For months, a TiKTok account by the name of ‘Titanicfan97’ has dedicated his entire life to collecting copies of James Cameron’s cinematic masterpiece on VHS. His original goal of amassing 1997 copies of the film to line up with its release year has long been met thanks to fans sending in their own tapes alongside handwritten letters, action figures, and whatever merchandise they can find which aligns even slightly with the Titanic brand. Correspondence from fans also goes into the ‘Book of Jack Dawson’, because he’s able to protect them from any and all possible harm. It’s a giant meme, and one I’ve been falling in love with for weeks.
The majority of his videos are performed with an excessive exuberance and helium-pitched voice that breaks up into digital distortion the more excited he becomes about copies of his favourite film on VHS. Or ‘T on V’ as he likes to call it, with more excitement expressed when he happens to unbox a sealed copy with a delicious Paramount logo or a widescreen version with special, color-coded boxes for each of the cassettes. Those are the best ones, with his fans often sending in dozens of copies at any given time with piles of packages so large they could only be conquered by doing a livestream that lasted several hours. And all for Titanic.
I will note that the Oceangate Submersible and this account have no affiliation, with videos even going silent for a few days after the tragedy occurred. A twisted part of me wanted me to see him lean into the biggest news story of the year and death of several billionaires, but maybe it would be a little too close to reality for an account that otherwise thrives on its own absurdity. It’s abundantly clear that Titanicfan97 is in on the joke, but has taken it too far this time to back down. When you’ve turned mannequins and puppets into near life-sized renditions of Leonardo DiCaprio you happily parade around the local charity shops and comic conventions, you kinda have to commit completely to the bit.
Part of me feared the account would cease to function after he collected 1997 copies, but now it seems the goal is to simply spread the joy of this film, and to perhaps one day meet James Cameron so he can see the collection for himself. Most of his apartment appears to be taken up by Titanic VHS tapes, alongside posters, figurines, soundtracks, and a healthy collection of macaroni cheese. I won’t bother explaining that last part, it’s more fun that way.
You could argue I have better things to do with my life than waste time scrolling TikTok as I watch videos of a stranger obsessing over copies of a film from decades ago in a format many people on TikTok have probably never even heard of, and you would be right. But the world sucks right now, and sometimes I need a parasocial bond with a random dude online collecting excessive amounts of videotapes to meet a goal that at the end of the day means nothing. This hasn’t stopped thousands from cheering him on, and I’ll be among the supporters until James Cameron himself comes along to celebrate T on V.