Poppy

About

Poppy is an American singer-songwriter who has garnered internet fame for her innocent, childlike appearance and a series of avant-garde monologues and music videos on YouTube.

Online History

In November 2014, the ThatPoppy YouTube channel was launched, which features footage of Poppy delivering strange monologues in a series of videos produced by artist Titanic Sinclair.^[5] The first video uploaded to the channel features footage of Poppy eating a stick of cotton candy (shown below, left). On December 3rd, a video titled "My Phone Is Not Plugged In," featuring several short skits of Poppy alone in a room with a guitar and rotary telephone (shown below, right).

On January 6th, 2015, Poppy published a video in which is shown repeating the phrase "I'm Poppy" for 10 minutes (shown below, left). On July 24th, the ThatPoppyVEVO channel released the music video for her song "Lowlife" off her debut EP Bubblebath (shown below, right).

On August 18th, Poppy published a video in which she introduces a dog to her audience, pronouncing the word "dog" as "doge" (shown below, left). On November 9th, a video titled "young girl makes crazy video on YouTube" was uploaded to Poppy's YouTube channel, in which she thanks her fans and mocks internet clickbait headlines (shown below, right).

On December 15th, Poppy released a short video titled "Everyone was a Baby Once," in which she delivers a strange monologue about the internet, music and living on planet Earth (shown below, left). On May 4th, 2016, Poppy posted a video to YouTube titled "I love the internet so much," in which she discusses her use of various web applications while ominous music is heard playing in the background (shown below, right).

Mars Argo Controversy

On September 12th, 2016, YouTuber Yoel Rekts ! uploaded a video titled "Mars Argo Explained For That Poppy Fans," explaining how Titanic Sinclair and YouTuber Mars Argo created similar videos to Poppy in the past (shown below).

On April 17th, 2018, TMZ^[10] reported that Mars Argo filed a lawsuit^[11] against Poppy and Titanic Sinclair for alleged copyright infringement and emotional distress, accusing the pair of creating Poppy as a knockoff of the Mars Ago character. That day, YouTuber Repzilla uploaded a video discussing the return of Mars Argo (shown below). In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the lawsuit, including AltPress,^[12] The Wrap^[13] and The Daily Dot.^[14]

On May 7th, Poppy issued a statement about the lawsuit, accusing Mars Argo of orchestrating a "publicity campaign" (shown below).

On September 14th, 2018, the lawsuit against Poppy and Titanic Sinclair was dismissed by Judge Manuel L. Real, with court documents revealing that Mars Argo reached a "settlement in principle" with the defendants:

"The court having been advised by the counsel for the parties that the above-entitled action has been settled; it is therefore ordered that this action is hereby dismissed without costs and without prejudice to the right."

Social Media Presence

In January 2011, Poppy created the @thatPoppy Twitter^[1] feed, accumulated more than 12,300 followers in five years. On November 4th, 2014, the That Poppy Facebook^[2] page was launched, gathering upwards of 11,600 likes in the next two years. On July 6th, 2015, the @thatpoppy Instagram^[4] feed was created, which gained over 30,700 followers in one year.

Interviews

On November 23rd, 2015, the TTFMagTv YouTube channel uploaded an interview with Poppy, in which she discussed the meaning behind her stage name and described her visual aesthetic as "Barbie, kawaii child" (shown below, left). On March 1st, 2016, the 92.3 AMP Radio YouTube channel posted an in-studio interview with Poppy, in which she spoke about herself in the third person and revealed that she is vegan and does not smoke marijuana (shown below, right). On March 3rd, the music blog IHeartRadio^[7] published an interview with Poppy, in which she discussed her YouTube videos made with Titanic Sinclair.

Reception

On April 11th, 2016, the fashion blog Racked^[6] published an article about Poppy titled "Parsing the Aesthetics of That Poppy, Pop Singer and Internet Enigma." On May 19th, Redditor Topher1999 submitted the "Everyone was a Baby Once" video to the /r/DeepIntoYouTube^[3] subreddit, where it received more than 650 votes (90% upvoted) and 120 comments in the first 24 hours.

I'm Poppy

On January 22nd, 2018, the trailer for Poppy's YouTube Red original show I'm Poppy was released (shown below). The following day, the show premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In the show, Poppy abandons the internet to explore the real world, encountering cults, fans, villains and her battling her rival mannequin, Charlotte.

On January 24th, The Verge^[9] published a review of the show by writer Adi Robertson, who claimed I'm Poppy did not "have the hypnotic, ambiguous simplicity that many of Poppy's videos do." On February 6th, The Cut^[8] published an article about the new show titled "Poppy Might Just Be the Warhol of the YouTube Era."

Search Interest

External References