A couple in Brazil is now facing a serious investigation by the country's
environmental ministry after they decided to dye a literal waterfall,
blue for their very important gender reveal party, very important.
Now I'm of the mind that gender reveal parties should be
banned all across the globe.
No one cares about the gender of your kid, literally.
Let's just keep it real.
No one wants to say it, but I'll say it.
No one cares, you care, which is great because you're gonna have the child.
You're gonna do the child rearing.
It's exciting, right?
I totally get that.
Even your parents don't care.
They're just happy that they're gonna have grandkids.
They don't care if it's a boy, they don't care if it's a girl.
Don't destroy the environment or start wildfires for
your cheesy ass gender reveal party.
Now let me give you the details of what happened.
An unnamed couple, they're very lucky that they've been unnamed, but
they posted and then deleted the video that we're about to watch.
So this was on Instagram and it was shared by other accounts, which is why once you
post something on the internet, it'll be there forever and there you have it.
You see the waterfall, it is bright blue because they put something in
it to make it so, and that's a huge problem, that is a huge problem.
This is in a state in Central Brazil, they were in Mato Grosso.
And it was a violation of Brazil's federal environmental law spokesperson for
Mato Grosso's environment protection agency SEMA said.
While an investigation will determine which penalties and fees apply,
the unnamed family member behind the stunt is being charged with harming
the environment, SEMA said.
And I'm just gonna skip ahead because my favorite part of the story is
when the couple learned that they'd be investigated,
they decided to throw another family member under the bus.
And so they're like, we don't know what was used to dye the waterfall blue.
So let me see if I could find, okay, so
we don't know exactly what was used to dye the river.
But luckily for both the ecosystem and
the people who obviously rely on that water, it actually is part of
a main water source in this area, so that's why it's a huge deal.
So the investigation is ongoing and
there could be some environmental ramifications depending on what we learn.
Now while the water's quality didn't immediately appear to have been altered,
the agency said the act of dumping a substance into the water constitutes
an infraction.
Under Brazilian law, throwing solid, liquid, or gas waste or
debris, oils or oily substances into the environment is
subject to fines ranging between $926 and $9,263.
And here's the part with the family member being thrown under the bus.
One of the gender reveal party's host told SEMA that they didn't know a chemical
product would be used to dye the water instead placing the blame on a family
member whom the agency has since identified and called in for charging.
Man, John would you turn in a family member?
>> I would never be involved in this in the first place.
But I mean he can't be that surprised that they turned out to have some issues.
They're doing this whole thing in the first place.
That was the warning sign, I guess.
I guess I like this better than setting off explosives or starting forest fires.
I guess go with the water rather than the fire.
It's still damaging, but it seems a little bit less damaging.
I don't get like if you are gonna have this bizarre fetishizing of the genitals
of your newborn kid, have a cake and inside the cake it's one color or
another, and then you cut it and you reveal it.
That looks good on Instagram.
Why isn't that enough?
And can I be needlessly pedantic by the way,
why are we still calling it a gender reveal party?
It's a sex reveal party.
Kid doesn't have a gender, kids can't choose a gender.
Like, I mean we can presume, but it's a sex reveal party.
Let's start calling it that because if we start to make it about the distinction
between sex and gender, we know it's gonna spoil it for all of them.
And maybe they'll stop doing it,
maybe we can avoid some ruined waterfalls in the future maybe.
Anyway, I largely agree with you.
I don't think that most people care, like maybe they care if the baby is healthy.
>> In fact, I will say out loud what most people I think are too afraid to say,
which is the gender reveal parties are actually annoying because
you're also expected to bring a gift.
So there's like the baby shower, there's the gender reveal party, and
like you're expected to bring something.
So it's like another event to celebrate something that you're excited about.
But most other people don't really care about and
they're expected to also provide a gift.
Like let people live, like just enough,
enough, enough with the made up parties.
And look, I get it, it's exciting.
People get excited when they're gonna have a kid, but
people enjoy those kinds of get togethers.
But look, if it's a get together that is going to make people feel pressure
to bring a gift and on top of that, this is the most important point.
You're gonna do things that are risky for the environment, maybe don't,
maybe rethink it.
>> Or like if you're gonna have it be where gifts are required or optional,
at least have it be like appropriate gifts, like a fire extinguisher for
putting out the needless forest fire you create or maybe a testing kit to find out
what chemical their jackass relative put in the water.
Or maybe bail money for the relative once they throw him in jail, have it be useful.
>> And by the way we keep mentioning the forest fires, so that is a reference
to a Southern California couple who was charged with manslaughter after
the smoke bomb they used sparked a massive wildfire since becoming a trend in 2008.
By the way, gender reveal parties have triggered an explosion,
caused a plane crash, and lead to death.
There was also a novelty cannon that killed a Michigan man
at a gender reveal party in 2021.
Like the whole point of celebrating a pregnancy is that you're
bringing life into the world.
So do that in a way that doesn't lead to someone dying, or multiple people dying.
>> This is the circle of life Anna.
They should have a gender reveal party for
the gender of the person they're needlessly gonna kill.
That would be exciting.
>> All right, Simba.
We got it.
[LAUGH] By the way, Lion King, definitely the best Disney movie.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I watched it again a few weeks ago.
Excellent.