"Ten Legs, Eight Broken" — Split-screen TikTok meme with distressed woman reacting to the ten legs eight broken spider poem next to a spider trapped under a

"Ten Legs, Eight Broken"

2023viral poem / TikTok slideshowdeclining

Published November 11, 2026

In June 2023, TikToker @user68519586 posted a photo slideshow of a poem written from the perspective of a wounded spider titled "ten legs, eight broken," set to Emile Mosseri's melancholic song "Jacob and the Stone." The slideshow reached roughly 5.5 million plays in three weeks and triggered a flood of tearful TikTok reactions. By late June, some creators flipped the mood with parody clips of themselves rescuing real spiders captioned "fck this poem."

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Overview

Readers swipe through black text on plain backgrounds while Mosseri's piano score plays underneath, a format that gave the poem its emotional punch on the For You Page3. The original upload gathered about 1 million likes alongside its 5.5 million plays in three weeks1.

Responses split into two camps. Sincere reactions matched the sad tone, with users filming themselves crying on camera or writing text overlays that warned viewers not to read the poem at all24. Parody reactions arrived about two weeks later, when creators filmed spider rescues as a direct rebuke of the poem's cruel narrator, captioning the clips with lines like "fck this poem"5.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok
Creator
@user68519586
Date
2023

On June 11, 2023, TikToker @user68519586 posted a photo slideshow of a poem titled "ten legs, eight broken," set to the TikTok sound for Emile Mosseri's "Jacob and the Stone"1. The poem speaks from a spider that lost eight of its ten legs after being attacked by a human, addressing the attacker directly3. Across the following three weeks, the slideshow reached roughly 5.5 million plays and 1 million likes1.

How It Spread

The earliest known reaction appeared the same day the slideshow went up. TikToker @fudgingkat told viewers "DO NOT READ TEN LEGS EIGHT BROKEN," calling it too emotionally heavy to handle, and the clip reached about 1.2 million plays and 127,400 likes in three weeks2.

More tearful responses followed. On June 20, 2023, TikToker @legal_guacamolee filmed herself crying while describing the poem's impact, a video that drew about 218,000 plays and 4,400 likes within 11 days4.

By late June the mood shifted toward parody. On June 27, 2023, TikToker @piper8125 captioned a clip "fck this poem," showing herself catching a spider-like insect and freeing it outside, the opposite of what the poem's narrator does. That video reached roughly 97,700 plays and 1,800 likes in four days5. Reactions appeared through July 20233.

Timeline

2023-06-11

@user68519586 posts the photo slideshow of "ten legs, eight broken" set to Emile Mosseri's "Jacob and the Stone"; @fudgingkat posts a same-day reaction warning viewers not to read it.

2023-06-20

@legal_guacamolee posts a crying reaction video about the poem that reaches around 218,000 plays in 11 days.

2023-06-27

@piper8125 flips the tone with a parody spider-rescue clip captioned "fck this poem."

2023-07

Viral reactions keep appearing on TikTok through July 2023.

How to Use This Meme

Two directions settled in. Sincere posts use the Mosseri sound and show the user tearing up on camera or adding a text overlay warning others not to open the poem, as TikToker @fudgingkat did on June 11, 20232. Parody posts flip the premise by filming the creator catching and releasing a real spider while cursing the poem, as @piper8125 did with the caption "fck this poem" on June 27, 20235.

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