In August 2025, a curious flyer appeared in a city in Germany, inviting passers-by to a public meet-up: "Wir essen Pudding mit einer Gabel" ("We eat pudding with a fork"). The idea was simple but odd: bring your own pudding and fork, gather in a public park, count down together, and then attempt to eat pudding with a fork. What began as a quirky, local stunt quickly grew into something larger, spreading on social media across Germany. Within weeks, it morphed into mass events with hundreds of people assembled in different cities in Europe to enjoy their puddings with forks.
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Today, "Pudding mit Gabel" is more than a viral trend. It is a cultural moment, a social ritual, and more. There seems to be no manifesto, no central organiser, no agenda. The appeal lies in the harmless strangeness, the communal absurdity, and the invitation to gather, even if only to relish pudding. Find out more below:
How The Trend Began
As per reports, the trend began in August 2025 in Karlsruhe, a city in southwestern Germany. A flyer stuck to a lamppost asked locals to join in to eat pudding with forks. The initial gathering was modest. But after local meme pages and social accounts amplified it, the idea spread quickly. The simple visual of people sitting in parks, opening pudding cups in unison, and bringing plastic forks lent itself to shareable images and video snippets.
Within a few weeks, versions appeared in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. At a Berlin event, over 1,000 young people showed up in a park. A timed countdown, electronic music, costumed mascots (one even dressed as the Duolingo owl holding a giant fork) and techno beats turned what might have been a low-key gathering into an almost festive event. As the pudding-eating began, participants tapped lids and forks on the cups, counted down from ten, then dove in.
Why A Fork? The Humour Of The Absurd
At first glance, the notion of eating pudding with a fork is inefficient, messy and laughable. Why do it? Many participants say that's precisely the point. The absurdity draws attention and forces participants to slow down, to laugh, to talk, to share a moment of collective absurd tension. Some observers have suggested that the trend taps into a yearning for in-person rituals in an age dominated by screens. The act of gathering in a real park, facing the physical challenge of scooping pudding with a fork, becomes a shared performance.
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From Germany To The World
Once the videos from Germany began going viral, the trend transcended borders. In Vienna, an event in the Burggarten drew a few hundred participants. In the United States, students at Northeastern University in Boston posted videos of themselves eating pudding with forks on campus. At Syracuse University, a small group of students convened in front of the library to eat chocolate pudding with forks, calling it "a cultural event you can't miss." One of them commented that the reason was simply: "We need more random stuff." The spread is still nascent. Some meetups are small, while others are quite large. But the media coverage has amplified curiosity and participation.
The choice of pudding is fitting: universally recognisable, inexpensive, easy to procure, and unthreatening. The act of trying to eat it with a fork forces slowness and awkwardness. The trend shows how, even in a fraught time, people invent new ways to gather, to be silly, to eat, and to connect. It suggests that when the world feels heavy, absurdity can become a kind of balm. The simplest acts, like sharing pudding with strangers, may carry more weight than they appear to.
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