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TikTok videos joking about being arrested using the song “Locked Up” by Akon have gone viral.
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They include a filter that makes it look like the user is in the back of a police car.
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There are over 200,000 videos from TikTokers using the song, including Joe Jonas and Hayley Kiyoko.
TikTokers and celebrities are going viral with videos of themselves joking about getting arrested for doing something that isn’t currently illegal, as part of a trend set in the song “Locked Up” by Akon.
The videos follow the same format, with the creators using a filter known as ‘POlice by Jphant’, which makes it look like they’re in the back of a police car, and an a cappella version of ‘Locked Up’ playing in the background .
They usually include superimposed text to describe something the user has done in the past or they currently want to do, joking that if it was “made illegal,” the user would end up arrested. The featured lyrics say, “I’m always trying to find the motive/Why do I do what I do?”
Over 200,000 videos on TikTok have used the sound so far, with most being in the trending style.
Singer Joe Jonas tweeted a version of the trend on August 22, writing, “If forgetting lyrics was illegal.” In 2019, the Jonas Brothers appeared on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and Joe’s brothers said that he always forgets the lyrics to his songs and has to use a teleprompter on stage. His video has received over 800,000 views.
Singer and actress Hayley Kiyoko posted a similar video on August 21 with the caption: “If drinking lemonade ever becomes illegal.”
In the caption, Kiyoko tagged her with #LemonadeMouth. The hashtag refers to the 2011 Disney Channel Original Movie of the same name starring Kiyoko, in which a group of outcasts bond over lemonade and form a band. Her video received nearly 8 million views, and fans praised her and the film in the comments.
Jersey Shore star Vinny Guadagnino also made a “Locked Up” video, with over 11 million views. The text says, “If you’re the one who just reads the group chat but doesn’t respond, it becomes illegal.”
Other popular trending videos include: “If being the funniest sibling is illegal,” “If having bad taste in men is illegal,” or “If being a bad whore is sometimes illegal.” . Many of them get over 1 million views.
The sound used in the video was first posted in April by a popular TikTok user @coinyes, who posts videos of popular songs that only contain vocals. The video showed Ako singing the chorus, but the audio did not include any instruments.
The earliest trending video appeared to be posted on August 9 by @montyjlopez, father of influencer and actor Addison Rae, which received over six million views. Lopez has recently been embroiled in controversy over allegations that he had an affair with a woman who was not his wife. This led to a feud with influencer Tana Mongeau, who commented under one of his videos, “I’m calling the police.”
His video had no on-screen captions, but showed Lopez lip-synching to the song in the back of a police car using the filter and captioned “Understand me!”
The song “Locked Up” was released in 2004. It was written from the perspective of a person who has been incarcerated and does not know when he will be released. According to NME, Akon previously stated that he wrote the song while in prison.
Although the trend seems popular among TikTok users, there are some critics. Zoë Hecht wrote for the online publication HerCampus that it “sheds light on an important conversation in today’s climate about police interactions” and advised that TikTokers “be aware of the real-world impact” of the trend.
Other TikTok trends that have been similarly criticized include the “Mugshot Challenge” in 2020, which involved using makeup to look battered and bruised and then taking mugshot-style photos and videos. Many influencers who joined the challenge were later accused of glamorizing violence. A trend in 2021, which saw people pretending to be arrested and picked up by the police, also received backlash for glamorizing police brutality.
Akon, Joe Jonas, Hayley Kiyoko and Vinny Guadagnino did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
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