Is Anyone Actually Doing the Ice Cream Challenge?

Just… don’t.

Last year, the adults of the world flew into a panic over the Tide Pod and Momo challenges, despite the fact that, yeah, neither of those were really a thing; they were basically manufactured 'viral sensations' to trick baby boomers into tut-tutting about the internet and 'kids today'.

Well, I’m sorry to say that an even more horrifying challenge has emerged in their wake, and this one is at least real enough that there’s online footage of people doing the dastardly deed.

It’s called the #icecreamchallenge, though evil of this magnitude could never truly be put into words. It involves people going into supermarkets, grabbing unpurchased tubs of ice cream, licking the top layer, and then returning it to its original place on the freezer shelf.

It began in late June, when a video was posted to Twitter of a young woman licking a Blue Bell ice cream tub in a Texas Walmart. She has since been identified by police, but they declined to charge her with an adult crime because she’s under the age of 17. If they had, she would have faced up to 20 years in jail.

What kinda psychopathic behavior is this?! pic.twitter.com/T8AIdGpmuS

— Optimus Primal (@BlindDensetsu) June 29, 2019

Then another man was arrested in Louisiana last week for allegedly licking a punnet of ice cream and putting it back in the freezer (though he claims it was a joke, and that he only licked a tub he had already paid for).

And yet, despite facing the prospect of actual jail time, a few more people are getting in on the trend, with YouTuber Larz filming himself funnelling out ice cream by hand and then replacing it on the shelf too.

I love ice cream pic.twitter.com/CWA1aNBmJU

— LARZ (@GAYSHAWNMENDES) July 3, 2019

Instagrammer Shelley Golden did the same...

That Blue Bell ice cream girl has started something. 🤦🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/6tWRSW3MTQ

— Tunde, MPAS, PA-C (@GatorPA_) July 2, 2019

... though she later had to take down her Instagram page and post an apology to Facebook.

It does raise the question: Beyond these four examples, is anyone actually doing the #icecreamchallenge? Two of the apparent culprits are now claiming the bit was staged, while most of the videos online tied to the hashtag just show people good-naturedly buying ice cream.

how i like my ice cream #icecreamchallenge pic.twitter.com/MzXNL3xcH1

— Joaquin Suarez (@suarezjoaquinn) July 5, 2019

New ice cream challenge pic.twitter.com/XoWZvlnjsz

— Videos Unusual (@VideosUnusual) July 5, 2019

Either way, American supermarkets aren’t messing around, with some (jokingly?) increasing security in stores, while others are straight-up chaining the ice cream to keep people away.

These damn #icecream challenge idiots actually made buying ice cream, a challenge. Retailers are going to have to put the frozen food section next to the #gun cage. pic.twitter.com/baikYFa8Pr

— ItsNotYou...its me (@ActionJaxxon84) July 7, 2019

Please, Aussies, be better than the Americans.

Header Image: Fox & Twitter (BlindDensetsu)