Grafaiai

About

Grafaiai is a dual-type Normal/Poison type Pokémon set to appear in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The Pokémon is a paint-themed Pokémon based on the animal aye-aye. After its debut in September 2022 with a documentary-style reveal, the Pokémon inspired fan art and memes on social media.

Origin

On August 28th, 2022, The Pokémon Company's social media channels began teasing a reveal by showing in-game fauna marked with paint^[1] (shown below). This stoked theories that Pokémon was teasing the reveal of a Paldean variant of the Pokémon Smeargle, who until this point had been the only paint-themed Pokémon in the series.^[2]

On September 1st, The Pokémon Company posted a reveal for Grafaiai that took the form of a mock-nature documentary, gaining over 1.2 million views in one day. A second trailer posted that day explained more of his in-game functionality (shown below, right).

Spread

Quickly after the character's reveal, it was widely celebrated on social media, as people began posting fan art and memes based on the character. For example, user @Dynamo_Den^[2] posted art of Grafaiai giving two middle fingers, gaining over 3,700 retweets and 22,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). User @Versiris^[3] posted art that gained over 1,800 retweets and 9,200 likes (shown below, right).

Others posted memes based on the character. User @chaobunnies^[4] tweeted a Graphic Design Is My Passion meme based on the Pokémon, gaining over 730 retweets and 2,900 likes (shown below, left). User @C_Bass365^[5] tweeted an I've Only Had Arlo A Day And A Half meme with the character, gaining over 330 retweets and 1,600 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References