“Blue waffle disease” might sound like a Smurfs-themed special at Denny’s, but the fictional STI is anything but appetizing.

In 2010, online pranksters shared an image of a waffle dyed blue with the caption: “Bet you can’t find me on Google image search.” Those who attempted this search would live to regret their decision. Sadly, none of them saw the definition of “blue waffle” in Urban Dictionary, which reads, “Don’t fucking look it up. Blue Waffle. Just don’t.”

As a teenager growing up in the U.K. (“waffle” is British slang for pussy, so I assume we can claim credit for this one), I remember being horrified by close-up photos of crusty, bright blue vaginas, seemingly covered by bulbous tufts of mold. It’s enough to flatten even the toughest of boners, and it quickly made the rounds among teens who were already taught to be terrified of fucking by their STI-obsessed sex-ed teachers.

Anyone who’s witnessed a teacher gingerly pull a condom onto a banana knows that educators try to make sex seem as unsexy as possible. Many of us have been forever scarred by photo slideshows of truly gnarly-looking genitalia — engorged penises sprouting what could be mistaken for cauliflower and vaginas with bleeding sores — meant to scare horny teenagers away from sex forever, all before homeroom. So of all the wacky urban legends spread by obnoxious high schoolers, is blue waffle disease even close to being the most obviously untrue?

The first time Dr. Anita Ravi of the University of Pennsylvania heard the words “blue waffle,” she was leading a pop-up sex-ed class at the women’s prison on Rikers’ Island. In a video published in Annals of Internal Medicine, she recalls the experience: “Do you know if we have a cure for blue waffle yet?” asked an incarcerated woman. “A lot of our girlfriends are talking, it’s this STD and it is nasty!”

After the class, Ravi took the bus back to the city, on a mission to learn more. Her quest for waffle knowledge led her to two conclusions. “The first is that it’s an STD that only affects women. Basically, what it does is cause the vagina to turn blue, and as far as we know, there is no cure. The second is that it’s a well-known, elaborate internet hoax, with someone who has extensive, beautiful Photoshop skills.”

The women at Rikers weren’t the only ones to be fooled by the hoax. In a truly hilarious address back in 2013, New Jersey then-councilwoman Kathy McBride gave a panicked speech claiming, “It is a disease that’s already claimed 85 lives and it is a case here in the City of Trenton. Blue Waffle Disease is supposed to be a virus that is 10 times greater at this point than the AIDS virus.”

Thankfully, sexual health literacy — or at the very least, our radar for internet pranks — has seemingly improved since the early 2010s. As of 2025, there hasn’t been a single reported case of the horrific STI that turns vaginas into bright blue, pus-leaking sores. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t find it on WebMD.