What is a polycule? Hilarious comments flood post about 20 person relationship

Move over monogamy or looking for a third... The New York Times recently published an article about a 20-person polycule and people on the internet are wildly confused. It turns out three's not a crowd if you're dating up to 20 people, which is what a group of people near Boston in the US are doing.

As New York Times stated: "Katie is dating Alex. Alex is legally married to Ashley. Chris is legally married to Bine, and Chris and Bine date Alex and Ashley as couples, while Bine has also dated Ashley individually. They are all part of a 20-person polycule."

First up, a polycule?!

If you haven't heard the term before, don't stress. While some of us struggle to get a text back, a polycule is described by dictionary.com as: "A polycule in the polyamory community is a word that refers to all the people in a network of non-monogamous relationships (not being committed to one person at a time). Polycule can also refer to diagrams of these relationship networks."

So basically, it's a connected network of people dating and hooking up with each other. Some may be married, some may be "single", some may be exploring. It could be three, four, five, six-people relationships. And for these Americans, it's 20 individuals all coming together (no pun intended) to foster their own community.

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The New York Times piece upon its release, of course, created some controversy given the rarity and unusual aspect of the polycule.

And as you can imagine, the comments section on the Instagram post about the polycule did not miss.

"Everyone is talking crap but this is the only way to afford a house in 2024 lmao," someone commented.

"Ashley has 4 oranges, Alex’s train leaves at 12:05," one person commented. "Question 5. 'If Bine and Alex cook dinner, but Chris and Ashley don't want any food, and Bine only eats salmon, then why don't we talk about Bruno?' another joked.

"I can barely get 3 friends to hang out at the same time, lol," someone joked. "Who has time for this?? And money? I can barely keep up with one partner," someone else questioned.

"Good night, Marianne. Good night Timmy. Good night Tony. Good night Tommy. Good night Shelley. Good night Paul. Good night Paula. Good night Toby. Good night Richard. Good night Wally. Good night Pauly. Good night Sydney. Good night Ron. Good night Dylan. Good night Rhonda. Good night Sybil. Good night Joe. Good night Archie. Good night Boone. Good night moon," one person said.

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"I had a polycule once on my inner thigh and then I had it burned off," another person said.

Look, we can all laugh, but kudos to these people. I can barely reply to a Hinge prompt.

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