I Herd U Liek Mudkips
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About
"I Herd U Liek Mudkips" is a catchphrase that became popular through its frequent usage on 4chan in the mid-2000s. Variations on the spelling and the addition of “so” to the beginning of the phrase can also be found. Although its meanings are obscure, the phrase is commonly used as an identifier amongst 4chan users outside of the imageboard community, similar to the usage of "The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight" on Reddit.
Origin
Mudkip[24] is a blue and orange water-type Pokemon character who first appeared in the Ruby and Sapphire games, released in the US in March 2003.[25] The phrase "so i herd you like mudkips" originated in early 2005 with the deviantArt group MudKipClub.[1] The account was founded on October 5th, 2004 as a place for users to share Pokemon fanart. The club was not limited to Mudkips, however, as the first artwork[3] depicted the character's final evolution, Swampert. The owner of the community began posting the phrase "so i herd you like mudkips" on other users' comment walls as early as February 7th, 2005.[2] While the motive behind the comments are unclear, the wall messages served as an invitation to join the MudKipClub community.
Spread
Copypasta
Throughout 2005 and 2006, a copypasta story about a boy dressed as Ash Ketchum humping a plush mudkip toy began circulating 4chan.[11] The copypasta story was reposted in 2007 on 4chan[4], deviantArt Forums[12] Playstation Universe Forums[5] and My Confined Space.[6] In 2008, it was spotted on the Naruto Forums[7], eBaum’s World Forum[8], and NeoGAF Forums.[9] The story was eventually added to the Copypasta Archive in February 2010.[10]
Catchphrase
By the end of 2005, a variation of the phrase was used as a nonsequitur comment on Fark.[17]Several YTMNDs[26] with the phrase were also created throughout 2006, with the first[27] appearing on January 21st, 2006. “Mudkip” was first added to Urban Dictionary[14] on January 11th, 2007. Variations on the word included “Mudkip”[15]and “Mudkipz”[16] were also added that year. As the phrase continued to spread across different sites, other creative misspellings of the phrase emerged with “like” misspelled as "liek" and “mudkips” spelled with a z. In 2008, during the Project Chanology protests, many Anonymous protestors used mudkips on their signage[22] or asked other people if they liked mudkips[23] as a way of identifying each other.
Mudkips have many Facebook fan pages, but the two largest[18][19] have over 34,000 likes combined. It is also listed in Shii's Internet Quotations dictionary[20] and there are over 10,000 results for "mudkips"[21] on deviantArt.
Notable Images
Notable Videos
Search Interest
Search for variations upon the phrase peaked in April 2008, do to a deviantArt April Fool's Day prank[13] where all user avatars were changed into Mudkips. "Mudkipz" with a Z overtook the traditional pluralized spelling in February 2009.
External References
[1] deviantArt – ~MudkipClub
[2] deviantArt – ~MudKipClub's comment on ~misuka's profile
[3] deviantArt – Swampert 1
[4] chanarchive via Wayback Machine – Mudkips copypasta
[5] PSU Forums – So i herd u liek mudkip
[6] My Confined Space – Original Mudkips Story
[7] Naruto Forums via Wayback Machine – Internet "Fads" that confuse/piss you off
[8] eBaum's World Forum – Gems From Other Forums (page deleted)
[9] NeoGAF Forum – Explain to me the Mudkip meme
[10] Copypasta Archive – Mudkips
[11] Shiichan – Copypasta (page deleted)
[12] deviantArt Forums – So i heard you like mudkips
[13] deviantArt Blog – The April Fool: Mudkip
[14] Urban Dictionary – Mudkips
[15] Urban Dictionary – Mudkip
[16] Urban Dictionary – Mudkipz
[17] Fark – So i herd you like mudkips
[20] Shii – Familiar Internet Quotations
[21] deviantArt – Search results for "mudkips"
[22] The Anonymous Revolution – SAN FRANCISCO PROJECT CHANOLOGY FLAG
[23] Project Chanology – Account of using Mudkips as identification
[25] Wikipedia – Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire
[26] YTMND – Search Results for "mudkips"
[27] YTMND – So I Herd U Like Mudkip?
Top Comments
Piper
Nov 24, 2011 at 04:37PM EST
Eoks
Mar 01, 2012 at 05:44PM EST