guides
What In The World Is 'Zumbo Sauce'? The 'Mascot Horror' Meme Showing The State Of Children's Media Explained
There's no doubt that the new era of unfiltered internet access has given young children some bizarre hobbies and interests, but perhaps no trend better depicts their strange modern proclivities than young children's obsession with mascot horror and Roblox.
A video of a young boy showing off his creepy mascot collection on Roblox has become the subject of some relentless parodies on TikTok over the past week, and a brief look at this Zumbo Sauce trend does less than explain why young kids would willingly horrify themselves with creepy versions of children's mascots. Here's a dive into the trend that shows a look into children's media today.
What Is 'Mascot Horror'?
Mascot horror is the name given to a genre of horror-themed media that is often aimed at children, with characters in such games typically being creepy versions of toy-like villains. Some examples of mascot horror games are Five Nights At Freddy's, which features various creepy animatronics, and Poppy Playtime, which takes place in an abandoned doll factory.
Such games are theorized to be pandering directly to children, given that the characters in these games can easily be turned into merchandise, and a not-so-insignificant part of the audience is typically understood to be children who are watching YouTubers.
Who Is 'Zumbo Sauce'?
Zumbo Sauce is a made-up name given to a Roblox character by an unknown child who uploaded a video showing off his Roblox roster which was filled with creepy children's horror mascots. The boy asked his viewers, "Guys, what one is your favorite? Huggy Wuggy, Seek, Scary Blue, Zumbo Sauce," and continued to list characters.
The video has since been turned into a copypasta meme with two variations, including one posted by Redditor SuperStamps to /r/copypasta
guys what one is yor favorite huggy wuggy seek scawy blue, shumbo shosh, banben, uh nam nab, um, i forgot his name the frog doode and um yeah, flosaleene, bambalina, stingr flin, opeela bord, en awsum huggy wuggy, ish jus uh me but like i don wanna use it, a blue n, o i mean um pissy missy, scawy rehly, um chu chu chawuls, but boxy boo but like not evil, and we have eViL bOxY bOo 👻, yeah uh squid game huggy wuggy, yea baby huggy wuggy, en blue, en freddy basbe un 🐷 e ungo, we have crepy green, we have um, happy huggy, wuhggy look how ha--pee hes, and we have um whot da he b̷̫̞̑̅͠o̸̲̎̽ ̴͙̕b̵̨͉̗̊́͜͠e̸̺͖̋̀̃, we have um nobudy cares huggy wu-
How Did The 'Zumbo Sauce' Video Become A Meme?
Various TikTokers that stumbled across the aforementioned video found the boy's horror roster and delivery funny and went on to make remixes and edits using his characters. Some people used AI voice generators to make changes to the lineup, and others changed the roster itself.
For the full history of Zumbo Sauce, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.