"You've Got To Be Kidding!"
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About
"You've Got To Be Kidding!" was a quiz game from the PBS Kids website that featured characters from the PBS cartoon series Arthur. The game was used as an exploitable meme which replaces the characters' dialogue, and sometimes the characters themselves.
Origin
The earliest known instance of the game on the PBS Kids website was on September 23rd, 2001.[1] The game involves Arthur and his friends asking various questions, and the possible answers coming from their friends and family (examples shown below).
Spread
The usage of the game as a meme started on Tumblr. On June 2nd, 2015, Tumblr user distinguishedbaloney[2] reposted an edited version of one of the game's questions that was originally posted on Imgur[3] and Reddit[4] earlier that day by Reddit user bungholioCORNHOLIO. The edit involves Binky Barnes bathing with Arthur's mother, Jane Read, and escalating to the point of Binky sleeping in bed with her and becoming Arthur's father. The edit (shown below) received over 100,000 notes in over seven years.
Over the following years, further edits appeared on Tumblr and DeviantArt, usually with characters from other pieces of media. Examples include a piece by DeviantArt user DiamondDestination[5] that used characters from Hollow Knight (shown below, left) and a post by Tumblr user tsuki-tariyo[6] that gained over 160 likes (shown below, right).
Various Examples
Template
Search Interest
Unavailable
External References
[1] Archive.org – PBS Kids Go! – "You've got to be kidding!"
[2] Tumblr – distinguishedbaloney
[3] Imgur – Arthur has a problem
[4] Reddit – Arthur has a problem
[5] DeviantArt – diamonddestination
[6] Tumblr – tsuki-tariyo