The dark reason they keep saying ‘in a clock tick’ in Wicked, because it was cut from the film

If you’ve watched Wicked: For Good, or been on Twitter since it dropped in November, you might have spied people moaning about the 50 million times Elphaba, Glinda, and other Ozians said “in a clock tick” or one of its many other variations.

“Why the f**k did they keep saying ‘IN A CLOCK TICK’ in Wicked: For Good, like maybe 7 times? Kshdjdjd,” one person complained on Twitter.

Another said: “Take a shot every time someone says ‘clock tick’ in Wicked Part 2.”

While the surface-level explanation is simply that Ozians have an odd language, like “in a clock tick” instead of “in a minute”, it also relates to a major theme/motif that was inevitably cut from the film.

ozians saying “just a clock-tick” pic.twitter.com/8lGWJoFow0

— m (@msnetik) November 22, 2025

Wicked’s ‘clock tick’ might be a reference to the Clock of the Time Dragon

Both of the Wicked films are based on the hit stage musical and the book series by Gregory Maguire. In said novels, the Clock of the Time Dragon is a touring puppet show that puts on prophetic performances of its audience’s past, present, and future. It touches on the idea that the Wicked story is all happening within the clock, something which is affirmed by the stage show because it all takes place on a clock face.

Obviously, such ideas are more than a little confusing, and they translate best in books and on stage. It’s not very cinematic, which is why the Clock of the Time Dragon was savagely cut from the movies.

In fact, the only named reference to the clock is Glinda’s introductory monologue, where she says: “According to the Time Dragon Clock, the melting occurred at the 13th hour.”

Stop trying to make "clock tick" happen, it's never gonna happen pic.twitter.com/gI8dN9yJ2q

— Kenja (@TokiNoKenja) November 29, 2025

There’s also a somewhat dark religious aspect

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Credit: Universal Pictures/Reddit

There’s another aspect of “in a clock tick” that’s less confusing, but undoubtedly darker than the Clock of the Time Dragon.

Also in Gregory Maguire’s book is a new religion called Tiktokism, and no, it’s not a religion based around TikTok. Based on the Clock of the Time Dragon, which puts on vaguely p*rnographic shows, Tiktokism is described as a “dangerous” new movement in Oz.

“A Tiktokist is the kind of person who won’t turn off their phone [in church]. Their allegiance is to the stimulation, to the connection and to the appliance,” Gregory Maguire earlier told ReligionNews.

“While we don’t have cellphones in my Oz, there is a kind of reverence for that aspect of that moment in the industrial revolution which Oz seems to be going through. Tiktokism is a more dangerous shifting of the devotional impulse, away from the question of creation and toward the questions of utility.”

I’m almost glad they chose not to include Tiktokism or the Clock of the Time Dragon in Wicked – my head hurts.

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Featured image credit: Universal Pictures