The speed of TikTok trends moves at a break-neck pace, with only a select few moments viral enough to have true staying power.
Some of these trends have verged on the dangerous and diabolical (like eating Tide pods or suction-cupping one’s lips to resemble Kylie Jenner), and others have landed on the downright hilarious, like so-called ‘girl dinner’ and our collective obsession with the Roman Empire.
Every so often, one trend comes along that transcends personalised algorithms (this writer is currently in the thralls of clay-Tok) and becomes ubiquitous. Most recently, that all-consuming trend has come courtesy of a baby, whose excitement around visiting a Four Seasons hotel has naturally birthed an ocean’s worth of spinoff memes, reactions, and questions around the speed of the baby’s development.
The baby Four Seasons Orlando meme, explained
The baby Four Seasons meme centres around a video uploaded by TikTok user Stefanie O’Brien on May 18. It’s a video of her baby niece, who when asked by Stefanie if she wants to visit the Four Seasons hotel in Orlando, responds with an emphatic “me!” In the accompanying caption, Stefanie tagged the luxury hotel chain and asked whether they need her niece as an ambassador.
While it all might seem innocent enough, a closer look at the video — which has since attracted nearly 5 million likes and over 38 million views — reveals that the baby seems to be mature well beyond her years. From the matter-of-fact delivery of her words to her knowledge of the Four Seasons in the first place, the baby’s seeming maturity is what caught the attention of millions of TikTok users.
Playfully riffing on her adult-like mannerisms, one user commented that the baby “booked the trip” herself, with another adding that she “is in charge of the family finances.” Others said that she is an adult trapped in a baby’s body, and that her baby-like arm jiggle after raising her hand was merely a distraction to “reinforce the illusion that [she’s] just an unaware baby.”
The comments section is also filled with hilarious takes on the kind of adult-like energy the baby gives off, with her response reading to some users like: “[I] would be delighted mother to accompany you on this exhilarating excursion to the four seasons Orlando.” Given that this is TikTok, it wasn’t long before people started questioning how advanced the baby is, since she was able to respond with such brevity, had knowledge of the hotel chain, and even knew the word “me,” which children usually learn at the age of around two.
“I was not ready for him to fully be aware and speak,” one user summarised in the comments. Among those to stitch the video was a user who inserted their own version of what the baby was thinking, and the Four Seasons hotel itself, which “welcome[ed] our newest ambassador” with a collage of the baby saying “me!”. It remains one of the more heartwarming trends on TikTok, so we hope the Four Seasons hotel remains on our For You Page for a little while longer.
Published: May 22, 2024 10:00 am