Apple and Fork Game

About

The Apple and Fork Game, also known as the Apple and Fork Challenge or the Apple and Fork Trick, is a group challenge and social game where participants toss an apple, usually around a table of friends, who each try to pierce the apple with their fork. The apple then accumulates more and more forks as it goes around the table. The first evolution of the game was known as the "Apple and Fork Trick," whose earliest upload dates back to a 2007 YouTube video. The challenge received more attention most notably in 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021 across YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.

Origin

Origin of the Apple and Fork Trick

The earliest known form of the "Apple and Fork Game" was known as the "Apple and Fork Trick." On October 7th, 2007, YouTuber^[1] Fedor Karpelevitch uploaded a video titled, "Juggler catches apple on a fork." The video (shown below) shows a man with a long fork in his mouth catching an apple thrown by a child. The video received only 121 views and two likes over the course of 14 years.

The "Apple and Fork Trick" received more attention two years later, again on YouTube. On July 5th, 2009, YouTuber^[2] Ericsurf6 uploaded a video titled, "Apple and Fork Trick," which consisted of him putting a fork on his forearm and an apple in his hand, throwing up the apple and fork, and then catching the fork in his hand with the apple being pierced by it in one motion. The video (shown below) received roughly 175,000 views and 779 likes over the course of 12 years.

Origin of the "Apple and Fork Game"

On June 21st, 2014, YouTuber^[3] Fantashtic uploaded a video titled, "The Apple-Fork Game," which showed multiple friends sitting around a cafeteria table tossing an apple between themselves. They each pierce the apple with their fork and the apple accumulates more and more forks as it gets tossed around, making it harder and more awkward to pierce. The video (shown below) received roughly 20,800 views and 55 likes over the course of seven years.

Spread

In April 2019, another video surfaced of a group of friends tossing an apple with forks across a cafeteria table. The video was posted to Facebook^[4] on April 6th, 2021, by the page UNILAD (shown below) and received roughly 1 million views and 7,000 reactions over the course of two years.

The game received more attention on TikTok starting in October 2019. On October 31st, TikToker^[5] @gabeington posted a video of him and his friends doing it in a cafeteria. His video (shown below, left) received roughly 5.8 million plays and 1 million likes over the course of two years. On November 14th, 2019, TikToker^[6] @dcepeda21 uploaded another video of the game being played across a cafeteria table. His TikTok (shown below, right) received roughly 32.7 million plays and 3.4 million likes over the course of two years.

The trend remained popular throughout 2020 and received another surge of attention on TikTok in September 2021 after a video uploaded by user @samdietsch on September 18th, 2021, of her and her friends doing the game received attention. Her TikTok^[7] received roughly 2.8 million plays and 526,000 likes over the course of three days. Overall, the trend throughout the years has come to also involve other forkable foods such as potatoes,^[8] pears^[9] and watermelons.^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References