The Ligma joke first gained popularity online in July 2018. "Ligma" sounds similar to the words "lick my", and became a sophomoric Internet meme to set up a crude joke. [1] When someone unfamiliar with the term is prompted to ask "What's ligma?", the punchline is to respond with "Ligma balls", "Ligma nuts", "Ligma butt" or something similar. [2] [3] [4]
The Verge reported in July 2018 that ligma "is the new bofa", a pun on "both of". [5] In a conversation, the speaker might set up the joke by saying, "I went to this great Italian restaurant last week, and they make great bofa", to prompt the question, "What's bofa?" to which the response is, "Bofa deez nuts!". According to Dictionary.com, "It's seen as a sign of good humor if the person who has been bofa'd laughs, shrugs it off, or bofas someone themselves." [6]
Josh Kastowitz of The Daily Dot connected both ligma and bofa jokes to older crude humor with "deez nuts" (these nuts) as its punchline. [1] Brady Olson, who made a satirical 2016 presidential run under the pseudonym "Deez Nuts", confirmed to Rolling Stone that he chose it based on the bofa meme. [7]
"Ligma" was the fictional disease jokingly rumored to have killed the popular video game streamer Ninja in July 2018. [1] [8] [5]
In October 2022, two amateur improvisational actors played a media prank, pretending to be newly fired Twitter employees "Rahul Ligma" and "Daniel Johnson" on the eve of Elon Musk's takeover of the company, and multiple major media outlets reported the incident as actual news. The Times of India called the Ligma–Johnson hoax "perfectly-timed" and "one of the greatest pranks on the Internet." [9]
In a December 2022 article for TechCrunch reflecting on the absurd nature of tech industry news over the past year, Amanda Silberling commented that because "a herd of reporters did not get the joke" about Rahul Ligma, she had to explain the "ligma" meme on four different podcasts. [10]
In August 2018, Microsoft began receiving complaints about the Xbox gamertags "Ligma" and "MrsLigma" and renamed them. The owner of the "Ligma" tag told Eurogamer , "I just made the word up, anyone else can/could too! But, it's pretty uncool when Xbox/Microsoft can use any new meme to destroy a gamertag that's 12+ years old." [11] After there was a groundswell of support on Reddit for the disaffected gamer, his "Ligma" tag was reinstated. [11]
In October 2018, fact-checking website Snopes debunked false reports that rapper Machine Gun Kelly had died from a "Ligma overdose". [12]
In July 2021, the Lead Stories fact-checking website confirmed that "Ligma" was not a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, but it was the latest version of "an old dirty joke". [2]
After the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman fell for the joke, in an image that was widely circulated online. [13]
A hoax is a widely publicised falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax.
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A gag name is a pseudonym intended to be humorous through its similarity to both a real name and a term or phrase that is funny, strange, or vulgar. The source of humor stems from the double meaning behind the phrase, although use of the name without prior knowledge of the joke could also be funny. Examples of the use of gag names occur in works of fiction in which there is a roll call, a listing of names, or a prank call.
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Xbox Play Anywhere, formerly Live Anywhere, is an ongoing initiative by Microsoft Gaming to bring the cross-platform Xbox network service to a wide variety of Microsoft platforms and devices, chiefly the Xbox Series X|S, Windows 11, Xbox One, and Windows 10.
Xbox Avatars are avatars and characters that represent users of the Xbox network service on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S video game consoles, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile. Avatars originally debuted on the Xbox 360 as part of the "New Xbox Experience" system update released on November 19, 2008, updated on Xbox One with "New Xbox One Experience" Xbox One System Software on November 12, 2015, and reimagined with the release of the next generation character for Xbox One on October 11, 2018.
A media prank is a type of media event, perpetrated by staged speeches, activities, or press releases, designed to trick legitimate journalists into publishing erroneous or misleading articles. The term may also refer to such stories if planted by fake journalists, as well as the false story thereby published. A media prank is a form of culture jamming generally done as performance art or a practical joke for purposes of a humorous critique of mass media.
A death hoax is a deliberate report of someone's death that is later revealed to be untrue. In some cases, it might be because the person has intentionally faked death.
"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee...", or simply "arrow in the knee", is an Internet meme that originated from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, an action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Originally a procedurally generated line of dialogue conceived by Senior Bethesda game designer Emil Pagliarulo and spoken by non-player characters (NPCs) who act as guards, the phrase became unexpectedly popular among Skyrim players. The phrase and its variations, such as "arrow to the knee", have since found popular reference outside of the game's original context, as well as media unrelated to The Elder Scrolls franchise.
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Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. Ligma, the fictional character's surname, is a reference to the Ligma joke. The spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax was revealed the same day, after the initial news coverage triggered debate among real Twitter employees about whether or not expected mass layoffs had already started. The Rahul Ligma character next appeared in early November as a recently unemployed FTX employee in the Bahamas. On November 15, Elon Musk, the incoming CEO of Twitter, facetiously offered Ligma and his compatriot their (fictional) old jobs back, and posted a photograph taken with them at Twitter headquarters. Although at least one journalist had publicly apologized for their failure to fact check before reporting the news, several notable media outlets were still oblivious to the running joke, and reported the duo's firing and rehiring as actual news. In social media, the follow-up stunt was widely criticized for lack of sensitivity to actual Twitter employees who had lost their jobs. On November 23, news reports surfaced once again, this time reporting that the actor playing Daniel Johnson had in fact been hired by Twitter for the first time.
Q: I'm assuming you take your political name from the Bofa meme? A: Yeah