Pilk — A glass of Pepsi mixed with milk sitting between a milk jug and a Pepsi bottle

Pilk

2020reaction imageclassic

Published November 12, 2026

Pilk is a portmanteau of Pepsi and milk that circulated as a disgust meme after Twitter user @scubadivingzoo posted a photo of the murky brown concoction in July 2020. The drink itself dates back to a Laverne & Shirley gag from the late 1970s, but online reactions treated it as a fresh culinary sin worth photoshopping and filming. By December 2022, Pepsi was selling the mixture as 'Pilk and Cookies' in a Lindsay Lohan Christmas ad.

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Overview

Pilk posts usually take one of two shapes. First is the reaction image, in which users photoshop religious iconography, cartoon crusaders or action figures recoiling at the sight of a glass of the murky brown drink. One widely shared example features a crusader character aiming a gun at the original pilk photo, played as a holy-war response to the mixture5.

Pour-and-react videos make up a second format, where creators mix Pepsi with milk on camera and react with grimaces. YouTuber Satchmo Kennedy filmed one of the earliest tests in November 2020 and called the result disgusting11. Pilk also stretched to adjacent gag drinks, with 'pickle milk' and 'poop milk' folded under the name in online usage4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2020

The Pepsi and milk combination predates meme culture by decades. Penny Marshall's character Laverne DeFazio drank it on the ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley sometime between 1976 and 1983, sipping from a milk bucket and complaining it 'needs more Pepsi'4. Food blogger Sabrina Eldredge published a recipe for the mix on PopSugar in 2014, crediting a college friend and calling it more palatable than it sounds3.

Pilk as a meme started on July 28, 2020, when Twitter user @scubadivingzoo posted 'y'all want a glass of pilk' alongside a photo of the murky mixture between a Pepsi bottle and a milk jug1. The tweet reached over 53,000 likes and 10,000 retweets within a year. The image hit r/shittyfoodporn the same day2.

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How It Spread

Reaction posts started hitting Reddit within a week of the original tweet. On August 2, 2020, u/pirivalfang shared a crusader-meets-pilk image on r/memes that collected over 10,900 upvotes in its first year5. Tumblr user memeclassheroes reposted the original tweet on August 24 paired with a fake 'Hated by Everyone' Snapchat notification, which picked up more than 610 notes.

Taste-test content kept the drink in rotation through 2021. TikToker @drewgardner46 filmed himself mixing pilk at a school dining hall in August 2021, and Instagram page @unbustable.nuttt reposted the 'Hated by Everyone' meme that July to more than 40,000 likes10. Comedian Daniel Tosh's Tosh.0 Instagram also labeled a jug of 'pickle milk' as pilk in early August 20214.

Pepsi itself leaned in on December 1, 2022, releasing two Christmas ads with Lindsay Lohan making the drink and pitching 'Pilk and Cookies' for Santa78. Twitter user @BitchAssBowie called it 'a certified pilk moment' the same day the ads premiered9.

Timeline

1976

Pepsi mixed with milk appears as a recurring gag on ABC's Laverne & Shirley, with Penny Marshall drinking it in character.

2014

Sabrina Eldredge publishes a Pepsi milk recipe on PopSugar, crediting a college friend and comparing it to a melted Pepsi float.

2020-07-28

Twitter user @scubadivingzoo posts 'y'all want a glass of pilk' with a photo of the drink, kicking off the meme.

2020-08-02

Redditor u/pirivalfang posts a crusader reaction meme to r/memes that collects over 10,900 upvotes.

2020-11-20

YouTuber Satchmo Kennedy uploads one of the earliest pilk taste-test videos, calling the drink disgusting.

2021-08-05

Daniel Tosh's Tosh.0 Instagram posts an image of 'pickle milk' labeled pilk.

2022-12-01

Pepsi releases two Christmas ads starring Lindsay Lohan pitching 'Pilk and Cookies' for Santa.

How to Use This Meme

Pilk posts typically caption the original 2020 photo with a disgust reaction, or stage a video of someone pouring Pepsi over milk and trying it. Users often substitute other 'milk' pairings, such as pickle milk, under the same name.

Frequently Asked Questions