The Brief: #JokeIsOnYou TikTok videos illustrate the feeling that life is playing a practical joke on you.

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Joke Is On You TikTok memes were inspired by an episode of iCarly titled “iGetPranky.” In this episode, Carly warns her brother Spencer not to “go gettin all prank happy.” Immediately after he replies “no I won’t,” the scene cuts to a montage of Spencer pranking six different people. After each person realizes they’ve been pranked, Spencer dances victoriously next to them to the song “Joke Is On You” by Niki Watkins. 

The lyrics to this song include:

“So everybody put your hands in the air

It’s an all night party that we’re getting into

If you think it’s all over then the joke is on you”

Spencer’s in-your-face pranks in this episode of iCarly have inspired a TikTok meme hashtag: #JokeIsOnYou. In these videos, TikTokers act out literal pranks or instances where something so unfortunate and absurd happens that it feels like it must be a joke.

Similar to the Tune Dodel Vide Vide TikTok video format, Joke Is On You memes comically and relatably illustrate how life is unfair. While the chorus to the upbeat song plays, TikTokers dance behind text labels such as “teacher giving back a test I got a 34% on” or “my ferret when I forget to put her in her cage before I fall asleep.”

At the time of writing, Joke Is On You TikTok videos have been viewed over 24 million times and Niki Watkins’s song has been used in over 22,000 videos.