Internet things, am I right?
Much like the head of the mythical Hydra, cutting one down merely causes two more to grow in its place.
Except, in the case of Internet things, the Hydra suffers from debilitating stupidity, and each new viral sensation is twice as dumb as the one it succeeded.
Take "Gallon Smashing."
Given mainstream media's memecide of the "Harlem Shake" (2013-2013), a new, even more pointless "video prank" was bound to appear in its wake.
And boy howdy does "Gallon Smashing" ever deliver.
In just one week, the original "Gallon Smash Prank!" has racked up over 250,000 views on YouTube and will undoubtedly spawn a myriad of increasingly low-rent imitations until the inevitable (courtesy of AnimalNY):
A CNN report two weeks from now about how this new fad called gallon smashing is very dangerous ("This Florida teenager slipped and suffered a leg contusion, missing two days of school!"), complete with man-on-the-street interviews of senior citizens dressing down the current generation of dumb kids.
Only that, in this particular instance, those senior citizens would be right on the money.
While most folks debating the merits of "Gallon Smashing" as an Internet thing conclude that, while idiotic, it still has a certain hilarious quality to it, to me it just seems incredibly wasteful.
The kids at theCHAIZYchannel claim they bought all the milk they spilled, and that the stores "had a good laugh about it," but, again, once the imitations start pouring in, will the knockoff "pranksters" promise to abide by the same code of conduct? Doubtful.
Oh, and, also, this thing is really, really dumb.
[video via theCHAIZYchannel]