About

Blue Lobster, also known as the Blue Lobster Jumpscare or Getting Lobstered, is a memetic character and image macro of a blue lobster, also known as a Cotton Candy lobster, that appears as a jumpscare at the end of viral videos, being a bait-and-switch media trend called getting "Lobstered." Additionally, when the blue lobster appears, a high-pitched earrape version of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" plays. Funny Blue Lobster videos became prevalent on iFunny and TikTok in mid-2022, mostly due to an iFunnyer named mrlobter.

Origin

On November 5th, 2021, Maine lobsterman Bill Coppersmith alerted lobster news outlet Get Maine Lobster^[1] about a rare "Cotton Candy" lobster that he caught in Casco Bay, which is allegedly a "1-in-100 million" catch. Coppersmith along with Get Maine Lobster founder Mark Murrell named the lobster Haddie. Coppersmith and Murrell took a photograph of Haddie on November 5th (shown below). It was used in news articles from Fox News ^[2] and CBS News^[3] in early November. On November 9th, 2021, the Instagram ^[4] account of Get Maine Lobster posted the photo, earning over 270 likes in 10 months. On November 13th, the Instagram^[5] account of CNN posted an image of Haddie, earning roughly 72,400 likes in 10 months.

In March 2022, Get Main Lobster launched an NFT campaign for Haddie called Haddie's Bay Club.^[6]

On May 15th, 2022, iFunnyer^[7] official_awesome posted a video of a man playing the J.S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" on a flaming organ in a convention center. The video received roughly 7,600 smiles in three months. On July 16th, 2022, iFunnyer^[8] Bold____Brash posted a moldy video of a man dropping a watermelon into a pit, and when the watermelon hit the ground below, a pixelated blue lobster appeared along with an earrape version of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" taken from official_awesome's video.^[8] In one month, Bold____Brash's meme received roughly 10,600 smiles (shown below).

Spread

After Bold____Brash's video, other iFunnyers started replicating the bait-and-switch trend. On July 27th, 2022, iFunnyer^[9] mrlobter shared a video that added to the trend, being the first known iteration. Over the course of 20 days, the video received over 940 smiles (shown below, left). On August 6th, 2022, iFunnyer^[10] mrlobter shared another Blue Lobster video, earning roughly 6,800 smiles in 10 days (shown below, right).

The concept of Blue Lobster memes and "getting Lobstered" became a reference in image macro memes inspired by mrlobter's posts and others'. For instance, on August 11th, 2022, iFunnyer^[11] wibberwobber shared a meme that had a caption reading, "Me enjoying a meme before noticing it was made by a fellow named 'mrlobter' (what a strange username)." The post received over 65 smiles in nine days (shown below, left).

Additionally, Blue Lobster memes spread to TikTok in August 2022. For instance, on August 14th, 2022, TikToker^[12] theroadman_ uploaded a Blue Lobster jumpscare video that received roughly 66,200 plays and 10,900 likes in two days (shown below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7131546266038717738

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References