In online fandoms, a Tumblr Sexyman (or just Sexyman) is a type of fictional character that gains wide popularity as a sex symbol. Characters described as Tumblr Sexymen are typically villainous or otherwise unusual, although the criteria for what qualifies as a Tumblr Sexyman varies greatly. The phenomenon is named after the website Tumblr, from which it originated, although Tumblr Sexymen have also gained popularity on other social media platforms such as Twitter.
Tumblr Sexymen vary greatly, although they generally are evil or otherwise have some sort of quirk that separates them from "normal" characters. They are typically a popular subject of fan art and shipping, with fan art often depicting them in the form of skinny white men, even if the character was not originally human. [1] Isaiah Colbert from Kotaku described Tumblr Sexymen as typically having "a bean sprout physique" and "a theater kid's bravado", [2] while Ty Galiz-Rowe from Gayming Magazine said that they are "usually tall, white looking, dress well, and have a dark or evil side to them". [3]
The most commonly agreed upon criterion for a Tumblr Sexyman is a large and vocal fan following, with some characters failing to be considered Sexymen due to having smaller fandoms. [1]
The concept of Tumblr Sexymen originated around 2012, with the release of The Lorax . The central character of the film, the Once-ler, gained a substantial fandom, with multiple blogs being created that were dedicated to the character. The Once-ler was also the subject of a large amount of fan art and shipping, a pattern that would continue for other Tumblr Sexymen. [1] In addition, fans began to create alternative versions of the Once-ler and to combine these versions into ships; this phenomenon was known as "Oncest". [4] Tumblr Sexymen such as the Once-ler are especially popular among the LGBT community. [5]
In 2022, a tournament was held on Twitter to determine the most popular Tumblr Sexyman. The poll went viral, and received over 244,000 votes in total. [6] The poll ended on September 8, 2022, the same day as the death of Elizabeth II, leading to memes which associated the two events with each other. [7] In the final round of voting, Sans from Undertale had faced Arataka Reigen from Mob Psycho 100 ; Sans won the closely contested poll with 50.1% of the votes. Sans's win was followed by a massive influx of fan art and memes on both Twitter and Tumblr. In response to the event, Undertale creator Toby Fox wrote a fictional account which featured imagined details of Sans's victory. [8] [9]
In January 2023, the rollout of a new polling feature allowed Tumblr to host its own Tumblr Sexyman competition, in which Cecil Gershwin Palmer of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast beat Sans to become the ultimate "Tumblr Tumblr Sexyman". [10] [11]
Various fictional characters have been labeled as Tumblr Sexymen by fans. Some notable examples include:
The Lorax is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, the main character, who "speaks for the trees" and confronts the Once-ler, a business magnate who causes environmental destruction.
The Lorax is a 2012 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, and distributed by Universal. The film is the second screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss' 1971 children's book The Lorax following the 1972 animated television special. Directed by Chris Renaud, co-directed by Kyle Balda, produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy and written by the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, it stars the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, Jenny Slate and Betty White.
Welcome to Night Vale is a satirical paranormal fiction podcast created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. It is presented as a community radio show in the fictional American desert town of Night Vale, with the eccentric local radio host reporting on the strange, supernatural events that occur within it. The series has been produced by Night Vale Presents since 2012.
Mob Psycho 100 is a Japanese web manga series written and illustrated by One. It was serialized on Shogakukan's Ura Sunday website from April 2012 to December 2017. It has been also available online on Shogakukan's mobile app MangaONE since December 2014. Shogakukan compiled its chapters in 16 tankōbon volumes. The story follows Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed Mob, a boy who has strong psychic powers, and his struggles to find the simple happiness he is looking for.
Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface, although some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.
Robert F. "Toby" Fox is an American video game developer and composer. He is best known for developing the role-playing video game Undertale, which garnered acclaim and has received nominations for a British Academy Game Award, three Game Awards and D.I.C.E. Awards. He is also the creator and head of the ongoing development of Deltarune, which contains many characters and features from Undertale, and has also garnered significant praise.
The 2009 webcomic Homestuck, written and drawn by Andrew Hussie, currently holds a soundtrack consisting of 30 digital albums. Besides static images, Homestuck makes use of flash animations and games, which often involve background music. The music of Homestuck is composed by fans, but is published by Hussie through his Bandcamp page under the What Pumpkin record label. Hussie established a small "Music Contribution Team" for the webcomic, which is coordinated by Toby Fox.
A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive and often synonymous with sexuality.
"Megalovania" is an instrumental video game song composed by Toby Fox. It was first composed for the Radiation Halloween Hack, a ROM hack of EarthBound, developed for a Mother fansite's competition in November 2008. Inspired by "Megalomania" from Live A Live and the final boss music of Brandish 2: The Planet Buster, the track was intended for the ROM hack's final boss battle, and was developed by Fox screaming "whatever [he] felt like" into a microphone and copying it down. The name itself is a combination of "megalomania" and "Transylvania", the latter of which intended to tie into the project's Halloween theme. Years later the track would be remixed for the webcomic Homestuck's soundtrack as "MeGaLoVania" with help from Joren "Tensei" de Bruin, and Fox would use another rendition as the final boss theme for the "genocide" route in his 2015 video game, Undertale, when fighting the character Sans.
Christopher Edwin Niosi, also known by his pseudonym Kirbopher, is an American voice actor, animator, and producer. His voice-work includes Lord Uroko in Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea, Arataka Reigen in Mob Psycho 100, Dezel in Tales of Zestiria, Taira in Queen's Blade Rebellion, Tetsuya Kinomoto in Dr. Stone, Khoury and others in the Pokémon series, Ernesto and others in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, Pegasus in the Viz Media dub of Sailor Moon, Haruo Sakaki in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, and Godzilla: The Planet Eater, and Therion and Mattias in Octopath Traveler.
Deltarune is an episodic role-playing video game developed by Toby Fox as a follow-up to his 2015 video game Undertale. In the game, the player controls a human teenager, Kris, who is destined to save the world together with Susie, a monster, and Ralsei, a prince from the Dark World. During their quest to seal the Dark Fountains prophesied to end the world, the group makes both friends and foes. The combat system is turn-based and uses bullet hell mechanics. Similarly to Undertale, enemy encounters can be resolved peacefully or through violence.
Sans is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale. He is the brother of Papyrus and initially appears as a friendly NPC with an easy-going, laid-back personality. Sans is also featured in the 2018 video game Deltarune, where he can only be found at his shop, which is a remodeled version of Grillby's Diner from the original game. Sans was created by Toby Fox with support from the artist Temmie Chang. The character's name is based on the Comic Sans font, which is used for most of his in-game dialogue. This sans typeface was replaced with a "cutesy irreverent typeface" in the Japanese version of the game.
Hazbin Hotel is an American adult animated musical comedy television series created by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano. The series revolves around Charlie Morningstar, princess of Hell, on her quest to find a way for sinners to be "rehabilitated" and allowed into Heaven, via her "Hazbin Hotel", as an alternative to Heaven's annual "Extermination" of souls due to Hell's overpopulation. The series is produced by SpindleHorse Toons in collaboration with A24, Amazon Studios, and the animation studio Bento Box Entertainment.
Undertale Soundtrack is a soundtrack album by Toby Fox, released in 2015 for the video game Undertale.
Raymond is a character in the Animal Crossing series, having first appeared in the 2020 release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch, as well as an update in the 2017 mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. He is an anthropomorphic cat who may appear on a player's island in New Horizons and be subsequently recruited as a villager to their island. He also appears in the manga adaptation of New Horizons, and has had merchandise created featuring him, including stickers, magnets, and plushes.
W.D. Gaster, or simply Gaster, is a character from the 2015 video game Undertale who was the previous "royal scientist" for the game's underground kingdom of monsters before he vanished mysteriously. He cannot normally be encountered in the game, and is never discussed directly as part of the game's main narrative. Players can only encounter events related to him either by luck or by modifying certain game files. A sprite from one of these events, internally named "Mystery Man", is generally used to portray W.D. Gaster, though the sprite's connection to the character is not confirmed.
Alphys is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale and the 2018 video game Deltarune. She is a bisexual reptilian monster who serves as a scientist under the leader of the Underground, Asgore, and is a fan of anime and manga. She is also a friend to Mettaton, a robot, and the captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne, who eventually becomes her girlfriend. She suffers from social anxiety, depression, and self-harm tendencies, and the depiction of her struggles with these have been the subject of praise and commentary by critics. She watches the player-character throughout the game, offering guidance at some point, though with limited benefit. She is revealed to have dark secrets, including ones that relate to experimentation. She also appears in Deltarune in a different role as a school teacher.
Papyrus is a character introduced in the 2015 video game Undertale. He is a skeleton with a large ego who aspires to join the Royal Guard, and also the brother of Sans and friend of Undyne. He is eternally optimistic, and despite wanting to capture the human to prove himself, finds himself befriending the human instead. He does not appear in Deltarune, but has been alluded to. He was created by Toby Fox with support from Temmie Chang. He was originally envisioned as a creepy person who wears a fedora and has no redeeming qualities, though Fox did not like this idea, so he scrapped it. His character communicates with the Papyrus typeface, which had to be changed to a "faux hand-drawn vertical script" when translated into Japanese.
Alastor "the Radio Demon" is a fictional character created by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano who primarily appears in the musical adult animated series Hazbin Hotel as one of the overlords of Hell. He was voiced by Edward Bosco and Gabriel C. Brown in the pilot and a series of music videos from 2019 to 2024, and by Amir Talai in the animated series since 2024. A constantly-smiling sinner, Alastor returns after a seven-year absence to run a hotel known as the Hazbin Hotel with Charlie Morningstar, princess of Hell, whom Alastor seeks to guide and control, while also wanting to free his own soul from the service of an unknown being. He is often accompanied by the hotel's bartender Husk and housekeeper Niffty, and he is considered a rival by fellow overlord Vox and Charlie's father, Lucifer.
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