What is #FeelingNuts?

A hashtag campaign from UK charity Check One Two that asks men to post a photo of themselves grabbing their crotch as a public reminder to perform a testicular cancer self-exam.

Where did #FeelingNuts come from?

Check One Two launched the tag on April 10, 2014 to promote Testicular Cancer Awareness Month, then relaunched it with a June 2014 YouTube video titled "Are You #FeelingNuts".

What does #FeelingNuts mean?

It is a pun that doubles the slang "feeling nuts" with the literal gesture of checking one's testicles for lumps, the recommended self-exam Check One Two promotes.

How do you use #FeelingNuts?

Participants photograph themselves with one hand grabbing their crotch and the other raised, post the image with the hashtag, and nominate three more men, mirroring the Ice Bucket Challenge chain structure.

Is #FeelingNuts still popular?

No. The campaign peaked in early October 2014 after Hugh Jackman and Ricky Gervais joined in, then faded once mainstream news cycles moved on.

#FeelingNuts

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Published November 3, 2026

#FeelingNuts began as a UK testicular cancer awareness hashtag in April 2014 and broke out that October after Hugh Jackman tweeted a photo of himself and three friends gripping their crotches. Within hours, Ricky Gervais, Will Arnett and other actors joined the crotch-grabbing photo fad as a riff on the Ice Bucket Challenge, drawing coverage from Time, CNN and Complex within 48 hours.

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Overview

The format asks a man to pose for a photo while clutching his groin with one hand and raising the other, then post it under the #FeelingNuts tag as a reminder to perform a testicular self-exam1. Posts from celebrity participants typically featured a fully clothed, grinning subject with the grab staged as a visual gag rather than anything explicit2. Participants often nominated three more men to repeat the pose, mirroring the chain structure of the Ice Bucket Challenge that defined the summer of 20145.

Press coverage framed #FeelingNuts as a male-focused counterpart to October's breast cancer awareness drive, with Complex noting that women were effectively locked out of the gesture1. Check One Two tied each post directly to its self-exam message and used the shared photos as a prompt for its own donation funnel3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Facebook (campaign launch) / Twitter (viral spread)

Creator

Check One Two

Date

2014

UK testicular cancer prevention group Check One Two launched the #FeelingNuts hashtag on April 10, 2014 to mark Testicular Cancer Awareness Month and encourage men toward regular self-examination3. The charity followed up on June 12, 2014 with a short promotional video on its YouTube channel titled "Are You #FeelingNuts," asking viewers to post pictures of themselves gripping their crotch under the tag4.

How It Spread

Early traction was quiet until actor Will Arnett tweeted his own crotch-grabbing selfie on August 28, 2014, which drew more than 1,000 favorites and 230 retweets over the following month6. The real inflection came on October 1, 2014, when Hugh Jackman posted a group photo of himself and three other men gripping their genitals and publicly challenged Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Strahan and Ricky Gervais to join in2. Hours later, Gervais replied with a photo flipping off the camera while grabbing his crotch, nominating William Shatner next; between them, the two tweets drew roughly 1,900 and 790 retweets in the first 24 hours7.

Mainstream outlets picked up the story within 48 hours. CNN ran a health-desk writeup on October 3, 2014 explaining the self-exam message behind the gesture8, while Complex pitched the campaign as the fall sequel to the Ice Bucket Challenge1. Just Jared covered Jackman's post the day after it went up9, and UpRoxx documented the celebrity nomination chain through early October10. After that October burst, the hashtag faded alongside the awareness month and did not resurface in later years5.

Timeline

2014-04-10

UK charity Check One Two launches the #FeelingNuts hashtag on Facebook to mark Testicular Cancer Awareness Month.

2014-06-12

Check One Two posts the "Are You #FeelingNuts" promotional video to YouTube.

2014-08-28

Will Arnett tweets a crotch-grabbing photo, drawing over 1,000 favorites in the following month.

2014-10-01

Hugh Jackman tweets a group #FeelingNuts photo and challenges Ricky Gervais, Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Strahan; Gervais replies the same day nominating William Shatner.

2014-10-02

Just Jared publishes a writeup of Jackman's post.

2014-10-03

CNN covers the challenge on its health desk; Complex and UpRoxx run their own writeups the same week.

How to Use This Meme

The common convention is to photograph yourself with one hand grabbing your crotch and the other hand in the air, then share the image with the #FeelingNuts hashtag and nominate three other men to do the same. Captions typically include a line about getting checked for testicular cancer or a link to Check One Two1.