Blue Waffle — As far as the yucky legend goes, it all started somewhere around 2010 … or 2011 … or (according to the “know your meme” site, it’s September 2008. You see, people can’t even pinpoint when it actually started. And, if you don’t know the aforementioned website, just know it’s NSFW most of the time.
THE BAIT & SWITCH
It started with a simple photo of a waffle that had been photoshopped blue, with the caption “Be you can’t find me on Google images.” Bait and switch trolling was normal. Put out an innocent-looking picture but have the end result as something gross or disturbing.
In the case of Blue Waffle, the switched image was of a swollen, diseased labia (from a legitimate illness) that was disfigured to the point it didn’t really look like a vagina anymore. Then, someone with mad Photoshop skills tweaked it to look blue/green-ish.
BUT IT DIDN’T END THERE
Once the victims were done gagging, the text below is what really caused the nightmare.
It went on to describe the “symptoms” you would have if you had contracted this horrible STI. It included things like…
- Red or irritated vagina or vulva,
- Unusual or smelly discharge, and itching or burning
- Itching, burning, and swelling around the vagina
- Burning sensation when urination
- Pain during sex
- Blue or purple bumps on the vagina,
- Labia, and vulva that can be painful to touch
By now you’ll notice why this prank took on a life of its own in a terrifying way…
They are the symptoms of so many normal bodily issues – some similar to STIs and some not. Heck, you could have purple bumps from ingrown hairs from shaving. Here are some examples of real diseases courtesy of Verywellhealth.com that have the same symptoms.
- Bacterial vaginosis (BV): Vaginal redness and swelling, vaginal itchiness, vaginal discharge, a “fishy” smell, burning with urination, bleeding with sex.
- Chlamydia: Vaginal redness and swelling, vaginal itchiness, vaginal discharge, pain with urination, lower abdominal or pelvic pain, pain with intercourse, bleeding with sex, and bleeding between periods.
- Gonorrhea: Vaginal redness and swelling, vaginal itchiness, vaginal discharge, pain with urination, lower abdominal or pelvic pain, pain with intercourse, bleeding with sex, and bleeding between periods.
- Genital herpes: Vaginal redness and swelling, vaginal itching or burning, painful vaginal blisters and sores, vaginal discharge, pain with urination.
- Human papillomavirus (HPV): Painless genital warts, vaginal itchiness
SADLY, IT WAS OUT OF THE BOX
Pun aside, the meme/pic spread like wildfire. People were calling in health lines, demanding to know what the doctors were doing about this new sexual pandemic.
And since it was targeted at women there was significant harm to the female population being looked at as dirty or whores because they were itchy a little down there (maybe because it was that time of the month and things get funky). Buuuuut nooooooo, THEY HAD BLUE WAFFLE!!
FACT: “Munchausen by Internet” is when people purposely manufacture illnesses for the purpose of trolling or seeking attention. So some people jumped on that bandwagon to get “thoughts and prayers.”
Thankfully, the health organizations jumped on that fast, putting out public notices and videos trying to calm the populace and explaining it was a hoax and the image was doctored. But it would be many years before that term Blue Waffle finally didn’t spark hysteria in someone with genital issues.
THE LEGEND LINGERS, BUT WITH HUMOR
Kellogg’s put out a line of specially flavored and named waffles. One was Unicorn and they tasted like cotton candy. Another was Birthday cake. Finally … there was Mermaid and they tasted like raspberry. But they were blue.
People were quick to point out the company’s mistake.
The Netflix series Big Mouth also did a “health” episode where they talked about Blue Waffle in a horror genre. It was hilarious.
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM BLUE WAFFLE
The original image has all but disappeared from the expanse of the world wide web and thanks the sexual heavens for that.
More than anything, aside from learning and practicing safer sexual practices; it’s important when you learn something new on the internet, to do your fact-checking on reliable sources … and no … YouTube is not a reliable source.
