Obituary

Surprised Pikachu was a single frame of the Pokémon anime in which Pikachu's face goes wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as if the universe had just told it something genuinely new. The format paired the face with a panel of someone doing something reckless: 'Man robs bank,' reads the top panel. 'Man is shocked when he goes to jail' reads the bottom. It was the official portrait of predictable consequences, deployed by everyone who had ever said 'I told you so.' It died in 2020, a casualty of its own popularity — the shocked face had seen so many consequences that it stopped looking surprised. It looked resigned.

Born

2018

Died

2020

Cause of death

Died of being shocked one too many times

Last sighting

A Pokémon episode still, 2020

Resting place

Section F, Row 4

Category

game