The Suspect Challenge is a viral TikTok trend in which two individuals—most often, those in a romantic relationship—will give deprecating, police-style descriptions of one another while the other is running away.
What is the 'Suspect Challenge' TikTok trend?
The 'Suspect Challenge' TikTok trend works like satirical police chase footage: two individuals—most often, those in a romantic or close relationship—will give descriptions of one another starting with "the suspect is" while the other is running away, slowly.
For the duration of the video, the two individuals will continually switch roles: one giving the police-style descriptions while the other runs.
Humorously, the descriptor will often surprise, insult, roast and/or amuse the runner with their specific and intimate observations. Observations that could only be known and said by a very close friend or romantic partner.
Origin
Born in late 2024 from the humorous 'We're of Course' trend, where users filmed videos of themselves running and saying, "We're (BLANK), so of course we (BLANK)," the Suspect Challenge has a similar structure (running, editing and deprecating humor).
Differing from the "We're of course' meme was the call-and-response relationship dynamic, adding a deeper level of intimacy and humor to this trend's content.
Spread
Though the exact origin of the 'Suspect Challenge' is unknown, on October 24th, 2024 TikToker .j.e.s.s.e posted one of the first Suspect Challenge videos, depicting two sisters running down the street—each switching off being the runner/'suspect' while the other narrates the run in an deprecating way.
Meme basics
- Meme creator: Unknown
- Meme type: Satirical
- First appearance: October 2024
- Origin source: TikTok
- Peak popularity: Oct. 29th, 2024
Cultural Context
The 'Suspect Challenge' TikTok trend speaks to the popularity of relational challenges. However, it also highlights our cultural pre-occupation with true crime media. Users satirically inserting themselves into a part of the true-crime landscape speaks to the genre's widespread cultural saturation and sheds a playfully critical eye on the effect it has on online content.
Variations
As the trend increased in popularity, it started to change from being deprecating humor— calling out traits that were seen as negative or signaling vulnerability—to becoming more wholesome, expressing traits that were less mean and more complimentary or endearing...
..turning what could be an intense, personal roast an expression of endearment. : )
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
