Platform discovery systems inadvertently supercharged this trend. In mid-2024, TikTok updated its recommendation architecture to place heightened value on in-app search queries. The app began surfacing prominent search pills above comment sections, automatically guessing what viewers wanted to look up based on the clip's audio, visual elements, and popular comments.
Shitposters quickly weaponized this design choice.
By repeatedly typing extreme, grammatically broken phrases like "femboys big buff black guys tyron," users forced the automated algorithm to register the string as a high-demand topic. When innocent viewers opened a clip and saw that exact query highlighted in blue at the top of their screen, the absurdity triggered thousands of screenshots. Those screenshots then migrated to X and Reddit, sparking fresh waves of parody videos.
Between August 2025 and January 2026, search index trackers recorded an explosive 310% surge in user queries matching permutations of that specific phrase across public social platforms. The meme stopped being about the visual content entirely; the text query itself became the joke. It revealed how easily platform systems can be manipulated by collective, deadpan absurdity.
