A baffling clip of a woman on a TikTok live stream licking the air and saying “Ice cream so good” while using a straightener to pop single kernels of popcorn has gone viral and people are confused. By now, we all know the internet is filled with weird and wonderful things, but sometimes there are viral videos that are particularly odd and require an explanation. One such video includes a TikTok live video made by @pinkydollreal, who appears to be a 19-year-old Montreal-based user. In it, she appeared to be repeating words like, “yes, yes, yes”, “slay” and “ice cream so good”, while also receiving payments, or “gifts”, from users watching in real-time. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The bizarre clip was shared on Twitter along with the caption, “Any time I accidentally happen upon a TikTok live, I feel like I am watching the world end” and was viewed millions of times, before the person deleted it, explaining they didn’t want @pinkydollreal to receive hate. But, other people have also been sharing the TikToker's content, with one person calling it the “weirdest thing I’ve seen [on TikTok] by far”. What is @pinkydollreal’s content and why does it appear “weird”? The content that TikToker is producing is part of a genre called NPC, or non-playable character. The reference comes from video games and refers to characters that feature but are unable to be controlled by the person playing the game. The niche genre on TikTok sees users like @pinkydollreal imitating an NPC by repeating many of the same phrases and movements in a way that appears programmed and looped. Their behaviour has set patterns and the person rarely deviates from a handful of sayings or actions to imitate a programmed character. Some people pay NPC TikTokers because the content can be considered a fetish. While the content is not overtly sexual, with no nudity or sexual langue, some who are attracted to certain things may find it arousing. Instagram sexual educator Emerson Karsh explained to InsideHook: “A fetish is a little bit more specialized. It’s attraction or arousal or sexual stimulation to certain stimuli, especially if it’s non-sexual. So, like non-sexual body parts, or inanimate objects or non-sexual situations.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The search for the identity of the woman from the viral 'not real' airplane video continues to be a mystery and now social media accounts are either claiming to know her name or imitate her. If you are not aware a few weeks ago a video of a woman on an American Airlines flight went viral after she appeared to freak out at a passenger sitting near her. After leaving her seat, she ran down the aisle and yelled "that m**her f**ker back there is not real." There has since been widespread speculation about who or what she was referring to with many people falsely claiming she was talking about a man in a green hoodie. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Not only was that conspiracy not real we still don't know what she was talking about nor has anyone been able to identify who she actually is. Now two names have emerged which has piqued people's interest: Tiffany Gomas and Jenna Wilson. While neither of these are credible and are most likely fake personas attributed to the mystery woman it's worth explaining why people have latched onto these names. Let's start with Gomas. A Twitter profile bearing that name, which has been active since July 2022, recently started tweeting on July 10th, days after the plane video had gone viral. The account initially seemed to be engaging in the memes and jokes surrounding the woman but has doubled down on claims that it is indeed her. The account has claimed that the man in the green hoodie is not involved in her story and has also spread conspiracies about 'shape shifters.' The account has gained just over 1000 followers since it started tweeting but the fact that all the tweets are about the plane incident, there are no tweets before July 10th and also doesn't follow any other accounts would suggest that it is a fake account just parodying the woman. The other name is Jenna Wilson and has gained a lot of traction but this can easily be debunked. The name appears to have emerged thanks to a Twitter account parodying US attorney general Merrick Garland. On July 12th the account wrote: "Jenna Wilson has been arrested and held without bail on Federal Hate Crime charges. This stems from an incident on an airline when she called a black passenger "not a real person." Our Department of Justice will never tolerate such discrimination and dehumanization." This isn't real and the fact that the account has parody in its name should have indicated that this information was false. Worryingly the tweet has been shared more than 1000 times and liked more than 10,000. With all this in mind, we are still unaware of who this woman is, what she was yelling about and what has happened to her as the only statement American Airlines have issued is that the flight from Fort Dallas Worth to Orlando was returned to gate because of a 'disruptive customer.' A spokesperson from the airline said: "The flight was met at the gate by local law enforcement and the customer was removed from the flight. We thank our customers for their understanding and our team members for their professionalism in managing a difficult situation." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Getting locked out of your iPhone is frustrating. But it’s possible to solve the problem of a forgotten passcode without hiring a hypnotist.

A couple has gone viral after branding their neighbour a “cat pervert” because their cat likes to visit his garden. As everyone knows, controlling cats is almost an impossible task as the very independent animals like to roam wherever they choose. But, one angry neighbour in a hilarious viral clip was left upset after his neighbour didn’t tell his cat to go home. The bizarre clip was posted on Twitter by the account Detect Clips and showed an angry neighbour arguing with another over his cat. The cat’s owner claimed: “You are keeping it in your yard, it’s our cat.” Meanwhile, the neighbour who was filming themselves being yelled at, replied: “I’m not even in my yard right now. What am I doing? The gate’s open.” The owner continued, telling the neighbour he should tell the cat to go back home. He said: “If you would go in your yard and say, ‘Mercury, go home, don’t come in our yard anymore.’” The neighbour holding the camera replied: “She will not listen. She’s a cat, she doesn’t speak English.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The angry cat owner threatened to call the police department and branded his neighbour a “cat pervert” several times over. He also accused him of “harbouring our cat”. The clip has been viewed 17 million times and made quite an impression online. “This video has everything — drama, comedy, great lines: ‘cat pervert,’ ‘you're harboring my cat’ 10/10,” one viewer assessed. Another wrote: “CAT PERVERT! ‘Send my cat home’ is amazing. Has this man ever met a cat?” “Cat pervert is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard someone be called,” one Twitter user else said. Someone else argued: “I feel so bad for the video taker because it’s like... have you met cats?? There's not one thing in this world you can do when a cat decides you're their friend.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A filter that shows you what you’ll look like when you’re older has gone viral on TikTok as users react to seeing their future self. Over 8 million videos have used the ‘aged’ filter. Users have had mixed reactions to their older selves with some saying they are “excited to meet” their future selves, whilst others joked that they needed to start following their skincare regimen. One video posted by user @caseydnnly has over 16 million views and 2 million likes. Reacting to seeing the older version of yourself she says “I think I like her, she looks like she’s going to tell you dirty jokes and let you sneak an extra cookie while your mom isn’t looking.” Many commented saying they ‘loved’ Casey’s positive spin on the trend. Whilst others joked saying they wished they looked as good as Casey, saying the filter made them look “ancient”. @caseydnnlly I think ill make the move from fun aunt to fun great aunt just fine #agedfilter Another user, Yaz, (@yazzy_so_c00l) posted a video of herself saying “she looks so fun & full of life I can’t wait to meet her.” In the caption, she wrote that she had to “remind” herself that “aging is a blessing.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter On the other hand, influencer Flossie posted herself with the filter writing “help everyone looks so good I look like I’ve been through 3 divorces and an alcohol problem.” Many of the comments said that they looked the same with the filter. @flossieclegg Pitting on spf as we speak The horror for many about their aged appearance grew when dermatologists on TikTok described the filter as “pretty realistic”. @teawithmd Breaking it all down! #aging is not bad OBVIOUSLY but taking steps to preserve your skin health is NECESSARY. Genes account for a lot too. #agingwell #agingup #aginggracefully #agingwell #agingskin #dermbypark Even celebrities have jumped on the trend, including Kylie Jenner and Niall Horan. The filter has sparked conversation around our attitudes to ageing and how much negativity we associate with getting older and our appearance changing. Jessa, a content creator, responded to a comment on her video using the filter that asked “why does everyone else look so good with this filter it makes me look 70 every single time without fail.” In response, Jessa offered wise words: “I think by this age beauty will be measured by your joy. It will no longer be measured by physical beauty,” she said. “I think how beautiful you look at this age will be based off of how you carry yourself.” @sugarplumgoth Replying to @Nora_ ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳ ? #aged #thoughts #aging #beautystandards #life #gentlethoughts Talking about her reaction to seeing herself with the filter she added: “I felt safe within my own skin. I accepted her and it showed on my face, it showed happiness, it showed joy. I could look at this in horror, but she looks like my grandmother and all the faces of the women that have built me. How could I be horrified by the legacy of women who’ve created me?” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

With eco protest group Just Stop Oil disrupting a number of high-profile events including Wimbledon this summer, police and authorities are on high alert. They have already disrupted the Grand National, The Derby at Epsom, the Premiership Rugby final, and the Ashes Test match at Lord’s and in doing so have cemented their status as a pretty controversial bunch. With that in mind, one man became the victim of a brilliant prank when, on his stag do, his friend made him wear a Just Stop Oil T-shirt without explaining its significance. As a result, he was regularly stopped and questioned by police who presumably and understandably thought he was a real member of the group. A picture of one police interaction went viral and people thought it was absolutely brilliant. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Just Stop Oil themselves reacted to the picture and hinted they are already planning to disrupt next year’s British Grand Prix. They tweeted: “Now taking applications for Silverstone F1 2024.” Pretty hilarious prank to play on your friends if you ask us. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The stepson of one of the OceanGate passengers is being slammed online for reportedly complaining he can't "get laid". Brian Szasz, the stepson of British billionaire Hamish Harding who died in the Titanic expedition disaster, took to Twitter to urge people to stop asking him for money. Instead, he came up with a bizarre alternative, writing: "Quit asking me for money unless you’re a beautiful woman, trans women too! An OF model. Or a black dude trying to go to college!" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He went on to respond to followers asking how much money he inherited. "More than you’ll make in a lifetime," he hit back at one person. In a separate since-deleted tweet, he reportedly wrote: "With millions to spare, I still can’t get laid." One person called his tweets "cringe," while another couldn't believe his posts were real and were, in fact, "fake or ChatGPT-generated." Szasz already caused backlash online after attending a Blink-182 concert and messaging OnlyFans models while his stepfather was missing. His activities even struck a chord with Cardi B, who took to social media with a video, saying: "Ay so one of the billionaires that's missing underwater, on the submarine s***... One of the billionaires, their stepson is at a concert, right, a Blink-182 concert. "People was like, 'Uh what is he supposed to do, be sad at the house? Is he supposed to go look for him himself?' Yes. You supposed to be at the house sad. You supposed to be crying for me, you supposed to be right next to the phone waiting to hear any updates about me. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A Taylor Swift fan was shocked to find “creepy” electronic music when she played her new Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) vinyl of the new album. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was released on July 7, 2023 and quickly broke the Spotify record for the most single-day streams for any album in 2023 so far. It is also the most streamed country album in Spotify history. As well as impressive streaming feats, many fans have also opted for physical copies of the album, with over 225,000 vinyl sales, less than a week into its release. Rachel Hunter, a British fan of Swift, couldn’t wait to listen to her copy of Swift’s latest re-recording after returning from vacation. But, as she found out, it seems not every vinyl was pressed correctly. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “This voice started, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, do I have, like, a secret message from Taylor on my album?’” Hunter said Speaking to NBC News. “And I was like, that’s not Taylor Swift.” In her confusion, Hunter posted a now viral TikTok over the mysterious album, asking “does anyone else’s Speak Now vinyl not have Taylor Swift on it?” @mischief_marauder send help I got speak now (not Taylors version) this is so funny #speaknowtaylorsversion @Taylor Swift @Taylor Nation #erastour #speaknoworchid Hunter proceeds to play the album, instead of hearing Swift’s voice, she instead hears the song “Happy Land,” an electronic song by the group Ultramarine. On the B-Side of the album is the song “Soul Vine (70 billion People)” by Cabaret Voltaire. After posting the vinyl to TikTok fans quickly discovered that the songs appear on the album “Happy Land: A Compendium of Electronic Music from the British Isles 1992-1996 Volume 1.” “Happy Land” is distributed by the record label Above Board Distribution, whilst Swift’s album is distributed by Universal Musical Group. “Due to a pressing blunder, some Taylor Swift fans received a misprinted copy of ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),’ which we have learned features audio of ‘Happy Land (A Compendium of Music from the British Isles 1992-1996),’” said Dan Hill, the founder and managing director of Above Board, in a statement to NBC News. “While this error was beyond our control, we sincerely hope anyone who received what is Not Taylor’s Version of the vinyl enjoys the beats. It might very well end up being a collector’s item!” Hunter said she’s decided to keep the mistresses vinyl, unless someone wants to offer her VIP tickets for Swift’s tour, she joked. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The internet's obsession with McDonald's Grimace shake continues – and now an executive has spoken out about the TikTok trend. For those who still don't understand what's going on but have seen the phrase everywhere, McDonald's dropped a new limited-edition purple milkshake to celebrate the 52nd birthday of the famous character's birthday. TikTok users were immediately hooked on the drink before turning it into a bizarre trend. It sees people creating content showing them drinking the shake and pretending to be poisoned to death with a decorative crime scene around them. While the trend is bizarre, the hashtag #grimaceshake has racked up a staggering 142 million views on the platform and continues to grow. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @kale1ay Bro pls domt get the grimace shake #viral #meme #grimaceshake #grimaceshakemeal #grimaceshakememe #grimacememe #mcdonadlsmeme #skit Now, McDonald's marketing director Guillaume Huin has stepped into the chat, crediting the original TikTok creator Austin Frazier for his upload. In a Linkedin post, Huin said the company were initially not going to speak about the trend, but after "hours of watching, reading the comments, trying to learn and genuinely understand helped us see what this was about," he saw the "brilliant creativity, unfiltered fun, peak absurdist gen z humor, just the way a new generation of creators and consumers play with brands." He said that some of the content had even left him "smile silently in admiration and wonder." Huin then shared how behind the scenes, the team "discussed what was the right thing to do about the trend." He continued, "saying nothing felt disconnected, encouraging it felt self-serving, so we just decided to show our fans that we see them and their creativity in a sweet, candid and genuine way, as grimace would." The Grimace shake will be available to buy in the US until 29 July. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

An extremely rare and beautiful rainbow cloud was spotted in the skies of Colombia and has left people in awe. Rainbows in the sky are always a joy to see, but some lucky people in the city of Medellín, Colombia were treated to a rare cloud rainbow and the spectacle was captured on film. A video of the stunning rainbow cloud, also known as a pileus cloud was shared on TikTok where it has been viewed over 174 million times. The person filming zoomed in on some dark rain clouds to reveal a patch of cloud with rainbow colours of red, green, pink, and hues of blues and yellows. Despite the TikTok hashtag saying China, the clip was actually filmed in Colombia on 6 July when the rare cloud occurred. The scientific name for the weather phenomenon is cloud iridescence and it happens when water droplets or ice crystals individually scatter the sun’s light. They typically occur after thunderstorms and can create pastel colours, as well as bright vivid shades. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @juleko_o 中国云彩中的彩虹 #china #fyp On TikTok, viewers were blown away by the beauty of the rainbow cloud, with one user describing it as “The entrance to heaven”. Another user said: “Yo that’s pretty cool.” Someone else referenced the Mario Kart video game, writing: “Man found Rainbow Road.” Other people couldn’t believe what they were seeing was real. “No way this is real,” one TikToker wrote while adding a heart eye emoji. It was described by someone else as being “so God damn pretty”. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The wife of newsreader Huw Edwards has said he is “suffering from serious mental health issues” and is receiving “in-patient hospital care” as she named him as the BBC presenter facing allegations over payments for sexually explicit images. After intense speculation as to the identity of the BBC presenter at the centre of the allegations, Vicky Flind said in a statement that she was speaking out on her husband’s behalf after “what have been five extremely difficult days for our family”. Following the name reveal, the BBC and The Sun have both faced criticism for the handling of the events of the last few days, with colleagues and high-profile media personalities speaking out in support of Edwards on Wednesday night. The Metropolitan Police said no criminal offence had been committed by the presenter, adding: “There is no further police action. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “As such, the Met has advised the BBC it can continue with its internal investigation.” The statement added: “We are aware of media reporting of further allegations against the same individual. “No specific details or information about these allegations have been passed to us and therefore there is no police action at this time.” Now that the speculation about who the previously unnamed presenter was you would hope that the public and social media especially would allow Edwards himself and his family to deal with what is sure to be a distressing situation privately. Sadly though we cannot say that this is the case. Much like the OceanGate submarine tragedy the internet has managed to find a dark sense of humour in another wise serious situation involving real people. Yet you've only got to spend a few moments on Twitter, which continues its downward trajectory under Elon Musk, to be confronted with jokes about Huw Edwards, which were even prevalent on the platform prior to him being named as the presenter in question. Given that Edwards is now receiving hospital care because of the serious mental fatigue the story has placed upon him you'd hope that some people could afford to show a slight bit of dignity and not make any jokes that may further impact his condition or the other people involved in this story. Also there are better things to make jokes about at this time so maybe rather than add to the stress instead take some time to read the many statements of support offered to Edwards from his colleagues and peers. It's very easy to engage with big topics like this on social media but at the end of the day numerous real people, some only by association, are involved in this and likely still processing what happend. Allow them to deal with this in peace and for the right course of action to be taken, instead of creating cheap puns just for a few likes. Additional reporting by PA. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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