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Screengrab via dOvetastic / Youtube Remix by Max Fleishman

Microwaving your phone won’t help you cheat at Pokémon Go

This trick is obviously a bad idea.

 

Jay Hathaway

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 13, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 11:21 am CDT

In Pokémon Go, players can find rare Pocket Monsters by “incubating” Pokémon eggs—the farther you walk, the closer they get to hatching. And there’s a great prank image going around that claims you can fake the walking part by putting your phone in a spinning microwave. 

You can’t, obviously. Don’t be stupid. 

[Placeholder for https://www.facebook.com/realpizzaboiz/photos/a.1799350270288436.1073741828.1799061670317296/1813128675577262/?type=3&theater embed.]

This falls into a time-honored category of online prank, made famous 4chan when it was good: Post something only a dumbass would actually try, and watch someone inevitably try it anyway.

Remember when 4chan convinced people that installing the latest iOS would make their iPhones waterproof? Same thing. Some poor kid will definitely microwave his iPhone trying to catch Pokémon.

It will look something like this: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCx5_K_21_k

The terrible part is that there’s already a trick to simulate walking without causing your phone to catch fire: Tape it to a ceiling fan.

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*First Published: Jul 13, 2016, 12:13 pm CDT