TikTok’s strange trend of humans playing robots spurs hope for US shopping

In video games, NPCs’ limited actions can make them boring. But when a human like Bennett plays that role on a livestream, people on TikTok are transfixed and quick to open their pocketbooks. — Bloomberg

A woman in an ash-blond wavy wig bounces robotically, smiling and slightly out of breath, in front of a green-screened image of a bedroom room lit by pink fluorescent lights. Thousands of people are watching her on their phones via TikTok live when a small cartoon hot dog flashes up on the side of the screen.

“Thank you for the glizzy. Bing bong,” Crystal Alana Bennett says to the fan who had just spent the equivalent of US$0.07 (32sen) to send her a virtual frankfurter, known as a “glizzy” in Internet speak, prompting her sing-song acknowledgment of the gift. She goes back to bobbing up and down before shouting, “It’s corn!” over and over – enough times to match the corn cobs sent her way in quick succession by another fan.