The Most Outrageous Gender Reveals, Ranked
Discovering the sex of your child is one of the ultimate joys of parenthood. Whether you find out early or wait until the moment of birth, all of the thoughts and emotions you had about this child become so much clearer and more focused. For instance, who can you trust with the blue Tannerite explosive target for your gender reveal now that you know it’s a boy?
Thanks to the decidedly modern phenomenon of sharing every minute detail of our lives — complete with perfunctory smiles and finger gestures, hashtags and “emotion icons” — this previously intimate moment for parents and loved ones is now an opportunity to go big in a very public way. We’re talking party, viral video, reveal fail, news story in response to viral video — and all of this because of a little FOMO.
Check out our running list of the most outrageous — and we mean both hilarious and utterly terrifying — gender reveal ideas that we could find on the internet. Warning: Don't try these at home.
The History of the Fad
Before we get to the fun, though, let’s discuss the history of this rather new fad. YouTube claims the first gender-reveal video was uploaded in 2009, so this is definitely a trend brought forth by millennials that seems to only be growing in popularity. "The trend of gender-reveal videos began to emerge on YouTube in mid-2011 and continued to grow in terms of uploads and views from then on," a YouTube rep told "The Washington Post." "In 2017, YouTube saw a 60 percent increase in U.S. views for gender-reveal videos compared to 2016."
That’s a ton of genders revealed online. For those of us prone to schadenfreude, this is a good thing. So, before you plan any explosions, fireworks, tricks with deadly animals or nightmare-inducing costumes, take a look at the following outrageous gender reveal ideas and ask yourself these questions: Do I want this on my permanent record, shouldn’t I be alive for the child’s sake and what if someone spills wine on me during the ultrasound?
Just Picture His Face
As you’ll soon see, gender-reveal parties can get insane and depressing. So, bringing a piñata filled with blue or pink candy to the party is pretty tame by today’s standards. But what gets us about this one is the idea of the piñata itself.
Piñatas, by nature, are just awesome. You put on a blindfold and try desperately to destroy this beautiful papier-mache creation because it’s loaded with goodies. And when it breaks, the candy scramble is on! But the crux of the piñata experience is total annihilation. So, this probably works wonders for some women.
Pregnancy is not all fun and games for everyone, especially when it’s unplanned or the dad is MIA. Enter the piñata, a perfect emotional release for mom. At this gender-reveal party, there will be no kids, no blindfolds and no candy. Just mom and her pent-up rage letting go on an innocent piñata.
Note to dads: Don’t become the man she’s thinking about while beating the ever-loving crap out of the piñata.
Viral Probability: Medium
Outrageous Factor: 6/10
Pregnancy Oversharing
So, you’re pregnant, and you want to share the joy with all of your loved ones. There are countless options for doing that, but you decide this one is the only way forward.
You invite 20 friends and family over for the reveal party, and one very special guest — the ultrasound tech. Yes, the person who operates the machine that peers through your skin and reveals many, many things about your baby. In this case, some of those things might not be things you wanted to share.
“What if the ultrasonographer started the ultrasound, and there was no heartbeat?" says Dr. Amber Sills, an OB/GYN in Arkansas, on "TODAY’s" website. "Or what if the fetus had not developed a skull/head/brain? This happens more than most people realize. What do you do then?”
Regardless of the risks, people’s thoughts on these parties tend to be mixed or mostly positive, and they have been gaining in popularity for years.
Viral Probability: Low
Outrageous Factor: 7/10
Costumes Are for Halloween
The only positive thing about this video is that this thing didn’t pop out of the box. What did pop out, however, is nearly as terrifying. We haven’t seen calisthenics like that since Richard Simmons in “Sweatin’ to the Oldies: Vol. 2.” Just look at that thing move!
Not surprisingly, this video went viral. And even more unsurprisingly, the couple behind it is just over the moon by this fact, eagerly awaiting the day real baby can find out about his bizzaro famous twin. And even though daddy was skeptical of the idea at first, he eventually convinced his brother to wear the baby suit and jump out of the box.
"The people at the reveal party were all shocked when the giant baby came out," the mother, Yessenia, tells "Insider." "Some of them expected balloons or something of that nature, but never a dancing giant baby.
No one ever expects a dancing giant baby, Yessenia.
Viral Probability: High
Outrageous Factor: 8/10
Stay Classy
It’s probably safe to say your gender-reveal party wasn’t trying to be the classiest if you opt to host it at an Applebee’s and, during the course of the night, someone utters the words, “I’m going to beat your ass.”
Such was the case for a group of 20 revelers who made quite the lasting impression on all the poor folks and staff at the Boardman, Ohio, Applebee’s that night. Things started to go south after the group demanded to detonate its blue confetti bomb (it was a boy!) inside the restaurant. The quick-thinking management, realizing a confetti shower would be bad for business, persuaded the group to blast off outside the restaurant. After doing so, however, the party refused to clean up their mess.
That’s when things got worse. Members of the party began fighting with staff, using the aforementioned threat and others while throwing menus at a hostess. Police were called to restore order to the universe, and in the end, no one was injured (just, clearly, a handful of egos).
But perhaps the worst part of the entire thing is that the group didn’t pay its bill. Gender-reveal fail.
Viral Probability: High
Outrageous Factor: 8/10
Baby Light My Fire
Remember being a kid and anticipating the Fourth of July fireworks? It seemed to take forever for the sun to go down, but when it finally did, it was showtime. And remember how Dad always used his stern voice when telling you not to get near the fireworks? If anyone was going to lose a finger, it was him. And remember when cousin Billy didn’t listen and now has only three fingers on his right hand and no one will hire him?
The couple in this video are cousin Billy.
Rule No. 1 when planning to light fireworks: Do so on a hard surface and not something flimsy and worthless like, say, a clothes drying rack. Rule No. 2 when planning to light fireworks: See rule No. 1.
The death screams you hear in this video are real, folks, but it’s still a riot when that first one shoots toward the camera, and everyone goes nuts.
Viral Probability: Very High
Outrageous Factor: 9/10
King of Pain
When you’ve dubbed yourself the Gator King, no one should be surprised when you show up to your gender-reveal party with a 500-pound reptile named Sally.
Mike Kliebert, a gator trainer and handler from Louisiana, did just that when he and his baby’s mama — also an alligator whisperer — hosted friends and family for their celebration. "First thing that came to my mind when my girlfriend and I decided to have a gender-reveal party were alligators," Kliebert tells "The Huffington Post." "They’re a big part of our family, so why not incorporate them into our reveal?"
We could think of a few reasons not to include an alligator in anything, let alone a gender-reveal party that will be attended by children and elderly folk — you know, people who would have a hard time surviving the clamped jaws and neck-wringing nature of such a creature. But Mike decided to go forward with it anyway, and we’re happy to report that everyone made it out alive.
Sally, the alligator, however, had to bite into a watermelon filled with blue Jello to reveal that it was a boy, and she will likely be traumatized by the experience for the rest of her life. (After all, she’s in her 60s.)
Viral Probability: Very High
Outrageous Factor: 10/10
There’s No Excuse for Causing Wildfires
Smokey the Bear would not be happy with this proud papa. Dennis Dickey is a U.S. Border Patrol agent who lives in Arizona. Most days, he wanders around the desert with his colleagues, secretly thinking about things he could blow up because Dennis likes explosives. And like any Arizonan worth their arid climate, he loves guns, too. Dennis is constantly thinking of ways he can combine these two passions into something really destructive.
Then, one day it hit him like an M-80 inside a trash can: Dennis can reveal his baby’s sex to friends and family by blowing up a container of colored powder in the middle of grassland that hasn’t seen rain in years. And there’s a section of the grassland that contains some green trees, which will make a lovely backdrop for the video.
Dennis sets everything up and decides that, in order to ignite the thing, he will shoot it with his favorite rifle. And he will film it, of course. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out EVERYTHING!
Some 47,000 scorched acres, $8.2 million in damage and 800 firefighters later, Dennis owes the federal government $220,000 in restitution and will be on probation until his baby boy turns five.
Viral Probability: Explosively High
Outrageous Factor: 10/10
Very, Very Sly
Mom wins all the awards for this incredibly slick move during her reveal party.
It all starts out normal enough. Everyone is gathered around a cake (strangely a “Nightmare Before Christmas” cake, but we’ll give them a pass there), and someone is filming as dad-to-be starts slicing into the cake, which through frosting colors will reveal the sex. The only problem is that after he’s finished cutting we see that there is both pink and blue frosting layers in the cake. Sacre bleu!
Dad’s in a panic, mom’s in panic — they want answers! But just as dad starts calling for someone else to come into the room and explain what in blue blazes is going on here, mom slams a pink frosting pie right into his face.
Ohhhhhhh damn! Genius move.
Viral Probability: High
Outrageous Factor: 8/10
Worst Moment for a Meltdown
We’ve all had that day. You know, the one where it’s just so clear that not a single person in the world understands you and never will. When it’s everything you can do to even go to the bathroom. When there’s no way in hell you’re showing up to the office today. And every single ounce of pity you have is going straight to yourself. Just a classic no-good, terrible, rotten, very bad day.
Note to self: Do NOT behave this way when the sex of your baby is revealed, and you went to the trouble of having a freakin’ party for it. We really agree with Kev in this video. If mom was dead set on a girl, she really shouldn’t have invited all those people and spent all that money so she could become a viral sensation for all the wrong reasons. Remember, there is a very clear 50 percent chance your dreams will be shattered.
And my man needs to do some serious soul searching after he sees his reaction to finding out he’s going to have a baby girl. We just hope that baby girl never sees this video, but … internet.
Viral Probability: Very High
Outrageous Factor: 10/10
Smooth Swingin’ Billy
We’ll admit we were plenty jealous when we saw this one. So not fair that you got Bill Murray to do your gender reveal!
Jacqueline and Michael Davis weren’t going all out for their big moment, keeping it a rather light affair in which Michael would take a swing at a golf ball filled with blue or pink something after he competed in a charity golf tournament. Well, it just so happened to be the Murray Bros. Caddyshack Golf Tournament, featuring one of the all-time funniest guys around Bill Murray. Apparently, Murray agreed to do the honors after a mutual friend of his and the Davises asked him to do so, and the rest is history.
It was a wonderful moment for this couple, who are clearly big fans of Mr. Murray. Hopefully Junior likes to laugh.
Viral Probability: Best.Gender.Reveal.Ever
Outrageous Factor: 10/10