If you’ve spent any time on TikTok recently, it’s likely that you’ve come across some striking content, as I first did during a typical evening of scrolling through my feed this summer. Initially, it began with two videos oddly tagged #homeremodeling and #housedesign. One showcased a CGI character summoning a baby phoenix from a tree that he intended to convert into an apartment. A robotic AI voice commenced narrating how this CGI figure, named “Little John,” planned to execute the build. In a whirlwind of 90 seconds, Little John transformed the tree into an incredibly space-efficient luxury unit, featuring an AI-generated performance with soaring galvanized square steel, eco-friendly wood veneer, and expansion screws.
In the other video, which also featured nearly identical CGI visuals and the same captivatingly flat AI narrator, the storyline followed a couple with an enormous family who decided, similar to Little John, it was time to upgrade their home. These two clips were merely the tip of the galvanized steel iceberg.
Currently, there are hundreds of accounts sharing these videos on TikTok, and they’ve gained immense traction, accumulating millions of views. Even the persona of Little John has evolved into a meme, with users creating skits that mimic him.
The videos presented an intriguing case study on the evolution—or perhaps the devolution—of TikTok trends over time. What began as an app where people engaged creatively has morphed into a confusing landscape where irony and sincerity, memes and spam, intertwine into a peculiar mix of content that is hard to categorize. As I delved into the origins of these videos, I anticipated that uncovering the truth would lead to a bizarre realm of fractured social networks, AI content farms, and dubious engagement strategies lurking just below the surface. What I found was indeed strange, but surprisingly, these videos had not actually exploded as a TikTok trend after all.
In 2022, a TikTok account named @designer_bob emerged, quickly gaining attention. From its inception, the account consistently featured videos that followed a funky format: bizarre domestic dilemmas solved through extreme home renovations, all presented in a surreal CGI style accompanied by lively stock music. Within a month, one of its videos—a clip about designing a bedroom for four children—turned into a viral sensation, racking up over 10 million views.
Designer Bob’s formula was a perfect match for TikTok’s algorithm, which rapidly analyzes what captures users’ attention and adjusts content recommendations accordingly. The videos possess a hypnotic allure. “The storyline is just strange enough to capture your focus right off the bat,” notes social media analyst Rachel Karten. Moreover, given that the content revolves around home renovations, viewers find it difficult to look away.
As Designer Bob’s creations gained traction, a plethora of other accounts began producing similar content. One notable account, @dy02449xjp, which initially shared clips from 2000s romantic comedies like The Proposal and Two Weeks Notice, made a pivot to bizarre home renovations in January 2024. In that same month, one of their videos exploded in popularity, amassing over 44 million views.
Along the way, the visual style and presentation of these videos began evolving. The early viral renovation videos from Designer Bob had a goofy charm while occasionally resembling authentic design content. However, newer entries leaned towards the absurd, showcasing increasingly fantastical renovations narrated by a monotonous AI voice. This transformation is a reflection of how TikTok’s remix culture develops, according to digital culture scholar Alex Turvy.
“We’re going to witness trends like this becoming increasingly absurd until they eventually fade away,” he remarks.
There’s even a dedicated spin-off meme revolving around “galvanized square steel,” leading some users to question if the entire meme is merely a viral marketing stunt for galvanized steel.
“I believe lore is a fitting term here. Nowadays, videos gain traction because of the lore surrounding them,” Karten explains. “Lore is what maintains virality.”
The more I delved into these videos, the more I was eager to uncover the identities of their creators. In the case of Designer Bob, the account bio points to an online candle and crystal store managed by a company from China called Whisper Wisp. The Designer Bob Facebook page identifies Hong Kong as its base in the Page Transparency section. However, it seems improbable that this is a discreet marketing operation for a candle brand. None of Whisper Wisp’s social media accounts come close to matching the popularity of the Designer Bob profile. (Whisper Wisp has not replied to any of my inquiries.)
Information regarding the individual or group behind the Dy02449xjp account remains limited. There is a Facebook page with the same username that shares identical videos. Apart from this, there are no other linked accounts, shops, or any identifiable details. If any type of scam or upsell is on the horizon, it has yet to materialize. For the moment, it seems that Dy02449xjp is mainly focused on garnering TikTok engagement without additional motives.
Prior to this summer, the origins of these videos were largely unknown.
Several accounts utilize variations of the name “Home Designs” and present logos featuring a small house. These branding elements closely resemble those of an architecture and interior design platform called HomeDesignsAI, which provided a significant clue in unraveling the mystery. I managed to get in touch with Denis Madroane, the COO and cofounder of HomeDesignsAI. However, he echoed the confusion that many others have expressed regarding the widespread popularity of these renovation-focused TikToks.
HomeDesignsAI is a startup based in Romania, established in 2023. The application enables users to upload a photo of a room or a floor plan and modify it using AI technology. Madroane mentioned that his team began noticing TikToks employing HomeDesignsAI as early as last year. They found the videos amusing, but they haven’t experienced much benefit from the trend.
Madroane has verified that Home-DesignsAI maintains a TikTok account, but it hasn’t fully engaged with the meme culture. Currently, it boasts nearly 900 followers, with its most popular video accumulating about 195,000 views. This seems acceptable until it’s contrasted with the unofficial Home-DesignsAI profiles on TikTok. The leading one, @homedesign369, has a staggering 2.4 million followers and routinely garners millions of views per post.
“Our official account is severely underperforming compared to the averages of user-generated content,” Madroane admits.
Interestingly, none of the viral Little John TikToks were created using HomeDesignsAI software, leaving the mystery unsolved. Before this past summer, the origin of these videos was largely unknown to TikTok users. This changed when Candise Lin, a tutor fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin residing in the US, recognized the viral trend and shared her findings in her own TikTok video, which clarified things for many puzzled viewers.
It turns out that the videos we’ve been watching are not from TikTok creators but originate from another application entirely. As Lin explains, these clips are sourced from Bilibili, which is the closest Chinese equivalent to YouTube. On Bilibili, Little John is referred to as 大壮, or Big John, and the term “galvanized steel” has even become a popular search term. According to Lin, there are two prominent Bilibili users well-known for producing this type of content: one account is named 疯狂设计家, or Crazy Designer, and another is 设计师王姨, or Designer Aunt Wang. Additionally, I was able to discover numerous other accounts as well.
The chaotic home renovation clips circulating on TikTok are essentially machine-translated versions of content originally from Bilibili. It’s not uncommon for Chinese content to cross the Great Firewall in this manner. Videos pulled from Douyin, TikTok’s counterpart in China, frequently appear on TikTok as well. The origin of these videos for a non-English audience can account for the mechanical voiceovers, odd phrasing, and culturally specific references that characterize them.
While exploring Crazy Designer’s collection, I stumbled upon one particular video I had previously encountered on TikTok back in June. This video features a couple attempting to design a home for an enormous number of children. Titled “One Billion Children per Room” by Crazy Designer, it’s a part of a series that also includes names like “A Million Children per Room,” “Two Million Children per Room,” etc. After viewing it on Bilibili and perusing the comments below, I began to grasp the true nature of these videos: they are essentially shitposts. This satirical view of housing issues in cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai is meant to evoke humor, and the audience seems to fully appreciate the jest.
Ultimately, it looks like there isn’t any elaborate scam or marketing ploy at play here. Instead, it’s a shared moment of laughter between two cultures, engaging with this strange user-generated content, albeit through a lens of basic AI translation that doesn’t quite capture the original context. Interestingly, as Lin notes, Bilibili users have become aware of the rising popularity of Little John videos in the West, and they find it quite embarrassing that these are being watched by Americans.
