What Does 'Grippy' Mean? The Origin Of 'Gorilla Grip' And 'GripTok' Memes Explained

A brief and somewhat cursed TikTok trend reignited popular interest in the phrase "Gorilla Grip" in early 2021. "GripTok" was a TikTok subculture obsessed with finding exercises that promised to give you a tighter vagina, something that Urban Dictionary so aptly calls a Gorilla Grip Coochie.

But the idea of a Gorilla Grip cooter has prevailed in internet memes for the better part of a decade, going from girls bragging about their features to men posting borderline lascivious memes about women. Jokes about popular ex-Viner ChloeLMAO being the Chiraq Grip Reaper spread far and wide back in 2022, and 2024 saw J Cole release his unfortunately named song Grippy. Here's how the phrase "Gorilla Grip" has evolved over the years.

Where Did The Phrase 'Gorilla Grip' Originate?

The idea that gorillas have particular strong and formidable "grips" is a popular cultural opinion, as seen in American products named "Gorilla Glue" and "Gorilla Grip Towel." However, the idea that a woman's privates may have a strength comparable to that of a gorilla's grip has spread across the internet for at least the past decade.

The word "grip" can be seen in relation to words like "coochie," "pussy" and "bussy" as early as the late 2000s, but the earliest known viral iteration of the phrase "gorilla grip coochie" is a March 28th, 2019 post on Twitter (now X) by @scifibritt that describes a Game of Thrones character.

How Did 'Gorilla Grip' Memes Spread Online?

In December 2019, Redditor /u/Pr0Rapture shared a Facebook post that read, "Sex Tip: Put a little pepper on her pillow so when you put her face in it she sneezes & her coochie grip you like a gorilla fist" in /r/BrandNewSentence, gathering over 29,000 upvotes in two years.

The phrase "Gorilla Grip" appears multiple times on Urban Dictionary as well, with Busted cooter writing, "When the monkey is so tight when you try to pull out you can feel it sucking your dick Back in like a plunger."

What Is 'GripTok'?

"Kegel" exercises became a popular topic on TikTok in 2020, with users sharing tips about what pelvic exercises women could do to tighten or strengthen their vagina. The hashtag #griptok gathered over 50 million views within a year, and inspired the emojis copypasta, ⭕️💢⭕️💢.

For the full history of Gorilla Grip, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.