The Children-Grabbers: another portion of cringe from TikTok

Have you been scrolling the TikTok timeline recently? No, we are not going to discuss trends today. Today, on the contrary, I am going to tell you what should vanish off social networks and from our lives. Yes, here we go again: the stereotypes. So, I have been examining social networks for a long time now, and I can see that the situation there does not change, alas. We may keep emphasising that degrading people is not humour, yet such «jokes» keep appearing both in videos and in real life.

The New Realia

So, the full-scale Russian invasion has brought with it a bunch of new realia. These include refugees abroad. Over the past couple of years, Europeans have developed different attitudes towards refugees. It is sad, though, that in the meantime, Ukrainians behave in a manner which brings about a wave of disapproval and condemnation.

One «jolly» video features a girl putting on makeup. The subtitle says: «When a job centre calls you with a job while you are a Gypsy girl». The sub-note stating that this is humorous content does not make it better. Here, we have a double stereotype: one of Ukrainians who do not want to go to work and another one of Romanis who do not work at all. What attitude should the accepting country (here: Germany) have with regard to something like that?

The fact that the text is in the Russian language, adorned with a Ukrainian flag—I won't even comment that. Apparently the war has taught these people nothing…

The Evolution of Upbringing

Another change that has happened in our social milieu is the principles of upbringing of children. The entertaining videos, too, tell us about it. The jokes like «we used to grow up all right without psychologists», «don't you say, nothing like that has ever happened» are familiar to many people.

Another video clip tells us that parents used to have left their kids alone at home whereas today they make sure there is a nanny or another adult present at all times. May have been a normal video if it wasn't for the classical bugaboo: do not open the door to anyone, lest the Gypsies kidnap you. There are other ‘scaring scripts’ in play, too. But how can one do without the Gypsies.

One can, of course, investigate the origin of this stereotype. The question, though, consists in something else: if this degrades people, why would you joke about it?

Trends

On TikTok, if a dialogue continues day after day, a ‘fire’ character appears next to the name of your interlocutor. Next to it is a number: the number of days of uninterrupted communication. Quite an interesting motivation—one boosting one's addiction to this social network.

One might as well have stopped at that point—but the users decided to joke. Not about their own addiction but about Gypsies. Because if you do not continue the conversation, the fire goes out and the friend will give it to the Gypsies. Ahaha, how funny (not).

Why to the Gypsies? Why not burn it in the fire? This joke would have continued the topic of fire in the dialogue. Why does she not block you both online and offline? This is the way social networks work. There is a variation of this trend: «she will put out my fire»… Why have the Gypsies entered the chat?

Humanity and Concern

Pets are always sweet and charming, whereas stories where they are salvaged are heartbreaking. There are stories like that on TikTok, too. There is even a template. The furry creature says: «Thank you for feeding me. Safe travels». The narrator replies: «Likewise». This means that the little one has found a home and is going there with its humans.

Well tell me please, how could one have spoiled such a lovely video? Well, quite easily: just make the plot be about humans and add some Gypsies to it. «Thank you for rescuing me from the Gypsies and feeding me…»

Now here is a question: are parents really rescuers? Or have they kidnapped the child? Does no one look at this «joke» from such a standpoint? And why is everyone convinced that life is bad in Romani families? Is TikTok so full of ethnographers?

Some wishes

As I summarise this topic for the umpteenth time, I feel sorry that I have the material for such articles in the first place. I actually have dozens of screenshots in my archives, enough to prepare many more materials…

All of this might seem to be an innocent joke. But why won't you just put yourself in the place of Romanis. You are the ‘child-grabbers’. You are the bugaboo. You are the lazybones. Now is that fun? Do you like an image like that? I am certain you do not. Well at least I would never want to hear anything like that about myself. So why do the Romanis have to listen to that?