People are making fun of Ed Sheeran on TikTok by completely drowning out his request for duets

• Ed Sheeran posted a video singing his song "Afterglow" on TikTok asking for duets.
• However, people duetted his video ironically, loudly playing instruments rather than singing.
• Ed Sheeran hate isn't a new phenomenon, and the video he posted seemed doomed to fail on TikTok.

On December 27, English singer Ed Sheeran posted a video playing and singing his song "Afterglow" on the guitar, asking for people to duet him. A simple request from one of the world's biggest pop singers who, by all accounts, hasn't really done anything that bad, was received with sarcasm, comments about the "dude from Game of Thrones... putting himself out there," and an overwhelming amount of noise. He's just the latest celebrity to unintentionally become the punchline of the day on TikTok.

The video - presumably part of a promotional push for the single, which Sheeran released on December 21, 2020 - is only the eighth video uploaded to Sheeran's account, which has 2.2 million followers. The most recent two are tied to "Afterglow," while the preceding six are promoting "Beautiful People," his 2019 single featuring Khalid. It's safe to say, Ed Sheeran is not a habitual TikTok user, and others on the app are taking the opportunity to clown on that fact with gusto.

The joke goes like this: duet Ed Sheeran, but don't sing. Instead, play the iconic piano lick from Vanessa Carlton's seminal "A Thousand Miles," whack a snare drum, add some tuba support, or maybe layer in Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

@carsonsmelliott

#duet with @edsheeran Great stuff, Ed!!

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

@_exceler8

#duet with @edsheeran I think this came out great #musician #fyp #hype #important #forthwboys #duetwithme

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

@leanna__banana

#duet with @edsheeran

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

@annabellehendrickson

#duet with @edsheeran #edsheeran

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

In a video that appears to have since been deleted or set to private, Charlie Puth, who is fairly active on TikTok, also duetted Sheeran, writing "Ed and I have talked a long time about doing something together. Here is the start of it" in the caption and then proceeding to blast the opening chords of Toto's "Africa."

@charlieputh

##duet with @edsheeran Ed and I have talked a long time about doing something together. Here is the start of it.

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

Others used less-conventional instruments to get in on the fun and "support" a "small [creator]," as user @kelsocryfest wrote in the caption of their video.

@kelsocryfest

#duet with @edsheeran supporting small creators

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

@matty.b.rapps

#duet with @edsheeran sorry i couldn’t hear u could u repeat that? #edsheeranfanslover #edsheeranphobic #edsheeranhateaccount #hateaccount #yummy

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

@jadexbcn

#duet with @edsheeran how did i do?

♬ original sound - Ed Sheeran

There's a storied tradition of Ed Sheeran hate in pop culture, essentially tracing back to the fact that Ed Sheeran is... a pretty neutral guy. As Vice UK writer Joel Golby wrote in 2018, Sheeran "actually seems fundamentally quite decent and sound," but that certain facets of his public appearance lends itself to conjuring up other observations, like that fact the oftentimes Sheeran doesn't act like a typical celebrity. He notably was a no-show at the 2018 Grammys, where his song "Shape Of You" beat out Kesha's "Praying" for Best Pop Vocal Performance. Instead, he posted a photo of his cat to say thank you.

In short, Ed Sheeran isn't detestable, but on TikTok he's following in the footsteps of other meme villains like Lin-Manuel Miranda (whose selfies haunted TikTok For You Pages as a bait-and-switch meme) or Matthew Morrison, who garnered TikTok's ire partially as a bit and partially due to people re-examining some of his weirdest moments from "Glee." TikTok is coming for Sheeran in the same sort of way, either by directly dunking on him in his duets, or hiding his image in other videos.

@kellywan

omg took me a lot of courage to post this! please don’t leave hate

♬ original sound - Kelly Wan

TikTok's duet feature has lead to some of its most famous musical collaborations ("Ratatouille" the musical, or sea shanties, for instance), but Sheeran, a gigantic pop star with little to no habitual TikTok presence earnestly asking for duets was only inviting clownery in a culture that's all about boosting the average joe. Even past the copious ironic duets, comments on Sheeran's original post are belittling: "you got a decent voice, u ever thought about being a singer?" one commenter wrote; "YOOO RON WEASLEY GOT BARS" another said.

Of course, there were people who did earnestly lend their voices to Sheeran's, hoping that he'll notice their video. But on an app that's governed by cringe and isn't known for being kind to millennials, the singer never had a chance.