This is about as normal as it gets.
itemLabel is a "revenge-based" company that sells clothing and plush items meant to be used as art objects. It has become infamous for its strange commercials, particularly the ones involving its flagship character Peepy.
itemLabel characters include:
- Peepy
, who is peanut-shaped and has a large beak. The name is used to refer to both the species as a whole and as the name of a specific Peepy. - OuiOui, a "juvenile Peepy" that is overall smaller and spherical in shape.
- Dinkle, who is catlike and has a large bell around his neck. He enjoys composing chiptune music, but has not had a successful career yet. Baby Dingle implies that he was a once-successful Former Child Star who fell from grace and now seeks to recapture his glory days.
- Dingle, a juvenile form of Dinkle.
- Sucklet, a species of star-shaped decomposers. It is implied to be edible.
- Moley, who is in constant pain whenever he isn’t underground.
- Papupi, a later stage of the Peepy life cycle, noted for being lazy.
- PeeOui/Clampy, an adolescent stage of Peepy and OuiOui regarded as a basement-dwelling slacker who needs to get a job.
- Sincho, a prehistoric ancestor of Peepy.
- The fish car, which is the mascot of the brand.
- Similarly, the fishicopter.
- Thicc Brungus, a Peepy with an elephant for a bottom (or vice versa, depending on how you look at it).
- Donuts, a cat-like humanoid who sweats and cries a lot.
- MunMun, a 34-year-old man who decided to become a monkey.
- Youfo, a six-legged alien who's extremely unphotographable.
- Homie, a busy living house with stubby legs.
- Corunchi, a batlike creature who steals and eats people’s takeout orders.
- Eubert, a disembodied head with a pacifier and a sentient hairclip friend named Thomas.
- Galumpin’ Dops, three small creatures who are best friends who do everything together.
- Plain Plain, a natural predator of Moley resembling an airplane.
- Sticky, a doglike creature with a gentle demeanor who frequents coffee shops and eats sugar packets.
- Poo and Snowman, who are each advertised as Exactly What It Says on the Tin but Poo also resembles a clown’s head and Snowman is another secret Peepy.
- Bad Guy, a sentient germ with a face mask created to raise awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Larva, baby versions of Peepy, Dinkle, MunMun, and Youfo in plush keychain form. They are not available for purchase in-store; rather, they are randomly included with your purchase, and you just have to hope you get lucky.
- Mite, a parasitic creature that preys on OuiOuis and can be obtained in blind bags (though the chance is incredibly rare) with an ear in its mouth, implied to have eaten the Oui that was in the bag previously.
- Number One Fan, a human (portrayed by musician Drive45) who is constantly going on quests to obtain itemLabel products in order to prove their loyalty to Peepy.
- Emamouse (also known as CEO Mou), fictional CEO of itemLabel and the composer behind most of the videos' music.
You can see itemLabel’s official channel here and its official website here.
My dream for the life is to write tropes with Peepy!
- Advertising Campaigns: itemLabel commercials can be found all over YouTube, with some short videos on TikTok and Instagram.
- Animesque: Some of itemLabel's shorts have anime elements, despite itemLabel being based in the US.
- Averted with the itemLabel Theme Park video, where the art style resembles a Flash cartoon.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Peepys in general are known for all having committed ambiguous crimes at some point, though depending on interpretations, whether they lean toward Chaotic or Evil morality can vary. Even OuiOuis are bound to commit a crime at some point.
- Ambiguous Criminal History: Peepy is arrested, but its exact crime/reason isn't specified beyond it being "dangerous and disrespectful." However, Peepy has been caught stealing peanuts, browsing the Pirate Bay, hacking into someone's cryptocurrency account, and reading a wikiHow article on avoiding its parole officer.
- Subverted with its packaging. It allows the buyer to fill in the blanks for the crime it did, along with the date it was arrested on, how long it spent in a maximum-security prison, and whose private prison complex it was transferred to.
Packaging: "Peepy was arrested on __/__/__ for the crime of ________. They spent __ years in a maximum security prison before being transfered [sic] to _____'s private prison complex." - Attention Whore: Dinkle is implied to be one, considering how he constantly seeks approval for the things he does.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Implied. In the itemLabel Theme Park video, there is a poster in the itemLabel office that says "Peepy is Watching".
- Butt-Monkey: Sucklets, definitely.
- In their own debut video, they are physically abused, and in others, treated very harshly relative to the other characters more often than not. One of the first videos on itemLabel's channel shows a Sucklet getting shredded apart by a buzzsaw on-camera, aptly named "Sucklet Dies"!
- In the itemLabel Theme Park video, a journalist reports that there's an attraction where attendees can punch a live Sucklet.
- In their own debut video, they are physically abused, and in others, treated very harshly relative to the other characters more often than not. One of the first videos on itemLabel's channel shows a Sucklet getting shredded apart by a buzzsaw on-camera, aptly named "Sucklet Dies"
- Camera Abuse: In Peepy said to meet him here so we could talk!, Peepy attacks the narrator with a short scream at the end.
- Can't Take Criticism: Dinkle has made chiptune-like music, as shown in Dinkle's Chiptune. It's also seen that he takes criticism of it (mainly stating that his music isn't actually chiptune) very poorly, to the point of making alternate accounts to deny the criticism. A newspaper clipping and a quick moment that depicts several bodies in a corridor imply that Dinkle has killed others for similar reasons before.
- Cartoon Creature: Peepy has a beak, but whether or not they're a type of bird isn't specified. Thicc Brungus seems to be a subspecies of Peepy with an elephant stuck on its back, Sucklet is a white star-shaped creature, and Donuts is a humanoid.
- Cat Folk: Donuts, possibly. He has two points on their head that may be cat ears, is described as being "fluffy, fluffy" and "something like a cat" (though this may be referring to their intense emotions.) While he appears to have bare, light-toned skin, it may actually be peach-colored fur.
- Children Are Innocent: OuiOui's first video seems to play this straight, stating that they "do not know of the crime", but subverts this in OuiOui's First Crime, showing that eventually, OuiOuis will eventually learn how to commit the crimes that their adult forms are infamous for.
- Crack is Cheaper: Parodied, with the character "Number One Fan" not being recognized as itemLabel's biggest fan due to not only not having every piece of merchandise, but not having enough allowance to get more.
- Creepy Monotone: The narrator for the "Find ____" videos uses TikTok's text-to-speech feature. It's known for being monotonic and in some cases, creepy.
- Cute and Psycho: Dinkle is a cute, chubby pink cat who may or may not have ties to some sort of inky black demonic force when his chiptune music is criticized online.
- Disney Acid Sequence: “Peepy’s Secret”. The visuals include giant Peepys floating through space, various Item Label characters charging at the camera, and oversaturated colors everywhere.
- Dissonant Serenity: In "Which one is Peepy hiding under?" the cheerful text-to-speech voice talks about how Peepy has hurt "a lot of people."
- Double Entendre: Anything video involving Peepy will definitely have one, considering the name and all.
- Dreadful Musician: While Dinkle's music doesn't sound any different from the other songs by Emamouse, his "theme" mentions how people suddenly have something else to do when he plays his bell, and describes the listener pretending to not be home to avoid listening to it. Meanwhile, the reactions of other people to his chiptune range from annoyance to actively covering their ears.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Before they were officially announced, Homie and Youfo first appeared in "Peepy's Secret."
- The Eeyore: Moley always has a drowsy, sad look on his face, hates the sunlight, and, according to Moley's Melancholy, is happy to "drink in a dirty bar and not get along with anyone."
- Former Child Star: Dinkle/Dingle, as revealed in Baby Dingle.
- Gratuitous English: The commercial's songs are sung in heavily accented and grammatically incorrect English since the artist, Emamouse, is from Japan.
- I'm Your Biggest Fan: "number one fan" stars a person who refers to themself as "Number One Fan", showing off the merch they have bought to prove it, although the wall Peepy in the video seems to disagree since they haven't bought "Fish Car".
- Informed Species: Although Moley is supposed to be a mole, he doesn't really look anything like one, especially with the beak and the star antenna.
- Innocent Aliens: Despite their cuddly nature and similarity to actual animals,
Word of God says that all the main characters are aliensnote . - Killer Rabbit: Sucklets are cute and furry star-shaped creatures. In King Sucklet, it's shown that a bite from a poisonous species of one can cause pain, nausea, hallucinations, and death within 1-2 hours. The cure for such bites is unknown (though Moss Sucklets are somewhat implied to have healing abilities).
- Lovable Rogue: Peepy is a cute, cuddly... thing, whose entire schtick is committing crimes.
- Manchild: PeeOui is a not-quite-mature OuiOui/Peepy that can't get a job, is prone to tantrums, and still plays Gacha Games.
- The Number One Fan. They appear to be a grown adult, but they still have an allowance (which they spend irresponsibly), and it is implied that they’re still living with their parents.
- Maneki Neko: Dinkle (and his kitten equivalent, Dingle). He's a stylized version of one, complete with cat ears, bell, and tail.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Peepy doesn't really look like anything, but it has cat-like ears, a bird-like beak, and white fur with black splotches like a cow.
- No Ending: In Wow its the Holidays, what could possibly go wrong?, Peepy is on the train tracks of a holiday set that is currently being used by a train. When the train is about to reach Peepy, the video ends.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: A man rescues a Sucklet in Sucklet in Trouble!!! (Part 2) and returns it to its family. In the end, he's implied to tumble down a tall and rocky slope for his trouble. And right after making it into a short Aesop about the universe rewarding those who do brave and heroic deeds, even!
- Noodle Incident: Dinkle is frequently referred to as "cancelled" on social media, but what exactly he said or did is unclear. Though according to Dinkle's Chiptune, it probably wasn't pretty.
- One to Million to One: One of Homie's abilities, according to Homies Home.Have you ever seen homie crash
into a big home and scatter?
Do you know that pieces of homie
come to form a homie again? - Our Product Sucks: Parodied with "Sucklet's Song", which starts by asking the viewer why they want a Sucklet and goes on to explain that one would eat all their food, "make [their] wallet lonely", and refuse to leave their house.
- Plant Aliens: Well, fungal would be more fitting for Sucklet. Implied by how their advertising video calls them "some kind of snack from a distant unseen universe", and their store description calls them "a friend of the mushrooms".
- Donuts, possibly, considering of duplicates of them are shown being in farm/garden.
- Prone to Tears: Exaggerated with Donuts as seen in my name is donuts. They're always seen crying regardless of how they feel.they are crying
always crying
but they are not
always feeling blue - Rare Random Drop: A running theme with their blind bag toys. There's always a rare variant that you have a 2-3% chance of getting in each bag. Exaggerated with the "secret rares", like Relish OuiOui, which have anywhere from a 0.28% chance to a 0.55% chance of being in any given bag!
- Shout-Out: Angel and Devil Peepy references Higurashi: When They Cry Kai's opening shot for shot.
- Starfish Aliens: If the critters are indeed aliens, a good number of them, such as Sucklet, Peepy, and Donuts, are quite distinct from animals on Earth.
- Stripped to the Bone: Downplayed with the Peepy mascot in itemLabel Theme Park. The Sucklets released by Emamouse while shutting down the theme park eat them, leaving behind a pile of bones and a skull.
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: There have been some creepy moments in many of their videos:
- In Dinkle's Chiptune, it starts off cute, until Dinkle gets mad when someone says that their music isn't chiptune. Cue the nightmarish imagery and strongly implied murder.
- Homies [sic] Home: What is supposedly a bizarre parody of 90s rap music videos quickly descends into Lovecraft Lite when they start explaining how the titular Homie can scatter into pieces, only to regroup to form another Homie, and possibly an entire planet. In other words, Homie is an Eldritch Abomination.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: In one tweet by itemLabel, a Peepy replaces the tapioca pearls in a boba drink with spider eggs. Subverted in another tweet hours later where it's revealed that both drinks have ball bearings in them.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: According to "Sucklet's Song", if you buy a Sucklet, it will not leave your house. And you get no refunds.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Sucklet gets this in more recent videos, especially with Poison Sucklet, who is a dangerous creature that won't hesitate to stand its ground.
- Toxic Friend Influence:
- In ''Peepy's Money Saving Tip'', the narrator unknowingly steals from a grocery store after Peepy told him that it was a "money-saving tip". He retracts his tip after the police starts going after him, saying that it's called "shoplifting" and that it's illegal.
- In ''Peepy's Top 3 Trick-or-treating tips'', the narrator is also influenced by Peepy to take all the candy in bowls left outside of houses.
- In ''Peepy's Money Saving Tip''
- Trademark Favorite Food:
- Peepy's favorite food is peanuts, as seen in its intro video, the Thicc Brungus intro video, and a few TikTok videos released by itemLabel.
my dream is to eat the peanuts with you every day [sic]- Donut's favorite food is its namesake, as seen in my name is donuts.
- Transplant: Donuts originally existed as a character created by Emamouse before being added to itemLabel's lineup.
- Travel Montage: King Sucklet plays this trope straight with a line from New Najok City to the Juldarian Jungle, combined with videos of the protagonist's journey to the jungle.
- Twist Ending: Thicc Brungus' debut video, before people knew about the twist (Thicc Brungus was never seen from the bottom before then), showed at the end that Thicc Brungus was a Peepy all along, when beforehand it was assumed to be an original character.
- The Unreveal: At the end of Yoofo's reveal during the itemLabel AWR 2022, Jams prepares to explain all the characters' secrets. Just as they start, the video fake-buffers, goes to an ad, and by the time that's done, they've explained everything and promise never to repeat it.
- Weakened by the Light: Moley, who is constantly suffering when in broad daylight, and prefers to be in the shadows, or even better, buried underground like an actual mole, which his debut video begs viewers to do should they have him. Moley fittingly has vampire attire for a Halloween costume in one video.
- You Wake Up on a Beach: At the end of King Sucklet, the protagonist wakes up on a beach after finding King Sucklet while suffering from the aftereffects of a poisonous Sucklet bite. They find a container of sour cream and onion Pringles, plus a note from King Sucklet attached to their notebook that tells them not to look for it again.
