About

Pikachu (ピカチュウ) is a first-generation electric-type Pokémon, first introduced in Pokemon Red / Green Version. The Pokémon came to be known as the mascot of the series, having a starring role in the anime series and appearing on the cover of multiple pieces of Pokémon-related media. Its popularity has made it arguably the most well-known Pokémon, and social media users have created multiple memes and art challenges based on the character.

Origin

Pikachu was first designed by Ken Sugimori for the Pokemon Red / Green Version games, released for the Game Boy handheld system on February 27, 1996.^[1] The Pokémon that was originally chosen the be the series' mascot was Clefairy, but Pikachu was ultimately chosen due to its popularity in the anime series.^[2] In the anime, Ash goes to meet Professor Oak and receive his first Pokémon, though he arrives late, and Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle have been taken. Oak gives Pikachu to Ash. Pikachu is cold to Ash initially but the two develop a bond over the course of the series.

Spread

After the popularity of Red and Green, Nintendo released Pokémon Yellow, a functionally identical game to the original games with the main difference that the player's starting Pokémon is Pikachu and would follow the player outside of a Pokéball. This was the first variation in the Pokémon series to promote the inclusion of Pikachu. Others have included Hey You, Pikachu!, a game where players could interact with Pikachu with a microphone, Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu!, and Poképark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure. Pikachu is also a protagonist in the Mystery Dungeon games, appears as a fighter in all Super Smash Brothers games, and is a fighter in the Pokken series.

Due to Pikachu's popularity, the internet is rife with content relating to Pikachu. Searching Pikachu on DeviantART results in over 460,000 posts.^[3] Furthermore, there are thousands of pieces of fan art, gifs, and various other posts related to Pikachu on Tumblr, as well as several single-topic blogs related to Pikachu.^[4]

Detective Pikachu

Detective Pikachu is a mystery game developed by The Pokemon Company and published by Nintendo. The games would inspire a film of the same name, starring Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu.

Related Memes

Give Pikachu a Face

Give Pikachu A Face is an exploitable template with which users can take and create unique faces for the Pokémon Pikachu. The template of Pikachu's head is most popular but some edits have also used full-body images of Pikachu.

Pikaman (Longchu)

Pikaman refers to the disturbing outcome of swapping Pikachu's moveset with that of Ganondorf in the 2008 game, Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Surprised Pikachu

Surprised Pikachu refers to a screenshot from the Pokémon anime of the character Pikachu with its mouth agape, as though it were surprised at something. In the autumn of 2018, the image was used as a reaction image paired with captions where a set-up leads to a predictable outcome that nevertheless leaves one surprised. The first post to use the image as a reaction appeared on Tumblr on September 26th, 2018. User popokko posted a scenario with the image and gained over 223,000 notes (shown below).

Dancing Pikachu Army

Dancing Pikachu Army refers to videos of a dance troupe in large, inflatable costumes of the Pokémon Pikachu. Though widely considered cute, videos of their dances and performances have been remixed such that it appears as though the Pikachu are dancing to different songs to humorous effect.

Fat Pikachu

Fat Pikachu refers to the original design of the Pokémon Pikachu in the Pokémon video game series, which is significantly more rotund than the later, more svelte designs of the character as it became the iconic character of the franchise. The original design of the character has been a source of jokes among Pokémon fans, who later celebrated when the Gigamax form of Pikachu revealed for Pokémon Sword and Shield appeared to resemble "Fat Pikachu."

The original design of Pikachu for Pokémon Red and Green, released in Japan on February 27th, 1996, showed the character with a round figure akin to a fat rodent.^[1] Atsuko Nishida, who designed the character, wrote "I didn’t draw an illustration on paper, but went straight to the computer screen and punched in the dots. Using dots to create the face of this dumpling-shaped creature with no definition between its head and body!"

Pikachu Boner

Pikachu Boner refers to an image of Pikachu from the Pokémon anime under a blanket photoshopped to make it appear as though he has an erection. The picture is generally paired with edgy captions.

Spinning Chair Pikachu

Spinning Chair Pikachu refers to a short clip of the Pikachu model from the Nintendo 64 spinning in a chair. The clip has been used in bait and switch videos as an unexpected punchline and in various other remix videos. On April 26th, 2020, Twitter user @DitzyFlama posted a video remix of Why Do Women Only Like Stupid Jerks with the punchline being a short clip of Pikachu spinning on a chair. The video gained over 12,000 retweets and 43,000 likes (shown below).

Butter Pikachu

Butter Pikachu refers to a series of viral photographs of a statue of the Pokémon video game character Pikachu made of butter found on Istiklal Street in Istanbul, Turkey. The earliest known photograph of butter Pikachu was posted by Twitter user @njstallard on April 10th, 2016. They captioned the post "butter pikachu is my spirit animal #istanbul." Within three years, the post received more than 10 retweets and 65 likes.

Pikachu Libre

Pikachu Libre is a type of Pikachu from the Pokémon series dressed as a Luchador professional wrestler. After appearing in 2015's Pokken Tournament, the design was used as an alternate skin for Pikachu in 2018's Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. The character has also inspired a copypasta about its gender. Pikachu Libre debuted as a costume in the 2014 ports of the third generation of the Pokémon games, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.^[1] A Luchador Pikachu was added as a fighter in the fighting game Pokken Tournament, released July 16th, 2015 in Japan and March 18th, 2016 worldwide. The character reappeared in Pokken Tournament DX on September 22nd, 2017. The design was added as a costume for Pikachu in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.

Pikachu's with "heart-shaped" tails are women in the Pokémon universe. A copypasta surrounding this fact emerged reading "Did you know Pikachu Libre is a girl? You can tell by the shape of her tail." It's possible this stemmed from a August 21st, 2015 article now appearing on Splinter praising Pikachu Libre in Pokken Tournament. Author Charles Pulliam-Moore writes: "In the games, it should be pointed out, Cosplay Pikachu are always female. You can tell that Cosplay Pikachu are female because of heart shapes at the ends of their tails." Another possible origin for the copypasta is a September 20th, 2018 tweet by @SSBUNews about Pikachu's inclusion in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate (shown below).

Detective Pikachu Memes

Unsettled Detective Pikachu

Unsettled Detective Pikachu refers to a reaction image macro of a screenshot of the character Detective Pikachu from the film Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. The meme is a variation of the Unsettled Tom image macro.

Detective Pikachu Dancing

Detective Pikachu Dancing is an image macro and GIF series based on a viral video of the Pokémon character Pikachu from the 2019 film Detective Pikachu dancing. Additionally, some online remixed the video, setting Pikachu's dance to other music. On May 7th, 2019, Detective Pikachu the YouTube account Inspector Pikachu posted a bait-and-switch video of Pikachu dancing for roughly 90 minutes. Within two days, the post received more than 14 million views (shown below).

Cowering Detective Pikachu

Cowering Detective Pikachu refers to a still image from 2019 film Detective Pikachu in which pokémon Pikachu is shown cringing away in fear. Starting in May 2019, the image gained popularity as a reaction image and an exploitable, primarily on Reddit.

Search Interest

External References