When you hear the words "baby shark challenge," most parents might think the "challenge" is to get through a single day without THAT. CURSED. DEVIL. SONG. repeating through your head over and over and over until you're reduced to a quivering shell of your former self.
Doo doo doo doo doo doo!
But no. The true "Baby Shark" challenge involves the aforementioned song, a cell phone capable of taking video, perhaps a shark costume for the truly committed, an adult embracing their latent aggression toward the song by doing the shark dance (oh yes, there's a dance), and ... what are we forgetting ... RIGHT! A moving vehicle.
And — just like the hot water, Tide pod, cinnamon, and hot pepper challenges that came before it — this challenge has experts worried about the potential risks. Except this time, it's parents instead of kids who are being warned to stop doing dumb things on the internet.
"It's simply dangerous to be jumping out of your moving car to perform this dance," Jordan Foster, cyber safety expert and child psychologist, told The New Daily.
"My main concern is parents are prioritising their audiences rather than their own safety."
What is the "Baby Shark" challenge, exactly?
It appears to have morphed out of the Drake "In My Feelings" challenge — which involves jumping out of a moving vehicle to dance in the road — except to a song parents actually know, with moves we've already mastered.
The mom in this video below actually explains the challenge much better than we ever could, so please enjoy.
"It's like the Drake thing," she tells her unconvinced husband.
"This is what people are doing?" he asks incredulously.
Yes. Yes, it is.
Is it ... popular?
Did you take a look at the views on that video? It had over 500,000 last we checked. The Daily Mail reports a video by mom Ashleigh Waller (the lady who painted herself blue, for those familiar with the library of "Baby Shark" challenge videos) has over four million views. There are also more than 95,000 posts tagged with #babysharkchallenge on Instagram.
A quick search for "baby shark challenge" on YouTube will give you an entire library of videos (many of them with views in the hundreds of thousands) to watch until your ears bleed, or you vow to find a way to destroy all technology.
Whichever comes first.
What is the "Baby Shark" song, though?
Oh, it's your first day on the internet, in the presence of children, or with ears? Welcome! Tell us what life was like before. We want to remember.
The viral version of the catchy kids' song was created by Pinkfong, a South Korean education company. It's been around since 2016, is the 34th most popular video on YouTube with nearly 1.8 billion views, and inspired an entire other dance challenge separate from this one (basically the same thing, minus the car).
Watch the OG above if you're into having one song stuck in your head for the rest of your life.
Why is the challenge dangerous?
... you saw the moving vehicles, right?
For what it's worth, people have been seriously injured doing the "In My Feelings" challenge, with the Washington Post reporting people have been accidentally run over, tripped over potholes, and one U.S. teen even fractured her skull attempting the challenge at a roundabout.
"Parents need to stop thinking about getting more 'likes' and be good role models for their children," Foster told the New Daily.
Still can't fight that feeling? Try it with a parked car, like these fine folks at Zoe's Place Liverpool Hospice.
Oh, and that safer version still has over 3.1 million views on Facebook.
Doo doo doo doo doo doo!