Pumpkin Challenge / Pumpkin Head Photoshoot

About

The Pumpkin Challenge or Pumpkin Head Photoshoot is a seasonal fall trend on TikTok where users take a series of photos while wearing pumpkins (or jack-o-lanterns) on their heads and upload them as a compilation on TikTok, often set to the song "Oh Klahoma" by Jack Stauber. The trend, which is similar to the Ghost Photoshoot trend, began in the fall of 2020 and became popularized again in the fall of 2021 and 2022 leading up to Halloween. The internet challenge is also practiced outside of TikTok on sites like Twitter, where users upload photos of themselves wearing pumpkin carvings on their heads.

Origin

It's unclear who first started the pumpkin photoshoot trend, with several videos from late 2020 participating in it appearing online. However, one of the first known videos of a pumpkin head photoshoot was posted to YouTube^[1] by KentuckyTwinFlames Blended Family on November 1st, 2020, garnering over 10,000 views in two years (shown below). The video was originally posted by the same user on TikTok on an unknown date, although the account has since been deleted.

Spread

The trend became significantly more prevalent in the fall of 2021 as the "Pumpkin Challenge," with the hashtag "#pumpkinchallenge" collecting over 69 million views by October 2022. For example, on October 10th, 2021, TIkToker^[2] @hannahstocking posted a collab video with King Bach in which they do the challenge, garnering over 23 million views in a year (shown below, left). On October 15th, 2021, TikToker^[3] @kjp posted a video where he does the challenge with his son, garnering over 58.9 million views in a year (shown below, right).

The trend became popularized again in the fall of 2022, especially in October. On September 12th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @jeschoww posted a video reminding people to partake in the trend with her own photoshoot, garnering over 4.3 million views in a month (shown below).

The trend has also become prevalent on sites like Twitter, where users upload photos of their photoshoots. On October 1st, Megan Thee Stallion posted a series of photographs to Twitter^[5] where she wears a pumpkin head, garnering over 290,000 likes and 57,000 retweets in four days (shown below). That day, Twitter^[6] user @kihmberlie uploaded a similar series of photos, garnering over 90,000 likes in the same span of time.

On October 3rd, 2022, TikToker^[7] @mariorosass posted a video doing the trend, garnering over 140,000 views in two days (shown below, left), on October 4th, TikToker^[8] @chrishenrie posted a similar video where he and his boyfriend do the trend, garnering over 2.2 million views in a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References