Guide Note

In a group of similar viral videos posted on YouTube beginning at the end of May, 2008, a group of friends gathered around a coffee table appear to make several kernels of popcorn pop after surrounding the kernels with three or more cell phones.

Fast Facts

1. In videos, several friends call three or more cell phones at same time
2. Simultaneous ringing appears to pop several kernels of popcorn
3. Popcorn videos all appeared within days of each other
4. Physicists claim it is impossible to cook food with cell phones
5. Original version of this urban legend claimed to cook eggs

According to the urban legend website Snopes.com, the claim that a group of cell phones rung simultaneously can cook food has been around since at least the year 2000. The original version of the legend claimed that eggs could be cooked via this method, but the myth has recently evolved to claim that this can be done with popcorn.

Physicists consistently deny that this is possible; they say if food could be cooked using cell phones, then we would be burning or cooking ourselves severely each time we made a call. In the popcorn videos, physicist Louis Bloomfield of the University of Virginia surmises that video editing or a clandestine heating element beneath the coffee table is creating the phenomena. Wired.com blogger Jenna Wortham suggests the simultaneous appearance of the videos might be part of a secret viral marketing campaign designed to peddle cell phones.