Side-by-side banner of two creepy Goofy-style dog mask portraits associated with Jonathan Galindo

Jonathan Galindo

2020scare personadeclining

Published October 17, 2026

Jonathan Galindo, also known as Cursed Goofy, is the name used by anonymous social media accounts that message strangers with photos of a creepy Goofy dog mask and ask if they want to 'play a game' tied to the Blue Whale Challenge. The persona first turned up on TikTok in fall 2019 and went viral across Twitter in July 2020, prompting warnings from parents and from the actual cosplayer whose photos were being stolen. By mid-July 2020, YouTuber Terivent's chat log of a Galindo DM drew close to 200,000 views.

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Overview

Accounts under the Jonathan Galindo name message strangers on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Discord with a 'want to play a game?' opener. If the target responds, chats escalate toward Blue Whale Challenge tasks, which pile on self-harm dares3. If the target refuses, operators switch to threats, usually claiming they already know the mark's address, school or family members1.

The visual hook is a small set of Dusky Sam Goofy mask photos shot in low light, with Canini staring flat into the camera through yellow sclera7. Clone profiles recycle the same images with different crops and filters, which is why DM screenshots look nearly identical from one account to the next4.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok / Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2020

Italian cosplayer and prop designer Samuel Canini, who posts under the Dusky Sam moniker, built the Goofy mask and photo set in roughly 2012-20137. Those cosplay shots sat on his profiles for years before anonymous users began lifting them for scare profiles.

The TikTok account tied to the 2020 surge, @jonathangalindo54, was registered in fall 2019, though the person running it has never been publicly identified7. Clone accounts under the same name soon showed up on Twitter, Instagram and Discord. Canini himself has no connection to the harassment, and he said so on Twitter in early July 2020 after his cosplay got linked to the Blue Whale panic6.

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How It Spread

Public awareness tipped on July 2, 2020, when Twitter user @itsVoxsis posted a thread about the accounts that passed 72,500 retweets and 54,300 likes1. A day later, @lavenderxio shared a video capturing a conversation with one of the Galindo profiles, hitting 1,800 likes and 334 retweets2.

Reddit joined the conversation on July 6, 2020. Thebigyoinker posted a writeup titled 'Jonathan Galindo, what we know so far' to r/SomeOrdinaryGmrs, which gathered 274 upvotes and 159 comments4. The same day, r/OutOfTheLoop ran a top-level question about the accounts, with Redditor thatcakester69 providing the explainer reply5.

YouTuber Terivent uploaded a July 7 video documenting a Discord chat with a Galindo account, drawing close to 200,000 views, 9,100 likes and 2,700 comments3. Canini responded with a Twitter statement distancing himself from the accounts, saying he had never been involved in any Blue Whale recruitment6.

Timeline

2012

Italian cosplayer Samuel Canini, aka Dusky Sam, begins uploading the Goofy mask cosplay photos that later get stolen for scare accounts.

2019-09

TikTok account @jonathangalindo54 is registered, kicking off the Jonathan Galindo name.

2020-07-02

Twitter user @itsVoxsis posts a viral thread about Jonathan Galindo accounts, passing 72,500 retweets.

2020-07-03

@lavenderxio shares a video of a chat with a Galindo account; Samuel Canini posts a Twitter statement denying any involvement.

2020-07-06

Reddit explainer posts about Jonathan Galindo appear on r/SomeOrdinaryGmrs and r/OutOfTheLoop.

2020-07-07

YouTuber Terivent publishes a Discord chat video with a Galindo account that nears 200,000 views.

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Frequently Asked Questions