A Guide to Kid Culture for Out-of-Touch Adults: Staged Cheating Videos on TikTok
For members of a generation constantly online, reality hangs by a very thin thread. Core youth values like authenticity and “being yourself” are confusing concepts for people raised in an environment where almost nothing is reliable and everything can be faked. Every viral video could be a hidden advertising campaign. Every up-and-coming group is an industry front. Whether it’s mountains of meat at Arby’s or a documentary about the antics of scammers, this week we’ll explore all-encompassing scams. But at least you can consider Scientology’s speedrun versions to be genuine and take solace in the authenticity of a red-hot metal ball.
What is Rod Wave’s Arby’s takeover?
Arby’s is a fast-food chain known for its roast beef sandwiches. Rod Wave is a 27-year-old rapper known as a pioneer of soul trap music. “Rod Wave’s Arby’s Takeover” is a fictional event that combines these two things.
Many people believe that the food at Arby’s and the music of Rod Wave are similar: both are slop, but slop in a specific, maximalist sense, so the joke involves creating AI-generated flyers promoting the takeover—as huge and disgusting as possible. Ultimately, prompts like “more, more, MORE” lead to the AI creating surreal images like those shown below. Is Rod Wave collaborating with Arby’s to sell roast beef, or is this just internet comedy created by the users themselves? Who knows?
The Rod Wave/Arby’s story has sparked renewed interest in the Arby’s Meat Mountain. Rumors circulate online that Arby’s has a secret menu item called the “Meat Mountain.” Order it and you’ll get a mountain of every meat available at the restaurant, piled between two slices of bread—a sandwich that defies the definition of a sandwich.
Meat Mountain is probably real. In 2014, at the height of the company’s “We Got Meat” advertising campaign, Arby’s restaurants displayed posters of the giant sandwich, illustrating the variety of meat options available. It wasn’t originally intended to be a menu item, but customers would point to the poster and say, “One of those, please,” and Arby’s would reply, “…oh well, I guess.” (At least that’s what the company claims ; perhaps they were creating a “hidden menu item” because that was common back then.) Fast forward to 2026; a new generation has started ordering “Meat Mountain,” and they’re actually getting it. Is this the return of a manufactured meme selling disgusting sandwiches? Maybe. Or maybe not.
Cheating and extramarital affairs: what’s going on with fake cheating videos on TikTok?
While most TikTok creators seek to attract the algorithm’s attention through obvious avenues, such as being a good dancer or being attractive, there are other, more subtle paths to the favor of the great machine that decides which videos are published, including a video of a woman chopping vegetables after catching her husband cheating.
There are hundreds of videos on the platform that use this technique, such as the one below ( as well as this one and this one ).
As you can tell from the terrible acting, these videos are fake, but why are they so similar ? They all take place in a kitchen. The woman is wearing a T-shirt, usually white. She’s cutting food. The knife doesn’t fit. It’s that last detail that confuses me. What is that yellow plastic thing that looks like a knife anyway? This knife is too small. And this one is too big. Sometimes the knife is shown or mentioned, but usually it just sits there, inappropriate for the job.
As a film student, I can surmise that a knife, as a potential weapon of violence, is meant to heighten the tension in a domestic quarrel scene. As an internet savant, I understand that an inappropriate knife is a provocation, designed to elicit comments like “You’ll cut off your fingers, idiot,” and my inner media studies expert sees that such videos are essentially soap operas for people with a 40-second attention span. But the main question is: who are these people and why are they all making the same videos? For example, this account has been posting fake cheating videos daily for almost a year . Why?
At first, I was haunted by the thought that behind every closed door, a young couple was trying to please a faceless, ruthless algorithm, staging a perfectly crafted scene of marital discord to attract internet users. But the truth is far more prosaic and depressing. These are homemade commercials, part of an affiliate program for something called CheatCatcher, which supposedly uses AI to track your spouse’s infidelity. It’s part of OIIC, the Online Infidelity Industry, which includes products like Cheaty, Usersearch, Instant Checkmate, and others. But the “cheating checkers” game is just a small part of the vast universe of affiliate programs, which includes every kind of product and service imaginable, from $50,000 tennis bracelets to $2 plastic dopamine hits from Temu , and is fueled by every reputable and trustworthy media outlet, every online influencer, and probably your own family. It’s all a maze of mirrors, baby.
What are Scientology game speedruns?
You know what’s not part of the affiliate program? Breaking into Scientology buildings and acting like a fool. That’s the whole concept of “Scientology speedrunning.” It’s probably a crime, and it’s definitely chaos, but at least it’s organic chaos and a crime.
Mocking Scientologists has been an online tradition since the days of Anonymous , but recently TikTok users have taken it to a new level, first posting videos of street encounters with members of the religious group, and then videos of themselves running into Scientology buildings to see how far they can penetrate the organization’s secretive inner workings. The videos look something like this:
This trend seems to have spread so much that on Friday , a group of over 50 people broke into a Scientology community in Hollywood . This, as mentioned, is likely illegal, and TikTok typically removes videos of crimes committed as part of viral trends, so the accounts are deleted and the videos disappear, though some, for some reason, remain accessible. Fortunately, X has no such concerns . Obviously, people shouldn’t do this, but there’s a youthful energy and fun to these videos that’s hard to deny.
Viral Video of the Week: Long Live the Power Hot Ball!
Some viral videos are based on simple ideas that require no explanation. Such is the case with the TikTok account Power Hot Ball , which regularly racks up millions of views thanks to videos featuring a metal ball heated to 1000°C melting various objects. Here, Power Hot Ball battles corn , various materials , and an iPhone . Oddly enough, the nearly melted metal ball stops a regular coconut, so it’s not all-powerful. If you, like me, plan to spend the rest of the week watching videos like this, here’s a link to a bunch of them .