Latest Web Challenge has Parents Throwing Cheese at Babies

I am totally and completely over YouTube challenges.

Apart from the Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014, which ended up raising a ton of money and awareness for the ALS Foundation, most challenges are either completely stupid or dangerous.

And call me crazy, but I’m not into making stupid or dangerous famous.

Of course, it doesn’t matter how done I am with internet challenges. They’re still going to crop up, and people are still going to do them in the hopes that they, too, will go viral and reap all of the awards of internet stardom – whatever that is.

The challenge of this week is known as the “cheesed challenge.”

Anyone with a baby can participate in this challenge. You simply approach the tot who is minding his or her own business (i.e. existing), throw a slice of cheese at his or her face – and hope it sticks.

Oh, of course, you need to be recording all of this so that you can capture the child’s reaction and plaster it all over YouTube, Twitter and every other social media network you can find.

According to Inside Edition, the challenge began when a Michigan dad began posting videos of himself throwing cheese on his toddler son, Charlie – who, quite frankly, looks terrified of the cheese slice in the father’s later videos.

Since then, hundreds of parents and older siblings have loaded similar videos. In some of these instances, the babies laugh – and others simply eat the cheese.

Still others look startled and some even cry. And why wouldn’t they? The person they’re supposed to be able to trust most in the world lobbed a piece of cheese at them.

I come from a pranking family. I’ve been the butt of a few really good pranks and have delivered some really good ones, too. I can appreciate a good prank, and you probably can too. But a baby? A baby can’t.

A baby doesn’t understand that it’s just a joke and that it’s harmless. Babies just see mom and dad being mean, and being mean to your baby for a laugh they can’t partake in is just messed up.

I can’t stop parents from doing this challenge, but I urge anyone thinking of partaking in this stupidity to consider this: Would you like to be pelted with food for an unknown reason?

If the answer is no, maybe don’t do it to your kid.

What do you think of the cheesed challenge? Is it harmless fun or mean and dumb? Let us know in the comments.