Thrembo

About

Thrembo (represented with the symbols ჭ, ∃ or most commonly Ϫ) is a slang term for a fictional number (specifically an integer) between 6 and 7 that was first seen on 4chan in mid-2021, specifically within the question-answer board /qa/ but also used on other boards like /sci/ and /pol/ going into the rest of 2021. Images and references to thrembo spread to other platforms like Reddit and iFunny going into early 2022, becoming an ironic conspiracy theory or hoax used as an exploitable reference.

Origin

"Derf" From iCarly

As a precursor to thrembo, in the 23rd episode of the second season of Nickelodeon's iCarly, titled "iTwins," a main plot point in the episode is the imaginary number "Derf," which exists between 5 and 6. Carly makes up the number in the episode to get revenge on the character Chuck, who she is tutoring in math (image of Derf taken from iCarly's Fandom^[8] site is shown below). Thrembo may have taken inspiration from Derf.

"Thrembo" Origin

On August 11th, 2021, an anonymous 4chan user made a post to the /qa/^[1] messageboard stating, "There is NO number between six and seven called "thrembo." Thrembo does not exist. Take your meds," using an image of an angry, red-faced Soyjak wearing an "I (Heart) Science" T-shirt. The thread (shown below) was added onto by other 4chan users, like one who said, "Ugh, this guy believes in thrembo? He must be a schizo," referring to the meme trend of Schizoposting. The same exact thread was made on /v/ a few hours later.

Spread

On August 31st, 2021, a 4chan user ironically referenced the COVID-19 Omicron Variant within the thrembo discourse (shown below).

On September 28th, 2021, a user in 4chan's /sci/^[2] messageboard mentioned it within a thread, stating, "The smallest number without wiki page is thrembo," in an attempt to prove an ironic point. A month later, on October 15th, a 4chan thread was shared as a greentext screenshot to Reddit's /r/4chan,^[3] depicting more discourse about thrembo and referencing Soyjaks and Schizpoposting (shown below). The Reddit post received 90 upvotes over the course of three months.

On October 23rd, the discourse surrounding thrembo surfaced again on 4chan's /sci/.^[4] This time, an anonymous user stated, "Where can I buy a thrembometer?" in reference to the thread shown above. This new thread (shown below) received multiple responses, many of them still referencing Soyjaks and Schizoposting.

In November 2021, 4chan users started making variants of the word "thrembo" like “thrembologist” and "thrembonites," similar to Wumbo memes from SpongeBob SquarePants. One such example appeared in a thread posted on November 1st (shown below).

On November 14th, 2021, the /r/thrembo^[9] subreddit was created. Over the course of three months, the subreddit accumulated roughly 1,200 members.

On December 3rd, the original thrembo thread was posted to iFunny^[4] by iFunnier Squidwater_2014. the post was featured and received roughly 18,000 smiles over the course of one month. This inspired more thrembo memes to appear on the platform. For instance, on December 10th, iFunnier^[5] Astro posted a meme that used the Pill Time meme format (shown below). It was also featured, and over the course of one month, it received roughly 6,300 smiles.

Instagram^[6] page mememonk_ reposted the above meme the same day, earning roughly 33,700 likes in the same amount of time. More memes, however, were posted to iFunny going into January 2022. For instance, iFunnier^[7] YouAreAFatRetard posted a GIF Caption on January 6th, 2022, that received roughly 16,900 smiles over the course of 12 days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References