Dune Pain Box

About

Dune Pain Box refers to a box in the Dune novels and films that is used by the Bene Gesserit as a part of their Gom Jabbar test. The box is capable of delivering unimaginable pain to the person who places their hand inside of it. The pain box has been a subject of memes online since as early as 2015, while the scene of Paul Atreides (specifically Timothée Chalamet's portrayal of the character in the 2021 movie) placing his hand inside the box spawned the "What's in the Box? Pain" meme format.

Origin

In the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert, a Gom Jabbar test is a test performed by the sisters of the Bene Gesserit to determine the humanity of certain individuals.^[1] The test involves placing a poisonous needle (the Gom Jabbar) next to the neck of the test subject and forcing them to place their hand inside a box capable of delivering great physical pain. To pass the test, the subject had to remain aware of the deadly needle and overcome their pain, keeping their hand inside the box and resisting the urge to remove it.

Scenes depicting the Dune character Paul Atreides undergoing the test appeared both in the 1984 and 2021 adaptations of the novel (shown below, left and right).

- What's in the box?
- Pain.

On May 17th, 2015, Tumblr^[2] user dunequotes posted the earliest discovered meme referencing the scene, a cat meme that received over 80 reblogs and 120 shares in nine years (authorship unconfirmed).

Spread

Prior to the premiere of the 2021 film Dune: Part One, the scene from the 1984 adaptation had been used as a meme format. For example, on August 9th, 2017, Redditor dune_borta posted a meme referencing the film Seven that received 130 upvotes in the /r/dune^[2] subreddit in seven years (shown below, left). On February 14th, an unknown Redditor posted a meme that received over 170 upvotes in the /r/dunememes^[3] subreddit (shown below, right).

On September 9th, 2020, the first trailer for the 2021 film adaptation premiered,^[4] featuring the scene. On September 13th, Redditor black_gallagher1 posted a meme template based on the scene to the /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial^[5] subreddit. On the same day, Redditors black_gallagher1 and Xern posted the two earliest memes based on the template in the /r/minnesotavikings^[6] and /r/nflmemes^[7] subreddits, where they gained over 160 upvotes and 11 upvotes, respectively, in roughly three years (shown below, left and right).

Following the premiere of the 2021 film, versions of the format saw more use online, while the scene has been humorously referenced. For example, on October 28th, 2021, X^[8] user @MeganBitchell posted a joke about the pain box scene that garnered over 2,700 reposts and 28,000 likes on X / Twitter in three years (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References