poor little meow meow

English

Etymology

Emerged from a 2020 viral tweet by a BTS fan apologetically addressing group member Suga (known by the fan nickname "Lil Meow Meow") as "my poor meow meow...my baby my little baby who hurt^[sic] so much […] ." The tweet was made in response to the controversy over Suga's sampling of a speech by cult leader Jim Jones (1931–1978) on his solo mixtape D-2.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

poor little meow meow (plural poor little meow meows)

1. (fandom slang) A fictional character who is both endearingly pathetic and extremely flawed or villainous.
   • 2022 September 13, Madeline Carpou, “Allons-y, Make Way for This Year’s “Official Pathetic Loserman!””, in The Mary Sue:

     You may have noticed there’s a new trend amongst fans of all kinds of media. Whenever there’s a little sad sack of a man, people will start calling him their “poor little meow meow”—their little baby loser boy, if you will. In other words: a Pathetic Loserman.

   • 2022 September 19, Jack Doyle, “Who (Or What) Is Poor Little Meow Meow?”, in The Mary Sue‎^[3]:

     Examples of Poor Little Meow Meows include Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman, Marvel's Loki, Avatar: The Last Airbender's Prince Zuko, and Ice King from Adventure Time.

   • 2022 December 11, Jack Doyle, “Aldo And The Three Brothers In ‘Chainsaw Man,’ Explained”, in The Mary Sue:

     Unlike his brothers, Aldo is kind of a lil’ sweetie. I mean, he’s not really a sweetie at all. In Tumblr morality terms, he is more of a Poor Little Meow Meow than he is a true cinnamon roll.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:poor little meow meow.

See also

• baby girl (“male morally ambiguous character romanticised by fans”)
• Draco in Leather Pants (“any morally ambiguous character romanticised by fans”)
• woobie (“morally ambiguous character subjected to pain for pathos”)

Further reading

• “Poor Little Meow Meow”, in Know Your Meme, launched 2007
• “poor little meow meow”, in Urban Dictionary, launched 1999.