Gooning
Sexual practice involving extreme edging
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gooning is a sexual practice and subculture associated with extreme edging to the point of achieving a euphoric state (sometimes called a "goon state"), usually while consuming large amounts of pornography. Someone who goons is called a gooner, and may goon solo or with others. Gooners, who are predominantly young men, congregate in online communities such as Reddit and Discord.
Etymology
The terms "gooning" and "gooner" have shown up on the internet since the early 2000s, possibly sprouting from 4chan,[1][2] and are a reference to "goons" from Popeye comics, who are single-minded and stupid characters,[3] or more generally referencing slang for an simple-minded person.[2][4] The name also has been related to the "undignified" facial and body expressions gooners display during their practice.[5]
The terms have gained popularity among Generation Z and Generation Alpha on TikTok and other social media platforms,[6] having their definitions broadened to include elevated excitement of any kind.[7]
History
Gooning as a practice speculatively began on 4chan in the early 2000s, where participants were reportedly mostly masculine gay men.[1][8] The earliest definition of gooning on Urban Dictionary was written in 2005.[2] As gooning spread, it was influenced by the pornography addiction fetish community on Tumblr around the late 2000s, growing to include a wider demographic.[8] Interest in gooning grew more rapidly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, spiking in 2023 according to Google Trends.[9][2]
In 2025, Gooning was named the 2026 Fetish of the Year by Clips4Sale, citing a 151% increase in sales for gooning content since 2023.[4] Goonen, the German language word for gooning, was nominated for the Youth Word of the Year in Germany in 2025, losing to das crazy by 0.2% of the vote.[10][11]
Practice
The goal of gooning is to achieve a "goon state", a state described as trance-like, euphoric, and meditative,[12][2] with one source comparing it to ego death.[9] According to sexuality researcher Jason Armstrong:
Gooning is considered to be that moment during a bate [masturbation session] when porn is no longer necessary, when the connection to the penis is all that's required to reach an almost frightening height of sexual ecstasy.[13]
While within a "goon session", many contort their faces or go slack-jawed and drooling,[7][2][14] and some babble or chant penis-related affirmations,[14][15] which have been compared to mantras.[2] Gooners heavily focus on the penis in sexual activities, which one researcher describes as bordering on "phallomania".[16] Some use party drugs like poppers or Adderall in order to heighten the experience.[3][17] Gooning sessions can go on for hours, up to days in extreme cases.[5][7]
Gooners tend to use pornography compulsively, with the addiction generally being part of the appeal. Some sources define gooning as the fetishization of having a porn addiction,[8][5][18] and some gooners may take enjoyment from being humiliated for their addiction.[9]
Many gooners construct a "goon cave", a room designed specifically for the act.[12][9][8] These often contain multiple computer monitors, on which gooners display multiple streams of pornography simultaneously.[19][9][20] They may also have physical pornographic media such as magazines or posters.[21] Porn music videos are popular among the community as "bate [masturbation] fuel";[1] these consist of hundreds of short pornographic clips with pounding techno music in the background.[9] Gooning may be a solo activity, but many gooners participate in group gooning sessions, often on video call or otherwise organized online.[12][3][15][18]
Gooners congregate in online communities, with gooning related subreddits garnering millions of users[8] and Discord servers hosting tens of thousands.[17][18] Many gooners share memes among themselves, in places such as X, and have a set of shared gooning-related terms and inside jokes.[20] Some gooner communities share "triggers": GIFs or other short form pornographic content that make the viewer want to start a goon session.[16]
A survey of several English-speaking subreddits and Discord servers in 2024 found almost three quarters of self-identified gooners were cisgender men, primarily from the United States and Europe, with over 95% between the ages of 18 and 25; over 60 percent identified as bisexual.[17] In another survey of gooners, 40% said they were sexually active, although the majority identified as "pornosexual", meaning they substitute sex in their life with porn.[18] While gooners are largely male, female gooners do exist, called "goonettes".[5][8][1]
Negative effects of gooning
Overly frequent gooning can lead to erectile dysfunction during intercourse, which is thought to be because sexual intercourse is less stimulating than gooning. In this way, gooners can become reliant on porn to become aroused.[3] Some gooners also report difficulty dating with their fetish, as well as infidelity.[5]
Several gooners have masturbated publicly and ejaculated on strangers (usually women).[19]