Early Tumblr was home to a particularly strange form of internet mischief when users could edit the text of reblogged posts, making it appear as though someone had written something they never actually said.

One of the most infamous examples of this prank involved author and YouTuber John Green, whose Tumblr posts were repeatedly targeted by users who altered them into increasingly bizarre versions.

The most notorious edit, known as the "Cock Is One Of My Favorite Tastes Copypasta," replaced one of Green's posts with a sexually explicit copypasta. The resulting post circulated for years and became closely associated with early Tumblr culture, eventually spawning rumors that the platform removed its text-editing feature because of what users had done to Green.

So, what actually happened on Tumblr that fateful day during the notorious "John Green Text Post Editing Scandal?" Let's find out.

What Is The 'John Green Tumblr Editing Scandal'?

On April 11th, 2015, author and YouTuber John Green published a Tumblr post to his personal account titled "On Discourse," addressing a hateful message sent by someone identifying as a "nerd fighter" and condemning racial slurs and other abusive behavior within online communities.

Not long after his statement, Tumblr user @katara then reblogged and edited the post, replacing Green's actual text with a graphic and NSFW copypasta.

Tumblr blog @heritageposts later preserved a thread containing the edited version of a post originally published by Green on his blog, @fishingboatproceeds. The archive identifies the original post's date as 2015.

The incident became closely associated with Tumblr's text-editing culture of the early 2010s. Initially conceived as a blogging website, Tumblr allowed users to edit the text of reblogged posts, and by 2015, users frequently altered posts to make the original poster appear to have said something weird or controversial.

John Green, who had a prominent but increasingly controversial presence on Tumblr, became a frequent target of this practice during that period.

On May 6th, 2015, Green reblogged the edited post with a response. Rather than deleting the altered text, he changed the title to "NSFW NSFW NSFW NSFW NSFW" as a warning and explained that he had not written the text.

Tumblr blog @tyleroakley later reblogged Green's response, preserving the now-deleted thread. As of late 2026, the post had received approximately 266,100 notes.

The incident also became associated with Tumblr's removal of the ability for users to edit the text of other users' posts around August 2015.

Some Tumblr users jokingly claimed that the feature had been removed because of what the community had done to Green.

Where Did The 'Cock Is One Of My Favorite Tastes' Copypasta Come From?

The infamous "Cock Is One Of My Favorite Tastes" copypasta became an enduring fixture of early Tumblr culture, with the John Green incident in particular referenced years later as part of the website's extensive lore.

The copypasta appears to predate its widespread association with Green, as Tumblr user @heritageposts later reported finding a web capture of a Green post edited with the monologue dating to December 19th, 2012.

In discussing the archived post, another user identified the text as having been written by a user named @ehjovan, an account associated with comedian and influencer Jovan Hill, formerly Tumblr user @katara. Hill later identified the Tumblr blog @k1mkardashian as the source of the text.

What Are Some Related Events?

Early Tumblr attracted all kinds of strange and highly specific subcultures, making controversies and online scandals a fairly common part of the platform's culture.

Even by the standards of early Tumblr fandom, however, some incidents stood out for the sheer bizarreness of the situations involved.

HIVliving / Hamilton AIDS Fanfiction Controversy

HIVliving, more commonly known as the "Hamilton AIDS Fanfiction Controversy," involved a Hamilton fandom account that operated between 2016 and 2017.

The account presented itself as being jointly run by two HIV-positive individuals, "Israa" and "Naj," who were described as living in India.

In October 2017, donation links associated with the account were found to be registered to a U.S.-based account, contradicting the identities' claimed residence.

Further investigation reportedly found that the account was operated by a single white American college student who had fabricated the two identities and used them to promote their fanfiction and solicit donations.

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For the full history of the John Green Text Post Editing Scandal, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry.