Force of impact – Light taps are unpleasant, but a strong strike produces real tissue damage and higher perceived pain.
Preparedness – Being aware a kick is coming can reduce perceived pain; being blindsided intensifies it.
Emotional state – Anxiety or fear can amplify the sensation, while confidence or distraction can reduce it.
Interestingly, scientists often compare different types of pain, such as injury pain versus labor pain. However, comparing a man being kicked to a woman giving birth is like comparing apples to oranges. Both experiences are intense, but they’re fundamentally different physiologically and emotionally. Childbirth involves prolonged hormonal surges, uterine contractions, and cervical dilation—factors that don’t apply to a sudden kick. Meanwhile, a kick is brief but can produce a sharp, localized shock that is immediately interpreted by the nervous system.
So, while the meme is hilarious and relatable, it’s a reminder that pain is a personal experience, not a quantifiable number. There is no universal scale that can precisely convert a kick into “units” of suffering. Researchers usually rely on subjective pain scales, like the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) or the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), where patients rate their pain from 0 to 10. These methods acknowledge the individual variation that makes memes like “9000 units” funny because they exaggerate what can’t be precisely measured.
Another interesting aspect is the social and cultural context of pain. Studies have shown that men sometimes report lower pain sensitivity in public or social settings due to social conditioning around toughness, masculinity, or stoicism. That means a man might laugh off a kick in front of friends while internally experiencing more discomfort than he admits. The “9000 units” meme could also reflect this cultural expectation—that men are expected to endure extreme pain with a grin, which makes the hyperbolic measurement even funnier.
What’s more, humor about pain helps us cope. By turning a kick into an absurdly high number like 9000, the meme allows people to acknowledge pain while keeping it light-hearted. Laughing about a shared unpleasant experience provides social bonding and stress relief, which actually changes how we perceive the sensation of pain. Essentially, memes about pain do a tiny bit of psychological work—they make the pain more bearable.
