TikTok’s ‘Wipe It Down’ Challenge Didn’t Start With the Song ‘Wipe It Down’

TikTok’s favorite uncle, Will Smith. Photo: Will Smith/TikTok

Finally, something has y’all cleaning your mirrors. You’ve probably already been mesmerized by the people trapped inside of mirrors in TikTok’s latest viral challenge. The “Wipe It Down” trend, set to a rap song of the same name by BMW Kenny, is the latest TikTok challenge to capture the attention of bored celebrities (and pretty much everyone you know). JoJo Siwa pulls out her ponytail and bow, much to her scalp’s pleasure. Jason “Doing the Most” Derulo gets bit by a radioactive spider mid-wipe and swipes away to reveal that he’s Spider-Man. And Will Smith dipped into the visual-effects budget to transform into Agent J from Men in Black. All the challenge takes is a mirror, something to wipe with, an alter ego to show off, and BMW Kenny’s hypnotic voice. The combo has led to over 1.6 million re-creations on TikTok using the sound. We can’t all learn the choreography to “Savage,” but we can buss it down to “Wipe It Down.”

Although the challenge is now known by the song title, it actually began with a completely different, but very familiar, song: “The Box,” by Roddy Ricch. “The Box” dominated TikTok last year, culminating in an 11-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Snippets of “The Box” continue to be popular TikTok sounds, resulting in masterpieces like @rominagafur’s original wipe. In her video, uploaded to TikTok on April 26, she wipes the mirror in time to Roddy Ricch’s squeaking noise from the intro of the song, and, for a split second, she can be seen wearing a mask — not a friendly neighborhood surgical mask but a creepy white one. @rominagafur’s video currently has over 5.5 million views on TikTok. She was kind enough to follow up with a tutorial on how to record the TikTok, spawning copycat after copycat until BMW Kenny teamed up with YouTuber Liane V for a version set to his song. Liane V posted it on both Instagram and TikTok, promoting a $1,000 giveaway to a lucky fan who follows both her and Kenny. (We’ve come a long way since “Old Town Road” TikTok marketing.)

With that, the challenge’s popularity skyrocketed, with multiple follow-ups earning over a million views in their first few days. TikTok stars Avani Gregg and Gilmher Croes jumped in, while YouTuber Colleen Ballinger brought back her character Miranda Sings. If you haven’t seen Dwyane Wade’s or Drake Bell’s, both of which went viral on Twitter, maybe you’ve seen @CokesTheDon’s “Wipe It Down” “fail,” inspired by Jordan Peele’s Us. The “Wipe It Down” challenge has already produced thousands of other works of TikTok art. And the song is barely a month old.

According to a video the rapper posted celebrating 1 million reposts, “Wipe It Down” came out on April 28, about a week before he enlisted Liane V and her 10 million TikTok followers. The challenge took off, but the song hasn’t had as much success. Yes, the one-minute, 38-second “Wipe It Down” is mostly “Wipe, wipe, wipe it down, wipe.” But with a catchy hook and that super-satisfying “ding,” it kind of hits. For something so repetitive, “Wipe It Down” doesn’t get too old too fast and works as a sort of brain palate cleanser in the middle of a playlist. Despite the sound’s success, BMW Kenny maintains a modest following across social media, with over 4,000 followers on Instagram and over 18,000 on TikTok. Without the star power of a “Toosie Slide” or the meme-making possibilities of “Old Town Road,” “Wipe It Down” may not reach the heights we’ve seen before, but damn it — BMW Kenny at least deserves the glass-cleaner sponsorship he’s been vying for! Look what he did for the industry!