Photo: Alex Aung of Myanmar: The guy who reportedly started it all
DUBAI: Among oddities of social media is its propensity for the extreme in the form of viral challenges – ice bucket, Big Box and what not.
Lately, another challenge, albeit one that proves to be so hair-raising anybody is free to doubt the mental state of those joining it, has been going viral; and it’s about letting these stinky, creepy, horrendous creation of God almighty make a playground of – of all places – your face for a selfie!
As if dodging flying cockroaches, so terrifying to most that even goose bumps get goose bumps when they hover over your head, was not enough!
Yup! Brings to mind a classic Claire Danes quote. The star of the recent Netflix hit, “Homeland,” caused an uproar back in 1999– among peace-loving, and probably over-acting Pinoys, at least – when Vogue quoted her as saying Manila was a “ghastly and weird” city that “smelled of cockroaches, with rats all over.”
Danes was in Manila at the time shooting “Broken Down Palace,” a drug-smuggling drama that was eventually banned from being shown in the Philippines for the cockroach remark.
The cockroach challenge was started by, according to various media reports, a guy in Myanmer named Alex Aung, who on April 20 this year, posted a photo of himself with a large cockroach on his face to his Facebook account and captioned it: “New challenge, Can you do this?”
Times of India reported that the fever caught on. “Several Facebook users started picking up the challenge and posted pictures, some of them putting the little creature inside their mouth as well,” it said.
Reports said the photo quickly went viral, having over 5,600 reactions and 18,000 shares as of press time.
Anyone up for the challenge?
