Homemade porn inspired by Animal Crossing is going viral on TikTok and across the internet, sparking a wave of memes

• A fanmade pornographic Animal Crossing animation has become a TikTok fixation.
• LInks to, memes of, and clips from the animation spread on the platform, with some being removed.
• TikTok does not allow content that depicts sexual activities and has removed some trend videos.

Clips of a pornographic, fan-made Animal-Crossing-inspired animation spread on TikTok last weekend, sparking a meme craze and a crowd of people claiming they were "traumatized" after seeking out the full short film.

Animal Crossing is a family-friendly series of social simulation games in which players build relationships with town villagers who are modeled after animals

The video at the center of the meme storm shows Ankha, a cat villager and the main player character having rhythmic, penetrative sex to the beat of Croatian singer Sandy Marton's 1980s track "Camel by Camel" in a setting reminiscent of Ankha's home in the game.

Insider viewed uncensored clips of the animation that were spreading on TikTok prior to their removal, but none that featured the video in its entirety. However, links to uploads of the animation elsewhere did spread on the platform before they were removed, in addition to barely censored clips of the video.

Posts about the animation have spread like wildfire on TikTok, turning everything about the short film - from the song, to the characters' facial expressions, to the rhythmic movements - into a meme. There are now over 22,000 videos tied to the song upload associated with the trend.

TikTok prohibits content that "explicitly or implicitly depicts sexual activities," but many memes about the animation remain on the platform.

The animation has amassed millions of views on pornography hosting platforms as well as Twitter, with one February upload of it amassing over 3 million views.

Its newfound popularity also appears to have led to increased interest on Pornhub, where "Ankha" was listed as a trending search term on Wednesday.

The full film, titled "Ankha by Ankha," was created by an artist who goes by Zone or Zone-sama online and frequently creates not-safe-for-work (NSFW) art featuring cartoon characters.

"New people discovering my work has always been pretty much the same and responses to it always vary from utter disgust to adoration and praise," Zone, who has never disclosed their personal identity during their years maintaining an online presence, told Insider. "It usually depends on whether they were seeking it out in the first place."

The animation went viral on TikTok this month

The original Ankha animation was posted on Zone's personal website in January 2021, but memes about it started to spread on TikTok earlier this month.

It's not immediately clear how the animation first crossed over to TikTok. One now-defunct account known by the handle @inosukessweatyfeet, which has since been banned for community guidelines violations, uploaded the sound labeled as "Zone Tan Ankha music." Due to the removal of their account, it's unclear as to when the sound was uploaded.

Some videos used the animation while censoring the most explicit bits with text in a way that seems to (at least temporarily) evade TikTok's moderation.

TikTok told Insider it was removing content related to the trend that violates its community guidelines, including several videos that Insider flagged in a request for comment.

@imgonnanut

I keep seeing this stupid cat all over my fyp and I can’t escape it ☠️ #chevyequinox

♬ Zone Tan Ankha music - Tik Toker

Insider viewed other videos, some of which have since been removed, that censored less, showing the outline of a penis. One uncensored repost of the "Ankha by Ankha" video remained active on the platform for two days and amassed over 259,000 likes before TikTok removed it for community guidelines violations. Other videos, at least one of which has been removed, contained links to uploads of the full video on Twitter.

The trend has now pivoted to memes about the original video

The vast majority of Ankha content now consists of memes, jokes about how people have been scarred by watching the full version, and commentary about how the song associated with the video is a genuine bop.

There's also a subgenre of "gotcha" videos where users claim to have uploaded the full video, but cut to a clip of someone pointing a camera at the screen just before the sexually explicit part begins, mocking viewers seeking the video.

@littlevmills

This song slaps #minus8 #ankha #animalcrossing #zone #camelbycamel #metalcover #fyp

♬ Zone Tan Ankha music - Tik Toker

@lightswitch82

For legal reasons, this is a joke #fyp #fypシ

♬ Zone Tan Ankha music - Tik Toker

@_king_dingus_

I am ashamed #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #fypシ #xyzbca #trend #genz #music #banger #jams #mentallyunstable #scarredforlife #80s #80smusic #funny #ohno

♬ Zone Tan Ankha music - Tik Toker

Others have made posts about wanting to "recreate" the original video and there's also a burgeoning dance trend that involves moving your hips in a manner similar to Ankha in the video.

The animator behind the video is a popular artist known for creating NSFW art of animated characters

Zone, the creator of the Ankha animation, is an online animator who has been creating pornographic content since the early 2000s. They first started posting comics and registered their "zone-archive" website in June 2000 according to the site's registry. In 2006, they joined Newgrounds, a popular site in the era for flash animation, and uploaded a "Dragon Ball" animation which has been watched over 10 million times. In 2018, Zone announced on Newgrounds that they were deleting their Tumblr account, where they had previously posted content, because the platform was "banning all NSFW content."

Since creating their own website and joining Newgrounds, Zone has uploaded pornographic videos of characters from cartoons like "Teen Titans," "My Life as a Teenage Robot," and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends," each pulling in millions of views. The animations typically emulate the art style of the series in question.

They post NSFW drawings and content to their own website and have over 1,000 Patrons raising over $2,700 a month on their Patreon, according to publicly available numbers on their page.

In an interview with Insider, Zone noted that they post their material in adult-specific places so that minors cannot access it. "I have all my adult content in places that are marked as 18+ so parents should be able to successfully block them," they said.

Read more stories from Insider's Digital Culture desk.