What is Member Berries?

Member Berries are talking purple berries from South Park Season 20 Episode 1, aired September 14, 2016, that whisper nostalgic pop culture references along with racist and homophobic lines while being eaten.

Where did Member Berries come from?

The berries debuted in the episode 'Member Berries' on Comedy Central on September 14, 2016, and the @MemberBerries Twitter account launched the same day.

What does Member Berries mean?

In the show they satirize the political use of nostalgia, using warm 80s and 90s references to slide in racist and homophobic asides, an interpretation Urban Dictionary contributors expanded on at length.

How do you use Member Berries?

Pair a berry image, or the 'member (something)?' phrasing, with a nostalgic reference or a political jab delivered in the berry voice from the original scene.

Is Member Berries still popular?

Member Berries peaked in fall 2016 alongside the show's twentieth season and the U.S. presidential election, with the biggest fan threads landing on r/southpark that September.

Member Berries

2016catchphraseclassic

Published September 6, 2026

Member Berries are talking purple berries from South Park Season 20 Episode 1, which aired on Comedy Central on September 14, 2016, whispering nostalgic pop culture references along with racist and homophobic asides while Randy Marsh eats them. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone used the scene as a read on nostalgia politics during the U.S. election cycle, and within a day the berries broke out of the show into a meme format on Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit.

south park memes nostalgia memes political satire memes catchphrase memes 2016 memes

Overview

The joke works on the mismatch between the berries' cute, giggly voice and the ugly punchlines they deliver, so screencaps and quote images all run on that contrast1. Common variants graft a berry onto another nostalgic character or borrow the show's 'member when' cadence to riff on Harambe, old cartoons, and 90s video games3.

Urban Dictionary's early entry defined the berries as 'tasty morsels of organic nostalgia,' which captures how fans used the format as shorthand for reflexive throwback culture2. The template is loose enough that any image plus a 'Member (thing from the past)?' caption reads as a Member Berries joke.

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Origin & Background

Platform

South Park (Comedy Central) / Twitter and Tumblr (viral spread)

Creator

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Date

2016

South Park's twentieth season premiered on Comedy Central on September 14, 2016, with the episode 'Member Berries,' showing Randy Marsh eating a bowl of talking purple berries that reminisce about Chewbacca and Reagan before pivoting to lines about fewer Mexicans and gay marriage being illegal1. The episode dropped in the middle of the 2016 U.S. presidential race, and fans and critics read the berries as a jab at nostalgia-driven politics, a reading Urban Dictionary contributors expanded on at length2.

How It Spread

The same night the episode aired, the @MemberBerries Twitter account launched with posts written in the berry voice4, and a Member Berries Facebook page went up alongside it. On September 15, fans added a Member Berries entry to the South Park Wiki6, and the next day Urban Dictionary user isblueacolor filed the definition that stuck2. A GIF of the scene hit 9GAG the same day, pushing the clip past South Park's regular fan circles.

Tumblr fans jumped in on September 16 with edits like a bottle of Old Orchard grape juice captioned 'Member berries IRL,' followed a day later by a screen grab labeled 'Member Harambe'3. By late September, r/southpark had its own image macro thread that gathered thousands of upvotes5, and on October 1 a dedicated Member Berries message board opened on GameFAQs. An October Tumblr edit that put a berry over Mufasa from The Lion King with the caption 'Member who you are, Simba' kept the format circulating past the initial burst.

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How to Use This Meme

To make a Member Berries joke, drop 'member (something)?' next to an image of the berries or overlay a berry onto a nostalgic character. The bit lands best when the reference is either warm nostalgia (Chewbacca, old cartoons) or a pointed jab about political nostalgia, delivered in the show's giggly berry voice1.