# Nutty Putty Cave Incident John Edward Jones died trapped upside down inside Utah's Nutty Putty Cave on November 24, 2009, after wedging himself into a vertical fissure roughly 10 by 18 inches wide during a group spelunking trip. YouTube explainer videos resurfaced the story through the early 2020s, and in late November 2023 a diagram of Jones's position posted by X account @Morbidful hit more than 300,000 likes, launching a run of dark jokes and Cave Diver Memes on X. ## Origin The underlying event took place on November 24, 2009, when 26-year-old John Edward Jones and three companions entered Nutty Putty Cave, a hydrothermal cave near Utah Lake, hoping to pass a tight section known as The Birth Canal. Jones mistook an unmapped passage for the route and became wedged head-down in a vertical fissure measuring about 10 by 18 inches, where he died roughly 27 to 28 hours later from cardiac arrest brought on by his inverted posture[1]. His body was never recovered, and the cave entrance was sealed with concrete[4]. The meme itself emerged more than a decade later. YouTube retellings seeded the story in the early 2020s, including a Real Horror explainer uploaded on June 28, 2021[2] and a Zach D. Films short posted on August 7, 2022 that passed 33 million views[5]. The viral meme moment came on November 29, 2023, when X account @Morbidful posted an illustrated diagram of Jones's final position, which reached more than 29,000 reposts and 309,000 likes within two days and set off the joke format[3]. - **Platform:** YouTube (video retellings) / X (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2023 ## Overview The Nutty Putty Cave Incident describes a 2009 fatality that was later recycled into a dark-humor meme format on X. Jokes typically point at the upside-down position of caver John Edward Jones, cite the 10-by-18-inch fissure, or treat the whole story as evidence that spelunking is uniquely terrifying[1]. Posts often attach the widely shared @Morbidful diagram and add a one-line punchline about why nobody should enter a cave[3]. The tone sits between morbid curiosity and gallows humor. Many quote-posts of the @Morbidful diagram framed caving as hilariously anti-instinctual, and the format fed into the wider Cave Diver Memes trend that mocks underwater and tight-passage exploration as inherently doomed[4]. Replies also compared the fissure to other famously bad hiding or trapping situations, including the Saddam Hussein's Hiding Place meme used by YouTuber Justin Whang[6]. ## How to Use The common convention is to quote-post the @Morbidful diagram with a short punchline that treats caving as self-evidently insane, or to reference the upside-down fissure as the worst-case outcome of any decision. Jokes often borrow structure from other dark-humor memes, as when Justin Whang paired the diagram with a Saddam Hussein's Hiding Place reference[6]. Posters typically keep the caption short, letting the diagram carry the shock. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Nutty Putty Cave Incident? It refers to the 2009 death of caver John Edward Jones inside Utah's Nutty Putty Cave, which later became the basis for a dark-humor meme format on X after a viral November 2023 diagram post[3]. ### Where did Nutty Putty Cave Incident come from? The event itself happened on November 24, 2009, when Jones became wedged upside down in a narrow fissure and died about 28 hours later; the meme emerged from a @Morbidful X post on November 29, 2023[1]. ### What does Nutty Putty Cave Incident mean? Online, it is used as shorthand for how dangerous and anti-instinctual tight-passage caving is, often with the diagram of Jones's position captioned as proof not to go caving[4]. ### How do you use Nutty Putty Cave Incident? Posters typically quote-post the @Morbidful diagram with a one-line punchline, as Justin Whang did when he tied it to the Saddam Hussein's Hiding Place meme[6]. ### Is Nutty Putty Cave Incident still popular? Its viral peak was late November 2023; discussion has cooled since then, though explainer videos like the 33-million-view Zach D. Films short keep introducing new audiences[5]. ## References 1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Putty_Cave]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1nuqpAULpE]() 3. [https://twitter.com/Morbidful/status/1729903553819377685]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nutty-putty-cave-incident]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw4PFnt7LzQ]() 6. [https://twitter.com/JustinWhang/status/1729916490537746828]() 7. [https://twitter.com/Morbidful/status/1676268740160155648]() 8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-TaF2DbaWw]() 9. [https://twitter.com/godisangryatme/status/1729936316756795680]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/nutty-putty-cave-incident Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library