Trigglypuff — Woman with glasses screaming with raised fists at a panel event

Trigglypuff

2016viral videoclassic

Published October 3, 2026

Trigglypuff is the nickname 4chan gave to a Hampshire College student filmed loudly protesting Christina Hoff Sommers, Milo Yiannopoulos and Steven Crowder at UMass Amherst's 'The Triggering' event in April 2016. The clip of her flailing and shouting 'hate speech' spread within 48 hours into one of the defining anti-SJW mocking memes of the Gamergate era.

culture war memes campus memes celebrity nickname memes 4chan memes behavior mocking memes

Overview

Trigglypuff refers to a Hampshire College student filmed red-faced and flailing her arms while shouting at panelists during 'The Triggering,' a UMass Amherst event criticizing campus political correctness1. The nickname is a portmanteau of 'trigger' and the Pokémon Jigglypuff, coined by an anonymous 4chan /pol/ poster who thought the student's round silhouette matched the pink Pokémon4.

The meme itself is less a template than a shorthand. Posters paired screencaps of the student mid-shout with Pokémon stat cards, Garbage Pail Kids parody art, and Numa Numa style musical edits56. The joke relied almost entirely on the raw video, with edits exaggerating her shouting cadence or splicing in Milo Yiannopoulos reaction shots. Across /pol/, /r/KotakuInAction and anti-SJW Twitter, 'Trigglypuff' became a generic insult for any loud campus feminist protester7.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (source clip) / 4chan /pol/ (naming) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2016

Catalyst event: On April 25th, 2016, Steven Crowder, Milo Yiannopoulos and Christina Hoff Sommers held 'The Triggering,' a UMass Amherst panel criticizing politically correct campus activism. Students in the audience began shouting 'hate speech' at the panelists, with one woman repeatedly yelling and gesturing at Sommers2.

Earliest viral post: On April 26th, 2016, campus news site Campus Reform published a writeup of the disruption and uploaded footage of the event to YouTube, where it pulled over 786,000 views in 48 hours23. The nickname 'Trigglypuff' was coined the next day, April 27th, in a /pol/ thread where a user suggested the Jigglypuff portmanteau after an earlier thread had workshopped names like 'Cuck Carl' and 'AIDS Skrillex'4.

How It Spread

The Campus Reform YouTube upload did most of the early lifting, hitting six figures of views before the meme even had a name3. On April 26th, Redditor Herelam cross-posted the video to /r/KotakuInAction, where it collected around 2,000 upvotes and 690 comments inside 24 hours5. The same day, Twitter user @MikeMa_ posted a split clip of Yiannopoulos reacting to his own protester, which pulled roughly 2,900 likes and 1,400 retweets1.

On April 27th, YouTuber Students of Odin posted an edit called 'The Legend of Trigglypuff' that reached the front page of /r/videos and /r/PoliticalVideo6. 4chan's /pol/ ran a dedicated Trigglypuff thread the same day, which was then mirrored on /r/4chan7. The nickname and hashtag '#TrigglyPuff' spread through anti-SJW Twitter over the next 48 hours1.

By April 28th, Redditor skincube had drawn a Garbage Pail Kids parody trading card of her for /r/KotakuInAction8, a dedicated /r/TrigglyPuff subreddit went up for ongoing mockery9, and Encyclopedia Dramatica opened a page under the same name10. Urban Dictionary definitions, mostly written as mock Pokédex entries, followed within the week11.

Timeline

2016-04-25

Catalyst: 'The Triggering' panel with Crowder, Yiannopoulos and Sommers is disrupted by shouting protesters at UMass Amherst.

2016-04-26

Campus Reform publishes its writeup and uploads the footage to YouTube, hitting 786,000 views in 48 hours.

2016-04-26

Redditor Herelam cross-posts the video to /r/KotakuInAction; @MikeMa_ posts the Milo reaction clip on Twitter.

2016-04-27

An anonymous 4chan /pol/ user coins the name 'Trigglypuff' as a trigger + Jigglypuff portmanteau.

2016-04-27

YouTuber Students of Odin uploads 'The Legend of Trigglypuff,' which hits the /r/videos front page.

2016-04-28

Redditor skincube posts a Garbage Pail Kids parody card; /r/TrigglyPuff subreddit and Encyclopedia Dramatica page launch.

How to Use This Meme

People typically used the name as a reaction label for footage of loud protesters or as the subject of Pokémon stat card parodies. A common convention was pairing the shouting clip with sped-up music (the Numa Numa 'Dragostea Din Tei' remix is the best known example) or splicing it against calm reaction shots of Milo Yiannopoulos1.

Frequently Asked Questions