About

"It Hurt Itself in Its Confusion!" is a battle message from Pokémon role-playing video game series, first used in Pokémon Red and Blue. Online, screenshots of the message have been circulated as a reaction image and an image macro in reference to self-destructive actions.

Origin

On September 28th, 1998, Pokémon Red Version and Pokemon Blue Version were released in the United States.^[1] During trainer fights in the games, battle message "It Hurt Itself In Its Confusion!" would appear when a Pokémon hurt itself instead of an enemy while affected by the confusion status condition.

Spread

Although memes referring to the battle message had existed earlier^[2], the first known post in which it was used as a reaction image was created by Redditor tatlo17 in /r/funny subreddit on August 11th, 2015.^[3] The post gained over 750 upvotes in six months.

On June 24th, 2016, Twitter^[4] user @Pokemon_Days used an edited Pokémon screenshot as a joke about Brexit. The tweet gained over 1,100 retweets in three years. On June 26th, 2016, Redditor^[5] piggledy posted a simiar edit to /r/PoliticalHumor subreddit.

In the following years the macro saw consistent use on Reddit. On January 30st, 2019, Redditor^[6] butterdwettoastbro used the macro in a popular post to /r/PewdiepieSubmissions subreddit which gained over 42,900 upvotes, causing an increase in the use of the format.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References