About

The Ceiling Challenge or Phone On Ceiling Trend is a TikTok challenge in which participants tape or secure their phone to the ceiling and film themselves dancing, posing and twerking from a bird-eye-view perspective. The trend is set to J.I.D's "Surround Sound" and was popularized on the app in October and November 2023. In November, a student at Madonna University in Nigeria was purportedly expelled for doing the challenge.

Origin

On October 6th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @michaelfirshort posted a video where one person tapes their phone to the ceiling then films themselves and several friends dancing from a birds-eye-view perspective set to "Surround Sound" by J.I.D, garnering over 1.4 million views in a month (shown below).

Spread

The trend spread over the course of October and November under several original sounds for "Surround Sound." On October 28th, TikToker^[2] @arcsteelandconcrete posted a version of the challenge that gained over 12 million views in a week (shown below, left). On October 29th, TikToker^[3] @retirementhouse posted a version of the challenge that gained over 9.7 million views in a week (shown below, right).

On November 8th, TikToker^[4] @screech.vibes posted a video doing the challenge, garnering over 480,000 views in a day (shown below). On November 9th, The Genius Media^[5] reported that a student was purportedly expelled for doing the trend. That day, X^[6] user @juststeph001 posted the alleged clip that got the student expelled, claiming she was from Madonna University in Nigeria. These claims are unconfirmed.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References