About

Tuna Sub Backwards refers to a series of memes asking people to spell "tuna sub" backwards, resulting in "bus anut," a catchphrase that sounds like "bust a nut," a slang term for "ejaculate." The earliest known meme online to share the joke is a rape sloth meme posted in 2013. The joke becoming increasingly popularized in memes, mostly image macros, throughout the 2020s.

Origin

On October 28th, 2013, a rape sloth meme was uploaded to Quick Meme^[1] captioned, "You know what 'tuna sub' says backwards? What I'm gonna do to your face," garnering around 330 shares in 10 years (shown below). This is the earliest known version of the meme. The same meme was uploaded by Twitter^[2] user @FunnyPicsDepot on November 16th with a cropped watermark for the now-deleted Instagram page instaslothmemes, suggesting that page could be the origin of the meme. The post gained over 1,800 likes in the same span of time.

Spread

On August 26th, 2015, influencer RiceGum tweeted,^[3] "Bro say 'Tuna Sub' backwards . LMFAO that's code word now. I need a tuna sub," garnering over 240 likes in eight years. On June 3rd, 2016, the term was defined on Urban Dictionary.^[4] On February 11th, 2021, Instagram^[5] user shirtless_gatorade posted an image macro using the joke, garnering over 43,000 likes in two years (shown below).

On August 19th, 2021, YouTuber Enemy5p0tted posted a video using the joke, garnering over 1.6 million views in two years (shown below).

On May 11th, 2023, Facebook^[6] user Depressed Dad shared a meme using the joke, garnering over 630 shares in a month (shown below, left). On May 12th, Instagram^[7] user ceejsmemes posted a version of the meme that gained over 700 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right). It was reposted by Instagram^[8] user chrismcool on June 2nd, garnering over 50,000 likes in 10 days.

Related Memes

Spell "Kid Among Us" Backwards

Spell "Kid Among Us" Backwards refers to a series of videos in which one character asks another to spell "kid Among Us" backwards, a reference to the video game Among Us, to which the character responds "sug on ma dik," falling for the prank. The first video using the joke was uploaded to YouTube in early August 2021, inspiring a number of new variations on it over the next few days. "Kid Among Us" is notably not "sug on ma dik," backwards, but "sug no ma dik."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References