Euthanasia Coaster

About

Euthanasia Coaster is a hypothetical design for roller coaster meant to kill its passengers through continuous application of lethal gravitational force of 10 g, leading to them to losing consciousness and dying due to insuffшcient blood supply of oxygen to the brain. Starting in 2012, Euthanasia coaster has been referenced in memes, and saw similar use to the You Should Kill Yourself… Now! reaction image.

Origin

In 2010, Lithuanian artist Julijonas Urbonas, a PhD candidate, conceived a design of a 500-meter tall, 7.5 kilometer-long roller coaster with seven inversions, each of a smaller diameter than the previous one (design shown below).^[1] The purpose of the hypothetical roller coaster, named the Euthanasia Coaster, is to kill its passengers "with elegance and euphoria" as they are exposed to a continuous g-force of 10 g, leading to the passengers losing consciousness and dying due to lack of oxygen supply to the brain.

Spread

On August 14th, 2012, Tumblr^[2] user satans-bacon posted shared an image of the design with a brief description of the rollercoaster's purpose. The post went viral on Tumblr, gaining over 570,000 likes and reblogs in ten yeas, and was widely circulated online through reposts in the following years (shown below).

On Tumblr,^[3] user saucycuervo replied to the post with their own designs of a deadly rollercoaster (shown below, left and right).

On November 16th, 2016, Facebook^[4] page Trolley Problem Memes posted a Trolley Problem meme referencing the rollercoaster which received over 3,500 reactions and 600 shares in six years (shown below).

The Euthanasia Coaster started appearing more in memes posted to Reddit, iFunny and Twitter in early 2020s. For example, on April 23rd, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @halfway_zen posted a Sections of a Joint meme that received over 1,500 retweets and 13,300 likes in one year (shown below, left). On June 6th, comic artist Beetle Moses tweeted^[6] a comic that garnered over 12,700 retweets and 116,000 likes in one year (shown below, right).

The hypothetical design remained an occasional reference in memes through 2022, occasionally being used in lieu of the You Should Kill Yourself… Now! meme to convey a similar message.^[7][8] Versions of the coaster were also created in simulation video games such as Planet Coaster; for example, on May 24th, 2016, YouTube user Kester posted a video that received over 1.2 million views on YouTube^[9] in six years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References