Tea Time Alarm

Submission 2,033

Part of a series on British People / Bri'ish. [View Related Entries]

About

The Tea Time Alarm is a fictional alarm said to play across England and the United Kingdom every day at tea time, a mealtime that falls around 4 p.m., between lunch and dinner. The claim that England has tea time alarms was first joked about on TikTok in February 2021 and was popularized through a comedy video by TikToker Jack Knightley in February 2023, where he claims that a 5G signal tower is a tea time alarm, inspiring reactions on the app. Over the following months, TikTokers continued to joke about and claim that tea time alarms are real to troll people outside of the U.K.

Origin

On March 30th, 2021, TikToker^[1] @tcimz posted a video where she told a story about a British friend convincing her that the U.K. has tea time alarms that go off once per day, meaning everyone has to stop and have tea. The TikToker explains that every British person she asked confirmed the claim except for one, making her realize it was a troll. The video gained over 720,000 views in two years (shown below).

On February 3rd, 2023, TikToker^[2] @jackknightley posted a comedy video where he explains "British things that would send Americans into a coma," claiming that the U.K. has "tea time alarms" that go off at a random time in the day, signaling tea time. Knightley claims that the king decides when the alarms go off via a big red button and when the alarms go off, everyone must stop and have tea. The video gained over 7.2 million views in eight months (shown below).

Spread

On February 4th, 2023, TikToker^[3] @ajslambino reacted to @jackknightley's post through a Duet, doubting that it's true, garnering over 700,000 views in eight months. On May 28th, TikToker^[4] @imjoshfromengland2 posted a video joking that a 5G tower is a tea time alarm and seemingly demonstrating the alarm going off, garnering over 3.5 million views in five months (shown below, left). On June 4th, TikToker^[5] @wynterlurion posted a video where she and her mother seemingly reacted to the tea time alarm going off, garnering over 243,000 views in four months (shown below, right).

On August 15th, TikToker^[6] @jackknightley posted another video about tea time alarms, garnering over 4.5 million views in two months. On August 31st, TikToker^[7] @ajslambino posted a video where another British person claims that tea time alarms are real, saying you get arrested if you don't stop for tea when the alarm goes off, garnering over 163,000 views in two months (shown below).