The latest viral TikTok trend sees people using a song with the lyrics “Dumb Ways to Die” which has a hilarious backstory.
It sees TikTok users doing funny and often rather dangerous things, like skiing down huge mountains and running in high heels, and adding the song in the background.
One person even held a stonefish with their bare hands, one of the most venomous fish in the world which are extremely dangerous and often fatal to humans.
The Dumb Ways to Die song probably sounds really familiar and I bet you know it from the mobile game of the same name that went viral back in 2013.
However, that’s not actually where the story of the funny track begins…
TikTok’s Dumb Ways to Die is a train campaign
The song is from a campaign that was created by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia, in 2012 to promote train safety in the territory.
It was made by the advertising agency McCann Melbourne and appeared all over Victoria – in newspapers, on the radio, and on Metro Trains.
The video consists of funny cartoon characters and a catchy theme song that intended to stop people from having accidents on the railways.
It lists a number of “dumb ways to die” such as setting fire to your hair, poking a stick at a grizzly bear and eating out-of-date medicine.
The list continues before right at the end, the dumb things get train related – like standing too close to the edge of the platform.
“Be safe around trains,” a pop up message at the end says. Watch the hilarious three-minute clip below:
It got turned into a mobile game
Following the campaign’s success, Metro turned it into a video game which was released as an app for iOS devices in May 2012.
In the game, players must avoid the dangerous activities featured throughout the video like putting a fork in a toaster and doing your own electrical work.
It consists of a series of minigames which get faster and more difficult as time goes on and an Android version was launched four months later, in September.
A sequel called Dumb Ways to Die 2: The Games arrived in November 2014 which has a similar premise but is a lot more advanced.
Then, Dumb Ways to Die 3: World Tour was released in December 2017, in which players fix up houses and collect coins.
All three games are still available to download on the App Store and Dumb Ways to Die 4 is expected to release in 2023.
There are also some spin-off games too, including Dumb Ways to Draw, Dumb Ways to Dash and Dumb Ways to Die: Superheroes.
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Song takes over TikTok in 2023
The song has now had a resurgence in 2023 thanks to TikTok and the Dumb Ways to Die trend.
This girl fell over while running in high heels:
Another woman almost got hit with a block of ice while clearing her roof:
And this lady nearly fell through her balcony:
In other news, Confident Young Girl With Bow Legs Dances and Shakes Her Waist in a Sweet Way, Video Emerges on TikTok