Where Does The 'Not The Bore Worms' Line Come From? The Wormy Earworm Explained

"Not the bore worms!" The gag from a recent episode of the The Bald and the Beautiful podcast has turned into a massive earworm and meme that's been living rent-free in people's heads for two weeks and counting.

So, where does the catchphrase originally come from and what even are these bore worms? Learn everything we know in this brief explainer.

Where Does ‘Not the Bore Worms’ Line Come From?

While it was American reality television personality Ts Madison who made the catchphrase go viral with her dramatic delivery, the line itself comes from the 1980 space opera superhero film Flash Gordon, said by character Princess Aura, who is portrayed by Italian actress Ornella Mutti.

In the scene, Princess Aura is seen being tortured, with the character General Klytus threatening to bring in "bore worms" and Aura, terrified, pleading them not to.

- Bring me the bore worms.
- No, not the bore worms!

A whopping 44 years later on an episode of The Bald and the Beautiful podcast hosted by Katya and with reality television star Ts Madison as a guest, the line was unexpectedly turned into a meme.

The dramatic way in which Aura protests must have made quite an impression on young Ts Madison, because when the first thing she did after mentioning Flash Gordon – the two were discussing the 1984 adaptation of Dune just before – was say the "bore worm" line as if it was the most memorable thing from the movie.

Then, as Ts Madison continued to repeat the line again and again in an increasingly dramatic and seductive way much to the host's laughs, the line turned into the episode's main gag.

What Are Bore Worms?

Nobody knows! While bore worms are mentioned in the Flash Gordon film, they are not actually shown in it apart from a glass jar held in one of Aura torturer's hands.

Judging from the name, bore worms are creatures that like to bore into things, even the human body if used for torture. This explains Princess Aura's reaction of terror when she was threatened with them.

'Not the Bore Worms' In Memes

After the episode premiered, the clip of Ts Madison's dramatic renditions made it to TikTok, where it inspired lip-sync videos and other memes.

On X / Twitter, the phrase quickly earned recognition as a new earworm, making an appearance in Slang Overload memes already.

And it does sound very similar to an older meme where a guy was also very afraid of the creepy-crawlies …

For the full history of "Not the Bore Worms!", be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.