Pop Rocks - Urban Legend

Urban Legend

Rumors persisted that eating Pop Rocks and drinking cola would cause a person's stomach to explode. This was, in part, caused by the false assumption that Pop Rocks contain an acid/base mixture (such as baking soda and vinegar) which produces large volumes of gas when mixed through chewing and saliva. One of these myths involved a character named Mikey from the Life cereal commercials. Mikey, played by child actor John Gilchrist, was falsely rumored to have died after eating a Pop Rocks and cola mixture.

Though the confection had been extensively tested and found safe, the carbonated candy still alarmed residents in Seattle. The Food and Drug Administration set up a hotline there to assure anxious parents that the fizzing candy would not cause their children to choke. General Foods was battling the "exploding kid" rumors as early as 1979. General Foods sent letters to school principals, created an open letter to parents, took out advertisements in major publications and sent the confection's inventor on the road to explain that a Pop Rocks package contains less gas (namely, carbon dioxide, the same gas used in all carbonated beverages) than half a can of soda.

Because of the unique flavor of the legend, and the duration of its perpetuation, the story has appeared in many other forms of media and fiction. The U.S. TV series MythBusters examined the rumor by mixing Pop Rocks and cola inside a pig's stomach, and concluded that an explosion was impossible even after eating pounds of the material, for their Pilot Episode.

In the TV series Supernatural, a boy with reality-warping capabilities also believed in this myth and, given his abilities, actually caused several people to become ill from eating Pop Rocks and coke. The Simpsons spoofed the urban legend in an episode wherein Homer Simpson mixes Pop Rocks and cola to create an improvised explosive device.