Is it a canon event or is it just trauma? TikTok’s latest trend explained

The phrase canon event is inescapable on TikTok right now, everyone is talking about it but no one really knows where this trend came from.

What is a canon event and where did it come from?

So Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse came out just two weeks ago and it’s already Sony’s most popular animated release ever. But its influence has covered more than just the people who love the franchise, it’s now its very own TikTok trend.

The film focuses on canon events which in Spider-Man’s world are key, shared moments that bind the Spider-Verse together. This has now inspired TikTokers to identify their own canon events in their lives. For a few examples, canon events are working in a toxic workplace, your best mates from first year of uni move in together and create the worst Snapchat username possible.

If you haven’t caught on already, a canon event is an unavoidable, unchangeable event. It’s bittersweet, comical acknowledgement of the impact of weird phrases on your life and your inability to spare others from having those chapters.

As soon as Spider-Man was released, canon events became the latest meme on TikTok. TikToker @greekok_nikos was one of the first to post about it, he wrote: “Realising it was never trauma, just a canon event,” and their video had over 3.8 million views and 643,800 likes.

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