Memes as Critique of Daily Life: A Study on "HomeDesign369" TikTok Videos

The rise of interior design short videos on YouTube Shorts and TikTok has become favourable content, offering entertainment and practical solutions for daily life problems. Recently, the popularity of these videos has surged, particularly due to the viral phenomenon of "Little John”. The narratives of “Little John” and his interior problems were popularised by a Chinese TikTok account called HomeDesign369. "Little John" videos have taken over social media platforms, delivering interior design solutions with a unique blend of sarcastic humour and life commentary. Each video features a generated voice narration that tells the story of Little John, accompanied by design solutions using materials like ‘Galvanized Square Steel’ and ‘Eco-Friendly Wood Veneer’ which eventually become popular keywords. These elements have become memes, dominating platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Utilising Shifman’s meme typology, Wiggins’ elaboration and Barthes’ semiology and mythology, I explored the “Little John” video meme to analyse how these videos reflect and critique contemporary living conditions. The object videos spanning from May 26 to June 1 were chosen based on Google trends ‘Little John, ‘Galvanized Square Steel’ and ‘Eco-Friendly Wood Veneer’ keywords, indicating intense public interest in the video I argued that the memes respond to the struggle of many people to afford homes that accommodate their lifestyles, highlighting the trend of living in compact apartments in cities such as New York, Shang Hai and Hong Kong, as narrated in the Little John stories.