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There's a disgusting human function called 'gleeking' that people don't realise they can do

There's a disgusting human function called 'gleeking' that people don't realise they can do

How do people even learn that they're capable of doing this?

Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper

For those lucky enough to have never encountered the 'trend' of gleeking before here is everything you need to know about it.

The human body is capable of some bizarre feats and when you mix this in with the need to continuously show off on social media you shouldn't be surprised to learn about all the weird and even more weird some of us have the ability to do.

One of these grossly fascinating techniques is gleeking and spoiler alert, this has nothing to do with the musical series Glee.

Here is your first gleeking hint (Getty Stock Images)
Here is your first gleeking hint (Getty Stock Images)

What is gleeking?

Open up TikTok, search the phrase 'gleeking' and you'll be greeted with hundreds of videos which show people with their mouths open and tongues pressed against the roof.

Take a look at the example video below:


Now you've taken a moment to get over the initial horror about the fact that people are squirting saliva out of the bottom of their tongue for fun, let's crack on and dive into what you need to do exactly in order to gleek.

How does a person gleek?

You've probably already guessed it by now but gleeking involves shooting saliva out from under your tongue.

Yes this is an actual thing which people not only spend their time doing but also showing off about.

According to a viral TikTok, around 35% of the population are able to gleek with a much smaller 1% able to do it on command. Which is 1% too many if you ask me, but let's not be too judgy here.

The science behind gleeking

So now we have a rough idea as to what gleeking is, you may be wondering why the human body is able to perform such a bizarre party trick.

There are three major saliva glands in our mouths, with the submandibular and sublingual glands being located under the tongue. These two glands are here to help produce saliva to aid with eating and swallowing.

Here one creator shared an up close and personal look at gleeking (TikTok/sebastiankivela)
Here one creator shared an up close and personal look at gleeking (TikTok/sebastiankivela)

"If you tense the muscles in the tongue right, it squeezes the duct and saliva squirts right out," Mark S. Wolff, DDS, PhD, dean of the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, previously explained to health.com

However saliva can sometimes build up in the glands and the pressure from under your tongue can cause it to squirt out.

For a gleeker - they are able to successfully manipulate the sublingual gland and fire out saliva at will like a snake shooting venom.

So there you have it, everything you need to know about the phenomena known as gleeking. Now go and wipe the saliva off your phone screen.

Featured Image Credit: TikTok/therealtiktokdoc

Topics: Health, TikTok, Science, Weird, Viral

Brenna Cooper
Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper is a journalist at LADbible. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History, followed by an NCTJ accredited masters in Journalism. She began her career as a freelance writer for Digital Spy, where she wrote about all things TV, film and showbiz. Her favourite topics to cover are music, travel and any bizarre pop culture.

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@_brencoco