What will they come up with next? “They” in the previous sentence refers to unidentified people who obviously have too much time on their hands and amuse themselves by devising “challenges.”
One popular challenge popular a while back was the “saltine challenge.” The goal was to chew and swallow six salted saltine crackers in one minute or less without water or some other lubricant. I never tried the challenge myself, but I believe those who report that it’s not easy.
A related test, the “cinnamon challenge,” entails swallowing a tablespoon of ground cinnamon. According to Wikipedia, “some who attempt this challenge report that the cinnamon is especially unpleasant, and that its dust is comparable to pepper spray. Furthermore, the presence of the aldehyde cinnamal in the essential oil of the cinnamon powder often irritates the skin and mucous membranes, adding further difficulty to the challenge.” The section concludes by warning that the cinnamon challenge can be hazardous to your health.
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That warning, of course, is manna to young daredevils, who are forever looking for new worlds to conquer. One especially deadly challenge is subway surfing, documented by Howard Portnoy in 2013. Popularized in New York City, the dare involved hanging outside a subway train as it hurtled from one station to the next. Numerous fatalities resulted.
Most of the challenges out there are created to highlight the illusive invincibility of youth. Such as the coronavirus challenge, which received some attention in the early days of the pandemic. To complete the challenge, the person needed to lick the rim of a public toilet seat or a similar surface.
But a brand new challenge, though not dangerous, is baffling. It is called the “Pee Your Pants” challenge, and as the name suggests, the goal is to urinate in your clothes. As with so many other challenges, to “win” (if that is the correct word) you need to provide a video of yourself in the act.
According to a site called ScreenRant, the challenge originated on TikTok in April and is intended “as a parody of the other challenges that have gone viral on the internet in an attempt to show how pointless they are.” Yes, nothing better highlights the silliness of these many challenges than filming yourself wetting your pants.
