Ben Christensen's rectangle video gets 35 million views on TikTok

Ben Christensen, a content creator known as Dangerbean online, posted a video on Oct. 1 that has received over 35 million views across TikTok and Instagram. The video shows two friends realizing that everything around them is a rectangle, from windows to doors to phones.

The video plays out like a horror film, with the characters becoming claustrophobic as they discover rectangles surrounding them. One character tries to escape while the other holds them back, saying "You can try and run, but you can't hide from the rectangle." The video then breaks the fourth wall as both characters realize they are in a social media video.

The observation has inspired reactions from viewers, with one comment reading "It's 2 am and I'm hiding from the rectangles under my blanket" receiving over 256,000 likes on TikTok. Christensen says fan theories about the video are funnier than the actual explanation, with some joking "It's a government psyop to box us in."

Christensen, 30, began making comedy videos for social media in 2020 and it is now his full-time job. He has over a million followers on TikTok and over a million more on Instagram. He lives in Vancouver and describes his comedy style as observational and existential, taking mundane observations and exploring them to their furthest degree.