People Are Throwing Slices of Cheese at Children in the Latest Social Media Craze

Parents will do just about anything for a laugh these days on social media—even if it means literally throwing food at or on your child.

The newest social craze is…okay, it’s pretty funny. But it’s strange, to say the least. Parents are literally video-taping themselves throwing slices of American cheese at their babies and watching it stick to their faces.

The cheese lands right on their head—and the baby’s facial expressions and reactions after totally not suspecting that to happen—are absolutely priceless. Some are genuinely shocked and aren’t sure what to do, and some of them don’t think anything is weird and just eat the cheese. These kids are our kindred spirits.

It all started when one Twitter user deemed @unclehxlmes saw a video of someone throwing a piece of cheese at a child in a Facebook video. He thought it was hilarious and decided to do the same thing, and uploaded a video of him doing it.

“He uploaded a video of himself approaching his toddler brother while holding an ominous slice of cheese,” FOX reported. “In a scene that could be described as a low-budget Hitchcock film, the seemingly terrified baby braces himself as his older brother flings the dairy product on his face.”

To see the hilarious moment, check out the video below.

Though the user has since deleted the video, the post had originally racked up 8.3 million views, with 258,000 retweets and 758,000 likes. And so began the “cheesed challenge.”

He only deleted it because he kind of freaked when he realized how much attention it was getting. “It genuinely got way out of hand,” he wrote. “I did not expect it to get onto these news articles and turn into a trend.”

Some of the attention was good; many people were able to find the humor in “cheesing” a toddler and couldn’t get enough of watching people sling the square on baby’s faces.

Of course, there was some negative feedback to the challenge as well. “This has to be one of the dumbest things I have seen,” one Twitter user wrote. “This isn’t even funny. I never would have thought throwing something at my children’s face would be amusing. What next, melted cheese?”

“If you have thrown a piece of cheese at your baby or toddler and put a picture up of it on the internet, you are an idiot,” someone else commented about the trend.

Okay, sure, yes, it might be a little strange when you think about it, and we probably shouldn’t be promoting throwing anything at a young child. But then again—we all need to laugh once in a while, and if the kid isn’t getting hurt, then why not, right?

If you secretly love this unusual challenge that completely blew up the internet, check out this hilarious compilation of cheese-slinging parents and their children’s’ priceless reactions below.

What are your feelings on the “cheesed challenge”? Would you participate in throwing a piece of cheddar on your kid’s face—or are you against it? Which kid is your favorite?