The Latest TikTok Trend Features Some Pretty Confusing Scientific Terminology

There are definitely corners of TikTok that feature plenty of nerdy, science-oriented content. One of the latest trends taking over the platform, though, features the kind of scientific vocabulary that is typically reserved for the nerdiest parts of the internet. The trend is a joke that features the term magnesium iron silicate hydroxide, and many want to know why it's all over TikTok.

Recently, TikTok has been dominated by videos of users asking their partners if they are magnesium iron silicate hydroxide. Naturally, the question typically leaves their partner confused, as most people don't know what that is. The meaning behind the joke becomes clear, though, when you look up magnesium iron silicate hyrdroxide's more common name.

As it turns out, the mineral is commonly known as Cummingtonite, which is admittedly a truly hilarious name. Once you understand the mineral's other name, the question becomes a funny double entendre that is only accessible to people who are familiar with the meme, or have the common sense to look it up. The joke is part of a long lineage of pun-adjacent TikTok humor that has trended across the platform.

Although the magnesium iron silicate hydroxide jokes may feel somewhat unique, other similar jokes have trended on TikTok many times before. The Candice jokes used a very similar concept, which involved asking people who were unfamiliar with the trend if they'd heard what happened to Candice. When the other person relied by asking who Candice is, the first person then responds by saying “Candice d--k fit in yo mouth!”

It's not the most sophisticated style of joke in the world, but part of its appeal was in the ways that different users managed to dress up the joke to make it fun for people who may have seen dozens of versions of it. Some versions of this trend even cut the video off before the punchline, which meant that users who had never seen the trend before didn't know how the joke resolved.

Many of the trends on TikTok evolve this way, which means that it can be hard to join into a trend after it has already gone through several stages. Part of the joy of watching videos on TikTok, though, is seeing the way that individual users adapt a trend to fit their personality or personal brand. One trend can be adapted in hundreds of different ways, making it personal to each users' style.

That's what allows simple, often vulgar jokes to spread so wildly on the platform. The execution of the joke is not always the same, and it's the differences between various versions of it that are what allow it to survive through many different stages of life. The magnesium iron silicate hydroxide joke is still relatively new, and there's no telling how it will evolve as it continues to trend across the platform.