The latest TikTok viral trend is for people to use the lyric song “Dumb Ways to Die” which has a hilarious backstory.
He sees TikTok users doing funny and often quite dangerous things, like skiing down huge mountains and running in high heels, as well as adding a song in the background.
One man even held a stone fish, one of the most poisonous fish in the world, extremely dangerous and often fatal to humans, with his bare hands.
The song Dumb Ways to Die probably sounds very familiar and I’m sure you know it from the mobile game of the same name that went viral back in 2013.
However, in fact, the story of a funny trend does not begin with this …
TikTok’s Dumb Ways to Die is a Train Campaign
Song from a campaign organized by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia in 2012 to improve train safety in the area.
It was made by the advertising agency McCann Melbourne and appeared all over Victoria – in newspapers, on the radio and on tube trains.
The viral video consists of funny cartoon characters and a catchy theme song meant to keep people safe from railway accidents.
It lists several “stupid ways to die” such as setting hair on fire, poking a grizzly bear with a stick, and eating expired medicine.
The list goes on until the very end, stupid things to do with the train – like standing too close to the edge of the platform.
“Beware of trains,” says the pop-up message at the end. Check out the hilarious three-minute video below:
It’s turned into a mobile game
Following the success of the campaign, Metro turned it into a video game, which was released as an app for iOS devices in May 2012.
In the game, players must avoid dangerous activities shown throughout the video, such as sticking a fork in a toaster and doing electrical work on their own.
It consists of a series of mini-games that get faster and harder over time, with the Android version launching four months later in September.
A sequel titled Dumb Ways to Die 2: The Games arrived in November 2014 and has a similar premise but is much more advanced.
This was followed by the release of Dumb Ways to Die 3: World Tour in December 2017, in which players renovate houses and collect coins.
All three games are still available for download on the App Store, with Dumb Ways to Die 4 expected in 2023.
There are also several spin-off games, including Dumb Ways to Draw, Dumb Ways to Dash, and Dumb Ways to Die: Superheroes.
Song takes over TikTok in 2023
The song was revived in 2023 thanks to a video app and the Dumb Ways to Die trend.
This girl fell while running in high heels:
Another woman almost hit a block of ice while clearing the roof:
And this lady almost fell off the balcony:
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