# Jenkem > Jenkem is a 2007 hoax meme where Totse.com user Pickwick posted staged photos of himself inhaling fermented sewage gas, sparking widespread moral panic and media coverage. Jenkem is both a real (if poorly documented) inhalant used by street children in Zambia and one of the internet's most memorable drug hoaxes. In 2007, a forum user named "Pickwick" on Totse.com posted staged photos of himself allegedly huffing fermented sewage gas, sparking a moral panic that reached local police departments and national news networks before being exposed as a prank[6]. The incident became a touchstone for how easily online trolling could hijack mainstream media. ## Origin The real substance has roots in Zambia. The earliest known media mention comes from an Inter Press Service wire report on August 26, 1995, describing boys at a sewage pond in Lusaka's Garden Township scooping human waste into containers and inhaling the fumes after a week of fermentation[3]. A fifth-grade dropout named Mukela Nyambe told the reporter, "Old man, this is more potent than cannabis"[10]. The name "jenkem" derives from Genkem, a South African glue brand that had become a generic term for glue-sniffing among children[5]. On September 18, 1998, The New York Times mentioned jenkem in a report on Zambian AIDS orphans, citing the nonprofit Fountain of Hope[1]. A year later, BBC News ran "Children high on sewage," describing 16-year-old Luke Mpande's preference for jenkem: "With glue, I just hear voices in my head. But with Jenkem, I see visions. I see my mother who is dead and I forget about the problems in my life"[2]. In 2002, a joint report by Project Concern International Zambia and Fountain of Hope listed jenkem as the third most popular drug among Lusaka's street children, behind cannabis and glue[5]. The internet hoax began on June 7, 2007, when a user called Pickwick on the now-defunct Totse.com forum posted photos documenting what he claimed was a jenkem experiment[4]. He described defecating into a glass bottle, capping it with a balloon, and leaving it in the sun. Over the following days, Pickwick posted updates showing the balloon inflating and the contents fermenting[9]. On June 13, he shared a detailed "trip report" claiming he'd passed out, experienced vivid hallucinations, and spoken gibberish to trees and rocks[9]. - **Platform:** Totse.com (hoax), 4chan (amplification) - **Creator:** Pickwick (Totse forum user, hoax originator) - **Date:** 2007 (internet hoax); 1995 (earliest media reports of real substance) ## Overview Jenkem refers to an inhalant supposedly made by fermenting human feces and urine in a sealed container, then huffing the resulting gas. Reports from the mid-1990s described Zambian street children using the substance as a cheap alternative to glue-sniffing[2]. The internet version of jenkem, however, is primarily remembered as a 2007 hoax that fooled law enforcement and cable news into treating it as a genuine drug epidemic sweeping American schools[3]. The meme sits at the intersection of shock humor, media criticism, and trolling culture. It demonstrated how a single forum post with gross-out photos could travel from a niche messageboard to a Fox News broadcast, with a sheriff's department acting as the unlikely bridge between the two[5]. ## How It Spread The hoax moved quickly from Totse to broader internet culture. The same day Pickwick posted, the story hit Digg under the title "Kid Makes Jenkem in a Civilized Country"[4]. On August 3, 2007, The Stranger's blog ran a post titled "High as Shit" that included a purported firsthand account of a jenkem trip[11]. On September 24, 2007, Pickwick posted a new thread titled "The jenkem thing was a hoax." He admitted the brown substance was flour, water, and Nutella, and the "urine" was beer mixed with water[12]. "I never inhaled any poop gas and got high off it," he wrote. "I just don't want people to ever recognize me as the kid who huffed poop gas"[12]. Two days after Pickwick's confession, on September 26, the Collier County Sheriff's Office in Naples, Florida, issued an internal intelligence bulletin that used Pickwick's staged photos[3]. The bulletin originated from a concerned parent at Palmetto Ridge High School who'd heard about jenkem from her son. Despite no confirmed cases of use in Collier County, the bulletin declared "Jenkem is now a popular drug in American Schools" and listed slang terms including "Butthash," "Fruit from Crack Pipe," and "Leroy Jenkems"[10]. The bulletin leaked online and the story exploded. Fox News covered it on November 6, 2007, with an article titled "Drug Made From Human Waste Causing Stink on Web, in Law Enforcement"[4]. The next day, a Fox News television segment aired in which anchor Jack Miller solemnly informed viewers that the street name for jenkem was "butthash"[4]. The clip spread widely, with the sheer absurdity of hearing "butthash" on cable news becoming its own joke. ## How to Use Jenkem as a meme typically appears in one of several forms: 1. **Shock humor references** — Casually mentioning jenkem in discussions about drugs or getting high, often to derail conversations or provoke disgust. 2. **Media criticism** — Referencing the Fox News "butthash" clip or the Collier County bulletin as examples of institutional gullibility. The phrase "butthash" itself became a punchline. 3. **Trolling template** — Following the original 4chan playbook of presenting jenkem as a real drug to naive audiences, particularly authority figures. The copypasta format, with detailed fake instructions, was designed to be forwarded to schools[8]. 4. **Reaction/callback** — Dropping "jenkem" into any conversation about bizarre substances, moral panics, or media failures as a knowing reference. ## Cultural Impact The jenkem hoax became a frequently cited example of how internet trolls could manipulate mainstream media. BuzzFeed News later called it "the greatest internet hoax" and "the greatest fake drug hoax of all time"[6]. The incident predated Rickrolling by about a year but shared DNA with it: both involved internet users gleefully watching unsuspecting people fall for fabricated content[6]. The story also highlighted real failures in law enforcement intelligence gathering. The Collier County bulletin went out as an official document despite being based entirely on a single parent's report and photos from a forum post by a teenager who had already admitted to faking them[3]. Palmetto Ridge High School's principal Roy Terry told reporters: "I'm sure that something like this can be done, but I have not heard of anybody doing it nor anyone at our school doing it at all"[10]. The South Park reference in "Major Boobage" (2008) cemented jenkem in pop culture memory, though the show substituted cat urine for sewage in its parody[4]. The American Dad reference four years later showed the concept still had comedy mileage[4]. ## Fun Facts - The Collier County bulletin listed "Leroy Jenkems" as street slang for jenkem, blending the hoax with the Leeroy Jenkins meme[3]. - Pickwick's "trip report" included the detail that he spoke to trees and rocks while under the supposed influence, and his friend considered getting an adult[9]. - The Drug Enforcement Administration couldn't classify jenkem as a drug because, as spokesman Garrison Courtney put it, "it's feces and urine"[5]. - The first Urban Dictionary entry for "jenkem" was submitted on October 25, 2005, two years before the hoax went viral[4]. - An Australian broadcaster, Ninemsn, summarized the American coverage by noting that "the world's foremost superpower, which spends more than any other nation on its war against drugs, could beeli-minated by its own feces"[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Jenkem? Jenkem refers to both a real inhalant made from fermented human waste, reported among Zambian street children since 1995, and a 2007 internet hoax in which a forum user faked using the substance and triggered a media panic[3][6]. ### Where did Jenkem come from? The substance was first reported in a 1995 Inter Press Service article about street children in Lusaka, Zambia[10]. The internet hoax originated on the Totse.com forum in June 2007, posted by a user called Pickwick[4]. ### What does Jenkem mean? The name derives from Genkem, a South African glue brand whose name became generic for glue-sniffing among children[5]. In internet culture, "jenkem" is shorthand for the 2007 hoax and the media panic it caused. ### How do you use Jenkem? As a meme, jenkem is referenced in shock humor, media criticism, and trolling contexts. The original hoax involved staged photos of fermenting waste in a bottle capped with a balloon[9]. People don't actually use jenkem as a drug. ### Is Jenkem still popular? Jenkem is a classic internet hoax that gets referenced whenever discussion turns to moral panics, media gullibility, or bizarre drug scares. BuzzFeed News called it "the greatest internet hoax"[6]. ### Who was Pickwick? Pickwick was the anonymous username of a Totse.com forum member who posted staged photos of himself allegedly making and huffing jenkem in June 2007. He admitted in September 2007 that the entire thing was faked using flour, water, beer, and Nutella[12]. ### Did Fox News really say "butthash" on air? Yes. In a November 2007 television segment, Fox News anchor Jack Miller informed viewers that "butthash" was a slang term for jenkem. The clip was uploaded to YouTube and spread widely[4]. ### Was jenkem ever real? Reports from Zambia between 1995 and 2002 describe street children inhaling gases from fermented sewage[2][10]. However, no scientific study has confirmed the pharmacological effects claimed by users, and Erowid concluded the substance likely cannot produce the hallucinations described[7]. ### What was the Collier County bulletin? On September 26, 2007, the Collier County Sheriff's Office in Florida issued an internal bulletin warning about jenkem as a teen drug trend, using photos from Pickwick's already-debunked Totse post[3]. ### Did South Park make a jenkem episode? The March 2008 episode "Major Boobage" featured a jenkem-inspired plot where Kenny gets addicted to "cheesing" (inhaling cat urine). Someone from the Totse messageboard had emailed South Park Studios about the topic[4][6]. ### Why did so many news outlets fall for it? The hoax exploited a common pattern: a concerned parent reported to a school, the school reported to police, police issued a bulletin without verifying online sources, and news stations picked up the official-looking bulletin without checking its origins[5][10]. ## References 1. [In Zambia, the Abandoned Generation - The New York Times]() 2. [BBC News | Africa | Children high on sewage]() 3. [Jenkem | Snopes.com]() 4. [Jenkem - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Jenkem]() 6. [Jenkem - Urban Dictionary]() 7. [The History Of Jenkem]() 8. [Remembering Jenkem, The Greatest Internet Hoax]() 9. [Jenkem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]() 10. [Дженкем — Википедия]() 11. [Jenkem - Encyclopedia Dramatica]() 12. [jenkem « flux 64]() 13. [BBC News | Africa | Children high on sewage]() 14. [Jenkem | Snopes.com]() 15. [High as Shit | Slog | The Stranger | Seattle's Only Newspaper]() 16. [Urban Dictionary: jenkem]() 17. [The jenkem thing was a hoax - Community]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/jenkem Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library