What should Tide PODs be used for? DOING LAUNDRY. Nothing else.
Eating a Tide POD is a BAD IDEA, and we asked our friend @robgronkowski to help explain. pic.twitter.com/0JnFdhnsWZ
— Tide (@tide) January 12, 2018
At this point you’ve probably heard of it: The astoundingly dumb “Tide Pod Challenge.” Maybe, like me, you thought it was too damn moronic to be anything but a hoax. Surely no one older than 2 is actually that huge a dipshit.
As debunking site Snopes will tell you, it is real. Millennials and younger people—Generation Z to some—are recording themselves on video as they take a bite from a Tide detergent pod. It’s so appallingly stupid, Tide had to pay Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski to make the above video telling you exactly how stupid it is.
Perhaps unfairly, Gronk has been tagged in pop culture as being a big goofball in addition to being a gifted pro football player. It’s the kind of rep that also leads you to assume he’s not that bright.
But if Gronk knows that the Tide Pod Challenge is pure, unvarnished idiocy and managed to make some extra coin out of his PSA advising against it, then who’s the actual dumbass in this scenario? It isn’t Gronk.
He isn’t the only one desperately trying to get the word out before someone dies from Tide-induced diarrhea and vomiting (because yes, that’s exactly what could happen if you swallow the stuff), even though some people clearly think there’s an upside:
https://twitter.com/_worthsharing_/status/951871643382636545
I don't know. Maybe don't stop the teens who are dumb enough to take the Tide Pod Challenge.
— Regi Brittain (@RegiBrittain) January 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/SKEEerra/status/951958477991268352
Fuck you 2000 babies with your stupid ass tide pod challenge
— Summer (@sumschall) January 12, 2018
Just found out about this whole Tide pod challenge thing and it seems as if natural selection is getting very aggressive
— Nick (@Nicholas_Boeing) January 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/tylerxadair/status/951838340965429248
Millennials get a bad rap. They do! There are plenty of sensible, hard-working 20-30-somethings out there who would never for a moment consider biting into a Tide pod.
There’s a good chance they are also secure in themselves and not desperate for brief, passing viral attention on Youtube or Instagram, because that plus unmitigated stupidity is pretty much what’s behind the Tide Pod Challenge.
But hey, if you’re that desperate to snag your Darwin Award, to own yourself so hard you go to an early grave, sure. Ignore Tide’s warnings, ignore Gronk, and go for it, champ.