In recent years, gender reveal parties have become a particularly popular internet trend with many imaginative stunts going viral for all the wrong reasons.
However in desperation to push the boat out and potentially become an online sensation, expectant parents can get carried away in planning ridiculous reveals and set up something that can have dangerous, even deadly, consequences.
You know things have gone too far when the creator of the gender reveal has said they regret bringing the occasion into existence...
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Here we take a look at some of the most absurd and dangerous gender reveals in recent years.
Gender reveal firework causes wildfire in California (June 2021)
An explosive device was set off six miles west of Fort McMurray Forest Protection Area in Albert, Canada on May 31, according to a report from CBC News. It was meant to announce an incoming baby’s gender, it ended up sparking a wildfire that grew about an acre.
Travis Fairweather, a spokesperson for Alberta Wildfire, said the people who set off the device were issued a $600 fine for the incident. They could also be forced to pay for the cost of fighting the fire.
The fire was started by a disc loaded with gender-coloured powder - a common way to announce a baby’s sex.
Gender reveal causes explosion (April 2021)
A New Hampshire gender reveal party caused a huge explosion that neighbours compared to an earthquake.
The gender reveal bash, which took place on April 20 in a town not far from the Massachusetts border in New Hampshire, set off such a blast that it could be heard across the state line, with some even reporting property damage.
Authorities said around 80lb of an explosive called Tannerite was the source of the explosion. It is normally sold over the counter as a target for firearms practice.
“We heard this God-awful blast,” Sara Taglieri, who lives in a home that abuts the quarry, told the NBC Boston. “It knocked pictures off our walls … I’m all up for silliness and what not, but that was extreme.”
A couple fails to pop gender reveal balloon... and it ends up flying away (October 2019)
In a 47-second clip posted to Imgur by OctopussSevenTwo, the excited couple each held a stick in anticipation to hit a large black balloon so that it would burst for the pink or blue powder to appear in order to indicate the gender of the baby.
Sounds simple right?
Well, things quickly when pair-shaped as the couple began hitting the balloon with their sticks like a pinata - which due to the weightlessness of the ballon and wind outside, just meant that the balloon kept bouncing around instead of bursting open.
But one hit from the expectant father hilariously backfired after it dislodges the string on the balloon from the ground, causing the balloon - and the chance to reveal the gender - to fly away.
As the balloon floats higher into the sky, the panicking parents-to-be run after it, and the expectant father even jumps on the garden fence to try to reach it but instead ends up tumbling to the ground, lying on the floor in defeat.
Gender reveal combined with TikTok challenge?(2021)
Jesus take the wheel pic.twitter.com/xYFdvTwiYP
— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) August 26, 2021
Of course, with everything being online it was inevitable for the sensations of a gender reveal and a TikTok challenge to combine - though it doesn’t make it any less ridiculous.
On this particular occasion, it was the milk crate challenge that involves people attempting to scale a wobbly pyramid made out of crates before it eventually collapses.
Medics and the social media site have issued warnings over, but it didn’t seem to put off one couple.
In this particular instance, a video, which was shared to Twitter by NPR host Sam Sanders, shows a man climbing a wobbly mound of milk crates.
When he falls over, blue dust comes out from the bowl he was carrying which means they’re having a boy.
Tree falls on Dad-to-be at gender reveal party (2017)
It seems that nature wanted to gatecrash one family’s gender reveal party in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County when a tree happened to randomly fall in the midst of the celebration on top of the dad-to-be, CBS Pittsburgh reported.
A sharp crack was heard when suddenly the branch had broken off at the trunk and proceeded to crash down on Zack and Joscelyn Muellerleile’s front yard (and Zack in the process who now has his legs in a cast).
“It’s not the way I wanted the day to go,” Zack said.
“I heard my father-in-law yell, ‘It’s gonna fall,’ and you didn’t have time to react,” Zack said. “Before I knew it, I was sitting on the ground with a tree across my lap.”
Zack ended up with a broken ankle and fibula and managed to eventually get free a floor jack, a chainsaw, plus cooler heads.
Luckily no one else was injured or crushed by the tree - and in the end, it will a memorable tale to tell their son when he’s older about how they found out his gender.
Giant inflatable baby jumps out to reveal gender (2018)
A gender reveal party is a great excuse to dress up, but expectant parents Yessina and Erica took this to a whole new level by getting a family member to dress up in a giant baby costume.
(And it looked terrifying).
“He gave it some thought and decided that if we were going to do it we would have to think outside the box,” she told Insider.
“He wanted his brother [Chris] to pop out of a box wearing a giant diaper and I thought the whole baby costume would be even better.”
A hungry hippo gender reveal (2019)
I did it. I found the worst gender reveal. pic.twitter.com/37b5GkrTbN
— Ana Breton (@missbreton) September 21, 2019
Hippos and gender reveals aren’t exactly two things you would put together.
But that’s exactly what an expectant couple in Texas did when they let Tank the 4,000 pound Hippo at the Capital of Texas Zoo deliver the big news by throwing the watermelon in his and him munching down on the fruit to reveal the colour - pink or blue.
Bridgette and Jonathan Joseph soon found Tank chomping on blue jelly inside the watermelon meaning they were having a baby boy.
Though some people weren’t as impressed with the gender reveal after it went viral on Twitter when someone reshared the clip and described it as “the worst gender reveal” and many appeared to agree as the post received over 168,000 likes.
Despite the negative comments, the couple insist it was “One of the happiest days of our lives.”
And they also addressed concerns about Tank’s diet, they added how he was “hand raised by his amazing owner, who assisted us in feeding him only food that is safe for him to consume.”
Hi all! I’ve been in touch with the family in the video. While I’m not a fan of gender reveals, it was not my intention to bring darkness to their special day. Here’s some background written by Bridgette. Donations to the ACTUAL hippo in the vid here: https://t.co/rByV2mbXRK pic.twitter.com/fDWY29niTE
— Ana Breton (@missbreton) September 22, 2019
Jaws of an alligator announcing the gender (2018)
In a similar vein to Tank the Hippo, another couple decided that the perfect gender reveal would involve the snappy jaws of an alligator named Sally.
Sharing the strange reveal to Facebook, the grandma to be Melody Kliebert captured the moment her son Mike who owns a gator farm and tour company in Hammond got Sally to announce the gender who he described is “part of our family,” UPI reported.
In the clip, Mike can be seen playing around with the 60-year-old alligator, placing his hand on top of its mouth (and it looked like he almost got his arm chomped off in the process).
He then throws the watermelon into Sally’s mouth which explodes to reveal the blue jelly, meaning the parents-to-be are expecting a baby boy.
Plane crash at gender reveal party leaves two people dead (2021)
Sadly, one celebration ended in tragedy earlier this year when two people were killed in a plane crash in Mexico in March this year.
Shocking footage from The New York Post shows the moment when the plane nosedived into the ocean while the expectant parents and their party guests were watching in a boat and could only look on in horror.
Two people - the pilot and co-pilot - out of the four people on board the plane died from the accident in Cancun Mexico, according to local news outlet Quequi.
One person died during the rescue mission, while the other died while receiving first aid by first-responder, La Prensa Latina reported.
Gender reveal cannon hits dad in the groin (2019)
A gender reveal party can often be an emotional experience for expectant parents - but one dad-to-be was particularly hit in the feels (quite literally).
In the clip the happy couple standing on a deck outside appear excited to launch their air cannons up towards the sky to find out their baby’s gender.
This excitement soon takes a turn when the smoke explodes out and part of the cannon then shoots out the other side - hitting the dad in the nuts.
The dad can then be seen doubled over in pain, and in too much agony to notice the blue powder indicating that he is having a baby boy.
It’s certainly a day he will never forget.
