Look Upon The Hairy-Legged Toad, Ye Unfortunate Souls

In March of this year, the internet was horrified when it saw Kirby remove his shoes and reveal grotesquely human feet.

Et si en fait c'était ses pantoufles, à #Kirby… pic.twitter.com/CLz24x8n7i

— Marie Blue (@MarieBlue05) March 17, 2017

The piece by @MarieBlue05 was arguably the most disturbing piece of SFW Nintendo fan art to exist.

Until now.

In April, Patrick Gill of Polygon tweeted at Nintendo of America with an image of Toad--sweet, innocent Toad, helper of Mario and maker of goofy noises--with hairy human legs. He did this with one request: Please Retweet.

@NintendoAmerica Hey nintendo. Big fan of the games. Toad is my favorite character. Please retweet. pic.twitter.com/BwsMdBd5Sa

— Patrick Gill (@Pizza_Suplex) April 7, 2017

Now, if Nintendo had simply honored Gill's request, it would have been a funny, silly moment that we could all chuckle at. Instead, Nintendo ignored the tweet, and a full fledged campaign began.

On the day of Gill's tweet, he launched a YouTube series on Polygon's channel called "Please Retweet," which updates weekly on his efforts to get Nintendo to retweet the hairy-legged Toad. At the time of writing, there are currently 12 episodes in Gill's series, each filled with him trying new ways to get Nintendo to retweet the Toad.

The movement has attracted followers. Gill's videos receive hundreds of thousands of views and his repeated efforts to get the coveted RT have gained thousands of retweets themselves. Inspired followers have even created variations on Gill's Toad to show their support.

Please, retweet this good Toad. pic.twitter.com/lRb1bBuPbR

— Marcos Lopez (@marcoscrislop) June 11, 2017

@Pizza_Suplex It 'wood' be nice if Nintendo retweeted a nice picture of toad. Here's a wood engraved boy to help your cause pic.twitter.com/ZpmTAWS1Q1

— Katy Koetting (@KatyKoetting) May 16, 2017

🍄Mountain ToadCore🍄NintendoAmerica</a><br><br>BoxArt by <a href="https://twitter.com/SethHay">SethHay ❤️

MORE #CustomAmiibo & #NerdyDIYhttps://t.co/YBM96iCidM pic.twitter.com/ma66r1yiHw

— GandaKris EVO (MissGandaKris) July 12, 2017

For their part, Nintendo (or at least whoever runs Nintendo's Twitter) seems aware of Gill's efforts and are cheekily denying him the satisfaction of the retweet. In May, they trolled Gill by copying the wording from one of his pleas but retweeted an unedited Toad.

@NintendoAmerica it sure would make me hoppy if you put the RT in ribbit and retweeted my toad. pic.twitter.com/1rt9DnOxdx

— Patrick Gill (@Pizza_Suplex) May 15, 2017

It sure would make us 'hoppy' if you put the RT in ribbit and retweeted our Toad! pic.twitter.com/VKrrB45P0F

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 15, 2017

At this point, so long as Gill keeps up his quest, his journey will likely only gain more supporters, and timelines everywhere will continue to be cursed with blasphemous, hairy-legged, diaper-wearing Toads. That is, until Nintendo just hits RT. According to a poll from podcasting app, Anchor, 100% of people want them to do so.

Hey so Nintendo should just retweet the Toad, right?

— Anchor (@anchor) July 11, 2017