About
TikTok E-Boy is a series of TikTok parody videos in which users either transform themselves into an “e-boy” or display themselves as one. Many use Canadian singer-songwriter Mac Demarco’s “Chamber of Reflection” as a backing track.
Origin
On March 10th, 2014, YouTuber NewJerseyJustin uploaded a music video entitled “Mac DeMarco – Chamber of Reflection” the video gained over 24 million views in five years (shown below).
In Late December 2018, TikTok user @eating.christians posted a video using the “Chamber of Reflection” sound clip (shown below). The caption reads, “do you guys like my music? #foryou #groovy and #billieeilish because I look like her apparently?”The video gained 6121 likes and 298 comments in six weeks. The sound clip has been used in 28,600 videos.
Precursor
E-Girl Factory is a is a series of TikTok parody videos in which users typically become captured in a makeshift factory and become transformed into an stereo-typical e-girl (an internet flirt) performed in sync with a clip from a bass boosted remix of the song “ME!ME!ME!” by Japanese DJ and producer Teddyloid. TikTok user antinightcore uploaded a clip of the remix which has been used in 40,200 e-girl factory videos on TikTok. The earliest TikTok parody video is unknown. On January 27th, 2019, Daring Compilation uploaded the first “E-Girl Factory Tik Tok Meme Compilation” to YouTube (shown below). The video gained 8,860 views and 166 likes in two days.
Spread
On February 5th, 2019, Urban Dictionary user Russ Is Annoying posted a definition of “eboy” which has received over 100 upvotes in a few weeks. This user defines an “eboy” as “A boy that probably skates, has his nails painted w rings, wears beanies, maybe has a cute egirl girlfriend, always wearing vans and long sleeves or hoodies under tshirts, their hair is sometimes parted down the middle. They basically only exist on the internet unfortunately but we can still appreciate them on instagram:(.”
On February 6th, 2019, YouTuber Byron uploaded a video called “transforming myself into a tiktok e-boy 24 hours” (shown below, left). The video gained 21,140 views and 1,800 likes in a week. On February 10th, cjades uploaded a similar video entitled “i turned myself into a tiktok eboy” to YouTube (shown below, right).The video accumulated 13,377 views and 1,300 likes in a week.
In late January, TikTok users began to use @eating.christians sound clip to transform into an eboy. @laurajeanjacket shared one of the more popular videos with 60,500 likes and 2215 shares as of February 20th (shown below, left). @rhinoceros333 also shared a popular variation of the e-boy transformation with 18,300 likes and 1,307 shares as of February 20th (shown below, right).