The forbidden fruit is back at it again—but not in the washing machine. NSU may always be trying to put a saltwater spin on things, but president George Hanbury said that this time Sharks have gone too far.
Beginning with an unregistered organization called Shark Challengers, students have revamped the “Tide Pod Challenge,” where teens eat laundry detergent. In their version, not much has changed. Students are eating Tide pods, but doing it with their “fins up.”
“You know,” said Stuart “Stew” Ped, sophomore biology major and leader of the Shark Challengers, “Fins Up! Like when you put your hands up to show pride.”
Ped then demonstrated the university’s beloved sign.
No students have been hurt in the challenge thus far, many of them unable to get the pod in their mouth without the use of their hands. Still, NSU’s faculty, many of which are trained medical professionals and almost all having common sense, are very concerned about the trend. A spokesperson for the president’s office, Gerta B. Keddenme, made a statement to campus press on Jan. 22.
“Although President Hanbury literally cannot believe that students are actually doing this, he and the university want to make clear that this ‘challenge’ is not sponsored or supported by NSU,” she said.
Later that day, Hanbury sent a memorandum to the student body urging students to “use their heads” and “find some other way to promote the exponential potential of this fine educational establishment.”
“Not likely,” Ped responded when asked for a comment on the memorandum.
Not all students are behind the Shark Pod Challenge, however. Hava Brane, a senior psychology major, said that the challenge may be her least favorite thing about the university citing that students are risking their lives for a meme.
“It wasn’t, like, funny the first time and people keep doing it,” she said. “Like go read a book or walk around campus without shoes or something — something productive!”
