About

Upside-Down Pineapple is a slang term and symbol used as a hidden code by swingers to communicate with one another. Originating online in discussions on messageboards from the late 2000s, the image of an upside-down pineapple when placed on a mailbox, hotel room door or welcome mat supposedly indicates that the residents of the building are a swinger couple and potentially open to other sexual relationships. The interpretation of the upside-down pineapple as a secret symbol used by swingers to communicate with each other was popularized and received media coverage after a series of TikToks discussing the term went viral over the summer of 2022.

Origin

The earliest known mention of upside-down pineapples being code for swinger couples online comes from a series of Import Atlanta forum discussions from 2008. On July 24th, 2008, user Ran posted the earliest known mention of swingers using pineapples as secret code (seen below) to the Georgia-based car enthusiast messageboard.^[1]

07-24-2008, 10:33 AM Rano Delightfully Creepy Join Date: Location: Posts: Rep Power: 43 Sep 2005 Kennesaw, Ga 19,885 #1 LOL Score Just found out that the neighborhood I live right in front of (Bridgemill) is a big swingers community. Apparently they've been mentioned on Oprah and other shows about urban swingers. They seem to have two seperate ways of seeing if people are interested in tumbling. 1) Pineapple On The Door If it's right-side-up, they're pre-occupied. If it's upside-down then they're available. Knock on the door, make your proposition, work something out, and go for it. The pineapple thing could be the other way around, I'm not sure. 2) Publix Key Jingle See someone you're interested in at the Publix on the corner? Give you keys a good jingle and see if they take appropriate notice. If they do, you're in. If not, move along. I'm gonna need a bigger keychain. Reply With Quote

On July 29th, 2008, a City Data forum user also mentioned the presence of a swinger community that uses pineapples as code in the town of Bridgemill, Georgia (seen below). ^[2]

07-29-2008, 10:32 AM BobKovacs 9,124 posts, read 34,952,200 times Reputation: 3617 Quote: Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127 > If you're open about your extra-activities at all, then yeah, you need to live in places like Midtown, Little Five Points - MAYBE Inman Park or Grant Park folks could handle it - and you're going to plunk down $350,000 to $500,000 for a small home in those areas EASY, and with crime that's maybe higher than you want to deal with having the kids. Well, from what I hear, the Bridgemill subdivision up by me in Canton is a big haven for swingers- they reportedly cruise around the Publix with upside down pineapples in their carts as the "signal" to other swingers. Someone said that Bridgemill was even mentioned on an episode of Oprah that covered swinging, though I can't verify that. I have been spending some time in that Publix with some inverted produce in my cart, though, with little luck to date. There's plenty of woods in the area to go run around in for the pagan rituals as well, and there's reports that a coven of witches operates in some little church in the backwoods area of Canton as well. May be an area worth considering.......... Rate this post positively

Spread

In consecutive years, the upside-down pineapple is mentioned in various blog posts by people reiterating local rumors or urban legends.^[3]^[4] In 2022, a seasoned "cruiser" named Chris Hughes posted an op-ed to the website BeyondCruise^[5] about swinger culture on cruise ships and how pineapple imagery is used on suite doors to inform and invite interested people (example photos below).

& ft & Cheek WELL WITH OTHERS han 1500 8224

2022 TikTok Resurgence

The upside-down pineapple also became a topic of conversation on TikTok in 2022, sparking a resurgence in the secret code online. On March 1st, 2022, TikToker^[6] @webbnation22 posted a video about coming to their AirBnB and discovering that their welcome mat had a pineapple on it. The video gathered over 11 million views and 300,000 likes in seven months (seen below, left). On July 23rd, TikToker^[7] @mrmrsswing then posted a video walking around in a grocery store with an upside-down pineapple in their cart, gathering over 6.8 million views and 200,000 likes in nearly four months (seen below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7070227166583229742

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7123677105858071813

Various Examples

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7116501269929381162

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7097440226607467822

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7113347058186194218

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6979282057193098502

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Import Atlanta – LOL Count

^[2] City Data – Looking New

^[3] Blogspot – Matt And Carrie Miley

^[4] Blogspot – Secrets Lies And Margaritas

^[5] BeyondCruise – What Does Upside Down Pineapple Mean

^[6] TikTok – webbnation22

^[7] TikTok – mrmrsswing

Related Entries 516 total

Recent Images 4 total

View All Images

Recent Videos 6 total

View All Videos

Upside-Down Pineapple

Part of a series on Internet Slang. [View Related Entries]

PROTIP: Press 'i' to view the image gallery, 'v' to view the video gallery, or 'r' to view a random entry.

This submission is currently being researched & evaluated!

You can help confirm this entry by contributing facts, media, and other evidence of notability and mutation.

About

Origin

On July 29th, 2008, a City Data forum user also mentioned the presence of a swinger community that uses pineapples as code in the town of Bridgemill, Georgia (seen below). ^[2]