# Bowl Of Mms > Bowl Of M&Ms is a 2014 image-macro series from Tumblr's The Frogman, applying a poisoned-candy thought experiment metaphor to explain social fears and biases. Bowl of M&Ms is an image macro series built around a thought experiment: imagine a bowl of candy where some pieces are poisoned, then ask if you'd eat a handful. First posted on Tumblr in May 2014 by blogger The Frogman in response to the Isla Vista killings, the analogy was originally about why women fear men[1]. It later got repurposed by anti-immigration groups and reached mainstream politics when Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a Skittles version targeting Syrian refugees in September 2016[4]. ## Origin On May 26, 2014, Tumblr user The Frogman published a post responding to the 2014 Isla Vista killings, where a young man murdered six people in a rampage driven partly by misogynistic anger toward women who rejected him[1]. The Frogman criticized the Men's Rights Movement for focusing on deflecting blame rather than condemning the violence. At the end of his post, he wrote: "You say not all men are monsters? Imagine a bowl of M&Ms. 10% of them are poisoned. Go ahead. Eat a handful. Not all M&Ms are poison"[1]. The analogy was meant to explain why women are cautious around men, framing it as a rational risk calculation rather than irrational prejudice[2]. When readers tried substituting other groups (Muslims, Jews) into the same framework, The Frogman pushed back on June 3, 2014, calling those versions "false equivalencies" and arguing the analogy only works when applied to groups in positions of power[2]. The underlying concept of comparing unwanted groups to poisoned food wasn't entirely new. The Debunking Denialism blog later traced similar logic to the Nazi propaganda book *Der Giftpilz* ("The Poisonous Mushroom") from 1938, written by Julius Streicher, which compared Jewish people to poisonous mushrooms[7]. - **Platform:** Tumblr (The Frogman's blog) - **Creator:** The Frogman (original Tumblr post), Donald Trump Jr. (Skittles variant that went viral) - **Date:** 2014 ## Overview The Bowl of M&Ms meme follows a simple template: a photo of a bowl of candy (usually M&Ms or Skittles) paired with text that reads something like "Imagine a bowl of M&Ms. 10% of them are poisoned. Go ahead, eat a handful. Not all M&Ms are poison." The format uses poisoned candy as a metaphor for dangerous individuals within a larger group, arguing that even a small percentage of "bad" members justifies fear of the whole group[3]. What makes this meme distinctive is how it migrated across the political spectrum. It started as a feminist argument about male violence, then got co-opted by anti-Muslim and anti-refugee groups using the exact same logical structure[6]. Critics have pointed out that the analogy exploits statistical illiteracy and base rate neglect, since it treats wildly different probabilities as equivalent and ignores that real-world interactions aren't random samplings from a population[8]. The format is instantly recognizable: a stock-style photo of colorful candy in a white bowl, overlaid with white or black text posing the hypothetical scenario. Some versions use Skittles instead of M&Ms, and the "poisoned" percentage ranges from 10% down to fractions of a percent depending on the argument being made[9]. ## How It Spread The meme's first major crossover came just two days after The Frogman's post. On May 28, 2014, Reddit user tensaas submitted a graphic of the M&Ms analogy to r/TumblrInAction with the title "This is such horrible logic," where it pulled in over 2,000 upvotes and 600 comments[6]. The post framed the analogy as an example of Tumblr's flawed reasoning, which ironically helped spread it to a much wider audience. On July 5, 2014, the Debunking Denialism blog published a detailed takedown titled "Poisonous M&Ms: The Irrational Monstrosity of Bigotry," calling out the analogy's problems with base rate neglect, lack of specificity, and false assumptions about random sampling[8]. By late 2015, the format had jumped from gender politics to immigration debates. On November 15, 2015, a post appeared on Reddit's r/facepalm showing a bowl of M&Ms captioned "You're saying not all muslims are dangerous / Some of the M&M are poisoned. Would you eat a handful?"[6]. That same month, Republican politician Mike Huckabee compared Syrian refugees to a poisoned bag of peanuts. John Oliver called out the comparison on *Last Week Tonight* on November 22[6]. The meme hit peak visibility on September 19, 2016, when Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a photograph of a bowl of Skittles with the text: "If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem"[4]. The tweet gained over 19,500 likes and 12,800 retweets within 24 hours[6]. The backlash was immediate. Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau posted images of Syrian children, writing that Trump Jr. had "compared them to a poisoned Skittle"[5]. Singer John Legend pointed out that the same logic would justify confiscating all guns[5]. A Wrigley spokesperson issued a statement: "Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don't feel it is an appropriate analogy"[4]. Multiple news outlets covered the controversy, including NPR, The Guardian, Slate, NY Mag, and Reason[4][5][8]. NY Mag's analysis noted the math didn't hold up: using a standard 6-ounce bowl of Skittles (about 162 pieces), three poisonous ones would represent a 1.9% chance, while the actual odds of being killed by a refugee in a terrorist attack were roughly 1 in 3.6 billion according to the Cato Institute[9]. ## How to Use The Bowl of M&Ms format typically works like this: 1. **Pick a group** that someone is defending with a "not all X" argument 2. **Set up the analogy:** "Imagine a bowl of M&Ms [or Skittles]. X% of them are poisoned." 3. **Pose the challenge:** "Go ahead, eat a handful. Not all of them are poison." 4. The unspoken conclusion is that any risk from the group justifies avoiding them entirely ## Cultural Impact The Bowl of M&Ms meme is one of the clearest examples of how a meme format can travel across the political spectrum while keeping its structure intact. What started as a progressive feminist talking point in 2014 was, by 2016, primarily associated with conservative anti-immigration rhetoric[7]. The September 2016 Skittles tweet brought Wrigley, the parent company of Skittles, into the conversation. Their response, "Skittles are candy. Refugees are people," became widely quoted and praised for its simplicity[4]. The statement also included the savvy disclaimer that the company would "respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing"[5]. John Oliver's *Last Week Tonight* covered the poisoned food analogy in November 2015, specifically calling out Mike Huckabee's poisoned peanuts version[6]. Multiple major outlets ran pieces dissecting the meme's logic after Trump Jr.'s tweet, including NPR, The Guardian, Slate, NY Mag, and Reason[4][5][9]. The Debunking Denialism blog's 2014 refutation gained renewed attention in 2016, with outlets like BuzzFeed and Salon linking to it as an existing debunking[7]. The Washington Post cited a Cato Institute study showing the odds of being killed by a refugee in a terrorist attack at roughly 1 in 3.6 billion, putting the meme's implied risk into stark statistical context[4]. The meme also drew attention to historical parallels. Researchers noted the structural similarity between the poisoned candy analogy and the Nazi propaganda book *Der Giftpilz* (1938), which compared Jewish people to poisonous mushrooms to justify antisemitic persecution[7]. ## Fun Facts - The Frogman's original post specifically distinguished between applying the analogy to "oppressive groups" versus "marginalized groups," a distinction that was completely ignored as the meme spread[2]. - NY Mag identified that Trump Jr.'s Skittles tweet was essentially plagiarized from former congressman Joe Walsh, who had posted nearly identical wording a month earlier[9]. - The Debunking Denialism blog published their refutation of the analogy in July 2014, a full two years before it became a national news story, giving them what they called a "two-year head start"[7]. - The Cato Institute calculated that the odds of being killed by a refugee in a terrorist attack are about 1 in 3.64 billion, meaning Trump Jr.'s hypothetical bowl would need to contain roughly 10.9 billion Skittles to be statistically accurate[4][9]. - Wrigley's response to the controversy was carefully crafted to avoid seeming like marketing, with the spokesperson explicitly noting they would avoid further comment because "anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing"[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Bowl of M&Ms? Bowl of M&Ms is an image macro and thought experiment that compares a group of people to a bowl of candy where some pieces are poisoned, then asks if you'd eat a handful. It's used to argue that even a small percentage of "dangerous" members justifies fearing an entire group[1]. ### Where did Bowl of M&Ms come from? The specific M&M version was first posted on May 26, 2014, by Tumblr blogger The Frogman in a post about the 2014 Isla Vista killings and the Men's Rights Movement[1]. The broader concept of comparing unwanted groups to poisoned food has much older roots[7]. ### What does Bowl of M&Ms mean? The analogy argues that if some small percentage of a group is dangerous, it's rational to avoid the entire group, just as you wouldn't eat from a bowl of candy if some pieces were poisoned. Critics point out this logic can be applied to any group and exploits poor understanding of statistics[8]. ### How do you use Bowl of M&Ms? The typical format presents a bowl of candy, states that some percentage is poisoned, and challenges the reader to eat a handful. The group being compared to the candy changes depending on who's making the argument. It can be used sincerely or as satire[6]. ### Is Bowl of M&Ms still popular? The meme's peak was September 2016 during the Trump Jr. Skittles controversy. The format still appears in political discussions about immigration, policing, and gender, though less frequently than during the 2015-2016 refugee debate[7]. ### Who created the Bowl of M&Ms meme? Tumblr user The Frogman created the M&Ms version on May 26, 2014[1]. The Skittles variant that went viral was tweeted by Donald Trump Jr. on September 19, 2016, though former congressman Joe Walsh had posted similar wording a month earlier[9]. ### Why did the Skittles version go viral? Donald Trump Jr. tweeted it during a heated period of the 2016 presidential campaign when Syrian refugee policy was a major issue. The tweet drew over 19,500 likes and 12,800 retweets in 24 hours and generated widespread media coverage[4][6]. ### What did Skittles say about the Trump Jr. tweet? A Wrigley spokesperson issued a statement reading: "Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don't feel it is an appropriate analogy"[5]. ### What's wrong with the Bowl of M&Ms logic? The Debunking Denialism blog identified multiple flaws: it ignores real-world base rates, it has no specificity (it can be reversed against any group), it assumes risk-free alternatives exist, and it treats social interactions as random sampling from a population[8]. ### Is the Bowl of M&Ms analogy connected to Nazi propaganda? Researchers noted a structural parallel with the 1938 Nazi propaganda book *Der Giftpilz* ("The Poisonous Mushroom") by Julius Streicher, which compared Jewish people to poisonous mushrooms using similar fear-based logic[7]. ### How did the meme shift from feminist to anti-immigration? The Frogman's original post was about male violence against women, but by late 2015, anti-immigration groups had adopted the identical format to argue against accepting Syrian refugees. By 2016, the meme was primarily associated with conservative politics[6][7]. ### What were the statistics on refugee terrorism risk? According to a Cato Institute study cited by the Washington Post and NPR, the odds of being killed by a refugee in a terrorist attack were approximately 1 in 3.64 billion, making Trump Jr.'s "three out of a bowl" framing wildly inaccurate[4][9]. ## References 1. [Donald Trump Jr compares Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles | US news | The Guardian]() 2. [Donald Trump Jr. thinks Syrian refugees are like killer Skittles.]() 3. [The Frogman - Comedy, photoshop, kittens, & corgis]() 4. [Bowl of M&Ms - Know Your Meme]() 5. [List of Internet phenomena]() 6. [The Frogman - Comedy, photoshop, kittens, & corgis]() 7. [Donald Trump Jr. Skittles Tweet Sparks Outrage For Refugee Comparison : NPR]() 8. [The Poisonous M&Ms Analogy Explodes Into Mainstream U. S. Politics - Debunking Denialism]() 9. [UPROXX – Music Television and Culture]() 10. [Poisonous M&Ms: The Irrational Monstrosity of Bigotry - Debunking Denialism]() 11. [Donald Trump Jr. Skittles Tweet Sparks Outrage For Refugee Comparison : NPR]() 12. [The Frogman - Comedy, photoshop, kittens, & corgis]() 13. [The Frogman - Comedy, photoshop, kittens, & corgis]() 14. [What If Donald Trump Jr.'s Bowl of Skittles Were Gun-Owners?]() 15. [Donald Trump Jr. thinks Syrian refugees are like killer Skittles.]() 16. [Spot What’s Wrong: Trump Jr.’s Syrian Skittles Tweet]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/bowl-of-mms Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library