In the last few months, a bunch of TikTokers in the United States became convinced their fruit and vegetables were actually made from rubber. Like, not plant material. Rubber. It’s part conspiracy, part dumb TikTok trend — and this week, it made its way to Australia in a stupidly funny fashion.
An Australian creator who remains anonymous was convinced his Coles “lettuce” was also made from rubber… only to find out it was, in fact, a cabbage.
The video was posted by TikToker @ch_asif_khan but the clip of the rubber lettuce debacle seems to be of his unnamed friend.
“This is the fake lettuce that I have got from Coles. Look how perfect this is. This is not lettuce, this is fake. And this, this is plastic,” he said, whilst filming the “lettuce”.
“I’m not eating this. Can you see how plastic? Look at it! This is not real lettuce, this is what we’re putting in our bodies.”
He then scrunched up a cabbage leaf and asked the audience whether they could “hear” the plastic.
The only catch? The vegetable he was critiquing was not a lettuce. Rather, it was a stellar-looking cabbage.
You can watch the video below.
As you’d expect, people sprinted to the comment section to tell old mate he’d been bamboozled by a cheeky little cabbage.
“Man discovers cabbage,” commented one user.
“I fear this is not satire,” wrote another, along with literally thousands of comments saying “it’s cabbage”.
Within one week, the video racked up more than 2.5 million views, prompting the OG lettuce-cabbage man to return to his friends TikTok to make a statement.
“Hello guys, I’ve seen all your comments. Thousands and thousands of comments about the lettuce cabbage,” he began.
“I wanted to say that 100 per cent thought it was lettuce. I did not know it was cabbage until we posted that video and you guys told me. So yeah, that’s the story. I’m an idiot.”
You can see his reply below.
We love an accountable king!!!! I love him!!!!
How did the whole rubber fruit thing begin?
Although a rubber-fruit conspiracy sounds a bit far-fetched, it truly took off in the United States with people believing that their edible food had been replaced with presumably 3D-printed versions by some sort of government entity.
It all started when TikTok users began sharing videos of watermelon that looked and felt strange.
They reported that it was hard to cut through and had a texture so rubbery that it could be bent almost in half before it broke. Then, videos of rubber-looking avocadoes and bananas began popping up, causing people to suspect that something strange was going on.
But before you put on your tin-foil hat, there are some pretty easy explanations for why fruit can change in texture significantly. And it turns out a quick Google search about this would have nipped this whole conspiracy in the bud.
“All watermelons will begin to have a rubber-like texture eventually as a part of the breakdown process,” said Rachel Syngo, chief marketing officer of the United States National Watermelon Promotion Board, per Mashed.
“This is a naturally occurring phase in all watermelons before they begin to get a grainy texture and truly begin to decompose.”
As for avocadoes, it’s the opposite situation. When they’re not ripe enough, they have a rubbery texture. Personally I think that’s one of the reasons why so many of us fucking hate Shepard avocadoes because they’re always kind of rubbery compared to the superior Hass avo.
TikTok is a fascinating app. It’s fun and provides us with so much entertainment. But when things like the rubber fruit conspiracy spread despite being so easily able to be debunked, it’s just another reminder of how important online literacy and a pinch of fact-checking really is. would maybe add: May we strongly recommend touching grass on a weekly, if not daily basis
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