Who Is 'Kerfuś?' The Polish Robot Meme Explained

Robots and cats are prone to internet adoration, however, when you combine the two into one, beautiful, grocery store robot, you get a cutie like Kerfuś. When the Polish side of TikTok first discovered Kerfuś in their local Carrefour brand stores, it was immediate content gold and spread outside of the country quickly.

But the history of Kerfuś dates back much further than its arrival in Poland. The robot known as Kerfuś is in fact a Chinese robot that has been present in global mom-and-pop shops since 2021.

There's a lot more to know about this wholesome, robotic helper. Let's explain.

Where Did "Kerfuś" Come From?

Kerfuś hasn't always been this cat-like robot's name. In fact, Kerfuś is only a nickname given to it by its Polish fans. The real name of Kerfuś is the BellaBot, which is the name of the robot model manufactured by its parent company Pudu Robotics.

The BellaBot was born in January 2021 in the Chinese city of Shenzen. After promo videos of it were uploaded to YouTube, the BellaBot was sold to businesses in Canada, Spain, Taiwan, Mexico and Russia. In fact, the BellaBot first trended in memes with the nickname Jollibot due to its integration into the Philippines' favorite fast food joint Jollibee.

Why Was "Kerfuś" Named "Kerfuś?"

After the internet forgot about the Jollibot and all of the fan art it generated, the BellaBot was bought by the Polish grocery store chain Carrefour and named Kerfuś by the brand. Kerfuś was first introduced to the public on Facebook in late September 2022. Immediately, customers started uploading videos to TikTok showing Kerfuś. It would greet people in Polish and meow throughout the aisles.

Where Did The "Kerfuś" Memes And Fan Art Come From?

As the rest of TikTok's global audience discovered Kerfuś on their "For You" pages, the friendly robot started earning meme attention, being inserted into multiple meme templates across Twitter, Instagram and Reddit.

Memes weren't the only type of content that surfaced though. Mass amounts of fan art was created, sometimes on the verge of being explicit. Despite the Rule 34 drawings, most of the Kerfuś fan art was wholesome in nature, and even if it wasn't, it was most likely ironically so.

For the full history of Kerfuś, be sure to check out our entry on the robot here for even more information.