Forbidden Snacks

Confirmed 82,700

About

Forbidden Snacks are a slang term given to household objects that appear as though they may be edible treats but are hazardous to consume. The term grew alongside the rise of the Tide POD Challenge memes to include other foods that look like they might be snacks.

Origin

On November 1st, 2017, Tumblr user @starship-one^[1] uploaded pictures of laundry pods, Dungeons and Dragons dice, a Himalayan salt lamp, and a bath bomb, calling them "forbidden snacks." The post gained over 149,000 notes (shown below).

Spread

The post was a major precursor to the Tide Pods Challenge meme, and future posts riffing on "forbidden snacks" would include Tide PODS. For example, on November 5th, Tumblr user ghettoinuyasha reblogged a picture of a Tide POD with the phrase "forbidden fruit,"^[2] gaining over 176,000 notes (shown below, left). On December 28th, Twitter user yuukisoba_^[3] uploaded a picture of Tide PODS in a thread about "forbidden snacks (shown below, right).

While Tide PODS became a staple of the "forbidden snacks" meme, other posts identified other inedible objects that appeared as though they might be tasty snacks. For example, on November 24th, 2017, Tumblr user jokeboyfriend^[4] reblogged a picture of colorful Nintendo DS styluses, which Tumblr user pkmutual (since deleted) had called a "forbidden snack," with the phrase "forbidden pocky." The post has gained over 88,000 notes (shown below, left). Another post by user lulurantis^[5] made a similar joke with a colorful bowl of pencil grips, gaining over 42,000 notes.

Online, a community began forming around the phrase and the idea of edible-looking items. On December 23rd, a definition for the term was submitted to Urban Dictionary. ^[6] On December 28th, an article about the meme was posted to blog 22 Words.^[7] On December 30th, the subreddit /r/forbiddensnacks^[8] was created and gained over 7,000 readers in a week.