3, 2, 1, Go / Rhythm Thief

About

Cursed Photos TikToks refers to a series of TikTok videos using a remixed version of "Louvre Museum Invasion"^[3] from the game Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure to highlight various cursed images. Although the trend began with TikTokers mimicking cursed images in March 2020, it evolved in April to show off "bad" or cursed photos of themselves or their friends.

Origin

On March 23rd, 2020, TikToker carolineudivinee uploaded the earliest available Cursed Photo TikTok video in which she imitates cursed photos of cats, though many TikTokers cited TikToker fwaxel in comment sections saying it was inspired by his video which has since been deleted. The video uses the sound clip "Rhythm thief but cursed "^[2] uploaded by TikToker hacky and gained over 271,200 likes in two months (shown below).

Spread

On March 26th, 2020, TikToker a_ngel0 uploaded a video using the sound clip in which he does impressions of various cursed photos (shown below, left). The video garnered over 259,300 likes in nearly two months. That same day, memessquared uploaded a similar video that received over 169,900 likes in nearly two months (shown below, center). In April, many TikTokers began showing off cursed photos of their friends. On April 11th, TikToker petroutv uploaded a video which accumulated over 672,000 in a month (shown below, right). The next day, YouTuber TikTok Nation^[2] uploaded "3 2 1 GO Tik Tok (Cursed Photos) | Tik Tok Trend Compilation" which received over 54,800 views in a month.

On April 12th, Charli D'Amelio uploaded a variation that gained over four million likes in nine days (shown below, left). On April 15th, Addison Rae uploaded her own variation which received over 3.7 million likes in six days (shown below, center). Two days later, James Charles uploaded his version which accumulated over 3.2 million likes in four days (shown below, right).

On May 8th, Twitter user @KalhanR uploaded a video of Jason Derulo participating in the trend (shown below). The video garnered over 8,600 views and 140 likes in three days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References