'SNL' referenced the 'slap a teacher' TikTok challenge hoax in a 'male Ellen' sketch starring Jason Sudeikis
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Palmer Haasch
Oct 25, 2021, 00:13 IST
Police, teachers, and parents are warned against an alleged "slap a teacher" TikTok challenge in September and October, but TikTok said that it hadn't found content related to the challenge on its platform.
Besart Beluli / EyeEm
"Saturday Night Live" referenced the hoax "slap a teacher" challenge in a sketch on Saturday.
The sketch was an "Ellen DeGeneres Show" parody that starred Jason Sudeikis as a "male Ellen."
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"Saturday Night Live" nodded to the alleged "slap a teacher" TikTok challenge, which TikTok itself said didn't exist on its platform, in a Jason Sudeikis-fronted sketch that aired on Saturday.
"Instead of the cute, inspiring kids that Ellen has on, Mellen has kids who slap their teachers to get famous on TikTok," the narrator says, as an imitation TikTok video shows a student slapping a teacher behind a desk. The account featured in the imitation video does exist, but it bears an "SNL" related display name and has not published any videos to date.
"Someone get that kid a beer!" Sudeikis, as "Mellen," says after the fake video rolls.
It's not clear exactly where allegations of a "slap a teacher" challenge originated, but they appear to have spread predominately on Facebook. A TikTok spokesperson previously told Insider that "most people appear to be learning about the offline dare from sources other than TikTok."
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