The 15 Dumbest Trends to Ever Go Viral on Social Media

Social media trends aren't all bad, but these are the dumbest and deadliest.

Published 8 months ago in Funny

Social media trends aren't all bad; the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge raised over $220 million around the world. But increasingly, it feels like every internet "challenge" is irritating and brainless.

Here are the 15 dumbest and deadliest trends to ever go viral on social media.

1
NyQuil Chicken
TikTok recipes can be suspect to say the least, and the viral NyQuil Chicken might be the worst of the bunch. It calls for using NyQuil sleep medication as a cooking sauce, but the trend can easily result in ingesting dangerous levels of the drug. This includes inhaling NyQuil vapors directly into the lungs while cooking.

2
The Milk Crate Challenge
The Milk Crate Challenge saw its participants climbing over mountains of stacked milk crates. The only problem is that completing it is essentially impossible. The challenge resulted in a nasty fall for just about every single person who tried to see it through.

3
The Coronavirus Challenge
Early 2020 was an odd time, and the Coronavirus Challenge was one of its strangest byproducts. In an attempt to give themselves the virus, participants filmed themselves licking the dirtiest surfaces they could find; usually their school bathroom toilets. Of course we now know that’s not how you contract coronavirus, but maybe that’s a good thing.
4
Chroming
Chroming is the practice of inhaling toxic substances in an attempt to get high. These include nail polish remover, hairspray, aerosol, deodorant, gasoline and more. Recently, an 11-year-old boy died after trying chroming at a sleepover. He is not the first child or teen to die from the practice.

5
The Kiki Challenge
The Kiki Challenge comes from the early days of TikTok, and involves participants stepping out of their moving cars to perform a dance to Drake’s song, “Kiki Do You Love Me,” before getting back into the driver’s seat. Needless to say, a moving car without a driver can cause problems, and many challenge attempts resulted in crashes and injuries.
6
The Benadryl Challenge
The Benadryl Challenge has its participants take up to 12 tablets of the antihistamine in order to induce hallucinations. At that dosage, it is more akin to poison, and multiple children and teens have succumbed to that poisoning.
7
Flex Seal
Flex Seal is a neat and powerful product, as some young TikTokers unfortunately discovered. This led to a few of them trying to make Flex Seal shoes by spraying it directly onto their feet. PSA: Don’t do that.

8
The Choking Game / The Blackout Challenge
One of the deadliest entries on this list, the Blackout Challenge involves choking someone into a state of unconsciousness… just because. Some reports claim it has taken the lives of over 20 children, many under the age of 12.
9
Gallon Smash
The gallon smash saw teenagers smashing gallons of milk in the isles of supermarkets, leading to a frustrating clean-up job for employees. Some teens did it as a protest against the milk industry, and others just did it to cause problems.
10
The Cinnamon Spoon Challenge
The cinnamon spoon challenge might be less harmful in the long term than some others on this list, but it’s just as dumb. The goal is to swallow an entire spoon full of powdered cinnamon without water, but seeing as that’s not possible, it leaves the participant choking and hacking on the spiced powder.

11
The Hot Water Challenge
This “challenge” is a weak disguise for assault, but it somehow convinced many teenagers that they should throw boiling hot water on their friends. This photo shows 15-year-old Kyland Clark, who was seriously burned as a victim of the “challenge.”
12
The 'Cha Cha Slide' TikTok Challenge.
We all know and love the “Cha Cha Slide” from our middle school dances, but this challenge had participants simulating the movement of the dance with their cars. The subsequent erratic and reckless driving resulted in many accidents.
13
Devious Licks
Citing the challenge as an excuse for vandalism, Devious Licks involved high school students breaking and stealing parts of their schools, often in the bathrooms.

14
The Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge
If you’ve ever wanted to look like Kylie Jenner, but can’t afford the lip filler, then the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge is for you. Just use suction on the inside of a shot glass until the resulting swelling does the job, and hope that it doesn’t cause immense pain, tissue damage or worse.
15
The Tide Pod Challenge
Perhaps the most infamous challenge in internet history, this trend pressured thousands to eat the bite-sized Tide laundry detergent pods. Needless to say, detergent is not edible, and many participants found themselves in the emergency room. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, eight children aged five and younger have died from Tide Pod poisoning.