About

Sounding is a slang term for the fetish and kink that involves the insertion of things, usually metal rods, into the urethra of males or females, though it is most often done by males in the pursuit of pleasure. Existing before the internet, sounding has often been used as part of shock jokes by claiming it is something innocent and tricking people into viewing disturbing imagery — such as inconspicuously linking to /r/sounding on Reddit.

Origin

On May 19th, 2012, the subreddit /r/sounding^[1] was first created by the Redditor u/stretchedhole, quickly becoming a place where people would post photos of themselves engaging in the act of sounding. The subreddit then became part of a joke on the website in which people would try to bait others into clicking a link that would show them explicit images.

For example, on March 22nd, 2020, Redditor Nicholasrymer^[2] uploaded a Doge meme to the /r/Dogelore subreddit depicting a sound engineer thinking that the /r/sounding subreddit was related to his job field, earning over 500 upvotes in three years (shown below).

Spread

Around the early 2020s, memes involving sounding became much more prevalent online as the term became more widespread, with one particular reference being made in different forms. On October 18th, 2020, Redditor u/dwill91^[3] uploaded a meme to the subreddit /r/okbuddyretard in which they used object labeling to show that Charizard entering Jigglypuff's mouth was actually about sticking a Nintendo DS Stylus in your urethra, earning over 800 upvotes in two years (shown below).

On TikTok, the practice of sounding started to pick up steam in 2021 with TikToks being made either explaining the practice or making jokes about it.

For example, on December 6th, 2021, TikToker nopanicbutton^[4] uploaded a TikTok in which he pretended to be a craftsman making a sounding rod for a dominatrix, earning over 1.6 million likes in two years (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References