A FAMILIAR MEME. A NEW CONTEXT.

Scared Porg

What this meme means

Reaction image of a porg from Star Wars: The Last Jedi with its mouth wide open and eyes bulging. After the 2017 film's trailer, the screaming shot became a universal way to express shock and panic.

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What porgs are

Porgs are small bird-like creatures with large round eyes that appear in the film "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" (2017, directed by Rian Johnson). They live on the planet Ahch-To, where Luke Skywalker had long been hiding. The creature's design is based on the puffin, a seabird with a bright crest; according to Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group, quoted on StarWars.com on July 20, 2017, the connection to the bird was direct. The Ahch-To scenes were filmed on the Irish island of Skellig Michael.

The porg's first public appearance is tied to a behind-the-scenes video that Lucasfilm showed at the D23 fan event and posted on YouTube on July 15, 2017. The characters quickly became popular: they were used in marketing, toys, and fan art, and viewers were discussing their behavior and appearance long before the premiere.

The screaming porg in the trailer

The key shot that started the meme comes from the film's final trailer, released on October 9, 2017. About a minute and a half into the clip, a porg screams next to Chewbacca. Within a day the video had racked up more than 10 million views, and within the first few days the screaming clip was already being posted on Twitter as a reaction image with various captions.

The contrast between the trailer's epic score and serious tone and the comical scream of a tiny creature became one of the sources of the joke. Viewers took the scene not as a dramatic moment but as an occasion for irony, and it was this irony that made the shot easy to reuse.

The image in the catalog

The catalog's picture shows a close-up of a porg against a blurred background: the creature looks straight into the camera, its beak open in a scream, its eyes wide, and the feathers on its head slightly raised. The image matches the description of a "scared" creature with its mouth open in shock, and the stated connection to the trailer doesn't contradict the look of the shot.

A single image doesn't make it possible to confirm beyond doubt that this is the exact shot from the trailer. No other characters are visible in the frame, so the link to the scene with Chewbacca can't be verified from the picture alone. The meme is linked to the trailer, which fits the timeline of its spread.

Photoshops and captions

In the first days after the trailer came out, the shot became the basis for numerous edits. On October 10, 2017, Twitter user GenePark posted a variation on the Distracted Boyfriend meme in which a screaming porg took the place of the girlfriend. The tweet quickly racked up thousands of likes and retweets. The next day, a photoshop battle began on Reddit, with participants competing in wit through captions and edits.

Popular captions are usually tied to panic and awkward situations: the porg screaming at something unpleasant, or at someone who left the oven on during a jump to hyperspace. Jokes like these are understandable without knowing the plot, which is why the picture easily crossed over from the film's fandom into the wider internet.

The flip side of popularity

Not all reactions to porgs were cheerful. In November 2017, a Japanese source published photos of porg toys, and some Twitter users reacted negatively, comparing them to a nightmarish Cronenberg-esque character. This episode showed that the same creature could provoke both affection and aversion.

News coverage of audience reactions also fueled interest. Outlets like Polygon, Mashable, and CNET wrote about porgs as fans' new favorite, and this kind of coverage helped the meme spread beyond the film's own audience.

Why the image stuck

The main reason for its popularity is simplicity. The open mouth and bulging eyes register instantly and fit any situation where someone is stunned, scared, or overwhelmed. The picture is easy to save and drop into a chat, and it works well as a short reaction without extra text.

A second factor was the sheer scale of the film itself. The trailer got enormous reach, and porgs were widely discussed in the media. Users who already knew the character readily picked up the shot, while others learned it from news and social media, which is what gave the meme its long life.