друг / Apyr

Confirmed 2,082,928

Part of a series on Cursed Images. [View Related Entries]

About

друг, sometimes written as Дpyг or Apyr, pronounced "droog", is the nickname of a cryptid featured in a cursed image of a Deathclaw from the Fallout video game series. The creature is named after the Russian word for "friend," pronounced "droog" or "drook."

Origin

On August 25th, 2015, Imgur^[4] user hieronymus7z uploaded a gallery titled "Fallout photo manipulations," which featured a picture of a Deathclaw creature from the Fallout video game series (shown below).

On March 9th, 2017, Twitter user @videodante^[8] posted an image macro featuring four different stereotypes associated with men from the American South (shown below, left). Within one year, the tweet gained over 2,400 likes and 1,400 retweets. On April 1st, Redditor The_Fool-On-The_Hill reposted the image to /r/4PanelCringe,^[3] where it received more than 520 points (100% upvoted) and 40 comments prior to being archived. On April 2nd, 2018, Twitter user @korolevcross tweeted the image labeling the Deathclaw as "друг" in the bottom left panel (shown below, right). Within two weeks days, the tweet gained over 1,800 likes and 920 retweets.^[10]

Spread

On April 2nd, 2018, YouTuber PewDiePie tweeted the image labeling the Deathclaw as "друг" in the bottom left panel (shown below, right). Within 14 days, the tweet gained over 36,000 likes and 3,700 retweets.^[1]

On April 4th, Redditor YaBoiRexTillerson reposted the image to /r/cursedimages,^[2] where it gathered upwards of 1,200 points (99% upvoted) and 50 comments within two weeks. On April 7th, YouTuber Snowcial posted a video remix based on the image (shown below).

On April 15th, a picture of the creature was submitted in /r/dankmemes^[6] in a post titled "If naked women can make it to r/all why can't our boy ДРУГ ??" On April 16th, Instagram user kill.yuorself posted a fake Tinder profile for Apyr (shown below, left). That day, Twitter user @Keittaru^[9] posted a series of tweets professing a desire to breed with the creature (shown below, right).

On April 22nd, Ebaum'sworld^[11] published an article about the character titled "Apyr Is A Creepy New Gaming Meme That'll Leave You In Stitches."