They did surgery on a grape: The viral meme explained

This past week, you might have seen people talking about the surgery on a grape meme, and wondered what on earth is going on. The phrase "they did surgery on a grape" is everywhere, but why? It's taken over the internet – alongside the "Video killed the radio star" meme, the "my brain: don't say it" meme and the "My Yé is different to your Yé" meme.

What is this they did surgery on a grape meme? What does it mean? Why is everyone talking about it?

Where did the surgery on a grape meme come from?

It all comes from a YouTube video, posted in 2010, in which surgeons at Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois practised using surgical equipment on yep, a grape.

The video is weird to say the least, but also oddly satisfying as it shows the skin of a grape being precisely removed by machinery.

The clip was then randomly shared on Instagram by SimpleDorito with the caption “they did surgery on a grape” written across it multiple times.

And then out of nowhere, people started reposting the image and next thing it was all over Twitter and had become a viral meme.

The meme is everywhere and people that repost the concept with different pictures and captions are getting thousands of retweets.

What is the meaning of the 'they did surgery on a grape' meme?

In May 2018, a tweet from Peter Mac Cancer Centre, said the surgery video was to show how the da Vinci Xi robot works, performing precision surgery – on a grape.

The £1.6million robot is used by doctors for less invasive surgery. It works remotely and its movements are controlled by a surgeon. It has been effectively used to help those with ovarian, uterine and cervical cancer.

The video was just to show how precisely the machine can work.

Now people are using the phrase to caption absolutely everything – even their selfies, asking "If I was a grape, would you do surgery on me?"

There isn't really a definitive meaning behind the memes, they are just laughing at doctors doing surgery on a grape – without the medical context. But it is kinda funny.

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