Portal to Hell — Tumblr post captioning the puddle GIF as the gateway to Satan's lair

Portal to Hell

2012multi-pane comicclassic

Published September 23, 2026

Portal to Hell is a Tumblr comic series that started in November 2012, built on top of a viral Reddit GIF of a woman slipping into a puddle. Users illustrated the joke that people vanishing into the ground were really teleporting into Satan's throne room, spawning a collaborative shared-universe format that spread across the site through early 2013.

collaborative fiction memes tumblr memes webcomic memes gif memes 2012 memes

Overview

Portal to Hell is a format where a short GIF of a person disappearing into a hole, puddle, or trap door is followed by hand-drawn panels showing where they ended up: in front of Satan, who is perched on a throne of skulls and increasingly baffled by the steady drip of mortals crashing into his underworld2. The joke works because each new entry treats the same throne room as a shared setting, so Satan's expression escalates from mild confusion to full exasperation as more victims pile up around him.

The attached comics are consistently drawn in a loose, scribbled style, with Satan rendered as a hunched cartoon devil rather than anything menacing2. Later entries lean on continuity, keeping earlier victims sprawled or hanging on-panel while a new one drops in, which is what turned the format from a one-off gag into a running Tumblr collab that anyone could add a panel to.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit (source GIF) / Tumblr (viral spread)
Creator
hrmphfft
Date
2012

On June 20, 2012, Redditor oenoneshore posted a GIF to r/funny showing herself trying to jump onto a swing and slipping into a puddle instead. A commenter suggested photoshopping the puddle so it appeared to swallow her whole, and the edited version was reblogged onto Tumblr where it picked up tens of thousands of notes2. Early Tumblr commentary, including from the account demonseallovesyou, started calling the puddle a gateway to Satan's lair.

The comic format itself dates to November 10, 2012, when Tumblr user pumpkinlore reblogged the GIF and described Satan sitting on a throne of skulls, bewildered by the girl falling through the air. Later that same day, Tumblr user hrmphfft drew a three-panel comic based on pumpkinlore's description, which is the post that established the visual format now known as Portal to Hell2.

How It Spread

The format stayed dormant for two months and then chained rapidly through late January 2013. On January 20, Tumblr user Redemptiondot added a two-panel entry attached to a GIF of a man falling through a store trap door, drawing the original puddle victim still lying on the floor beside him. Three days later, on January 23, Tumblr user p5stuck responded with a GIF of a video game skateboarder falling through the floor and getting wedged by the wrists, with panels showing him hanging from the ceiling while the earlier victims watched2.

On January 24, dave-stridlediddle compiled the three GIFs and their comics into a single photoset that pulled in more than 280,000 notes by March 2013, which is roughly when the format hit peak visibility2. The same day, Sirpangur added an entry using a GIF of a horse hijacking a car that sank into the ground and crashed on top of Satan's throne. Yubishines followed with Marvel crossover panels on February 4 and 6, dropping Hawkeye and Thor from The Avengers into the same room.

The format got one more notable extension on March 10, 2013, when the webcomic Homestuck published the update '[S] [A6I5] Begin Interfishin,' in which the character Sollux Captor is shown tumbling down a set of stairs1. Tumblr user Catfishcafe repurposed those Homestuck frames into a Portal to Hell entry with the other characters removed from the room, and the post cleared 7,100 notes within 24 hours2.

Timeline

2012-06-20

Redditor oenoneshore posts the original swing-and-puddle GIF to r/funny.

2012-06-21

An edited version making the puddle appear to swallow the woman spreads to Tumblr, where demonseallovesyou labels it a gateway to Satan's lair.

2012-11-10

Pumpkinlore describes Satan on a throne of skulls; hrmphfft draws the first three-panel comic later the same day, establishing the format.

2012-12

Hrmphfft's comics are compiled into an Imgur gallery that clears 250,000 views in three months.

2013-01-20

Redemptiondot extends the format with a trap-door GIF showing the first victim still on the floor.

2013-01-23

P5stuck adds a video-game skateboarder stuck by the wrists.

2013-01-24

Dave-stridlediddle's compiled photoset takes off, and Sirpangur adds a horse-and-car crash entry.

2013-02-04

Yubishines starts a Marvel crossover run with a Hawkeye panel, followed by Thor on February 6.

2013-03-10

Catfishcafe repurposes the Homestuck update '[S] [A6I5] Begin Interfishin' into a Portal to Hell entry, hitting 7,100 notes in 24 hours.

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