Lately there has been a new meme circulating the internet:  “they did surgery on a grape” meme. The phrase, besides being considered funny, is quite frankly, confusing. It does not answer why exactly “they did surgery on a grape?” Who even is “they?”  Did the grape survive the surgery? All we know is that “they did surgery on a grape.”

Producer Max Godnick of the news media outlet Cheddar is the creator behind this phrase. Godnick placed subtitles under an actual video of a surgeon performing surgery on a grape. Afterwards, the meme page @simpledortio took a screenshot of it and posted it on Instagram. Well, the rest was history. Now all we see are comments under posts and videos saying “they did surgery on grape” or “let’s not ignore the fact that they did surgery on a grape.”

The actual “they” part of the phrase is answered by Cheddar; they posted a video showing how Chicago’s surgery technology is so precise, so much so that it can peel a grape without piercing the fruit’s skin. Yes, so “they” is a surgeon from Chicago, but the phrase “Surgeons from Chicago did surgery on a grape” sounds less ominous and doesn’t really do much for internet trolls.

The meme has now evolved into different branches of memes. The meme has been morphed into the “loss meme” (a 6-year-old meme still circulating the meme universe) and other popular memes. There has also been countless videos uploaded about the meme. Many videos mock the “surgery.”  For example, YouTube user Useless Duck Company, uploaded a video titled, “They Did Surgery on a Grape – unseen footage – Share the truth!” where it is revealed that one of the surgeons was an evil banana.