Teen pranks her family with the Influencer Challenge, and their reaction is hilarious

The Influencer Challenge has been floating around TikTok for a little while now — but the trend’s latest viral iteration has quite frankly taken all other challengers off the table.

In a nutshell, the game involves pretending to be an influencer recording a message on your phone in front of someone (usually a partner) while secretly recording their reaction with your camera flipped.

On Sunday, 18-year-old Nombulelo Patricia Sithole, a high school student who lives in Boksburg, South Africa, did exactly that in front of her family — and their facial expressions are quite simply a joy to behold.

“I knew about the challenge from Twitter and a Nigerian girl did it on her dad who laughed about it,” Sithole told Mashable. “I did not see myself taking part in the challenge until yesterday when I felt like lifting my family’s spirit, lightening the mood and thought of altering the challenge in a way I knew my family would enjoy.”

Sithole said her family knew it was a joke as soon as they saw her laughing after the last sentence — and when the tweet started going viral, they all laughed it off. But 30,000+ retweets and over a million views later, Sithole said she’s shocked at just how viral it’s gone.

“I knew the video would blow up but not in this way,” she said. “I felt everything sink in when influential people started commenting and retweeting. I spend most of my time on school and Twitter so I thought it would be the usual 2,000 likes and laughter amongst my mutual followers. I was very happy about it and the fact that my family’s friends called them to laugh about the video warmed my heart. 

“Knowing I made people laugh has to be one of the best things that have happened to me.”