Why one of world’s biggest TikTokers Khaby Lame doesn’t talk in any of his videos

Amid the sounds of Charli XCX’s ‘Apple’, people claiming they’re ‘demure’ and clips of hotel breakfast buffets, there are the same faces consistently rolling out content.

Yep, TikTok might be full of all sorts of ever-changing weird and wonderful things but there’s always the creators fans can rely on.

Plenty of the big ones rose to fame on the platform during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the world’s biggest TikToker right now.

Yep, Khaby Lame. After losing his factory job during lockdown, the lad filmed himself dancing, reacting to video games and performing comedy skits before tapping into a specific niche.

And that involves him never saying a word in his videos.

With 162.9 million followers and 2.5 billion likes, he reacts to life hack TikToks with his iconic simple reaction of a shrug, gesture or just facial expression.

While this seems to work perfectly fine for the Senegalese-Italian star, some might still wonder just why he doesn’t speak and he gave a pretty reasonable explanation.

Khaby told CNN back in 2022 that his silent reactions were meant to personify the term 'shaking my head' - otherwise known as 'smh' - with his videos regularly showing his exasperation at weirdly complicated parts of life.

"I came up with the idea because I was seeing these videos circulating, and I liked the idea of bringing some simplicity to it," he said.

"The type of gesture came by chance, but the silence didn't. I thought of a way to reach as many people as possible. And the best way was not to speak.

"Maybe because my facial expressions are funny and they make people laugh, this simplicity makes people laugh and I love it."

Khaby surpassed Charli D'Amelio to become the most followed account on TikTok in 2022.

He says it's not the following or the likes that keep him making videos, though, but the fact he's making people laugh on the platform.

“I don’t care if I’m first or second or fourth most popular on TikTok. I started making videos because I wanted to make people laugh in that period of lockdown,” Khaby said.

“And I keep making videos with the same ideals. I’m happy about my accomplishments, but those are not my main things.”

And he has some big ambitions for the future, too.

Khaby says he would one day like to make a movie with Will Smith, counting the movie star as one of his fans.

Additional words by Lucy Devine.