# Who's That Pokémon?

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.

## Origin
The bumper itself debuted with the anime in 1997 as a standard eyecatch segment[4]. The meme adaptation surfaced on YTMND, where the phrase "who's that pokemon?" was already in use by May 6, 2004[5], and the first edited bumper appeared on June 24, 2004 with a silhouette of a drawn penis set to the original audio clip[2]. 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 Koffing[2]. The original was pulled on a copyright claim from license holder ShoPro, but mirrors kept circulating[6]. Image-macro versions picked up steam when webcomic Super Effective, a VG Cats side project, used the frame in a strip dated July 2008[7].

- **Platform:** Pokémon anime (source) / YTMND (first edit) / TikTok (viral resurgence)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2004

## 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 unexpected[1]. 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 reveal[2]. 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 another[3].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Who's That Pokémon??
It is an exploitable format built on the silhouette-guessing eyecatch from the Pokémon anime, where the reveal is swapped for an unexpected character or object[2].

### Where did Who's That Pokémon? come from?
The segment began on the anime in 1997[4], and the meme version started on YTMND in 2004 with an edited bumper posted on June 24[2].

### What does Who's That Pokémon? mean?
The joke rides on a mismatch between what the shadow seems to show and what the panel reveals, often a non-Pokémon character or a crude swap[1].

### How do you use Who's That Pokémon??
Creators drop a silhouette into the show's blue-sky template, or film a reaction to the "It's Pikachu!" audio before cutting to something unrelated, as the TikTok trend did in 2020-2021[1].

### Is Who's That Pokémon? still popular?
The format has stuck around since 2004 and had a major revival on TikTok, where the sound topped 129,000 uses by September 2021[1].

## References
1. [https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/whos-that-pokemon-tiktok/](<https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/whos-that-pokemon-tiktok/>)
2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/whos-that-pokemon](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/whos-that-pokemon>)
3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMtlAqgvtZ4](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMtlAqgvtZ4>)
4. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyecatch](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyecatch>)
5. [https://wh0sthatp0kem0n.ytmnd.com/](<https://wh0sthatp0kem0n.ytmnd.com/>)
6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErfsAvQ4GGs](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErfsAvQ4GGs>)
7. [http://www.vgcats.com/super/?strip_id=11](<http://www.vgcats.com/super/?strip_id=11>)
8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FwMvxFnVDk](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FwMvxFnVDk>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/whos-that-pokemon
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