Slipping on a banana peel is a classic comedy gag, right up there with a pie in the face. We've all seen it in cartoons a thousand times. But has anyone bothered to try it in real life to see what actually happens? Thanks to the restless curiosity of teenagers, we now have the answer, along with the latest viral challenge.
On Sunday, Jason Oakes tweeted a video with a simple premise: "I have a banana peel on the ground and I'm going to see if it's really slippery like it is in the cartoons," he explained.
He tentatively moved around, said he was "kind of disappointed," then hit the floor.
The video has been retweeted 100,000 times and has received 110,000 "hearts" as of Wednesday.
Other teens are following suit, because that's what teenagers do.
All of them have discovered for themselves what cartoons have been teaching us for years: Banana peels are slippery.
Watching someone wipe out doing something idiotic will always be popular, which explains the popularity of #BananaPeelChallenge.
And given the potential risk of physical injury involved, there will always be people quick to point out that teenagers "are risking serious injuries by taking part in a dangerous viral trend."
Until someone is seriously injured, it's all the kind of fun and games that gets harder and harder to make sense of the older you get – unless your worldview continues to be shaped by Looney Tunes.
Just watch out for the anvil challenge, kids.