Have arcs gone too far? (Yes, arcs have gone too far.)
Do you want to go viral on TikTok now? Grab a pink ribbon and any object. A roll of toilet paper, a houseplant or a kosher dill spear will do the trick. Tie it in a bow and film it. Post the video online, and voilà.
In recent weeks, bows in the wrong places have become all the rage on the social media platform. Popular TikTok videos show ribbons wrapped around a bowl of macaroni and cheese, a knife and a Chick-fil-A order. Another appeared on what at first glance looked like a bowl of cereal, but instead of cereal it’s just a bowl of bows.
If you can give it a name, someone probably tied a bow around it.
The online trend comes in response to the recent popularity of bows in fashion and pop culture.
Sierra Palian, a 22-year-old babysitter in Washington, DC, recently posted an 8-second video showing a glass of ice water on a table. It is shot from above and the three floating ice cubes are tied in pink bows.
Like some other bow videos, Ms. Palian’s was set to “Let the Light In,” a dreamy love song by Lana Del Rey, whose personal style is known for being traditionally feminine and bow-heavy.
The ice cube video has been viewed more than 11 million times on TikTok. Ms Palian said it was intended as a commentary on the coquette aesthetic, a style she described as girlish, soft, delicate and often characterized by pastel colours.
“It’s a way to express your femininity, but in an extremely self-confident way,” she said. “It’s hyper feminine, but there’s also consciousness in it. It’s not a ditsy culture.”
The ice cube video and others like it are part of what Ms Palian described as “a large-scale inside joke”.
“I saw a comment about how the melting of the ice cubes represents how feminine beauty is perceived in society,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s deep.’”
Chrissy Trovato, who works in influencer marketing for a jewelry company, said she was inspired to make a bow video of her own after a few appeared on her For You page. When she noticed she had some pink ribbon left over from a work event, she tied bows to her TV remote and other random objects in her Manhattan apartment. Then she took out her phone and filmed it.
In her 10-second video, which is also set to Ms. Del Rey’s “Let the Light In,” the curved objects take on an eerie look. Ms. Trovato, 25, captioned the video “Coquette Girl.”
Tying bows on everyday objects and filming them for social media videos could be a parody of the way the Internet creates and circulates trends at warp speed, she said. She mentioned the spread this year of so-called blueberry milk nailsa nail polish trend that took off on TikTok this year, partly thanks to its catchy description.
“We don’t have to come up with a name for everything,” Ms. Trovato said. “I think this is a joke on a lot of the trends that are out there.”
One question remains: does the recent wave of absurdist arc videos herald the end of the arc?
“I hope not,” said Mrs. Palian. “I have seen several people get bow tattoos on their bodies.”