Gwimbly Smiling Friends — Gwimbly, a low-poly yellow bird character with pink hair, standing in an alley from Smiling Friends

Gwimbly Smiling Friends

2024cartoon charactersemi-active

Published August 11, 2026

Gwimbly is a washed-up '90s PS1-style video game mascot character from the Smiling Friends season two premiere that aired April 1, 2024. Voiced by co-creator Zach Hadel, his low-poly design, 'ooh, ooh, ooh' victory dance and creamed corn obsession triggered a wave of fake retro game media and Daniel Larson comparison edits within days.

smiling friends memes gaming nostalgia memes character design memes 90s nostalgia memes

Overview

Gwimbly is a Smiling Friends character built as a parody of forgotten '90s video game mascots, rendered in blocky low-poly 3D that mimics original PlayStation graphics3. He is voiced by show co-creator Zach Hadel and is presented in-universe as a has-been hero doing Cameos to make a living3. The bit fans latched onto is his so-called victory dance, where he shouts 'ooh, ooh, ooh' and rambles about collecting cans of creamed corn as the central gameplay hook of his fake old games1.

Within 24 hours of his debut, fans were remixing him into fake game covers2, fake Nintendo DS gameplay footage4 and mock cartoon stills7. A parallel joke thread compared his voice and mannerisms to lolcow Daniel Larson, which turned into its own subgenre of Gwimbly content8.

Origin & Background

Platform
Adult Swim (TV) / X and Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Zach Hadel
Date
2024

Gwimbly first appeared on April 1, 2024 in the Smiling Friends season two premiere on Adult Swim, an episode titled 'Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director's Cut)'1. In the plot, Pim tries to help the aging mascot pitch a new game to the CEO of Insane Groundbreaking Games, who refuses because modern games are 'about DLC and microtransactions' and reveals a replacement robot mascot called Troglor3. The episode closes with Gwimbly and Troglor teaming up on a Super Smash Bros. style crossover pitch3.

How It Spread

The morning after the premiere, on April 2, 2024, Redditor u/baphylamb posted a mocked-up Gwimbly video game box cover to r/SmilingFriends that pulled in over 220 upvotes in two days2. Fake retro Gwimbly media then flooded X across April 3, when @violxiv shared a fake Nintendo DS gameplay clip that hit over 26,000 likes in a day4, while @giacomobonus and @Droilius posted PS1-era concept art pieces reaching 18,000 and 32,000 likes respectively56. On April 4, @SamE8189 shared a mockup imagining Gwimbly as a '90s Saturday morning cartoon, which crossed 10,000 likes in under a day7.

A parallel joke tied Gwimbly to lolcow Daniel Larson because of overlapping speech patterns and on-camera energy. A post from u/passivewithdesire on r/DanielLarson made the comparison the night of the premiere and hit 150 upvotes in a week8. On April 4, TikToker @doobie_123_imalwaysfree posted a 'POV: Daniel Larson' edit of a Gwimbly scene that pulled in over 40,000 views in four days9. The top comment on the Reddit thread noted co-creator Zach Hadel is aware of similar lolcow figures, having once discussed casting Chris-Chan as a grease puddle in an interview3.

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How to Use This Meme

The Gwimbly format typically takes the shape of fake vintage media that treats him as a real forgotten '90s IP: mock DS or PS1 gameplay footage4, boxart2 and 2D cartoon stills7. Comparison edits pairing his mannerisms with Daniel Larson clips are another common convention9. Fans often lean on his creamed corn line or the 'ooh, ooh, ooh' victory dance as the recognizable hook.

Frequently Asked Questions