What Is The 'Immortal Snail' And How Can You Avoid Its Touch? Here's What The Viral Debate And Its Memes Are All About

The people of the internet love having a good hypothetical scenario to think about, whether it's presented through a friendly game like the recent "He's a 10 but" trend or a "Wat do?" style meme. But one scenario stands out among the crowd with the way it keeps on coming back to the forefront of meme culture, always resulting in wild and hilarious new answers. We're talking about the Immortal Snail, a scenario that asks if you would accept millions of dollars under the condition that an immortal snail with a death touch follows you for the rest of your life. Here's how the simple and ridiculous scenario evolved into a meme phenomenon.

Where Does The Immortal Snail Question Come From?

The Immortal Snail scenario was first presented to the world by Rooster Teeth's Gavin Free on an August 2014 episode of the Rooster Teeth Podcast. During the episode, Free posits the question, "Would you take $10 million, but for the rest of your life there's a snail that's trying to get you and you can't ever be touched by the snail otherwise you'll die?" The crew became fascinated by the admittedly dumb scenario and eagerly discussed the possibilities, even animating the segment later that year.

In the following years, the snail question spread online to sites like Reddit's /r/AskReddit, where users started to image how they would stop the snail from killing them if they accepted the money. In 2017, an /r/Tinder user even posted a screenshot showing them asking a date the question! It wouldn't be until 2021 when the question really took off with the help of TikTok and iFunny.

How Is The Immortal Snail Used In Memes?

Between 2014 and 2020, the Immortal Snail mostly existed as a scenario that was posted and discussed in comments and forums across social media. In 2021, though, the scenario evolved into a full-fledged meme. People started making memes imagining a world where the immortal snail is real, often depicting the moment when it catches them using dark imagery and irony on sites like TikTok and iFunny. The discussion around the scenario continued in the comment sections of these memes, although rather than focusing on whether or not you'd take the money for the snail, the focus turned to how they would defeat the snail assuming they already accepted the money.

The meme experienced a strong peak in October 2021 and now, in August 2022, it's taking hold of TikTok again. This time, we're seeing memes pop up where regular snails are being portrayed as the immortal snail, like in an August 1st upload by @thomberard where he writes, "I've captured the immortal snail." An account called @immortal_snail0 that claims to be the snail itself is also going viral right now with POV videos from the snail's view as it chases you infinitely. Whether you're discussing the scenario itself or making memes about the scenario, anything goes at this point as the Immortal Snail crawls further out of the confines of its original context.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7131145927343230254

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7126878113023233282

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7126027748883057962

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7107238699980819758

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7130852166230723841

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7131750441066433835

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For the full details on the Immortal Snail, be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.