The term may have come up on your X scroll, your TikTok For You page or an otherwise reputable subreddit you're on: Gooning. What does it mean? you might ask yourself, isn't a "goon" like a villain's henchman in an old movie? No, that's not what this goon means. This goon means something odder, deeper and darker.

Gooning is a kind of self-pleasuring that revolves around entering a trance state (called the "goon") while watching multiple screens of adult content and avoiding climax by edging. There you go.

Where Did 'Gooning' Come From?

Early references to "gooning" or "the goon state" appear on Urban Dictionary as early as 2005, but the community appears to have been formalized and picked up momentum on Reddit in 2019. On that platform, gooners shared techniques on specially-focused subreddits. In the early 2020s, gooning broke containment, appearing increasingly on iFunny and Twitter / X.

What Is A 'Goon Cave'?

Since gooning centers around the use of multiple screens, most gooners keep a dedicated area or room at their residence which is devoted to their practice. On the subreddit /r/GoonCaves, users shared their set-ups with one another. Famously, @dril joked about the idea of the "goon cave" in a 2022 tweet.

What Is A 'Goonmark'?

After Twitter / X made the counts for bookmarks (the action of saving a post) public information in March of 2023, users noticed that many posts featuring possibly stimulating content had high bookmark counts. Assuming that the people who bookmarked the posts did so for a specific reason, users started calling this kind of bookmark a goonmark.

What Kinds Of Memes Are People Making About 'Gooning'?

The word "goon" is one of the English language's strangest-sounding nouns, so it makes sense that people like to use it. But goon culture appears to have cross-pollinated with certain strains of incel and sigma male posting, with users proudly declaring themselves "pornosexual" and boasting about their goon stares. The goon subreddits turn sexuality into a kind of private hobby that is shared and discussed with strangers on the internet, like franchise fandom or Warhammer 40,000

Of course, many of these memes are likely making fun of gooners.

Why Are People Posting About 'Gooning'?

Gooning might be an extreme version of overstimulation video content. In an age where some on TikTok can't even watch a Family Guy clip without a Subway Surfers gameplay recording to accompany it, entertainment seems to be as much about stimulation as anesthesia.

Attention spans are fried and people are lonely: gooning promises total hypnosis and immersion in the physical body and the flickering of images on screens.

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