So, you’ve probably seen that one picture. You know the one—where you search "who created Kirby" and instead of seeing a polite Japanese man in a vest, Google shows you a giant, smiling guy named Poyton. Or maybe you're here because you saw the pink blob holding a kitchen knife and thought, "Who even came up with this?"
The internet is a weird place. It takes a wholesome, round vacuum-friend and turns him into a harbinger of chaos. But if we’re talking about the creator of kirby meme lore, there isn’t just one person. There’s the guy who actually made the character, the guy who broke Google's search results for three years, and the random internet users who decided Kirby should definitely carry a glock.
The Real Genius: Masahiro Sakurai
Before we get into the memes, we have to talk about the man himself. Masahiro Sakurai. He was only 19 years old when he dreamed up Kirby. Nineteen. Most of us at nineteen were struggling to find the library, but Sakurai was at HAL Laboratory creating a "placeholder" sprite that was so cute they just decided to keep it.
Sakurai is a legend. He’s the mind behind Super Smash Bros. and Kid Icarus: Uprising. He’s also notoriously hardworking—the kind of guy who kept developing games while his arm was literally in a cast. But here’s the funny part: Sakurai kind of hates being a meme.
In a 2021 interview with Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada, Sakurai basically said, "Please stop using my face to say things I never said." He was specifically talking about the "Never ask me for anything ever again" meme. It’s a classic image of him looking slightly tired, but he never actually uttered those words. It’s a bit of a "suffering from success" situation. When you create something the whole world loves, the world decides they own your face, too.
The "Google Glitch" and the Legend of Poyton
Now, if you were around the internet between 2018 and 2021, you might have experienced the Great Kirby Identity Crisis. This is the creator of kirby meme that literally broke the algorithm.
For a long time, if you typed "who created Kirby" into Google, the knowledge panel wouldn't show Masahiro Sakurai. Instead, it showed a photo of a large, joyful Black man. This wasn't a hack. It wasn't a targeted attack. It was just a glorious, accidental failure of Google’s "Knowledge Graph."
The man in the photo was a Twitter user known as Poyton. He had nothing to do with Nintendo. He wasn't a secret developer. He was just a guy whose profile picture somehow got linked to the Kirby search query. Because he had a massive following and people kept joking about it, the AI logic at Google decided, "Yeah, this must be the guy."
It stayed that way for years. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy; people searched for it to see the meme, which told Google the result was "relevant," which kept the photo there. It was the ultimate "task failed successfully" for the internet. Honestly, Poyton was a great sport about it, even if it meant he was technically the father of a pink alien for a while.
👉 See also: Why the Five Nights at Freddy’s Statue Scarcity Is Driving Collectors Wild
Why Does Kirby Have a Knife?
We can’t talk about Kirby memes without the weaponry. You've seen it. The plushie. The tiny, felt hand clutching a very real-looking kitchen knife.
The creator of kirby meme origin for "Knife Kirby" is actually pretty easy to trace. Back in June 2018, an iFunny user named Zero posted a photo of the plush with the caption: "This guy has been standing outside my place for the past 30 minutes. I've called the police but they haven't shown up." It’s the contrast that makes it work. Kirby is the embodiment of pure, unadulterated joy. He is a friend. Seeing him with a weapon is like seeing a golden retriever holding a chainsaw—it’s just wrong enough to be hilarious. Since then, it’s evolved. We’ve had:
- Kirby with a gun (which actually became semi-canon in Forgotten Land with the Ranger ability).
- Buff Kirby (the one with the human legs).
- Kirby Falling (from the Kazuya Smash reveal).
The 2026 Perspective: Why These Memes Stick
It’s 2026 now, and Kirby is still as relevant as ever. Kirby Air Riders just dropped, and Sakurai is still out here on YouTube teaching us how to make games. The reason the creator of kirby meme culture doesn't die is that Kirby is a blank slate.
Literally. He’s a circle with two dots for eyes.
Shinya Kumazaki, the executive director at HAL, once said that Kirby is designed to reflect the player's emotions. If you’re happy, he’s a cute little guy. If the internet is feeling chaotic and nihilistic? Well, then Kirby is a god-slayer who eats planets and carries a Smith & Wesson.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you're looking to dive deeper into the history or even make your own Kirby content, here’s the real-world breakdown of what matters:
- Respect the source: If you're following Masahiro Sakurai on his "Creating Games" YouTube channel, listen to the design philosophy. He values "clarity" above all else. That’s why Kirby is a circle—it’s the clearest shape there is.
- Check your facts: Don't trust the Google sidebar blindly. AI-driven search results (like the Poyton glitch) are prone to "hallucinations" where they link unrelated images to famous names.
- The "Gap Moe" Effect: If you’re a creator, understand why the "Kirby with a knife" works. It's called Gap Moe in Japanese culture—the adorable character doing something completely out of character. It’s a goldmine for engagement.
The internet might have tried to replace Sakurai with Poyton for a few years, but at the end of the day, the pink puffball belongs to everyone. Whether he's a placeholder sprite or a knife-wielding menace, he's the hero we probably don't deserve, but definitely the one we need.