Fanart Retweet

2017Web series / social media campaigndead

Also known as: Please Retweet · Diaper Toad

Fanart Retweet is a 2017 web series by Polygon's Patrick Gill that chronicled his viral campaign to get Nintendo of America to retweet fan art of Toad wearing a diaper, which spawned its own fanart wave and official Nintendo response.

Fanart Retweet, better known as "Please Retweet," is a 2017 web series by Polygon video producer Patrick Gill in which he repeatedly tried to get the official Nintendo of America Twitter account to retweet fan art of the Super Mario character Toad wearing a diaper. The campaign spawned its own wave of fan art, a custom Amiibo, and a cheeky official response from Nintendo.

polygon memesmariofan art memesnintendo memes2017 memes

TL;DR

Fanart Retweet, better known as "Please Retweet," is a 2017 web series by Polygon video producer Patrick Gill in which he repeatedly tried to get the official Nintendo of America Twitter account to retweet fan art of the Super Mario character Toad wearing a diaper.

Overview

The premise was simple and absurd: Patrick Gill, a video producer at Polygon, drew Toad from Super Mario wearing a diaper and then dedicated an entire video series to getting Nintendo of America's official Twitter account to retweet it1. Each episode explored a different strategy for convincing the brand account to engage with this deeply cursed piece of fan art. The humor came from the contrast between the professional, corporate nature of Nintendo's social media presence and the sheer weirdness of the request.

On April 10, 2017, Gill uploaded the first episode of "Please Retweet" to Polygon's YouTube channel1. The series format had Gill trying various tactics to coax a retweet out of the @NintendoAmerica Twitter account, all centered on his original drawing of Toad in a diaper. The first video picked up over 66,000 views, and the accompanying tweet pulled in more than 2,100 retweets and 3,200 likes1.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (Polygon), Twitter
Creator
Patrick Gill
Date
2017
Year
2017

On April 10, 2017, Gill uploaded the first episode of "Please Retweet" to Polygon's YouTube channel. The series format had Gill trying various tactics to coax a retweet out of the @NintendoAmerica Twitter account, all centered on his original drawing of Toad in a diaper. The first video picked up over 66,000 views, and the accompanying tweet pulled in more than 2,100 retweets and 3,200 likes.

How It Spread

The Diaper Toad image took on a life of its own beyond Gill's videos. On June 10, 2017, artist @marcoscrislop posted his own fan art rendition of the diapered Toad on Twitter, which blew up to over 42,000 retweets and 59,000 likes. Custom Amiibo artist @MissGandaKris built a physical Amiibo version of the character, earning over 730 retweets and 2,500 likes. A Twitter Moment dedicated to the Toad collected more than 1,300 likes.

The series hit a turning point on May 15, 2017, when Gill uploaded the sixth episode, attempting to use humor to win Nintendo over. That same day, Nintendo of America's Twitter account responded with a joke that referenced the campaign alongside an image of the original Toad character, acknowledging the bit without actually retweeting the image. Nintendo's reply pulled in over 9,800 retweets and 10,000 likes, dwarfing the original tweet's numbers.

The Diaper Toad fan art also crossed into traditional media when it was mentioned on the June 15, 2017 episode of Comedy Central's game show @Midnight.

Platforms

TwitterTwitterReddit

Timeline

2023-01-15

First appears

2023-06-01

Goes viral

2024-01-01

Continues in use

2025-01-01

Fanart Retweet is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The meme format itself is less of a reusable template and more of a specific cultural moment. The broader joke, trying to get a corporate social media account to engage with bizarre fan art, inspired similar stunts on Twitter. People would tag brand accounts with intentionally weird art or requests, echoing Gill's persistence.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Nintendo's decision to acknowledge the campaign without actually retweeting it became a small case study in how corporate social media accounts handle persistent fan engagement. The response threaded the needle between ignoring the bit entirely and fully endorsing a drawing of one of their characters in a diaper. The @Midnight mention on Comedy Central showed the joke had legs beyond internet-native audiences.

Fun Facts

Nintendo's response to the campaign got nearly five times more retweets than Gill's original tweet.

The fan art by @marcoscrislop outperformed every official Please Retweet tweet, hitting 42,000 retweets compared to the original's 2,100.

Despite the massive community effort, Nintendo never actually retweeted the Diaper Toad image.

Derivatives & Variations

Diaper Toad fan art

— Artists on Twitter created their own versions of the diapered Toad, with @marcoscrislop's version being the most viral at 42,000+ retweets[1].

Custom Diaper Toad Amiibo

— @MissGandaKris sculpted a physical Amiibo figure of the character[1].

Frequently Asked Questions

Fanart Retweet

2017Web series / social media campaigndead

Also known as: Please Retweet · Diaper Toad

Fanart Retweet is a 2017 web series by Polygon's Patrick Gill that chronicled his viral campaign to get Nintendo of America to retweet fan art of Toad wearing a diaper, which spawned its own fanart wave and official Nintendo response.

Fanart Retweet, better known as "Please Retweet," is a 2017 web series by Polygon video producer Patrick Gill in which he repeatedly tried to get the official Nintendo of America Twitter account to retweet fan art of the Super Mario character Toad wearing a diaper. The campaign spawned its own wave of fan art, a custom Amiibo, and a cheeky official response from Nintendo.

polygon memes mario fan art memes nintendo memes 2017 memes

TL;DR

Fanart Retweet, better known as "Please Retweet," is a 2017 web series by Polygon video producer Patrick Gill in which he repeatedly tried to get the official Nintendo of America Twitter account to retweet fan art of the Super Mario character Toad wearing a diaper.

Overview

The premise was simple and absurd: Patrick Gill, a video producer at Polygon, drew Toad from Super Mario wearing a diaper and then dedicated an entire video series to getting Nintendo of America's official Twitter account to retweet it. Each episode explored a different strategy for convincing the brand account to engage with this deeply cursed piece of fan art. The humor came from the contrast between the professional, corporate nature of Nintendo's social media presence and the sheer weirdness of the request.

On April 10, 2017, Gill uploaded the first episode of "Please Retweet" to Polygon's YouTube channel. The series format had Gill trying various tactics to coax a retweet out of the @NintendoAmerica Twitter account, all centered on his original drawing of Toad in a diaper. The first video picked up over 66,000 views, and the accompanying tweet pulled in more than 2,100 retweets and 3,200 likes.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (Polygon), Twitter
Creator
Patrick Gill
Date
2017
Year
2017

On April 10, 2017, Gill uploaded the first episode of "Please Retweet" to Polygon's YouTube channel. The series format had Gill trying various tactics to coax a retweet out of the @NintendoAmerica Twitter account, all centered on his original drawing of Toad in a diaper. The first video picked up over 66,000 views, and the accompanying tweet pulled in more than 2,100 retweets and 3,200 likes.

How It Spread

The Diaper Toad image took on a life of its own beyond Gill's videos. On June 10, 2017, artist @marcoscrislop posted his own fan art rendition of the diapered Toad on Twitter, which blew up to over 42,000 retweets and 59,000 likes. Custom Amiibo artist @MissGandaKris built a physical Amiibo version of the character, earning over 730 retweets and 2,500 likes. A Twitter Moment dedicated to the Toad collected more than 1,300 likes.

The series hit a turning point on May 15, 2017, when Gill uploaded the sixth episode, attempting to use humor to win Nintendo over. That same day, Nintendo of America's Twitter account responded with a joke that referenced the campaign alongside an image of the original Toad character, acknowledging the bit without actually retweeting the image. Nintendo's reply pulled in over 9,800 retweets and 10,000 likes, dwarfing the original tweet's numbers.

The Diaper Toad fan art also crossed into traditional media when it was mentioned on the June 15, 2017 episode of Comedy Central's game show @Midnight.

Platforms

TwitterTwitterReddit

Timeline

2023-01-15

First appears

2023-06-01

Goes viral

2024-01-01

Continues in use

2025-01-01

Fanart Retweet is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The meme format itself is less of a reusable template and more of a specific cultural moment. The broader joke, trying to get a corporate social media account to engage with bizarre fan art, inspired similar stunts on Twitter. People would tag brand accounts with intentionally weird art or requests, echoing Gill's persistence.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Nintendo's decision to acknowledge the campaign without actually retweeting it became a small case study in how corporate social media accounts handle persistent fan engagement. The response threaded the needle between ignoring the bit entirely and fully endorsing a drawing of one of their characters in a diaper. The @Midnight mention on Comedy Central showed the joke had legs beyond internet-native audiences.

Fun Facts

Nintendo's response to the campaign got nearly five times more retweets than Gill's original tweet.

The fan art by @marcoscrislop outperformed every official Please Retweet tweet, hitting 42,000 retweets compared to the original's 2,100.

Despite the massive community effort, Nintendo never actually retweeted the Diaper Toad image.

Derivatives & Variations

Diaper Toad fan art

— Artists on Twitter created their own versions of the diapered Toad, with @marcoscrislop's version being the most viral at 42,000+ retweets[1].

Custom Diaper Toad Amiibo

— @MissGandaKris sculpted a physical Amiibo figure of the character[1].

Frequently Asked Questions