TikTok’s Family Guy Frenzy (feat. Rylee Zaucha)

Whether you are busy dancing, walking, or rearranging furniture, we are sure you have heard of TikTok. Being one of the most popular social media platforms, anything could make its way onto your TikTok feed. So how did “Family Guy”— amongst many others— make its way to so many For You pages?

While opening TikTok on a day in mid-November, you might have been face-to-face with a clip of the infamous Peter Griffin. Not only that, there would be some sort of ASMR video included underneath. Such an odd pairing made its way to thousands of TikTokers all around the world. From there, the pipeline was created. 

Viewers began to notice search bars popping up on the top of their favorite animated dysfunctional family. The TV clips were now accompanied by a video of a pipe with a carrot in it, then being shaved down and covered in liquid cement. The algorithm of the app did not know how to label such a strange sequence of events, so the AI system within TikTok’s coding spawned an interesting title; “Family Guy Pipeline Incident.”

This started to become all the rage across TikTok, quickly holding the minds of many users captive into the spiraling hours of Family Guy content. The trend has expanded exponentially ever since its arrival, and it does not plan on stopping any time soon. 

However, while these clips have become wildly popular, they have begun shortening attention spans. As we scrolled through numerous comment sections under a variety of “Family Guy” videos, viewers instead chose to watch hours of these very short clips. 

Senior Ava Branz is one of the many Hoban students who received these videos. “I think they are entertaining, but they definitely shorten the attention span in the long term,” she agrees.

There has been a quick transition over to different shows, such as “South Park” and “Bluey,” which have also begun consuming countless feeds. They still hold the same format, being shown with ASMR videos or “Subway Surfers” gameplay. Now, users of all ages are being exposed to these shows, for better or worse.

We still see a multitude of videos, whether it be four boys creating chaos in a small Colorado town, or a crazy family sorting out daily dilemmas near and far. If you do not have TikTok and want to hop into the trending pipeline, be our guest. But, if you want to save your mind from rotting with a short attention span, that is always a respectable decision. Just remember; the bird is the word.