They Did Surgery On a Grape

Confirmed 336,349

About

They Did Surgery On a Grape refers to a copypasta borne from a video in which Edward Hospital, located in Naperville, Illinois, demonstrated the precision of the da Vinci Surgical System by using the equipment to peel a grape. Several years after the video was posted, business and tech site Cheddar made a video about the demonstration. A screenshot from this video was posted to Instagram with the caption "They Did Surgery on a Grape," which grew popular and led to the creation of a copypasta and parodies, sometimes involving recursive derivatives.

Origin

On August 11th, 2010, Edward Hospital posted a video demonstrating the surgical precision of the da Vinci Surgical System by using it to peel a grape (shown below).

On July 31st, 2017, business and tech site Cheddar tweeted an edited version of Edward Hospital's video, adding the caption "They did surgery on a grape" (shown below).

This surgery system is so precise, doctors used it to peel a grape. #CheddarLIVE pic.twitter.com/q4ax7vPe4z
— Cheddar (@cheddar) August 1, 2017

On January 16th, 2018, Instagram user @elimgaraks^[11] posted the earliest known usage of the meme. The post received more than 1,200 likes in less than three years (shown below).

Spread

On November 19th, 2018, Instagram meme account @simpledorito^[1] posted a screenshot from Cheddar's video, adding the caption "They did surgery on a grape." The post gained over 4,000 likes (shown below).

On November 21st, 2018, Twitter^[10] user @ScummyR tweeted an edit of the screenshot, featuring the words "they did surgery on a grape" added multiple times. The tweet received more than 9,700 retweets and 46,000 likes in eight days (shown below, left).

On November 22nd, @simpledorito shared the image on Instagram. This post gained over 3,000 likes (shown below, right).^[2] It also appeared on /r/dank_meme that day, where it gained over 13,000 points.^[3]

The popularity of these posts led to many parodies on social media. For example, on Twitter, user @sunlitjhs posted a photoshopped parody that gained over 6,600 retweets and 32,000 likes (shown below, left). User @ToddWilliams posted a Trump Yelling at Lawn-mowing Boy parody that gained over 1,600 retweets and 10,000 likes (shown below, right).

Elsewhere on social media, a post by Adam the Creator featuring Tom Hanks gained over 34,000 likes (shown below, left). A subreddit^[4] devoted to the meme was created and gained over 440 subscribers in less than a week. There, one of the top posts features a photoshopped man having just gotten out of surgery (shown below, right). The meme was extensively covered by The Independent,^[5] The Daily Dot,^[6] Popbuzz,^[7] and others.

He Played Piano Like an Epic Sir

On November 23rd, 2018, Seth Everman parodied the meme by creating a similar image as simpledorito's text-heavy "They Did Surgery On a Grape" post, using the phrase "He Played Piano Like an Epic Sir." The text is likely a reference to the Feel Like a Sir Rage Comic. He posted the image to Twitter^[8] and Tumblr^[9] where he gained over 4,800 retweets and 29,000 notes (shown below).

The post began spreading with further recursions on Reddit. Posts appeared on /r/youtube, /r/memes, and /r/comedycemetery.