The exploding watermelon stunt or exploding watermelon challenge involves wrapping rubber bands around a watermelon until the pressure of the rubber bands causes the watermelon to explode in a dramatic or spectacular fashion.
The exploding watermelon stunt or exploding watermelon challenge involves wrapping rubber bands around a watermelon until the pressure of the rubber bands causes the watermelon to explode in a dramatic or spectacular fashion.
On April 8, 2016, the website BuzzFeed streamed the stunt live on Facebook. [1] During the 45-minute stream, the event peaked at over 800,000 live watchers, and the resulting video of the event garnered millions of views.[2] The event was parodied a few days later on The Tonight Show.[3] The show had attempted the stunt in September 2015 with Olivia Wilde, but cut the segment short as it was taking too long.[4]
The event generated discussion of the future of journalism where trivial events can garner significant attention.[5][6][7][8][9]
The concept of putting rubber bands around a watermelon until it explodes first became popular on the internet as early as at least July 2012, when the stunt was filmed by The Slow Mo Guys with a very high frame-rate camera, but earlier videos date back at least to 2008.[10]