Cover collage of the original 4chan garloid post showing a pale fleshy creature in a sink next to the greentext thread

Garloid

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Published November 9, 2026

Garloid is a nonsense term 4chan posters applied to an image of a man filling a pig stomach with tap water, pretending the fleshy blob is a known livestock animal. The joke caught on after an anonymous /pol/ post on October 31, 2020 warned readers not to feed their garloids tap water because of fluoride. By June 2021, webcomic artist Flork of Cows was drawing garloid cartoons on Twitter.

4chan memes absurdist humor memes shock humor memes urban dictionary memes cryptid memes

Overview

The garloid bit works through confident, uninitiated authority. Posters write about the creature the way a hobby farmer might write about livestock, offering feeding tips and milk quality warnings, while the attached photo shows a gnarled pink mass that reads as an organ rather than an animal2. The humor sits in the gap between the matter-of-fact husbandry tone and the fact that no such creature exists.

A common convention involves mocking anyone who asks what a garloid is. Reddit comment chains under the earliest screenshot were full of users pretending the term was common knowledge and scolding the asker for ignorance instead of explaining it2. Urban Dictionary doubled down on the bit with a fake definition calling a garloid a bulbous, hairy gut that hangs like a sack3.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan /pol/ (origin), Reddit and Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2020

The source photo predates the meme by nearly a decade. On April 26, 2012, Pete, the home cook behind the WordPress blog "The Pete Is On," published a post titled "Weird Crap I Cook: Ponce" documenting a Cajun recipe that stuffs a pig stomach1. One photo shows Pete testing his stitching by holding the stomach under a running kitchen tap, with the opening of the organ engulfing the faucet as if it were drinking1.

Catalyst event: on October 31, 2020, an anonymous 4chan user uploaded that photo to /pol/ as garloid.png with a caption warning other garloid owners that tap water hurts milk quality because of fluoride6. The post is no longer available, but a screenshot titled "Anon deosn't even know what a garloid is LMFAOO" hit /r/4chan the same day and picked up over 250 upvotes and 34 comments in nineteen days2.

How It Spread

Follow-up /pol/ posts kept the bit going by writing about garloids with the same straight-faced confidence. On November 1, 2020, Urban Dictionary user rxicheru added a definition describing a garloid as a plump, bulbous gut that hangs like a sack, picking up over 50 upvotes to claim the top spot3. The same day, another anonymous poster re-uploaded the image to /pol/ with the caption "Biden would make this illegal," and a screenshot hit /r/4chan4.

On November 13, 2020, Imgur user SharronCox posted a cropped version of the man feeding the garloid asking whether tap water or a filter was better, collecting over 1,000 upvotes in seven days5. The image migrated into cursed-image territory on May 29, 2021, when Redditor u/camarang posted it to /r/Cursed_Images and picked up over 6,000 upvotes in a month7.

On June 18, 2021, a Twitter drawing of a garloid by webcomic artist Flork of Cows was shared without context and collected over 1,200 likes in three days8. The art reframed the joke for a wider audience outside of 4chan, since Flork's stick-figure style attracted fans who had never seen the original pig stomach photo.

Timeline

2012-04-26

Pete publishes "Weird Crap I Cook: Ponce" on his WordPress blog, including the photo of him filling a stitched pig stomach under a kitchen tap[1].

2020-10-31

An anonymous user posts garloid.png to 4chan's /pol/ with a warning about tap water and milk quality; a screenshot hits /r/4chan the same day[2].

2020-11-01

Urban Dictionary user rxicheru posts a definition for garloid that claims the top spot with over 50 upvotes; a second /pol/ post adds the "Biden would make this illegal" caption[3][4].

2020-11-13

Imgur user SharronCox uploads an isolated crop asking whether to use a filter, picking up over 1,000 upvotes in a week[5].

2021-05-29

Redditor u/camarang posts the image to /r/Cursed_Images, collecting over 6,000 upvotes in a month[7].

2021-06-18

Flork of Cows posts a Twitter drawing of a garloid, picking up over 1,200 likes in three days[8].

How to Use This Meme

Typical garloid posts caption the pig stomach image with deadpan livestock advice, often warning about feeding, water quality, or breeding conditions. The format also works as a gotcha in replies: when a confused user asks what a garloid is, the common convention is to insult them for not already knowing2.

Frequently Asked Questions