Nobody was actually into NyQuil chicken until the FDA made it a thing
An internet joke has turned into an actual trend thanks to an FDA warning
Aux Features Chicken
“NyQuil chicken” has been all over the internet this week. On one hand, this is good because we all need more absurdity in the news to balance out its typical levels of pure horror. On the other, it sucks because now the FDA has decided to turn what was just a dumb joke about a culinary monstrosity and help make it into an actual thing by warning against it.
To back up a bit, Nyquil chicken is exactly what it sounds like: A meme about cooking chicken in Nyquil. It was not something people were actually starting to eat all the time, and it wasn’t on the mainstream radar. That is, until the FDA released a warning last week that referenced the practice as being at the center of a dangerous “recent social media challenge.”
As Buzzfeed News’ Kelsey Weekman writes in an article about all of this, the FDA’s write-up led to mainstream news coverage and helped get “NyQuil chicken” trending on Twitter. Before this, though, it was an old gag that “has been internet folklore for years,” stemming from 4chan and eventually making its way to Reddit and a handful of “now-deleted TikToks from earlier this month in which people stitched themselves reacting with horror to those earlier viral videos, but did not make the chicken themselves.”
It wasn’t until the FDA warning and subsequent coverage that the fake trend became something people are actually searching social media for en masse. “There have been no reported deaths or illnesses from NyQuil chicken so far,” Weekman writes. “But a lot more people now know about it.”
There are shades of Tide Pod-eating, which also went from a thing to joke about to an actual trend, in all of this. To be fair, the internet—and TikTok challenges in particular—can be enormously stupid. But, it seems like a better idea to wait until the kids are actually out there stuffing their faces with sickly green chicken to ring the alarm bells.
If that time comes, remind the TikTokkers in your life that there are better, safer ways to consume chicken in unearthly forms.
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27 Comments
I was going to say, I could’ve sworn I heard some Internet chatter about cooking chicken in cold medicine some years ago.Also… “They call it souping. Is your teen drinking expired soup?”
The Takeout talked about it as a ‘trend’ in January. Seems they thought it was real.https://thetakeout.com/a-tiktok-user-poached-chicken-in-nyquil-1848338088
Old men in government prove (again) they’ve no idea how social mediums works.
Media.
Medias’es.
Madea.
The whole weird cooking hacks on the internet are just so fucking stupid. The crimes I’ve seen people commit against good steaks pains me.
Everybody knows you only cook steak with Benadryl.
Well duh, but don’t forget to season it first with crushed Tylenols and miralax
tip to make it really sing…swap out the Tylenols for Excedrin (which is acetaminophin, aspirin and caffeine) sprinkle in a drop or two of childrens cough syrup.
I vote for Nuprin. It’s tiny, yellow, different! (yes, I know Nuprin is just ibuprofen and the brand collapsed when generic ibuprofen became available at a much cheaper price).
Anyone who says “ANYONE BEING ABLE TO PUBLISH AND SHARE THEIR OWN CONTENT IS A WIN FOR HUMANITY AND CULTURE AND STUFF” needs to be forced to spend an hour looking up recipes on YouTube.
The main reason I want to be immortal is so that I can live long enough to find out if Barbra Streisand eventually becomes more famous for her arts career or for being the namesake of the Streisand Effect.
She has equal fame for both things, just with different groups of people.
Hence the “eventually.”
You mean there are people who haven’t seen Yentl? Actually, I’m surprised that movie hasn’t had a second wind due to the trans movement, although I don’t think sexual identity was the primary reason her character pretended to be a boy.
Not to mention the FDA is basically encouraging it by letting everyone know it will get you really high.
Like the original video makes it abundantly clear that this is a joke, lampshading it with things like “use about 4/3 of the bottle” and “cook for 5-30 minutes” and “talking about how sleepy the fumes make you”, but the FDA release gives it legitimacy.
Boy, I’d better tune in to my local news affiliate this evening to learn more about this disturbing new trend that may be killing our youth! Are the FDA to blame, or is social media? Guess I’ll find out more at 8.
Dont care. This is shit that thins the herd. Hopefully it doesnt overwhelm ERs significantly. This is like the tidepod bs, to the extent anyone was actually doing that. If your teenager or pre teen has gotten to 10 or 11 and somehow thinks putting tide pods in their mouth is a smart idea….they arent going to grow up to be a thoughtful considerate human being they are going to grow up to be recruited by whoever takes over from Roger Stone. Anyone cooking chicken in NyQuil is a fucking idiot. Thin the herd. Like after president dip shit suggesting injecting disinfectant to cure covid….the only reason that needed warnings is because ERs were already overwhelmed, otherwise…go ahead. If you are that fucking stupid i dont know what benefit you are serving society.
It’s funny, I was just reading about how Portland’s Voodoo Doughnut had to remove donuts containing Pepto-Bismal and NyQuil from their menu under health department orders. The dumb clickbait site I read it on said “accidentally” in the headline but it was very much on purpose. Pedialyte cocktails have been super hot at hipster brunch spots for a while now, so I guess this is the next logical step.
So this was just like the “smoking alcohol” and the “rainbow lipstick fellatio” epidemics plaguing our middle and high schools? Figures. Wish the FDA (or any federal agency) could figure out how to cut down on their consumption of bullets…
For god’s sake, people. Just drink a bottle of Robotussin and watch The Wall. Like an adult.
Oh god I hate that show. The pile on the drama so damn hard I always end up rooting for the people to lose everything.
I actually meant “Pink Floyd’s The Wall”, lol. Don’t take dissociatives and watch endurance-based game shows. That would indeed be stressful and weird.