TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager is the latest person to be pranked with the “I’m so hungry I could eat” trend. In it, the prankster randomly brings up someone from the other person’s past.
Jenna’s assistant Julia Plant filmed the TODAY With Jenna & Friends host’s reaction to hearing a joke with the name of her high school prom date inserted into it.
“God, I’m so hungry I could eat Richard Gentry,” Plant said in a TikTok posted on April 24.
@jenna_bushhager Hi Richard!! #fyp ♬ original sound – Jenna Bush Hager
“Who’s Richard Gentry? My prom date?” Jenna replied with a big grin on her face.
Jenna’s assistant started laughing, and the video cuts to Jenna asking some follow up questions.
“Are you doing that on purpose to me? Were you filming me? Richard Gentry was my prom date,” Jenna said.
The video has more than 550,000 views and is part of a larger trend on TikTok where people put their detective caps on to find a random person from their past to include in their joke.
The trend follows the same format, where the person filming starts by saying how hungry they are. The person then says “I’m so hungry I could eat …,” adding in the name of the random person they found from the other person’s past.
The people can range from a high school crush to a coworker from several jobs ago. People’s reactions to hearing a name they don’t think the other person would know has social media users cracking up.
Penn Badgley, the star of “You” on Netflix, was one of the many people on TikTok to fall victim to the prank.
“I’m so hungry I feel like I could eat Jeff McGhee,” a Podcrushed employee told Badgley in a TikTok posted on April 24, referring to one of the actor’s childhood friends.
@podcrushed I think he’s concerned for me @Penn Badgley #podcrushed #imsohungry ♬ original sound – Podcrushed
Badgley’s eyes got wide as someone off camera asked who that was.
“It’s a saying, like, ‘I’m so hungry, I feel like I could eat Jeff McGhee.’ You haven’t heard that?” the employee answered.
“Why would you say it like that?” Badgley replied.
Badgley burst out laughing and had to sit down on a couch as he processed what he heard.
“The way you said that — I can’t describe it, that was so weird,” he said.
Badgley’s employee didn’t stop there.
“I also feel like I could eat Jack Saffle,” the employee said, as Badgley had his hand over his mouth.
“I feel like I’m tripping out right now,” the actor replied. “Are you playing a joke on me? These are two people I grew up with!”
Once Badgley realized he was being pranked, he burst out laughing and said, “I could not explain that … I felt like I was losing my mind!”
Countless other people have been pranked, and the reactions are all equally as hysterical — from a dad hearing his child could eat someone he found in his high school yearbook, to a mom hearing her child could eat her high school fling.