About

The Iron Pencil Statue is a recurring obstacle throughout the 1994 video game Earthbound. It is a human-sized pencil that will show up throughout the game to temporarily halt the progression of the main character (Ness) and his friends. The sheer absurdity of its existence has resulted in it becoming a common in-joke among the Earthbound/Mother community to represent an obvious roadblock in a given scenario. In late 2020, the Iron Pencil Statue began appearing in memes as an exploitable where it was photoshopped into various images for comedic effect.

Origin

The Iron Pencil made its first appearance in the 1994 SNES title, Earthbound. it is described as a large iron statue that resembles a pencil^[1] and serves to block off major chokepoints in the game. Upon using the "Check" command while near it, the current main protagonist will say, "For some weird reason a pencil-shaped iron statue is blocking the path." The only method of mitigating the obstacle is to use the Pencil Eraser, which can only be obtained shortly after investing in Apple Kid's scientific research.

It is found in three major areas of the game: one in Peaceful Rest Valley (top), one in the Monkey Caves (bottom-left) and one in the southern island of Winters (bottom-right).

In 2006, the Iron Pencil made a return appearance in Mother 3, a direct reference to its prequel, Earthbound. There are only two Iron Pencils and they both appear in the Hall of Memories level of the Empire Porky Building (seen below).^[1]

Spread

Due to the games' limited player base in the '90s and 2000s, jokes and fan creations about the Iron Pencil were very few and far between. Early instances can be found on the Earthbound fan page Starmen.net, where fans would occasionally bring up fan art of the Iron Pencil (example shown below).

In December 2020, the Iron Pencil Statue gimmick account made its way onto Twitter,^[2] introducing the in-joke to more mainstream audiences. The account regularly creates memes that put the Pencil Statue in other media, often substituting other characters or simply referencing the purpose of the statue (examples shown below). The account gained over 4,000 followers in one year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References