Where's Goku

About

Where's Goku refers to a series of memes in which the Dragon Ball character Goku is added to various images in an inconspicuous way, with another portion of the image highlighted with a red circle to act as a red herring. The format gained popularity on Twitter and Reddit in July 2021.

Origin

On July 6th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @Scope479 posted an official art from the 2020 video game OMORI with the character Goku from Dragon Ball edited in, writing "the dark secret of omori." Another portion of the image was highlighted to distract viewers' attention and prevent them from noticing the out-of-place character. The post (shown below) received over 4,300 retweets and 24,400 likes in three weeks.

Spread

On July 17th, 2021, Twitter^[1] user @_zigzagged_ posted the first derivative meme within the format, an Undertale meme that received over 9,300 retweets and 50,700 likes in one week (shown below).

On July 18th, Twitter^[2] user @Alphs20 posted an EarthBound version of the meme edited in the same fashion. The post received over 950 retweets and 4,400 likes in five days (shown below, left). On July 20th, Twitter^[3] user @Trickster____ posted an edited version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 title screen which received over 680 retweets and 3,800 likes in four days (shown below, right).

The format achieved viral popularity on July 21st, 2021, when Twitter^[4] user @Miike302 posted a version of the meme that received over 1,500 retweets and 14,300 likes in three days (shown below).

Starting on that day, the format saw significant spread on Twitter and Reddit, with versions parodying the trend also being posted.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References