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John Fetterman weighs in on ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ TikTok trend: ‘Dr Oz could never’

A recent TikTok trend has people sharing vintage snaps from their teenage years, scored to the 2000 Wheatus song “Teenage Dirtbag”

Johanna Chisholm
Thursday 01 September 2022 18:37 BST
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Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman dipped his toes into the virality of TikTok trends this week and incredibly took part in one that involves sharing vintage snapshots from your teenage years.

On Wednesday, the Democratic lieutenant governor had comments flooding in on his under 30 second video clip scored to the early aughts anthem “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus. Many on TikTok have been using the song to share snapshots of themselves from their teenage years in an effort to show off their “dirtbag” era.

The caption on Mr Fetterman’s contribution to the trend reads, “shorts then, shorts now”, an accurate quote to accompany a short reel which features an image of the Senate hopeful donning a pair of bright turquoise shorts with a shock of hair styled in 80s bliss.

Commenters on Mr Fetterman’s response to the trend, which other notable personalities such as Jennifer Garner, Madonna and Lady Gaga have also added to, jumped in to voice not only their support for the politician sharing his teenage shots, but also to throw their support behind his campaign for Senate.

“I’ll be voting for you senator,” wrote one user who had collected more than 600 likes on his comment. “Dr Oz could never,” quipped another person, who themselves had earned more than 500 likes for their comment.

Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman weighs in on the latest Tiktok trend
Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman weighs in on the latest Tiktok trend (Tiktok/John Fetterman)

“Can’t wait to see you in office,” and “let’s get you to the senate” messages of support continued to flood the comment section on the video, which has now collected more than 300,000 views in the less than 24 hours that it’s been up.

Mr Fetterman, who notably joined TikTok part way through August, is facing off against Dr Mehmet Oz, a Trump-endorsed Republican, in the Pennsylvania Senate race in November. The latest polls incidate that the Democrat has an advantage over his GOP counterpart.

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