When You Stole X's Phone And Need To Use Face ID

Submission 3,988

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

About

When You Stole X's Phone And Need To Use Face ID refers to a trend on TikTok where doppelgangers, or people doing impressions, laugh diabolically at the camera and then make a straight face so that they can unlock a celebrity or character's phone they've stolen in order to use Apple Pay, among other services that require Face ID or face recognition. The audio used in the trend was posted to the platform in late November 2021 and was exploited in various memes and skits going into December.

Origin

On November 30th, 2021, TikToker^[1] @kyralamont99 posted a video related to online shopping at 4 a.m. and having to use Face ID for Apple Pay. The video (shown below, left) received roughly 3.7 million plays and 781,400 likes over the course of six days. Because of its high engagement, @kyralamont99 posted a second TikTok^[2] the following day (shown below, right) that officially made the audio an exploitable and original sound for other users to create skits.

Spread

On December 2nd, 2021, TikToker^[3] @patiencegamel posted a video that used the sound, making a joke about needing to unlock Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's phone. Although the TikToker does not resemble The Rock, she does The Rock's Eyebrow Raise to effectively unlock his phone. The video (shown below) received roughly 781,400 plays and 142,300 likes over four days.

On December 3rd, 2021, TikToker^[4] @thepaulrudd posted a copycat video of the above TikTok that received roughly 888,000 plays in three days (shown below, left). Another TikToker,^[5] @nuveswashere, posted a video that added to the trend on December 3rd (shown below, right) where she unlocks Fetty Wap's phone. Her TikTok received 4.4 million plays and 662,600 likes over the course of three days.

Versions of the meme involving celebrity doppelgangers appeared en masse after a TikTok was posted by TikToker^[6] @www.kylieconvery.com on December 3rd, 2021. In the video (shown below) @www.kylieconvery.com emphasizes her resemblance to Miley Cyrus. It received roughly 1.7 million plays and 183,200 likes over three days.

More doppelgangers emerged within the trend going into December 2021, such as ones resembling Grimes ^[7] and the Know-It-All kid from The Polar Express. ^[8] A screenshot of the Grimes doppelganger landed on Twitter, posted by Twitter^[9] user @jobIesstownie on December 4th, 2021. The tweet gained roughly 35,800 likes over two days.