Kiki, What The Fluff : Viral challenges of 2018

This can be easily crowned the most-popular challenge of 2018. Rapper Drake released his album Scorpion in June, which featured the song In My Feelings. By July, the number became a monster hit thanks to the challenge, which featured videos of people stepping out of moving cars and dancing to the song. Besides, the aam junta, even celebs like Will Smith and Ciara couldn’t resist it either. 

However, it received brickbats from cops world over as some people got injured while attempting it. In India, people grooved in front of moving rickshaws, trains and bullock carts too.

Also known as ‘Flaunt your Wealth’ challenge, this has elite youth showing off their moneyed possessions ranging from cars, designer bags, phones, jewellery, gadgets, shoes, etc. with a morbid twist — they appear to have had a nasty fall face down. It began in Russia around September and spread to China, the US and European countries. Besides filthy rich young adults, Instagram influencers took up the challenge, making it viral.

Animal, especially dog lovers, indulged their four-legged companions in this cute challenge and was a joy to watch. It involves a sleight of hand trick, wherein you stand in front of your pet with a blanket, drop the latter and run away before your pawed pal sees you. Kinda like a hocus pocus act of disappearing in front of your furry friend whose confused reactions are priceless! This challenge was attempted on cats and kids, too.

This is perhaps the scariest and most dangerous challenge of all time, and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with eating momos (had it been one, it would have been delightful). It’s a form of cyberbullying that targeted kids across the globe. It started on Facebook and spread to mobile phones, through WhatsApp. Here, users were dared to contact a user named Momo, who encouraged children to perform violent acts that culminate into a suicide. The perpetrator’s account used an image of a scary-looking Japanese doll with large eyes and a wide mouth to pique children’s curiosity. This evil dare claimed the life of a 12-year-old girl in Argentina.

This year, K-pop band BTS was all the rage. They released a music video for their song, Idol in August and it transformed into a dance challenge, though the all-boy band didn’t officially announce it. It began when a video of band member J-Hope dancing to the choreography, surfaced online with the caption #IDOLCHALLENGE. Rest is history. This fun dance challenge had moves that need some serious practice.

Neymar Jr is known for his fancy footwork and for being a hottie. However, earlier this year, at the FIFA 2018 World Cup, the Brazilian star gained a reputation for his animated antics, overreacting when falling or getting knocked over dramatically. He became the most imitated player of the tournament, getting people across the world rolling the way he does, spurring the Neymar Challenge. And the results that were posted on social media were downright funny!