# Lemon Party
**Lemon Party** is the name of an early-2000s shock site at lemonparty.org and of the bait-and-switch prank meme built around it. The site displayed a single pornographic image of three elderly men in a bed kissing and performing oral sex, set to the 1963 doo-wop song "If You Wanna Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul, and it was commonly used as a bait-and-switch link by trolls in discussion forums and imageboard communities.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) A satirical Canadian party of the same name existed, but whether it is connected to the site is unknown.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Domain | lemonparty.org, registered October 3, 2002, in Canada, according to DomainTools[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) |
| Content | A single pornographic image of three elderly men, set to Jimmy Soul's 1963 song "If You Wanna Be Happy"[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) |
| Category | Shock site, used as a bait-and-switch link in forums and imageboards[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) |
| Notoriety | Grouped with Goatse and Tubgirl as the "Unholy Trinity of the Internet"[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party) |
| Prank form | Telling people to "just type lemonparty" and springing the image and song on them[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party) |
| Mainstream reach | Referenced in 30 Rock, Archer, The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, American Dad, and a 2007 Superbad promotion[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) • [2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party) |
| Later status | The domain was listed for sale in 2013 at $450,000[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party) |
## Origins and site history
The domain lemonparty.org was registered on October 3, 2002, in Canada, according to DomainTools.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) Initially, the site consisted of the pornographic image set to "If You Wanna Be Happy," a 1963 doo-wop song by Jimmy Soul.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) As early as November 21, 2002, the site was updated with a hyperlink to a picture of a cat reading "omfg crazy! Click here to wash your eyeballs!"[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party)
The earliest [Urban Dictionary](https://www.edgepedia.org/urban-dictionary) definition of "Lemon Party" was submitted by user DynamiteRave on August 15, 2004.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party)
**The name.** A satirical Canadian political party called the Lemon Party (Parti Citron in French) was founded in 1987 and was active until the mid-2000s, advocating to make Canada the world's lemon-growing capital. Know Your Meme states it is unknown whether this party is connected to lemonparty.org.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) [Dictionary.com](https://www.edgepedia.org/dictionary-com), by contrast, attributes the name to that joke party, describing it as briefly registered in the late 1980s and promoting a "bitter Canada."[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party) The two reference works therefore disagree on whether the Canadian party is the actual source of the site's name, and the connection remains unestablished. The Russian internet-culture reference Lurkmore offers a third thread: "Lemonparty" sounds like "Lemons' party," where lemon is London slang for an elderly person, fitting the image's subjects.[3](https://lurkmore.media/Lemonparty)
## The bait-and-switch meme
The classic prank involved telling people to visit or "just type lemonparty," which displayed the image while Jimmy Soul's song played in the background.[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party) Because the domain reads like the website of a political party, pranksters could post messages formatted as supposedly political advertising with a real link to the site, and these posts worked well, in Lurkmore's account.[3](https://lurkmore.media/Lemonparty)
The practice became lexicalized. In Russian internet slang the word became a verb, lemonpart'ить (лемонпартить), meaning to leave a link to the site somewhere with innocent accompanying text.[3](https://lurkmore.media/Lemonparty) [Diffusion](https://www.edgepedia.org/diffusion) also ran through reaction formats: Lurkmore notes a trend of YouTube prank-reaction videos in which people filmed their friends' reactions to being shown the site.[3](https://lurkmore.media/Lemonparty) The bait-and-switch link was commonly used in discussion forums and imageboard communities.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party)
## How it compares with other shock sites
A shock site is a website whose purpose is to shock unsuspecting visitors with disturbing content, and Lurkmore describes lemonparty.org in exactly those terms, as a site containing a single image whose purpose, like other shock sites, is to shock.[3](https://lurkmore.media/Lemonparty) Lemon Party was grouped with Goatse and Tubgirl as the so-called "Unholy Trinity of the Internet."[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party)
## Mainstream reactions and criticism
The meme crossed into television repeatedly. Know Your Meme lists a comedy sketch on FOX's late-night Talk Show with Spike Feresten, NBC's 30 Rock in Season 2, Episode 9 ("Ludachristmas") and Season 4, Episode 18 ("Khonani"), and the animated series Archer, The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, and American Dad.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) Dictionary.com adds [The Daily Show](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-daily-show) and a 2007 promotional appearance in which actors [Michael Cera](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-cera) and [Jonah Hill](https://www.edgepedia.org/jonah-hill) plugged Lemon Party while promoting their film Superbad.[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party)
The site also surfaced in a lawsuit. In 2018, electronic musician [Sacha Robotti](https://www.edgepedia.org/sacha-robotti) filed a lawsuit against his former managers claiming they had redirected his website to Lemon Party.[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party)
**Criticism.** By making "lemon party" a mainstream term for elderly people having gay sex, the site drew criticism as homophobic shock humor.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) Some critics have characterized the meme as stigmatizing both elderly and gay sex.[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party)
## Legacy
The term itself was mainstreamed: "lemon party" moved from imageboard in-joke to television dialogue and dictionary entries, while also attracting the criticism noted above.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party) • [2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party) As for the site itself, the domain went up for sale in 2013 at $450,000.[2](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party)
## References
1. [Lemon Party | Know Your Meme](https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemon-party)
2. [Lemon Party | Pop Culture | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/culture/pop-culture/lemon-party)
3. [Lemonparty — Lurkmore](https://lurkmore.media/Lemonparty)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Political systems and ideas › Political parties and party families*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license