You may have heard this phrase jokingly in passing — I use it, myself, to refer to when someone passes (as in, “Hulk Hogan bit the wax tadpole.”) — however, the phrase’s origins are interesting, if you don’t know them. Though somewhat hazy and open to interpretation but still somewhat true, here’s what happened.
Coca-Cola did not spend quite enough time translating its brand name into Chinese (at first, at least), and merely reproduced the sounds (“ko-ka-ko-la”), which, in varying dialects in Chinese means a lot of nonsense things, but — must humorously — at least one is “Bite the Wax Tadpole!” (I think the full translation is from “Enjoy Coca-Cola!”, not just “Coca-Cola”).
So, there. Bite the wax tadpole, everybody.