23. Goldfish Swallowing Became a Viral Craze
Lothrop Withington Jr. plucked an unlucky three-inch-long live goldfish from a glass beaker. He crammed the wriggling creature into his mouth, gave a couple of chews, and swallowed. As he put it later: “the scales caught a bit on my throat as it went down“. Something about the event resonated, and the story quickly spread from local news to the national media. Soon, even the era’s biggest magazine, Life, had a feature about the Harvard goldfish swallowing. Before anybody knew it, goldfish swallowing was a viral craze that swept American colleges. Lothrop’s pioneering feat was soon eclipsed: a student at the University of Pennsylvania swallowed 25 goldfish. His days in the spotlight were brief, however. That record was soon shattered, and the title of “Intercollegiate Goldfish Swallowing Champion” was snatched by somebody from MIT, who gulped down 42.
The MIT kid’s accomplishment was soon eclipsed in turn by Joseph Deliberato of Clark University, who swallowed 89 goldfish in a single sitting in April, 1939. The fad was intense, but short-lived. Pressure from The Animal Rescue League – the PETA of its day – began to change public perceptions, and state legislators introduced bills that sought “to preserve the fish from cruel and wanton consumption“. The pastime’s popularity waned, and soon, goldfish swallowing was no longer cool on college campuses, and the trend faded into oblivion. That is, until recently, when it was revived as “The Goldfish Challenge”, whereby YouTube was littered with plenty of gross videos of people swallowing goldfish.