If TikTok transitions are like social media magic, then "Johnny, Don't Leave Me" is the platform's most powerful love potion.
The viral transformation trend rose to prominence on a wave of thirst trap formats in the spring of 2021. Audiences were especially interested in dramatic glow-up videos ahead of what was then just being dubbed "Hot Vaxxed Summer."
Clever camera work, earworm tunes, and outfit reveals have long been integral to TikTok, formerly known as the lip-syncing platform Musical.ly. But the app's pandemic-born boost in popularity hastened innovation, paving the way for creative trends like "Johnny, Don't Leave Me" to go mainstream.
Unlike many of its contemporaries, the flirty TikTok transition doesn't piggyback on a Top 40 musical artist. (For reference, Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat dominate as inspirations in the space.) Instead, "Johnny, Don't Leave Me" remixes two obscure audio sources to make a villainous soundscape that's still enchanting For You Pages in 2022. Together, the samples conjure a shared revenge fantasy for the internet age — forged in their respective artists' stylistic similarities.
The sound's first line — "The day he left me was the day that I died" — comes from the cult flick The Love Witch (2016), written and directed by Anna Biller. The song that follows, titled “Bust Your Knee Caps,” is a 2011 track written by husband-wife duo Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, aka Pomplamoose.
"Johnny, don't leave me…" the song begins. "You said you'd love me forever. Honey, believe me. I'll have your heart on a platter."
Neither the filmmaker nor the musicians know who paired their work on TikTok, and they don't know who designed the trend's signature choreography. "Johnny, Don't Leave Me" videos typically include a dressed-down performer slashing across their throat (usually on the word "died") before rotating the camera and cutting to a luxurious second look; think a simulated beheading with a before-and-after fashion twist.
"It's actually very difficult to execute," said Dawn, who, along with Conte, spoke with Mashable about the trend via phone. "You don't have your eyes on the camera the whole time."
"We did one ourselves and it took a really long time to get it," laughed Conte.
Dawn said she thought the moves might have been pioneered by Charli D'Amelio, who at 136.2 million followers has the largest fan base on the platform. But Addison Rae, who has 86.6 million followers, posted her take more than a week before D'Amelio posted hers.
TikTok doesn't know who started the trend either.
In an email to Mashable, a spokesperson for the platform reported that the sound was "popularized" by account @harleysfilm, which posted the audio with a supercut of scenes from The Love Witch on Jan. 28, 2021. They say that sound has since been used in 604.9K creations. Whether this anonymous poster (who didn't respond to requests for comment) was actually "the first" to put the samples together or not, no one knows.
"The day he left me was the day that I died."
"People just kept sending it to me," recalled actor Samantha Robinson in a phone interview with Mashable. Robinson stars in The Love Witch as Elaine Parks, a seductive sorceress whose insatiable lust for romance fuels the stylized horror-comedy. It's her dialogue that's immortalized in the "Johnny, Don't Leave Me" trend.
"I thought it was very cool with [the choreography] and everything," Robinson added. "But I also thought it fit perfectly. The TikToks coincide very well with the message of the film."
"TikTok is a place where people go to explore their identity and their self-fantasy," Biller said in another interview, also by phone. "So it makes sense that [The Love Witch and Elaine] would end up there."
At first glance, The Love Witch looks and sounds like a real retro movie — the sort you'd pull from shelves stocking Dario Argento, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and the Universal Classic Monsters. It's a stylistic choice critical to the visual and thematic power of the project.
"TikTok is a place where people go to explore their identity and their self-fantasy."
"I like to take pain and trauma and adversity that women face and frame it within female pleasure and desire," Biller explained of the vintage look. "One of the reasons I'm so obsessed with classic movies, especially from the 1930s, which was an era of high glamour, is that they did that."
Biller worked with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel cinematographer M. David Mullen, also known for titles like Mad Men and Jennifer's Body, to hone her film's hyper-specific aesthetic. Not only did Mullen shoot The Love Witch in 35mm, but Biller carefully rendered many of its practical elements by hand.
"Anna actually took measurements of my body and made a mannequin and sewed a lot of the costumes herself," Robinson recalled of the year-long pre-production process.
As it appears in The Love Witch, the complete "the day he left me" scene involves Elaine waxing poetic about a failed relationship in a candy-pink Victorian tearoom. She's wearing an equally candy-pink Victorian ensemble.
"I've been studying para-psychology and I understand men so much better than I used to," Elaine says to her lunch companion Trish, played by Laura Waddell. "If only I would have known before what I know now. Then, Jerry would have never left me."
"Who's Jerry?" asks Trish, innocently thumbing her dishware.
"My ex-husband," replies Elaine. Jerry's bloody body appears in a brief flashback. It's clear Elaine killed him.
"The day he left me was the day that I died," she continues, back in the tearoom. "But then I was reborn, as a witch."
When crafting The Love Witch's lush design, Biller said she wanted to foreground her vision of a more complex femme fatale. In the same way men so often get to see themselves in action heroes, Biller wanted young women to see themselves reflected in Elaine — a female character who is never limited to acting or being one way. You know, the sort of woman who can speak thoughtfully about murdering her ex-husband while politely enjoying a spot of tea with her girlfriend.
"She's got this complexity that I think women and girls identify with," Biller explained. "Elaine is sweet, but she's evil. She's all these different things." The character, Biller noted, is also a beautiful woman who isn't afraid to be beautiful, and isn't vilified by her fellow characters for it. Like a personified thirst trap, Elaine presents as a sexual fantasy but never relinquishes her power.
The whole Madonna-whore complex is very boring, and I think women are not really as boring as that.
"Everyone puts on some kind of mask as they enter the world, but with Elaine it's heightened times a thousand," Robinson said. "She's a perfect role model for this mindset of just taking what you need from the world. That's actually a line from the movie: 'I take what I need from men and not the other way around.'"
These meticulously curated multitudes are mirrored in every "Johnny, Don't Leave Me" performance, even if Biller's actual handiwork is not. The wickedness of the dark lyrics and in-your-face choreography stands in stark contrast with the seemingly submissive act of following a TikTok trend. Even as thousands have participated, each "Johnny, Don't Leave Me" video remains quietly defiant and is imbued with Elaine's duality.
"The whole Madonna-whore complex is very boring, and I think women are not really as boring as that," Biller concluded. "I would have loved to have something like this when I was 16."
"Johnny, don't leave me. You said you'd love me forever."
"Pomplamoose would love to claim that this was a brilliant strategic move on our part, with years of investment in psychology to get this song to explode on TikTok," Conte joked to Mashable. "Of course, that is not true at all. This happened to us."
Conte and Dawn have been an unsigned, independent band since Pomplamoose's founding in 2008. They release new music and covers weekly on their YouTube channel; "Bust Your Knee Caps" first dropped as a video on Oct. 11, 2011.
"We actually wrote the song in the car," Dawn recalled, noting they were likely on a drive back to their home in Los Angeles. "We were just being silly and making fun of old jazz."
"We were listening to an old kind of doo-woppy thing, and Nataly just thought it would be hilarious if it was paired with a really dark mob boss lyric," Conte explained. "It just came out of her mouth. As soon as it did, I took out my phone, hit record, and we just started cracking up writing this song together."
Pomplamoose provided Mashable with recordings of the song's early melodies, embedded below:
The track has been one of the band's buzziest ever since. "Bust Your Knee Caps" has more than 6.8 million views on YouTube and more than 46 million streams on Spotify to date. Still, Dawn describes the track's TikTok renaissance as "transformational" for the group.
"In one month, we saw a 50% increase in our Spotify streams, and that has held ever since," said Conte. "We also saw a 50% increase in our revenue associated with streams...Like remix culture does, [people] kind of stumbled on this song and turned it into something that was way bigger than Pomplamooose and actually out of our control."
On the one hand, intention is really important. On the other hand, it's overrated.
With no one specific to ask, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly it is that TikTok users love about "Bust Your Knee Caps." But the musicians suspect it may have something to do with their character-driven lyrics.
In addition to telling Johnny she'll "have your heart on a platter," the singer says:
Might you recall
We've got a small family business
And the family won't like thisThey'll bust your knee caps
Ooh wop de do wop de do
They'll bust your knee caps
Ooh wop de do wop de doJohnny, you told me
You were no fool, you were no chump
Then you got cold feet
Now all you'll be is a speed bump
"I don't remember how exactly the idea of threatening someone through a love song came to me, perhaps too naturally," Dawn laughed. "But it was definitely written in jest."
Conte notes "Bust Your Knee Caps" was primarily funny to the musical duo for its nonsensical doo-wopping. But the daughter-of-a-mob-boss imagery is in keeping with the internet's broader fondness for villains, and pairs especially well with The Love Witch. Despite their difference in medium, the song and film are inextricably linked by a shared sense of old school cool and fondness for women with no more fucks to give.
"It's crazy to think about this song starting off with me and Nataly just joking around in the car to actually recording it and turning it into our most popular song," Conte noted. "Then, a decade later, this song gets picked up again, gets combined with another piece of art, and is still inspiring somebody else in their bedroom [to make a video]."
"It's kind of magical," said Dawn. "On the one hand, intention is really important. On the other hand, it's overrated."
