Why Tide Pods ARE NOT Funny!

The New Year is upon us…and 2018 marks a time for a fresh start, a new beginning…and yes, NEW MEMES. Memes are the ways in which most people communicate their feelings in this world controlled by social media. They bring people together and are a way to reach out and make new friends.

And while lewd and sometimes flat-out stupid (which is why it is funny), even memes can “go too far”. The Tide Pod obsession is one of these things where it has gone too far and should just die…right here, and right now.

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• The Tide Pod Challenge:
  —-People all over are popping tide pods into their mouth for ‘fun‘ and calling it the tide-pod challenge. It causes choking, vomiting, and could actually lead to death. Where it started, no one is sure…but now this ‘challenge’ has been popping up all over YouTube, and the constant “popularizing” of the tide-pods as a meme has only made this situation worse.
  The chemicals in these pods cause burns…burns the skin in the mouth, the tongue, the throat and every news station has covered its effects and the number of deaths it has caused just this year alone. Yet the fad continues…why?

 

(Still searching for original artist- currently unknown)

• Furries encouraging bad behaviour:
  —It may not be our fandom alone (which is popularizing the pods) but we are a part of the problem at least within our own community. While I hate saying it this way, furries are often young and often highly impressionable. More and more furries are in that demographic of teenagers and young adults (like those participating in the tide pod challenge). There is often a need for attention or a want of being popular which is also very rampant within the fandom. So, for something as dangerous as the tide-pod-challenge to be presented as ‘funny’ and ‘cool’…well, it’s only encouraging bad behavior. Even popufurs have taken to making fun of the tide pod things and acting like they are delicious and it’s all for fun.
  Props are being made of giant tide pods…badges even, and YCH of a character eating the “forbidden fruit pod” have been circulating like mad. It’s all a dumb bandwagon that makes people want to take this challenge even more. It makes this behavior seem like it is ‘okay’. While I understand that hopping on popular memes makes for easy money (when it comes to art)…it doesn’t mean that it’s the ‘right’ thing to do. Especially when it means endorsing or encouraging something that can mean severe injury and/or death.

 

• Mods are right for banning it:
  —People have been complaining that many Furry groups are banning anything relating to tide-pods. They say that it’s going too far and that mods are being too strict. But, I side with the mods. With the threat that is the tide-pod-challenge, and in acknowledging how impressionable a lot of the fandom is…letting the fad and meme die by not allowing it in groups is actually the smart thing to do. Lessening the exposure is not meant to hurt artists or even deter normal conversation…but it’s more about letting the meme die out so that people will stop hurting themselves and getting dangerously sick because someone started this thing as a gag. Unfortunately most groups still DO allow tide-pod props, art, etc to be sold…but I say good on the ones that realize that this meme is in no way funny, and it needs to disappear.

 

• Darwanism:
  —You don’t need me to tell you that anyone that pops one of these into their mouth is an absolute idiot. Unless they are an infant, you know these things are toxic…and honestly, it really is just Darwanism at this point. These are poison! You will get sick, you could die! Yet you willingly bite into one for a few seconds of internet fame. I can only hope you never procreate if you thought that it was a good idea…
  Not only are you risking burns to the inside of your mouth…you are risking burns to your airways and everything else- if you don’t suffocate and die first.

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Like the fire challenge…this stuff is not a joke. It does not make anyone look cool, or funny. It does not make you famous…it’s dangerous, and people might mimic YOUR specific behavior and die as a result. That rests with those that keep spreading this stupid meme…that people die because this sort of thing is continuously encouraged.

As if 2017 was not toxic enough…2018 is not restoring my faith in humanity at all (as of right now). So to those making the tide props, selling the tide-pod fursonas, to those making tide-pod suits…just stop. YOU are part of the problem…and I only hope you figure this out so you can stop fanning the flames of something that has overstayed its welcome.