So far, nothing was known about the sawing power of masks for the mouth and nose: Research is mainly limited to the filter effect. However, it was recently proven in Würzburg that the rubber bands with which the masks are attached behind the ears are also suitable for sawing through plastic. There they discovered 25 chairs in a grammar school, the backrests of which had been sawn through with mask tape; in slow, persistent work, similar to that of a river that gradually eats its way through a ravine. “We are surprised and actually a bit fascinated that you can actually do that,” the headmaster told the BR on record. In Regenstauf, young people tried out the masks on the bus. The slotted handles had to be replaced for safety reasons.
“Ripchair” is the name of the sawing phenomenon that has been circulating on the Tiktok video platform for weeks. One person shows it, many do it. And the world is once again richer by a trend that is not necessarily explained to outsiders. “World” is to be understood literally, the cases go beyond Bavaria. Sawing chairs is the new challenge, of which there are plenty of in the vastness of the Internet. For example, planking was popular many years ago. You lay down stiffly on the floor like a board – or, from the planker’s point of view, better because more clicks are promising: balance your body in unusual places, such as on basketball hoops. Because the places became more and more risky, at some point there were injuries and deaths. To illustrate the whole thing, ORF presenter Armin Wolf sat on the desk during the broadcast and moderated the weather.
In contrast, the consequences of the “Ripchair” challenge seem relatively small. Damage to property, of course, remains damage to property. School furniture in particular was and is unfortunately an easy target. Tables from my own school days are remembered that were pretty much worn down by willful use of circles. A classmate even built a pipe for himself from a table by drilling two holes at right angles to each other from the top and the edge. Tiktok didn’t exist back then, but there was trouble.