Behold, the latest dark entity purportedly birthed out of our not-so-brave new world: a Tamagotchi, housed inside of a vape, that croaks if you stop hitting that sweet sweet juice.The Tamagotchi in question was apparently presented during a "Stupid Hackathon"according to the ITP website, students enrolled in the programs are invited to "make something stupid.""Do you have an idea so absurd, so utterly useless, that it needs to exist?" it reads. "Then welcome to Stupid Hackathon 2025!"Among those ideas, according to a video posted this week to ITP's TikTok account showcasing the event's various indeed, delightfully stupid treasures, is the Vape-a-gotchi."May I ask you what your Stupid Hackathon project is?" the interviewer holding the camera asks one participant, who's gripping what appears to be an orange e-cigarette."It's a vape with a Tamagotchi in it," the participant calmly replies. "And if you do not hit the vape, the Tamagotchi will die." Harrowing! @itp_ima_nyu some stupid projects from thestupid hackathon 2025 @joshjoshjosh.net went to go check em out #hackathon #stupid #technology original sound - itp/ima nyu Incredibly, a few Google searches reveal that the Stupid Hackathoner may not be the first person with this idea."Idea for a vape: a Tamagotchi that you can only 'feed' or 'play with' by taking a puff of nicotine," reads one satirical, probably X-formerly-Twitter post from Works in Progress editor Sam Bowman, published in May 2023. "Vaping is so safe that if this got just one kid off cigarettes it would be worth another 50 getting into vaping.""Hi sharks," reads another post, this one from June 2024, referencing the "Shark Tank" television program, "today we're putting a Tamagotchi pet on this vape thing." (This one was written in response to a post from senior Wired business editorLouise Matsakis, who had posted about some very techy-looking vapes.)Through one lens, the Tamagotchi vape could be interpreted as an exploration of sacrifice, or maybe even mutual destruction; studies continue to show that vaping is terrible for you and so, to ensure the life of their beloved Tamagotchi, the vaper must offer up their own health for that of their pet. Or, given that Tamagotchis are generally regarded as a children's toy, it's a poignant meditation on how the tobacco industry's turn towards vaping reignited nicotine addiction amongst young people, as cigarettes continue their steady, decades-long decline. Zooming out, it could even be regarded as a general rebuke of young people's tech dependency.Or it's just a very stupid Tamagotchi vape. In any case: hats off to our new favorite Dr. Frankenstein.More on whatever this thing is: Military Robot Deployed as Nightclub DJShare This Article