If there was ever a video not worth watching, it’s this one. We watched it, so you don’t have to.
In a viral TikTok with more than 15 million views, a creator shares their hack for how to check if your hotel mirror is real or if there’s something sketchy about it, like being a two-way mirror (so someone could see into your room without you knowing).
In the clip, @mindblowingreels put four pieces of painter’s tape on the mirror in a square. He then filled in the square with a black marker. Still not done, he got regular scotch tape and peeled off the marker in a cross shape.
And that’s it. That’s the video. There was no hack, just 60 seconds of anticipation for nothing.
“This is why you always check,” @mindblowingreels pointlessly captioned the video.
It turns out this isn’t the first time this creator has made bogus videos that don’t actually teach you anything. A quick scroll on their page shows more than a dozen of these pointless “how to check hotel mirror” videos.
Despite their handle being @mindblowingreels, most of their videos just leave you more confused and are, frankly, a waste of time (unless you like feeling frustrated and confused).
But it makes sense why the creator keeps posting them. Despite their lack of information, the videos have a significant number of views.
Some rack up tens of thousands of views, and others have tens of millions of views. The most popular three (all hotel mirror hack videos) have 66 million, 38 million and 29 million views, respectively. As a site that covers viral videos, we can definitively say—that’s a whole lotta views, more than the average viral video.
@mindblowingreels This is why you always check #waitforit #lifehacks #travel #hotel ♬ Suspense, horror, piano and music box – takaya
Across these videos, commenters shared their frustration.
“thank you for wasting my time trying to understand wht you are trying to explain I still don’t understand,” a top comment read.
“Yes. I always travel with painters tape, scotch tape and Sharpie in my suitcase, and love spending 5 mins in the bathroom painting the mirror,” a person said, pointing out the impracticality of the hack.
“This didn’t tell us anything,” another commenter wrote.
If you really want to know how to tell if a hotel mirror is real, we have the answer. It’s quite simple and doesn’t require carrying tape and a marker. All you have to do is put your fingernail against the mirror. If there’s a gap between the mirror and your finger nail it’s a real mirror. If your fingernail touches, it may not be a real mirror. This test isn’t foolproof, according to a Snopes fact check, but it’s one method people use when traveling.
The Daily Dot reached out to @mindblowingreels for comment via TikTok direct message.
