Who's That Pokémon? — Black silhouette of Pikachu beside a yellow question mark and Pokémon logo on blue and red burst background

Who's That Pokémon?

2004exploitable image / catchphraseclassic

Published October 7, 2026

Who's That Pokémon? is an exploitable format based on the silhouette-guessing eyecatch from the Pokémon anime. Starting on YTMND in 2004 and spreading through YouTube, webcomics and 4chan, it became one of the longest-running Pokémon fan meme templates and found a second life on TikTok in 2020.

pokemon exploitable templates bait and switch memes ytmnd memes catchphrase memes

Overview

Who's That Pokémon? takes the mini-quiz bumper that ran before and after commercial breaks on the Pokémon anime, which asks viewers to identify a creature from its silhouette, and swaps the reveal for something unexpected1. The joke is simple: the shadow suggests one answer and the punchline delivers another, whether that is a different Pokémon, a cartoon character, a celebrity or something crude.

The format exists in two main flavors. The static image-macro version uses the show's blue-sky backdrop and silhouette frame, often laid out as a four-panel comic with a wrong guess and a reveal2. The audio version, usually built around the announcer's cry of "It's Pikachu!" followed by a different name, drives video edits where creators film themselves expecting one thing and getting another3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Pokémon anime (source) / YTMND (first edit) / TikTok (viral resurgence)
Date
2004

The bumper itself debuted with the anime in 1997 as a standard eyecatch segment4. The meme adaptation surfaced on YTMND, where the phrase "who's that pokemon?" was already in use by May 6, 20045, and the first edited bumper appeared on June 24, 2004 with a silhouette of a drawn penis set to the original audio clip2. From there the gag spread through forum posts and image boards for years before any single viral post defined it.

On September 22, 2007, YouTuber gameboy659 uploaded a clip of a boy shouting "Pikachu" at a silhouette that turns out to be Koffing2. The original was pulled on a copyright claim from license holder ShoPro, but mirrors kept circulating6. Image-macro versions picked up steam when webcomic Super Effective, a VG Cats side project, used the frame in a strip dated July 20087.

How It Spread

The template jumped across platforms through the late 2000s. A Newgrounds flash animation in September 2008 teased a Jigglypuff silhouette that resolved into a contorted Kadabra, and in 2009 a blank four-panel comic template was posted on SheezyArt, giving artists a reusable base2. Instances filled Tumblr tags, FunnyJunk galleries, deviantArt and 4chan threads over the next several years2.

On April 26, 2012, the YouTube channel NinBuzz launched a short-form quiz series called Who's That Pokemon, giving three verbal clues per minute-long episode instead of using the silhouette gimmick8. The format then entered its most-watched phase through a Vine by Sammy San Pedro Cruz, in which a man screams "It's Pikachu!" at a shadow that turns out to be Clefairy3.

The Vine clip was reposted to TikTok by user 7berry in March 2020 and racked up over 510,000 likes, which kicked off a sound trend1. By September 2021 the audio had been used in more than 129,000 TikTok videos, with a July 28, 2021 cat-reveal post by @talordinh reaching 3.6 million likes and an August 14, 2021 upload by streamer Ninja clearing one million likes, as documented by The Daily Dot1.

Timeline

1997

Who's That Pokémon? debuts as an eyecatch bumper in the Pokémon anime.

2007-09-22

YouTuber gameboy659 posts the 'Pikachu / Koffing' clip.

2012-04-26

NinBuzz launches a Who's That Pokemon quiz video series on YouTube.

2020-03

TikToker 7berry reposts the 'It's Pikachu / Clefairy' Vine, kicking off the TikTok trend.

Frequently Asked Questions