Pumpkin Guy / Guy Yelling Pumpkin

About

Pumpkin Guy also known as Guy Shouting Pumpkin is a viral sound effect of a man shouting the word pumpkin during a YouTube video when asked what his favorite vegetable is. The force at which he says the word, combined with his pitch and facial expression, lead to it being used as a meme that would spike in popularity every Spooktober since it began appearing in early 2021. It's usage has fluctuated between being used as a Jumpscare inside other memes, or just having the phrase edited to be faster or slower in YouTube edits.

Origin

On January 29th, 2021, the YouTuber ThatBritishGuy^[1] uploaded a video titled 'Whats Your Favorite Vegetable' before showing several people with various disabilities answering the question. Halfway through the video, after the answer 'Peas' is given, the word "Pumpkin!" is shouted with gusto. This upload (shown below) received 1.1 million views in three years, while a similar re-upload that took off the intro and outro that was posted a month later received 3.8 million views in three years.

Shortly after the videos release, many different content creators attempted to create their own memes using Pumpkin Guy. On February 19th and 21st, the YouTubers Dougie^[2] and Jhgreen28^[3] both uploaded videos to YouTube in which the Pumpkin Guy is used in a tense, scary way. This is done in both videos by including the echo from the original video, as well as having Pumpkin Guy appear as a jump scare and shouting the word 'Pumpkin', with both videos attaining over 150,000 views in three years each (shown below, left and right).

Spread

After the initial edits of the context, the video began to be changed in different ways while still being uploaded. On February 21st and March 7th, 2021, the YouTubers BigBlue^[4] and Meaning of Life^[5] both uploaded their own variations on the original video. BigBlue's version, which focused on the different types of vocal adjustment that could be made to the original sound clip, received 340,000 views in three years while Meaning of Life's version, which was only about speeding it up slightly faster and faster, received only 104,000 views in three years (shown below, left and right).

The meme stayed relatively quiet over the following years, only seeing usage when it was near October as a part of Spooktober edits. In 2024, it saw a spike before Halloween, as it was used in a viral example by the TikToker zendaddy247^[6] who used it as a Subtle Foreshadowing meme, and earned over 1.1 million likes in five days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References