What is the viral Milk Crate challenge? Doctors urge people to stop it

What is the Milk Crate Challenge you ask? Recently if you have even an ounce of social media presence then you’d know what it is, but if you don’t here it is. Step by step, the participant walks up a pyramid of milk crates, inching closer to greatness or, in most case scenarios, a wipe-out viewed by millions with added bonus of a trip to the emergency room.

When the person falls and believe me, they mostly do, the hordes of people who’ve helped make the social media spectacle a viral phenomenon proceed to burst into a chorus of “Oh!” and “Ah!” as the pyramid is collapsing, the climber falls straight on a milk crate or even worse directly on the ground, to feel excruciating pain either way.

How this trend is going viral?

As for one Atlanta man, who flashed two thumbs up as he was halfway through his climb. A second later lost his control and he flew forward, crashed headfirst onto the grass. Kudos to him, he got up still flashing the double thumbs up to the camera-phone wielders who just couldn’t stop filming.  The largely catastrophic results shared by millions across social media and at least one tweeter proclaiming it to be “the funniest challenge since the ice bucket challenge.” have helped this challenge go viral.

Though many would consider the Milk Crate Challenge a viral trend, it is more of a viral public health hazard. Doctors are warning that the injuries from this challenge are putting increased stress on hospitals during this crucial time when emergency rooms are overwhelmed because of the surge in coronavirus infections. Though it’s tough to pinpoint the number of injuries and hospital visits related to the Milk Crate Challenge.

Why are doctors urging people to stop doing this viral challenge?

Shawn Anthony, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said that colleagues from across the country are reporting on online forums that they have seen participants with a wide range of injuries, including shoulder dislocations and rotator cuff tears, ACL and meniscus tears, broken wrists also even spinal-cord injuries.

Who started the viral Milk Crate challenge?

The birth of the Milk Crate Challenge is up in smoke, but the website Know Your Meme has pointed out a June 2011 video titled “Guy Falls Off 6 Milk Crates” which could be an inspiration for the challenge. From a single person from a Chicago resident posting the video to Facebook to the video being shared by two people in Columbus, Ohio, to getting posted on TikTok, where it garnered more than 5 million views in a single day.

That is how the Milk Crate Challenge rose to fame. Henry Schuitema, chief of emergency medicine at Jefferson Health in New Jersey, said that TikTok and other social media platforms are to blame for the viral spread of this challenge.

TikTok response regarding the viral Milk crate challenge: 

TikTok in a statement to The Washington Post said that it “prohibits content that promotes or glorifies dangerous acts.” We remove videos and redirect searches to our Community Guidelines to discourage such content,” the statement also said. “We encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behavior whether online or off.”

ESPN’s commentator Stephen A. Smith jokingly said on Monday that the challenge videos posed a greater public health threat than the coronavirus. “I challenge anybody — anybody on Earth — to find people dumber than these people,” exclaimed Smith, who was a guest host on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “What is wrong with these people? First, you drink the milk from the crates to get strong bones — then you fall off the crates to break them?!”

Even Snoop dog responds to this:

Snoop Dogg was critical of how the challenge, which mostly featured Black people falling from the crates and injuring themselves, had gone viral. “Why we love to see each other fall?” he wrote on Instagram accompanied by a facepalm emoji. Comedian Conan O’Brien has joked about how he needed federal officials to give the challenge a green signal before he went ahead with it. This tweet prompted the FDA to discourage people from taking the challenge.

Most of the videos shared were colossal fails and violent falls. Few have highlighted people who were able to complete the Milk Crate Challenge without breaking bones. A woman successfully climbed the Milk pyramid while wearing heels.

No one can predict how long this challenge will even go on, though it might be entertaining and fun to watch. It’d be better if people would stop hurting themselves. Well, it doesn’t look like anybody will be able to stop these people from doing the challenge either. Just try being safe, have fun but don’t take up this challenge and leave all your hopes on your Health Insurance.  

If you liked this article (or if it helped at all), leave a comment below or share it with friends, so they can also know about the Milk Crate Challenge.