Frog or Rat TikTok Trend — Side-by-side photos of two men labeled 'Frog' on the left and 'Rat' on the right, illustrating the frog or rat face classification

Frog or Rat TikTok Trend

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Published October 21, 2026

Frog or Rat is a TikTok social game based on the idea that every human face belongs to one of two animal categories, with players running down lists of celebrities and friends to assign each a verdict. The trend first surfaced in June 2020 and simmered for nearly two years before a May 2022 podcast episode by Jamo & Dylan sent it viral, with press interviews for Stranger Things Season 4 that June adopting the game on camera.

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Overview

Players look at a face, usually a friend or a celebrity, and declare it either frog or rat based on features like eye spacing and mouth shape. Verdicts come out as comedic one-liners, with TikToker Lily Baugher calling one friend 'ratatouille' and another 'rat vibes yes' in her January 2021 contacts-list video2. Players present their rulings as absolute, so friends tend to agree on which bucket a given celebrity falls into, which fans cite as evidence the system works3.

Interviewers folded Frog or Rat into celebrity press tours. During the Stranger Things Season 4 cycle in June 2022, Australian radio podcast Kyle and Jackie O asked three cast members to classify their costars on camera as part of the show's publicity run5.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok
Creator
Ellen Knight
Date
2020

The earliest known Frog or Rat video dates to June 6, 2020, when TikToker Ellen Knight posted a clip explaining the theory she and her friends shared, that every person on earth looks either froglike or ratlike1. She demonstrated by going through a list of celebrities and assigning each one, and the clip gathered over 85,000 likes across the following two years3.

How It Spread

The idea stayed small through late 2020. On January 20, 2021, TikToker Lily Baugher posted a video flipping through her contacts and tagging each friend as a frog or a rat with punchlines like 'ratatouille' and 'rat vibes yes,' which gathered over 252,000 likes within a year2.

The breakout moment came on May 18, 2022, when the Jamo & Dylan podcast ran a segment classifying celebrities and encouraged listeners to make their own TikToks in the same style4. Their episode clip earned over 190,000 likes in a month, and the game trended on the app3.

Mainstream press picked up the format within weeks. On June 4, 2022, Sydney radio duo Kyle and Jackie O used Frog or Rat to interview three Stranger Things cast members during the Season 4 press run, having them label costars live on air5.

Timeline

2020-06-06

TikToker Ellen Knight posts the earliest known Frog or Rat video, explaining the theory and sorting celebrities.

2021-01-20

Lily Baugher's contacts-list video gives the game its first large audience, gathering 252,000-plus likes.

2022-05-18

A Jamo & Dylan podcast segment on Frog or Rat kicks off a revival that sends the game viral on TikTok.

2022-06-04

Kyle and Jackie O play Frog or Rat with three Stranger Things cast members as part of Season 4 press.

How to Use This Meme

People typically film themselves going through a mental list of celebrities, mutual friends, or castmates, calling out 'frog' or 'rat' for each face. The common convention is to add a short comedic qualifier, as Lily Baugher did with 'ratatouille' and 'rat vibes yes' when sorting her phone contacts2.

Frequently Asked Questions