Culture

Falling Down TikTok’s Pinkydoll Rabbit Hole

by Ky Stewart  17 July 2023

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What do ice cream, popcorn kernels and a hair straightener have in common? TikTok LIVE star, Pinkydoll, that’s what. 

If you’ve spent any time on TikTok LIVE, you’d know it’s a pretty wild place that feels like the internet’s version of ‘no man’s land’. On LIVE, essentially anything goes. That’s where my newest TikTok obsession, Pinkydoll, comes in.

Videos of her popping popcorn kernels with a hair straightener while saying a string of nonsensical phrases like “ice cream so good” while licking the air has taken the internet (and me) by storm. 

I, like most people, was very confused when I first saw one of Pinkydoll’s videos. 

My first thought was: is this real? Are we really doing this? And the answer is yes, it’s very much real. But what exactly did we just watch? Let me explain. 

Once you get over the initial confusion, you’ll realise that Pinkydoll is reacting to the token payments TikTok users are making by buying her gifts. 

What Are TikTok LIVE Gifts?

LIVE Gifts is a TikTok feature allowing viewers to “show their appreciation” for a users’ LIVE content in real-time. A user will then collect “Diamonds”, which show how popular their LIVE videos are based on how many virtual gifts they receive. 

Each token or gift that Pinkydoll gets seems to correspond to a specific action, phrase or sound. So when someone gifts a popcorn token, Pinkydoll says “yes popcorn, yes popcorn”.  

So yes, people are paying real money to watch this happen. If you think about how many tokens Pinkydoll is getting with 380,000 followers on TikTok, you can only imagine how much money she’s earning from these TikTok LIVEs. A true social media mogul. 

As it turns out, music producer Timbaland is reportedly the number one viewer of Pinkydoll’s videos. Yes, Timbaland, of all people, sent the most gifts and watched Pinkydoll’s LIVEs for a longer period of time than any other user. 

TikTok LIVE Meets NPCs

These videos leaking out of TikTok LIVE are sparking conversations about NPC (non-playable character) fetishes on the internet; putting creators like Pinkydoll and CherryCrushTV firmly in the spotlight. 

In video games, NPCs can’t be controlled by a player, and only have a set amount of lines that help provide the context of a situation to a player, or help direct them on their journey or quest. 

Users like Pinkydoll and CherryCrush are basically attempting to be NPCs but on TikTok LIVE by repeating actions and dialogue and moving in robotic ways. Pinkydoll actually posts various NPC compilations to her YouTube, too.  

As Dexerto explained, with these actions, viewers might begin to perceive these users as “human shells without emotion or personality” for them to control through buying tokens to make them do things. 

eBaum’s World made a really great video that explains NPC fetishes really well. As far as I can tell, however, these creators have found a way to manipulate the system; getting a lot of money from TikTok users and driving engagement to their other social platforms — in Pinkydoll’s case, her OnlyFans. Honestly? Good for them, get that bag. 

There’s just one thing: I’m now so far down the Pinkydoll rabbit hole that I can’t stop randomly saying “ice cream so good” to everyone I speak to… I think I’ll be logging off now.