Blue Waffle

2008shock imageclassic

Blue Waffle is an internet shock-image hoax presenting a fake sexually transmitted disease, pushed on victims through a Google Images dare. The prank started with the single-serving site BlueWaffle.net in September 2008 and drew formal debunkings from Planned Parenthood and Nationwide Children's Hospital as students kept searching for it.

hoax memesshock humor memessingle serving site memesbait and switch memeslate 2000s memes

Overview

Blue Waffle is a shock-image internet hoax that presents a discolored genital photograph as evidence of a fabricated sexually transmitted disease1. The bait-and-switch works by daring people to search "blue waffle" on Google Images, delivering the graphic photo instead of the innocuous food item they might expect2. Medical clinics and pediatric hospitals have publicly classified the supposed condition as an urban legend1.

The hoax leans on genital-health taboo and the reliable shock reaction of first-time viewers2. Blue Waffle spent years in circulation as a schoolyard and message-board dare, and every fresh wave of curiosity brought a new round of official debunking1.

How It Spread

The prank moved quickly from the shock site into a Google Images dare, and by 2010 Urban Dictionary entries were warning readers "Something you shouldn't look up" while describing the term as a fabrication meant "to gross people out"2.

Real medical institutions eventually pushed back. In 2011, an educator at the Women's Health Foundation's Adolescent Pelvic Health Program asked Dr. Amy Whitaker at the University of Chicago Hospital to evaluate the image, and she concluded it was either digitally altered or the result of trauma3. Planned Parenthood ran a 2012 blog post calling Blue Waffle a "100 percent urban legend," and on July 2, 2018 the Nationwide Children's Hospital YouTube channel posted its own explainer confirming the disease does not exist, a video that drew more than 349,000 views1.

Interest briefly revived in 2020 when Kellogg's released its blue-colored Mermaid Waffles cereal, sparking comparison jokes online. On August 17, 2020, Twitter user @BagelTiger's post "STOP KELLOGG YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING" pulled more than 142,000 likes and 30,000 retweets3.

How to Use This Meme

The Blue Waffle bait typically involves daring someone to look up the term on Google Images, then watching them react to the shock photograph2. Common variants pair innocuous setup images or captions with the search command, so the target thinks the query will just return an ordinary breakfast food.

Frequently Asked Questions

Blue Waffle

2008shock imageclassic

Blue Waffle is an internet shock-image hoax presenting a fake sexually transmitted disease, pushed on victims through a Google Images dare. The prank started with the single-serving site BlueWaffle.net in September 2008 and drew formal debunkings from Planned Parenthood and Nationwide Children's Hospital as students kept searching for it.

hoax memes shock humor memes single serving site memes bait and switch memes late 2000s memes

Overview

Blue Waffle is a shock-image internet hoax that presents a discolored genital photograph as evidence of a fabricated sexually transmitted disease1. The bait-and-switch works by daring people to search "blue waffle" on Google Images, delivering the graphic photo instead of the innocuous food item they might expect2. Medical clinics and pediatric hospitals have publicly classified the supposed condition as an urban legend1.

The hoax leans on genital-health taboo and the reliable shock reaction of first-time viewers2. Blue Waffle spent years in circulation as a schoolyard and message-board dare, and every fresh wave of curiosity brought a new round of official debunking1.

How It Spread

The prank moved quickly from the shock site into a Google Images dare, and by 2010 Urban Dictionary entries were warning readers "Something you shouldn't look up" while describing the term as a fabrication meant "to gross people out"2.

Real medical institutions eventually pushed back. In 2011, an educator at the Women's Health Foundation's Adolescent Pelvic Health Program asked Dr. Amy Whitaker at the University of Chicago Hospital to evaluate the image, and she concluded it was either digitally altered or the result of trauma3. Planned Parenthood ran a 2012 blog post calling Blue Waffle a "100 percent urban legend," and on July 2, 2018 the Nationwide Children's Hospital YouTube channel posted its own explainer confirming the disease does not exist, a video that drew more than 349,000 views1.

Interest briefly revived in 2020 when Kellogg's released its blue-colored Mermaid Waffles cereal, sparking comparison jokes online. On August 17, 2020, Twitter user @BagelTiger's post "STOP KELLOGG YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING" pulled more than 142,000 likes and 30,000 retweets3.

How to Use This Meme

The Blue Waffle bait typically involves daring someone to look up the term on Google Images, then watching them react to the shock photograph2. Common variants pair innocuous setup images or captions with the search command, so the target thinks the query will just return an ordinary breakfast food.

Frequently Asked Questions