#Twitter roasts gender-reveal party trend with wildfire memes

As California firefighters continue battling the El Dorado wildfire, which has torn through some 10,000 acres of San Bernardino county since Saturday, the shocking facts about the origin of the blaze — a gender-reveal party — have galvanized concerned citizens of the internet in a campaign against over-the-top soirees.

A 2013 webcomic by KC Green, adapted by artist Alexi Grousis in a Twitter meme on Monday, has gone viral for its spot-on tone — mocking social media-obsessed parents who concoct dangerous pyrotechnic displays for such a banal announcement.

Others on social media joined in to poke fun at the headlines with their own ironic, nightmarish and offensive scenarios, facetiously declaring that they were prompted by an ill-fated gender reveal. One user even went so far as to evoke images of 9/11 in a recent Instagram story, suggesting, in apparent jest, that the attacks were all part of an elaborate gender-reveal scheme.

Several denizens of social media jokingly suggested that some of history’s greatest catastrophes may have been caused by gender-reveal accidents, such as the first plague of Egypt, the demise of the dinosaurs or the burning Tower of Babel.

How about 1937’s Hindenburg disaster? The hydrogen-filled blimp wasn’t full of colored gas, but perhaps not for lack of trying.

TV writer Jess Dweck quipped that the “worst part about the Chernobyl disaster is they never revealed whether it was a girl or boy.” Her dark humor was appreciated by at least 57,000 on Twitter who liked or retweeted the comment.

But Egyptologist Sarah Parcak hit close to home when she suggested parents announce their baby’s gender a bit more authentically.

“Instead of blowing up things for a gender reveal party, the parents to be should hand out wallets. If there’s a dollar inside, it’s a boy, if there’s 72 cents, it’s a girl,” she tweeted yesterday, which pulled-in over 220,000 likes.

In a not-so-farfetched plot involving zoo animals, YouTuber Sarah Schauer described a reveal involving “beating an endangered rhino, eventually forcing it to s - - t the ‘it’s a boy!’ capsule [the] party planner force-fed it hours ago.”

Gender-reveal stunts have indeed become increasingly bold and destructive over the years. More recently, they’ve prompted multiple fires, injuries and even death.

The polar shift in public opinion regarding the viral pregnancy trend can be credited partially to the woman who launched the now-controversial fad.

“For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid’s penis. No one cares but you,” wrote Jenna Karvunidis, blogger and creator of the first bona fide viral gender reveal. Her medium? A cake with a pink frosting interior.

“Excuse me for having a cake for my family in 2008. Just because I’m the gEnDeR rEvEaL iNVeNtoR doesn’t mean I think people should burn down their communities. STOP,” she pleaded.

So enjoy the memes, but don’t miss the message. After all, only you can prevent environmentally disastrous gender-reveal parties.