Why This Viral TikTok Is So Dangerous For Fast Food Workers
There's no shortage of viral hacks on the video-sharing platform TikTok. While some of the ideas are great ways to save time and be more efficient, other so-called hacks are downright dangerous. It's one thing to try out one of the numerous tricks at home, but when people start testing them out in the workplace it can get extra messy. A video by TikTok user @tyronedodd1 shows someone walking up to a deep fryer with the caption, "I'm sick of this job." A fryer basket in their hands is filled with cubed ice, which is about to be placed into the hot oil.
The video has already led to some copycats, including user @michaelcazeau46 who tested it out at his work kitchen, a Popeyes in Louisiana. The original video shows a fairly tame reaction when the ice is placed into the oil, suggesting that the oil wasn't that hot to begin with according to the comments. Meanwhile, when the Popeyes employees add a fryer basket filled with cubed ice to the deep fryer, the hot oil immediately begins to bubble vigorously and rise. There's nothing good about an overflowing deep fryer and the employees are lucky nothing worse happened when they recreated the TikTok video.
Why does the reaction occur?
According to Smart Kitchen Improvement, since the difference in temperature between ice and hot oil is so large, the reaction can be dramatic. The molecules in the two elements are vibrating at different speeds, causing the ice to suddenly move faster when it becomes hot. The source reports that in the worst case, it may even cause a fire. Whether the creator of the first TikTok video knew what the potential consequences of the reaction were or not, there's nothing safe about the outcome.
Some of the comments indicated that a few people had already experimented with disastrous results, such as user @ren who noted, "I did this once it didn't end well," adding that they got burned. Other people hypothesized that the person worked at a McDonald's or Wendy's, remarking that they'd probably do the same in their shoes. As for the Popeyes video, commenters joked that they now understood why their orders took so long to prepare. The general agreement was that if a manager saw what was going on, these employees would definitely lose their jobs. Regardless of their employment status, the more pressing matter is preventing these videos from blowing up with attempted imitations.