The ‘Unknown Slayer’ Has Inspired Young Men On TikTok To Wear Lion T-Shirts And Secretly Looksmax

About

The Unknown Slayer, also known as The Unknown Mogger, refers to a male high school student seen in a viral TikTok video from TikToker @bell_tacoo, who viewers believed was a “slayer,” as in, he was attractive, akin to looksmaxxing. Viewers believed that he was “mogging” TikToker @bell_tacoo, who many suspected was trying to bully the guy. The Unknown Slayer was seen in the clip wearing a lion T-shirt and a necklace with a cross pendant. Fan edits and recreations of the Unknown Slayer surfaced in mid-August 2025, following the upload of the original video that month. The slang term “Unknown Slayer” predates the video, but the term became widely associated with the high schooler after the meme trend.

Origin

On August 16th, 2025, TikToker @bell_tacoo posted a video of herself and an unnamed male high school student, seen wearing a lion T-shirt and a necklace with a cross pendant. In the clip, the boy looks directly into the camera while @bell_tacoo is seen excitedly gesturing to him with the audio backing of a popular TikTok sound that says, “Who was interested first?” Over four days, the video received over 314,200 likes (shown below).

On August 17th, TikToker @jestamaxx posted an edit of the boy in the abovementioned video, pairing it with a TikTok sound that was popular among looksmaxxers on the app. The video’s description read, “Unknown slayer,” gaining over 1.2 million likes in three days (shown below).

The term “Unknown Slayer” predates the August 2025 video, as evident in viral TikTok videos that documented other Unknown Slayers in 2024. The term describes an unidentified man who has untapped potential as a “looksmaxxer,” meaning that he’s attractive but unknown.

Spread

On August 17th, 2025, TikToker @moleculeorg posted an edit of the Unknown Slayer, captioning it, “Holy potential.” The edit also used clips of notorious looksmaxxer James Sapphire. Over three days, the video gained over 152,200 likes (shown below).

Also on August 17th, TikToker @thesemogsaffect posted a similar looksmaxxing edit of the Unknown Slayer that compared him to the other boys seen in the original video. Over three days, it received roughly 212,900 likes (shown below).

On August 19th, 2025, TikToker @bell_tacoo posted a follow-up video in which she and her friend addressed some of the comments left on her original video, as some purportedly expressed the belief that they only chose guys who were “chopped.” She also said that she talked to the Unknown Slayer and asked him how he felt about going viral. She said that he didn’t care. In a day, the video gained over 6,100 likes (shown below).

Later on that same day, TikToker @megatrials made an edit with the clip from the abovementioned video of @bell_tacoo saying that he “literally didn’t care.” The video gained roughly 207,500 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References