Wedgie

A wedgie is the act of forcibly pulling a person's underpants upwards from the back. The act is often performed as a school prank or a form of bullying.

This article is about the wardrobe malfunction. For other uses, see Wedge.
A male receiving a wedgie

Wedgies are commonly featured in popular works, either as a form of low comedy or as a behaviour representative of bullying. In such works, briefs are usually the type of underpants that are worn by the victim.[1][2]

Dangers

Wedgies, especially when performed on males, can be dangerous, potentially causing testicular or scrotal damage. An incident in 2004 involving a ten-year-old boy required reattachment of a testicle to the scrotum.[3]

Variations
A female receiving a regular wedgie

As a prank or form of bullying, there are a number of variants to the normal, or traditional wedgie. It is impractical to list every variant, as the names and processes can be rather subjective; however, there are a few better-known variants of the wedgie.

  • The melvin is a variant where the victim's underwear is pulled up from the front, to cause injury, or, at least, severe pain to the victim's genitals.[4] The female variant is sometimes called a minerva.
  • The atomic wedgie entails hoisting the waistband of the receiver's underwear up and over their heads.[4] This form is the title character's signature prank from The Mask: The Animated Series.
  • The hanging wedgie is a variant in which the victim is hung from his or her underwear, elevated above the ground.[5]

See also

References
  1. Wedgie. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Retrieved 30 November 2007 via Dictionary.com.
  2. No More Bullies, School Counselor Resources.
  3. "Emergency operation after school prank - Local stories". Yorkshire Post. 2 December 2004. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  4. Curran, David (4 January 2007). "Gwyneth And 'The Atomic Wedgie'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
  5. Stuever, Hank (2 September 2002). "At School, a Most Uncomfortable Subject". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
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