What is the Mama Owl controversy on TikTok? Pay for your penance video backlash explained

Mama Owl, a TikToker, is currently facing backlash after an old, deleted video of hers resurfaced on the internet. In the video that resurfaced in June 2024, she posted a clip about a transgender kid being s*xually abused by a school cleaner.

Mama Owl, who portrayed a substitute teacher in the video, said to her students at the beginning of the clip-

"You're going to pay your penance now."

Now, after the video went viral, people started trolling and criticizing her as netizens found the skit, which was created around August 2023, offensive.

Know Your Meme later reported that on TikTok, she gained popularity for her skits that were based on true stories that her fans submitted to her. The stories they shared were often quite painful.

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TikToker Mama Owl is now facing backlash because of her viral video on trans people

Mama Owl is a popular TikToker (Image via TikTok / @mathmanx)

Mama Owl is a teacher and TikToker who is most renowned for her skits in which she performs dramatic scenarios, frequently involving traumas experienced by students. However, she is currently facing backlash over a skit that first appeared in late June or early July of 2024 and was recorded sometime around August of 2023.

In the clip, she acted out the s*xual assault faced by a transgender student. It further described the story of a young person who suffered abuse at the hands of their instructor, along with the events leading up to it and the reactions of the staff, their parents, and the administrators.

Know Your Meme further stated that she performed the scene in which the student ran to the principal after the teacher pulled down their pants. On August 14, 2023, TikToker @miomedia.bai4 reuploaded the video, which attracted over 500,000 views in a single year.

However, the video was later removed as a lot of people thought it went too far and she got slammed for it. Later, people began to express their disapproval of her clips in the comment section of her other videos.

Moreover, following this, TikTokers even started creating memes from her contents. The same source has further reported that @musaandstellaa, a TikToker, uploaded a video on June 30, 2024, which received over 630,000 views in a single day, making fun of the TikToker’s appearance and her content.

Following this, Mama Owl uploaded an explanatory video and said that two years ago, a transgender person asked for the video saying that they "wanted someone to bring to light the violence that trans people have to put up with specifically in religious spaces”.

She further added that those who had Bible quotations in their biographies were the source of half of the hate mail she had been receiving about that video.

Moreover, on June 30, the TikTok user addressed the criticism surrounding her in another video, however, she blamed it on an unrelated situation.

In the same video, she said that she had encountered hate comments after calling out a spammer who was posting song lyrics in her chat. After that, she displayed screenshots of accounts that she said were utilizing her videos and were "designed to degrade" her.

She said she was targeted by trolls for her alleged atheism and "mocking Christianity" on a livestream. Despite this, Mama Owl has gained over 2.3 million followers since she started posting videos in December 2021.

Her popularity comes from skits where she plays all characters, often involving dramatic storylines with children and teachers. Between skits, she streams live on TikTok and posts opinion and commentary videos.

While her work has received recognition for raising awareness on serious issues, some have critiqued it for being "weird," especially when she portrays traumatized teenagers. She currently has approximately 2.4 million followers on the social media site.

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Nevertheless, she didn’t say anything else on the matter.