And The Tiger Poster — Tweet from Michael Edwards about still waiting for his Zoobooks Tiger poster after 17 years, with Zoobooks tiger commercial image

And The Tiger Poster

2012copypastaclassic

Published October 18, 2026

Zoobooks TV ads from the 1990s and early 2000s teased kids with a free Tiger Poster you had to call in to receive, and plenty never got one. In April 2012, YouTube channel BravaCentauri uploaded the full commercial, which turned into a copypasta that reached 1.1 million views as grown kids used it to joke about the lost freebie. By 2020, animator SaberSpark was running Bernie Sanders edits begging Zoobooks for the poster.

advertising memes copypasta memes nostalgia memes 90s nostalgia memes delayed virality memes

Overview

The copypasta reproduces the ad narrator's exact pitch, closing with the title line "and the Tiger Poster," which online posters quote back at each other for the punchline1. Jokes center on nostalgia and perceived betrayal, since many kids who called the 1-800 number never received their poster, or aged out of the Zoobooks demographic before they could buy a subscription themselves4. Posts typically combine screenshots or clips of the ad with captions about still waiting on the mail decades later5.

Variations include Bernie Sanders "I am once again asking" edits aimed at Zoobooks6 and short tweets testing whether anyone else even remembers the offer3. The humor lands on specificity: the Zoobooks magazine line still exists, but the Tiger Poster bonus does not, so the bit works as both ad trivia and shared childhood grievance.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (source ad) / Twitter (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2012

Zoobooks animal magazines aired television ads throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, each closing with the Tiger Poster as the sign-up incentive. YouTube channel 90's Video Girl uploaded an older version of the commercial on April 4, 2021, which it dated to 1995 and which uses different wording than the copypasta version2.

The commercial that became the copypasta was uploaded by YouTube channel BravaCentauri on April 29, 2012, and the video reached roughly 1.1 million views over the following decade1.

How It Spread

Nostalgic references started showing up on Twitter in the mid-2010s. On September 1, 2015, YouTube animator SaberSpark posted a short tweet asking whether anyone still remembered the Tiger Poster, picking up only about 10 likes at the time3. Twitter user @MEdwardsVA followed on May 5, 2019, writing that he was still waiting 17 years later, with the post gathering around 53 likes5.

In 2020, SaberSpark escalated the bit by subscribing to Zoobooks for a year and recounting his calls to customer service while trying to track down a poster4. On March 3, 2020, he posted a Bernie Sanders "I am once again asking" edit about the Tiger Poster, which hit around 3,100 likes6. The BravaCentauri upload drew views across the decade, reaching roughly 1.1 million by 20221.

Timeline

1995

One of the oldest known Zoobooks TV ads featuring the Tiger Poster offer airs, per the dating on a later YouTube upload.

2012-04-29

YouTube channel BravaCentauri uploads the full Zoobooks ad, the version that becomes the copypasta.

2015-09-01

YouTube animator SaberSpark tweets asking whether anyone still remembers the Tiger Poster, getting about 10 likes.

2019-05-05

Twitter user @MEdwardsVA posts that he is still waiting 17 years for his Tiger Poster.

2020-03-03

SaberSpark posts a Bernie Sanders 'I am once again asking' edit about the Tiger Poster, hitting around 3,100 likes.

2021-04-04

YouTube channel 90's Video Girl uploads an older 1995-era Zoobooks commercial with different ad copy.

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