It’s a ‘bones day!’ Here’s what that means.
How a TikTok, an Emerson alum, and an old pug are predicting everyone's day.
Today is a Wednesday, a warm fall day, and yes — a bones day.
If you’ve spent even a few minutes on Twitter, TikTok, or any social media platform recently, you’ve probably seen a post or two referencing whether today is a “bones day” or a “no bones day.”
For some users, the “bones day” reference may cause confusion and speculation — is it referring to skeletons in the weeks before Halloween? Or the old TV show on Fox?
The answer is neither: Instead, a “bones day” comes from a 13-year-old pug named Noodle.
It all started with a Tiktok, Noodle, and his owner, Jonathan Graziano — an alumni of Emerson College who now lives in New York City. For the past two months, Graziano has picked up his elderly pug to a sitting stance, then he lets go to see if Noodle will hold the position or flop back to bed with “no bones.”
“He does this thing called ‘no bones’ where he takes all of the bones that he is made of — he has many bones in his body — and decides that they don’t work,” Graziano said about Noodle in a TikTok posted in March. “He becomes this sort of flubbery jello angel. I’m just in awe of how much this dog does not like to do things.”
Noodle is now a fluffy oracle for Gen Z and millennials alike: Across social media, people are now using the bones day classifications to determine whether the day will be a lazy or productive one. Like waiting on a groundhog to see his shadow, people await Noodle’s bones status to determine how their day will be.
While the two days have different energies, Graziano said there is no good or bad connotations.
On the “Today” show, he said bones days should be used to complete a task you have been avoiding or take a new risk. No bones days are the opposite: They should be used for comfy clothes and bubble baths.
“No bones doesn’t mean bad luck as much as it just means you have to just take it easy,” Graziano told The Boston Globe. “Noodle is still going to have a great day, he’s just going to take a little longer to get where he needs to go.”
Prior to the daily bones forecast videos, Graziano’s page was filled with other Noodle content, such as pug snores and morning belly rubs. While Graziano mentioned plenty of references to Noodle’s lack of bones, the first daily bones forecast occurred on Aug. 13 (which, by the way, was a “no bones day”).
After the first video — which has received over 2 million views and 423,000 likes — Graziano posted the next video in the series about a week later and continued to post the videos weekly.
The series picked up traction on TikTok over the past couple months, but the bones forecast did not start gaining the massive multi-platform popularity until earlier this week.
On Monday, #bonesday trended on Twitter. A Twitter account was created on Friday called “Does Noodle Have Bones,” and it posts the results of each day’s bones status.
One of Graziano’s most recent TikToks now has over 10 million views and 2.5 million likes — probably because that day was a bones day.
More recently, Graziano has posted bones videos almost daily. When he posts about something else before his daily Noodle forecast, the comment section of his TikToks are now filled with users begging for the daily bones prophecy.
“IS IT A NO BONES DAY OR DO WE HAVE BONES??” one user wrote while awaiting the video.
“Hi so I need a noodle update before I start my day,” another user commented.
The viral videos have gotten the attention of national companies on TikTok such as Toys”R”US, Canada Dry, and Ocean Spray. In one TikTok, a woman claims a lieutenant colonel at the Navy Pentagon started a briefing with addressing whether today was a bones day or not.
“Noodle has spoken…we don’t have to Excel today,” Microsoft commented on a recent TikTok.
“No Bones?” TedTalks commented. “We just got back from a TED Conference, so this is much needed! Thank you Noodle.”
Noodle now has 2.5 million followers and 22.6 million likes on his owner’s TikTok account.
On Wednesday, Graziano and Noodle were on the “Today” show to find out if the day was a bones day or not. Whether it was the national television broadcast or the cheese table Noodle kept his eyes on during the show, it must have been a big day for the tiny pug because Noodle had bones.
“Noodle has brought so much joy to so many people online I cant believe it,” Graziano said on the “Today” show. “This no bones video is something that I would just do as a silly little ritual for us in the morning to check in and see how he was doing and then it took off.”
Graziano added on the show the response has been overwhelming but positive. Since the popularity, Graziano has been encouraging people to foster and adopt dogs looking for homes. He adopted Noodle as a 7 1/2-year-old dog and many other dogs are in the same situation.
“All dogs are amazing and all dogs need homes, but there are some that we know of right now that are dogs like Noodle, oracles, just waiting for someone,” Graziano told the Globe.
So maybe today is the day you adopt a prophecy-telling elderly dog like Noodles.
It is a bones day after all.