Time to drop the five-second rule — it could be making you sick.
A microbiologist managed to gross out TikTok with the foul findings of a recent test conducted at his local movie theater — to see what happens when you drop popcorn on the floor.
Tim Call, 32, is known on the popular social media app for his frequent tests of everyday items and spaces for bacteria, often hitting the headlines — and horrifying his 317,000 followers — with the truth of how filthy household and other shared surfaces can be.
This time, the Utah man sought the answer to the question — does the five-second rule apply to movie theater floors?
To conduct his retch-inducing research, Call picked up a bag of fresh popcorn from the concession stand before heading into the theater, where he scooped a handful of stale kernels off the floor.
Call then kicks into Science Guy gear, putting both specimens to the test, treating them with a solution of some kind and plopping the liquid into a petri dish and then an incubator.
Using timelapse video, Call then compares the behavior of the two. While it’s all quiet on the fresh popcorn, the stash rescued from the floor now has a forest of fungi and bacterial colonies growing on it.
Commenters reacted swiftly.
Adam said: “Five second rule is debunking right there.”
Lee commented: “The final growth is kind of beautiful.”
Mallorie added: “That’s it for the three second rule.”
Niki joked: “So what you’re saying is; I shouldn’t eat popcorn off the floor anymore?”
“I will be sure to stop eating floor popcorn, thank you!” said someone else.
“Carpet popcorn,” added another user.
“Omg that is so much worse than I thought it would be!” said Kennedy.
Call told What’s The Jam he enjoys posting to TikTok to help educate the public as to how dirty surfaces can be.
“I make this content because I’ve always been curious about what was growing around me and I wanted to visually see it,” Call said. “It’s starting to visually answer many questions that people have had.”
Not everything is as filthy as you’d think, however, Call says.
“The cleanest thing that I tested that surprised me was gas pumps at gas stations. I thought they would be filled with bacteria due to the amount of usage but was surprised to see there was very little growth, only five colonies grew.”
