15 Strange Internet Challenges That Somehow Became Huge Trends in Nevada

Future historians will surely be confused when they discover what went viral online. Why were millions of people eating marshmallows until they choked and freezing themselves with ice buckets?

Because it was the 2010s, and that’s how the internet worked.

These are some of the strangest internet challenges that Nevadans and Americans across the country participated in.

The Cinnamon Challenge

The Cinnamon Challenge was basically a guaranteed coughing fit disguised as a fun dare.

The goal: swallow a spoonful of cinnamon without water.

The result: looking like a fire-breathing dragon who deeply regretted their life choices.

Videos always started the same. A confident teen grins at the camera, scoops up the cinnamon, and swallows. Five seconds later, they’re hacking, gagging, and spewing cinnamon dust like a broken leaf blower.

Doctors warned about choking and lung damage, but that only made the challenge more tempting.

For a brief time, half the internet was spitting cinnamon onto kitchen counters.

The Tide Pod Challenge

For reasons no sane person can explain, teens started biting into laundry pods. Bright, colorful, and candy-like, they looked tempting.

The problem? They were filled with soap.

Videos went viral of people gagging on detergent. Stores locked pods behind plastic cases. News anchors did dramatic warnings.

Even Procter & Gamble, Tide’s parent company, had to tweet “Don’t eat laundry detergent.”

Nobody really thought eating Tide Pods was gourmet dining, but the internet made it a joke so big that people actually tried it.

The Tide Pod Challenge will forever be remembered as the low point in human snack innovation.

The Ice Bucket Challenge

Unlike most internet stunts, this one actually did some good. The Ice Bucket Challenge had people dump freezing water over their heads to raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research.

What made it go viral was the drama.

People shrieked, danced, and ran around like penguins in Antarctica. Then they got to call out their friends, forcing them into the same chilly fate.

Celebrities, athletes, and even your uncle with the world’s smallest backyard joined in.

Bill Gates engineered a full contraption. Oprah screamed like she saw a ghost. Everyone was suddenly obsessed with ice cubes.

It was silly, shocking, and, for once, a viral trend that left the world better.

The Mannequin Challenge

This one was art in motion, except the art was everyone standing perfectly still while a camera panned through the room.

Usually, Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles” played in the background, and people froze mid-bite, mid-laugh, or mid-air.

The challenge was everywhere. Classrooms froze. Football teams froze. Celebrities froze. Even Hillary Clinton tried it on her campaign plane.

Done well, it looked like a living wax museum.

Done badly, it looked like someone forgot to hit play.

For a short time, standing still was peak internet cool.

The Gallon Milk Challenge

The mission: drink a gallon of milk in under an hour.

The outcome: an entire generation of carpets permanently ruined.

Humans aren’t built to chug that much dairy. Videos usually ended with people groaning, collapsing, and producing a lactose explosion nobody wanted to witness.

Yet high school kids everywhere tried it anyway, treating gallons of 2% like Olympic torches.

It was gross, pointless, and unforgettable.

Dairy farmers probably loved the sales, though.

The Harlem Shake

The Harlem Shake was pure chaos in video form. One person danced alone, usually wearing a helmet or random costume, while everyone else acted normal.

Then the beat dropped, and suddenly the room exploded with people in wigs, masks, and inflatable costumes losing their minds.

Workplaces, classrooms, and even fire departments filmed their own. The stranger the props, the better.

It was less about dancing and more about who could find the weirdest costume in 30 seconds.

It was random. It was ridiculous. And it was perfect.

The Planking Challenge

Planking was the fine art of lying face-down in the weirdest place possible. Stairs, counters, playground equipment, even the hood of your friend’s Honda Civic.

If it was flat, people planked on it.

The straighter your body, the better. Bonus points if you looked like a fallen mannequin in a public place.

It was silly, it was harmless, and it made zero sense.

Still, for a few years, social media feeds were full of people practicing the noble art of human pancakes.

The Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge

Want plump lips like Kylie Jenner? All you needed was a shot glass. Just stick your lips inside, suck out the air, and let the vacuum do its thing.

The results: painfully swollen lips, bruises, and teenagers walking around looking like cartoon characters who lost a fight with a bee.

Dermatologists begged people to stop. Parents confiscated glassware.

But for a hot second, looking like you got stung by ten hornets was the trendiest look around.

The Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge is proof that beauty hacks aren’t always worth it.

The Invisible Box Challenge

The idea was simple: pretend to step onto an invisible box and trick people into thinking you were floating.

The problem? Most people looked like they were falling off a curb.

A few gymnasts and athletes nailed it, and their videos went viral. The rest of the world flailed, stumbled, and landed on their faces.

The fails were even more popular than the successes, which is pretty much the internet in a nutshell.

The Ice Cream Licking Challenge

This trend made grocery stores a horror show. People filmed themselves opening ice cream tubs, licking the top layer, then putting them back in the freezer.

Shoppers were horrified. Stores started locking down ice cream aisles. A few people even got arrested.

It was the rare viral trend where nobody laughed.

If anything, it made people eye every pint of ice cream with suspicion.

The Bottle Cap Challenge

Martial artists made it look cool. Spin around, deliver a perfect kick, and send the bottle cap flying off without tipping the bottle.

Celebrities jumped on board.

Jason Statham nailed it. John Mayer gave it a shot. Ordinary folks mostly bruised their shins and sent bottles rolling across the kitchen.

It was short-lived, but at least it gave us an excuse to pretend we were action stars for a week.

The Ghost Pepper Challenge

The Ghost Pepper Challenge was simple: eat one of the world’s hottest peppers and try not to cry on camera.

Spoiler alert: everyone cried.

Videos showed people sweating, gasping, and chugging milk like their lives depended on it. Some even sprinted around the room in sheer panic.

It was painful to watch, but you couldn’t look away.

The internet has always loved suffering, especially when it’s someone else’s.

The Duct Tape Challenge

In this trend, people wrapped their friends in duct tape and filmed them trying to escape.

Sometimes it was funny. Most of the time it was dangerous.

People fell, got injured, or realized that duct tape is really, really strong.

It was one of those challenges that went viral fast but died even faster, probably because parents saw the medical bills.

The Chubby Bunny Challenge

Grab a bag of marshmallows, stuff as many in your mouth as possible, and try to say “chubby bunny.” That was the entire challenge.

The results were hilarious, messy, and borderline unsafe.

By the end, people looked like hamsters hoarding candy.

It was silly, it was cheap, and it’s still one of the most legendary party games of the internet age.

The No Mirror Makeup Challenge

Beauty vloggers applied full faces of makeup without using mirrors, and the results were unpredictable masterpieces.

Some managed decent looks. Others ended up looking like Picasso paintings.