Have you ever looked at a spitting cobra, firing venom at their enemies from their fangs in self-defense, and thought “I wish humans can do that”? No? Well, it turns out humans have our own sort of projectile attack, which, while it won’t strike down our enemies, will leave them pretty grossed out nonetheless.
“Gleeking”, as it has become termed, involves firing saliva out of the underneath of your tongue.
“Gleeking is when an individual is able to squirt spit out of the mouth causing amazement if not disgust from surrounding people. This salivary spray comes out from Wharton’s duct which is an opening located under the tongue tip that drains the submandibular glands located under the jawline,” Fauquier ENT of Virginia explains in a blog post.
“This duct opening normally is about 0.5mm in diameter… very small! The channel that carries saliva to this opening is about 4mm in size.”
While gleeking can happen involuntarily, particularly whilst yawning, it is possible to do it on command, as a recent trend of TikTok videos has shown.
To gleek on command, according to a number of videos and how to guides, all you need to do is generate saliva by yawning, sucking on a sour candy, or having a drink. You then place your tongue’s tip on the roof of your mouth, and push your lower jaw forward towards your intended target, while flexing your tongue as hard as you can (of course, within comfort – you don’t want to explain to any medical professionals how you injured yourself while trying to gleek).
With practice, you may be able to do it. Once you have mastered it, please stop. It’s pretty gross.
