About

Hood Cryptids also known as Forgive Me Mother is a TikTok trend where people share slideshows showing a baby photo with a variation of the phrase "When I grow up I want to be a police officer to catch bad guys," followed by an altered image of a "Hood Cryptid." The meme takes inspiration from creepypasta edits that exaggerate a person's features to give them an off-putting appearance. The meme, which grew popular in December 2024, is also shared under the names "Withered YNs," "Five Nights at YNs," and "Hood Creatures." The edits typically featured in such videos are often taken from the Instagram page @digitalwockhardt.

Origin

The earliest known "Hood Cryptid" slideshow was posted by TikToker^[1] @qtbrozy on December 19th, 2024. The slideshow showed a photo of a young boy with the text "Mother when I grow up I want to be a police officer so I can catch bad guys," followed by a photo of an overweight man in a Nike ski mask. The post gathered over 11 million plays and 1.9 million likes in ten days.

The video was set to a remix of the song Suicidal Thoughts by Biggie Smalls.^[2]

Spread

Other TikTokers began sharing their own "Hood Cryptid" videos, as seen in a December 20th, 2024 post by @2blunttz.in,^[3] who gathered over 2 million plays and 200,000 likes on a post sharing the same image of an overweight man in a ski mask.

Several TikTokers participated in the trend on December 22nd, 2024, including @mustard_expert^[4] who gathered over 10 million plays and 1 million likes in a week.

Also on December 22nd, TikToker^[5] @n0n3.th3rless gathered over 1 million plays and 200,000 likes on a Hood Cryptid slideshow. The altered image was originally posted by Instagram^[8] user @digitalwockhardt on November 27th, 2019.

Also on December 22nd, TikToker^[6] @not_noah619 gathered over 2.7 million plays and 400,000 likes on a Hood Cryptid video.

Also on December 22nd, TikToker^[7] @spacerevamps gathered over 8 million plays and 1.6 million likes on a Hood Cryptid video. The altered image was originally posted by Instagram^[9] user @digitalwockhardt on November 20th, 2018.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References