Wedgie

This article is about the wardrobe malfunction. For other uses, see Wedge.

A wedgie is the act of forcibly pulling a person's underpants upwards from the back. The act is often performed as a school prank or a form of bullying.

A male receiving a wedgie

Wedgies are commonly featured in popular works, either as a form of low comedy or as a behaviour representative of bullying. In such works, briefs are usually the type of underpants that are worn by the victim.^[1][2]

A wedgie can also occur in artistic gymnastics, particularly females who wear leotards.^[3]

Dangers

Wedgies, especially when performed on males, can be dangerous, potentially causing testicular or scrotal damage. An incident in 2004 involving a ten-year-old boy required reattachment of a testicle to the scrotum.^[4]

Variations

A female receiving a regular wedgie

As a prank or form of bullying, there are a number of variants to the normal, or traditional wedgie. It is impractical to list every variant, as the names and processes can be rather subjective; however, there are a few better-known variants of the wedgie.

• The melvin is a variant where the victim's underpants are pulled up from the front, to cause injury, or, at least, severe pain to the victim's genitals.^[5]
• The atomic wedgie entails hoisting the waistband of the receiver's underwear up and over their head.^[5]
• The hanging wedgie is a variant in which the victim is hung by their underpants, elevated above the ground.^[6]
• The ripping wedgie involves the tearing of the victim's underpants, sometimes ripping off a portion (such as the waistband) of them, or forcibly removing the garment entirely.^[7]

See also

• List of practical joke topics
  • Happy corner
  • Indian burn
• Wedgies, a 2008 mini series-focused block on Cartoon Network