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Memes

What is the gorilla mask video on TikTok?

Not a fan of this trend!

Photo of Anna Good

Anna Good

gorilla mask with caption 'Gorilla Mask? Yay or Nay?' (l) gorilla mask with c 'Sorry...Dropped my Phone.' (r)

The gorilla mask video on TikTok is one of a rising trend of trolls “secretly flashing” viewers in their videos to try to skirt around the social media app’s community guidelines. In this video, however, the masked man reveals that he is naked from the waist down by “dropping” his phone.

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What is the gorilla mask video?

The original gorilla mask video appears to have been removed from TikTok, which given its content makes sense as it breaks the community guidelines. In the roughly 14-second video, a TikToker (allegedly @john.mills984, although it appears that account has since been deleted), appears to be showing off his new gorilla mask to viewers. In the text overlay, he wrote, “Gorilla Mask? Yay or Nay?”

View from below of a man wearing a gorilla mask. Text overlay reads, 'Gorilla Mask? Yay or Nay?'
@john.mills894/TikTok
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He appears to be in a semi-public space, potentially a hallway or basement of a large building, and can be seen glancing off to one side (potentially to check if anyone is around) before “dropping” his phone about halfway through the video.

It is blurry as it falls, and the next clear shot is of him standing above the phone, wearing not a stitch from the waist down.

Blacked-out screenshot of the gorilla mask TikTok video, covering the man's body with a black box.
@john.mills894/TikTok (Fair Use) Remix by Anna Good
A pantsless man in a gorilla mask picking up his phone. Text overlay reads, 'Sorry...Dropped my Phone.'
@john.mills894/TikTok (Fair Use) Remix by Anna Good
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The masked man then reaches down to the floor to pick up his phone and says in the text overlay, “Sorry… dropped my Phone.” He ends the video with a close-up of the mask once more, one hand holding it in place.

Who is behind the gorilla mask video on TikTok?

The gorilla mask video was posted on TikTok by @john.mills894. It does appear that the man who recorded the video has had his account banned, although there are a couple of accounts pretending to be him, with one notably posting a video of a close-up of their hand with a sound that says, “come and get it.”

It looks like this isn’t the first time @john.mills894 posted a “secret flashing” video, although it is the most overt. Another video, reposted on TikTok by another person, shows a POV of someone walking through a Walmart fitted sheet aisle with the text overlay, “Which Sheets Should I Get??” but ends the video in flashing himself briefly for the camera before panning up again. This video also has the username @john.mills894 in the screen recording.

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What is the ‘secret flashing’ trend the gorilla mask video is following?

The gorilla mask video is one of the rapidly multiplying trends of TikTokers “secret flashing” viewers who did not consent and posted against the social media service’s community guidelines in what seems to be a bait-and-switch kind of prank meme.

The TikTok community guidelines specifically state, “We understand societies approach body exposure and clothing differently, so we seek to reflect prevailing cultural practices. We do not allow nudity. This includes bare genitalia, buttocks, breasts of women and girls, and sheer clothing.”

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Another example of this kind of secret flashing is the “new nails and my kitty” TikTok video, where a woman (@usergosd7n01yj, whose account has also been deleted) was supposedly showing off her manicure and cat, pretending to follow the New Nails TikTok trend, but showed a bit more than that in the process.

When folks delved into her account, they discovered other instances of her secretly flashing viewers, likely eventually leading to her account being banned.

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The Daily Dot