This is a Noodle stan account now

Listen, I’ve been meaning to write this newsletter, but it was a no bones day.

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of low-key obsessed. Let me start with a confession. If you signed up through one of the newsletter aggregator sites, you might have seen that low-key obsessed is published every Thursday. Frankly, this was an unrealistic commitment from the beginning that has weighed on me for the past weeks and put me off writing altogether. Low-key obsessed in the future shall be published as and when I feel like I have something to say - think of it as the inbox equivalent of finding money on the street!

And now that I got that off my chest let’s get into today’s topic. Let me introduce you to bones/no bones TikTok: the slightly cult-like community formed around Noodle, a 13 year old pug.

Every morning Jonathan, the dog’s owner, gently props Noodle up and waits for him to a) stay standing, indicating a bones day, or b) flop back down like, well, a noodle, indicating a no bones day.

Noodle’s bones or no bones forecast works quite like weather forecast for your energy and mental well-being: bones/no bones does not mean having a good or a bad day, but rather, a bones day is time to boss up and get shit done, while on a no bones day one should take time to rest, relax, and take care of themselves.

Noodle’s guidance is in high demand: Jonathan’s TikTok page amassed 3.5M followers so far, and every day millions flock to the account for direction over how they should plan their day.

What I’m really obsessed with, though, is not the original content created by Jonathan and Noodle, as great as it is. It’s the community of creatives who internalized the Noodle discourse, added their own perspectives to it, mixed it in with the rest of the vibrant, slightly crazy energy of TikTok, finally creating something new and entirely nonsensical to anyone on the outside.

For the past week I have seen (and had a wee giggle about):

The pièce de résistance of my FYP has been a Noodle-inspired sea shanty, which I am begging you to listen to, it’s amazing.

This is a disclaimer I could add to the end of virtually any article on TikTok, but here it goes: I don’t want to sound naive. I know I’m lucky to be on this side of the app, and there’s no denying that there’s ugly and dangerous corners of TikTok (there has been plenty of reports on how it can become a far-right rabbit hole and a tool for radicalization) that are a serious cause for concern. But for now, I am celebrating the psychic pug and all the fun it has inspired.

Noodles took the spotlight of my FYP this week but I have seen a few videos that now live in my mind rent free, so here they are.

Hey, thanks for reading this far. Have you also been on bones/no bones TikTok? Or was this all new and, frankly, nonsensical (I wouldn’t judge)? What have you been obsessed with lately, TikTok related or not? Let me know in an answer to this e-mail, I read them all!

Wishing you many bones days,

E.