Creators are gaming the algorithm with pronunciation ploys — and it's working

There's a trend online that turns an average video into viral fodder, and we're all falling for it.

The trend isn't particularly new, but in recent months, it's revved up its engine and has taken over such a large swath of videos across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram Reels that it's become more common than a typical video. In it, a creator will mispronounce a word in a seemingly routine video of a recipe or news roundup. 

This likely seems innocuous, but it's a trick. It's a conspiracy. It's a gimmick, a hoax, a great ploy to get interactions on a regular video to bump up its views. For instance, iRick Wiggins, or @iricksnacks on TikTok, posted a video recipe for Greek Pinwheels in January. The food looks delicious, and, at one point in the video, he dips a pinwheel into tzatziki — and pronounces it more like "tezaytezaikai." Nearly every comment points this out.

It's not new for Wiggins, who does some version of this engagement farming in the majority of his videos — calling the pit of an avocado a "wooden ball," mispronouncing chorizo and tortilla as "cho-rizzo" and "tor-delay," or calling a serrated knife a "sara-ted" knife. This makes viewers want to point out his mistake and comment on the video that he pronounced it wrong or duet the video with their reaction to the egregious pronunciation, which increases engagement and, thereby, views. And he does all of this without offending anyone, which rules for what it is.

Wiggins isn't the only creator who uses this tactic. Lani Sanchez (@lanisanchezzz on TikTok) called gnocchi "yonkees" in a viral recipe video. Nick Jackson (@niickjackson on TikTok) called Schweppes "shoo-wa-pee-pee." There are dozens of similar videos with similar engagement strategies. Eight months ago, a Reddit user said, "Shorts that purposely mispronounce common words for comment engagement" is the YouTube trend they despise the most.

The benefit of the doubt would imply that these words may be tricky to pronounce, and perhaps mispronouncing them entirely is the safe bet. Figuring out the best way to pronounce words like bruschetta, gnocchi, and tzatziki can leave people feeling there's no correct answer. There's a great 2022 headline from The Hard Times that reads: "Man Can't Decide Whether To Pronounce Foreign Word Like an Asshole or an Idiot."

But in all likelihood, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram creators deliberately mispronounce words in videos to boost engagement and views — it's just an engagement-farming tactic. So, next time you see a video where someone mispronounces a word, think twice before engaging with it.