Vines are having a comeback but AI is making them terrifying

AI ‘time travelers’ are interrupting classic Vines in the latest trend sweeping across social media, leaving netizens both confused and horrified.

If you’ve been scrolling down your For You Page on TikTok lately, you’ve likely come across some classic Vines that end in a somewhat disturbing twist.

Most folks are familiar with Vines, the six-second video clips that were a big hit in the 2010’s that often find themselves inside a ten-minute-long compilation somewhere on YouTube.

Now, they’re appearing all over TikTok… but they don’t end in the way people expect. Vines that most millennials have memorized suddenly have twist endings that make absolutely no sense, adding a few more seconds onto the short-form videos.

This new trend uses AI to “interrupt” the clips, with the general theme being that ‘time travelers’ are going back in time to stop these Vines from ever going viral.

The craze is absolutely taking over TikTok right now — and some of the results are nothing short of hilarious, while others are simply disturbing.

The first recorded instance of this trend was uploaded to TikTok on June 15, 2024 by user ‘yourbirthcertificate,’ who ‘interrupted’ King Bach’s famous ‘big spoon’ Vine skit with a random man running into frame.

Since then, the fad has gone viral, inspiring users all over the platform to “interrupt” famous Vines. Most of these creators are using Luma AI, also known as ‘Dream Machine’ — and they certainly do feel like fever dreams of a sort.

Perhaps one of the most popular AI Vine videos is a rendition of the famous “What’s nine plus ten?” Vine, which shows the cameraman asking a young boy a math question. Before he can answer, a shadowy figure emerges from the background as frightening music plays, akin to something out of a horror movie.

Although it’s a popular theme at the moment, many commenters are noting how confused upcoming generations will be by this new take on old-school internet humor.

“These AI Vines are gonna cause such confusion for the younger generation,” one viewer wrote on TikTok.

Still others are noticing that Vine is being revived in “the most unexpected way” imaginable… and while TikTok remains one of the most popular social platforms ever, Vine continues to find ways to stay alive thanks to the deceased app’s unforgettable humor.

In fact, Twitter/X CEO Elon Musk teased the idea of bringing Vine back after purchasing Twitter in 2022. Engineers from X were even reportedly working on a Vine reboot, but so far, nothing concrete has moved forward with this revival.