Benadryl / DPH

About

Benadryl, also known DPH, is an allergy medication produced in the United States by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. The medication is designed to treat seasonal allergies that include sneezing, coughing and headaches, among other symptoms. However, the drug has garnered attention online for its psychoactive effects that cause delirium. Memes about Benadryl often coincide with schizoposting and doomer culture, as the effects of high doses are portrayed as nightmarish and terrifying. Benadryl memes are most prevalent on platforms like Reddit, 4chan and 420chan.

History

Diphenhydramine is the chemical compound found in Benadryl. "DPH" is short for Diphenhydramine. It was discovered in 1940 by a chemical engineer at the University of Cincinnati.^[1] However, it wasn't until 1946 that Benadryl was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Then, in 1980, it was legalized for over-the-counter sales. Benadryl is under the drug category of antihistamines. The average pill is bright pink, which matches the box of the branded packaging.

Online Presence

Discussion online related to Benadryl and DPH started most notably on the site 420chan around 2010-2011 in the discussion board /del/, which was reserved for discussions on deliriants. However, /del/^[2] has since been removed from the site, replaced with a new deliriant-centric board. This means that the earliest known discussions about Benadryl online have been lost. However, the earliest known Benadryl meme was added to the Know Your Meme database on November 6th, 2009 (shown below).

In April 2014, discussion about Benadryl online received increased attention after the creation of the /r/DPH^[3] subreddit. The subreddit mirrored a lot of the discussions occurring on 420chan's /deli/, as well as discussions on 4chan. Memes made about Benadryl began appearing most notably in 2014. For instance, an image of a Benadryl package with spiders on it was first posted to 4chan^[4] on November 16th, 2016 (shown below, left). The first meme posted to the /r/DPH subreddit was uploaded by Redditor^[5] throwaway07080_9 on December 6h, 2017. The meme (shown below, right) received 54 upvotes over the course of five years.

More Benadryl memes appeared on Reddit going into 2018. On March 10th, 2018, Redditor AceZombiee posted a meme to /r/DPH.^[6] The meme (shown below, left) made fun of Benadryl causing people to fall asleep. The post received 50 upvotes. On March 18th, 2018, a now-deleted Redditor posted an exploited version of the meme to /r/DPH,^[7] adding in pink spiders. The meme (shown below, right) received 52 upvotes.

Ironic Benadryl memes appeared on /r/DPH in early 2019. For instance, on April 3rd, 2019, Redditor drug_alt posted a meme to /r/DPH^[8] using the Karl Weezer version of the Ight Imma Head Out meme. The meme (shown below) received 420 upvotes over the course of three years.

Ironic Benadryl memes were posted online going into 2020 and 2021 across platforms. Many of them focused on the absurdity of even taking the drug that's known to be nightmarish, as well as revolving around specific hallucinations intertwined with DPH discourse, these being "Benadryl spiders" (and other insect hallucinations) and shadow people, or more specifically, the "Hat Man" who has been discussed on 4chan^[9] as early as November 2016. Other Benadryl memes revolved around the "700 Club," which was a term coined on 420chan. It started being talked about on 4chan^[10] as early as May 2014.

A now-deleted Redditor uploaded an Iceberg Tiers parody to /r/DPH^[11] on March 4th, 2021. The meme (shown below) received 623 upvotes over seven months. It's a digestible reference for DPH-meme lore.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References