What is the Hellmaxxing trend on TikTok? The viral craze explained

20 October 2021, 15:09

Holly Madison explains what Cheug Life means on TikTok

By Jazmin Duribe

Here's what the Hellmaxxing trend on TikTok actually means.

TikTok is truly a lawless place and now the trends and challenges are getting a little out of control.

Take last month, when the Devious Lick trend started trending on TikTok. The trend involved stealing menial and random items from school, but it soon became so widespread that one school had to warn its students that they would be arrested if they participated. This was followed by the even more problematic Slap a Teacher challenge, which required students to walk up to their teachers and slap them.

Well, as you know, TikTok never sleeps and now there's a new trend taking over the platform: the new Hellmaxxing trend. But what does it actually mean? Here's the trend explained.

READ MORE: What is the Slap a Teacher Challenge on TikTok? The viral trend explained

What is the Hellmaxing trend on TikTok?

According to Urban Dictionary, hellmaxxing can be described as "obtaining a one-way ticket to hell by doing something incredibly bad, evil, or shameful". The idea is that someone would film a video doing something evil for TikTok in order to go to hell when they die. However, the trend itself isn't actually real and there appears to currently be no videos under the #hellmaxxing hashtag.

It all started on Monday (Oct 18), when Twitter user @wormwood_stars shared a screenshot from a news article from In The Know claiming that police in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, are concerned about the trend. The news article quickly went viral, but it was later debunked.

The headline read: "Parents have been warned about a new TikTok trend known as 'hellmaxxing'." The article then says that police and clergy are "concerned" and that teens taking part in the trend have been committing "so many sins even the devil won't have them".

However, the article is almost identical to a September 15th article about the Beaning TikTok trend, which saw teens empty cans of beans on people's doorsteps.

Further dispelling the article, Police Chief Fred Harran confirmed to Insider that the Bensalem Police Department had not issued any warning about the hellmaxxing trend. In fact, they were not even aware the trend is a thing.

Now that the whole thing has been declared an elaborate hoax, people are mocking the whole hellmaxxing hysteria and making memes.

H/T: Insider

Listen to our new podcast ‘Coming Out Chats’

Each week two familiar faces from the LGBTQ+ community will be opening up to each other about their coming out journeys. Click the picture below to listen to the latest episode with special guests Shon Faye and Travis Alabanza. Available on all podcast platforms now.