If the internet was a person, it would be the guy whose catchphrase was "hold my beer" - someone with a short memory, too much bravery, a very short life expectancy and who is unable to resist a challenge. Yes, it seems like as long as you call something a "challenge" earnestly enough, you can convince hapless bloggers to mud wrestle their own grandmothers, with no thought of the consequences. You might think I'm exaggerating, but dozens of people have been hospitalised or seriously injured as a result of their idiotic attempts to replicate some flash-in-the-pan trending fad. Recently, YouTube has even been forced to clamp down on "Tide Pod challenge" videos, after warnings from health officials that the dangerous stunt could lead to a health crisis. It's perhaps the first time that YouTube has moved to stop a viral challenge from spreading, but it's hardly the first time that people have hurt themselves. In case you've forgotten them, here's our comprehensive rundown of some of the stupidest challenges ever attempted.

1. The Tide Pod Challenge

Number one on the list is also the most recent: the Tide Pod challenge. Yes, it seems as though people really are eating plastic packets of laundry detergent to validate their online street cred, which is obviously a really, really bad idea, since the detergent contains a significant amount of bleach and other harmful chemicals. This craze has been deemed responsible for a high number of poisonings in the United States in the first quarter of 2018. Since January 1, a number of people rang the American Association of Poison Control Centres (AAPCC) to report they had poisoned themselves with Tide pods. The manufacturer has warned that pods: "should not be played with, whatever the circumstance, even if meant as a joke. Laundry pacs are made to clean clothes. Like all household cleaning products, they must be used properly and stored safely."

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2. The Cinnamon Challenge

The Cinnamon Challenge is one of the best-known examples, and also seems so innocuous. I mean, come on: cinnamon doesn't sound as if it would be hazardous, right? But then, after being offered a spoonful of the same spice that makes pastries so sweet, most folks turn into a red-eyed coughing mess, struggling not to vomit over themselves. The Cinnamon Challenge is also one of the oldest online challenges: the first example of the fad dates back to 2001, when it was played by Erik Goodladon on a site hosted by Michael Buffington. It saw a massive resurgence in late 2011 when Anna Diaz attempted it on her YouTube channel. Man, you'd think people would know better by now, right?

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3. The Gallon Challenge

The Gallon Challenge is pretty simple: the person attempting it is forced to drink a whole gallon of milk in one sitting. That's around four litres worth, in case your wondering, and yes, it's pretty inadvisable. The practice of chugging milk was first attempted by Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass gang back in 1999 and it has become more and more popular among high school and college students ever since. It's also incredibly difficult (but not outright impossible) to pull off, since the stomach can generally hold only half a gallon, and exceeding this capacity often triggers the gag reflex. How's that for lactose intolerance?

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4. The Fire Challenge

Just when you thought the human race couldn't get any more suicidally stupid, a trend like the Fire Challenge comes along and ends up chlorinating the gene pool some more. The Fire Challenge asks participants to douse themselves in lighter fluid and immolate themselves ... that's it. There's no trick to it, it's literally just a way to make people set themselves on fire. I wish I were joking. There have since been numerous videos of people doing this challenge and sustaining serious burns. Kids: don't pour nail polish remover on your chest and then set it alight. Just don't. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watchv=X1MBEAFLVLc]]

5. The Corn Drill Challenge

You know what's a difficult food to eat? Corn on the cob. It's slippery, hard to bite into and those little kernels always end up getting stuck in between your teeth. You know what makes it even harder? Attaching it to the end of a power drill and spinning it around. Yeah: that's never going to end well. The first iteration of this challenge appears to have been uploaded by Vinnie Mac in 2o12, and rather than go "that looks like a good way to send yourself to A&E" many others were inspired to attempt the same moronic feat.

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6. The Eraser Challenge

You wouldn't think that a pencil eraser could hurt, right? Well, this challenge will make you think again. The Eraser Challenge is a dare where the participant is forced to rub an eraser against their skin whilst reciting the English alphabet, and as it turns out, it really hurts after a while. The first Eraser Challenge video was uploaded to YouTube on March 25, 2012, by YouTuber, Rose Samples, and since then hundreds of other people have ended up pointlessly hurting themselves with everyday stationary. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watchv=q4QKNHmFfhU]]

7. The Cold Water Challenge

Now, I personally had no issue with the Ice Bucket Challenge: it was designed to raise awareness of ALS and you only had to get wet for a few moments. The Cold Water Challenge on the other hand, has no purpose whatsoever and bears a serious risk of hypothermia. The Cold Water Challenge asks people to jump naked (or near-naked) into a large pool of cold water during winter time, post the recorded video footage online and nominate other people. Seriously, if one of my friends genuinely nominated me to take a dip in a pond that was the same temperature as a penguins ass then I guarantee that we wouldn't be friends for much longer.

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8. The Condom Challenge

Some challenges are dumb, others are dangerous, and some are disgusting. But some very special examples are all three. The Condom Challenge certainly is. How could snorting a condom up through one nostril and pulling it out the other not be? The gross trick first gained popularity back in 2013 and since has managed to disgust millions of viewers. It's frankly a miracle that no-one has managed to get the contraceptives stuck inside their sinuses. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watchv=EPY3OaMqrSs]] But hey, not all internet challenges are bad news. In fact, most of them are just harmless fun. My advice is to avoid anything that involves fire, power drills, or freezing cold water. But if you're a die-hard Star Wars fan then you might want to do yourself a favour and check out two new memes spawned by the release of The Last Jedi: the Kylo Ren challenge and the Princess Leia challenge.

The recent craze that was the 'Tide Pod Challenge' was one of those things that is easy to laugh at and move on from, right up until you see how widespread its reach was. I first came across the ridiculous trend in early January, but by then it was in full swing, with enough of the detergent-chewing videos around to give us lengthy YouTube compilations of the 'best ones'. The challenge started off as a meme, with Twitter users joking about the fact that the laundry products look delicious, despite being clearly not. However, someone somewhere had the terrible idea that this would be even funnier if you were to film yourself actually biting into the soapy package. Surprisingly, the joke didn't wear thin, with thousands of teenagers biting into Tide Pods to join in on the craze. Honestly, it's hard not to worry about the future when you see videos like this: [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd0DKxNnaU5/]] In the last month, the American Association of Poison Control Centres (AAPCC) have reported a huge rise in calls they've received regarding tide pod poisoning, and the topic has been the focus of many news stories. After all, it's not often that internet challenges like this actually result in bodily harm. Now the story of a boy who ate three laundry detergent pods is making the rounds, with a video explaining how much harm he did to himself by taking part in the bewildering internet sensation. The clip tells the story of how a boy, referred to as 'JR', ended up in the hospital in January with respiratory distress, somnolence and emesis following his attempt at the challenge, going to details on how this affected his insides. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmibYliBOsE]] His mother told A&E staff that he had been gagging, vomiting and struggling to breathe for over half an hour. As with most taking part in the challenge, he had no intention of swallowing the detergent but was overcome by a burning sensation and numbness on his tongue immediately after biting into it. He began to cough, which only allowed some of the detergent to make its way down his throat, where it began burning, leaving him foaming at the mouth. His mother called the poison centre, then called an ambulance to their home. At the hospital, he was found to have a corroded oesophagus, which is just as bad as it sounds, as well as damaging his stomach. His situation was critical when the oxygen levels in his blood dropped as he struggled to breathe, his heart-rate doubling. He eventually lost consciousness but was saved by the quick intervention of medical staff. Now that the 17-year-old has come out of the situation alive and well, I'm sure his mom will be pretty angry with his behaviour. I did plenty of dumb things during my teens, but I don't think I ever got as far as ingesting cleaning products. Unfortunately, this kind of thing isn't that rare, as you can see in this list of the stupidest 'challenges' ever attempted on the internet.

While some teenagers are challenging politicians on gun control, other teenagers are doing ridiculous online 'challenges' in a bid for attention. It seemed like these trends hit peak stupidity with the 'Tide Pod Challenge,' in which people bit squishy detergent packets and spat out the soapy goo. But now there's a new disgusting craze: the 'Condom Challenge.' Participants snort a latex condom through their nostril, so that it slides down the back of their throat, and then they remove the contraceptive from their mouth. (And then, I assume, their parents feel great shame.)

In news that will not surprise you, doctors do not recommend snorting unwrapped condoms. Since the gross trend came surging back in popularity, health experts have weighed in, explaining why you should you pass on this dare. (Besides the fact that it's so dumb.) Obviously, there's a serious choking risk. If the condom gets stuck en route from your nostril to your mouth, it could block your airways, so that you are unable to breathe. Also, the rubber is coated with lubricant, which could cause irritation and even set off an allergic reaction. It is not a thing you should snort.

 

Bruce Y. Lee, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wrote an article about the challenge for Forbes Magazine. "Even if you manage to successfully pull the condom out through your mouth," writes Lee, " inhaling a condom up your nose would be very uncomfortable and potentially quite painful. Would it really be worth all that just to get more likes and views?" He has a point. The worst case scenario is that you hurt yourself, and the best case scenario is that you become famous for doing something stupid.

Lee goes on to cite a case report from the Journal of Medical Case Reports, in which a 26-year-old woman accidentally swallowed a condom while performing oral sex. Typically if you swallow a condom, it will just pass through your system. But in this young lady's case, a fragment of the condom became lodged in her appendix, and she subsequently developed appendicitis. Considering how great the risks are, deliberately snorting or swallowing a condom hardly seems worth it.

The challenge's appeal clearly lies in the danger and the shock value. But just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. Physician Dr. Joe Kosterich told Metro, "Although [inhaling a condom] is highly unlikely to be fatal it could trigger a coughing fit in some. The nasal linings could get irritated but this would be annoying rather than serious." He adds that if something goes horribly wrong , your trip to the E.R. will be pretty embarrassing. In fact, everything about this craze is pretty embarrassing.

So, teenagers, if you're not going to listen to your parents, hopefully you listen to these health experts. This challenge has no winners.

I mean you shouldn't need scientists and articles to tell you this, but you really, REALLY, should not be doing the "Tide Pod Challenge". For those of you who aren't too sure what I'm going on about, the Tide Pod Challenge is the latest craze to take the internet by storm and refers to people eating, and occasionally vaping, Tide Pods. Seriously, I am not joking. Honestly, if you thought that 2017 was weird, 2018 has started in an even weirder fashion. We may only be only one month into the year, but already people are calling for it to be cancelled in light of the latest ridiculous trend which could have potentially disastrous consequences. The American Association of Poison Control Centers says that there has been as many calls about 'intentional laundry packet exposure among 13-19 year-olds' in the first 15 days of 2018 than there was in the whole of 2016. According to the statistics from poison control centres across the country, there were 39 cases of exposure to laundry pods in 2016 and 53 in 2017. Off the back of the sheer amount of people adopting the challenge this year, I dread to think what the final figure will be for 2018. I know that most of you reading this article won't be tempted to eat a Tide Pod - as you're not idiots - but if you are, this is what will happen. Speaking to cincinatti.com, the Association of Poison Control Centers said: "The resulting health implications from misuse can be serious. Known potential effects include seizures, pulmonary edema, respiratory arrest, coma, and even death." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/xangirI/status/947280535201619968]] While it may seem completely ridiculous for people to eat a Tide Pod, it is something that is fairly common in young children. Due to the worries of infants eating the tablets, the company that produces Tide decided to add a bitter flavour to the outer coating of the capsules back in 2015. While this tactic was used to deter kids from consuming the pods, the company didn't think that they would have to battle the will of adults as well. The product was never intended to be eaten and they contain a horrific mix of chemicals that could leave you feeling very ill and could even end up killing you. Speaking about the worrying new trend, Jana L Anderson, a paediatric emergency doctor at the Mayo Clinic, explained the full run-down of what can happen to someone when they decide to chomp on a laundry capsule. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/The_Sass_Hole/status/946923975954886657]] Anderson says that as soon as someone begins to eat the capsule, they run the risk of irritating the membranes in their mouth, causing them to vomit. If swallowed, the detergent can then burn the oesophagus and stomach as well as causing "gastrointestinal distress." Even more worryingly, if the person inhales the detergent, it can lead to serious difficulties when trying to breathe to the point whereby a ventilator may be required. On top of that, if someone swallows enough detergent, or is a small child, then the consumption could be fatal. To put this into simple terms: do not eat Tide Pods as you might die.

As I get older, I'm finding it harder and harder to relate to teenagers. While I spent my teens, like many of us did, frustrated by the fact that no one understood me, I've come around to the other side by now. I once was certain that I would not become jaded like most adults, but it's hard not to become a little cynical when certain trends hit the mainstream of that age group. First, there were the fidget spinners (which I'm still a bit confused by) and then there were the likes of the porta potty challenge, in which teens across America tried to see how many people they could cram into one chemical toilet. The numbers kept racking up, until one cross country team somehow managed to fit in 40 people into just one porta potty. It's kind of impressive, but then again, it's a bit of a strange thing to go viral. Not satisfied to be done with it there, a new challenge has emerged that is even more stupid, known as the 'Tide Pod Challenge'. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wx1oIhnzjI]] The idea is that you put Tide's detergent pod in your mouth, bite down on the cleaning product and release the powdered detergent and liquid soap. No one is swallowing it, but getting it on your tongue is bad enough, given the reactions from many of these videos. It's thought to have originated from a video put out by College Humor in March 2017, called Don't Eat The Laundry Pods.  In the video, a student is tempted to eat tide pods and, even after researching how toxic they are, he still ends up chowing down on a bowl of them. Dr. Alfred Aleguas Jr., managing director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa, said if someone copied the video, they could find themselves in a "life-threatening" situation.

"Ending up in the emergency room is no joke," he said.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd0DKxNnaU5/]] In 2017, poison control centers received reports of more than 10,000 exposures to the highly-concentrated laundry detergent by children 5 and younger, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. The AAPCC also detailed the symptoms these children had, which could be the same for adults who ingest too much of it: "Some children who have gotten the product in their mouths have had excessive vomiting, wheezing and gasping. Some get very sleepy. Some have had breathing problems serious enough to need a ventilator to help them breathe. There have also been reports of corneal abrasions (scratches to the eyes) when the detergent gets into a child’s eyes." On Tide's website, they advise consumers to drink a glass of water or milk if a product is swallowed and immediately call the national poison hotline. “Our laundry pacs are a highly concentrated detergent meant to clean clothes," they said in an official statement. "They should not be played with, whatever the circumstance is, even if meant as a joke”. In addition to this, it's become a joke spreading across Twitter, although you've got to think that many of these people aren't serious enough to go through with it, as we have seen in the above videos. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/ricardojkay/status/945102401392037895]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/halsey/status/946171412330381312]] Needless to say: don't do this.