Super S Stussy — Black line drawing of the geometric Super S / Stussy S symbol on white background

Super S Stussy

1960symbol / doodleclassic

Published September 30, 2026

Super S Stussy, also known as Cool S, Super S, or Pointy S, is a 14-line geometric doodle of the letter S that schoolchildren have been sketching on notebook margins for decades. Nobody can pin down where it came from, though examples turn up in 1960s graffiti and even an 1890 geometry textbook, and the hunt for its true origin became its own long-running internet mystery.

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Overview

The doodle is built from two sets of three parallel lines joined diagonally left to right, then capped with pointy triangles at the top and bottom2. Kids almost always learn it from another kid rather than from any single reference, which is part of why versions look nearly identical across countries3. Print magazine noted that the design is so rigid students who master it usually cannot extrapolate the style into any other letter, treating the S as its own closed alphabet4.

Common variations splice the doodle with pop culture. In December 2019, Twitter user @ghoulcabin posted a version fused with Bart Simpson captioned 'My body is my journal and my tattoos are my story,' which pulled more than 5,900 likes5. Schools in the 1980s and 1990s often banned the symbol on the theory it was a gang tag or a classroom distraction5.

Origin & Background

Platform
Offline graffiti / notebooks (viral spread on Reddit and YouTube)
Date
1960

The symbol's true origin is unknown, and researchers have documented near-identical versions across North America, South America, Europe, Russia, Asia, and Australia2. YouTuber LEMMiNO published a deep-dive video on August 10, 2019 collecting photographic evidence of the design in 1960s graffiti and citing artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who referenced it as 'the classic S of graff' in the 1980s1.

LEMMiNO's investigation traced a possible earlier appearance to Mechanical Graphics, an 1890 book by Princeton professor Frederick Newton Willson that included the S as an example of Railroad Type1. The doodle is often nicknamed a 'Stussy' after the Irvine, California clothing brand7, though there is no evidence the symbol ever appeared on Stussy's lines and it predates the company by decades5.

How It Spread

The design took hold in American schools during the 1980s and 1990s, when it became a fixture of notebook margins, textbook covers, and desks3. DC Comics library manager Benjamin LeClear told Vice he ran his own mini-investigation after being asked about the doodle and found no link to any Superman shield logo, noting that Superman's S 'has a lot of open space and almost never connects to itself'2.

The mystery moved online in the 2010s. On January 7, 2011, an anonymous user posted a photo of the doodle to r/wtf asking what it was, and a month later redditor TheAmazingJordo turned it into a Rage Comic that kept collecting upvotes for years5. Major outlets including Vice, Ranker, Print, and NYU Local all ran investigations attempting to trace the design236.

By the end of the decade LEMMiNO's video became the reference point for the mystery1, and remixes like @ghoulcabin's Bart Simpson mashup kept the doodle circulating on Twitter5. Kids in classrooms still draw it, though older siblings and playground transmission are now supplemented by search results and YouTube explainers4.

Timeline

1890

Frederick Newton Willson's book Mechanical Graphics includes an S built with similar geometric construction, labeled as Railroad Type.

1960

Photographic evidence of the S appears in street-art and graffiti tagged around this decade.

1980

Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat references the doodle as 'the classic S of graff' in his 1980s work.

2011-01-07

An anonymous Redditor posts the doodle to r/wtf asking what it is, kicking off the online mystery hunt.

2019-08-10

YouTuber LEMMiNO publishes a video investigating the S's origin, tracing it to 1960s graffiti and the 1890 Willson textbook.

2019-12-07

Twitter user @ghoulcabin posts a Super S / Bart Simpson mashup that racks up more than 5,900 likes.

How to Use This Meme

The typical construction starts with two vertical sets of three short parallel lines drawn a small distance apart, then diagonal strokes connect the top of the left group to the bottom of the right, capped with two triangular points at each end2. Common convention is to leave it as a standalone S rather than trying to draw a matching alphabet, which almost never works4.

Frequently Asked Questions