A viral TikTok prank called “Just give me my money” is ensnaring a growing number of unsuspecting victims, including celebrities and professional athletes. What’s the trend about? Just give me my… chance to explain.
The prank involves two or more people standing in a circle or a line. One at a time, they chant “just give me my money,” often in a funny voice with dramatic flair. Each declaration elicits enthusiastic applause from the other participants. But when the person who’s not in on the joke jumps in with their version of the phrase—that always happens last—they’re met with awkward silence.
Usually, it takes the target a second or two to realize they’ve been pranked. Most find the caper amusing, but a few young kids have burst into tears when they don’t get the energetic response they’re expecting. “This escalated quickly,” reads the text on one such video that ends in a girl with her head against a wall crying after her family unleashes the stunt on her.
The hashtag #justgivememymoney currently pulls up more than 25,000 TikTok videos recording the prank, including ones from NFL teams the Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers that capture members trying the hoax on the field.
“This trend got us dead,” reads the Chargers’ video’s title. It’s having the same effect on TikTok users who call the prank hilarious and “the funniest trend ever.” The humor largely lies in the unpredictable responses. Some are genuinely funny, others might make you cringe with secondhand embarrassment.
Adding to the amusement is the fact that by the time it’s the unknowing victim’s turn to say “just give me my money,” they’re often riled up by the over-the-top cheering and trying to outdo the others on the silliness scale with exaggerated comedic voices and gestures. Exhibit 2,567: actor Will Smith, below.
No one, not even TikTok, knows for sure what kicked off the meme. “We can’t confirm exactly how the trend started since there isn’t a clear originator and it may have started off platform,” a TikTok representative said in an email. Many, however, trace it to Kai Cenat, a streamer with more than 12 million followers on livestreaming platform Twitch who used the phrase during a January stream with rapper DreamDoll. The saying, in turn, popped up earlier in a scene from 2022 film Paid in Full.
No matter the phrase’s inception, some people can’t seem to get enough of these “Just give me my money” videos, which have proliferated over the past week.
“Never skipping a ‘Just gimme my money’ video,” reads one comment on a video of three kids pranking their dad, who has an endearingly good-natured response that puts him in the cool dad category, at least when it comes to TikTok. It’s been watched more than 950,000 times so far.
Indeed, many of the videos feature kids pranking their parents, who almost universally take the caper like good sports. (Watch out fathers, your children have finally found a way to avenge all those painful “dad jokes.”) Even well-known parents such as former Major League Baseball player Alex Rodriguez has found himself on the receiving end of the joke by his daughters.
”They got me so bad with this,” Rodriguez captioned the video. You’re not alone, A-Rod.
