Flaky, buttery croissants have infiltrated the comments section on TikTok, and the story behind it is incredible. TikTok is used to all kinds of wild trends. Some are a bit unusual, like Britt Barbie's ‘Period ahh, period uhh’ trend, and some are more wholesome, like CornTok. But this particular meme is a little bit of both.

The croissant meme all began on The Sleepy Paramedic’s TikTok channel. The user, who usually focuses on content around emergency medical services, had been posting videos as usual when he noticed that TikTok user Spectrexxxx kept replying to his videos with a croissant emoji. Naturally, the content creator was confused and wanted to know why they only replied with such a peculiar expression. The Sleepy Paramedic called out the commenter in mid-December, seeking an explanation. Little did the creator know that the video would trigger a massive viral phenomenon in the comments section.

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The Rise Of The Croissant Army

Two phone's featuring screenshot of The Sleepy Paramedic on TikTok discussing the Croissant Army
Image: thesleepyparamedic/TikTok

After the paramedic posted the request for answers, users responded by spamming the comments section with the buttery pastry emoji. Then, The Sleepy Paramedic did what any good content creator would do on a social media platform such as TikTok – they ran with the joke viewers had thrown at them. Not only did his account begin featuring videos full of the tasty bread, but he also began to call it a full-level ‘Croissant Army.’ He then told his "crumb crusaders" to "spread my influence amongst the other users of this app," and asked his "brothers born in butter" to add the croissant emoji in the comments section of every EMS and first responder on TikTok.

His request worked. The paramedic tells viewers he received messages from over 50 TikTokers from the EMS community targeted with mass croissant emojis. The situation escalated into the creator trying to direct the pastry troops toward the FireDeptChronicle’s account and succeeding. As the trend grew, The Sleepy Paramedic seized the opportunity to begin a charity drive. Now the user and the Croissant Army have helped a young child through surgery and are looking for more causes to serve. Thanks to this growing meme, other users are forming ‘emoji militias,’ a term coined by The Sleepy Paramedic. Creators looking to challenge the army have begun forces with candy, pizza, and taco emojis, all armed and ready to invade TikTok’s comments section.

As for Spectrexxxx, who fired the first shot, they did reach out to The Sleepy Paramedic for an explanation. There is no actual reason, but they do love bread. It makes the anomaly of the meme even better. Spurred by the popularity of the croissant emoji on his TikTok videos, The Sleepy Paramedic is even selling Croissant Army merch on his online store, including patches, t-shirts, water bottles, mugs, bags, and much more.

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Source: thesleepyparamedic/TikTok