Giga Pudding (Puddi Puddi)

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PUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDI
PUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDPUDDIPUDDIPUDDI
PUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDIPUDDI

Background

Giga Pudding is a make-your-own candy kit manufactured by Japanese toy company Takara Tomy^[1] that was first released in 2008.Prior to its rise on 4chan, the video spread previously through popular blogs like BoingBoing^[2] and social networking sites in October 2010, experiencing a huge surge in search interest.

However, its popularity skyrocketed on the evening of November 30th, 2010, when moderators on the imageboard site 4chan decided to embed a clip of Giga Pudding commercial and a wordfilter across the imageboards, which turned all user posts into an endless sequence of “PUDDI”.

The so-called “PUDDI PUDDI” invasion of 4chan began around 9pm (GMT) on November 30th, 2010, when a mod named invisibro posted a thread in /jp/ board with the video^[3] and referred it to 4chan founder moot. While the song appears to be saying “puddi puddi,” it is actually saying “purin purin,” the Japanese word for pudding.

Development

Wordfilter on /b/

Only a moment later, moot added the referred video to /b/ (random) board^[4] at the top of every page an implemented a wordfilter that would replace every user post with a bunch of “PUDDIS,” leaving everyone no option but to post captioned images instead.

YouTuber Barricade Madness^[5] submitted a video with screenshot of the invasion:

Reaction

Blockaded by the word filter, people on /b/ initially began communicating via subject, but those too were soon blocked by the moderators. Finally, everyone resorted to using images only, and less commonly, the email field.

Many regulars /b/tards also decided to raid other boards on the site with “PUDDI” spams, especially /x/ (paranormal), while some temporarily fled to other boards, such as /new/, to escape from the “PUDDI” craze. Eventually, some users began informing others that the video can be easily blocked by utilizing the ad block browser add-on.

Image Responses

Aided by 4chan’s high traffic volume and the wordfilter blocking all text-based discussions, Giga Pudding spawned hundreds of derivative images and the spam-like comments of “PUDDI” on the site, as well as on other hubsites like YouTube^[6] and Tumblr.^[7] On /b/, people began posting image macros, animated GIF files featuring the cute yellow pudding character as well as well as dozens of mash-ups and remixes referencing other well-known Internet popular characters.

Image Mashups

Video Derivatives

Several videos of parodies and versions as well as people eating Giga Pudding appeared on youtube. Other people seemed invested in letting it evolve in a similar direction to rickrolling. Time will tell what will become of this interesting and many-faceted meme. The 4chan terror ended at around 21:40 (GMT) on December 1st, 2010, when moot removed the “PUDDI” wordfilter and the embed altogether.

Search Interest

External References