As far as TikTok viral trends go, the car wash one is pretty wholesome. Unlike the recent dangerous Kia trend, nobody is going to hate you for cleaning their car. If you’ve been wondering why everyone on your For You Page is suddenly very proud of their wheels then this is why.
Set to a remix of ‘Lights’ by Ellie Goulding, the trend involves cleaning your car in increasingly flamboyant ways, reminiscent of the older Harlem Shake dance. A sponge and some turtle wax aren’t going to cut it here.
The first video to kickstart the trend was uploaded by a user called lakestrickland, with him lip synching and walking towards the car, before it cuts to him standing on the hood with his friends washing the car with their hands over their faces and some…er… interesting dancing. It soon caught on after being uploaded on June 17th, and quickly racked up more than 12 million plays and 2 million likes.
The trend grew when the tastefully named account certifieddrippaz69 recreated it. Things soon snowballed after Ellie Goulding herself commented on the video. The singer then posted a compilation of her favourites as a duet, with the caption “Loving all of your videos to the sped up version of Lights so I had to get involved”, featuring versions of people dancing using their phone torches to illuminate them, before posting her own recreation. She then shared another saying “you guys make me smile!”.
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She shared further car wash videos, as fans kept leaving comments for the remixed version of the song to be released.
As the trend continued, new versions started featuring car wash owners sharing surveillance camera footage of people filming themselves for TikTok. Inception-style trend within a trend. One such video was posted with a caption saying "When you own the car wash and check the cameras.”
There have been some more adult versions too, with OnlyFans stars lathering up and washing the car like a calendar from the 1980s, but the trend is continuing in increasingly creative ways. If your car needs cleaning at the weekend, this could be a fast-track to TikTok infamy.
Jen Thomas