The Problem With Scripulous Fingore: Misinformation And Memes

Ten years ago, an anonymous 4chan user entered a “draw your favorite Pokémon” thread on /vp/ and posted a crude drawing of a fat blue-and-yellow froglike Pokémon called “Tentaquil.” Googling Tentaquil now, you’ll see a flood of content depicting the creature, from videos of people catching it in various Pokémon games to fan artwork celebrating it. You’ll also likely see the words “Tantaquil is a fake Pokémon” right at the top of the page, revealing a massively creative hoax supported by skillful fan art and labor reinforcing Tentaquil as a genuine Pokémon to anyone without the proper context.

Tentaquil is a prime example of the relationship between memes and misinformation. There’s no particular reason that Tentaquil gained this level of support by the community other than as an act of trolling, used to fool the few who refuse to do their research into the legitimacy of the Pokémon. The desire to troll for reactions lies behind just about every misinformative meme in existence, from the harmless spooky Mario Party DS Anti-Piracy videos to 2012’s potentially harmful #CuttingForBieber hoax, in which people posted photos of slashed wrists on social media, alleging the reason to be that Justin Bieber smoked marijuana.

The difference between these two memes is the potential for danger. Inspiring kids to cut their wrists is obviously horrendous, and although the images were all fake, the news had a field day reporting on the risks of spreading jokes about self-harm. CutForBieber is only one of many similar bad will hoaxes, including the Blue Whale Challenge and the MoMo Challenge. The existence of harmful misinformative memes like this living in tandem with seemingly harmless misinformative memes brings up two important questions: Is there such a thing as a harmless misinformative meme, and should these memes exist at all if they open the door for more serious misinformation to get in?

The questions have been asked before, but they haven't stopped hoaxes like this from happening. Just this month, in fact, a new Tentaquil entered the ring, this time representing the Super Mario franchise. Named Scripulous Fingore the floating gray head with a bulbous finger for poking at Mario.

Fingore strikes an immediate resemblance to yet another fake character from earlier this year representing The Simpsons named Gumbly, shared without context as a new addition to the later seasons of the show. It’s far from a stretch to assume that the former inspired the latter. The very existence of made-up video game characters like Scripulous and Gumbly offers up a very unique set of issues. On one hand, these are fairly obvious memes to a seasoned meme veteran. The design and name of Fingore alone don’t scream “Mario,” and the backstory is suspicious. On the other hand, the hoax is not obvious to everyone else, partially because Fingore’s execution as a hoax is more believable than Gumbly’s.

Fingore is presented as a fully coded but unused asset from New Super Mario Bros., making the existence of the character immediately more believable than that of Gumbly, who likely would have been a much bigger deal if added to The Simpsons. Adding a new recurring character to a show with 30-plus seasons isn’t something that’s done lightly, but unused video game assets are leaked all the time.

Just last year, we finally got confirmation that Luigi was meant to be in Super Mario 64, shocking the web. What’s more, the parody account that shared the original Fingore post, CutVideoGame, in no way indicates that it’s a parody page and produces as high-quality fakes as possible, undoubtedly trying to seem as legitimate as possible despite the often ridiculous posts, including one claiming the Mask Guy from Zelda: Majora’s Mask used to carry a Guy Fawkes mask, or one claiming Meat Boy used to be named Feet Boy.

The posts are undeniably funny, and part of that humor (and the rapid success of the account, achieving over 10,000 followers in under a month) comes from the fact that they’re so authentic to the knowing and unknowing viewer, making fans out of those in-the-know and those who learn about the joke post-confusion. Of course, there will always be viewers who don’t understand or approve of the joke. As Fingore was going viral on Twitter, stringently accurate Super Mario Bros. fact Twitter page Supper Mario Broth made a post confirming that Fingore is not a real character. The comments section is split with users finding the posts funny, but also expressing concerns over misinformation, especially once these posts age and the context is further gone.

The thing about misinformation like Gumbly and Fingore is that it’s relatively harmless to anyone but video game historians. A hoax like this can’t cause any real harm. The worst thing that could come of Fingore is someone embarrassing themselves at a party one night when trying to impress their friend with video game trivia and whipping out an uneducated Fingore fact. It’s also safe to assume that there is no ill will behind either of these memes based on the posts of the account. They’re jokes, nothing but a little trolling, and most of the people participating in the “hoax” post assuming the majority of people understand that.

The people of the internet have fine-tuned their fake news meters and been around memes long enough now to know when things seem off and go into most situations assuming memes are at play. We also have Google and amazing websites like Know Your Meme to assure us of what’s real and what’s not.

An event like Fingore becoming so popular might seem like an example of the “slippery slope” of misinformation at first, but instead, its harmlessness and viral documentation work the opposite way, helping users further fine-tune their BS meters for more pressing hoaxes and misinformation. A simple google for “Fingore” shows the words “fictional” and “hoax” right at the top of the page, from there allowing users to fall down the rabbit hole and enjoy the artistic side of the hoax.

Still a very early and heavy WIP but very happy to share my first ever FNF Week Mod: VS Scripulous Fingore! (From @CutVideoGame!) Not sure when this will be coming but stay tuned! #FridayNightFunkin pic.twitter.com/sloTo2nmQN

— 🃏Joker / Tony 🃏 (@JokerTony612) April 27, 2021

The very fact that Fingore can not only exist but also inspire dozens of high-quality art pieces surrounding it in mere days is ultimately a positive thing for the art community. Sometimes the internet and memes, in general, feel like they’re lacking in art, but memes like this remind us that that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In under a week Fingore has been added to every Mario game under the sun, even being added to promotional art outside of games, the Super Mario Super Show, and of course Friday Night Funkin’. The Scripulous post has also become a copypasta that can be applied to any game, not relegated to the world of Mario exclusively anymore, further exposing it as a hoax. On the scale measuring misinformation and meme, Scripulous Fingore comes in as a whopping meme, needing only a quick Google search – and often not even that – to determine its illegitimacy. Scripulous will ultimately do more good for art and fandom than bad for the world, making it an arguably safe misinformative meme.

None of this is to say that misinformation in memes can’t have a net-harmful impact on the world though. It’s a stretch to say memes directly impact peoples’ opinions on politics or social movements, but it’s less of a stretch to say they open people up to opinions on politics or social movements that they’ve never considered before. A meme presenting misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine, for example, isn’t likely to convince anyone outright that the vaccine is dangerous, but enough of them might push them further down the rabbit hole. Like Fingore or Tentaquil, the existence and presentation of the meme will also likely spark a number of Google searches, and from there the viewer can inform themselves better.

The only problem is there’s a lot more at stake when doing your own research on the COVID-19 vaccine and its potential harm than with the existence of a new character in Mario, and a much more broad range of misinformation. Asking Google whether the vaccine is safe immediately brings up articles claiming it is, but when you consider the addition of “fake news” culture adding to the mistrust of mainstream news sources, in many areas fueled by even further misinformation, things get a bit tangled in the misinformation web, unsure who to trust or where to look. There are no arguments about the legitimacy of Fingore: It’s an open-and-shut case of a fan-supported troll turned artistic movement. If you ask social media about the vaccine, you’ll find that’s not the case.

If time tells us anything, it’s that it’s all but impossible to put a cap on misinformation, especially when that misinformation is coming from memes. This is only becoming more true with the rise of deepfakes, pulling us in a whole new confusing direction. The internet is swimming with lies, and it’s up to each individual to determine what to believe. The best we can do is continue to document these things when they pop up and make them as easily debunkable as possible, and encourage everyone to liberally Google anything that seems remotely suspicious.

Fingore and Gumbly can easily be seen as negative because of misinformation, but they can just as easily be viewed as a positive artistic outlet disguised as misinformation, almost like a misinformation parody. The key is to pick your battles carefully, understand where that comfortable balance between misinformation and memes lies, and go into everything assuming there are memes afoot.

---

Meme Insider is a Know Your Meme publication and the world's leading internet culture magazine. Find out how to get your first print copy for free, and check out the Meme Insider website for more info.