Y'all. We said 2018 was going to be a good year. So, put the laundry pods down, back away, and we'll call it good. We'll pretend like this whole thing never even happened.

*Screeching sound* Hold up. Let's back up a moment and see exactly how we got to where we are now.

Every year, there are a handful of memes aimed at defining a generation whose favorite form of communication is social media. Some of last year's notable frontrunners included the Mocking Spongebob, Distracted Boyfriend, and White Guy Blinking.

But, as is the American way, things can often take a very quick and very dark (-ly humorous) turn. Queue one of the memes that is dominating popular culture as of the moment: the laundry pod meme. Essentially, the joke is about just how "delectable" laundry pods look.

Squishy, gooey, and oh-so-colorful, some have found them to look similar to fruit snacks, and, thus, the joke of eating this "forbidden fruit" was born. But, you may be asking yourself, "Where did this meme originate?"

Good question!

Now spit those damn pods out and listen up.

The following information has been supplied by the meme database (man, what a time to be alive) Know Your Meme.

The first translation this meme made into widespread popular culture came in December of 2015 when the satirical publication The Onion published an article by a fictitious yet frustrated toddler.

Dylan DelMonico, the infantile author, laments just how tasty those laundry pods look and how badly he wants to get his teeny little hands on one.

The following is an excerpt from said article:

Anybody who knows me will tell you the same thing: I get what I want. Whether it's food, being held, my binky, you name it--if I decide I'd like it, you damn well better believe I don't rest until I get it, one way or another. And from the very second I saw those blue and red detergent pods come out of that shopping bag last week, I knew immediately that, come hell or high water, I would eat one of those things.

Then, on March 31, 2017, College Humor—in its usual oddball, odd-everything brand of humor—composed a sketch in which a grown man faces an internal conflict as to whether or not he should in fact eat the colorful treats.

As of early January, the sketch has had more than a million views on Facebook and well over three million views on YouTube.

Watch it down below!

Since then, a plethora of laundry pod memes have saturated social media platforms. Take a look for yourself.

See. Just harmless, albeit mildly demented, jokes. All in good fun and no one gets hurt. WRONG.

Here comes the real kicker: PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY EATING THEM.

Yup. Yes, you read that correctly. In fact, NBC reports that more adults have fatally ingested laundry pods than children. Even more alarming is a new trend amongst teenagers where they take a bite out of the EXTREMELY TOXIC laundry pods and post the video on social media.

CBS Los Angeles made the following segment below, outlining just how poisonous the laundry pods are and how damaging their effects can be.

I never really thought I would have to write these words, but, people, please don't ingest laundry pods. Don't even take a bite out of them. They can cause serious damage.

Yeah, they may look like fruit snacks but maybe you should go for a baggie of actual fruit snacks the next time a sudden urge to sink your teeth into a multicolored plastic pod of chemicals hits. I don't know.

Maybe this is just some form of natural selection? What's next, the #ArsenicChallenge?

So, now that you are an informed reader, please, do us all a favor. Share this article, share your newfound information (should not eating laundry pods really be that much of a newsflash?), and maybe even save a life. I implore you: leave the laundry pods for the laundry.

Wash out your mouth. Maybe even your clothes.

And, for the sake of 2018, clean up your act.