Pirateposting

Submission 7,914

Part of a series on Recaption. [View Related Entries]

About

Pirateposting, also known as Pirate Posting, refers to a genre of shitposting and memes that add pirate words and phrases to pre-existing, exploitable meme templates, recaptioning the text with pirate slang such as "landlubber," "seas," "ahoy," "scurvy," "scallywag," "plunder" "booty" and "matey," among others. The memes also inserted pirate imagery like hats, skulls and eyepatches. Memes similar to pirate-posting were posted online as early as 2020, however, the trend became more notable on Instagram in 2022, and a year later, went even more viral on Twitter in early 2023, predominantly due to the gimmick account on Twitter @pirate_posting. Pirate-posting also surfaced on iFunny. The trend was inspired by TikTok's Pirate Irony as well as Alien-posting and Wizard-posting.

Origin

Although pirate-posting became a notable meme trend in early 2023, meme templates that were re-edited with pirate imagery and pirate slang were shared prior to 2023. For instance, an early example was shared by iFunnyer^[1] @frog on November 27th, 2020, which used the Average Fan vs. Average Enjoyer template, gaining over 80 smiles in three years ( shown below, left). On February 6th, 2022, iFunnyer^[2] @Stompfme posted an exploited version of You Should Kill Yourself… Now! in which the text read, "You Should Walk The Plank… Now!" The post earned 12 smiles in one year (shown below, right). Both posts are currently the first discovered sharings of the images.

On May 31st, 2022, Instagram^[3] user @accidental_indie_memes posted a re-edited Would You Guys Still Like Me If I Became Emo? meme, instead saying, "Would You Guys Still Like Me If I Had Scurvy?" The post gained roughly 1,500 likes in one year (shown below, left). The meme then led to a similar iteration (shown below, right) that was first shared to iFunny^[4] but later went viral on Instagram^[5] in October 2022. The scurvy-related meme would go on to inspire pirate-posting memes on Twitter^[6] in early 2023.

Precursor

1700s Sea Shanties

Starting in 2018, memes about 1700s Sea Shanties surfaced online, predominantly using a GIF of a Pirate with a Radio (shown below, left). the satirical adoration of 1700s Sea Shanties spread to YouTube in 2018, eventually leading to more memes about Sea Shanties going into the 2020s.

Spread

In late 2022, pirate-posting spread to Reddit's /r/OkBuddyRetard ^[7] subreddit. In early 2023, pirate memes and pirate-posting became more commonplace on Instagram. For instance, on January 2nd, 2023, Instagram^[8] user @trashcanpaul shared a meme that used the word "scallywags" gaining roughly 73,900 likes in four months (shown below, left). On February 16th, 2023, Instgram^[9] user @_slavburger_ posted an exploited meme featuring Goku which received over 150 likes in three months (shown below, right). It is currently unknown if @_slavburger_ is the original creator. Reposts of it were made to iFunny^[10] in late March.

Pirate Irony / There Be Treasure

On March 8th, 2023, TikToker^[11] @nokia95015 posted a video that stemmed from their history of Gamblecore videos and instead made a Hood Irony adjacent video that used pirate visuals such as greenscreen silhouettes fighting, gold doubloons, treasure chests and a pirate ship sailing. The video also used many free-to-download sound effects such as a pirate shouting "There be treasure!" and the SpongeBob SquarePants rendition of the song "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?"^[12] Over the course of one month, the video gained roughly 436,500 plays and 99,800 likes (shown below).

The aforementioned video started the Pirate Irony trend on TikTok, eventually leading to a tweet posted by Twitter^[13] user @kickfliptomboys that humorously labeled the video as episode 30 of One Piece. The tweet earned cross-platform virality on iFunny^[14] and eventually inspired the You Should Play X It's So Good / The Gameplay: trend.

@pirate_posting on Twitter

On April 18th, 2023, the Twitter^[15] gimmick account @pirate_posting uploaded its first tweet. About an hour later, @pirate_posting uploaded a secondary tweet^[16] that received roughly 1,000 likes in 15 days (shown below, left). The tweet called for pirate-posting submissions and the account, as a whole, was based on the alien-posting Twitter^[17] account @alienpostingg. @pirate_posting soon went viral for pirate-posting memes. For instance, on April 18th, the account posted a tweet^[18] that included an edited Boykisser meme, gaining roughly 1,000 likes in 15 days (shown below, right).

The account became increasingly viral in late April 2023, continuing to exploit recognizable templates. For instance, on April 20th, 2023, @pirate_posting posted a tweet^[19] with a My Brother In Christ meme, gaining roughly 9,300 likes in 13 days (shown below, left). On April 21st, 2023, a tweet^[20] was posted by @pirate_posting that included a Worst Person You Know Made a Great Point meme, gaining roughly 39,800 likes in 12 days (shown below, right).

Starting on April 26th, 2023, many memes from @pirate_posting were reposted to iFunny^[21]^[22] as well as to Instagram.^[23]

Rules of the Pirate Code

Rules of the Pirate Code refers to a series of Pirateposting memes which list made-up humorous and wholesome rules from the pirate code. Spawned by a viral image macro, the format gained popularity online in September 2023 and shares similarities and style with the Edgy Skeletons format.

Alienposting

Alien-posting, also known as Alienposting, Green Alien-posting or Green Alien Animals, refers to edited and Photoshopped images of animals and meme characters made to look like green aliens with antennas who speak an incoherent language. The trend started in late 2022 when the alien dog Geeble was created, being an edited version of the Handheld Pupper photo. Then, Gnarp Gnarp surfaced: a green alien cat. Both images led to more animal photos being crudely-edited, including captions and text that read like an alien language, including many "eeb" and "orp" sounds, made to be nonsensical, using chaotic characters and foreign letters.