Yoshi Backshots Sticker

Submission 171

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

About

Yoshi Backshots Sticker is a colloquial name given to a sticker in the 2021 Nintendo video game Mario Party Superstars depicting the character Yoshi breathing out as if in exasperation or resignation. Online, the sticker has become a subject of various jokes and memes due to a similarity between Yoshi's pose and that of a backshots recipient. In late 2024 when Super Mario Party Jamboree was released and the sticker was changed, it caused a resurgence in the meme as people lamented the removal of the sticker.

Origin

On October 29th, 2021, the party video game Mario Party Superstars of the Mario Party series was released for the Nintendo Switch. In the video game, players are able to collect stickers featuring characters from the game and use the stickers as reactions while playing. One such sticker, Yoshi's "Whaaat?!" sticker, is an image of the character Yoshi breathing out in exasperation or resignation (shown below).^[1]

On October 23rd, 2021, X^[2] user @GamesCage_ posted several images of stickers from the upcoming game, including the Yoshi sticker. Later on the same day, several users on X^[3]^[4] commented on the post, writing that the sticker reminded them of a sexual act (example post shown below).

Spread

In the following years, the sticker appeared in multiple posts in which users made jokes about Yoshi participating in a sexual activity in it. Notably, on January 3rd, 2022, Redditor _Speedemon_ posted the sticker in the /r/theyknew^[5] subreddit, where it received over 3,000 upvotes in three years (shown below).

On July 13th, 2023, TikTok^[6] user @sindervtuber posted a video about the sticker that received over 9,300 likes in one year (shown below).

On July 31st, 2024, X^[7] user @mayormug made the earliest discovered post referring to the emote as "backshots Yoshi," referencing the "backshots" sexual position and slang term.

On October 17th, 2024, the party video game Super Mario Party Jamboree was released. On October 18th, X^[8] user @UltimaShadowX posted the sticker together with a new Yoshi sticker that replaced it in the game, commenting, "THEY RUINED THE YOSHI BACKSHOTS STICKER." The post (shown below) received over 16,000 reposts and 274,000 likes in five days.

The post saw viral spread online through reposts^[9]^[10] in the following days and inspired memes.^[11]