Origin[]
In October of 2006, Youtube user Kajetokun uploaded the first Over 9000 video parodying the Dragon Ball Z anime series.
The following month, Kajetokun created another DBZ video, “The Balls are Inert” from a particular scene involving Piccolo, the Namekian alien, and a story about balls… being inert.
Spread[]
The “Balls are inert” line became instantly viral for a number of reasons. Because of Kajetokun’s popularity gained with “Over 9000”, and the broad appeal of jokes about balls, derivatives were practically inevitable.
Because Kajetokun’s “Over 9000” had such a strong impact on 4chan, “The Balls are Inert” caught on with 4chan as well; as can be seen in this thread from 4chanarchive.org.
Several Urban Dictionary entries were created.
That meme even reached YTMND, although it was not as popular as Over 9000.
Some little presence outside of Youtube[]
The majority of that meme’s fame is confined to Youtube, so in Youtube poops as shown by the non-exhaustive video list above. However, greatly influenced by it, the balls joke can be seen on some other websites as a result.