TikTok’s Ketchup Challenge, which sadly doesn’t include dancing to the classic song is a new addition to the relationship squid games on the platform. In this challenge, women are asking their partners to clean a glob of ketchup off the kitchen counter and things are getting messy.
What is the TikTok Ketchup Challenge?
The ketchup challenge is yet another test for partners to prove their worth not only as lovers but also as humans. It is pretty simple or not if we are going by the videos, where women are squeezing spoonfuls of ketchup on their countertops for their partners to clean.
One of the most liked videos under this hashtag was published on December 27, 2023, by Katherine Castaneda. The video features her dropping some hot sauce on the counter and letting her partner do the cleaning.
He hesitatingly picks up a kitchen tissue and starts to rub the mess around until the counter is painted in the sticky sauce. He does eventually get the sauce off but it is evident that the surface is all sticky afterwards. This video has garnered over 33 million views and 1.5 million likes.
Following this, many similar videos have turned up under the hashtags where men inefficiently rub the ketchup on the counter without any water or soap. But not all men of course some of them have come up with surprising ways of transferring the mess into the sink.
Why’s the Ketchup Challenge worse than Orange Peel Theory
A month ago women on TikTok were asking their partners to peel an orange for them as a testament of love. In this challenge, if the man gladly dirtied his hands by peeling the sticky messy fruit then he passed the test.
The base of this theory was that only true love would get their hands messy in pealing a fruit that you are capable of doing yourself. This theory was ignited by evidently staged clips where men went into an argument that would be wild enough to get views.
However, those videos had some perks including that you get a dose of vitamins with your partner while the ketchup challenge sacrifices the condiment to prove that some men are inefficient in cleaning.
To make things worse, the publishers also defend their partners for their lack of skills without sharing what they did wrong. In this sense, the challenge is similar to videos showing how men apply lip balm which is neither made to criticize them nor to tell them a better way of doing it.
The discourse surrounding ketchup on the counter
Jamieson Eileen, who is popular for discussing the latest social and pop culture trends posted a video titled Boyfriend ‘Challenge’ covering this topic. She set up a fake talk expressing how the challenge wasn’t very humorous or fruitful.
Underneath the video, netizens began to discuss the trend in terms of gender stereotypes. One of the users said that people should come up with a ‘man version’ where women are challenged to change a tire or do some other basic mechanical work.
Apart from being in a vastly different category of life skills also captured how certain tasks are stereotypically assigned to genders. On the other hand, this TikTok trend is making many people question what is the correct and most efficient way of cleaning ketchup from the counter.
