Kerfuś

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About

Kerfuś is a Polish, grocery store robot within Carrefour (Carrefoura) brand stores that resembles a cat. The company that makes the cat robot known as Kerfuś is called Pudu Robotics, a Shenzen-based company. The robot's actual model name is the BellaBot and trended as the Jollibot in April 2022. The nickname Kerfuś became prevalent in memes within Polish-speaking circles on Twitter, TikTok and Reddit in October 2022, directly following viral videos that surfaced of Kerfuś talking to customers and meowing. Many found the robot cute and wholesome, resulting in the creation of fan art, redraws and its addition into exploitable meme templates. Rule 34 Kerfuś art also surfaced amid Robot Fetishism trends. It is often seen with the Pepsi and KFC logos drawn on it.

Origin

On January 24th, 2021, the YouTube channel of Pudu Robotics uploaded its first promotional video for the BellaBot, gaining roughly 247,300 views in a year and a half (shown below, left). On February 19th, 2021, Pudu Robotics uploaded another video to YouTube that showcased their BellaBot serving food in a restaurant. In the same time period, the video received roughly 1.5 million views (shown below, right). Pudu Robotics also created a webpage^[14] for the BellaBot which gives potential customers and investors more information.

On January 22nd, 2022, TikToker^[13] yukaturgeneva posted a video in which she displayed a new BellaBot in the Russian town of Innopolis (Иннополисе). The video received roughly 3.6 million plays and 487,700 likes in nine months (shown below). Prior to this, the BellaBot had surfaced in businesses throughout Canada,^[15] Spain^[16] and Taiwan,^[17] among other countries.

In April 2022, the BellaBot model trended as Jollibot due to its addition to Jollibee fast food restaurants in the Phillipines (YouTube video shown below, left). Twitter^[18] users created Rule 34-esque art for the Jollibot, earning mass enagagment (shown below, right).

On September 22nd, 2022, the Facebook ^[1] page of Carrefour grocery stores, based in Warsaw, Poland, posted a video that announced "a new team member" named Kerfuś who's a motion censor robot that roams the store, cleverly avoids obstacles and greets customers. Over the course of one month, the Facebook post received roughly 2,200 views and over 70 reactions (shown below). The post officially dubbed the Polish BellaBot Kerfuś.

❣️ Poznaj Kerfusia❣️
Od wczoraj mamy nowego członka zespołu! Przyjdź do #CarrefourArkadia i przywitaj się z sympatyczną postacią🤖!
Kerfuś krąży po alejkach, sprytnie omija przeszkody witając naszych Klientów!
☀️Uśmiech i dobry humor na cały dzień gwarantowany😁

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Also on September 22nd, 2022, TikToker^[2] khghjvfrh posted the first-known, non-promotional video of Kerfuś, gaining roughly 532,700 plays and 65,200 likes in one month (shown below, left). Following the virality of TikToker khghjvfrh's video, other Polish TikTokers posted their videos of Kerfuś as they stumbled upon it roaming their local Carrefour. On September 23rd, 2022, TikToker^[3] whats_on_the_diary_today posted a video of Kerfuś, gaining roughly 70,600 plays and 3,300 likes in one month (shown below, right).

Kerfuś-posting then spread to Twitter. On September 23rd, 2022, Twitter^[4] user gutekofiszjal tweeted a photo of a Kerfuś robot, captioning it, "Taki słodziak podał mi pizzę 😳😳😳," which translates in English to, "Such a sweetie gave me a pizza 😳😳😳." In one month, the tweet received roughly 6,800 likes (shown below, left). Later on September 23rd, Twitter^[5] user MothMusume tweeted a screenshot of whats_on_the_diary_today's TikTok,^[3] captioning it, "POWIEDZCIE MI BŁAGAM GDZIE SPOTKAM KERFUSIA," which translates to, "TELL ME, PLEASE WHERE I WILL MEET KERFUŚ." The tweet received roughly 8,800 likes in one month (shown below, right).

As more TikTok^[6] and Twitter^[7] videos surfaced regarding Kerfuś in October 2022, the memes spread to Reddit where the /r/kerfus^[8] subreddit was created on October 18th, 2022. Memes surfaced elsewhere on Reddit too. For instance, on October 18th, 2022, Redditor Quba28 shared a Kerfuś meme to /r/Polska_wpz,^[9] gaining roughly 1,100 upvotes in two days (shown below, left). Also on October 18th, Redditor NVCHVJAZVJE shared a Kerfuś meme to /r/Polska_wpz^[10] that followed a Drakeposting format, gaining roughly 1,100 upvotes in two days (shown below, right).

Fan Art / Redraws / Rule 34

Kerfuś fan art and redraws also emerged in October 2022. For instance, on October 13th, 2022, Twitter^[11] user POCHOWEK drew Kerfuś with two knives, gaining roughly 8,400 likes in one week (shown below, left). On October 19th, 2022, Twitter^[12] user PaulMcIcedTea drew a more NSFW and Rule 34 version of Kerfuś, captioning it, "Kerfuś my beloved 🥺 they just want to sell chips but people keep petting the ears,,," and gaining roughly 10,900 likes in one day (shown below, right).