The Blue Waffle meme is one of the most infamous shock images in internet history, originating around 2008 as an urban legend about a fictional medical condition. Unlike standard image macros, it functioned primarily as a bait-and-switch prank, where unsuspecting users were tricked into searching for the term only to be met with a disturbing, doctored image. It became a rite of passage for early internet users, symbolizing the Wild West era of the web where curiosity often led to regret. Today, the meme is mostly used in a nostalgic or cautionary sense, referencing the collective trauma of a generation that learned the hard way never to search for unknown terms based on an internet dare.