Michel Schwartz Bus Driver Hand Signals

Submission 149

About

Michel Schwartz Bus Driver Hand Signals, also known as Michel Busfahrer, refers to the waving hand gestures and greetings of German bus driver Michel Schwartz (@_michel_schwartz_) who uploads videos of himself driving and greeting his fellow bus drivers to TikTok. He sets most of his videos to a slowed remix of the Pop Smoke song "Top of the Drill." He went viral in late 2024 and inspired others to replicate his hand gestures. His most iconic hand signal is when he puts his hand out flat, quickly rotates it counter-clockwise and clockwise (like a "so-so" gesture) and then points at the other driver.

Origin

Michel Schwartz uploaded his first TikTok^[1] video to his account @_michel_schwartz_ on January 26th, 2022. In January 2024, he began posting videos of himself greeting people through his windshield.^[2]

However, his most notable form of content, in which the camera is placed behind him and the final video is a compilation of himself waving to other bus drivers, didn't take shape until later in 2024. His first TikTok^[3] of this nature was shared on September 1st, 2024, amassing over 1.2 million plays and 62,000 likes in three months (shown below).

Spread

Michel Schwartz continued to post TikToks^[4] like the abovementioned video in the following months. On November 3rd, 2024, he posted a TikTok^[5] that used a slowed remix of Pop Smoke's "Top of the Drill" as the TikTok sound.^[6]^[7] The video did not show him greeting other bus drivers.

On December 1st, 2024, he posted a TikTok^[8] that used the Pop Smoke sound and showed him greeting other bus drivers, receiving over 2.6 million plays and 194,900 likes in three weeks (shown below).

He followed up on the format in more videos, like one TikTok^[9] shared on December 10th, which received over 12.2 million plays and 716,100 likes in 17 days (shown below).

Going into December 2024, others began emulating Michel Schwartz's videos and hand gestures, using the Pop Smoke sound as the audio. For instance, on December 14th, TikToker^[10] @o3rji posted a video of him and his friends doing the gestures to each other, gaining over 3.4 million plays and 330,800 likes in 13 days (shown below).

On December 21st, TikToker^[11] @kwiekylo0 posted a video, showing the gestures being replicated by forklift drivers, gaining over 1.6 million plays and 157,700 likes in six days (shown below).