stay true to yourself. Know what you have to offer to the world that ain't nobody else can.
DANIEL: For NPR news, I'm Ari Daniel.
SUMMERS: To see all of the TikToks Ari talked about, go to npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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