About

Her Arms Were Cut Off. Her Legs Were Cut Off. Her Ears Were Cut Off is a lip-dub parody of true crime podcasts and documentaries. Popular on TikTok, the sound effect is a recitation of the following:

Her arms were cut off. Her legs were cut off. Her ears were cut off. Her tongue was cut off. Her nose was cut off. Her eyeballs were plucked out. Her eyebrows were then waxed. Her tongue was sliced open. Her hair was cut off.

Origin

On November 2nd, 2020, TikToker @joecastlebaker posted the original clip on the site. Over a video of a close-up shot of a man's shocked face, they wrote, "When it's your true-crime obsessed friend's turn to tell a scary story." The post received more than 2.4 million views, 374,000 reactions and 7,000 comments in less than five months (shown below).

Spread

Over the next few months, the sound effect spread on TikTok. In many cases, people posted variations of the original meme, mocking the calm resolve of true crime fans as they recount grisly specifics. On January 25th, 2021, TikToker @niallmacmillan posted a variation in which they write, "My wife relaxing watching a true-crime documentary." The post received more than 9 million views, 1.5 million reactions and 15,000 comments in less than two months (shown below, left).

Others used it as a reaction to other situations, particularly ones involving pets. For example, on February 22nd, TikToker @stormi.fold posted a video of a cat, which appears to be frightened, and the text, "Explaining to an indoor cat what happens to outdoor cats." The post received more than 12 million views, 4.1 million reactions and 70,000 comments in less than two weeks (shown below, right).

As of March 1st, 2021, the sound inspired and has been used in more than 26,000 videos^[1]

On Febraury 20th, 2021, Redditor mcfc_4eva posted about the meme in the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[2] subreddit.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References