What is the ‘What killed Barney the Dinosaur’ TikTok trend?

TikTokers have been going viral after finding out ‘what killed Barney the Dinosaur.’ But what happened to the popular children’s character? Here’s everything you need to know.

TikTok is full of a huge number of different trends, from popular dances that sweep the app, to bizarre challenges that have everybody getting involved and uploading their videos

Every so often, a bizarre fact or search term will go viral on the app, with users encouraging others to film their reactions to googling a certain question. This was the case in May when people were looking up the phrase, ‘How did Dora the Explorer die.’

Now, users are sharing their reactions to finding out ‘What killed Barney the Dinosaur’ on TikTok. Barney the Dinosaur is a purple dinosaur character known from the wildly popular children’s TV show Barney & Friends.

What killed Barney the Dinosaur?

Users have been uploading screenshots of the result after googling ‘what killed Barney the Dinosaur,’ with one of the top results reading, “in November 1997, Barney the Dinosaur was stabbed to death by the New York City Police Department.”

However, you will probably be relieved to hear that Barney is not canonically dead. The above sentence is from an Independent article discussing the new documentary ‘I Love You, You Hate Me,’ which explores how the children’s character became a target for hate.

The incident the article refers to happened during a Thanksgiving parade, in which a huge Barney inflatable had to be deflated by the New York City Police Department after it became hard to control. The clip has over 29 million views on YouTube.

Users have been going viral for sharing their reactions to the bizarre incident, and more people are joining in the trend as it spreads across the platform.