Jelly Bean Challenge / BeanBoozled

Submission 39,773

About

Jelly Bean Challenge is an online dare game in which the participant tries one or more jelly bean candies from Jelly Belly's novelty flavored products, namely "Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans" or "BeanBoozled," and shares the recorded footage of one's own reaction onto video-sharing websites like YouTube.

Origin

In 2005, American confectionery company Jelly Belly introduced a new line of jelly bean products branded Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans^[1], named after a fictional jelly bean-like product that appears in the Harry Potter universe, as part of the promotional marketing campaign for the fourth installment in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In keeping with the canonical description, each packaged unit is comprised of a mixture of the original Jelly Belly flavors and some new and unpleasant flavors disguised in original flavor colors (shown below, left). In 2008, Jelly Belly released a similar line of products called BeanBoozled^[2] with nearly a dozen of new, odd flavors (shown below, right)

Tasting Reaction Video

On January 5th, 2012, the earliest known instance of the Beanboozled tasting reaction video was uploaded by YouTuber i cannot wait for summer (shown below).

Spread

On August 6th, 2012, Smosh uploaded a video in which they try the candies that were mailed to them by a fan. (shown below). As of July 2015, the video has garnered nearly 4 million views.

As of July 2015, there are nearly 100,000 search results for "Jelly bean Challenge"^[3] and 265,000 results for "Bean boozled"^[4] on YouTube, with the two most popular instances drawn more than 11 million views (shown below).

On December 4, 2014, ImmortalHD, a member of the Let's Play collective The Creatures, uploaded a video in which he participates in the challenge while unboxing his shipment of Counter Strike: Global Offensive (shown below, left). On March 8th, 2015, ImmortalHD uploaded another video in which he tries the Jelly Bean Challenge once again (below, right). As of July 2015, the two videos have gathered over 950,000 and 260,000 views, respectively.

On March 8th, 2015, YouTuber Pewdiewpie uploaded his own take on the challenge, which has gained over 7.7 million views as of July 2015 (shown below).

The Board Game

Inspired by the success of the "Beanboozled" product, Jelly Belly subsequently launched an interactive board game centered around the concept. ^[5] The company has also created an online version of the game, in which a participant can spin a virtual roulette wheel to determine which flavor should be eaten.^[6]