Big Chungus
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About
Big Chungus refers to an image of the cartoon character Bugs Bunny, usually captioned with the phrase "Big Chungus" and presented as a game for PlayStation 4 console. The word "chungus" was coined by video game journalist Jim Sterling several years before the meme became popular. Starting in July 2019, the meme regained ironic popularity on iFunny and certain parts of Reddit, particularly as a part of Reddit Moment memes.
Origin
Fat Bugs Bunny
The image of Bugs Bunny appears in Merrie Melodies cartoon Wabbit Twouble, first shown on December 20th, 1941[1]. In the short, Bugs is mocking Elmer Fudd, who in this cartoon was made much more portly than his previous and more iconic design (clip shown below).
On May 27th, 2017, an anonymous 4chan[2] user posted the image of obese Bugs Bunny to /lit/ board (shown below, upper left). The next appearance of the image on 4chan can be tracked to July 19th, 2017[3] (shown below, upper right), with more posts containing it appearing on /lit/ and other boards later that year[4][5].
![Anonymous Sat May 27 18:12:21 2017 No.9559798 File: 249 KB, 248x459, 1489615524698.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] [report Quoted by:>95598189559928 >>9559930 9559962 I should start by saying that I don't really have the background in philosophy to go deep into the historical ideas behind Land and accelerationism and that the essay in OF is my first reading of Land. One of this first things that struck me about the first few paragraphs was the similarity between his idea that there is some increasingly self-aware, minimally intelligent parasite thriving in the shadows and Colin Wilsons novel "The Mind Parasites." In Wilson's book, the protagonist discovers that since the beginnings of civilization a parasitic "organism" has grown in number while simultaneously infecting the deep subconscious of the human mind. The goal of the parasites was to steer human endeavors to ever grater excess and depravity in order to feed off the inevitable wake of misery. It's a great book and Wilson does a great job of developing the idea, but I'm not sure that I can accept the fantastical notion that capitalism has become self aware. I have a feeling Land is being more literary and metaphorical than anything else.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/442/743/6a4.jpg "I Don’t Really Have the Background in Philosophy")
![loggle deleted replies File: 249 KB, 248x459, 1499490578802.png [View same] ligdb] [saucenao] [google] [report] O Anonymous Wed Jul 19 02:33:28 2017 No.9774657 Reply] [Original] Quoted by: >>9774660 >>9774666>9774669 >>9774677>>9774743>775251>9775989 >9776186 >>9777747 >>9778227 9778645 >>9778784 >>9779464 >9779770 >>9780955 >>9780994 >>9781137 >>9781327>9781445 >>9781665 >>9783318 >>9783716>>9787484 >>9787912 >>9787933 >>9787960 reading on the train Is there anything more pretentious, more attention-seeking? Anonymous Wed Jul 19 02:34:48 2017 No.9774660 OP Why do you specify train?](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/442/741/f4e.jpg "Reading on the Train")
![Anonymous Fri 04 Aug 2017 05:03:42 No.85860354 [125/38] View Reply Original Report Quoted By: >>85860442 >>85860491 >>85860501 >>85860576 >>85860711>>85861053 >>85861180 >>85861285>>85861376 >8586148885861577 >>85861960 >>85862031 >>85862338 >>85862432 >>85862454 >>85862461 >>85862541 >>85862694 >>85863898>>85864042>>85864215 >>85864236>>85865955 how do we stop him? 24KiB, 237x441, bugs.jpg](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/442/316/f19.jpg "How Do We Stop Him?")
On July 21st, 2017, Redditor[6] hollerbravo uploaded a screencap of 4chan thread containing the image to /r/4Chan subreddit. On July 27th, 2017, a captioned image of obese Bugs Bunny was posted[7] by Eclectic Memes Facebook group. The post has since been deleted, with copies scraped by Me.me[8] and Onsizzle[9].
Chungus
The word "chungus" was allegedly coined by English freelance video game journalist Jim Sterling, who would often use it in various meanings without a set definition[10]. The exact date when the word was first used is currently unknown, but is estimated to be prior to December 2012.
On December 26th, 2012, Urban Dictionary[11] user Whidmark submitted an entry for "Chungus", defining it as a word "meaning anything and everything, including but not limited to a chunky anus".
On August 8th, 2016, in a Reddit thread exploring the origin of Chungus, Redditor[12] ASuitofT51PowerArmor posted his own description of Chungus based on Sovereign's speech[13] from Mass Effect videogame. The comment would later resurge as a copypasta in December 2018.
Chungus has no beginning. Chungus has no end. Chungus is infinite. Millions of years after our civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, Chungus will endure.
Chungus is eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence.
We are but rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. We touch Chungus' mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.
Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Our lives are measured in years and decades. We wither and die. Chungus is eternal. Before it, we are nothing.
Chungus imposes order on the chaos of organic life. We exist because Chungus allows it, and we will end because Chungus demands it.
Chungus transcends our very understanding. We cannot grasp the nature of Chungus' existence.
Big Chungus
The very first instance of a meme containing the caption "Big Chungus" was posted by Tumblr[30] user gayreinhardt, now logarto, on November 19th, 2016, and contained an image of a Second Life life character bearing the nickname, as well as a second image showing a message from BigChungus reading, "gender is for smaller, lesser beings." (shown below, left). The post gained over 56,000 notes in five years. It has now been replaced by text reading, "please dont reblog this post anymore. it was in bad taste, and was perpetuating transmysoginistic stereotypes." on November 27th, a cropped version of the meme was reposted to iFunny,[27] where it gained over 3,900 smiles in four years.
Logarto provided more information about the meme to Know Your Meme via Tumblr DM in July 2021. According to logarto, the Second Life Big Chungus post was inspired by a post to Tumblr by John Green which users at the time were reblogging and editing to read various absurdities, a feature which has since been removed from Tumblr. This is described in a 2021 article by The Focus.[31] One edited caption read "I love it when you call me big chungo." Logarto goes on to say: "around the same time there was a bunch of nonsense words floating around like 'scringus' as well as a joke and i liked to mash them up. when i joined second life i tried to make my username big chungo, but it was taken, so i went with bigchungus." (exact DM quoted below)
idk if youre aware of the "meme" from a few years back on here where everyone edited john greens posts. when i was 15 or 16 i was particularly tickled by the one where it got changed to "i love it when you call me big chungo". around the same time there wasa bunch of nonsense words floating around like "scringus" as well as a joke and i liked to mash them up. when i joined second life i tried to make my username big chungo, but it was taken, so i went with bigchungus. thats it really LOL
On March 20th, 2018, the image of fat Bugs Bunny was first paired with the phrase by Redditor GaryTheTaco, but was not been made public until it was posted to /r/comedyheaven on December 1st, 2018 (shown below, right)[14]. In a /r/OutOfTheLoop thread launched by Redditor PunkyFickle on December 19th, GaryTheTaco claimed authorship of the image[15], providing further proof in a post to /r/BigChungus subreddit[16].
The true story behind Big Chungus is back in March I made the meme to send to a friend when Inwas bored in class, he didn't think much of it.
Over the summer I sent it to another friend, he thought it was hilarious, so I made Big Chungus 2, then 3, and so on.
Then I just sort of forgot about it until 2 weeks ago when I thought "Hey let's post it to r/comedyheaven"
It got some traction there, but the real traction came a week later when my friend sent me a post from Facebook of a kid who asked his mom for Big Chungus.
That was later reposted and got 10x the karma as the original Big Chungus, the OP of that DM'd me saying he was a meme thief.
TL:DR it's just a fat Bugs Bunny PS4 game, that got popular because a clueless mom asked a Gamestop employee if they had it in stock, like the Battletoads trend.
Spread
On September 16th, 2018, /r/BigChungus[17] subreddit was created by Redditor youarepepemangay; however, the subreddit did not share any connection with the meme until it gained popularity in December 2018.
On December 7th, 2018, GameStop store manager Justin Laufer made a Facebook[18] post sharing a story of a customer who wanted to purchase a game named "Big Chungus" for PlayStation 4.
On the next day, Twitter[19] user @fluffypkmn shared a screenshot of Laufer's post. The tweet went viral, gathering more than 13,800 retweets within a two-week period.
On December 10th, 2018, Redditor[20] j_dot21 reposted a meme originally created by u/republicof_Taiwan[21] mentioning the word "chungus" to /r/me_irl subreddit (shown below, left). The post gained more than 7,900 upvotes over a 10-day period. On December 13th, 2018, Redditor[22] namffauk uploaded one of the screenshots posted by @fluffypkmn to /r/comedyheaven subreddit, where it gained 13,100 upvotes within a week (show below, right).
Between December 12th and 17th, the creator of the original image posted Big Chungus "sequels" to /r/comedyheaven subreddit (shown below).
The meme subsequently rose to popularity in /r/dankmemes, /r/sbubby and other subreddits, with users posting new variations of the Bugs Bunny image and editing it into covers of popular video games.
Karen Chungus
On January 5th, 2019, Redditor turtlenometry submitted a screenshot of a Facebook page for "Karen Chungus" to the /r/BigChungus[23] subreddit (shown below, left). The profile was widely circulated along with references to the Big Chungus and Karen memes, along with jokes about the anti-vaccination movement. On January 7th, Redditor Internal_Blaze submitted a Mafia City-themed image macro comparing Big Chungus to Karen Chungus to /r/memes[25] (shown below, right). That day, Redditor Kwonunn submitted a picture of the woman with a different last name in a post titled "Karen Chungus was fake. (Kinda obvious)" submitted to /r/F--kYouKaren.[26]
U.S. Army Names Artillery Cannon After Big Chungus
On October 8th, 2019, the official U.S. Army's Instagram[28] account shared an image of a howitzer artillery piece adorned with the name "Chungus" alongside the caption "Big #Chungus making history. The nine-man team from 3rd Cavalry Regiment recently earned the title of Top Gun." Within less than a year, the post (seen below) received over 142,000 likes.
Interview with Know Your Meme
On August 21st, 2020, KYM interviewed Braden, the original creator of the first Big Chungus meme, as part of its editorial series that follows up with people featured in meme culture. In the interview, Braden recapped how he came up with the idea for the meme, how he reacted to its spread, and what he made of the online phenomenon.
Looney Tunes World of Mayhem Addition
On March 29th, 2021, turn-based mobile RPG game Looney Tunes World of Mayhem posted a teaser featuring Big Chungus on its social media,[29] also updating the Android icon to feature the meme character.
Your world may not be ready for him.
But our World of Mayhem is. pic.twitter.com/0MxoCrYrun— Looney Tunes World of Mayhem (@LooneyTunesWoM) March 29, 2021
Space Jam: A New Legacy Cameo
In the Space Jam sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Bugs Bunny briefly turns into Big Chungus (shown below).
Big Chungus in MultiVersus Speculation
It was reported that on August 26th, 2022, Warner Bros. (the studio behind the popular MultiVersus games) had taken out a copyright on the Big Chungus character through the European Union Intellectual Property Office.[32] The first person to share the report with the broad public was Twitter user @the_marmolade, who tweeted a screenshot of the application (seen below) on August 27th, 2022, receiving just 11,000 likes in a week.[33]
This led many to speculate that Big Chungus might enter the game, perhaps a skin for the Bugs Bunny character already featured. MultiVersus, which operates a lot like Super Smash Bros. However, the copyright application does not state what kind of product Big Chungus might be used in.[34]
Various Examples
Related Memes
Ugandan Chungus
Ugandan Chungus is an amalgamation of Big Chungus and Ugandan Knuckles, featuring the body of Big Chungus combined with the colors and face of Ugandan Knuckles.
Search Interest
External References
[1] IMDB – Wabbit Twouble
[2] 4chan – I should start by saying that
[3] 4chan – Reading on the train
[4] 4chan – How do we stop him?
[5] 4chan – Waited until marriage
[6] Reddit – /lit/izen has a question
[7] Eclectic Memes – Let a fat nigga f--k
[8] Me.me – Scraped post
[9] Onsizzle – Scraped post
[11] Urban Dictionary – Chungus
[12] Reddit – Chungus Copypasta
[13] YouTube – Mass Effect Sovereign
[14] Reddit – Big Chungus
[15] Reddit – What is going on with Big Chungus?
[16] Reddit – I'm the original creator of Big Chungus AMA
[17] Reddit – /r/BigChungus
[18] Facebook – Justing Laufer's post
[19] Twitter – @fluffypkmn's post
[22] Reddit – Big Chungus
[23] Reddit – Mrs Chungus
[24] Facebook – Karen Chungus
[26] Reddit – /r/F--kYouKaren
[27] iFunny- Big Chungus 2016
[29] Twitter – @LooneyTunesWoM
[30] Tumblr – logarto original BigChungus post
[31] The Focus – John Green's Tumblr drama explained How his edited post got the rules changed
[32] European Union Intellectual Property Office – BIG CHUNGUS
[33] Twitter – @the_marmolade
[34] SVG.com – WHY MULTIVERSUS FANS THINK THIS INFAMOUS LOONEY TUNES MEME IS BEING ADDED
![Lingering Chungus [Wabbit Awakened] - Kingdom Hoops (Yoko Shimomura, Endigo/CG5, Quad CIty DJs)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CP5NG1DX8oY/hqdefault.jpg "Lingering Chungus [Wabbit Awakened] - Kingdom Hoops (Yoko Shimomura, Endigo/CG5, Quad CIty DJs)")
Top Comments
Adam DeLand
Dec 21, 2018 at 10:18AM EST
Octavarium
Dec 21, 2018 at 05:39PM EST in reply to