The ligma joke exploded in the summer of 2018, when a hoax spread claiming that streaming star Ninja had died of a made-up illness called ligma. Anyone who asked what ligma was got the punchline: ligma balls. The bait-and-switch format made it perfect for prank culture, and it ricocheted through gaming communities, comment sections and meme pages within days. Years later the setup still works because the word sounds just plausible enough to fool newcomers, keeping the clip a staple of quick, juvenile gotcha humor online.