This Viral Watermelon Cutting Hack Changes Everything

Watermelon is everyone's favorite summer fruit for one main reason. No, it's not because of its refreshing flavor, its oh-so-Instagrammable pretty pink (or yellow!) color, or even the fact that it's so low in calories and high in nutrients (not to mention free of harmful chemicals, always a plus). No, the best part about eating watermelon is the fact that it pretty much legitimizes the practice of spitting seeds as far as you can across the lawn, while getting covered in sweet, sticky juice. Ahh, the simple joys of summertime.

Watermelon does come with one significant downside, though, in that it can be a real pain to slice. How do you get it to come out in neat, symmetrical chunks instead of having the project turn into a raggedy mess? Better minds than ours have been puzzling over this conundrum as long as watermelons have been cultivated. Luckily, our watermelon slicing issues are now at an end. As with most other advancements in human civilization, we owe this fruit cutting hack to that most noble of benefactors, some semi-anonymous (since no-one ever remembers the name) person posting videos on social media.

This viral watermelon cutting video, which can be found on both Reddit and Facebook, shows a woman in her kitchen preparing to confront a wedge of watermelon. Yes, wedge. Not a whole one — the video still can't help you with cutting your watermelon in half. You're either going to have to buy a pre-cut melon, or else get out your machete or hatchet or whatever your preferred watermelon-wedging tool may be. Once you've got that sorted, though, this is where the dental floss comes in. On the video, the woman takes a good long piece (maybe 2 feet or so) of dental floss, and slips it between the melon flesh and the rind, separating the two. Once that is done, she then uses the floss to press into the melon from the top, cutting it into 8 triangle-shaped slices, similar to the way that dental floss can also be used to slice a cake.

Sound easy? Most of those commenting on Facebook seem to agree that this hack actually works pretty well, apart from one hapless Facebook user who admitted to trying it with a floss pick. Others wondered, why not just use a knife?

On Reddit, a number of the comments tended to focus on the fact that it's kind of hard to find plain dental floss these days instead of the mint-flavored kind, although, as one Redditor noted, "Watermelon with spearmint its amazing," while another implied you can counteract the minty-melon effect if you "Put a pinch of salt on it." Still others suggested using thread or fishing line instead of floss for a similar, yet flavor-free, effect. Even if you try this hack and your watermelon still comes out looking kind of rough, though, don't worry. There are still a bunch of amazing ways you can use that messed-up melon.