By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The integrity of the ice bucket challenge came into question during the later months of the trend with posts like this. Do you see any ice cubes in the water or any flinching?
One of the more benign internet fads of the early 2010s was planking. Planking was the challenge of lying as stiff as a board in some of the most unique public places.
Fame is just a click away in 2019.
Doing the right thing at the right time can make you a sensation in U.S. America with the age of social media. There are so many platforms to share your creativity, artistic vision and daredevil skills.
All you have to do is create the right challenge or be the best at performing one and the next thing you know you are a viral hit. You will be trending in no time.
The latest attempt at fame without very much fortune is the licking ice cream challenge. The first victim of this nasty challenge is Blue Bell Ice Cream. They are one of the few distributors that still natural seal their ice cream. Therefore idiots can go into their local frozen food section and grab a gallon of Blue Bell. Then the fool will open the container and allow their tongue to gently caress the creamy top layer.
Local police departments across America are looking to prosecute perpetrators. Authorities want to deter copycats because it is a crime, it hurts consumer’s trust and it can spread diseases.
The licking ice cream challenge got me to thinking about all the dumb viral challenge over the past 10 years. It was about 10 years ago I got caught up in the planking challenge. I planked at playgrounds, my office, church and even my bank.
It was fun and had some innocence to it. But one person did die in Europe for planking at a high-rise apartment.
Everybody wants to be the best at doing something that is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. People are willing to die over a moment of glory. Or they are just seeking attention.
Are you young people that bored? Do you need that much attention from social media? And are the pains, scars and hospital visits worth doing a challenge?
Here are my honorable mentions before we leap into the top 10: Car surfing, Kylie Jenner, condom, planking, bath salts and cucumber challenges.
10. Hot pepper challenge
First up is a challenge that could have been performed centuries before the internet was invented. I’m sure some guy dared another man to eat that hot pepper for some meager reward.
Fast forward to the internet/social media age, and a viral video fad started with this classic food challenge. The hot pepper challenge involves filming oneself while eating and swallowing a chili pepper that is high on the Scoville scale.
Something that seems so innocent and borderline tradition was amped up with people trying to gain views against millions of others. So people downed more peppers and tried to speed up the process.
That led to some health scares like in September 2016 when children from a school in Ohio were hospitalized after 40 of them ate a ghost pepper as part of a challenge and suffered apparently allergic reactions.
9. Gallon challenge
Chugging challenges has a long history too. So it was no surprise in 2016 the gallon challenge hit the scene. Instead of beer and alcohol, the beverages of choice were milk and water.
In this challenge, the process involves consuming a large amount of milk or water within a set period of time. A person is given 60 minutes to drink one gallon of whole milk or water without vomiting.
What makes this challenge so dumb and dangerous? The human body is not designed to take in that much liquid that quickly. Generally, the stomach can hold only half a gallon. Stretch receptors in the organ sense when its limit is reached, triggering a vomit reflex that swiftly empties the stomach. It is a great way to dilute your body’s sodium and stretch all your precious organs.
8. Duct tape challenge
I would never want to be in bondage. You won’t catch me volunteering to be placed in ropes, handcuffs or strong tape.
The duct tape challenge involves people wrapping someone up in duct tape. Sounds pretty simple. The person typically binds his hands and his feet. Then the person is taped to the wall or a chair. Then the individual wrapped in tape tries to escape.
The “best” part of this challenge is the person recording themselves trying to “escape the tape” and post the video online. Videos are often shared on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube.
Here comes the risk. In 2016, 14-year-old Skylar Fish participated in the duct tape challenge. He fell while trying to break free. He hit his head on a window frame and smashed into some concrete.
Fish crushed his left eye socket and experienced head trauma. The boy underwent several surgeries and his left eye will never be the same again.
7. “In My Feelings” challenge
Music artist Drake has had his share of Billboard chart toppers in the past few years. In 2018 “In My Feelings” gave birth to another hit and an internet challenge. Also known as the “KeKe” challenge, the task involves jumping out of a moving vehicle and dancing on the road. In the background playing is “In My Feeling.”
This challenge swept the world by storm with celebrities, adults and teens performing the stunt.
Police departments around the world tried to be proactive about the challenge by issuing warnings and dishing out fines. But that didn’t stop those seeking fame and attention.
Several people were run over, fined or endured bad injures. One American teen fractured her skull after attempting the challenge at a roundabout.
Turkish singer and actor Hulya Avsar shared a video on Instagram of her doing the challenge. The video, which racked up 3 million views, shows her dancing in the road before chasing after a moving car.
6. The eyeballing challenge
This next challenge became a pathetic trend perpetrated by adults. It started off as the vodka eyeballing challenge.
It is the practice of consuming vodka by pouring it into the eye sockets. Let’s get a little scientific. The reason for pouring a hard liquor down your sockets is for the adult beverage to be absorbed through the mucous membranes of the region into the bloodstream.
This became trendy around 2010 with hundreds of clips being uploaded to YouTube. The videos inspired several fools and modified versions of the challenge.
I don’t even have to note the health risks and dangers. Several people were hurt because of this challenge.
5. Falling star challenge
You ever had the dream that you’re falling? It wakes you up quickly with heavy breathing and some sweating.
I guess teenagers today are not having that nightmare as they execute the falling star challenge.
The physical action is a person just falling flat on his or her face. Even worse, the challenge gives a canvas to illustrate our materialistic values. The meme began as an unusual way to show off one’s wealth. My fellow U.S. Americans, we’re not alone with other countries jumping in on this trend.
The falling stars challenge rose to fame in Asia. Here is a visual of the meme, a person poses like they have fallen flat on their face usually next to a luxury car. The body is surrounded by other luxury contents and luxury bags all over the pavement.
This challenge is safer because it is a photo. When it graduates to video, get those emergency rooms and dental offices ready.
And I hope nobody gets robbed in the making of one of these silly pictures.
4. Tide Pod challenge
This is one of those times a company doesn’t want to be associated with something that gives them free publicity. One of the newest innovations in laundry has been pods that release refreshing cleaning agents into your clothes in the washing machine.
I guess some idiot saw these little plastic balls filled with washing detergent and wanted to give them a taste.
The next evolution toward the Tide Pod challenge was people daring a friend to drink or eat the pods.
Of course you have to record this interaction. This was some of the images you would see online during the peak of this challenge: Children eating the packets, cooking them in a frying pan, chewing them up and foaming from the mouth.
Can you say poison control? The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning to parents several years ago about the liquid laundry detergent packets.
Who knew children would be enticed by the brightly color pods? I had some idea: Back in the early 1990s, I tried to eat a handful of my mom’s scented potpourri. It looked like fresh trail mix from the Pacific Northwest.
3. Fire and hot water challenges
My dad and mom taught me a lot of things as a youth. But it came naturally for me to avoid fire and boiling water.
I guess about five years ago, people developed tougher skin or a natural cooling system to combat flames and steam. The fire and hot water challenges are real people. There are videos online to confirm how low people will go to get viral.
I shouldn’t have to warn you, but please don’t attempt either one of these challenges.
Let the story of Timiyah Landers serve as a warning of the dangers of playing with fire or boiling hot water. The 12-year-old Detroit girl was hospitalized with severe burns in 2018 after participating in the fire challenge.
Landers was hanging out with two friends at her house and she decided to mimic the challenge after learning about it on YouTube.
She rubbed herself down in medical alcohol and was lit on fire. She ended up with burns on nearly half of her body.
2. Cinnamon challenge
I’ve never desired to eat a chunk of ground tree bark before. But I do enjoy the flavor of cinnamon in many things. Cinnamon is delicious when added to things.
But in its pure form, cinnamon is ground tree bark. To ingest a heap of cinnamon at one time in a recipe for disaster.
The cinnamon challenge was a viral internet food challenge with the objective to film oneself eating a spoonful of ground cinnamon in under 60 seconds without drinking anything. If you survive or are not lying in a hospital bed, then upload the video to the internet.
For us who haven’t tried this idiotic challenge, the health risk derive from cinnamon coating your mouth, drying it out. The throat dries out as well, and let the coughing, gagging, vomiting and inhalation of cinnamon begin.
(photo by John Noonan)
1. Ice bucket challenge
Also known as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, this viral piece of gold took off in 2013 and lasted for a couple of years. Big-name celebrities, athletes and pop culture figures would pour a bucket of ice cold water on their heads to raise money for research on the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
What a noble cause and worthwhile venture to bring awareness. But this is America. It went from a sincere gesture to a publicity stunt and need for attention. Soon everybody was doing the ice bucket challenge just to get views on their channel or get some eyeball on their company.
Not as much money was raised for ALS that could have been and it got so bad people forgot to mention the organization or actually challenge someone else to do it.
I hope we can get back to the days when we had wholesome viral challenges rooted in fun and a purpose. Challenges should be entertaining but not as the cost of a life or limb. I pray commonsense becomes a trend again. Stop risking your life and others. Or at least be like the cast of the old MTV’s “Jackass” and get paid to do stupid stuff.
THOMAS SELLERS JR. is the editor of The Millington Star and both the sports editor and a weekly personal columnist for West 10 Media/Magic Valley Publishing. Contact him by phone at (901) 433-9138, by fax to (901) 529-7687 and by email to [email protected].
