The Brief: Footage of a surgical procedure being performed on a single grape is a meme causing many people to proclaim "they did surgery on a grape."
DEEP DIVE
They Did Surgery On A Grape
Advertisement videos for da Vinci surgical instruments show robotic medical tools making incisions on a grape, peeling its skin off, and then suturing it back together. The original purpose of the video was to demonstrate the precision of these instruments. Upon watching the video, many viewers were baffled and amused to see such valuable equipment used on an inanimate piece of fruit. The response “they did surgery on a grape” went viral, announcing that this had happened, without actually explaining it.
BEHIND THE SCENES. Here's some pictures from today's shoot with Peter Mac's Director of Robotic Surgery @declangmurphy showing @ScopeTV11 how our da Vinci Xi robot works, performing precision surgery on a grape. #roboticsurgery #robot #davinciXi pic.twitter.com/dfzGszpzN6
— Peter Mac Cancer Ctr (@PeterMacCC) May 29, 2018
Grape Memes
The proliferation of this meme is a prime example of something going viral for its randomness and absurdity. As people repeated the phrase “they did surgery on a grape” again and again, it became a meme. Some variations on the meme feature creative jokes about doctors performing actual surgery on a grape, while others just announce that the surgery occurred.
they did surgery on a grape pic.twitter.com/ghXRzeOB2u
— sel (@sunlitjhs) November 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/geekylonglegs/status/1067151335517290496
https://twitter.com/justdidsurgery/status/1067200963583315968
Everyone talking about how they did surgery on a grape but no one talking about how they stitched the grape back together pic.twitter.com/dSNHiJ6qkB
— Dr Grandayy (@grandayy) November 27, 2018