The next ACT IS...

TikTok brings a new wave of influencers who are winning the world by not taking themselves too seriously. Mamta Mody dives into their strange world of memes and lip-syncing

Until a few weeks ago I was very comfortable in my choice to stay off TikTok. You can blame it on my millennial years, or the fact that my brain felt broken from the other social media apps I was already juggling. This status quo changed almost instantly, when I watched a video compilation of a bald Indian man-eating. In each clip, he simply announces, “chicken leg bis” (sic) before taking a big bite of a chicken leg piece. What surprised me were the mostly white fans (or should I say ‘Chicken Leg Piece’ stan?), who wait with bated breath to hear him say the words. He has inspired hundreds of reaction videos, a remix song, and even landed himself a spot on Urban Dictionary. The vibrating TikTok logo in the corner of the video made me curious, ‘Is there a deeper meaning to this joke?’. ‘What was I missing?’