My Name Is Lewis / I Am Not A Jack-O-Lantern

About

My Name Is Lewis or I Am Not A Jack-O-Lantern refer to a Halloween decoration and pumpkin animatronic sold at Target that became the subject of fan art, memes and viral videos when his catchphrases "I am not a jack-o-lantern. My name is Lewis" were recorded and posted to TikTok in September and October 2023. Lewis' product name for Target is "8' Light and Sound Pumpkin Halloween Ghoul." Overall, Lewis became heavily associated with LGBTQ+ TikTokers who made content about his imagined preferences, centering on his catchphrases and his "heh, heh, heh" laugh. The decoration shares some similarities to the viral 12-Foot Tall Home Depot Skeleton that trended online in late 2020.

Origin

On September 27th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @imshannonduh posted a video from her local Target store in which she and a friend were playing with a jack-o-lantern animatronic who said, "I am not a jack-o-lantern. My name is Lewis." Over the course of six days, the video received roughly 2 million plays and 531,300 likes (shown below). On Target's website,^[6] the animatronic is called a "Light and Sound Pumpkin Halloween Ghoul."

Spread

Soon after the original video's upload, others on the app started to record Lewis in their own Target locations, such as TikToker^[2] @kelseysontiktok on September 28th, 2023, whose video gained roughly 248,700 plays and 13,900 likes in five days (shown below, left). On September 30th, TikToker^[3] @spidermansyd_ posted a video of Lewis, gaining roughly 2.4 million plays and 264,400 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Fan edits started to surface on the app in the same timeframe, such as one posted by TikToker^[4] @notajackolantern on October 1st, 2023, which received roughly 792,600 plays and 223,200 likes in two days (shown below, left). Fan art started to accrue as well, such as in a video uploaded by TikToker^[5] @basic.amoeba on September 30th, receiving roughly 534,900 plays and 137,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References