What factors can make something wildly popular on TikTok? It’s a question countless tastemakers have asked; it’s a phenomenon that has given a new life to songs released years or even decades ago, and a state of being that’s elevated obscure books in ways their authors never imagined. And if a new report from The Guardian is to be believed, TikTok has also given a ubiquitous plant its 15 minutes of (online) fame.
As The Guardian details, a growing number of people on TikTok are using the platform for “unboxing” videos — except that these videos don’t involve store-bought products. Instead, they’re turning to something with “packaging” built in: conkers, otherwise known as horse chestnuts, which grow with a large seed casing which can then be opened up to reveal the seed within.
There are some truly bizarre things that develop a huge following online. This is not one of them. Opening up seeds to marvel over what’s inside is a pastime that people of all ages engage in, after all. That said, there is also a very 2025 quality to conkers’ moment in the social media spotlight. As The Guardian points out, if you watch enough TikTok videos of conkers being cracked open, “you’ll almost certainly hear them call it nature’s Labubu.’”
The Male Equivalent of Flowers, According to TikTok? Banana Bread.
A recent viral TikTok is exploring another option for a popular debateAs NPR’s Juliana Kim pointed out in an article on the Labubu phenomenon earlier this year, there’s an aspect of surprise to opening up a Labubu package, given that the contents are not apparent from the outside. One conker “unboxing” video from TikTok user Phoebeisginger includes the surprise discovery of a “double” conker, for instance. As social media trends go, this one seems almost wholesome.
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