It’s called the “penny challenge” or the “outlet challenge,” a moronic new fad on TikTok that willfully damages electrical outlets and electrical systems.
For the challenge, TikTok users film themselves partially plugging in a phone charger so that there is a little space between the charge port and the outlet. In that tiny crevasse, the fad-follower drops in a penny, which does some science stuff and combusts in a flash of electricity. There are reports of damaged outlets, damaged electrical systems, even fires.
TikTok is the latest video-based social media app to take hold amongst the teenagers who run our popular culture. There’s a lot of random stuff, but most of it is comprised of teens executing TikTok-specific performances of dances or dares. I used to be a teen, believe it or not – and so did you, fellow old hater. We all remember the idiotic activities high-schoolers choose to use up time. It is a universal stupidity that transcends every generation and culture.
But holy smokes is this TikTok “penny outlet” thing fucking stupid. So much so that the Kissimmee Utility Authority has admonished guardians to beware their teens and TikTok-using tykes trying to replicate the fire new trend, reports Positively Osceola. It appears part of the appeal is goating, or watching someone do the stupid thing. I mean, as a child of the Jackass generation, I understand (though, of course, fully denounce) the impulse.
The KUA doesn’t want you, tireless guardians, to walk downstairs and find an electrical fire or even a big add scorch mark over an outlet, especially one paired with the dumbest possible explanation of how it happened.
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This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2020.