TikTokers Are Pranking Their Elders for the Scholarship Challenge
Published Aug. 24 2021, 2:46 p.m. ET
How far can you push it with your parents or grandparents? As the Scholarship Challenge proves, TikTok users can go to great lengths to create a viral sensation. An elaborate prank, the Scholarship Challenge calls on the app users to record a short clip with their elders and provide a list of made-up reasons as to why they are their greatest source of inspiration. So, what makes the Scholarship Challenge so popular?
The Scholarship Challenge is steadily attaining popularity on TikTok.
While the Scholarship Challenge only risks the souring of relationships, it's nowhere as dangerous as the Milk Crate Challenge or the Natural Adderall hack. As part of the latest TikTok trend, social media users are encouraged to cook up elaborate lies about their elders to test how long they can keep a straight face while being recorded.
TikTok users like Sexy Dasilva (@sexydasilva) got busted relatively early on in the shooting. Like several other TikTok users, Sexy Dasilva begins the clip by stating something utterly outrageous.
She claims she and her siblings have different fathers. Her mother protests vehemently in an instant. Not one to let this derail her efforts, the TikToker goes on to say her mom used to sell Class A drugs. It is at this point that her mom changes tact. She turns her face to the camera to matter-of-factly declare her daughter is lying.
The Scholarship Challenge makes TikTokers test their parents' tolerance levels.
Ashton Drake Raney (@ashtondrakeraney) asks for her grandmother's help with a supposed $30,000 scholarship application. At the beginning of the video, she reveals that her grandmother is her greatest source of inspiration.
"So, I'm trying to win the $30,000 scholarship. It could really help me and help my family," Ashton says. "One of the [biggest] people that I look up to is this lady right here."
Her grandmother lights up with the most adorable smile. It doesn't last long. Without much rhetorical flourish, Ashton says, "When she was younger, she was a prostitute," about her grandmother, whose facial expressions convey everything you need to know.
"And, she also has a prosthetic leg," Ashton adds. "So it would be so helpful if we could get her off the streets."
"That's right," her grandmother says, looking completely disheartened.
Several TikTokers claimed that their parents used to be sex workers for the Scholarship Challenge.
Selling drugs and doing sex work were just some of the most common lies the TikTokers participating in the Scholarship Challenge tried to tell about their parents. Though neatly constructed for laughs, the trend just ends up reinforcing the societal stigma surrounding sex work.