Jihadi John TikTok Edits

About

Jihadi John TikTok Edits refers to a series of stylistic video edits and fancams of deceased ISIL member Jihadi John, often sourced from his beheading videos and footage alluding to his death by a drone strike. The edits were popularized on TikTok in September 2023 and spread to sites like Twitter. While some of the videos celebrate the death of Jihadi John, others are more ambiguous and ironic in tone.

Origin

Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed "Jihadi John," was a British member of the terrorist organization ISIL who became known for his appearances in beheading videos. He gained his nickname from a group of hostages, who referred to him and the three other members of his ISIL group as "The Beatles" for their British accents, with "John" being a reference to John Lennon. Jihadi John was killed on November 12th, 2015, at 27 years old by a drone strike.^[1]

In mid-2023, TikTokers began to post stylized edits using footage and images of Jihadi John, including images of John as a child. it is unclear who started the trend, but one of the earliest known edits was posted by TikToker^[2] @shhrug.fx_islamic on June 10th, 2023, garnering over 101,000 views in three months (shown below). The user's account description reads, "I don't support is!s."

Spread

The trend became increasingly popularized over the following months, seeing a peak in September 2023. On July 28th, 2023, TikToker^[3] @christianprincedestroys posted an edit celebrating Jihadi John's death, garnering over 200,000 views in two months (shown below, left). On August 30th, TikToker^[4] @vxckenn posted an edit that gained over 464,000 views in a week (shown below, right).

On August 31st, TikToker^[5] @gh05txpro posted a glow up edit comparing a childhood photo of John to an adult photo, writing in the description, "bro had a glow up🗣🔥" garnering over 600,000 views in six days (shown below).

On the same day, TikToker^[6] @boy_viralscenes13 posted a version of the trend that gained over 2.1 million views in six days, also providing John's lore in the description (shown below, left). On September 1st, two of the edits were shared on Twitter^[7][8] by users @G_xvyy and @hannibaldelarge. On September 2nd, TikToker^[9] @v.o.i.d.z posted an edit that gained over 1.4 million views in four days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References