Gromit Mug | Know Your Meme

About

Gromit Mug refers to a mug shaped after the face of Wallace and Gromit deuteragonist Gromit. In March 2020, ironic memes about the mug being a very desirable item gained popularity online, gaining a further boost after popular YouTuber Pyrocynical bought the mug in April 2020.

Origin

The mug, officially known as “Aardman Wallace and Gromit Shaped Mug – Gromit” is based on the likeness of Wallace and Gromit character Gromit and is sold by British online shop Half Moon Bay Shop.

On January 9th, 2020, Instagram user longvagine posted an ironic meme comparing the pros and cons of marriage, naming “have to share the dino mug with wife” as the con (shown below, left). Prior to March 9th, 2020, an unknown user posted a meme in which the dyno mug was replaced with the Gromit mug (shown below, right). On March 9th, 2020, Facebook meme pages Incoming memes and Imaginary memes with unsanitary themes made the earliest reposts of the image, gaining over 4,100 reactions and 1,700 shares and 1,300 reactions and 1,300 shares in eight months, respectively.

Spread

In March 2020, the image received viral spread online with multiple reposts on Instagram and Reddit. On April 2nd, Redditor ludwigisnotshort reposted the image to /r/pyrocynical subreddit. On April 14th, YouTuber and streamer Pyrocynical posted two photographs of himself holding the mug to Instagram (shown below, left and right), with the post gaining over 182,000 likes.

Following Pyrocynical’s post, Gromit mug achieved a status of a meme in /r/pyrocynical subreddit. On April 14th, 2020, Redditor kingboi2134 posted the earliest derivative meme, a deep-fried photograph of Pyrocynical caption “Gromit Mug Gromit Mug” (shown below, left). On May 21st, 2020, Redditor A_Big_Gay_Egg posted a Mods Are Asleep meme that received over 9,500 upvotes in six months (shown below, right).

The meme did not see viral spread outside of the subreddit until mid-July 2020. On July 3rd, Redditor cstrode24 reposted the original Gromit mug meme, gaining over 13,100 upvotes in five months. On July 15th, Redditors iron_170 and ChirpyBird8791 posted a fan art and a meme that gained over 1,200 and 12,300 upvotes in /r/pyrocynical in five months (shown below, left and right).

In the following days, multiple memes about Gromit Mug were posted in the subreddit, with the meme spreading to /r/okbuddyretard subreddit through reposts and original content. For example, on July 17th, Redditor aweirdstranger0104 posted a meme based on Pyrocynical’s Ryūko Matoi cosplay (shown below, left), which gained over 12,900 upvotes in /r/pyrocynical. A same-day repost in /r/okbuddyretard received over 4,100 upvotes.

On July 22nd, meme content creator Dolan Dark posted results of a poll about the mug on his Instagram page, with the post gaining over 284,000 likes (shown below, right).

In late November 2020, the meme regained popularity online after on November 19th, Redditor Fartsniffer234 posted a photograph of his broken Gromit mug (examples shown below).

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