Men Digging Tunnels

Submission 9,807

About

Men Digging Tunnels refers to an ironic cliché in memes regarding a hobby and passion for digging tunnels that exist within men. The earliest post came from Tumblr and iFunny in late 2020, however, the stereotype as a whole is based on multiple YouTube videos of men digging tunnels for fun, as well as a viral Reddit post from a concerned girlfriend in early 2022. The meme trended en masse on Twitter throughout early 2022.

Origin

"Hobby tunneling" is the practice of digging tunnels as a hobby.^[1] The practice involves the construction of tunnels using simple equipment or even one's bare hands. One of the first hobby tunnelists was American entomologist Harrison Gray Dyar Jr., who constructed multiple tunnels beneath his home in Washington D.C. in 1917.^[1]

In 2016 and 2017, multiple YouTube videos surfaced regarding hobby tunnelists. For instance, on September 28th, 2016, the YouTube channel PatrynWorldLatestNew posted a video titled, "Man Has Been Digging Tunnel Every Day For 18 YEARS And No Plans To Stop." Over the course of six years, it received roughly 43,400 views (shown below, left). On June 3rd, 2017, YouTuber Squirrel Town posted a video titled, "Backyard Tunnel Construction," earning roughly 3 million views in five years (show below, right).

On September 24th, 2020, iFunnyer^[2] Anti_Fandom posted a meme about digging tunnels, following a Start Pack esque format. The meme received roughly 1,100 smiles in two years (shown below). However, a Tineye^[3] search revealed that the meme was posted on September 3rd, 2020 by an unknown Tumblr user.

Spread

The cliché wasn't used in memes en masse, however, until early 2022 on Twitter. For example, on January 18th, 2022, the Twitter^[4] gimmick account Depths of Wikipedia posted screenshots of the "Hobby tunneling" Wikipedia page, captioning it, "the masculine urge to dig." The tweet received roughly 100,500 likes over the course of three months (shown below).

Within the replies of the tweet, multiple users shared their thoughts on the proposed, male passion for digging tunnels. For instance, on January 19th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user starlarbu replied with a satirical story of wanting to dig tunnels with his dog, receiving roughly 6,400 likes in three months (shown below, left). Also on January 19th, Twitter^[6] user dbishopii attached four screenshots of hobby tunnelist YouTube thumbnails, earning roughly 2,000 likes in three months (shown below, right).

On April 19th, 2022, Redditor Specialist-Ad4561 made a post to /r/Advice^[7] that led with, "How can I get my boyfriend to stop digging his tunnel?" Over the course of nine days, the post received over 960 upvotes and garnered notable attention online (shown below, left). Five days later, on April 19th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user kwhitaker_ reposted Specialist-Ad4561's Reddit post and captioned it, "what on earth is going on with men??," earning roughly 77,900 likes in six days (shown below, right).

The Twitter repost inspired multiple meme creators to exploit the idea that men enjoy digging holes above all other responsibilities. For instance, on April 19th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user mrgracemugabe posted a tweet that earned roughly 6,600 likes in six days (shown below, left). On April 20th, 2022, Twitter^[10] user DanMentos referenced the Instead of Going to Therapy meme by tweeting, "women will literally go to therapy instead of digging a tunnel," receiving roughly 117,800 likes in five days (shown below, right).