The Beatles JRPG Sweater

About

The Beatles JRPG Sweater is a photoshopped image of The Beatles wearing a giant, four-man sweater with each of their first initials on the chests, reading "JRPG" for John, Ringo, Paul and George, which also stands for "Japanese role playing game." The original 1964 photograph features the initials in the order "JPGR." The photo was edited to read "JRPG" in February 2022 and gained viral spread over the following years.

Origin

In December 1964, a photograph of The Beatles wearing a giant four-person sweater with each of their first initials on it was taken. According to the Harrison Archive Tumblr^[1] account, the sweater was gifted to The Beatles backstage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon by three Swedish fans, who knitted the sweater themselves. In the original photo, the sweater reads "JPGR" (shown below).

“[T]hat giant sweater which was sent to The Beatles at the Hammersmith Odeon when they were appearing in their Christmas Show. The boys liked it so much that they wore it almost every night from then on for one of their quick appearances on stage.”

On April 7th, 2019, X^[2] user @CH4R10T_TV posted, "JRPG is an acronym of the names of the Beatles," garnering over 8,200 likes in five years. On February 23rd, 2022, X^[3] user @ErikSheader posted a photoshop of the image rearranging The Beatles members so their sweater reads "JRPG," writing, "The Beatles are gamers!?" garnering over 58,000 likes in two years (shown below). In a comment, the user admits the image is photoshopped, writing, "f I knew this was going to get 25k likes I would of spent more than 5min on the photoshop 😅"

Spread

The photoshop and memes using the photoshop gained viral spread over the following years. On March 2nd, 2022, the post by @ErikSheader was posted to /r/CuratedTumblr,^[4] garnering over 2,500 upvotes in two years. On October 12th, X^[5] user @gommunisd posted the photoshop, writing, "What did they know," garnering over 60,000 likes in just over a year (shown below). That day, the image was also posted to /r/beatlescirclejerk^[6] and /r/gaming,^[7] garnering over 1,400 upvotes each in the same span of time.

On February 21st, 2024, X^[8] user @gizzverse posted the photoshop without context, garnering over 38,000 likes in a day. That day, X^[9] user @LiamBeUponYe quote reposted it, writing, "Love the Beatles…. Jingo Ringo Pingo and Gingo," garnering over 7,900 likes in a day (shown below, left). Later that day, X^[10] user @VivaDaRevo posted a photoshop replacing the "J" with the words "Super Mario", making the sweater read "Super Mario RPG", garnering over 8,900 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References