The Human Centipede — Hand-drawn diagram of three stick figures connected mouth-to-anus in a human centipede configuration with a red digestive tract line.

The Human Centipede

2009viral videoclassic

Published October 1, 2026

The Human Centipede is a 2009 Dutch horror film about a surgeon who stitches three kidnapped tourists together mouth to anus. Clips leaked onto YouTube in September 2009 and the premise alone, no gore required, turned the title into shorthand for the most disgusting horror concept online, spawning flash games, cosplay, tattoos, and a South Park parody.

horror memes shock humor memes late 2000s memes movie premiere memes dark humor memes

Overview

The Human Centipede works as a meme because the one-line pitch, three people surgically joined mouth to anus, does all the heavy lifting1. Most people who reference it never actually saw the movie. The gag format is to describe something unpleasant and compare it to the centipede surgery, or to riff on the chain shape itself in cosplay, fan art, and parody games3.

Early viral artifacts leaned into the chain visual rather than the gore. A 2010 Newgrounds flash game mashed the premise with Atari's 1980 Centipede shooter2. A projectionist named Dakota Milam got a full Human Centipede tattoo that made the blog rounds in June 20104, and the first Fangoria cosplay followed in July5. By 2011 South Park's season 15 premiere HUMANCENTiPAD had folded the concept into a jab at Apple's terms of service6.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (clip leaks) / BuzzFeed (viral spread)
Key People
Tom Six, meme creator Unknown
Date
2009

Dutch filmmaker Tom Six wrote and directed The Human Centipede (First Sequence), telling Entertainment Weekly in April 2010 that the idea came from watching a child molester on television and joking that the punishment should be stitching him to the backside of a very fat truck driver7. The film premiered on the festival circuit in 2009 and got a wider United States release in May 20107.

Clips started showing up on YouTube in September 20097. On September 3rd, 2009, BuzzFeed editor Peggy Wang published "Human Centipede: A Mouth to Anus Fusion Horror Story," posting a screenshot and the premise with no video attached, which is likely how a lot of readers first heard the pitch1. The LiveJournal community Oh No They Didn't followed on September 29th with an embedded YouTube clip reel, pushing the film into gossip-blog territory7.

How It Spread

After the September 2009 clip leaks, search interest climbed alongside the film's May 2010 US release7. The meme then jumped formats fast. On May 24th, 2010, a Human Centipede flash game based on the 1980 Atari arcade title Centipede was uploaded to Newgrounds2. June brought the Dakota Milam back tattoo that got blog coverage from the Alamo Drafthouse projection team4, and July 23rd saw the first Fangoria convention cosplay documented on Nerdcore5.

Merch and parody kept the premise alive through late 2010. The Daily What posted the teaser trailer for the sequel on September 24th, 20108, and on October 11th an Etsy seller listed a Human Centipede cat toy9. Urban Dictionary entries from the same period show the title getting repurposed as crude sexual slang, a sign the phrase had broken loose from the film itself10.

Mainstream absorption came with South Park's "HUMANCENTiPAD," the April 27th, 2011 season 15 premiere that merged the surgery concept with iPad user agreements6. The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 22nd, 2011 and hit theaters that October, closing out the title's main run as a shock-meme reference point7.

Timeline

How to Use This Meme

People typically invoke The Human Centipede as a shorthand comparison for anything grotesque, or build visual gags around the chained-up human shape. Common conventions include centipede-themed parody art, cosplay lineups with multiple costumed participants, and the "would you rather" framing where the centipede is the worst option.

Frequently Asked Questions