About

The Vacuum Challenge, also known as the Trash Bag Challenge, is an internet video challenge in which participants place themselves in a trash bag and suck all the air out with with a vacuum.

Origin

In 2003, the Exploritorium^[1] science museum uploaded a pdf of the experiment's instructions. On June 19th, 2007, YouTuber tropicalblu42 uploaded the first video of someone performing the experiment (shown below). The video has gained over 180,000 views in 12 years.

Spread

Since 2007, there have been numerous uploads on YouTube of classrooms and individuals performing the experiment. On February 4th, YouTube user cz9vf uploaded an example titled "Amanda in Trash Bag" (shown below, left). The video has gained over 142,000 views in ten years. In 2016, YouTubers began calling the experiment the "Trash Bag Challenge". On September 20th, YouTuber Ulises Films uploaded a trash bag challenge video which accumulated over 22,200 views in three years (shown below, right).

On May 19th, 2019, Many TikTok users began performing the challenge. TikTok user @Michaiah gained over 400 likes in two days with their trash bag challenge video (shown below, left). The next day, TikTok users @geophreigh and @savannah2727 uploaded their own variations (shown below, right).

Various Examples