Kirby is the round pink protagonist of Nintendo's platformer series, created by HAL Laboratory and debuting in Kirby's Dream Land in 1992. "Poyo" is his signature utterance, the cheerful chirp he repeats in place of full speech across the games and in the 2001 anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. Fans clipped the sound early and spread it through forums, soundboards and meme edits, where it became shorthand for cute, wholesome energy. Decades later it still pops up whenever a creator needs an instantly recognisable burst of Nintendo charm.