Tuba Man / Tuba Boss

Submission 30,344

About

Tuba Man, also known as Tuba Boss is a series of images and remix videos featuring photos of people wearing a tuba like a costume.

Origin

On February 27th, 2018, Instagram ^[2] user @stalopapi posted an image of a person wearing a tuba like a costume. They captioned the post, "Dark souls 4 leak" (shown below).

Spread

That day, Redditor^[6] ZarkingFrood42 shared the photo on the /r/photoshopbattles subreddit.^[4] The post received more than 39,000 reactions (91% upvoted) and 670 comments in less than three years (examples below).

The following day, Redditor^[5] Orangejuice269 posted a Tuba Man in the /r/Bossfight subreddit. The post received more than 1,900 points (98% upvoted) and 50 comments. Over the next few months, Tuba Man posts became so frequent that on July 11th, 2018, Reddit^[6] moderator TheVisi0nary wrote that the posting Tuba Man would result in a 7-day ban. Since then, the subreddit holds a Tuba Day on October 12th.^[7]

On May 6th, 2018, YouTuber Kat shared a video of a tarantula with a Bugle chip on its head. The post received more than 731,000 views in less than three years (shown below, right).

On October 21st, 2018, Redditor^[3] A-wild-meme shared a similar photo with the caption, "Lörd Tüba defender of instruments." The post received more than 20,000 points (95% upvoted) and 330 comments in less than two years (shown below).

On November 4th, 2019, YouTuber lizzardbord shared an image of a person wearing a tuba set to music. The video "tuba wizard boss theme" is inspired by the tarantula video. The post received more than 473,000 views in less than one year (shown below, left).

On June 24th, 2020, the same YouTuber posted another video featuring a picture of the tuba person. The post received more than 846,000 views in less than one month (shown below, right).