Butt Poke

About

Butt Poke refers to an artwork by Japanese manga artist Kaisen Chuui which depicts a schoolgirl sitting on a desk, with another girl sliding her index finger towards her buttocks as if intending to poke her. Online, the image gained popularity as an object labeling meme, primarily in anime-related communities.

Origin

On April 20th, Japanese manga artist Kaisen Chuui (開栓注意) posted an artwork depicting a schoolgirl in a shirt skirt sitting on an edge of a desk, with another girl sliding a finger towards her buttocks as if intending to poke her (shown below, left).^[1][2] The image depicts an activity known as kanchō, a prank popular in Asian countries that involves poking an unsuspecting victim's anus. The post received over 10,400 retweets and 37,900 likes on Twitter and over 649,900 views and 54,700 likes on Pixiv. On Twitter, a second artwork showing the first girl reacting to being poked was also included (shown below, right).

On May 8th, 2018, Redditor KmanTheMan posted the earliest known meme based on the template to /r/animemes subreddit, receiving over 4,100 upvotes in six months (shown below).^[3]

Spread

In the following days, the format received further spread in /r/animemes subreddit. A May 9th, 2018, post by @lolifox_a received over 2,200 upvotes in six months (shown below, left).^[4] A May 10th post by Redditor XitBoy gained over 1,500 upvotes in the same period (shown below, right).^[5]

In the following months, the format received further spread on Reddit, with notable examples being posted in /r/dankmemes^[6] and /r/HistoryMemes subreddits.^[7]

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References