Pokéfusion

2008fan artclassic

Published September 22, 2026

Pokéfusion, also known as Pokémon Fusion, started in 2008 as a fan art tradition of splicing Pokémon sprites into hybrid creatures. Alex Onsager's 2010 browser generator turned it into a viral toy, and a June 2019 Tumblr post reframed the results as 'government assigned starters,' launching one of that summer's biggest #PokeFusion Twitter threads.

pokemonfan art memesportmanteau memessingle serving site memestumblr memes

Overview

The template mixes two sprites: the body and pose come from the first Pokémon, while the head, colors, and second half of the name come from the second, so 'Venusaur' plus 'Mew' becomes 'Venuew' and 'Dragonair' plus 'Ninetales' becomes 'Dragontales'1. Early fusions were hand-drawn sprite edits traded on Pokémon fan forums, but the generator built by Alex Onsager fixed the look most people picture today: two Gen 1 sprites stitched together so cleanly the result reads as a 'real' Pokémon at a glance1.

The joke sits in the name mashup. Fusion smashes 'Squirtle' and 'Nidoqueen' into 'Squirtqueen,' or 'Blastoise' and 'Charmeleon' into 'Blastmeleon,' and users lean hard into the innuendo1. Others treat whatever pops up as fate, sharing it as their 'government assigned starter' and reacting to the awkward pet they're now stuck with2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Kongregate / deviantART (fan art), Pokémon Fusion Generator (viral spread)
Creator
Alex Onsager
Date
2008

Fan-made Pokémon splices go back to a November 2008 Kongregate contest for the best fused sprite; the winning entry mixed pieces of Infernape, Giratina, Metang, Articuno, and Alakazam, and hand-drawn hybrids kept circulating on Nintendopeeps, Soul Boards, and deviantART over the next two years5. Web developer Alex Onsager launched the Pokémon Fusion generator on August 8, 2010, giving fans a browser tool that combined one Pokémon's body with another's color and face and automatically blended their names into a new word5.

Onsager built the tool; the fan practice around Pokéfusion predates him. What his generator did was turn a manual sprite craft into a one-click meme.

How It Spread

How to Use This Meme

Load Onsager's Pokémon Fusion generator, refresh until you get a fusion you want to share, and screenshot the result. Post it with the 'government assigned starter' framing, tag it #PokeFusion, or riff on the mashed-up name for wordplay like 'Blast-Me-Leon' or 'Dragon Tales'1.

Frequently Asked Questions