Three Wolf Moon — Three wolves howling at a full moon on a black t-shirt design

Three Wolf Moon

2008ironic product / customer review comedyclassic

Published October 3, 2026

Three Wolf Moon is a graphic t-shirt sold by The Mountain that turned into an ironic Amazon sensation in 2009 after a Rutgers law student posted a satirical review praising its mystical, girth-flattering powers. The joke snowballed into thousands of mock reviews, mainstream news coverage and parody videos, becoming the defining example of customer review comedy.

consumer culture memes late 2000s memes absurdist humor memes ironic memes copypasta memes

Overview

Three Wolf Moon is a graphic tee showing three howling wolves in front of a full moon, designed by Bulgarian wildlife artist Antonia Neschev and manufactured by New Hampshire apparel company The Mountain3. The meme is not really about the shirt itself but about the pile of exaggerated Amazon reviews people wrote underneath it, hyping it as a mystical babe magnet, a cancer cure and a soul-level garment1. ABC News documented reviewers claiming the shirt attracted women at Walmart, delivered vision quests and would be improved only by glowing in the dark1.

The format fits what Know Your Meme calls customer review comedy, the same joke pattern seen with Tuscan Whole Milk and the Laptop Steering Wheel Desk, where strangers coordinate to flood a mundane product page with absurd testimonials3. The humor keeps the sincere Amazon-review voice, five-star rating, verified fit notes, personal anecdote, but swaps the content for tall tales about supernatural powers2. The shirt itself is a straight-faced piece of airbrushed wildlife art, which is what makes the gap between object and reviews land.

Origin & Background

Platform
Amazon (ironic reviews) / BBC and NYT (viral spread)
Creator
Brian Govern; shirt artwork by Antonia Neschev
Date
2008

The Three Wolf Moon design has been sold by The Mountain for years, but the meme traces to a single Amazon review posted on November 10, 2008 by Brian Govern, a Rutgers School of Law student in Camden, New Jersey1. Govern told ABC News he was searching Amazon for a textbook when the recommendation engine surfaced the shirt, and he wrote the review on a whim with lines about his "girthy frame" and the shirt attracting women at Walmart1. He did not actually own the shirt.

Govern's post sat quietly until early 2009, when it was picked up by other reviewers and the editors at CollegeHumor, triggering waves of copycat tongue-in-cheek reviews on the Amazon product page13. By mid-2009 the review thread had grown into hundreds and then thousands of entries, with Know Your Meme logging more than 2,200 reviews on the page by September 20123.

How It Spread

The joke jumped off Amazon in early 2009. On January 7, 2009, a user on the Bodybuilding.com forums posted a sincere thread about buying a wolf tee, and another member replied with a link to the Amazon page, which helped push the reviews beyond their original audience3. A Facebook fan page for the shirt went up on May 20, 2009 and collected thousands of likes over the next few years3.

Mainstream press turned it into a full-blown story that same week. On May 21, 2009 the BBC reported that Amazon sales of the shirt had jumped 2,300% thanks to the ironic reviews, with Amazon senior manager Russell Dicker confirming it had become the top seller in the clothing store3. ABC News followed on May 27 with an interview with Govern, noting the shirt was moving more than 100 units an hour and had reached the number one spot in Amazon's apparel category1. The Washington Post and The New York Times ran their own write-ups the same week, with the Times tracking down Govern as a law student who had written the review on a lark3.

Parody content followed the coverage. On May 26, 2009, YouTuber Dr. Coolsex uploaded a Three Wolf Moon music video set to a rewrite of "Colors of the Wind" from Disney's Pocahontas, built from real Amazon review lines4. On November 19, 2009, CollegeHumor released a sketch titled "Twilight: Three Wolf Moon" starring a pre-Parks and Recreation Aubrey Plaza3. Years later, Lifehacker revisited the shirt in an October 23, 2015 "Lifehacker Reviews Anything" entry and concluded that The Mountain's medium-weight cotton was rougher and faded faster than nicer tees, treating the running joke as a straight product review2.

Timeline

2008-11-10

Rutgers law student Brian Govern posts the first satirical Amazon review of the Three Wolf Moon shirt.

2009-01-07

A Bodybuilding.com forum thread links the Amazon page, helping the ironic reviews jump communities.

2009-05-20

A 'Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt' Facebook fan page is created.

2009-05-21

BBC News reports a 2,300% sales surge, with Amazon confirming the shirt is its top clothing seller.

2009-05-26

YouTuber Dr. Coolsex uploads a Three Wolf Moon parody music video set to 'Colors of the Wind.'

2009-05-27

ABC News interviews Govern, who admits he does not own the shirt and wrote the review on a whim.

2009-11-19

CollegeHumor releases 'Twilight: Three Wolf Moon' sketch starring Aubrey Plaza.

2015-10-23

Lifehacker publishes a straight-faced review of the shirt as part of 'Lifehacker Reviews Anything.'

How to Use This Meme

The format is to write an Amazon review in the earnest voice of a satisfied customer while making outlandish supernatural or sexual claims about an ordinary product. Common conventions include noting fit and fabric like a real reviewer, then crediting the item with granting vision quests, attracting mates, or triggering mystical insights, as collected in the Three Wolf Moon review pile1.

Frequently Asked Questions