A Child Culture Guide for Disconnected Adults: Is the FDA to Blame for Chicken NyQuil?
Dear Food and Drug Administration, You should start asking me what is true and what is fiction among teenagers before sending warnings. This week’s real events: Chinese teenagers pretending to go to an American high school, a political rapper redefining the concept of cowering, and a video game critic taking huge risks. This Week’s Fake: NyQuil Chicken.
The triumphant return of NyQuil chicken
This week, the Food and Drug Administration released an urgent message to America’s parents warning of a “recent social media video challenge” that is “encouraging people to cook chicken at NyQuil.”
The FDA says you should talk to your kids about the importance of not cooking with over-the-counter drugs. But I advise parents not to worry about this at all. Instead, make sure your child is doing their homework. That’s why:
- There is no “social media challenge” involving the NyQuil chicken. There have been several TikTok accounts that have reacted to a rather old 4Chan video of someone boiling chicken in NyQuil as funny/weird. All reactions were mostly “rude!” not “you should try this”. But even those videos aren’t on TikTok right now (although you can search Twitter for them ).
- This unfashionable trend is not new. I wrote about it in January and it was at least five years old then.
- Even if it were a “challenge”, very few people would bother to cook chicken in NyQuil and I can’t imagine anyone eating it. It would be absolutely disgusting in taste and smell.
- By warning of a trend that isn’t happening, the FDA has created a trend. It is now being reported by hundreds, maybe thousands, of news organizations , most of which go along with the FDA’s bogus notion that it is a “challenge” that people actively participate in, and countless people are searching for the term. Check out Google Trends . That big spike on the right is when the FDA issued the warning. The big splash on the left is the last time this hoax was trending.
- Shouldn’t the FDA be rating meat or something instead of making parents nervous about imaginary things? Shouldn’t the people at the FDA be smart enough not to fall for that trap?
Grandma rap scared the whole country
Linda Paulson is an 80-year-old woman running for the Utah Senate. She loves traditional families, god, guns and online bars. In an effort to reach out to the youth in her neighborhood, Paulson released a rap video this week . This is far from what children call “fire.” Over a slow-motion riff taken from Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”, Paulson throws in clumsy rhymes (and non-rhymes) that are worse than anything you’d come to think of as the worst you’ve ever heard.
Of course, it went viral: liberals rushed to post a bunch of insults from all platforms, and a few conservatives actually pretended to think it was good or funny, or at least said no one should make fun of an old woman.
My question is: does the resulting virality mean the ad worked or failed? Is Paulson an idiot trying to grab the attention of the youth with something that no one under 85 would like, or is she a genius at getting the attention of every young person in her area, even if it’s just to lure her in? We’ll see in November. Paulson’s victory is apparently considered highly unlikely, but it’s possible her “rap” will change the power structure in Utah’s 12th district.
Chinese teenagers use Ikea to recreate an American high school
According to sinologists from Vice, the hottest trend among hipster teenagers in China is called Meigaofeng, which means “American school fashion” in English. The move is to post pictures of you posing in front of blue Ikea lockers because they look like high school lockers. The dress code is a modified form of private school – you’re doing everything right if you look like extras from Gossip Girl. There are reportedly enough poseurs to be banned from IKEA in China. There is something absolutely mesmerizing about the fact that young people from China gather in a store in Sweden to recreate the image of teenagers from films set in America. There are so many levels.
Chinese influencers also like to be photographed in front of Costco in Shanghai , dressed in American clothes and posing next to beautiful cars. They’re trying to evoke the LA lifestyle, but I’ve been here at Costco; pictures from China are much more glamorous, I promise.
Viral Video of the Week: New VideogameDunkey Company
Videogamedunkey’s latest video on YouTube has been viewed by over two million people in just one day. Dunky isn’t reviewing some new game. Instead, he announces the formation of a new game publishing company. In the video, Dankey touts his track record as a game reviewer and promises that BigMode games will serve as a “seal of approval” for independent game developers and “publish some of the best games”. Okay, but isn’t that what every video game publisher is trying to do? Is there any intention among them to publish only the worst games? ( Insert Square Enix joke here. )
Over the past 11 years, VGDunkey has built a fan base of over 7 million YouTube subscribers through honest, insightful and funny game critiques. He has integrity and clout with gamers, so maybe he ‘s the perfect person to build a quality indie game publishing company. On the other hand, the wastebasket of history is overflowing with film critics who thought, “How difficult was it to shoot?” and not all of them were François Truffaut. But perhaps more importantly, in my experience, the people who share the strongest views on video games are almost always clueless about the video game business . So stay tuned for updates in the coming months – Danki is going to be publicly tested by fire.