About

The Porcelain Challenge is a fake TikTok and internet challenge perpetrated by TikToker Sebastian Durfee (@childprogeny) in late 2022 in which he led a campaign to convince Boomers that Zoomers were breaking porcelain into a fine powder and sniffing it like a snortable drug. The hoax received virality after he faked a Fox News and CNN segment that covered it. Ultimately, it's related to the Fake News Article Screenshots trend but in a video context, similar to other "Gen Z scare" trends like NyQuil Chicken or the Kia Challenge.

Origin

On September 30th, 2022, TikToker^[1] childprogeny posted a video in which he urged his followers and all of TikTok to use the hashtag "#PorcelainChallenge" in order to convince "Boomers" that there was a new TikTok challenge in which Gen Z was "grinding up their parents' antique china into a fine powder and snorting it like cocaine." He thought that if enough people on the app referenced it, they could get BuzzFeed to write an article about it. Over the course of three days, the video received roughly 620,000 plays and 151,100 likes (shown below).

Spread

Later on September 30th, 2022, TikToker^[2] angryturtle443 posted a video that joked about trying the Porcelain Challenge, however, not being able to grab their fine china. Over the course of three days, the video received roughly 60,900 plays and 9,900 likes (shown below, left). On October 2nd, 2022, TikToker^[3] marieanarchy1 uploaded a similar video, gaining roughly 12,100 plays and over 700 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Porcelain Challenge Fox News Segment

On October 1st, 2022, TikToker^[4] childprogeny posted a follow-up video, stating that TikTok had added a content warning to the bottom of his original video, claiming that if someone at TikTok thought that it was real, his goal of getting a BuzzFeed article was one step closer. In two days, it received roughly 585,700 plays and 84,100 likes (shown below, left). On October 2nd, 2022, TikToker^[5] childprogeny took it a step further by green screening himself in front of a Fox News segment that was talking about the Porcelain Challenge and its dangers. The TikTok received roughly 612,000 plays and 80,200 likes in one day (shown below, right). Ultimately, the Fox News segment was fake, created by childprogeny for the purpose of deception.

Regardless of the video being fake, the buzz created by childprogeny for the Porcelain Challenge gained engagement across TikTok and was reported on by internet news outlets like Distractify.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References