Mind Goblin

Submission 16,946

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About

Mind Goblin is a Ligma-type joke that involves one person baiting another into asking about mind goblins and then responding "mind goblin deez nuts" ("mind gobbling these nuts?"). The joke saw use online since May 2021, spreading over the following years. Additionally, "mind goblin" is an earlier slang expression coined by Super Best Friends Play used to describe gaming quirks rooted in psychology, such as never using potions or money, looting every container, etc.

Origin

Gaming Slang

In gaming culture, and in the Super Best Friends Play community in particular, "mind goblin" is a term used to describe a quirk, usually detrimental to gameplay and enjoyment of the game, rooted in the gamer's psychological traits. A common "mind goblin" is one's perceived necessity to hoard useful items, saving them for "a big moment," often resulting in never making use of them.

The term was coined by Paige Boivin,^[1] the wife of Pat Bolvin of Super Best Friends Play YouTube channel, sometime before April 2019,^[2] and was popularized by Pat and other members of the channel in subsequent years.

Bait Joke

On May 20th, 2021, Redditor digbickenergee made the earliest found post with a Ligma-type bait joke exploiting the similar pronunciation of "mind goblin" and "mind gobbling." The post, a screenshot of a Discord conversation in which a person falls for the bait, received nearly 50 upvotes in the /r/Ligma^[3] subreddit in two years (shown below).

Spread

The bait joke received further spread online through the June to August period of 2021. For example, on July 14th, 2021, YouTuber^[4] and streamer Sips posted a clip in which he baited the chat into asking him about the mind goblin. The video (shown below) received over 44,000 views in two years.

In July 2021, a three-panel On Your Left meme captioned with the joke format saw viral spread on Facebook^[5] and Instagram^[6] (shown below, left). On August 22nd, 2021, iFunny^[7] user HystericalPosts posted a screenshot of a Snapchat conversation in which a person falls for the bait. The post (shown below, right) was featured and received over 55,200 smiles in two years.