TikTokers celebrate being the family disappointment in new dance trend

TikTok: abibabex

Being the family disappointment is a full-time job, but someone’s got to do it. It seems like a lot of TikTokers are embracing this role and the fact they grew up differently to how their parents expected in a new, Italian-inspired dance challenge.

The latest viral meme on TikTok, which is known as the #BongoChaChaCha challenge is one of the most popular meme formats on the app at the moment. With the #bongochachacha tag having 141.8 million views, it is clear that a lot of TikTokers can relate to the feeling of turning out a little bit different than their parents probably expected.

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What is the #BongoChaChaCha challenge?

The basic premise of the challenge goes as follows. The TikToker pretends to be their parents around the time they were born, where they talk about the high expectations they had for their child.

Then, the TikToker shows themselves in present day form dancing along to ‘Bongo Cha Cha Cha’, usually with text on the screen showing how they completely missed these goals. The humor might be dark and a little bit sad, but its definitely relatable to a lot of millennials and Get Zs out there.

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One TikTok user, who goes by the handle of ‘ellajasmyne’, imagines her parents envisioning her as a Christian or a doctor, before revealing herself to be “a lesbian with ADHD.”

Meanwhile, user ‘camerontron’, who is popular among TikTokers in the UK, jokes about how his parents probably expected him to “start his own business and be successful” instead of his current occupation – “barking daily for people on TikTok.”

https://www.tiktok.com/@camertronn/video/6944400906871999749

Where did the trend originally come from?

For MCU fans, the Italian cha-cha which acts as the soundtrack to this challenge might be familiar. While the song (unsurprisingly titled ‘Bongo Cha Cha Cha’) was originally released in 1980, it has surged in popularity over the last couple of years after featuring in the 2019 movie Spiderman: Far From Home. 

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The sound was originally made by a user named Andie in order to show her ‘I survived NYC’ outfit inspired by a scene from the first MCU Spiderman film, Spiderman: Homecoming (2017).

However, as always, TikTokers have taken this sound and ascribed a whole new meaning to it, transforming it to a huge viral trend.  The sound has now been used in over 54k videos, most of them being users’ own contribution to the #BongoChaChaCha challenge.

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