“You have no idea how funny this is at 3am”: What is melting on TikTok? The funky facial trend, explained

“Melting” on social media refers to the practice of squishing faces into distorted expressions filmed from unflattering angles. The visual is often accompanied by audio with its speed adjusted to lower the pitch and slow its tempo.

First of all, your face isn’t going to “stay like that”

Social media users commenting on the phenomenon either find it funny or gross. One popular response to the trend is to insinuate that melting is dangerous by whipping up moral panic.

People reply to #melting content with comments like, “Not in front of your mom,” or “Stop—that’s so dangerous!” These comments are made in jest. Melting is not dangerous.

“I love this. Be careful, melting can be dangerous,” said @.mhmcheezburger.

Wait, what’s meltmaxxing?

On the other hand, “Meltmaxxing” is a trend that takes the melt as far as it can go. TikTok creators demonstrate the effect in videos that depict their faces melting at percentages ranging from 0 to 100. They challenge one another to see who can melt the most.

“So we lowkey might be cooked,” said @number22strapped.urmanz.

Most melters are zoomers. It’s a somewhat nihilistic facial expression that exudes absurdity and overwhelm. Fellow zoomers leave comments like, “We are turning into millennials,” and “We’re cooked.”

Why do TikTok users melt?

Because it’s funny.

Melting is antithetical to social media’s mandate to “hit the angles.”

However, @the.greatest.gang, a TikTok creator who shares quite a bit of melting content, explained the reasons why he melts in a post with 2.7 million views. He responded to the question: “Why do you melt? It’s so embarrassing.”

His reasons?

“Melting makes me feel secure, safe, and confident.”
“I’ve melted since I was younger; it’s in my blood.”
“Melting helps me pull sometimes 😅✌️.”

“1% of the world will understand this,” replied @maxlabbe_.

Meanwhile, @biggie.cheese7093 captioned a melting video from July 17, “Watch me slowly melt away.”

@cigr0vski replied, “U have no idea how funny this is at 3 am.”

A TikToker asked, “WTF even is melting and what does it do?” @guffshad replied, “Dude, it’s an art form. Melting takes you from solid… to liquid. Melting is how u know who u really are. Mustard, mango, or 67, and maybe if ur lucky, you can be all 3.”

“Sorry, melt king, for breathing your air,” apologized @adamsilversburner3.