Ambien Walrus

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About

Ambien Walrus is a character created by the webcomic Toothpaste For Dinner. The character is a walrus who appears when the protagonist takes an Ambien, a a brand of the drug zolpidem used to treat sleeping disorders that can cause hallucinations and memory loss as a side effect. Taken recreationally, Ambien users have reported that they have later discovered they've made strange and sometimes poor choices on the drug. The Ambien walrus character grew popular in the Ambien community as a fictional character who encourages those decisions.

Origin

On December 6th, 2007, Toothpaste For Dinner^[1] posted the first comic featuring the Ambien walrus, who tells the user to "kill his parents" (shown below).

Spread

In the following years, Toothpaste For Dinner posted several more comics featuring the character (examples shown below).

The character became well known in the Ambien community as users found the character relatable to their experience. A compilation was posted to an Ambien-devoted blogspot in 2011.^[2] A 2016 article on milk.xyz^[3] referred to the wild stories people shared about their experiences with the drug as the fault of the Ambien walrus. The character is often referenced on /r/ambien,^[4] a subreddit devoted to stories and conversations about the drug. For example, some of the most popular posts on the subreddit are titled, "The walrus made me snapchat myself inserting suppositories up my ass."^[5] and "I am not a ghostfmuster. I was per culturaly wanting to cvisir and see if this walrus fella is real."^[6] The walrus was mentioned in articles about the subreddit in Mashable^[7] and Select All.^[8]