Origin

In October of 2006, Youtube user Kajetokun uploaded the first Over 9000 video parodying the Dragon Ball Z anime series.

The following month, Kajetokun created another DBZ video, "The Balls are Inert" from a particular scene involving Piccolo, the Namekian alien, and a story about balls… being inert.

By checking on the video's Youtube page, one can see that the video has more than 1,500,000 views.

Spread

The "Balls are inert" line became instantly viral for a number of reasons. Because of Kajetokun's popularity gained with "Over 9000", and the broad appeal of jokes about balls, derivatives were practically inevitable.

Because Kajetokun's "Over 9000" had such a strong impact on 4chan, "The Balls are Inert" caught on with 4chan as well; as can be seen in this thread from 4chanarchive.org.

Several Urban Dictionary entries were created:

Balls

Things that are inert.

(Origin of joke: The video "The Balls Are Inert" by Kajetokun, the same man behind the infamous Over 9000 video.")
Piccolo: "The balls are inert. It doesn't make a bit of difference guys."
Gohan: "But it's still there!"
Piccolo: "Yes, but I think it doesn't make a bit of difference, guys. The balls are inert."
Gohan: "But it's still--"
Piccolo: "FUCK, GOHAN! THE FUCKING BALLS ARE FUCKING INERT! SHIT, GOHAN!"
Gohan: "But it's--"
Piccolo: "SHIT!

Another description
Another one

That meme even reached YTMND, although it was not as popular as Over 9000.

• https://myballsareinert.ytmnd.com/ from User lieutpat

• https://ballsareinert.ytmnd.com/ from User Fentar

Youtube Derivatives

Some little presence outside of Youtube

The majority of that meme's fame is confined to Youtube, so in Youtube poops as shown by the non-exhaustive video list above.
However, greatly influenced by it, the balls joke can be seen on some other websites as a result:

• A DeviantArt account name for Dragon Ball Z cosplay
• An innocent question on Yahoo Answers
• A somewhat philosophical conversation about it on Gamespot.com

Search Interest