No Poop July
No Poop July is a facetious TikTok trend started by the influencer Okcron. As the name implies, it involves not defecating for the entire month of July. The hashtag #NoPoopJuly has been viewed over 130 million times.
The news media and doctors have warned against attempting the challenge as it is potentially dangerous to the gastrointestinal tract.
Trend
[edit]The trend involves young influencers (mostly aspiring ones) to hold their bowel movements while online crowds cheer them on,[clarification needed] with the trend being recognized as a joke.[1] The trend is included in month-related trends like No Nut November, No Fap September, and Dry January. The young influencers are also shown to have pretend neck strains and flushed skin.[2][3] The recognized background music for this trend is the Meg & Dia's song Monster.[4]
The trend went popular as early as 2020, with editions every year after. A Google Trends search hears the popularity surge every year, limited to the month July. The trend tripled in popularity since the original version in 2022.[1] In the same year, a noticeable 130 million views came from the hashtag #NoPoopJuly.[2]
Criticism by doctors
[edit]After the 2022 edition of the challenge, multiple news sources talked about the TikTok trend, with multiple doctors pushing against it. Dr. Austin Chang, a popular TikTok influencer and a gastroenterologist said “Obviously, we hope that no one takes it seriously", "Honestly, people who have regular, normal functioning GI tracts are not going to have this issue, because their body is going to want to get rid of their waste," he said. "So it's not like they have a choice in holding it in."[1][3][5]
Other renditions
[edit] | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (September 2024) |
In 2018, a man in England stated that he would "hold back nature" for 40 days so that police wouldn't arrest him after swallowing some drugs. He reportedly exceeded his goal for 8 days.[4] Four years later, in 2022, Cherine Docherty didn't poop for a month with hospital treatment. The reason was that a strange bowel movement caused Docherty to be unable to defecate. A special medication allowed her to defecate for a few weeks, until the medication stopped working.[6]
See also
[edit]- Blackout challenge - Deadly TikTok trend which claimed the lives of seven children.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "'No poop July' jokes are all over TikTok. Some doctors urge users not to try it for real". NBC News. 2022-07-26. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
- ^ a b "'No Poop July' Started as a Joke, Now Doctors are Freaking Out". DUDE Wipes. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
- ^ a b Rosenblatt, Kalhan (30 July 2022). "'No poop July' jokes are all over TikTok. Some doctors urge users not to try it for real". AOL. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ a b "'No Poop July' TikTok Challenge: Do The Doo, Doctors Warn". Across America, US Patch. 2022-07-27. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
- ^ "VIDEO: TikTok's fake 'No Poop July' challenge could cause real harm". www.healio.com. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
- ^ Dodgson, Lindsay. "A woman mysteriously couldn't poop for a month. Hundreds of thousands of people started tuning in to follow her struggle on TikTok". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-09-03.