About

Curous Tapir is an image macro series featuring a photograph of a tapir, a pig-sized herbivorous mammal, peering around a tree with an apparent smile.

Origin

The earliest available photograph of the Curious Tapir photograph was published on the website SuperCoolPics.com^[1] and is credited to Michael Komm.

Spread

Later that year, on July 4th, 2014, the photograph was posted by lolhodor^[2] user Sabalak, adding the words to the photograph, presumably using it as a reaction image (shown below, left).

That month, on July 26th, FakePosters.com^[3] featured the photograph in the form of a Demotivational Poster (shown below, center). In a little over five years, the post received more than 3,800 views.

On May 21st, 2016, an anonymous 4chan ^[4] user posted the image in the /x/ forum. (shown below, right).

The following month, Facebook ^[5] account Shithead Steve posted the image next to one of the Disney character Dumbo. They captioned the post, "This is dumbo before and after smoking crack. Yet another child actor destroyed by fame and drugs." The post received more than 765 reactions, 360 shares and 100 comments in a little over three years (shown below).

On October 18th, Redditor pnewell^[6] posted the image on the /r/ShittAnimalFacts subreddit. They wrote of the image, "Commonly referred to as 'God's Mistake,' the tapir is the result of an unholy union of donkey and elephant." Within three years, the post received more than 2,400 points (93% upvoted) and 60 comments.

Months later, Redditor danielstegeman^[7] posted the image in the /r/photoshopbattles subreddit. Users responded by posting image edits of the animal. The post received more than 6,900 points (95% upvoted) and 225 comments (examples below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References