Here's Why You're Seeing Videos of College Students Dropping Cups in Their HBCU Cafeterias

If you've been noticing a lot of videos on TikTok lately featuring college students dropping cups in their dining halls at HBCUs (aka historically black colleges and universities), you might be wondering what's going on.

In these videos, there's always a round of applause throughout the cafeteria after the cup is dropped, which is where the confusion really comes in for some viewers.

Here's what to know about the fun trend.

What is the meaning of dropping a cup at an HBCU?

According to TikTokers, it's all about having an innocent laugh at the person who dropped their cup. As more than one commenter has explained under these videos, it's essentially a way of telling the person, "Congrats, you're a dumbass." Or as someone else put it, "Just another way to feel embarrassed."

However, another commenter claimed that "they clap to make you feel less embarrassed about the situation, but for some people it makes them more embarrassed."

Several TikTok commenters have noticed the dropped cup trend at their own HBCUs.

"Yooo why this happened at my HBCU today at lunch I was so confused 😂😂😂," someone commented under one TikTok video showcasing the trend.

"Bruh this happened to me yesterdayyyy I go to NCAT and I was so embarrassed and confused 😭 ofc I see this on my fyp the next day," another person wrote.

"So it's every HBCU? 😂" wrote another.

"So this happens at every HBCU😂 I went to Lincoln and I was terrified of dropping something in the cafe because of this," someone else commented.

"This must be every HBCU. Because I graduated from SCSU & we did the same thing. 😂 Gotta love us!" another commenter wrote.

"It’s an HBCU thing😂," wrote another.

But some people say that this happens outside of HBCUs, too.

"This might be just be a college thing because at my PWI [predominantly white institution] if you dropped a plate or tray the whole cafeteria would erupt in applause," one person wrote under one of the videos.

"I worked in three restaurants and we always did it there too," someone else said.

Another person wrote that "they do this on military bases."

"Don't they do this at every college?" someone else asked, adding that "they do this at my PWI.... I just thought it was an everywhere thing."

"We use to do this at camp🤣 as clumsy as I am if I drop something and start clapping they gonna think I'm crazy 😂," another commenter said.

There are posts online going back years in which people have talked about the trend in general.

On Reddit, people over the years have talked about the phenomenon, noting that it sometimes happens when waiters drop plates at restaurants , or, as one of the aforementioned commenters said, at military mess halls .

In 2013, a blog post from Pacific Lutheran University's student newspaper talked about the trend too, saying that "when students drop their dishes in the Anderson University Center, everyone claps. It is a Pacific Lutheran University tradition, and it has been for years."

"The clapping is a joke," the writer continued in the post. "It is a sarcastic 'atta boy' for the dish dropper. The tradition is supposed to save the dropper from embarrassment and maybe give them the opportunity to turn it into a funny situation rather than an awkward one."