December is that time of year where people gather together and focus on their similarities. Families may have voted for different political parties or root for rival sport teams, but something that brings everyone together is watching people do stupid things on the internet. This year there was an abundance of Internet Challenges to unite families across the world.

The year started off with “Charlie Charlie,” a ridiculous challenge where people will place one pencil on top of another and “summon” Charlie by saying his name twice then asking him a question. Charlie then supposedly moves the pen to either yes or no, like an Ouija board but the pens and paper version was more playful and contributed to sleep overs and nights where there was nothing to do. Another challenge was the “Bean Boozled Challenge” where gross jelly beans were packaged and people would voluntarily eat them. These flavors included dog food, barf, pencil shavings, rotten egg and many other wretched flavors. One of the riskier challenges, “Extreme Phone Pinching,” requires people to hold their phones over bridges blenders or sewage grates and tempt fate. Another challenge is the “Hottest Pepper Challenge.” Eating hot peppers to impress friends has been around for ages, but this year it began trending and became an official challenge with priceless reactions. The “Running Man Challenge” is a dancing trend where the song “I Want To Be Your Lady Baby” or “Ghost Town DJ’s – My Boo” is played and people must dance in a way that makes it look like they are running. This was huge on Instagram and Twitter for about a month.  The latest of the challenges is the “Mannequin Challenge.” In this challenge people stand still and pretend to be mannequins.

These challenges may seem stupid at first, but if more closely looked at they actually seem even stupider due to consequences that include losing phone or simply looking like a fool. However, the stupidity and simplicity is what causes them to spread like wildfire and entertain us. Internet challenges will likely always exist and it seems likely next year will have many more for us.