About

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.

Origin

The episode from the Pokémon anime where the image comes from is Season 1, Episode 10, "Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village" (shown below at 3:05).

The first post to use the image as a reaction appeared on Tumblr^[1] on September 26th, 2018. User popokko posted a scenario with the image and gained over 223,000 notes (shown below).

Sponsored Content

How to transform your kitchen a true heart of the home

By Airport Appliance

Spread

The post began spreading to other websites in the following days. It appeared on /r/MemeEconomy on September 30th, gaining 880 points.^[2] It appeared on Facebook meme page Meme Extreme^[3] on October 2nd, gaining over 3,900 likes and reactions and 4,000 shares. As October progressed, the image was paired with more captions. The format grew particularly popular on /r/me_irl. On October 14th, a post with the format gained over 3,900 points (shown below, left). On the 24th, a post edited to be blurry in order to make a point about the effects of prolonged computer use on eyesight gained over 6,200 points (shown below, right).

The format also appeared on other subreddits and sites. A post on Game of Thrones subreddit /r/freefolk gained over 20,000 points (shown below, left). A tweet using the meme (shown below, right), gained over 42,000 points on /r/me_irl.^[4]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References