# I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies
I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies is an exploitable four-panel webcomic in which a young girl's wish to speak with a pony is granted by a magical fairy, only for the horse to blurt out something cruel, bigoted, or absurd. Cartoonist Jim Benton drew the original in February 2014, and by November of that year Reddit had turned it into a punchline template for jokes about 9/11 truthers, Hitler apologia, and Allahu Akbar shitposts.
## Origin
Cartoonist Jim Benton, best known for children's book series like Dear Dumb Diary and Franny K. Stein[1], posted the original strip to Reddit's r/funny on February 21, 2014[2]. In it, a fairy grants a wistful girl the ability to speak with ponies, and the first pony she meets asks her 'why are you so ugly all the time.' The post pulled more than 2,000 upvotes at a 95% approval rating before it was archived[2].
- **Platform:** Reddit
- **Creator:** Jim Benton
- **Date:** 2014
## Overview
The strip runs on a bait-and-switch: the first three panels sell the wholesome fantasy of a child getting to speak with a horse, and the fourth panel delivers a line the pony has no business saying[3]. Benton's original had the pony ask 'why are you so ugly all the time,' which set the tone for every edit that followed[1]. Later versions kept the artwork identical and only swapped the fourth-panel dialogue, so the softness of the setup, cartoon eyes, sparkles, pastel colors, made each cruel or absurd punchline hit harder in the blank exploitable that Redditors circulated later that year[4].
## How It Spread
On November 8, 2014, Redditor CloudCollapse uploaded an Imgur gallery to r/4chan containing a blank version of the strip and a set of user edits collected from 4chan's /b/ board[4]. The template took off the same day on r/funny, where Sir-SmokesALot posted a variant in which the pony informs the girl that 'jet fuel can't melt steel beams,' a stock 9/11 truther line, pulling over 4,400 upvotes[2]. Just over a week later, on November 16, Redditor Corruptacy posted an edit where the pony offers that 'Hitler did bring up some pretty valid points,' which cleared 1,200 upvotes[3]. Redditor Nodebunny later ran a version titled 'Be Careful What You Wish For' on r/funny, and IGN Forums member SkywardNord submitted an edit in which the pony shouts the Islamic expression 'Allahu Akbar'[5].
## How to Use
To make one, keep the first three panels of Benton's strip untouched, the wistful wish, the fairy granting it, the pony arriving, and swap the pony's fourth-panel line for whatever blunt, offensive, or off-topic statement you want the horse to deliver[4].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies?
It's an exploitable four-panel webcomic where a fairy grants a girl's wish to speak with a pony, and the pony then delivers a rude, offensive, or absurd line in the final panel[3].
### Where did I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies come from?
Cartoonist Jim Benton posted the original strip on Reddit's r/funny on February 21, 2014, with the pony asking the girl 'why are you so ugly all the time'[2].
### What does I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies mean?
The joke pivots from wholesome wish-fulfillment to a shock line the pony has no business saying, playing the softness of the art against the harshness of the punchline[3].
### How do you use I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies?
Keep the first three panels of Benton's comic identical and swap only the pony's fourth-panel dialogue, which is how Reddit and 4chan users produced their edits[4].
### Is I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies still popular?
Its viral run was in late 2014 on Reddit, where 9/11 truther and Hitler edits pulled thousands of upvotes on r/funny[2], and it's now filed as a classic exploitable of that era.
## References
1. [https://www.jimbenton.com/]()
2. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-wish-i-could-talk-to-ponies]()
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/]()
5. [https://www.ign.com/boards/]()
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