Who knew mowing the lawn would go viral?
How middle-aged Aussie dads have found fame on TikTok.
A whipper snipper, an unkept driveway and a middle-aged man about to cut some grass.
Not exactly a recipe for viral success, you might think, but add the Rocky Balboa theme song and watch out because this dad has attracted over seven million views.
For some middle-aged men, social media platform TikTok isn’t just a pastime but a place where nunchucks, lawnmowers and lip-syncing to the Backstreet Boys has earned thousands, and in some cases millions, of likes, follows and views.
One father kicking butt on the app is Melbourne man Changxing Liang.
The 59-year-old became an overnight sensation after his children convinced him to upload a video completing a bottle-cap challenge — where numerous celebrities remove screw-top lids from bottles with a gentle spinning kick. Liang removed three with a single kick.
The former Beijing wushu (Chinese kung fu) team captain has since made dozens of videos where he often fights himself, flipping the phone to show him throwing and receiving a flurry of punches and kicks.
His most-watched video, seen over 25.4 million times and receiving 79,100 likes and 57,600 shares, was another kicking video.
“For me it was more like fun, I just wanted to try it out,” said Liang.
“Most importantly for me it’s about having a little bit of a connection between me and the kids.”
“Most people give up when their career is over but I kept stretching,” he said. “People like to see someone my age doing these kicks.”
“Since making TikToks, celebrities have contacted me to make music videos and gardening businesses have asked to sponsor me”
Another father cutting the millennials’ grass on TikTok is a 43-year-old father of three from Adelaide.
Landscaper Adam deLongongville has earned a cool 41,000 followers in his short time on TikTok, many of them won over by a 13-second timelapse video he posted of a backyard tidy-up with an upbeat melody.
“A lot of them I take with my iPhone sitting on a bin — it’s not fancy,” he said.
“Lawn mowing is one of those sort of niche categories on TikTok that is growing quite rapidly – people just love those satisfying videos.”
His most popular video, a driveway job featuring the Rocky Balboa theme song, has earned more than 7.2 million views and 255,900 likes.
Of course it isn’t just dads getting in on the fun. Tradesmen with a creative streak are also earning large followings.
“We thought if it does take off with the older generation, we’d get in early,” explains Jackson Charey, 25, of Sydney north shore-based family landscaping and construction business Beecraft.
“I thought TikTok was girls dancing and mucking around but it’s actually a lot more than that.”
Charey explained that the family had used social media in the past but never quite reached the same amount of fame.
“We’re not necessarily doing anything different, I think it’s just the ease of watching videos,” he said.
Nicholas Frame, 23, a landscaper based in Ryde, in Sydney, is another viral sensation who was surprised to find his customers were regular users.
“I was kind of blown away by how many people who are middle-aged and have TikTok. A good majority were in the 24 to 45-year bracket,” he said.
Frame rose to fame to the beat of Justin Timberland’s SexyBack while taking a whipper snipper to a small section of grass.
“I made the account one Thursday and by the following Thursday I had 150,000 followers,” he said.
“My mum downloaded it as soon as she found out what I was doing on it.”
Fellow tradesmen have gotten in touch after watching his viral video, asking about it and if they too should join.
“Definitely,” he said. “It’s not even a square metre.”
More Coverage
