Gnome Hunting — Three-panel collage of TikTok videos showing masked and camouflaged youths in forests with 'Hunting gnomes' captions.

Gnome Hunting

2023catchphrasedeclining

Published October 29, 2026

Gnome Hunting, also known as Millions Wear the Hats, refers to a cluster of TikTok videos from early 2023 in which creators claimed to be hunting for gnomes in forests, a trend observers quickly flagged as an antisemitic dog whistle swapping "gnome" for "Jew." By late April 2023, Reddit threads and TikTok explainers were cataloging the lightning-bolt emojis and SS-adjacent language threaded through the clips.

far right memes tiktok memes dog whistle memes culture war memes 2023 memes

Overview

A typical Gnome Hunting post looks like a quiet forest walk filmed on TikTok, captioned with "hunting gnomes" or "millions wear the hats" and often tagged with two lightning-bolt emojis evocative of Nazi SS runes1. Creators used the pointed red gnome hat as a visual stand-in for Jewish headwear, and dropped in phrases like "the fatherland" so the meaning stayed deniable to casual viewers6.

The irony layer sits on top of an older TikTok bit about gnomes being real, a schizoposting joke where users insisted the mythical creatures live in woods and gardens5. "Millions wear the hats" riffs on the alt-right slogan "billions must die," reworking the phrase to target Jewish people under a fairy-tale cover8. Most of the viral uploads use clean nature footage and ambient audio so the surface reading passes as whimsical nonsense.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok
Date
2023

Some of the earliest known gnome-hunting uploads came from TikToker @mgd08526, who posted a clip captioned "hunting gnomes" with two lightning-bolt emojis on February 14, 20231. Two months later, on April 10, 2023, TikToker @sk.lukas posted another "hunting gnomes" video that logged over 300,000 views within ten days2.

Catalyst (Feb 14, 2023): @mgd08526's lightning-bolt caption. Earliest viral meme usage (April 10, 2023): @sk.lukas. The explicit "millions wear the hats" phrasing attached to the trend the following week, when the format moved from fringe uploads into mass circulation3.

How It Spread

TikToker @gnomesarereal88 began posting the format on April 18, 2023, with two uploads using "millions wear the hats" that reached roughly 600,000 and 4.9 million views within two days34. One day earlier, on April 17, a user in r/Qult_Headquarters opened a thread asking whether the trend was a right-wing code, drawing more than 30 upvotes over the next three days7.

The dog-whistle reading went mainstream on April 18, 2023, when TikToker @susanstormborn posted an explainer walking through the lightning-bolt emojis, the "fatherland" captions and other markers she had spotted, reaching about 290,000 views in two days6. Twitter users including @sevenisameme and @structuralfract flagged the trend to wider audiences that same week89. Know Your Meme catalogued the videos by late April 2023 under the dual name Gnome Hunting / Millions Wear the Hats5.

Timeline

2023-02-14

TikToker @mgd08526 posts a "hunting gnomes" clip with two lightning-bolt emojis, one of the earliest known uses of the format.

2023-04-10

TikToker @sk.lukas posts a "hunting gnomes" video that reaches over 300,000 views in ten days.

2023-04-17

A thread on r/Qult_Headquarters asks whether gnome memes are a right-wing dog whistle, drawing 30+ upvotes.

2023-04-18

@gnomesarereal88 posts two "millions wear the hats" videos that reach about 600,000 and 4.9 million views in two days.

2023-04-18

@susanstormborn posts a TikTok explainer identifying the lightning bolts and "fatherland" captions as antisemitic dog whistles.

2023-04-20

Twitter accounts including @sevenisameme and @structuralfract amplify the dog-whistle reading beyond TikTok.

Frequently Asked Questions