Pissy Shitties — Three glasses of a dark cocktail topped with caramel popcorn and cream on a kitchen counter.

Pissy Shitties

2016hoax / catchphrasesemi-active

Published October 15, 2026

On January 21, 2016, Tumblr user bighuge invented a fake American habit of pouring Pepsi into movie-theater popcorn buckets and eating the resulting mush, calling it 'pissy shitties.' The deadpan hoax confused non-American readers, racked up over 160,000 notes, and inspired taste-test videos and cocktail remixes through 2021.

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Overview

Posts in this format treat the Pepsi-and-popcorn mixture as a mundane American tradition, with later Tumblr replies inventing $30 'piss buckets' sold at theaters and claiming some Americans enjoy the leaky-bucket feeling on their jeans1. Alternate versions use Coke or Dr. Pepper, but Pepsi stays the canonical ingredient6. The joke works through deadpan confidence: a gross-sounding name and absurd specificity collide with the normalcy of calling it a shared national habit3.

Over time, YouTubers made the fictional snack real on camera, usually confirming the mixture is as unpleasant as the name suggests7. A 2021 cocktail remix by Tumblr user drustvars combined a rum-and-coke float with vanilla ice cream and caramel corn, lifting the concept out of its movie-theater setting5. A later Urban Dictionary definition grumbles that pissy shitties get mentioned too often in food Facebook groups and dismisses the whole thing as shock-value nonsense6.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr
Creator
bighuge
Date
2016

On January 21, 2016, Tumblr user oddbagel posted that the weirdest thing about the UK is that audiences don't clap at the end of movie trailers1. User bighuge reblogged with the fake retort that Americans pour their Pepsis into buckets of popcorn and eat the resulting mush, calling it 'pissy shitties' and placing it 'here in the good ol US of A'1. User chaos-has-arrived added to the hoax by inventing $30 to $40 'piss buckets' and comparing the leaky-bucket feeling to sticky floors and post-credit brawls3. The reblog chain kept growing as confused non-American users asked whether the mixture was a real tradition, and the post gathered over 160,000 notes within five years3.

How It Spread

On August 8, 2019, Twitter user @krakensoup posted a Metal Gear-themed comic about pissy shitties that earned more than 480 likes and 200 retweets over the next two years2. The joke reached Reddit on June 22, 2020, when user Coinocus asked r/TooAfraidToAsk whether Americans genuinely mix popcorn with Pepsi at the movies4. Urban Dictionary logged a definition on July 30, 2020, inventing a mock history that credited an 1893 inventor named M.M. O'Shaughnessy and claimed Texas uses Dr. Pepper instead of Coca-Cola6.

In March 2021, Tumblr user drustvars posted the cocktail version, a rum-and-coke float with vanilla ice cream and caramel corn5. YouTube taste tests followed, with creators mixing soda into popcorn and filming their reactions7. Most reviewers found the combination unpleasant, which only deepened the running gag that pissy shitties are supposed to be gross3.

Timeline

2016-01-21

Tumblr user bighuge coins 'pissy shitties' in a reblog of oddbagel's post about British trailer etiquette, inventing a fake American popcorn-and-Pepsi tradition.

2019-08-08

Twitter user @krakensoup posts a Metal Gear-themed comic about pissy shitties, earning over 480 likes and 200 retweets.

2020-06-22

Redditor Coinocus asks r/TooAfraidToAsk whether Americans actually mix popcorn with Pepsi at the movies.

2020-07-30

Urban Dictionary adds a definition inventing an 1893 origin and Texas Dr. Pepper variant.

2021-03-08

Tumblr user drustvars posts a cocktail remix made from a rum-and-coke float, vanilla ice cream, and caramel corn.

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