Gangster Pillsbury Dough Boy

About

Gangster Pillsbury Dough Boy also known as the Pillsbury Dope Boy refers to a gangstafied version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy used in image macro memes. The exact origin of the drawing is unknown, however, it was first used on graphic t-shirts in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It began circulating online as early as 2008 on websites like Blingee. The image received more attention as an exploitable template on Tumblr and Twitter in late 2021. The image and its usage is similar to Gangster SpongeBob.

Origin

Although the exact origin of the drawing is unknown, it was used first on graphic t-shirts made in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Evidence of this can be seen in an Etsy listing,^[1] posted in 2021 from the seller FeelingVagueVintage. The seller claimed that the t-shirt (shown below, left) was from the 1990s. The picture of the t-shirt's print (shown below, right) is the highest quality image of the Dope Boy online which alludes to its origin as a 90s t-shirt graphic.

The first time the image appeared online was in the Canadian forum Nexopia according to a Tineye search.^[2] However, the Nexopia poster has since been deactivated. The earliest, still accessible posting of the image is in a Tripod^[3] blog from September 2012. A Blingee^[4] template also exists online, uploaded by Blingee user prjared4lyf, but the exact date of its upload is not accessible.

The image was also used as a hip-hop mixtape cover. For instance, Datpiff^[5] uploader DJ Marquis used the image for his mixtape cover in September 2014.

The earliest known meme that used the Gangster Pillsbury Dough Boy image was posted by Instagram account @eafloyd2 sometime in March 2018. The exact date is unknown because @eafloyd2's Instagram^[6] has since been deactivated. However, the meme was reposted to Me.me^[7] in November 2018 (shown below).

Spread

The above image was reposted to Facebook^[8] going into 2019, but overall, the image wasn't used en masse until 2021. On July 29th, 2021, Tumblr^[9] user sierraseybold posted a meme using the image, captioning it with top and bottom captions that read, "No I Don't Skateboard / I'm Afraid I'll Fall Down And Hurt My Vagina." The meme (shown below) received roughly 11,500 notes over the course of four months.

On November 28th, 2021, Twitter^[10] user @uncookednoodle replaced the word "vagina" in the meme to read "leg." The meme (shown below) received roughly 165,400 likes over the course of four days.

The above meme's virality inspired more exploited edits on Twitter going into December 2021. For instance, Twitter^[11] user @fembojj posted a version of the meme on November 29th, 2021, that referenced the meme concept Weed Makes You Scared. It received roughly 157,800 likes over three days.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References