Smoking Caterpillar / Krater

About

Smoking Caterpillar, also known as Krater, refers to a green caterpillar smoking a cigarette on a branch that became a known as a "Pic That Goes Hard" in relation to the This Pic Goes So Hard, Feel Free To Screenshot trend in late 2021. The image macro was used in multiple memes and videos across iFunny, Twitter and TikTok and became known as a character named "Krater" in late 2021 due to a YouTube video.

Origin

The image of the green caterpillar smoking a cigarette originates from the digital art website CG Society,^[1] uploaded by user and artist Onur3d on December 27th, 2014. They titled it, "Cartoon Caterpillar," and earned two comments in eight years (shown below).

Spread

The caterpillar didn't receive meme attention until late 2021 amid the "This Pic Goes So Hard, Feel Free To Screenshot" trend that started on iFunny in August of that year. On October 13th, 2021, Twitter user jerberd posted a reply that included a cropped image of the caterpillar. Twitter^[2] user JulianVN2000 then replied to jerberd, stating, "This goes hard as fuck. Can I screenshot this?" earning roughly 1,700 likes in six months. Although jerberd's tweet has since been deleted, a screenshot of the discourse was reposted to Tumblr^[3] on October 13th by the blog rockbusted who earned roughly 4,000 notes in six months (shown below).

On October 20th, 2021, iFunnyer^[4] LunarAntic_I_Quit_iF posted an Impact font meme that used the caterpillar smoking, referencing Hard Times Create Strong Men but in the context of wiping ones own behind. The meme earned roughly 8,900 smiles over the course of six months (shown below, left). On December 19th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user whotfisjovana posted a Whisper meme that capioned the image with, "men after they shave," earning roughly 2,700 likes in four months (shown below, right).

Krater

On November 14th, 2021, YouTuber^[6] Jefe posted a video titled, "Krater," that combined multiple, exploited images of the smoking caterpillar into one, shitpost style video. It used audio taken from a Russian documentary^[7] and included one particular still of an exploited Tinder profile that named the caterpillar "Krater." Over the course of five months, the video earned roughly 1,400 views (shown below).

More videos surfaced on YouTube that referenced the caterpillar as "Krater." For instance, on November 15th, YouTuber^[8] FuryDoodz posted a ten-minute video of the caterpillar paired with dubstep music, gaining roughly 9,500 views in five months (shown below).

Spread to TikTok

Starting in early 2022, the smoking caterpillar appeared en masse on TikTok. For instance, on January 23rd, 2021, the TikTok^[9] account smoking.caterpillar posted a video that earned roughly 21,400 plays and 1,600 likes in three months (shown below, left). On March 23rd, 2022, TikTok^[10] account smoking.caterpillar shared another video that earned roughly 77,700 plays and 12,400 likes in one month (shown below, right).

Various Examples

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7082179456747588870

Search Interest

External References