About
Crabs Smoking Cigarettes are videos and images of crab crustaceans with cigarettes strategically placed between a clasped claw to appear as if they are smoking.
Origin
On January 15th, 2007, YouTuber Bobby Brasko uploaded a video titled “Funny Video of Crab Smoking,” which contained footage a crab holding a lit cigarette in one of its claws (shown below).
Spread
In October 2009, the Chinese blog XinhuaNet[5] posted a photograph of a crab holding a cigarette with the caption “资料图片“哥抽的不是烟，是寂寞”” (English: “I’m not smoking cigarettes, it’s loneliness”)
On January 18th, 2013, the /r/smokingcrabs[2]subreddit was launched to highlight photographs of crabs holding cigarettes. On February 4th, the “CrabsWithCigarettes”[3]Tumblr blog was created. On March 18th, 2015, YouTuber Whatzaa uploaded a Thug Life Remix of Bobby Brasko’s original smoking crab video (shown below).
On September 12th, Twitter user @mghnbtts[1] tweeted a photograph of a crab holding a cigarette in Philadelphia, which gained over 25,700 favorites and 21,800 retweets in the first two weeks (shown below). On September 14th, Gawker[4] published an article about the crab photo fad. On September 23rd, CollegeHumor[6] published a compilation of smoking crab photographs.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[2]Reddit – /r/smokingcrabs
[3]Tumblr – Crabs With Cigarettes
[4]Gawker – Crabs Smoking Cigarettes An Unfortunate Trend
[6]CollegeHumor – Crabs That Gave Into Peer Pressure