The TikTok videos of Angel Mamii and John Dees make no sense – so why are they so popular?

A TikTok video shows a mother and son walking the aisles of an outlet store looking for a phone charger. At first they can only find Android chargers until the son points his mother in the direction of iPhone chargers. She grabs one off the shelf, asking: “You ready to check out?” The video ends.

That video has been viewed more than four million times.

Even if you’ve never heard of the TikTok account Angelmamii7, there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of its videos reposted to Twitter or Instagram, where they rack up millions of views and are shared widely by users who are fascinated or baffled by their surreal lack of structure.

Most of the videos go something like this: Angel is at a public place with her kids or her husband, John Dees. They engage in some conversation, usually about buying something from the store in question. Then the video ends. The videos don’t follow any obvious set-up-punchline structure or meme template, and usually nothing of note happens.

Despite this structurelessness – or perhaps because of it – Angel and John have achieved lasting virality on TikTok, a rare achievement given the opaque algorithm that drives the platform’s “For You” page. The married couple, who met via TikTok in March, have accumulated more than a million followers between their two accounts.

Now, the couple behind AngelMamii7 is trying to build a following on YouTube, where it’s much more feasible to make money from a social media following.

Angel and John spoke to Business Insider about their sudden rise to viral fame, the behind-the-scenes of their creative process and dealing with the onslaught of hate that has come with their notoriety.

The couple first met at a TikTok creators’ meetup in March 2019. Soon, they were dating and simultaneously collaborating on TikToks.

“We had a really, really strong connection, and after that we became a couple,” John said.