Teens Have Turned Trump Into A Viral Challenge

What would you do if someone yelled, "Trump's coming!" at the top of their lungs? Would you scramble toward the nearest exit in a panic? Would you fall to the ground and pretend to be dead until the threat had passed? Both are apparently acceptable reactions if you're a teenager living in the United States. While many voting-age adults are still grappling to come to terms with the fact that a former reality TV star will be taking over the Oval Office in January, teenagers are reacting to President-elect Donald Trump in their own way — they've made him a viral challenge.

While Trump has, to my memory, never inspired a viral challenge before, he's no stranger to them. In 2014, he challenged President Barack Obama and his sons Donald and Eric to the Ice Bucket Challenge just before directing Miss Universe and Miss USA to douse him in Trump Ice (great product placement, by the way). As keen as Trump might have been to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge, I'm not so sure he'll be as eager to organize a Trump's Coming Challenge.

For those not totally clued in to Generation Z, let me give you a quick explainer of what the Trump's Coming Challenge is. The rules of the challenge seem simple:

1. Video or it didn't happen. While plenty of us have run screaming upon hearing Trump's name, a Trump's Coming Challenge is only successful if it's filmed and posted to social media.
2. Find or organize a group of people doing normal mundane things.
3. Someone, most often the person recording the challenge for historical purposes, yells, "Trump's coming!"
4. Everyone doing banal things in earlier mentioned group should run. Panicked screaming is apparently optional, but encouraged.

Still confused? Here's an example.

Here's an example where teens let an adult participate.

Here's an example that shows one student tripping in a way that has me slightly concerned for participant's safety.

While it might be a whole lot more amusing to say it was Trump's penchant for tanning, his lack of environmental policies, or his appointment of Steve Bannon to a key White House position that spawned this challenge, the truth is the Trump's Coming Challenge seems to have been largely inspired by the Andy's Coming Challenge. Spurred by the plotline of Disney's Toy Story, the Andy's Coming Challenge had participants drop to the floor and mimic inanimate toys whenever "Andy's coming!" was shouted.

Leave it to teenagers to find a fun way for all of us to express our complete and utter frustration with the recent election outcome.