Zlarping

About

Zlarping is an internet slang term referring to the act of roleplaying as a Dragon Ball Z character on Twitter, now X, often as ironic parodies of a character from the franchise who has a disease or non-characteristic attribute. The trend became increasingly popularized on X around October 2022 and gained more viral attention in October 2023 when several tweets using the phrase went viral. The term "zlarping" is sometimes used loosely in reference to X users who roleplay as characters from franchises outside of Dragon Ball Z.

Origin

The exact origins of the term "zlarping" are unclear, however, some of the earliest posts relating to it appeared on X in October 2022. One of the earliest zlarping related account appears to be X^[1] user @evilgayjiren, who first started posting on the app on October 6th, 2022. The earliest known use of the term "zlarp" was posted to X^[2] by @crillerz_ on October 20th, 2022, writing, "can we get #ZLarpers4Ever #1 on trending," garnering around 10 likes in a year.

Spread

Numerous zlarpers have appeared on X^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} throughout late 2022 and 2023, including accounts like @KamiCantFap aka Casual Racist Kami, @evilgayjiren, @krillkins aka EVIL Drip Krillin, @gokumukbang aka Mukbang Goku, @Pokepandas1 aka Celiac Disease Fertil Cell and @imadrunkdriver aka schizophrenic alcoholic goku. On January 20th, 2023, "zlarping" was defined on Urban Dictionary,^[11] garnering over 30 thumbs-ups in nine months.

On September 30th, X^[3] user @krillkins, aka EVIL Drip Krillin, posted a meme captioned, "how it feels to be a zlarper," garnering over 690 likes in a week. On October 2nd, X^[4] user @NotThe9Maes quote-reposted the meme, writing, "Fun fact I've lost 30 pounds since I've stopped zlarping," garnering over 11,800 likes in a week (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References