“Toothpaste” Is Trending on TikTok, and We Are So Very Confused

We’ve all seen the most random things go viral on TikTok. Who could have possibly foreseen the viral potential behind the Wipe It Down Challenge? Who could have known that calling people a “Heather” would be a thing? Who saw that 420doggface208 guy coming? Literally no one. Ultimately it seems as though there is no rhyme or reason behind what goes viral on TikTok and what doesn’t.

That’s why we weren’t surprised to see that toothpaste has been trending on the popular video-sharing platform. As in, the stuff you use to brush your teeth every day. Just regular ol’ toothpaste. We still don’t understand why toothpaste is trending on TikTok, but videos using the #toothpaste tag have a combined total of more than 400 million views, so something is clearly up.

While wading through some of the top #toothpaste-tagged videos, we learned a number of interesting things about toothpaste (and no, that wasn’t really how we were planning to spend our day, thanks for asking).

For instance, did you know that you’ve apparently been using way too much toothpaste to brush your teeth? It’s true! According to this person, anyway:

Honestly, that makes a lot of sense. We’ve all seen the commercials and other advertisements depicting the entire toothbrush head covered with toothpaste. At the end of the day, though, toothpaste companies clearly want to sell more toothpaste.

That means they’re motivated to get people to use up their toothpaste tubes as quickly as possible. We’re switching to pea-sized toothpaste globs from now on! (Bonus fun fact: That wave-like toothpaste shape is called a “nurdle.” We didn’t learn that from TikTok, though. We just knew it.)

OK, next toothpaste thing. Apparently, you can use some toothpaste to take a magical-looking photo with your phone following this tip:

Hm. OK, TikTok, whatever you say. We’re not going to deny that there is something somewhat interesting about the resulting photo. But… it also kind of just looks like toothpaste smeared on the mirror? We do like the Squidward version, though!

Next up is this bonkers video of someone using toothpaste and eggs to catch fish. It sounds like there’s more to this particular toothpaste “hack” but honestly, that’s pretty much it:

We couldn’t begin to tell you why this works, although someone in the comment section says that the mixture of egg and toothpaste makes it so the fish can’t breathe and are forced to jump out of the water. Sounds as plausible as anything we would have made up!

This next TikTok user claims that you can use toothpaste to fix a cracked phone screen. We definitely have our doubts, though:

Now, back in the days of CDs, we did use toothpaste to smooth out scratches in the shiny side of the disc, but this video seems a bit too far-fetched to believe. We suspect there’s a secret switch-out hidden somewhere in this video that makes it look more legit. 

Honestly, we’re still very confused about why toothpaste is trending on TikTok, but we sure did learn some interesting things along this journey! We can’t wait to see which random household item starts trending next. Finally, we’ll leave you with this supposed “Toothpaste Challenge” video. Don’t try this one at home, people.