What is Kirby With A Knife?

It is an image and reaction format built around a photo of a plush Kirby doll holding a small kitchen knife, first posted to iFunny in June 2018.

Where did Kirby With A Knife come from?

iFunny user ZERO posted the plush image on June 6, 2018 with a caption about someone standing outside their place, and Twitter user @lizardladie boosted it two days later on June 8, 2018.

What does Kirby With A Knife mean?

It plays on the gap between Kirby's cute Nintendo design and the weapon in his hand, usually framing him as an intruder outside your door or an oddly loyal friend ready to hurt someone for you.

How do you use Kirby With A Knife?

Pair the plush photo or a Kirby-with-knife drawing with a caption from a scared narrator or in Kirby's voice, often in a doorway or dim-lit setting to keep the horror-comedy tone.

Is Kirby With A Knife still popular?

It peaked in late 2018, with @Kiburuzu's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate edit clearing 51,000 likes on November 1, 2018, and has stayed a niche Kirby fandom staple in fan art and reposts since.

Kirby With A Knife

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Published September 4, 2026

Kirby With A Knife is an image and reaction format built around a photo of a plush Kirby doll clutching a small kitchen knife, first posted to iFunny in June 20181. Within days it jumped to Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, where fan art and edits recast the wide-eyed pink puffball as a menacing home intruder, spawning one of the stickier Kirby fandom jokes of the year.

kirby memes nintendo memes reaction memes fan art memes 2018 memes

Overview

The image itself is a soft pink Kirby plush gripping a kitchen knife, an accidentally menacing setup that fans quickly recast as a threatening home intruder or a devoted friend seeking violent revenge on your behalf5. Most edits keep the doorway or dim-lit framing that made the original photo unsettling, with captions written in Kirby's voice or from the perspective of a scared roommate4.

Later fan art moved past the plush and drew Kirby the character wielding knives in game settings, from cozy Dream Land backdrops to Super Smash Bros. campaign shots6. Tone runs from cutesy menace ("Frickles") to horror-comedy, with the joke leaning on the gap between Kirby's innocent design and the weapon in his hands4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

iFunny (source), Twitter / Reddit / Tumblr (viral spread)

Creator

ZERO

Date

2018

The photo first surfaced on June 6, 2018, when iFunny user ZERO posted the plush image with the caption "This guy has been standing outside my place for the past 30 minutes. I've called the police but they haven't showed up"1. Two days later, on June 8, 2018, Twitter user @lizardladie shared the same picture with the caption "APOLOGIZE MOM!!!!!!" as a reply inside a thread about RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Trixie Mattel, giving the image its first real off-iFunny reach2.

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How It Spread

On June 10, 2018, Redditor Dockirby cross-posted a plush Kirby holding a kitchen knife to /r/photoshopbattles, prompting the first wave of edits in the comments3. Tumblr artists picked it up the same week: user puffnet drew Kirby saying "Frickles" on June 15, and on July 3, 2018 user kikosuu posted an illustration of Kirby standing in a doorway captioned "Oh God, he's outside" that hit around 28,000 notes4.

The gag jumped fandoms on July 31, 2018, when Redditor Monikas_Comin posted a side-by-side of the plush next to My Hero Academia's Ochaco Uraraka on /r/Animemes under the title "difference?", clearing 2,200 upvotes7. On November 1, 2018, Twitter user @Kiburuzu photoshopped knife-Kirby into a World of Light cutscene from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and that post picked up more than 51,000 likes and 18,000 retweets, turning the plush joke into a proper Smash reaction format6.

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How to Use This Meme

People typically pair the plush photo, or a drawing of Kirby holding a knife, with a caption written from the perspective of a terrified narrator ("he's outside", "he's coming") or from Kirby himself making a mild threat4. A common convention is to keep the framing tight and slightly ominous, with soft lighting or a doorway shot that plays up the horror-movie feel against Kirby's cute design5.