2022 BYU Armpit Crabs Outbreak

Submission 5,129

Overview

The BYU Armpit Crabs Outbreak refers to reports of an alleged outbreak of armpit crabs at the Mormon school Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah. The reports stem from a July 2022 TikTok video by two ex-Mormons, and the incident became a trending topic online in October of that year after a Twitter user went viral with a post about the alleged outbreak.

History

On July 26th, 2022, TikTokers^[1] @jordanandmckay, two ex-Mormons, posted a video where they dance under the caption, "finally recovering from the trauma of learning about soaking," referring to the controversial act of Mormon soaking. The video then cuts to the two touching armpits under the caption, "learning about the armpit crabs outbreak at BYU," garnering over 714,000 views in three months (shown below). The two also discussed the topic briefly on their YouTube^[8] podcast on the same day, gaining over 26,000 views in three months.

On October 20th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @thegeodesystem then posted a video reacting with horror to the TikTok, garnering over 200,000 views in five days. On October 22nd, Twitter^[3] user @peymamas posted, "There was an outbreak of armpit crabs at BYU. Sit with me for a moment, and think about how that happened. Have a good day y’all," garnering over 86,000 likes in three days.

As the tweet went viral in the following days, people across social media began reacting to the story, expressing particular surprise about the crabs specifically being "armpit crabs." On October 24th, TikTokers^[4]^[5] @omarsbigsister and @sagittarilys posted videos about the outbreak, garnering over 950,000 and 323,000 views, respectively, in a day (shown below, left and right). That day, Yahoo! News^[6] then reported on the story. On October 25th, HITC^[7] also reported on it.

On October 26th, YouTubers^[9] KevOnStage Studios posted a podcast episode where they discussed the purported armpit crabs outbreak, garnering over 4,900 views in roughly three hours (shown below).

Mormon Soaking / Jump Humping

Mormon Soaking refers to a sexual act allegedly practiced by Mormons where the male inserts his penis into the female's vagina and stays completely still for an extended period of time. Soaking is used as a loophole to get around rules in the Mormon faith against having premarital sex. Sometimes soaking is accompanied by jump humping, which involves a third party, the hump jumper, jumping up and down on the bed in order to simulate thrusting for the couple. The practice allegedly became popular at the Mormon institute Brigham Young University (BYU) and has been documented online since as early as 2009. Soaking is also sometimes known as "floating."