https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSAV8CxQJ/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRC_VupEYck/?igsh=b3J2Z3Q1ZWF3cWt0
Format is showing vlog style video where people go in and tell the other person how good he looks and in this specific video reaction and energy of the next person make sit more cheering and fun.
Why it works: It causes pleasure and happy moment for the people to be part of and cheer the person thus all involve in.
Walk up to a real stranger in public, hand them one short piece of unearned delight, then stop talking and let their genuine reaction be the video. The creator's line is the entire contribution; everything worth watching after it comes from the other person.
The viewer is here for a hit of secondhand joy, which is the one emotion in this genre that costs nothing to feel. Nobody is being pranked, nobody is being humiliated, so there is no discomfort sitting on the other side of the scale. That is why these hold to the end, and why they get sent to people rather than merely liked. Passing one on makes the sender look kind, which is a much stronger sharing motive than being funny.
Retention comes from the outcome being genuinely unknown. A stranger's reaction cannot be written, so every second after the opener is unpredictable in a way scripted content never manages. Two of the three examples stack a second layer of uncertainty on top: the fake out opener reads as a threat for half a second before resolving into a compliment, and the age question opens a gap the viewer needs closed. Then the stranger over delivers on their own, which is the entire reason to point a camera at a real person instead of writing a bit.
One thing the examples make clear: the format is wider than telling somebody they look good. The third example never pays a compliment at all. It opens on a guess my age exchange with a man who turns out to be 77, and becomes a bystander recognizing a former national champion gymnast and flatly refusing to believe it is him. What is common across all three is manufacturing one real moment of delight in public and then handing the video over, not the compliment specifically. Notice also how little the creator says: one or two sentences each time, then silence.