What does 'canon event' on TikTok mean? Viral trend explained

The term ‘canon event’ has nothing to do with the popular camera maker, and like other TikTok trends, it has its origins in popular culture. In simple terms, this phrase is used for any incident or situation that’s unavoidable, despite being unfortunate.

The term has trended thanks to the new film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, where significant moments bring together all of the Spider-Man films and universes. The event is usually one that’s pivotal to all the Spider-Man stories in all the different universes and must happen in order for the story to evolve.

TikTokers are using this phrase to describe inconvenient, uncomfortable, or downright painful situations, like a teenager creating an embarrassing username or someone losing their phone after a drunken night out.

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In the Spider-Man movies, Peter Parker getting bit by a radioactive spider is an example of this term, which is repeated to some degree in every Spider-Man universe across all films.

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Social media users shared videos explaining what ‘canon event’ is to them

TikTok users are recognizing the power of this phrase and seeing them as events that must transpire in order for life to go on, despite any hardship they may cause.

One TikTok user has posted a video where she describes watching a girl fresh out of a relationship meet her first ‘situationship’ with an emotionally immature man that will wreck her, as this TikTok popular phrase goes. Most users label the series of events with the phrase “can’t interfere, it’s a canon event.”

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Another user describes watching a people-pleasing girl get into her first relationship with a boy who isn’t over his ex as a canon event that can’t be interfered with. Broadly speaking, the phrase describes any regrettable experience that shouldn’t be interfered with because it’s pivotal to the development of a person’s life story.

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This word is also popular among fiction fans, where the meaning of this term is different

This word is also popular online among fiction-based fandoms, where it describes the source material, or the origin story, upon which fan fiction is written. For example, some fans of Harry Potter refer to the published books as canon, whereas others also include the extra information provided by author J.K. Rowling on Twitter and the Pottermore website.

So, in a way, the TikTok trend uses the same concept of this term in fandoms to describe events in their own lives that cannot be changed and must take place in order for their origin story, i.e., their life, to progress.

Historically, canon is used to describe literature that is generally agreed to be good, important, or worth reading. It’s also used to describe religious literature—for example, a biblical canon signifies a set of texts that are regarded as part of the Bible by a particular Jewish or Christian community.