# Gumbly Gumbly, also known as Graggle Simpson, is an internet hoax claiming The Simpsons quietly added a bulbous yellow character to recent seasons. The joke started on Twitter in January 2021, then exploded again in May 2022 when a Facebook post reframed the same image as a Mandela Effect, kicking off one of the strangest fake-canon memes of the year. ## Origin The underlying illustration predates the meme by over a decade. The character, originally known as Yakiu no Oniichan (Baseball Bro), circulated on the Japanese 2channel Nan-J boards from December 2010 onward[6]. On October 3, 2015, an anonymous 2channel user on the /livejupiter/ board pasted him into a Simpson family portrait, producing the base image that would later be reused[6]. The Gumbly identity emerged on January 29, 2021, when a 4chan /x/ poster shared the image with a fabricated backstory claiming Matt Groening designed the character as an embarrassing self-insert the writers refused to use, warning readers never to mention 'Weird Matt' or 'Yellow Matt' to him[3]. Later that same day, Twitter user @SimianJimmy posted a doctored cast photo captioned about a 'hideous new character called Gumbly' and demanded the show be canceled, in a tweet that was later deleted[1]. - **Platform:** 4chan / Twitter (2021 hoax), Facebook (2022 Graggle revival) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2021 ## Overview Gumbly / Graggle Simpson works by pasting a lumpy yellow humanoid with a vacant stare into legitimate Simpsons screencaps, then inventing episode summaries, emotional beats, or childhood memories tied to him[1]. The gag is that no such character exists, but the posts are written with total sincerity, as if the audience should obviously remember him from a late-season finale or a Milhouse-related subplot[4]. Two flavors of the joke run in parallel. The 2021 Gumbly variant leans into fake fandom discourse, with users ranking him among their favorites or describing episodes that were never written[9]. The 2022 Graggle Simpson variant frames the exact same character as a Mandela Effect, with posters insisting an entire universe forgot him[2]. The design, borrowed from a Japanese imageboard mascot, is grotesque enough to make the premise feel plausibly off-brand for recent Simpsons seasons. ## How to Use The typical format takes a real Simpsons screencap, drops Gumbly into the frame via photoshop, and pairs it with a straight-faced caption treating him as canon. Common conventions include fake episode recaps, invented emotional moments ('more of a father to Lisa than Homer'), or Mandela Effect framings insisting the audience's universe is the broken one. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Gumbly? Gumbly is a fake Simpsons character used in a long-running photoshop hoax where users insert a bulbous yellow figure into show stills and invent episodes around him[1]. ### Where did Gumbly come from? The illustration is a repurposed Japanese imageboard character called Yakiu no Oniichan from 2010[6], first pasted into a Simpsons image on 2channel in October 2015 and later rebranded as Gumbly by a 4chan /x/ user on January 29, 2021[3]. ### What does Gumbly mean? Gumbly is a nonsense name coined by Twitter user @SimianJimmy in January 2021 for the fake Simpsons character; in May 2022 the same image got a second name, Graggle Simpson, from a Facebook Mandela Effect joke[2]. ### How do you use Gumbly? Users typically photoshop the character into real Simpsons screencaps and caption them with fake episode summaries, invented emotional moments, or Mandela Effect framings[9]. ### Is Gumbly still popular? The meme peaked in two waves, the 2021 Gumbly tweets and the 2022 Graggle Simpson posts that pulled tens of thousands of likes[5], and it is still referenced as a go-to example of a fake-canon Simpsons joke[4]. ## References 1. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210130034600/https://twitter.com/SimianJimmy/status/1355361555265826816]() 2. [https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=149573730924112&set=a.111833531364799]() 3. [https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/27473704]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gumbly-graggle-simpson]() 5. [https://twitter.com/poloo098/status/1530079991668539393]() 6. [https://orpheus.5ch.net/test/read.cgi/livejupiter/1443878331/]() 7. [https://twitter.com/CalmDownLevelUp/status/1530600572167958528]() 8. [https://twitter.com/RayDibb/status/1355748868605026308]() 9. [https://twitter.com/_Naryas/status/1355548602316288005]() 10. [https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd9RV90vSD2/]() 11. [https://twitter.com/WaterBottleFann/status/1356860030981652483]() 12. [https://twitter.com/TheFunkyStudios/status/1530546286897790978]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/gumbly-graggle-simpson Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library