About

"Worms On A String", also known as "Squirmles", are small fuzzy worms that are controlled by a string. They gained significance during The Meme Renaissance of Me_IRL of October 2016 and their popularity surged again in the Summer of 2018.

Origin

Squirmles, also known as Wigglees, were a popular toy introduced in the late 1970s.^[1]

They saw a surge in usage in memes coinciding with the Meme Renaissance of Me_IRL, which produced a large amount of memes in a short time period. Following the subreddit turning Bear In the Big Blue House into a meme, the subreddit began spreading memes about Squirmles on October 6th, 2018. The first Squirmle meme was a fake prediction meme saying the next meme of the Renaissance would be a Squirmle. (shown below).

Spread

Memes surrounding the toy quickly grew less popular as the Meme Renaissance of Me_IRL moved onto other subjects. Jokes about the product trended on Twitter nearly two years later. On July 31st, 2018, Twitter user @BombermanHero tweeted "Btw means Buy The Worm on a string.", gaining over 3,000 retweets (shown below).

This led to the creation of multiple jokes and photoshops featuring the character. For example, user @urfavesasnack gained over 154 retweets and 348 likes with their photoshop (shown below, left). User @fresabean posted fan art of the character, gaining over 220 retweets and 500 likes (shown below, right). The resurgence was covered by The Daily Dot.^[2]

Various Images

Search Interest

External References