If you’ve heard someone saying ‘It’s a chicken salad’ recently and didn’t know what they were talking about, they were probably quoting one of TikTok‘s viral audios of the past few months. The meme has become widespread, with people using the audio in a variety of different ways, or simply quoting it themselves. So whether you’ve heard it before and want to find out more, or if this trend has flown under your radar, here is everything you need to know to get up to speed with the It’s A Chicken Salad TikTok trend.
What does ‘It’s a Chicken Salad’ mean on TikTok?
The video that started the trend was posted by the official account of the 81st street deli in Cleveland, Ohio. The video features an interaction over the deli counter where a woman, Tanisha Godfrey, comments on her meal, promoting the deli. ‘Y’all better come up here and get one of these. It’s a chicken salad. East 81st deli. It’s superior.” While the statement is pretty straightforward, her delivery of these phrases and her expressions are what led this video to become a viral sensation.
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The original video was posted back in August, but didn’t begin to receive a significant amount of attention until October, when videos lip-syncing or recreating the audio began to become exponentially more popular. Even Lizzo joined in on the trend on her TikTok account. The video is now sitting at 3.8 million views, and the audio has been used by a whopping 182.6k videos.
There isn’t necessarily a joke or a punchline to ‘get’ with this meme, like there are with some others. Instead, the beauty of it and the factor that allowed for its widespread success is how straightforward it is. There is a wholesomeness to the trend, with videos being made out of appreciation of Tanisha. Inspired by the success of the video, she has gone on to review more restaurants in Cleveland. The deli has also seen a major upswing in business, selling almost 1000 chicken salads in a day. So not only has the meme provided fun for the internet, it’s also had a positive impact on the people who created it.
‘It’s a Chicken Salad’ meme examples
The meme has been adopted in a number of ways, with some quoting the audio to prank or annoy others, while others lip-sync the original and add their own spin on it with a caption. Here is the original video along with some of the best examples of this trend.
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