About

Cookie Monster Pajama Pants refers to a series of memes about people who wear pajama pants patterned with images of Cookie Monster in public settings, claiming that only the most "ratchet," poor and aggressive girls throughout adolescence used to wear them. The collective idea has been shared online numerous times throughout the 2010s, becoming increasingly popular in videos on TikTok starting in 2020.

Origin

It is unknown where exactly the idea that Cookie Monster pajama pants are only worn by ratchet girls comes from, although appears to be a naturally shared belief by many online. The pajama pants in question often seem to be produced by Walmart. Negative and joking sentiments about the people who wear them have been shared on Twitter since the early 2010s, calling the pants out as a "fashion faux pas."^[2][3] The website "People of Walmart," which shares funny images of "ratchet" people at Walmart, has shared numerous images of people in Cookie Monster pajama pants, including one that was reposted to imgflip^[1] in 2016 (examples shown below).

Spread

On September 26th, 2016, Redditor Jackvishs posted to/r/starterpacks^[4] a "Girl who walks the mile in gym class while eating flamin’ hot Cheetos in Cookie Monster pajama pants" starter pack, gaining over 11,400 upvotes in five years (shown below).

On March 1st, 2019, Redditor Adelu1219 posted an image macro depicting the "my child's the best thing that ever happened to me starter pack" to /r/starterpacks,^[5] ironically showing images of a pack of cigarettes, a Xanax bar and Cookie Monster pajamas, gaining over 11,000 upvotes in three years (shown below, left). On April 29th, Twitter^[6] user @e_sead01 quote-tweeted an image of some Osiris high-top shoes, similarly seen as "ratchet" fashion from the 2010s, writing, "These shoes just walked the mile run with Cookie Monster pajama pants," gaining over 338,000 likes and 61,500 retweets in three years (shown below, right).

On November 24th, 2020, TikToker^[7] @jesssaaaayyyyy posted a video sharing the rare aesthetic of the "ratchet ass middle schooler," including Cookie Monster PJ pants, gaining over 1 million views in a year (shown below).

On December 6th, TikToker^[8] @averybrynn1 posted a video asking anyone who used to wear the pajama pants in public back in the day why they used to do that (shown below, left). On January 28th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @acidwurld posted a lip dub video joking about having to deal with wearers of the pants with a gun, gaining over 6,000 views in a week (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References