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May 2022] MEMES ON MEMES AND THE NEW CREATIVITY 555
bution harder than in traditional spaces.
506
Even so, popular
TikTokers can make substantial money not directly from their creative
content but from being paid to post sponsored content.
507
As another illustration of the range of meme-like creativity cur-
rently flourishing, consider the Broadway-like musicals being created
online in a fashion that is collaborative, iterative, and viral.
508
Perhaps
the most successful has been Ratatouille the Musical, based on the
2007 Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille about Remy, a Parisian
rat who dreams of becoming a chef. The crowdsourced musical ver-
sion began on TikTok with Le Festin, a song from the Ratatouille
movie soundtrack, frequently used as background in users’ cooking
videos.
509
A parody version of the song—featuring nonsensical
506
See Tait, supra note 500 (noting that the format of TikTok makes it often hard to
trace the original creator of a viral dance). This has led to controversy, as dances of Black
creators are often copied and popularized by white TikTok figures and credit is lost along
the way. See J. Clara Chan, Black TikTok Creators Grapple with How Far to Take Strike:
“Why Should We Have to Leave?,” H
OLLYWOOD
R
EP
. (July 28, 2021), https://
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/tiktok-strike-1234988427 [https://perma.cc/
HDT3-5NQJ]; Tait, supra note 500; Hannah Yasharoff, Jimmy Fallon Addresses His
TikTok Dance Segment with Addison Rae. Here’s Why It Sparked Backlash, USA T
ODAY
(Mar. 30, 2021), https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/03/30/tiktok-
dances-why-addison-rae-jimmy-fallon-clip-sparked-backlash/7058920002 [https://perma.cc/
PK8D-CUUA]. In response, a movement to register copyright in the choreography is
underway. Paige Skinner, The TikToker Who Created the Viral “Savage” Dance Is
Copyrighting the Moves, B
UZZFEED
N
EWS
(Aug. 2, 2021), https://www.buzzfeednews.com/
article/paigeskinner/savage-dance-copyrighted [https://perma.cc/BL7T-578Y]. Whether
these actions are merely a way to claim official credit or a desire to formally enforce
exclusive rights is unclear.
507
Tait, supra note 500. One difference between memes, which proliferate without
underlying payment to or permission from their creators, and TikTok content is that
TikTok pays licensing fees for the songs underlying users’ dance videos. Amy Johnson,
TikTok Music & Royalties: How Does It Work?, A
UDIOSOCKET
, https://
www.audiosocket.com/social-media-guides/tiktok-music-royalties-how-does-it-work
[https://perma.cc/SX9U-P3MF]. Not all social media platforms pay for licenses. That
TikTok finds it worthwhile to do so provides another model of how meme culture could
work. This model also suggests the need for further analysis, especially because TikTok
might be paying for licenses to avoid copyright claims—even ones that should fail—to
keep the platform successful. It is possible that the new creativity could be inhibited were
TikTok to stop its licensing practice.
508
See Laura Wheatman Hill, What’s The Deal With All These TikTok Musicals?,
B
ETCHES
(Feb. 1, 2021), https://betches.com/whats-the-deal-with-all-these-tiktok-musicals
[https://perma.cc/S4A6-T3B6] (identifying TikTok musicals, such as Grocery Store: The
Musical and Ratatouille the TikTok musical, and asking whether this phenomenon is “the
future of content creation”); see, e.g., Jeff Lunden, Now Playing on TikTok: ‘Bridgerton’
The Musical, A
LL
T
HINGS
C
ONSIDERED
(Feb. 13, 2021, 5:08 PM), https://www.npr.org/
2021/02/13/967175912/now-playing-on-tiktok-bridgerton-the-musical [https://perma.cc/
GPG9-ZW2A] (explaining how two singer-songwriters wrote and posted songs about the
Netflix show Bridgerton that went viral on TikTok).
509
Rebecca Alter, Broadway Is Closed, but Ratatouille the Musical Is Cooking on
TikTok, V
ULTURE
(Nov. 19, 2020), https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/ratatouille-musical-
tiktok.html [https://perma.cc/EMC5-7GXZ].