The videos have a slapstick appeal: When the participants speed up, their legs spin like accident-prone cartoon characters. A tension arises as viewers wonder when, or if, the runners will slip, and just how clumsy they will look when they do. Thus far, there has been little payoff for those thirsting for chaos: The runners have almost all remained on their feet.

“My feet were slipping backward so I was trying to move my feet forward so I wouldn’t fall on my face,” Ms. Lewis said of her jerky movements in the video. She said she did not fall in her two attempts, but warned that laughing too hard may lead to an accident.

The video genre does not lean on political statements or self-aggrandizement, the common sources of internet ire. It is just a goofy thing that is on the internet, a moment of mild ingenuity entirely absent of agenda, and something you most likely never would have thought of or seen if the internet weren’t around. Those still exist.