Momo is the nickname given to a 2016 Japanese art sculpture whose bulging eyes and bird legs got attached to a viral 2018 WhatsApp hoax known as the Momo Challenge.

Where did Momo come from?

The image is a sculpture by Keisuke Aiso of the Link Factory, first shown at the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo in August 2016 and photographed on Instagram by user nanaakooo on August 25, 2016.

'Momo' is just an internet nickname for the sculpture; the artist's actual title for the piece is 'Mother Bird,' based on the Japanese Ubume folklore spirit.

Momo isn't a template meme. The image circulated mostly as a creepy repost and in reaction and investigation videos discussing the hoax.

Is Momo still popular?

The active WhatsApp hoax faded after Snopes and mainstream reporting debunked it in 2019, but Momo is still referenced as a canonical example of an internet moral panic.

Is the Momo Challenge real?

No. Fact checkers and law enforcement never confirmed a single verified victim of the alleged challenge, and Snopes formally classified it as a hoax.

Who made the Momo sculpture?

Japanese special effects artist Keisuke Aiso (sometimes rendered Aisawa) of the Link Factory built the sculpture in 2016.

Did anyone actually die from the Momo Challenge?

A 2018 case in Argentina involving a 12-year-old girl was reported as possibly Momo-linked, but investigators never publicly confirmed the challenge as the cause.

Why did Kim Kardashian post about Momo?

In February 2019 Kardashian warned her 145 million Instagram followers that Momo clips were allegedly hiding in YouTube Kids videos, which reignited the second wave of panic.

Was there a Momo movie?

Yes. In 2019 Orion Pictures partnered with Vertigo Entertainment and Taka Ichise, the producers behind The Ring and The Grudge, to develop a Momo horror film, and a separate indie project called Getaway also took inspiration from the hoax.

Momo

2018urban legend / viral hoaxclassic

Published September 7, 2026

Momo is the name attached to a haunting Japanese art sculpture that got dragged into a viral WhatsApp hoax in mid-2018, with panicked reports claiming anonymous messages were pushing children toward self-harm and suicide. Law enforcement never verified a single confirmed victim of the alleged 'Momo Challenge,' yet the bug-eyed face still fueled news panics, a Kim Kardashian post, and a Hollywood horror film deal.

hoax memes moral panic memes creepypasta memes dangerous challenge memes horror memes

Overview

The image everyone associates with Momo is not photoshopped horror art or a movie still. It's a large fiberglass and latex sculpture built in 2016 by Japanese special effects artist Keisuke Aiso of the Link Factory1. Aiso gave the piece the working title 'Mother Bird,' drawing on the Japanese folklore of Ubume, a venomous, child-snatching bird spirit5. The bulging eyes, stringy black hair, gaping smile, and thin bird legs turned out to be perfect fuel for creepy repost culture once gallery photos escaped Instagram.

The so-called Momo Challenge or Momo Game glued a completely fabricated story onto the image. According to the hoax, adding a specific WhatsApp number produced a cascade of escalating orders, from watching horror films to acts of self-harm and, in the most extreme claims, suicide1. Fact checkers found no confirmed victims tied to the game itself, only sensational secondhand accounts amplified by local police warnings and shocked parents2. Snopes classified the whole thing as a modern moral panic and pointed out that the format borrowed heavily from the earlier Blue Whale Challenge urban legend4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Instagram (image origin) / WhatsApp (viral spread)

Creator

Keisuke Aiso; hoax originators unknown

Date

2018

Aiso built the sculpture for a horror-themed group exhibition at the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo's Ginza district in August 20161. The first Instagram post that pushed the image into the wider internet came from user nanaakooo on August 25, 2016, followed the next day by shots from accounts @ma_kimodo_shi and @j_s_rock4. Across Spanish-speaking parts of the web, the image quickly picked up the Momo nickname and got attached to a rumor about a WhatsApp phone number that would respond in disturbing ways, an early version of the story that would later go global1.

How It Spread

The English-speaking internet met Momo in July 2018. On July 10, Redditor AlmightySosa00 dropped a cropped shot of the sculpture on r/creepy, where it pulled roughly 4,700 upvotes inside two days4. That same window saw a wave of Spanish-language Facebook posts daring users to text Momo WhatsApp numbers, which used the sculpture photo as their profile pictures1. Investigative YouTube videos and reaction clips piled on within days, pulling the story into the English-language algorithm6.

Real-world panic followed. On July 13, 2018, the Computer Crime Investigation Unit for the Mexican state of Tabasco issued a public warning telling users not to contact Momo accounts, framing them as data-theft scams rather than paranormal threats4. Reports out of Argentina made the story darker. Police in Ingeniero Maschwitz, near Buenos Aires, said an 18-year-old the victim had met on social media appeared to want video footage of her death for a Momo-themed post3. Investigators never publicly confirmed the challenge itself as the cause, and the autopsy pointed to strangulation as the mechanism3.

The story reheated in February 2019 when Kim Kardashian shared the Momo image with her 145 million Instagram followers and warned parents that Momo clips were hiding inside YouTube Kids content5. YouTube pushed back on the underlying claim but still moved to strip ad revenue from any video featuring the image, even reporting from mainstream outlets1. A viral Twitter clip splicing Momo into a phone-screen video helped drive the second wave across the platform7. Snopes ran a full debunk during the same resurgence, calling out the media echo chamber for treating unverified reports as fact2.

Cultural Impact

The 2019 wave produced real industry moves. Orion Pictures partnered with Roy Lee's Vertigo Entertainment and producer Taka Ichise, the team behind The Grudge and The Ring franchises, to develop a Momo horror film5. A separate indie project called Getaway from Emagine Content and November 11th Pictures also took the challenge as inspiration5. The story became a stock example in journalism about internet moral panics, cited alongside older viral scares like Slender Man and the Tide Pod dares1. Snopes' verdict of 'hoax' held up, with no case of Momo-driven harm ever verified by authorities2.

Fun Facts

The sculpture's real title is 'Mother Bird,' and it draws on Ubume, a Japanese folklore spirit tied to child abduction5

Aiso built it in 2016 for the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo's Ginza district, well before anyone had heard the word 'Momo'1

YouTube stopped serving ads on any video featuring Momo during the 2019 wave, including reporting from major news outlets1

Snopes formally labeled the Momo Challenge a hoax with zero verified victims2

Kim Kardashian's February 2019 Instagram post to her 145 million followers reignited the second panic5