An AI-generated Rumpelstiltskin meme is freaking out much of the internet

Rumpelstiltskin famously spun straw into gold. Now, AI has spun the fairy-tale character into an eerie internet meme.

In recent days, a clip began circulating widely online featuring what many described as a “creepy” imp-like character. The imp approaches a woman sitting in a heap of straw and dances before her while she’s frightened to tears. Then, he turns all the straw in the room into gold coins, causing her to exclaim with joy. She kisses him, turning him into a prince.

It’s a scene reminiscent of the German fairy tale about Rumpelstiltskin, a magical imp who spins straw into gold for a poor miller’s daughter.

The bizarre clip, which looks straight out of an old movie, sent people searching for the film it must have originated from. Some were convinced it was part of the 1987 “Rumpelstiltskin” film, a musical adaptation of the classic tale.

It took days before viewers began realizing it was simply AI-generated. By then, the meme had already become a viral format, and users cared little about its AI origins.

The original clip was posted online in August by self-described AI artist and filmmaker Tatyana Tereshchenko. Over the past week, users began setting the clip to the rapper Riff Raff’s song “Tip Toe Wing In My Jawwdinz,” turning it into a full-fledged meme.

One of the first users to popularize it, according to the online meme database Know Your Meme, paired the clip with the caption: “The type of dreams I be having after taking dollar store melatonin.” It racked up more than 900,000 views on TikTok in less than a week.

Others used the clip to describe scenarios like “creeping downstairs at 2am for a lil treat,” “having to walk the aisle in Payless shoe to make sure our $15 shoes fit just right,” and “acing the field sobriety test” at a traffic stop.

Internet users quickly found themselves obsessed with the meme. As one user put it: “It’s Stuck in my head all day. That little guy is so creepy.”

AI-generated media has increasingly infiltrated mainstream internet culture by gaining organic traction, whether people realize the base material was AI-generated or not.

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In 2023, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis in a trendy puffer jacket fooled the internet, becoming the first viral meme to emerge from AI material. And in 2024, outlandish AI-generated images — of Jesus made of shrimp, built with plastic bottles or carved out of sand — spread across Facebook and became another internet meme format, despite the obvious AI component.

This kind of content, typically labeled “AI slop,” appears to make for fertile meme fodder. Its obvious artificiality and absurdity fit neatly into an online meme culture that often revels in the uncanny.

Similarly, after users realized the Rumpelstiltskin meme was made with AI, the clip quickly became a template for users to insert their own characters. People have since replaced the imp with fictional people like Sam and Dean Winchester and Wednesday Addams, public figures like Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and even mascots like Ronald McDonald.

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One TikTok account dedicated to reposting variations of the meme has racked up more than 65,000 followers within a few days. Some are even re-enacting the AI-generated clip in real life.

Others, however, are already eager for the meme to finish its shelf life on the internet, lamenting that they’re tired of the “scary” little imp.