About

Not the Bore Worms! is a line from the 1980 film Flash Gordon in which the character Princess Aura cries out, "Not the bore worms!" after being threatened with torture involving creatures with that name. In August 2024, the catchphrase went viral online after entertainer Ts Madison said it in a dramatic fashion multiple times during a podcast episode.

Origin

In the 1980 space opera superhero film Flash Gordon, a scene in which the character Princess Aura, portrayed by Ornella Muti, is tortured for treason appears.^[1] As Aura refuses to confess, the character Klytus threatens her with "bore worms," with Aura pleading not to use them (scene shown below). The bore worms themselves do not make an appearance in the film.

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

On August 20th, 2024, the episode "Ts Madison and the Art of Bore Worm Seduction with Katya" of The Bald and the Beautiful podcast premiered on YouTube.^[2] At one point in the episode, shortly after discussing the 1984 film adaptation of Dune, podcast guest Ts Madison mentions the 1980 film Flash Gordon and says the phrase, "Not the bore worms!" in a dramatic way. Ts Madison then proceeds to repeat the phrase multiple times throughout the rest of the episode, turning it into a gag.

The episode accumulated over 540,000 views in two weeks, with a compilation video^[3] (shown below) garnering over 140,000 views in the same period.

Not the bore worms! Not the bore worms!

Spread

On August 21st, 2024, TikTok^[4] user @alxgam_ posted a clip of Ts Madison saying the phrase, which garnered over 1.2 million views and 140,000 likes in two weeks.

The post was followed by a lip-sync trend on TikTok. For example, on August 26th, 2024, TikTok^[5] user @awhoraqueen posted a video that garnered over 414,000 views and 59,000 likes in 10 days (shown below).

As of September 6th, 2024, over 530 videos based on the sound clip were shared on TikTok.^[6]

On X / Twitter, the phrase has seen use as a caption and a reaction and has been recognized as an earworm. For example, on August 26th, 2024, X^[7] user @TsMadisonNews1 posted a Why You So Quiet meme that received over 1,200 reposts and 7,100 likes in 10 days (shown below).

Basically TsMadisonatl1</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/katya_zamo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">katya_zamo 😂Not The Bore Worms pic.twitter.com/rVlpsbLvlU

— 🎥 Is It On Action News💄 (@TsMadisonNews1) August 27, 2024

Related Memes

Not the Bees!

Not the Bees! is a memorable quote screamed by the character Edward Malus, portrayed by Nicolas Cage, in the 2006 horror film The Wicker Man during an infamous bee torture scene. In the late 2000s, the torture scene and the quote became source material for remixes and YouTube poops alongside other scenes from the film due to their unintentionally comedic nature.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References