The videos have gained attention online thanks to the eggs’ uncanny resemblance to raspberries. Although the internet has had its fair share of “real or cake?” it’s now left with another question: “real or raspberry?”
Ten days ago, a baffling video of the eggs was shared to social media app TikTok by user @kcl0201, in which a person crushed a mass of the pink eggs using a glass cup. The video has since gained over 1.9 million likes and 32 million views.
TikTok users have been recreating the viral video, leaving viewers to guess whether they’re real or in fact simply an actual raspberry.
The original post documented the eggs making a rippling sound effect against the wall as the glass rolled over them. After being crushed, a gel-like pink substance stuck to the glass and made a string pull as it’s released.
Pomacea canaliculata is the official name for the invasive species, but they’re commonly referred to as the golden apple snail too. Females lay pink-red eggs in masses, and according to an article in the Malacologia journal,the eggs are poisonous with hardly any predators.
The snails themselves are hardly much more welcoming either. They’re listed among 100 of the world’s most invasive species thanks to their ability to “devastate” rice, taro and other aquatic crops. Golden apple snails are also a string vector of various parasites, including one that causes human eosinophilic meningitis, according to the Invasive Species Compendium.
@kcl0201 has a whole account dedicated to destroying all eggs they come across belonging to the snails. Videos capture them dunking the eggs into a liquid, seemingly a glass of hot oil, causing them to instantly fizz up, and slowly standing on them with sneakers.
The viral videos, most of which rack up over 100,000 views, have garnered one specific reaction: confusion. With the eggs appearing exactly like raspberries, many are baffled as to which is which.
“Is that not a raspberry?” asked one comment.
“The forbidden raspberry,” joked another.
All hasn’t been helped by the hilarious copycat videos taking over on the app, using the same sound as the original. The recreations however use actual raspberries to crush against a wall, though it’s hard to tell the difference at all.
“Why does it look the same?” asked one viewer of a recreation with over 400,000 views. Another similar video gained over 200,000 likes.
Wheels or tables might be the debate firing up the internet at the moment, but “raspberry or eggs” seems to be right on the horizon.
