Pretend to Hit Your Baby's Head Challenge

Submission 11

Part of a series on Internet Challenges. [View Related Entries]

About

The Pretend to Hit Your Baby's Head Challenge is a TikTok trend in which a person walks up to or past a wall while holding their baby and hits the wall with their hand to make it sound like they hit their baby's head against the wall, then fusses over the baby as if they did hit their head, often resulting in the baby crying. Videos participating in the challenge have been posted online since as early as 2019 and continued to spread throughout the 2020s, originating on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin. The trend has been criticized for being cruel to the babies involved and is comparable to the egg crack challenge. The challenge is sometimes touted as an example of the Little Albert Experiment.

Origin

On July 2nd, 2019, a Douyin user posted a video to his account where he pretends to hit his baby's head against the wall by bringing the baby close to the wall, then hitting his hand against it, making a sound that resembles hitting the baby's head. He then fusses over the baby as if they hit their head against the wall and the baby starts crying.

On July 8th, 2019, a compilation video showing several Douyin users following the trend was posted to /r/KidsAreFuckingStupid,^[1] titled, "Imaginary knocks," garnering over 39,000 upvotes in five years. It was reuploaded to the Newsflare YouTube^[2] channel 10 days later, garnering over 639,000 views in the same span of time (shown below).

The videos have been seen by some as an example of the Little Albert Experiment, which posits that children are classically conditioned to fear loud noises.^[3]

Spread

The trend gained viral spread in July 2019 following the virality of the Douyin compilation, which was posted to numerous social media pages, including the LADbible Facebook^[4] page on July 17th, 2019, garnering over 180,000 reactions and 25 million views in five years.

In 2020, the trend began to inspire videos on TikTok. On April 23rd, 2020, TikToker^[5] @emilyindubai_ posted a video doing the trend, garnering over 147,000 views in four years (shown below, left). On October 17th, TikToker^[6] @taylorcristen posted a video doing the trend, garnering over 258,000 views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On October 24th, YouTuber^[7] Trend Followers Tik Tok posted a compilation of TikTokers following the trend, garnering over 2.6 million views in four years (shown below).

The trend continued to spread throughout the early 2020s. On January 21st, 2024, TikToker^[8] @childrenlove3 posted a compilation of videos following the trend, garnering over 19 million views in five months. On June 26th, X^[9] user @MrMbulazi_SA posted a compilation, writing, "Bunch of little liars 😂🥰," garnering over 106,000 likes in two days.

On June 27th, X^[10] user @CallMeK1123 quote-reposted the video, criticizing it, writing, "tiktok trend that traumatizes innocent babies. these parents are idiots," garnering around 300 likes in a day.