What is the ‘shower orange’ trend? This vintage meme is back with a vengeance

Do you eat oranges in the shower? Well, Kelly Ripa has at least once. It looks like the “shower orange” trend is taking over social media again in 2021, but the unusual meme has been around since 2015.

Here’s everything you need to know about the bizarre fad that has made its way to the mainstream media.

What is the “shower orange” trend? 

There is an ongoing internet theory that oranges taste and smell better in the shower.

There is even a “Shower Orange” subreddit dedicated to the misadventures of its aficionados and the source of many memes. It’s been around since 2017, but there are tweets about the subject going back to 2015. 

Is the ‘shower orange’ theory true? Maybe so.

In 2017, NPR asked Johan Lundström of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia why people on the internet may believe this.

“The only thing I can think of is that the heat makes the orange odors more volatile and this, merged with the increase in mucosa humidity, makes the orange odor smell more in the mouth,” Lundström inferred, since 90 percent of flavor comes from odors traveling through the mouth and into the nose.

Here are some examples of the ‘shower orange’ meme. 

A poster on the subreddit shared an image with the caption, “This is what I was doing last week while the rest of yous was making millions in the stock market behind my back.” 

“Bouta eat an orange in the shower. I’ll tell you if it changes my life. BRB,” someone tweeted. 

Kelly Ripa tried the ‘shower orange’ trend.

On Jan. 26, 2021 Ripa ate an orange in her shower while listening to classical music for a segment on Live with Kelly and Ryan

In the video, she wrapped the peels around her neck as water poured on her head. Ripa wasn’t a fan of the challenge and didn’t report an enhanced sensory experience. 

“I thought two things,” she said on the show. “OK, number one, it’s very hard to film yourself with your cell phone in the shower, eating. OK? And I did not anticipate what to do with the skin.”

Co-host Ryan Seacrest was less impressed and simply posed with the orange in his shower without eating it. 

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