Over the last couple of months, social media has been abuzz about the seemingly random phenomenon of people throwing sex toys onto live sporting events. Yes, you read that correctly.
The first incident occurred on July 29, when an audience member threw a neon green sex toy onto the court of an active WNBA game. At least six different incidents of people throwing sex toys onto active Women’s Basketball games occurred during the month of August, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, the chaos has spread to other live sporting events as well, causing many people to scratch their heads and wonder how we got here.
Well, How Did We Get Here?
Surprisingly enough, the surge of people hurling sex toys at sporting events can be linked back to a group of people attempting to promote their cryptocurrency.
To provide context, internet users created a type of cryptocurrency known as Green Dildo Coin.
According to Cosmopolitan, people in the community surrounding the currency have admitted to throwing sex toys at games to gain publicity for the coin. In many of these incidents, the toys thrown on the court bore markings associated with the group.
While the same article notes that those associated with the coin are not responsible for all of the incidents, the coin’s anonymous creators claimed to have planned the first sex toy-throwing incident that occurred on July 29, according to USA Today.
Current evidence suggests that the trend was orchestrated in large part by the people behind the coin. It is believed that many copycats have since jumped on the trend. According to Vice, the founder of the coin claimed that many of the people arrested for these incidents were not associated with the coin.
How Did The Internet Respond?
Regardless of who’s behind the trend, one thing is clear: many people don’t think there was anything funny about these “pranks.” According to Newsweek, various prominent WNBA players have spoken out against the incidents for the danger they could cause.
One notable reaction came from WNBA player Sophie Cunningham, who wrote on X, “stop throwing dildos on the court… you’re going to hurt one of us.” Days after the tweet, another sex toy was thrown at Cunningham during a game. This prompted her to repost her initial tweet joking about the irony of the situation.
Another common online reaction was interpreting the incidents as degrading to women, since they primarily targeted female athletic events. Some outlets, such as Slate, interpreted the stunts as an attempt to dehumanize women at a time when female athletes are demanding higher pay.
While the reactions within the sports and journalism worlds condemned the situation, one doesn’t have to look far to find internet users amused by the incidents.
On the aforementioned series of posts by Cunningham, a large percentage of the comments consisted of users praising the pranksters and posting memes joking about the thrown objects.
The people making light of the potentially dangerous situation weren’t just faceless internet users. During the peak of the controversy, the betting sports app Polymarket started hosting bets on whether sex toys would be thrown during WNBA games. These services stayed up despite backlash, according to GamblingNews.com.
Is it Over Yet?
Since the end of August, there have thankfully been no new incidents. That being said, there have been two recorded instances of neon-colored sex toys being thrown onto live NFL games since the beginning of September, according to TMZ.
Other than that, it seems like the whole thing has died down. Legal action has been brought against some of those who disrupted games. In one instance, a man was charged with attempted assault after he flung a sex toy that hit an audience member in the face, according to People.
While some saw this as just another random viral sensation, others saw it as a series of dangerous incidents that were tasteless, if not downright degrading. Hopefully, this can serve as a reminder that there are some memes that just aren’t very funny.
Editorial Note: Portions of this article were reviewed and refined using AI-assisted editing tools to support grammar, clarity, and style. All content has been fact-checked and approved by our editorial team.
What's Your Reaction?
