‘The magic was in the gaslighting’: Kiddo’s attempt at a magic trick goes hilariously off-kilter, with property-shattering results

Let’s just get straight to the point. The TikTok you’re about to see contains one of the most deeply hilarious, darkly awe-inspiring, and utterly fascinating father-son interactions ever put to social media.

Shared by @dereklipp_, the 80-second clip above unfolds as follows: Derek is sitting at a table, passing time on his phone, when his young son waddles up to the table and asks if Derek wants to see a magic trick. Right away, you can tell something is up. Derek seems to prepare himself for the bulls*** that’s about to ensue, indicating that his son is something of a rascal.

As if on cue, the son declares that his magic trick involves throwing a ceramic dinner plate up into the air, insisting that it won’t break. Derek calls his bluff, of course, telling his son that yes, that plate will break if you throw it into the air, actually. A brief back and forth later, and Derek gives in – “this better not break,” he said, naively.

So what happens next? The son throws the plate into the air, and it lands on the floor, smashing into a million pieces, at which point you can see the headache manifest inside of Derek. He exasperatingly enquires why his son did that, and the son, equally bewildered, tells Derek that he was supposed to catch it. The magic, you see, was for Derek to catch the obviously-about-to-break plate, after which his son’s assertion that it wouldn’t break would be proven right. “Why would you let your son throw up a plate that you knew would break,” says the son, a phrase that’s likely foreshadowing how unstoppable he’s going to become.

The comments section, perhaps for the first time in social media history, instantly fell in love with the kid’s gaslighting ability, likely due to the fact that this father-son duo seem to talk to each other as equals. Indeed, the chuckle with which the dad says “that’s a bad magic trick” coupled with the son’s eventual sincere apologies indicate a mutual respect and genuity to their relationship that lets us laugh at the gaslighting.

The best part of this whole father-son interaction, however, is that the son didn’t even use his largest piece of ammunition. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that the son says “If I throw this plate up, it won’t break,” never once specifying what might happen once it falls down after having been thrown up. Perhaps weaponizing semantics will be his next objective as the world’s foremost budding criminal mastermind.