There was Planking. There was also Gangnam Style, that Old Spice Guy, the Harlam Shake, Twerking and Hashtags. And now, we see pictures of giraffes, lots of them.
The Great Giraffe Challenge seems to be taking over the internet. Tens of thousands of people have accepted the challenge, it’s a simple riddle that goes like this:
It’s 3:00 am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors, It’s your parents and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?
Get the riddle wrong and you’re encouraged to be a good sport and voluntarily change your Facebook profile pic to a giraffe for three days. If you get it right, you’re congratulated for not being a giraffe. But where did this viral riddle come from? No one knows the exact origins for sure. However, New Zealand Vlogger, Andrew Strugnell, is responsible for uploading the video that has sparked the internet sensation. Believe it or not, the video was seen by over 50,000 people in less than two days.
The Great Giraffe Challenge has become an official internet meme (ideas or actions that spread virally), moving through chat rooms, trending on Yahoo, tweeted about on Twitter and being forwarded in emails. And of course, as with any sensation, there is going to be the inevitable backlash.
Thanks to Facebook and its ridiculous #giraffe, people are not only allowed poor grammar, but are now being punished for having good grammar
— Seth Bates (@sethbates) October 29, 2013
#Giraffe picture: A virus could be associated with #Facebook giraffe riddle http://t.co/udhpFgceoL via @examinercom
— Effie Orfanides (@LegendaryWriter) October 29, 2013
Agreed! Stupid. RT @braedenmayer: It's amazing what goes viral these days. #interesting #socialmedia #giraffe #dumb http://t.co/ncbYVZH40U
— Whitney Worthington (@worthystyle) October 29, 2013
So what’s the answer to the riddle? Sure, I could tell you. Sure, you could look it up. And, sure, you could probably make a claim that the supposed “correct” answer is not actually the right one. You’re just going to need to open your eyes and see for yourself.
Image via Wikipedia