With all that’s consistently going deeply and unsettlingly wrong in the world at the moment, it’s still pretty confounding that swollen testes have maintained such a grip on the news cycle in recent days.
This, of course, all began with Nicki Minaj’s comments about not yet being vaccinated. Across a number of tweets earlier this week amid Met Gala coverage, Minaj said “if” she gets vaccinated “it won’t [be] for the Met.” In another tweet, Minaj referenced the allegedly swollen testicles of her cousin’s friend.
By Tuesday night, the late-night circuit—namely, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel—had joined in on the reactions to Minaj’s comments. And by Wednesday afternoon, the Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Health had issued a response to the testicles claim, noting that “so much time” had been wasted in confirming its falseness.
For Colbert, the testicles comment presented an opportunity to parody the 2011 Minaj track “Super Bass” with a lyrically testicular take dubbed “Super Balls.” Kimmel, meanwhile, told his audience that he would “really like to talk to” the purported swollen testicle possessor.
“For this friend of Nicki’s cousin, I hate to say it but if your testicles swell up that big, the question isn’t, ‘Did you get a vaccine recently?’ The question is, ‘What have you been doing to your balls?’” Kimmel joked. In response, Minaj said the purported swollen testicle possessor is “willing to talk for the right price.”
Expectedly, the #MyCousinTookTheVaccine hashtag also took off on Twitter and has become a palpable source of mostly joke-focused reactions to all these swollen testes developments. As you’ll notice when clicking the accompanying trending topic on the app, the Twitter team has included a warning message urging users to “know the facts” about vaccines.
Additionally, someone has ensured that nickiminajscousinsfriendsballs.com redirects to the official Twitter account of Tucker Carlson.
As enjoyable as all of that is, the joy of being vaccinated feels even better. Get your doses here.
