About

Honk Shoo / Mimimi are onomatopoeias of snoring popularized by television cartoons, particularly in the early and mid-20th century. In the 2020s, the terms became popularized in memes, with many jokes pitting the two against each other and referencing the sound effects from old cartoon shows.

Origin

In cartoons, particularly from the early and mid-20th century, sleeping characters were often depicted making exaggerated snoring sounds, which are often written out as "honk shoo" and "honk mimimi" (1952 episode of Popeye shown below, left, clip from Hercules shown below, right).

On February 26th, 2020, Tumblr user eliteknightcats^[1] responded to a post by moisturiser noting they slept like "snrrrk mimimi." The post gained over 5,000 notes (shown below).

Spread

Jokes featuring the terms "honk shoo" and "mimimi" began appearing with more regularity in late 2021 and early 2022. On September 29th, 2021, iFunny user happyOkbuddyretard^[3] posted a Drake the type of MF meme about Drake snoring, gaining over 26,000 likes (shown below, left). On December 5th, 2021, Twitter user @mavsplaniamania^[2] tweeted, a male urge joke reading, "The male urge to go to sleep in a nightcap and nightgown and snore like honk shoo honk shoo until being awoken by a noise and investigating with a little candle holder," gaining over 1,100 retweets and 9,000 likes (shown below, right).

On February 22nd, 2022, Twitter user @hog_mild^[4] tweeted an Inside you are two wolves joke featuring the snoring, gaining over 7,500 retweets and 68,000 likes (shown below, left). An image macro variation featuring the quote began circulating on social media shortly after (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References