As the internet continues to throw up examples of human behaviour that are as startling as they are unexpected, it was only a matter of time before we came across a video of someone playing AC/DC's Back In Black on an acoustic guitar while being rhythmically beaten about the helmet with a frying pan.
And so it came to pass. We stumbled across just such a video, posted by the Brazilian Instagram account citando.musica, which features a musician wearing an armoured helmet playing the song's classic riff, his performance punctuated by clanging blows to the skull provided by a companion with a frying pan.
Doing our "research" for this story we discovered that this video was merely the tip of the AC/DC/helmet/frying pan iceberg, and that such stunts appear to be a "thing" on social media platform TikTok, where you'll find numerous examples of the unlikely trend.
Like the video of a man sporting a Top Gun-style helmet who plays the riff as blows rain down on his protective dome. And like the video that shows an apparently placid woman with the user name "maverickmother" being savagely beaten by a young girl we presume to be her daughter.
We've no idea where this trend started, although the frying pan does seem to be a recent addition to a long-running video meme in which musicians playing the song's riff are bludgeoned as they perform. As long ago as 2020 less extreme examples can be found, with the performers protected by plastic bowls as they're mercilessly assailed with water bottles or various pieces of summer footwear.
Our favourites include one from TikTok sensations AMHBand (3 million followers and counting), but perhaps the best of these early adopter videos comes from 2021, in which a man sporting a Mandalorian helmet is besieged by a miniature Yoda wielding a wooden spoon.
Just some of these videos are below.
@thesolesnatcher187 ♬ оригинальный звук - Руслан Ахметгареев
@maverickmother ♬ оригинальный звук - Руслан Ахметгареев
@amhband ♬ original sound - AMH Band
@markep81 ♬ original sound - BadParentingMoments
@markep81 ♬ original sound - BadParentingMoments
