【mythical eroticism】

TikTok is mythical eroticismpoking fun at the idea of whowe choose to be our emergency contacts.

A popular new trend involves folks showing their emergency contact — typically a partner — doing something silly, odd, or even reckless. The joke is basically: Can you believe this person is in charge during an emergency? Can you square the idea that the person doing this is going to get the phone call when something goes wrong for me?

It's mostly a cute trend, with folks showing their loved ones' weird sides, set to the Hannah Montana song "Ordinary Girl." Typically speaking, the posts involve men doing something odd or ill-conceived, but it's presented in a playful manner. These sorts of posts are going super viral online at the moment, racking up millions of views.

For instance, there's this guy shoving his head into the snow.

Or here's Detroit Lion Amon-Ra St. Brown mostly being goofy.

Here's Basement Yard podcaster Joe Santagato.

And, this guy just being a dude.

• This viral trend makes you sit down with your younger self
• The Relationship Experience dating trend: like a situationship but so much worse
• Bluesky adds trending topics
• Sleepmaxxing is TikTok's latest wellness trend, but does it really work?
• TikTok's biggest trends in 2024, from brat summer to a Moo Deng in finance

Some folks noted they switched out their mom as their emergency contact for...someone who is not quite their mom.

Or there's Will Ferrell being Will Ferrell. Imagine having Will Ferrell as your emergency contact.

Will Ferrell's kid aside, this TikTok trend rests on the idea that, at some point, you become the adult. So many people feel like they are perennially the child, or the young person, or the person who's not responsible. And yet, there you are, relying on some goofball as your emergency contact.

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})