The 29 Feet Away From a Japanese Radish Meme Is Actually Based in Science

Almost by definition, memes can come from anywhere. They can be a funny photo of a random person that catches fire, or a video of a celebrity totally losing their cool. They don't even have to be about people. The adaptability of memes as a format has led to some pretty strange viral phenomena over the years, but perhaps none is stranger than the Japanese radish phenomenon.

Japanese radishes, or daikons, are a long, white radish variety that is common in Asian cooking. They resemble long, white carrots, although they tend to be a little bit thicker than the average carrot. Typically, Japanese radishes grow like carrots as well, in a long line that eventually comes to a point. Often, though, Japanese radishes develop strange abnormalities that transform them into ideal meme fodder.

The most common way that the image of a Japanese radish can be memed is by transforming it into the likeness of a person, sometimes one who is taking a someone provocative pose. Although these radish memes can be pretty funny in their own right, they're actually not the basis for this particular set of memes, which is based more in a piece of scientific data about the vegetables.

In recent days, a meme has emerged that connects the Japanese radish to the distance of 29 feet, and there's actually a specific reason for this. One scientific statistic suggests that a single Japanese radish gives a person enough energy to walk 28 feet. As the joke goes, if a radish was just 29 feet away, a person would be doomed because they would be unable to reach it.

That isn't how the human body really works, of course, but social media users love the idea that a person would drop dead if the radish was just a few feet out of reach. As is always the case with memes this one has evolved into a number of different formats, but the common elements are almost always an image of a Japanese radish and the specific number 29 feet.

Although this 29 feet meme has received a surge in popularity in recent days, the meme has been around for years. It first emerged on platforms like Tumblr, and it's had a moment in the sun on a wide variety of social media platforms in the years since. Japanese radishes are, for whatever reason, outstanding fodder for memes, and they've been utilized frequently over the history of the internet.

The internet has made a wide variety of things funny that many people assumed never would be. Thankfully, Japanese radishes are never harmed by the entertainment that they provide for people. At this point, it's a classic meme subject, even if it feels like a hugely unlikely one.