About
The Ghastly Gibus and the Ghostly Gibus are two hats in the game Team Fortress 2 known to be one of the only hats that can be earned and worn by free-to-play users, along with the Pyrovision Goggles. It is a very common hat as a lot of F2P users play Team Fortress 2, and want to show off their only hat. Any player wearing the gibus is usually considered a noob by non-F2P users. Some players who wear this hat are trolls, simply to make other people think that they are noobs. Many “Gibus stereotypes” exist, such as Gibus wearing Pyros are not likely to know or use the airblast, Gibus wearing Heavies tend to use the Natascha and the Brass Beast, while not using them very well.
Origin
Ghastly Gibus
The Ghastly Gibus was released in the Haunted Hallowe’en Special event in 2009. The hat could originally be earned by visiting a hidden page on the TF2 website. After the Ghastly Gibus was given out to 10,319 players, it can no longer be earned from visiting the page. Instead, it can be earned through the achievement Ghastly Gibus Grab, which requires the player to dominate another player wearing the Gibus. The Ghastly Gibus resembles Zepheniah Mann’s hat.
In 2011, when Team Fortress 2 became Free-to-Play, many new F2P players where seen wearing this hat, as they can not trade or find other hats. This quickly became a “sign” to players that that player is new to the game, and easy to kill.
Ghostly Gibus
In 2012, during the Spectral Halloween Special, the Gibus got a new version, called the Ghostly Gibus, which would then be earned from the achievement instead of the Ghastly version. The Ghostly version is a bit taller and less dusty, and it also has a ghost doll hanging from the top of the hat, which jiggles around as the player moves. Players who previously had the Gibus could now choose which style they want. Many newer players started wearing this version. Both hats are often paired with the Pyrovision Goggles.
Spread
TF2 fans have since created hundreds of images often using other memes of people wearing the gibus, to make fun of F2P players. The memes usually include F2Ps being proud of their only hat, and thinking it is actually a good hat.
Notable Examples
