About

Pirate Irony, also known as Piratecore or There Be Treasure, refers to a series of videos on TikTok and elsewhere that use Hood Irony adjacent visuals to show chaotic scenes that are pirate related, predominantly using free-to-download backgrounds and greenscreen silhouettes. The trend evolved from Casino Irony (also known as Gamblecore) and Hood Lobotomy which use low-quality and moldy shitposts. Many of the Pirate Irony videos used pirate talk sound effects, like a pirate saying, "There be treasure!" among others like "Arg" or doubloon noises.

Origin

On March 8th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @nokia95015 posted a video that stemmed from their history of Gamblecore videos and instead made a Hood Irony adjacent video that used pirate visuals such as greenscreen silhouettes fighting, gold doubloons, treasure chests and a pirate ship sailing. The video also used many free-to-download sound effects such as a pirate shouting "There be treasure!" and the SpongeBob SquarePants rendition of the song "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?"^[2] Over the course of one month, the video gained roughly 436,500 plays and 99,800 likes (shown below).

"There Be Treasure" Sound Effect

The "There Be Treasure" sound effect used in the aforementioned video was surfaced from the YouTube^[3] video "Pirate Sound Effect – 11 Version" from the channel Sound Effect Database and was uploaded on October 13th, 2021. At the 0:08-minute mark of the video, a male pirate voice says, "There be treasure!" (shown below).

Spread

On March 19th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @swashbuckler601 posted the first-known addition to the Pirate Irony aesthetic, gaining over 8,500 plays and 800 likes in one month (shown below, left). On March 20th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @swashbuckler601 uploaded another video of similar quality, gaining over 8,600 plays and 950 likes in one month (shown below, right).

On March 29th, 2023, Twitter ^[6] user @kickfliptomboys tweeted TikToker^[1] @nokia95015's original video, pairing it with a caption that made fun of One Piece fans by likening the video to episode 30 of the pirate related anime. The tweet gained roughly 4,600 likes in two weeks (shown below).

One piece fans: it has a slow star but you'll definitly be hooked by episode 30Episode 30: pic.twitter.com/YFrC6aNH2D

— fIootz (@kickfliptomboys) March 29, 2023

On April 4th, 2023, iFunnyer ^[7] @ghoss reposted the contents of Twitter^[6] user @kickfliptomboys' tweet, earning roughly 11,400 smiles in eight days. In turn, the trend spread back to TikTok^[8] as more Pirate Irony videos surfaced, gaining more engagement than the originals.

Related Memes

Gamblecore / Casino Irony

Gamblecore, also known as Casino Irony, refers to a genre of video memes similar to Pirate Irony that use low-quality footage and graphics related to online and real-life gambling in order to satirize gambling addiction, similar to the precursor Keep Gambling meme. Gamblecore videos appeared on TikTok in early 2023, building on aesthetics started by Hood Irony and Silhouette Irony. The videos included ear-rape audio and alluded to winning lots of money, coins and jackpots. Ultimately, the satirization was similar to ironic Drunk Driving memes and mostly criticized the prevalence of gambling streaming on platforms like Twitch, labeling it as propaganda for the gambling and casino industries by emulating crudely made propaganda. The term notably uses a -core suffix, likely inspired by Corecore.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References