When Kitty Bernardo, bar supervisor at Paradise Misplaced, noticed some trade associates stroll into the bar on the finish of their shift, they knew they had been in hassle. You see, Bernardo had “iced” these associates earlier within the evening. Sure, iced. Like from 2010s lolcat web. “I bear in mind seeing my associates icing one another in faculty and pondering, That is such a ridiculous development that may’t probably preserve happening. This was proper across the time different viral tendencies just like the Cinnamon Problem and Planking had been occurring, so I used to be satisfied that this was going to be simply one other a kind of passing fads that’ll be right here and gone,” says Bernardo. And but, right here they had been, icing and being iced in 2025, having the time of their life.
Icing was “invented” in 2010. The principles are easy: You shock your sufferer with a Smirnoff Ice—the citrusy malt beverage—usually hid in some inventive method. They need to chug it on the spot, except they’ve a Smirnoff Ice on their particular person to dam the assault, during which case the unique icer turns into the icee. It started on faculty campuses, the place the enduring reputation of consuming video games, a style for easy-drinking alcopops and nascent visible social media platforms (you would already tag your folks in Fb photographs or add your evening to Photobucket, and Instagram debuted in July 2010) smashed collectively. Not solely might you prank your folks, you would put up about the ever extra elaborate methods you probably did it, inspiring copycats and opponents all over the world. It was a meme, IRL.
“Was” will not be the best tense right here. Fifteen years after it started, icing has outlasted related dated tendencies just like the Ice Bucket Problem and the Milk Crate Problem. And why not? Icing is timeless, an “irreverent but ritualistic handshake,” as Bernardo places it, cementing that irrespective of how unhealthy issues get, you’re nonetheless dedicated to a superb snort. Even when meaning it’s important to chug a Smirnoff Ice.
For some, the custom has remained amongst household and associates for the reason that 2010s (see: the marriage I went to the place the bride was iced by her personal mom). However others are new to the prank. TikTok is full of individuals far too younger to have been round at icing’s inception, however nonetheless getting in on the prank, pulling it off at weddings and birthdays and household gatherings.
“My accomplice and I’ve created a multiyear custom of icing their brother and his spouse,” says author Lindsay Lee Wallace. She by no means took half in faculty, however the alternative for a low-stakes sibling competitors was, properly, intoxicating. “Extra just lately we hid six bottles all through their just lately bought house on Thanksgiving. One yr we wrapped Ices and gave one to every member of the family on Christmas.”
Kian Sharafi, common supervisor of Mister Paradise in Manhattan, says icing has come again in a giant method in some native trade circles. He claims it began when people from Coqodaq, one other New York restaurant, got here to Mister Paradise and iced him whereas he was making drinks. “I really had a reservation at Coqodaq every week or two after that,” he says. “So then I introduced an entire six-pack to ice the entire bar group.” Now, he and Bernardo say, there’s a “full-on ice struggle” amongst a number of bars in New York. “I’ll all the time be on guard at Mister Paradise, Condo 5 and Coqodaq,” says Bernardo.
Sharafi has additionally iced prospects with a stash that the bar retains readily available, if they appear like they’ve the best vibe and wish to take part. “All people remembers that that is only a dumb, enjoyable factor to do,” he says. As pranks go, it’s a reasonably tame one: “No one really will get harm in any respect. It’s low-impact and—I don’t know if ‘high-reward’ is the best phrase—however individuals are drawn to it.”
Bernardo says the resurgence, or continuation, of icing, performs into our present period of “ironic nostalgia.” However that nostalgia is displaying its head elsewhere, and seems deeply honest. It’s the identical drive placing ’70s cocktails on the menu—sure, there’s a wink, however the enjoyable is actual.
“That is tremendous tacky, however working bits make me really feel like my associates and family members will preserve being round for lengthy sufficient that I’ll get to ice them at their upcoming main life occasions, they usually’ll ice me at mine, and that’s as lovely as it’s nauseating,” says Wallace. Icing has lasted as a result of greater than some other mid-2010s web prank, you at the very least get one thing pleasant out of it on the finish. Bernardo echoes the sentiment. “If I ice you, it means I like you… It’s a sick and twisted olive department that brings individuals collectively,” they are saying. “Nevertheless it’s additionally simply humorous as hell.”
