There’s a viral video of the Kardashians “crying” at the Met Gala that’s been doing its rounds on TikTok, and we can’t tear our eyes away from it.

The Kardashian clan showed up en masse to the inaugural event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City, with Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, and Kylie, Kris and Kendall Jenner, all putting their best fashion foot forward respectively – together with Kim’s partner comedian/actor Pete Davidson, and Kourtney’s husband, musician Travis Barker. 

Ostensibly, they all seemed to be having a great time (despite rather eclectic outfits ranging from a wedding dress – Kylie – to Kim’s gown once worn by Marilyn Monroe).

So what we were not prepared for was a video of the whole Kardashian contingent bawling their eyes out on the red carpet, all aside from Pete who seemed his usual, huge-grinned self. 

In a TikTok video, user Ray Swift, or @rayxswift – a relative TikTok influencer with his 744k+ followers – has shared a video of different clips of Met Gala footage where they all have what looks like a scrunched-up crying face – all with the same telltale pouty, sulking mouth and downtrodden expression.

What the hell was going on?! We’ve all seen fake-crying in movies, but this is a whole different affair. Even Travis was doing it! 

“Why were all the Kardashians so sad at the MET GALA,” Ray captioned his post.

And TikTok users were absolutely loving the video. “I AM HOLLERINGGGGGG,” wrote one person in the comments section below the post. “They all got into a fight before the red carpet,” joked another user, while a third comment read: “I’m crying from laughing so hard at this”. It has received over one million views, and almost three thousand comments at time of writing.

And it has definitely not escaped attention that Pete still looks like his happy self, with comments such as: “pete smiling at the end was the cherry on top” [sic] and “Pete Davidson looked like he was doing just fine”.

However, it seems not all is as it seems (thank the Lord, because that would have been prettty awkward for the Met Gala organisers). The video was actually created using the “crying filter”, as part of a viral trend on the TikTok platform (the hashtag has over 23 million views and counting), which distorts faces in a way that makes them look like they’re doing a dramatic ugly cry. 

Which is great, because we now feel a lot less guilty about finding it HILARIOUS. Curiously, the filter doesn’t seem to work on Pete’s face – which is why he has emerged unscathed.

It looks like we’re not the only ones finding it funny. Kylie Jenner, who has recently been dropping some serious hints about her baby son’s name FYI, shared the TikTok video on her own Instagram Story, completely with four laughing-crying emojis which looks considerably cheerier than she does in the (faked) video).

The Kardashians aren’t the only celebrities who’ve received the #cryingfilter treatment on Ray’s Instagram account. He’s since posted a montage of celebrities titled “Making photos sad Pt 1”, featuring the likes of Billie Eilish, Addison Rae, FINNEAS, Lizzo and of course some more of the Kardashians (Kendall & Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian). 

The magic of filters, eh! Seems like they’re not just good for beautifying and turning users into cartoon versions of themselves – they can also (with freaky realism) transform a person’s whole mood.  Actually a bit harrowing, when you think about it.

Anyway, as long as everyone found it funny and no one was actually crying, we’re happy.