About

"Brock's Doughnuts" as referred to as "Jelly-Filled Doughnuts" (sometimes spelled "donut") refers to Brock, one of the protagonists in the Pokémon anime series, calling rice balls (onigiri) "Jelly Doughnuts" in the 4kids English dub of the series. Online, the change, made ostensibly to make the series accessible to western audiences, has been mocked as a notable example of poor localization.

Origin

The dubs of anime done by 4Kids are known to be filled with changes which were done under the impression that it would make the anime fit better for western audiences.^[1] In the Pokemon anime, various food items present in the original anime and common in Japan were renamed or replaced by ones more common to people in the west. While these changes generally disliked by many viewers, the most notable instance of this was in Episode 25: Primeape Goes Bananas, in which Brock repeatedly refers to the rice ball in his hand as a "jelly-filled doughnut" (shown below).

Spread

In the Pokémon fandom, the series' practice of calling rice balls doughnuts, and particularly that scene, have long been mocked. On April 4th, 2011, YouTuber LaymanIX evidently reposted a compilation of 4kids calling rice balls "doughnuts" in the series, gaining over 300,000 views (shown below, left). On October 8th, 2008, YouTuber liberate posted an edit of another scene in which Brock is actually making a rice ball but spliced in the "jelly-filled doughnut" scene, gaining over 235,000 views (shown below, right). The popularity of the edits has also led to the phrase "4kids hates rice balls" a meme in the Pokémon fandom.^[2][3]

The scene from Primeape Goes Bananas also became a meme in the Pokémon fandom. Some edits include a post by Twitter user @ThatFemaleTroll that depicted Brock as a rice ball eating little Brocks (shown below, left). A post depicting Brock as a Mii with a rice ball circulated around Tumblr^[4] in the mid 2010s (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References