From TikTok Comments to an AI-Assisted Political Earworm

Reconstructing “My Little Bolu Ketan”

Abstract

This study reconstructs the circulation of “My Little Bolu Ketan,” also known through the wordplay “MBG–Mas Bahlil Ganteng,” as a TikTok-centred case of comment-to-song production, AI-assisted popular culture, creator amplification, and politically ambiguous humour. Using exploratory qualitative digital-trace reconstruction with a netnographic orientation, the study examines an audit corpus comprising the creator profile and exact TikTok sound object, embedded source-post metadata, twelve TikTok-origin comment fragments, a high-reach reaction trace, a public-figure response, and seven contemporaneous records published between 25 and 30 May 2026. The analysis identifies hyperbolic praise, culinary and phonetic wordplay, “kanda–dinda” role-play, affective ambivalence, and intertextual reference as the main discursive resources transformed into the audio. The sound’s visibility expanded through creator reaction, while its political meaning remained unstable across affection, ridicule, satire, and image promotion. The study also finds that same-day reports produced sharply different sound-reuse counts, demonstrating the need to preserve platform metrics as dated, source-specific snapshots. The paper contributes a transparent method for studying unstable TikTok phenomena and shows how participatory culture, AI-assisted media production, affective circulation, and vernacular political communication intersect in algorithmic societies.