Here’s What You Need To Know About TikTok’s ‘Canon Event’ Trend

Wishing you could erase a memory that makes you cringe? It might be a canon event in your life, according to TikTok.

What’s your canon event?

New trends are always popping up on TikTok covering a variety of aspects of our lives such as makeup (the ‘Lalala’ girl aesthetic) and dating (beige flags). This time, we’re diving into a TikTok-viral way of looking at the embarrassing or unfortunate experiences in your life. It’s similar to how Inside Out popularised the term core memories.

What’s a canon event?

The term canon event became popular after the release of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, so here’s how the term was used in the movie. The different versions of Spider-man from parallel dimensions were bound by particular canon events. And if one interferes with a canon event (like getting bitten by a radioactive spider) it could lead to a greater tragedy.

And so when the term made its way to TikTok, some creators shared experiences that they felt needed to happen for their growth. Others added a whole new layer to the term. They comedically shared instances of watching a person about to make a terrible mistake (whether it’s related to one’s love life or career) but decided not to interfere because “it’s a canon event” in that person’s life.

It’s becoming a popular way of accepting your mistakes in the past and seeing them as character-building moments instead. But here’s a word of caution — it’s not recommended to be an excuse to be thoughtless about your current or future decisions.

Canon event TikTok filter

In true TikTok fashion and instead of simply sharing about one’s experiences, there’s now a TikTok filter that guesses your canon event in life. Some phrases you’ll find are: “favourite artist gets cancelled”, “having an emo phase”, “having a bad breakup”, and more.

The videos posted under the filter are sometimes accompanied by Spider-Man 2099 (Miguel O’Hara), a theme song from the Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse soundtrack.