If you’ve been dipping your toe in the TikTok pool in lockdown, you may’ve noticed familiar themes popping up on your ‘For You Page’. It could be that your feed is filled with hilarious women commentating through their life, cute dogs doing cute stuff, tweens dancing (God bless you if so) or witches making potions (Yes, really.)
Whatever videos are being sent your way by the TikTok Gods, be aware, they’re all intended for you. Honestly, whatever AI robot created the algorithm on that app deserves an award, because it is sometimes scarily specific how relatable the videos that pop up on our feeds can be.
Not so scary but equally impressive? The videos solely dedicated to Nick Miller that appear on our feeds endlessly, much to our intense joy. That’s right, the New Girl character you know shouldn’t be your perfect man but absolutely is has his whole subset of TikTok dubbed ‘NickTok’. Just check it out for yourself…
Now, if you’re wondering how this has happened and why everyone on TikTok is obsessed with Nick Miller, allow me to explain. No offence to all you huge Nick fans (myself included) but this is nothing particularly unique to the 10/10 iconic King of comedy.
Almost every subset of TikTok has a name, and the creative genius of Gen Z means it is almost always called something ‘Tok’. For example, videos from people in prison (yes, these exist and are universally welcomed by TikTokers) are called ‘PrisonTok’. Videos of women casting spells, manifesting greatness or mixing up potions are called ‘WitchTok’. One video I happened across recently where a woman joked about not using condoms during sex was even dubbed part of ‘RawTok’.
Ultimately, when it comes to TikTok – no matter what type of video you’re watching, someone in the comments will have categorised it to a specific, niche part of TikTok – and NickTok is no different. If you’re not familiar with TikTok, it may sound like I’m speaking another language. But essentially, describing a video as something followed by ‘Tok’ is a running inside joke very specific to the app.
It brings everyone watching together to conclude… yes, we are all as weird as each other.
Usually, the joke will follow along the lines of ‘Finally, I’ve made it to PrisonTok’ or ‘RawTok is my favourite side of TikTok’. Essentially, it brings everyone watching the video together to conclude… yes, we are all as weird as each other if the algorithm has led us here. I should mention, RawTok isn’t necessarily an entire subset of videos about not using condoms, people use this joke interchangeably to describe entire trends on the app or one-off videos that are pretty funny.
If you’re confused, allow me to muddle your brain further. Because, not only do all these subsets of TikTok exist they ultimately fit into the two main categories of TikTok: Straight TikTok and Alt TikTok.
Now, this is not necessarily anything to do with sexuality – you can absolutely be LGBT+ and still have a feed filled with videos that belong in ‘Straight TikTok’ or post yourself and end up in it. Rather, straight TikTok is the cringey, mainstream humour (that’s not really funny) side of TikTok. Alt TikTok, on the other hand is the actually funny, not at all cringe side of TikTok where all our favourite content exists.
Let me give you an example, those teen boys dancing and scolding into the camera for the pleasure of pre-teen girls? That’s straight TikTok all over. The awkward couple challenges where someone attempts to show how cute and romantic their partner is with a fake prank? Absolutely straight TikTok. Creepy men giving other creepy men pick up advice? Straight TikTok to a T.
In other words, any video that could be described as ‘hetrifying’ (a term coined by Florence Given meaning to be bombarded by heteronormative narratives ) would fit into straight TikTok. Alt TikTok is everything else, hilarious women doing POV videos, people taking the piss out of straight TikTok content, anyone and everyone expressing their non-conforming fashion, personality or humour. Honestly, it’s the content that makes you wonder how this app is free.
So there you have it, the subsets of TikTok explained. Now you’re wishing you’d just watched the NickTok’s and carried on with your day, huh?
Read More:
This ‘Skinny House’ Is Going Viral On TikTok – For House Ridiculously Thin It Is
The Internet Is Obsessed With The Woman Catfishing Her Catfish On TikTok