im blue if i were green i would die

Everyone’s favorite Muppet frog once sang about the difficulties of being green, but there were a few points he left out: being dumped by your boyfriend, for example, or being mistaken for a green traffic light and in turn getting hit by a car—both things this poor girl from China claims happened to her after a facial mask she used turned her face a glowing, fluorescent green.

A video of the interview with the unfortunate young lady has gone viral across Chinese social networking sites, with many just as skeptical of the wild story as you probably are this very minute…

This video made its appearance on YouTube on August 29, and has since been making the rounds on Chinese social media ever since, netting nearly 60,000 views in the few days it has been online.

In the interview, 26-year-old “Wu”, with her mug all aglow, recounts how using a facial mask left her face looking much like the rear end of a firefly (though not necessarily in those words). The alleged culprit: a fluorescent whitening agent, the like of which has been showing up, and causing harm, increasingly often in China in recent months.

While being dumped by her boyfriend because of her new-found glow would make a sad enough story as it was, the claim that her bright complexion also got her mistaken for a traffic light and hit by a car had viewers’ eyebrows raising.

“Is this for real?”

“This has to be a fake video.”

“Is there anyone who actually believes this is real?”

“I’m sorry if this is true but… I couldn’t help laughing!”

A closer look at the video reveals the title 暴走大事件 (Bao Zou Big News Events), which is actually an internet talk-variety show that discusses literature, politics, chemistry, biology and more, introducing each topic in an interesting and humorous manner.

As it turns out, the “interview” was merely one part of the program, which was cropped and spread around social media, inevitably leading some susceptible souls to believe it was real. (You can view the interview from the 6:06 mark.)

It’s so easy to make a false claim about anything these days and spread it around like wildfire. If there are any lessons to be learned from this story, it would be to do your research before falling for and/or further spreading false information in this age of instantaneous communication. And to also avoid using suspicious-looking cosmetics.

Source: YouTube/暴走系列官方频道、如皋新聞網
Top image: YouTube/暴走系列官方频道 
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