As a lifelong Pokémon fan and self-described “very online” millennial, I am quite familiar with internet culture and trends – including irreverent viral memes. Recently while browsing gaming forums, I came across renewed controversy regarding the now infamous “Vaporeon CopyPasta.” This prompted me to analyze the meme and its criticisms more closely.
Revisiting the Infamous CopyPasta
For the uninitiated, here is the full original 200-word 4chan post that spawned this enduring phenomenon:
Hey guys, did you know that in terms of male human and female Pokémon breeding…
[entire graphic copypasta text omitted for brevity]Clearly this piece of text is intended purely for shock value. But while critics argue it implicitly promotes bestiality and the sexualization of Pokémon, defenders claim it should be viewed as absurdist dark humor rather than a serious sentiment. As a middle ground, perhaps we could at least praise the anonymous author’s vivid creativity in weaving this faux scientific analysis regarding Vaporeon’s sexual compatibility.
Statistics on the Meme’s Prevalence
According to Google Trends data, search interest for the term “vaporeon copypasta” has remained high since 2016 with particular spikes this year.
![vaporeon copypasta google trends chart]
On Reddit, the main “r/copypasta” subreddit hub for such memes has over 452,000 members. Of memes posted over the past year on that subreddit, the Vaporeon variant ranks #7 in upvotes. Clearly this signals ongoing engagement.
Additionally, prominent Instagram meme aggregation accounts like “@grassmon” display Vaporeon content regularly to hundreds of thousands of collective followers – though often removed quickly by content moderation.
So while it originated years ago on 4chan itself, this meme’s online prevalence has persisted and even grown rather than merely being a short-lived phase.
Criticism of the Meme from Animal Rights Activists
From mainstream media think pieces to videos by animal welfare advocates, a common criticism emerges that jokes about sexually exploiting fictional creatures help reinforce real exploitation. For example, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk slammed Pokemon itself in a 2019 open letter:
“Pokémon teaches children that weak creatures exist for humans to trap, enslave, exploit, and abuse.”
Similarly, over 75,000 people signed a 2020 petition requesting Nintendo & The Pokémon Company “explicitly denounce bestiality in the Pokémon universe.”
While clearly satirical in tone, activists feel such petitions raise valid concerns about potential effects of normalizing abuse themes even in fantasy contexts. They compare it to problematic tropes in film, advertising and other media that objectify women or make light of assault.
Counter-arguments from Free Speech Advocates
However, others including libertarians, free speech extremists and some factions of the online “Intellectual Dark Web” movement see attempts to regulate innocuous fictional media – no matter how offensive – as authoritarian overreach violating personal liberties. They dispute whether memes tangibly influence behavior in reality.
For example, Professor of Psychology Jordan Peterson defends the right to explore even taboo themes or morbid curiosities privately through fiction, games, jokes or art as an alternative to outward harm. Shock humor in particular serves as a societal “pressure relief valve.”
“People’s sexual proclivities and their sexual fantasies are none of my business because they don’t manifest themselves in action.” – Jordan Peterson
And given Japan’s own attitudes toward fantasy media as seperate from reality, attempts to judge Pokémon through a western moral lens proves selectively biased.
Gamer Culture and Edgy Humor
As an avid gamer myself active in online communities, I gravitate toward this latter view. Gamers frequently embrace darker humor and explorations of morality in virtual worlds very differently than reality.
Tabletop roleplayers explore war crimes, criminality and moral dilemmas from fiction all the time without judgement. And games like Grand Theft Auto let us indirectly experience exaggerated criminality and violence as escapism. Memes follow similar thinking – serving as entertainment and mental experiments rather than sincere mindsets.
Additionally, the evolution of language itself leads to dichotomies – words gain ironic uses straying far from original meanings. To assume harmful intent rather than first clarifying context risks falsely vilifying artists over subjective interpretations.
And regarding sexual themes specifically – Rule 34 itself ominously states: "If it exists, there IS porn of it. No exceptions." Given this expectation codified early in internet culture, why single out Pokémon as uniquely exempt? All media franchises with personified character rosters suffer similar perverse treatment by fans. The very absence of such content seems more unusual than its existence.
My Conclusion
In the end, while I understand critics who express discomfort with such objectifying humor, it seems unreasonable to mark satirical fantasy memes as legally problematic or evidence of psychological crisis rather than accepting taboo explorations as inevitable in free societies.
The spread of the Vaporeon copypasta marks neither moral progress nor decay, but simply documents cultural curiosity. And given Japan’s integral role in developing Pokémon itself, differing eastern/western norms must allow for moral relativism when judging such abstract media.
If individuals do develop unhealthy attitudes or behaviors around fictional characters, the root psychological causes surely originate internally or from personal trauma rather than external viral jokes alone. Banning or demonizing dark humor unlikely meaningfully improves public health.
And legally, American court precedents strongly defend freedom of speech and creative expression except direct threats/incitement. So while the meme proves distasteful to modern sensibilities – even breeding some niche subcultures online – it should remain protected speech.
In conclusion, perhaps the best policy sits with avoiding knee-jerk reactions either vilifying or defending such edgy internet content lest we fulfill that old trope about old people failing to “get” youth culture. Instead we should acknowledge memes like the Vaporeon copypasta as relatively harmless symptoms of a strange modern age testing moral boundaries…albeit symptoms still worth analyzing intellectually.