Doctors did what they knew would make every teenager in America take the Cinnamon Challenge: they warned teens not to do it, claiming it’s dangerous. Well, that’s as good as a dare for teenagers! Only a pansy would listen to a doctor at that age! Plus, whenever adults tell teenagers not to do something, it’s always only because it’s fun! Everybody knows that! I mean, come on: doctors always warn against drinking, smoking, drugs, sex, dangerous stunts, driving fast, playing violent video games, etc. We all know what that’s code for: fun. They just don’t want kids to have fun! So whenever a doctor warns teens not to do something, you can be sure that all the tough guys (or the ones who’d like to think they are tough, and feel a need to constantly prove it) will be taking the Cinnamon Challenge every weekend from now on! All right! (Even if it’s not fun, if it’s dangerous, teens will want to do it just to prove they’re tough.)
But seriously: Come on, doctors! Don’t you guys understand anything about teenagers yet? You used to be teenagers, didn’t you? So you ought to know! (Or were you cloned and grown in a pod until you were adult-sized?) If you want teenagers to stop doing something, get some lame square adult to say it’s really cool. So maybe doctors could come out and say something like: “Hey teens, you all know that drinking, smoking, smoking marijuana, driving fast, having sex, etc., is bad for you right? So why not take the Cinnamon Challenge instead? It’s the sure-fire way to have a good time doing something that’s super fun, cool, and above all, safe!” Then no self-respecting teenager would think it was in the least bit cool to do the Cinnamon Challenge! Are you kidding? Lame adults said it was cool and fun, so how could it be anything other than lame?
(BTW: My father told me that in the 1960s, the cool & hip thing for college kids to do was to go streaking. And then one night, Walter Cronkite reported on the CBS Evening News that the hot & hip thing for kids to do was to go streaking. And overnight, streaking ceased being cool, and everybody stopped doing it. As my father said: “For young people, whatever Walter Cronkite said was ‘in’ was automatically ‘out’!”)
Here’s the doctors’ dare:
