Watch: This viral Instagram video has couple pretending their dog got accepted into Harvard

A viral video on Instagram shows a couple staging emotional Harvard acceptance reaction for their dog. Here is how the internet reacted.

A new video is going viral on the internet for all the right reasons. It shows a man, a woman and their dog huddled around a laptop, staring at the screen like they are waiting for a life-changing news. They act anxious and the second they spot the “fake acceptance letter,” they break into a joyful celebration. The couple cheers and their dog jumps, while viewers cannot get enough of the silliness.

Know everything about the new social media trend about people staging emotional Harvard acceptance reactions for their dogs. (Unsplash/@samuelthomps0n)

This one clip is just the latest addition to a fast-growing trend that has taken over TikTok and other social media platforms: pretending your dog just got into Harvard. And strangely, it works every time.

Watch it here:

“We are proud parents,” read the caption.

The video was shared on Instagram last week and has received nearly 265,000 likes so far.

All about the popular trend

For months, TikTok users pumped out spoof college-acceptance videos - the kind where people stare at their laptops before exploding into joy. That format eventually burned out, so creators added the one thing social media never gets tired of - dogs.

Dogs copy the energy of everyone around them, so the reaction goes from dramatic to hilarious in seconds. The more clueless the dog looks, the funnier the clip becomes. Most videos use the caption “pretending our dog got into Harvard for no reason,” paired with the 7 Years / Latch mashup that has become the unofficial soundtrack of the trend.

How it started

According to Daily Dot, on December 22 last year, one clip had really set the trend off. It showed a 13-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who happens to be deaf, staring blankly at the screen as his owners celebrated around him. A second dog, a black lab, joined the party like it knows exactly what is happening. Viewers loved the confusion, the sweetness and the fact that the elderly pup looked like he was trying to process a sudden Ivy League future.

Within two days, TikTok was flooded with hundreds of similar clips. Some users even brought in other animals - one creator proudly announced his chicken had “made it into Harvard.”

The trend seems goofy and harmless. And for once, social media is obsessed with something that makes everyone laugh without dragging anyone down.