About

Not Scary / Scary Skull refers to an exploitable artistic meme in which two slightly different character designs are compared against each other, with one labeled "not scary" and the other "scary." Inspired by an image of two skulls, one with glowing eyes and the other with glowing pupils, the trend gained virality on X / Twitter in mid-December 2024.

Origin

On December 13th, 2024, X^[1] user @Wass_Nonnam posted a drawing of two skull designs, one, captioned "Not scary," furrowing its eyebrow ridge over its eyes glowing red and smiling menacingly, and the other, captioned "Scary," staring directly and emotionlessly with only its pupils glowing red. The post (shown below) received over 11,000 reposts and 329,000 likes in four days.

Spread

Starting on the same day, users on X parodied the image, either replacing one of the skulls or applying the concept to various pairs of characters. On December 13th, 2024, X^[2] user @CapdeRaw replied with a meme referencing Undertale and its character Sans, with the post (shown below) gaining over 860 reposts and 21,000 likes in four days.

Later on December 13th, X^[3] user @AngoDrag0n posted a Five Nights at Freddy's fan art based on the format. The post (shown below) received over 6,200 reposts and 153,000 likes in four days.

More versions of the meme, many of them referencing video games and other pop culture characters, were shared by users on X / Twitter in mid-December 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References