“Always Clean Undies!”

I want to share something silly and funny that the Russian internet brought to me. I’ve come across this life hack video on Facebook and can’t get over it. Here’s the script:

How to make sure that you always have clean undies? So simple! At night before bed, take your undies off and throw them into the freezer. [demonstrates with an old mini fridge]. In the morning, take them out and put into the microwave for 5 minutes [demonstrates with the microwave]. And that’s it! This way, the fridge’s cold will remove all bad odors while the microwave waves will kill all bacteria. By the way, the method is called “the temperature shock.” It can be used on your socks as well. Use and enjoy!

Now, this guy is a pretty good handyman and most of his reels are truly useful life hacks. He also has a very charismatic and warm personality. Despite the fact that he clearly marked this video as a #joke, people felt it was necessary to express their superiority and disgust.

Many comments there were like, “how hard is it to wash them?”, “did they not invent a washing machine for you yet?”, “I’m getting a personal culture shock from this temperature shock,” “I am about to vomit: now you have a smelly fridge and a dirty microwave,” and other mean, personal comments. The meanest one was, “why don’t you just shove your balls for the night into the fridge and for 5 min into the microwave in the morning. That temperature shock will save you all undies.”

The ones that said “I used to respect you but this is too much, you’ve gone off the deep end,” and “the last sane person I followed is gone” broke my heart for the creator.

But a lot of people actually went all in on the joke. My favorite comment was, “And if you throw them into the pot of borsch, they will enrich the stock.” It was actually the first comment on top with the most likes and smiles, which should have given other commenters a hint.

Some other comments in the same life hack tone were,

“you can also multitask by putting your tea into the microwave together with the undies. Why waste precious minutes and energy?”

“I have a question: how to remove stains with the same method? Will baking soda work?”

“No, the true life hack is to throw them into a fully-loaded dishwasher before the microwave,”

“You skipped a step between the fridge and microwave - coffee machine, for unforgettable and lasting aroma.”

Some people saw it as a reflection on and indication of the man’s relationship status:

“Hygiene expert advice for old bachelors and incels,”

“Abusive men whose wives did everything and finally walked out on them, take note!”

“Eww, someone might be dating or living with this man knowing what he does to his undies and socks,” etc.

In total, there’s more than 5.6k likes and 4.7k comments on this video. The guy also shares his content on Instagram, TicToc and Russian VK. I’d think that there’s a lot of likes, comments and shares across all those platforms. I should have checked his YouTube channel as well but because Putin ordered to slow down YouTube in Russia he may not have a large audience there.

So my big question is, “Is it worth it for a creator who churns out good reliable content to take the risk and produce something like this, low humor which will guarantee you engagement with lots of likes and comments but will probably also turn a lot of followers away? Especially if they didn’t care to look at the Joke hashtag?”

Can it really be just about shocking people for monetization and exposure?