Welcome to thneedtok
Welcome to thneedtok
A TikTok user is bringing back thneeds, with the help of The Lorax soundtrack.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, from Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci.🧩
Adding “thneed” to my Christmas list, just in the nick of time. —Kate
The funnier a joke is on TikTok, the harder it is to explain IRL. So you’ll just need to trust me that thneedtok is very, very funny. Knit from the leaves of a Truffula Tree, a thneed is an object from Dr. Suess’s The Lorax that initially resembles a sweater but can be transformed into any number of useful items, like a scarf, gloves, a hat, a hammock, and, per the Suess fandom Wiki, “condoms” (citation very much needed).
A thneed is peddled by a character called the Once-ler. If you didn’t read this in the book, perhaps you saw it in the 1972 TV short or 2012 film adaptation. Or, maybe, your introduction to thneeds was thanks to user @rachleahx on TikTok.
Rachel’s first post about thneeds—or thneedery, as she calls it—actually appeared back in July, when she called out the Free People 100 Ways Convertible Bodysuit for what it really was (a thneed). However, by November, Rachel found a more efficient way to highlight all the thneedery she saw on TikTok: stitching the videos with a video of herself staring knowingly at the camera while “How Bad Can I Be?” from the 2012 Lorax film plays in the background. It’s almost a jump-scare. You think you’re watching a video of some elaborate sweater or dress, and then suddenly there’s Rachel, guitars riffing.
That was the kind of video that first introduced me to her account. No context, no explanation, but tons of comments from people who not only understood what was happening, but thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I wanted to be in on the joke, and it didn’t take long. Rachel’s account is now almost entirely dedicated to these kinds of videos, or other thneed-related content as the inside joke grows.
“You keep finding your way into my fyp,” one user commented. “How.”
“How do you explain your internet fame to your family,” another asked.
So far, Rachel has earned over 70,000 followers for her service, but I have a hunch we’re only seeing the beginning of thneedtok. Coincidentally, creator Simon Hennessy—who we interviewed last week—recently interrupted a duet of a user demonstrating different acting techniques with his own unrelated impersonation: the Once-ler marketing his thneed. Don’t worry, Rachel got in on it, too. The next time you see a thneed in the wild, you know who to call.