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Who Is Pakalu Papito? The Famous ‘Indian’ Meme Man Who Never Existed – News18


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Pakalu Papito: The mysterious, decade-old meme, that has somehow made it to 2025.

Pakalu Papito: Photo of unidentified man used for a meme that’s been around for a decade and more. (Reddit)

In our existential quest of discovering life in the universe and finding answers to why some things simply are, we often lose sight of the fascinating mysteries surrounding us, the humankind, on blue planet. “Who is Pakalu Papito?” is one of them, a question that has existed from the dawn of time. Memes have come, memes have gone, but Pakalu Papito has held his own. Some say Pakalu Papito meme is not the work of an Indian citizen, others go out of their way to provide “proof” of Pakalu being a faculty member at the IIT Kanpur. So, who is Pakalu Papito?

Origin

Pakalu Papito popped up on Twitter (now X) sometime in 2013 and quickly branched out across social media platforms. Fixated with a pet camel, Pakalu Papito announced his arrival on the Internet with “hello twiter i am single” post. The “anonymous” account played the role of an everyday Indian clerk at a convenience store, Know Your Meme, the Wikipedia of memes, noted. Pakalu hated his job, was good for nothing, found himself unattractive. The Internet found the self-deprecating humour rather relatable and the tweet screenshots travelled around quick. With hundreds of thousands of followers backing him, Pakalu Papito found a place in Urban Dictionary.

“Doing a “Pakulu Papito” is the act of crashing a camel into a bridge, and not caring about the consequences derived from the act in any way besides feeling a strong satisfaction from doing so.”

Is Pakalu Papito Indian?

The sh*tposting account used an avatar of a man seemingly from India and the humour worked in tandem. That he worked at a convenience store perhaps implied he was employed in the foreign land. Oh, did we mention it was a fictional character?

The fiction aspect, however, did not convince some users back in the day who opined that the account was racist, even if not visible to the naked eye, to Indians down south and perpetuated stereotypes. The account was independent of race or culture and folks enjoyed it for its ridiculousness, voiced others in support.

Who Was Behind Pakalu Papito

Despite being a globally recognised and followed account, it was believed that the mastermind behind Pakalu Papito persona would be the work of an Indian teen, sh*tposting away to glory. It seemed like an obvious, logical guess.

Not necessarily. The creator had attached a Facebook Page in the “About” section of Pakalu’s OG Facebook page. The page, visible to all and titled “Lee Nova,” showed an avatar of a young Caucasian person, a Tumblr post shared along with screengrabs.

The Face of Pakalu Papito

While the consumers of Pakalu content wren’t particularly fixated on who ran the meme accounts, Indian or otherwise, it was the recognisable face of mythical Pakalu that birthed plenty online theories.

One that stuck the wall- the face of Pakalu was that of a faculty member at India’s IIT-Kanpur college. Om Prakash, his name.

(Photo from Reddit/IITK)

Om Prakash, not a fictional character in our story, still exists on the IITK website and is listed as a senior technician at the said institution. The alumni or even the current batch of students believe Om Prakash has been a victim of identity theft, as a meme that has been in existence for over a decade no less. The students, however, by their own admission haven’t been able to verify this claim. Are Pakalu and Om Prakash are indeed the same person? You decide.

Pakalu Papito Suspended

Pakalu Papito’s (@pakalupapito) accounts got suspended unexpectedly in 2018. The Twitter (now X) account, the Facebook page, all gone. Remember Lee Nova, the non-Indian guy suspected to have been the guy behind the origin of the meme? His page was gone too.

But wait, how then are we seeing Pakalu on our timelines in 2025?

Add yet another mystery to the mix, the rise of Xavier/Xavier Uncle. The Xavier persona resurrected from the ashes of Pakalu. Carried on the baton, if you will.

Who cares, you ask?

This is the Internet and things aren’t simple around here. The avatar is the same, the content not entirely on-brand. The usernames of these profiles aren’t consistent across the apps. Something feels off. Eyebrows are raised. Folks on Reddit have eventually deduced that Xavier, Xavier Uncle or any other variants in existence are perhaps the copy-cats of the OG Pakalu Papito gimmick, and aren’t doing a great job at it, they assert. There is an entire subreddit dedicated to this.

On the flip side, the Xavier Uncle shared a long thread on X in 2023 stating that they had to leave the platform only to make a comeback during pandemic. The account, indicating to have been the creator of the OG meme all along, shared that they were practising law in India.

So, then, who is Pakalu Papito?

We are stuck in an infinite loop. Is he long gone and left behind a meme legacy for others to take forward or did he never leave?

*Vsauce music intensifies*

News viral Who Is Pakalu Papito? The Famous ‘Indian’ Meme Man Who Never Existed





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