Wedgie

The wedgie is a joke maneuver or prank performed to humiliate someone. It is inflicted when an individual, or group of individuals, grab the underwear of the victim from behind and pull up, causing the underwear to wedge between the buttocks. A wedgie is also what happens when a person's undergarments get bunched up and "ride up" between the buttocks, causing discomfort and annoyance. This can be caused by bad posture, awkward sitting or tight underpants. (On the other hand, thongs are, essentially, designed to be wedged between the buttocks.)

Special varieties of the wedgie prank include the "melvin" (a frontal wedgie), the "hanging wedgie", in which the victim is suspended from a hook or ledge by their waistband, and the "atomic wedgie" performed by pulling the underpants over the head of the victim from the back.

In Wisconsin, this prank is known as a "grundy" and in Western Canada as a "gonch-pull."

Other uses
A wedgie may also be defined as a type of sandwich often served at pizza parlours and some Italian restaurants. Most commonly a Wedgie sandwich consists of two pieces of bread similar to pizza crusts that contain different meats and italian sauces. This could be considered a rough variation between a pizza and a calzone.

Wedgie is also a nickname used by Recumbent bicycle riders for an upright Bicycle. It is also a name for a women's shoe.

Popular culture

 * In the Dilbert comics Wedgies are frequently used.


 * In the animated cartoon on Cartoon Network The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, there is a bully who often gives wedgies to children.


 * In the animated show, The Mask, the main hero used "atomic wedgies" as a weapon against his enemies, especially on Police Lt. Kellaway and his partner Doyle. This was taken from a scene in the movie where he did it to a gang leader.


 * In Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman there is one villain that gives wedgies, known as Wedgie Woman.


 * The "atomic wedgie" variation in particular is a major plot device in the Seinfeld episode "The Library".


 * In Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey, Bill and Ted melvin Death to escape from him.


 * In MTV's Beavis and Butthead episode "Stewart's House", Stewart is given an "atomic wedgie", which included a cactus, rubbing alcohol and an electric mixer down the back of Stewart's wedgied tighty-whities.


 * The Nickelodeon show Salute Your Shorts used the word "melvin" regularly to refer to the frontal wedgie, or when the underwear is pulled from the front.


 * Rapper Jim Jones often threatens to give people wedgies.