About

Cowering Detective Pikachu refers to a still image from 2019 film Detective Pikachu in which pokémon Pikachu is shown cringing away in fear. Starting in May 2019, the image gained popularity as a reaction image and an exploitable, primarily on Reddit.

Origin

On February 26th, 2019, official trailer two for 2019 film Detective Pikachu was released.^[1] In one scene of the trailer, deuteragonist Detective Pikachu is cowering in fear in anticipation of pokémon Charziard attacking him.

Pika pika?..

Spread

On May 16th, 2019, Redditor JWynnforsture posted the earliest known meme based on the scene to /r/dankmemes subreddit. The post referenced Minecraft video game and gained over 27,500 upvotes within three months (shown below).^[2] On the same day, Redditor AlexSelene posted a template for the meme.^[3]

In the following days, more images based on the format were posted on Reddit, including notable posts in /r/memes^[4][5] subreddit. In July 2019, the format saw a spike in popularity, with multiple notable submissions appearing in several subreddits.^[6][7]

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References