According to a 2015 Vice[1] article where they speak with the creator of the challenge, runthegauntlet.org[2] was launched in 2015 (domain registered on October 14th, 2014).[10] The site’s slogan reads, “The Most Vile, Puke inducing, Hard to watch Videos on the Internet.” Run The Gauntlet presents users with one increasingly shocking video at a time, separated into difficulty levels ranging from “Beginner” to “Insane.” Videos in the challenge have been replaced a number of times, with a full list of videos in and removed from the challenge available on screamer.wiki.[3]
Run The Gauntlet Cringe Edition
There is also a SFW cringe edition of the Run the Gauntlet challenge hosted at runthegauntlet.org/cringe[9] where users are shown 41 increasingly cringey videos one after another.
The challenge has inspired numerous reaction videos online where people attempt to run the gauntlet. For example, on May 20th, 2015, YouTuber[4] TheSCcomedy posted a video where six people attempt to run the gauntlet, gaining over 56,000 views in seven years (shown below, left). April 9, 2020 YouTuber [5] Twomad tried to launch the Gauntlet but it has been played over 296,000 times in two years (see bottom right corner) since the last video.
Resurrected on TikTok in 2022
In 2022, videos about “running the gauntlet” started circulating on TikTok. On April 20th, TikToker[6]@milovelyyy released a video about watching the challenge that was played over 29,000 times a month (see links below). On April 24th, TikToker[7]@uhhhh._charlotte posted a traumatic video in one of their videos that received over 14,000 views in a similar period (see below right). . On May 17th, PopBuzz [8] published an article on TikTok to increase the popularity of the challenge.
