Over time, the aesthetic and style of these films began to change. Designer Bob’s early viral renovation videos were silly, but they could sometimes be mistaken for genuine design content. The newer films were more absurd, the renovations more fantastic, and their actions were narrated by a buzzing AI voice. This is how remix culture works on TikTok, says Alex Turvy, who studies digital culture.
“We’re going to see trends like this become more and more absurd until they eventually burn out,” he says.
There is even a spin-off meme dedicated to “galvanized square steel”, so much so that some users have it questioned is the entire meme a viral marketing campaign for galvanized steel.
“I think so knowledge that’s a really good word to apply here. Now the films are growing and doing well Because there is a whole story around them,” says Karten. “Faith sustains virality.”
The more I watched these videos, the more desperate I became to understand who was making them. For Designer Bob, the account bio leads to online candle and crystal store run by a China-based company called Whisper Wisp. And designer Bob’s Facebook page lists Hong Kong as his base Page transparency section. Still, it seems unlikely that this is a hidden marketing campaign by a candle store. None of Whisper Wisp’s social channels are as popular as Designer Bob’s account. (Whisper Wisp did not respond to any of my messages.)
Details about who is behind the Dy02449xjp account are even scarcer. Is Facebook page with the same username and sharing the same videos. Other than that, nothing. No other linked accounts, no storefronts or identifying information. If fraud or upselling is coming, that number hasn’t dropped yet. At least for now, it appears that Dy02449xjp is engaging in TikTok for its own sake.
Many of these accounts apply some variation of the name “House designs” and a similar small house logo that closely resembles the branding of an architecture and interior design program called HomeDesignsAI – I thought this was a major clue to solving the puzzle. I managed to track down the COO and co-founder of HomeDesignsAI, Denis Madroane. But he was as confused as everyone else about how popular these revamped TikToks were.
HomeDesignsAI is a start-up from Romania, established in 2023. The app allows users to upload photos of room or floor plans and transform them using artificial intelligence. Madroane says he started seeing TikToks using HomeDesignsAI last year. He says he and his team found them quite fun, but didn’t see many positives.
Madroane confirmed that Home-DesignsAI has a TikTok account, although it does not actually participate in creating the memes. He has just under 900 followers and his biggest video has around 195,000 views. This seems fine until you compare it to Home-DesignsAI’s unofficial TikTok accounts. the biggest, @homedesign369he has 2.4 million followers and consistently receives millions of views on each video.
“Our official account is significantly underperforming compared to numbers averaged from user-generated content,” admits Madroane.
But as it turns out, none of the most viral Little John TikToks were created using HomeDesignsAI software. So the mystery is unsolved. And as recently as this summer, no one on TikTok knew where these videos came from. That was until Candise Lin, a Cantonese and Mandarin tutor based in the US, noticed this trend gaining popularity and revealed the missing piece of the puzzle – at least to confused Americans – in her own TikTok video.