About

Pop-Tarts Bowl Mascot refers to a person dressed as a human-sized Pop-Tart representing the Pop-Tarts brand at the inaugural Pop-Tarts Bowl in December of 2023. The character quickly drew the fascination of social media, as the character acted jolly throughout the game but was doomed to get toasted and eaten by the winning team after the game, which happened on live television. This led to a series of memes joking about the existential life of the Pop-Tarts mascot, as well as edits of its antics during the game.

Origin

On November 27th, 2023, Pop-Tarts announced that the inaugural "Pop-Tarts Bowl" game, to be held December 28th, 2023, would feature a live, "edible" mascot.^[1] During the game, played between Kansas State and North Carolina State, the mascot — a person dressed as a Pop-Tart — delighted the crowd with their antics, dancing at various points through the evening.^[2] After the game, the Pop-Tart descended into an oversized toaster while holding a sign that read "Dreams Really Do Come True!" An edible version of the mascot came out of the toaster, which the players of the victorious Kansas State then devoured (video of the moment posted to YouTube by Bleacher Report shown below).

Spread

Throughout the game, the mascot caught the attention of social media, many of whom commented on how cheery it seemed knowing it was bound to be burned and eaten after the game. Twitter user @rodger,^[3] who was attending the game, posted a picture of an interaction he had with the mascot. The user claimed the mascot's handler claimed getting eaten was a Pop-Tart's "dream," and then the mascot force-fed him a Pop-Tart. The tweet gained over 4,900 retweets and 37,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). The same day, user @Ri_S_OB^[4] posted the You Smoke Too Tough copypasta about the Pop-Tart, gaining over 310 retweets and 4,200 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Edits of the Pop-Tart Mascot being lowed into the toaster to meet its "death" also grew popular on Twitter. For example, on December 29th, user @Nick_Castillo74 set the scene to the song "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters, gaining over 60 retweets and 170 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, top). The same day, @ParkerMolloy tweeted the scene set to the end music from Terminator 2, gaining over 240 retweets and 880 likes in the same time frame (shown below, bottom).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References