The latest challenge to sweep the internet is so dangerous and mindbogglingly stupid that it has many wondering if the social media does in fact make people stupider. The Tide Pod Challenge involves stuffing a Tide laundry detergent pod into your mouth and bitting down, chewing on it if you are really interested in proving your intensity. With the inevitable explosion of the various laundry cleaning products contained within the natural reaction is to spit out the contents while wondering why the hell you just did it, but by that point it is too late and as the burning sensations and vomiting begins panic ensues.
It shouldn’t take explanation to understand that laundry detergent isn’t food and that the Tide Pod Challenge is potentially deadly. Even swallowing the dissolvable packaging can cause neurological damage, let alone swallowing any of the detergents themselves. Would you drink bleach? The effects of ingesting the laundry liquid include severe vomiting, burns to the esophagus, severe breathing troubles, coma and in extreme cases death.
The challenge itself started of life as one of those joke memes where people on social media try to see the stupidest thing they can get people to do. This all seemed so crazy that a few comedy skits appeared around the web, satirical commentaries on the state of humanity and social media. Then people actually started doing it and the rest is history.
The colourful laundry pods have over the last few years been involved in the hospitalisation of young children (10,000 reports in the US in 2017) who have mistaken them for lollies. Procter & Gamble, the pods manufacturer, have even resorted to modifying the pods container to include a child proof latch, this has slowed the incidence of children ingesting the pods but it seems those pesky teenagers are not slowed by the latches. All jokes aside the challenge has become so common that YouTube has resorted to removing videos that feature people doing the challenge.
Presented for you viewing pleasure is the video evidence that the Tide Pod Challenge is in fact real, and even crazier than you might have believed. Now all we need to do is figure out how to stuff cloths in their mouths and teenagers might be half way to doing their own laundry. Sit back relax and prepare to wonder what the hell they are thinking?
The CollegeHumor Skit.
