About

Testicular Torsion is a medical condition in which a testicle's spermatic cord twists and cuts off blood supply to the testicle. Also referred to as "torsion," a medical diagram of the condition started to be used in memes that showed characters, such as Darth Vader, using their powers to twist the meme viewer's testicle. Testicular torsion memes started on Reddit in 2021, spreading elsewhere in the early 2020s, again, predominantly using the medical illustration that was made by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in 2014. Many of the memes also centered on the condition's spontaneous but also painful and traumatic nature in regard to it terrifying numerous men.

Origin

In May 2011, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Department of Urology created an informational post on its website about testicular torsion.^[1] The webpage included a medical illustration of torsion (shown below). Despite the webpage being created in 2011, the diagram itself is timestamped "2014," present in the text in the bottom-right corner.

On February 4th, 2021, a since-deleted Redditor posted a meme to /r/196^[2] that showed the One Punch Man character Tatsumaki flicking her fingers to cause torsion, using the medical illustration. Over the course of two years, the meme gained roughly 3,600 upvotes (shown below). It is currently the first-known meme about torsion.

Spread

In 2022, torsion memes became more commonplace, evident in a post from Redditor thetruememeisbest to /r/memes ^[3] on September 23rd, 2023, which showed Darth Vader from Star Wars using the force to cause torsion. The post gained roughly 19,400 upvotes in eight months (shown below, left). On November 5th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @tu_p3ndej0_favor1t0 shared a Bocchi The Rock! meme that referenced torsion, gaining roughly 22,400 plays and 2,900 likes in six months (GIF shown below, right).

On December 23rd, 2022, Instagram ^[5] user @anthonyy.mp4 shared a video meme about torsion, showing Sonic the Hedgehog giving torsion to Goku, earning roughly 1,300 likes in five months (shown below). It is currently the first-known posting of the video.

Memes using the testicular torsion illustration continued to trend going into early 2023. For instance, on January 9th, 2023, Portuguese-speaking Twitter^[6] user @martinsfut_ tweeted the image, writing, "who is not afraid of this here is crazy," gaining roughly 22,000 likes in four months. On April 6th, 2023, Twitter^[7] user @KptnKewl tweeted the illustration with an image of a guy seemingly using telekinetic powers, humorously identifying him as Professor X from X-men. The tweet received roughly 28,000 likes in two days, later being deleted (shown below).

Torsion memes continued to spread on Instagram and Twitter^[8] in April 2023.

Related Memes

Testicular Torsion Wizard

Testicular Torsion Wizard refers to a series of memes around the concept of a warlock casting a spell that would twist an enemy's testicles, giving them testicular torsion. The idea started in the Dungeons and Dragons community before becoming a more universal character.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

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External References