There's a group of users on TikTok who call themselves the "Niche Community" (or "NicheTok") because their taste in memes is supposedly more "niche" than any other group.

The community has fostered several "niche" memes his year, including the "Niche Fruits," the "Mario Tomato" song (and its variants), as well as the more recent "Тотя. ❤️" meme that they borrowed from the Russian internet.

There are many more to name, mostly because the Niche Community is known for creating and killing memes at a rapid pace. The acceleration seems purposeful, for comedic effect, but some are not laughing. Instead, skeptics are waging criticism, based on the question, "Are any of these niche memes funny?"

There's more to know, like how this community started and how it became so powerful. So, let's explain TikTok's "Niche Community" and break down the basics.

Where Did TikTok's 'Niche Community' Come From?

The portmanteau "NicheTok" is when the word "niche" was widely introduced to TikTok. Before that, memetic terms like "Niche Internet Micro Celebrity" paved the way for the word's popularity.

NicheTok was a hashtag that was originally used in July 2022 by a TikToker named @kurtanglelovesme. It labeled a Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul edit that spliced together the clips in an artful and archaic way.

The term "NicheTok" and its hashtag quickly became interchangeable with the then-budding term "Corecore." Both were used to get strange video edits into the right algorithms of chronically online people whose TikTok meme literacy was too "niche" to be titilated by anything less weird.

@kurtanglelovesme Follo tha tok #NatWestWhatYouWaitingFor #fyp #viral #trend #nichetok #breakingbad #brba #wwe #wrestling #czw #aew #giancarloesposito #giancarlo #gusfring #kurtangle #kurtanglewwe #wrestlingtiktok #wrestlingtok #mikeermantraut #bettercallsaul #bcs #bettercallsaulseason6 #real ♬ original sound – Kurtanglelovesme

But that's just how it started.

By 2025, a different "-Tok" subculture, called "JuggTok," began to dominate the app's visual language. Each JuggTok video used squished and stretched backgrounds, underground rap audios and vertically stacked text captions that used AAVE slang like "TS, PMO and ICL."

The JuggTok community became interested in the idea of staying "niche," largely due to a perception held by many JuggTokers that non-Black internet users were infiltrating the group and ruining all of their slang terms and video formats.

One video in particular seems to have inspired the modern-day "Niche Community." It was shared by a JuggToker named @savo.rl, who urged the members of the community to stop using the Heartbreak Emoji (💔) and start using the Dead Rose Emoji (🥀) because the former had gone "mainstream."

@savo.rl 🥀🥀#luracks#fyp#foryou ♬ not myself – luracks

The idea took off. Soon, the Dead Rose Emoji was everywhere, extending outside of the JuggTok community. Heading into the remainder of 2025, playing with the niche-to-mainstream pipeline became somewhat of a game on TikTok.

For instance, a lot of users on the platform tried to replace 🥀 with other emojis. Some attempts were the Low Battery Emoji (🪫) and the Falling Leaves Emoji (🍂). Some were more successful than others. But the meme became less about what emoji it was and more about the process of recycling the understood symbol ad nauseam.

@p4st3l_p0sh #Slimetok #slimetok #fyp #viral #farewelljuggtok #slimetokisthenewjuggtok ♬ original sound – hldmyhnd.wav – 𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘨

The current iteration of TikTok's "Niche Community" follows the same guidelines. One of its in-group members establishes that one meme has gone "mainstream," but another one has just become "niche," to keep everyone important ahead of the curve.

The "TS So Kevin" trend is a solid, early example of the phenomenon. It involved TikTokers making generic Gen Z boy names into slang terms with alternate meanings.

Basically, only the community's most "niche" members would be able to understand the phrase, "Gurt is so Kevin, not Owen." And that was by design.

@b1rdnestlive0 #slang #fyp #kevin #gurttok ♬ original sound – thrillsxo1

But the "Kevin" meme was way back in April 2025, and it feels like forever ago because the lifespans of "niche" memes are becoming exponentially short.

@dai_to_tuff This audio #fyp #stretchtok #rs #meme #niche ♬ الصوت الأصلي – VIP🎧

What Are Some 'Niche Community' Memes On TikTok?

One of the most notable "niche" memes is the "Niche Fruits," which bears the rare adjective in its name. The trend is basically a bunch of AI-generated videos of little fruits eating parts of their species, like an apple eating an apple or a blueberry eating a blueberry.

They were pretty cute and "niche" to the average viewer, who often paired the clips with phrases like, "Hey, twin. Is TS niche?"

@67topsigma fruits❤#fruiteatingitself #niche #viral #fypシ゚ #fruit ♬ Cycad Slumber – Desmond Cheese

Other prominent examples include the "Mario Tomato" songs, which were also fruit-based and generated with AI tools. The songs were shared by the YouTuber Funny Songs, who combined Super Mario characters with produce and gave each one their own EDM track.

The YouTuber embraced the "niche" community's devotion to the songs by making a track called "The Nichelings Song!"

@hex___2

kiwiwaluigi is too tuff boiii 🥹✌️

♬ kiwiwaluigi – wh1sp

Since the start of September, a slew of new "niche" memes have landed on TikTok. There's been "My Mother Ate Fries," "I'm a Dude Man," "Eggsuka" and "Fa Mulan," just to name a few.

All of them are being combined into "brainrot" edits that are a visual lobotomy to anyone unfamiliar, mirroring the success of the precursor "Adrian Eeffoc Brainrot" trend.

@xxsonicfan2008xx #dudeman #famulan #effoc #adrian #abarbershophaircutthatcostsaquarter #LaaLaaLunchpants ♬ original sound – SonicFan2008

Why Do Some Dislike TikTok's 'Niche Community?'

TikTok's Niche Community is not without its critics. Some have expressed a belief that the "niche" users are ruining memes and ushering in a "meme depression," following up on the "Great Meme Drought" from March 2025.

Many onlookers feel disillusioned by the whole subculture. They think that the Niche Community isn't giving memes breathing room, and the "memes" they're spreading have no clear punchline. The punchline is often just that the meme is forced.

"Safe to say we're in another meme depression," said one TikToker in a recent video. "Everybody is speedrunning 'memes' which BTW were never funny in the first place… Memes used to be funny, man."

@nerf.moe my little rant #juggtok #giftok #memes #totr #perc40 ♬ 原聲 – DJOSAMA – XM.made

What Are Some More 'Niche Community' Memes?

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/7548589944583867703

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/7550061807545748767

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/7543795867543719198

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/7540368720246394142

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7483606938463276310

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7494719358409821486

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For the full history of the TikTok Niche Community, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's entry for even more information.