Unexpected twist in viral cooking video leaves TikTok users baffled: 'You are not prepared'

You’d think that sudden viral fame would be a huge win for someone who only really started posting to TikTok a couple of months ago, but for Lindsey, it has been a “rollercoaster of emotions.”

The creator, who is known as @bakemeupbuttercup on social media, suddenly saw an influx of attention to her page after a stitch with one of her videos garnered more than 3 million views.

In the stitch, user @johncribati shared a few seconds of footage from one of Lindsey’s cooking tutorials about how to make a cheeseburger hand pie, which she described as a “fun twist on a classic meal.”

“I can not begin to explain what you are going to see when you visit the stitched video,” @johncribati said in his post about Lindsey’s video. “It’s not a jump scare or anything, but you are not prepared.”

When curious users clicked on Lindsey’s page, they were met with the familiar clip of the hand pie shown in @johncribati’s viral stitch, followed by footage of Lindsey wearing a cocker spaniel fursuit and gently explaining her cooking process.

Some commenters expressed genuine surprise, like the author Hank Green, who said it was “really really not what [he] was expecting,” a nod to her unique outfit. Others remarked about how truly happy Lindsey seemed in the video.

Still, the vast majority of comments on the stitch post — and later on a handful of Lindsey’s videos — were cruel.

“I’ve been on the internet for a long time, and as a furry for the past decade, no less … so I’m no stranger to hate comments, but … the barrage of terrible comments was pretty overwhelming, even for me,” Lindsey, who wished to have her last name withheld, told In The Know. “I’ve gotten comments telling me they’ll shoot me if they ever see me in person, [or] that they hope the costume catches fire while I’m wearing it.”

She had to filter comments on her TikToks and turn the “duet” function off on her posts because people kept sharing videos in which they would pretend to punch or otherwise hurt her.

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Though the Buttercup fursuit did have a bit of an uncanny valley effect on people who either aren’t familiar with the furry community or weren’t expecting to see this kind of content on a TikTok cooking video, Lindsey’s video is strikingly gentle and upbeat. Her demeanor was objectively warm, and she admitted that it was “disheartening” that so many people said they were afraid of what she was wearing.

She said she didn’t expect the hate to spread to the video uploaded just before the cheeseburger hand pie tutorial, in which she shared her delighted reaction to “meeting” Buttercup for the first time as she opened the box the costume came in.

Thankfully, some commenters came to her rescue.

“I was smiling so much and then I opened the comments, why are y’all so mean?” one viewer replied.

“Ya know, I’m going to be honest. My first instinct was to say something rude and catty, but seeing how happy she is made my heart happy,” one user said in a comment that was indicative of an eventual shift toward people being kind and supportive toward Lindsey. She said the transition was “heartwarming.”

Portraying Buttercup (and a few other characters) is a major part of Lindsey’s artistic identity and combines her two passions — performance and baking.

“I know the costume isn’t for everyone, but she really means a lot to me, and I strive to make her character warm and friendly and to make content that appeals to a broader audience,” she said. “Now that I’ve had time to reflect a bit … I remember that the average person just isn’t expecting a giant realistic dog costume in what seemed to be a normal cooking video.”

In the future, Lindsey said she’s going to stay focused on the positive side of things — balancing between silly and fun content while “actually sharing useful information.”

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