Pirateposting

2020shitposting formatdeclining

Published August 11, 2026

Pirateposting is a shitposting format that recaptions popular meme templates with pirate slang like "scurvy," "scallywag," and "landlubber," often pasting tricorne hats or eyepatches onto the original characters. Isolated pirate-themed edits circulated on iFunny starting November 2020, but the format hit critical mass in April 2023 when the Twitter gimmick account @pirate_posting started reposting community submissions.

shitposting memesexploitable templatesironic memesabsurdist humor memesdialogue edit memes

Overview

Pirateposting is a shitposting format that recaptions popular meme templates with pirate slang like "scurvy," "scallywag," "matey," "landlubber," and "plunder," often pasting tricorne hats, eyepatches, or skull-and-crossbones onto the original characters 4. Urban Dictionary describes the practice as "the act of posting complete nonsense to social media in the hopes of getting Pirate Booty," which captures the deliberately dumb tone 6.

A parallel video branch known as Pirate Irony ran alongside the caption-swap side, kicking off on TikTok in early 2023 with clips that mixed greenscreen pirate silhouettes, gold doubloons, treasure chests, and stock audio like a pirate shouting "There be treasure!"2.

Origin & Background

Platform
iFunny / Instagram / Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2020

Pirate-themed template edits first surfaced on iFunny on November 27th, 2020, when user @frog posted an Average Fan vs. Average Enjoyer edit that pulled around 80 smiles over three years, and iFunny user @Stompfme followed on February 6th, 2022 with a pirate-swapped "You Should Kill Yourself… Now!" rewritten as "You Should Walk The Plank… Now!"4.

The format's Instagram breakout came on May 31st, 2022, when @accidental_indie_memes recaptioned "Would You Guys Still Like Me If I Became Emo?" as "…If I Had Scurvy?" for about 1,500 likes, and a follow-up scurvy iteration went viral on Instagram that October before later feeding the Twitter wave the following spring 3.

How It Spread

Pirateposting crossed to Reddit's r/OkBuddyRetard in late 2022, and by early 2023 it was standard Instagram fare, with @trashcanpaul's "scallywags"-themed edit on January 2nd, 2023 pulling roughly 73,900 likes over four months 4.

TikToker @nokia95015 opened the video-side Pirate Irony branch on March 8th, 2023 with a Hood Irony-adjacent clip full of greenscreen pirate battles, gold doubloons, and treasure chests 2. The video used a SpongeBob rendition of "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?" as its backing track 5. Over its first month the clip pulled roughly 436,500 plays and 99,800 likes 2.

The Twitter gimmick account @pirate_posting launched on April 18th, 2023, openly modeled on the earlier @alienpostingg alien-posting account, and quickly went viral for pirate-edited templates 1. Standout hits included a "My Brother In Christ" edit posted April 20th that pulled roughly 9,300 likes in 13 days and a "Worst Person You Know Made a Great Point" edit the following day that hit roughly 39,800 likes in 12 days 1.

How to Use This Meme

Typical pirateposting edits start with a recognizable exploitable template and swap key words for pirate slang; common substitutions include "scurvy" for any illness or condition, "scallywag" or "landlubber" for insults, and "booty" or "plunder" for anything valuable. Some edits also paste a tricorne hat, eyepatch, or skull onto the original character, and the joke usually lives in the mismatch between the template's usual tone and the deliberately dumb pirate voice 1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pirateposting

2020shitposting formatdeclining

Published August 11, 2026

Pirateposting is a shitposting format that recaptions popular meme templates with pirate slang like "scurvy," "scallywag," and "landlubber," often pasting tricorne hats or eyepatches onto the original characters. Isolated pirate-themed edits circulated on iFunny starting November 2020, but the format hit critical mass in April 2023 when the Twitter gimmick account @pirate_posting started reposting community submissions.

shitposting memes exploitable templates ironic memes absurdist humor memes dialogue edit memes

Overview

Pirateposting is a shitposting format that recaptions popular meme templates with pirate slang like "scurvy," "scallywag," "matey," "landlubber," and "plunder," often pasting tricorne hats, eyepatches, or skull-and-crossbones onto the original characters 4. Urban Dictionary describes the practice as "the act of posting complete nonsense to social media in the hopes of getting Pirate Booty," which captures the deliberately dumb tone 6.

A parallel video branch known as Pirate Irony ran alongside the caption-swap side, kicking off on TikTok in early 2023 with clips that mixed greenscreen pirate silhouettes, gold doubloons, treasure chests, and stock audio like a pirate shouting "There be treasure!"2.

Origin & Background

Platform
iFunny / Instagram / Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2020

Pirate-themed template edits first surfaced on iFunny on November 27th, 2020, when user @frog posted an Average Fan vs. Average Enjoyer edit that pulled around 80 smiles over three years, and iFunny user @Stompfme followed on February 6th, 2022 with a pirate-swapped "You Should Kill Yourself… Now!" rewritten as "You Should Walk The Plank… Now!"4.

The format's Instagram breakout came on May 31st, 2022, when @accidental_indie_memes recaptioned "Would You Guys Still Like Me If I Became Emo?" as "…If I Had Scurvy?" for about 1,500 likes, and a follow-up scurvy iteration went viral on Instagram that October before later feeding the Twitter wave the following spring 3.

How It Spread

Pirateposting crossed to Reddit's r/OkBuddyRetard in late 2022, and by early 2023 it was standard Instagram fare, with @trashcanpaul's "scallywags"-themed edit on January 2nd, 2023 pulling roughly 73,900 likes over four months 4.

TikToker @nokia95015 opened the video-side Pirate Irony branch on March 8th, 2023 with a Hood Irony-adjacent clip full of greenscreen pirate battles, gold doubloons, and treasure chests 2. The video used a SpongeBob rendition of "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?" as its backing track 5. Over its first month the clip pulled roughly 436,500 plays and 99,800 likes 2.

The Twitter gimmick account @pirate_posting launched on April 18th, 2023, openly modeled on the earlier @alienpostingg alien-posting account, and quickly went viral for pirate-edited templates 1. Standout hits included a "My Brother In Christ" edit posted April 20th that pulled roughly 9,300 likes in 13 days and a "Worst Person You Know Made a Great Point" edit the following day that hit roughly 39,800 likes in 12 days 1.

How to Use This Meme

Typical pirateposting edits start with a recognizable exploitable template and swap key words for pirate slang; common substitutions include "scurvy" for any illness or condition, "scallywag" or "landlubber" for insults, and "booty" or "plunder" for anything valuable. Some edits also paste a tricorne hat, eyepatch, or skull onto the original character, and the joke usually lives in the mismatch between the template's usual tone and the deliberately dumb pirate voice 1.

Frequently Asked Questions