All Hail the Sugar Golem

Last December, a representative from TikTok had to deny the existence of a so-called ‘Kool-Aid Man Challenge’ on the app, after news outlets in several states suggested that teens were running through people’s fences, and smashing them in the style of everyone’s favorite anthropomorphic drink pitcher. 

A spokesperson from TikTok undoubtedly sighed deeply before telling Insider that there was no evidence of that particular challenge on TikTok, and that its community guidelines prohibit any “amateur stunts or dangerous challenges.” 

Although we at Geeks Who Drink don’t condone trashing somebody’s back yard, we are kind of giggling at the idea that an almost 70-year-old powdered drink mascot could inspire today’s teens to crash through shit. According to Mental Floss, a Foot, Cone & Belding ad man came up with the idea to put a mouth and eyes on a giant pitcher of Kool-Aid in 1954. (He called this sugar golem “Pitcher Man,” which seems to suggest that his creativity had its limits.) 

A second ad agency gave Pitcher Man a set of arms and legs in 1975, and that’s about when he started running straight through brick walls. “From what I’ve heard, someone on set said that Kool-Aid Man really had to make an entrance, and someone else, maybe a producer, suggested he come through the wall,” Robert Skoller, a member of the General Foods marketing team at Grey Advertising, told Mental Floss. 

And ohhh yeahhhh, that’s about when the Kool-Aid Man started to become an actual sensation, getting his own video games, making a handful of comic book appearances, and becoming part of countless pop culture references. But that TikTok thing? Nah, that never happened. 

The Kool-Aid Man totally bursts into this week’s virtual Twitch quiz. Check it!

^{Featured image courtesy of Kraft Foods, Fair Use}