A TikToker Says He Faked The 'Porcelain Challenge' To Troll Boomers & It Totally Backfired
A TikTok creator says he's been booted off the platform for inventing the "porcelain challenge," a deliberately ridiculous trend that he designed as a parody of outrage culture.
Sebastian Durfee, who goes by @childprogeny on TikTok, launched the trend on Saturday with a video explaining his plan to "freak out" boomers with a fake "challenge" designed to upset the likes of Fox News.
In the video, he recommends that everyone start talking about how young people are "grinding up their parents' antique china into a fine powder and snorting it like cocaine." He doesn't tell people to do it, but simply recommends they talk about it.
"It can be funny," he says in the now-deleted video, which others have stitched into their own parodies.
@parasocial_anxiety #stitch with @childprogeny #vasehusband
We don't have any fine china at home to test this, but porcelain is made of clay and silica — stuff that will not get you high, as Durfee is seemingly aware.
Durfee's parody video reportedly blew up with over 570,000 views before TikTok slapped a warning on it and then removed it altogether.
Durfee says TikTok didn't get the joke, and he's been permanently banned from the platform over his posts. TikTok has not commented on the incident.
"I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find the sweet spot of manufacturing something that is blatantly false and have the receipts to prove it," Durfee told NBC News. "Anyone could look it up and find out where it started," he added. "But (it would) still be interesting enough that people will want to get in on it and help it spread."
He added that he came up with the idea after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned people about the so-called "NyQuil chicken" challenge last month.
Many users have posted about the porcelain challenge over the last week.
Some have been totally shocked that it's a thing.
@benblue01 Visit TikTok to discover videos!
Others have been issuing serious warnings about trying it at home.
@eli_orwhatever DO NOT SNORT PORCELAIN #donotsnortporcelain #porcelain #donotattempt #porcelainchallenge #notslay #iknowitsnotreal #EndlessJourney
Still, others are leaning into the parody and pretending it's a danger to their kids, in true mainstream TV news fashion.
@sewdoylie Secure your heirlooms and reign in your teens, y'all. My 5yo didn't need to overhear about snorting stuff while scrolling tiktok for funny videos 🙄 #porcelainchallenge
There are no reports of people actually trying this, but we're going to give you some advice: don't try snorting your china cups, your vase or your toilet bowl.
If you do, the boomers will never let it go!
This article's right-hand cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.