The Balls Harden

About

The Balls Harden refers to a viral video of giant, steel balls releasing gas with a fart sound effect happening once a narrating woman states, "The balls harden." The video was inspired by a 2002 episode of How It's Made and used 2020 footage of spherical tanks being constructed using explosive hydroforming. The viral video was posted to YouTube in 2021 and inspired a reaction from Twitch streamer Jimmy Here as well as multiple re-edits across platforms like Reddit going into 2022.

Origin

In 2002, the "Ball Bearings" episode of the Discovery channel show How It's Made aired on Canadian television.^[1] A clip from the episode was uploaded to YouTube^[2] on January 14th, 2011 by the official channel of the NTN Bearing Corporation of America. In the description of the video, it states that the factory footage was filmed at NTN's Mississauga, Ontario Canada ball-bearing factory around 2003. Over the course of eleven years, the video earned roughly 1.6 million views (shown below).

On March 10th, 2021, YouTuber^[3] Casterborous posted a video titled, "How It's Made | Ball Bearing Torture (extended)," in which they exploited the footage from the aforementioned How It's Made episode, pairing it with a different, female voice to narrate it. The woman's voice, and the video in general, put the footage in context with ironic memes made about Cock and Ball Torture. In the video, the woman states, "The balls harden." Over the course of one year, the video earned roughly 417,500 views (shown below, left).

Roughly four months prior, on December 28th, 2020, a YouTube^[4] video titled, "Construction of spherical tanks by explosive method. Explosive Hydroforming," was uploaded by the educational channel Engineering and architecture. The video showed the process of explosive hydroforming, also known as HERF (High Energy Rate Forming) or exploform. Over the course of one year, the video earned roughly 1.9 million views (shown below, right).

On March 20th, 2021, YouTuber^[5] OneManPizzaParty posted video that was originally titled, "Explosive Hydroforming Balls," but was later changed to, "The Balls Harden." OneManPizzaParty used both the footage of explosive hydroforming and the audio from Casterborous' re-edit to create the widely recognizable viral video. Additionally, he added a reverbed fart sound effect once the balls released their steam. Over the course of one year, the video gained roughly 1.4 million views (shown below).

Spread

On March 24th, 2021, Twitch streamer Jimmy Here, known for the It Is Wednesday My Dudes video from iFunny, reacted to the viral, "The Balls Harden," video live on stream during a try not to laugh challenge. He edited the stream and uploaded it to YouTube^[6] on the same day, where at the 1:36 minute mark, he reacts to the video (shown below). Over the course of one year, the video earned roughly 1.8 million views.

On May 23rd, 2021, the video was reposted to TikTok by TikToker^[9] industrial_fukery, earning roughly 41,200 plays and 4,300 likes in eleven months.

On August 3rd, 2021, a clip of Twitch streamer TommyInnit reacting to the "The Balls Harden" video was uploaded to YouTube^[7] by the channel Z.0.R.V, earning roughly 2,000 views in eight months (shown below, left). As the video appeared in more users' Recommended feeds, it became more notorious and started receiving re-edits and remixes by the end of 2021. For instance, on September 1st, 2021, YouTuber^[8] Uncle Cooper posted a video titled, "The balls harden 2: 'THE REHARDENING,'" earning roughly 18,400 views in seven months (shown below, right).

The video received more remixes going into the end of 2021, an example being a video posted by YouTuber^[10]
Itz Zacky Boi on September 3rd, 2021 that used different footage of explosive hydroforming. The video earned roughly 3,700 views in seven months (shown below) and was reposted by other channels^[11] which earned more views.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References