The phrase has no clear confirmed source, so its popularity online comes from the wording itself rather than a known scene or character. Short clips with a single baffling line spread easily on soundboards and in chat edits because they need no setup to be understood as a joke. Users reuse I smoke Tabasco poppy as a throwaway reaction, a caption for confused faces and a way to derail a conversation for comic effect. Its brevity and odd mix of a household hot sauce name with poppy keep it memorable and endlessly repostable.