The Cinnamon Challenge

About

The Cinnamon Challenge is a popular dare game in which a person attempts to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon without vomiting or inhaling the powder. Thousands of videos with people attempting the challenge have been uploaded on YouTube -- few succeed.

Origin

According to Channel 4’s Rude Tube show, in 2006 a Scandinavian YouTuber posted a video of himself in an attempt to swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon. His attempt failed, and he spat out the cinnamon into a bucket.

While the challenge became a viral phenomenon on YouTube, its origin precedes the history of the video-sharing community. Based on Google search results, the earliest known mention of “Cinnamon Challenge” can be found in a blog entry by Jason Kottke dating back to December 22, 2001.^[1]

Spread

Questions about what the cinnamon challenge is, or if it is possible to beat it, are quite common on Yahoo Answers.^[2] Wikipedia has a “cinnamon challenge” section in the cinnamon article.^[3] There are several Facebook fan pages, and the most popular of which has over 1,600 “likes”.^[4] It is a promotional page for CinnamonChallenge.com.^[5] The Urban Dictionary, has a definition entry for the Cinnamon Challenge created on May 21st, 2008.^[6]

Search

Search queries peaking in October 2007, which may correspond with the YouTube video that has accumulated the most views as of April 2011 (over 1 million). It was uploaded on November 20th, 2007.

Examples

More can be found below in the videos section.

External Links

^[1] Kottke – Cinnamon Challenge 2001 / 12/22/2001

^[2] Yahoo Answers – * Is it possible to beat the Cinnamon Challenge?, What is the cinnamon challenge?, Cinnamon Challenge?

^[3] Wikipedia – Cinnamon: The Cinnamon Challenge

^[4] Facebook – The Cinnamon Challenge

^[5]CinnamonChallenge.com

^[6] Urban Dictionary – Cinnamon challenge / 5/21/2008