What's Up With All The Memes About A '20 Cigarettes Adapter'? The 3D Printing Gag Explained

The online 3D printing community is coming together to solve a problem that no one even knew existed — how does one comfortably smoke up to 20 cigarettes at once? The inane question may sound unappealing to a non-smoker, but it is entirely intriguing to someone who joneses for a smoke after tasting a sip of beer.

Memes about an alien race summoning 500 cigarettes in the Seth McFarlane show The Orville took off online earlier this month, but the sci-fi scene may have found a way to break into real life thanks to 3D printing diagrams uploaded by mischievous nicotine addicts.

Here's a recap of how memes about a 3D printed Cigarette Adapter took off online.

Where Did The Idea Of Cigarette Adapters Come From?

While an ambitious college student with access to a 3D printer has no doubt put together schematics for a multiple-cigarette adapter before, the earliest known instance of such a device being posted on the internet was in September 2021.

On September 28th, 2021, Thingiverse user SimBim uploaded a 3D printable design for a "Double Cigarette Adapter" to the site. A month later, Twitter user @fart posted a screenshot of the design with the caption, "I knew this 3d printer would come in handy," and gathered over 75,000 likes. The post no doubt helped SimBim gather over 1,000 downloads for his Cig Adapter schematics over the past 3 years.

How Did The Idea Of A Dual Cigarette Adapter Evolve Over The Years?

The nicotine community continued to pioneer advances in cigarette adapter technology in subsequent years, with Printables user XYZWERKZ posting a design for a "20 Cigarettes Adapter" to the 3D print schematics site in July 2024. The design was viewed over 49,000 times and downloaded over 3,300 times in just a short month.

A few weeks after enjoying fame on a 3D print site, XYZWERKZ's design was also posted to Twitter by @drawbrandondraw, who wrote, "big things happening in the 3D print community" to the tune of 200,000 likes.

Where Did People Get The Idea For A 500 Cigarettes Adapter From?

While a 20-cigarette adapter is pushing the limits of most people's imaginations, Printables user XYZWERKZ went on to post schematics for a 500 Cigarettes Adapter soon after his original design went viral. The gag-design was a shout-out to a concurrent cigarette meme going viral at the time, a scene from the Seth McFarlane show The Orville, where an alien duo discovers and grows extremely fond of cigarettes.

On August 2nd, 2024, PXYZWERKZ posted a design referencing the concurrent 500 Cigarettes Adapter meme, which was viewed over 41,000 times and downloaded over 1,500 times, with Printables user Bustean posted a "lore-accurate" version of the design a day later.

What Are Some More Cigarette Adapter Memes?

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