As you scroll through the FYP, you’re bound to stumble across some couple content—whether it involves someone sneakily recording their significant other or a couple dancing to a trending audio. While most users firmly stand in the “couple content is cringe” camp, a subset of viewers (primarily those in relationships themselves) find this content endearing.
In the past week, it seems the tide has turned with the rise of PookieTok— a husband and wife duo going viral for their “Date Night” outfit videos. TikTok users have become instantly obsessed with Jett Puckett and how he treats his wife, Campbell Hunt Puckett, whom he affectionately calls “Pookie.”
“Taking Pookie to a new spot tonight with three other couples,” Jett says in a TikTok posted on January 15. “Pookie looks absolutely amazing… Good lord, I love the all-black.”
There has been an overwhelmingly positive response to almost every video of the pair. Users have even gone on to label Jett as “the blueprint” for a husband, dropping comments like “Where can I find one” and “I want one” under Campbell’s posts.
He even has his own (unofficial) catchphrase— “Pookie is looking absolutely fire today.”
Thousands of TikTok users have already introduced this quote into their everyday vernacular, using it to compliment someone’s appearance or outfit.
As Campbell and Jett continue to post couple content (including a trip to Paris over the New Year), internet users have become obsessed with uncovering the “Pookie lore.”
Campbell is a full-time creator— with a background in marketing and a stint as an air hostess. Jett currently works in mergers and acquisitions in the dental industry, having graduated with a Master of Business and Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016.
With the increasing interest in their personal lives, Campbell and Jett sat down and shared how they met in a TikTok.
“I walked up to the prettiest girl at a wine bar in Philadelphia and just started talking to her. Two days later, we were inseparable, and ten months later, we were engaged,” Jett begins. “At the time, I was a grad student, and Campbell was a flight attendant.”
Campbell then explains how she ended up being over an hour late for their first date due to a delayed flight she was working.
“Of course, I did wait, and she showed up. And thank God I waited because from that moment forward, we were inseparable,” Jett goes on to say.
After meeting in 2015, the couple were officially married in April 2018.
TikTok’s embrace of Jett, Campbell and the Pookie lore differs significantly from how users typically react to couple content.
It’s no secret that most of us get the ick when a couple pops up on our feeds. On TikTok, many users immediately hit the “not interested” button, whereas on Instagram, they might just go ahead and unfollow. Whether it’s fuelled by jealousy or simply a feeling of “too much information,” a fair share of viewers find it frustrating when a relationship is why someone goes viral.
Take TikToker @liliannawilde as an example. In August last year, Lilianna went viral when she posted a video capturing a “love surge” with her husband, Sean.
“We do this when one of us has like so much love in our limbs that we can’t contain it and feel like we are going to explode,” Lilianna explains. “So, Sean is having a love surge right now, and he is going to wrap around me and shake with the electricity of love until I catch it too and catch it too and start shaking… and then you explode with a love surge.”
Viewers had a visceral reaction, with many stitching the video visibly cringing.
While many dramatic responses were originally a joke, they soon turned vicious. Viewers bombarded Lilianna’s comment sections with all kinds of hate and criticism.
“It suddenly just crossed a line from a really funny internet meme where I can joke and laugh at myself to this place where people wanted genuine harm,” Liliana told Business Insider in an interview last year.
Considering the extreme reaction to the “love surge” TikTok, the type of “acceptable” couple content becomes increasingly apparent.
A quick scroll through Lilianna’s profile shows that most of her videos are with her husband, even before the whole “love surge” fiasco. Meanwhile, before Campbell’s viral moment, she seemed to mostly post videos alone— rating the Chik-fil-A menu and making transition TikToks. Jett would occasionally make an appearance, predominantly in vlogs and food reviews.
Now that Jett and Campbell have gone viral for their relationship, it’s understandable that she has redirected her content to be more couple-focused.
However, the difference between Lilianna and Campbell suggests that TikTok users are more receptive to relationship content when a person has already established an independent presence on the platform.
Instead of the content being solely relationship-focused, users react better when a creator introduces a new ‘character’ into their universe.
Of course, this type of couple content is even more palatable when presented in a familiar format.
As the trends on TikTok evolve, the OOTD has showcased its enduring popularity. From viral moments like Bama Rush to influencers like Alix Earle, the OOTD has proven indispensable in their rise on TikTok.
Users have become accustomed to seeing their favourite influencers sharing their outfits before heading out to various events. At the time of publication, #ootd has accumulated over 182 billion views on TikTok, with related hashtags like #ootw (outfits of the week) and #ootn (outfit of the night) at 947 million and 3 billion views, respectively.
The beauty of the OOTD lies in its versatility—it’s not necessarily a “couple’s activity” or native to relationship-adjacent content. With distance from the relationship, users can draw their own conclusions about the couple, making it more relatable and interesting to the viewers. While this often turns toxic, there is nothing TikTok users love more than speculation and sleuthing.
There are already some whispers of people trying to expose Jett and Campbell, with rumours about their prenup, family dynamics, and political standing swirling around Reddit and TikTok. With internet users bent on finding out whether something shady is going on, TikTok’s sentiment toward her might shift.
We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly—TikTok users rising to viral fame only to experience a sudden downfall weeks later. These cancellations are occasionally rooted in controversy. But, more often than not, TikTok users simply get sick of the creator and their newfound online fame. Gypsy Rose Blachard’s rapid rise and fall in public opinion is the latest case showing the volatile nature of social media influence.
As Campbell embraces couple content, there’s a chance that Pookie and her husband could experience a similar fate. However, considering the positive reception to her videos, she might just mark the beginning of a CoupleTok renaissance.
Campbell did not immediately respond to Centennial World‘s request for comment.