Apple announces its AirPods Pro headphones and gamers online are all making the same joke. Apple products often get mocked by gamers, and in September the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter mocked the iPhone 11 camera design for looking like one of its characters.
Professional Super Smash Bros. player and member of Team Liquid, HBox, was one of the first to make the comparison between Apple AirPods Pro and Pokemon. On Twitter, HBox said that "I’m sure at least one other person has noticed by now but in case they haven't," before posting side by side images of the newly announced headphones and Bellsprout, the Grass and Poison type Pokemon that looks like a garden weed. The main section of the AirPods Pro look just like Bellsprout's head from the size and positioning to the shadow at the end of the headphones, which looks like the Pokemon's mouth.
Bellsprout is one of the most popular Grass type Pokemon so it wasn't surprising to see that many others agreed with HBox's comparison. More than 5,000 Twitter users have retweeted the post and more than 25,000 users have liked it. A few have also provided their own Apple Pokemon suggestions, as one joked that the Apple HeadPod Pro will be a Weepinbell on the user's head and another said that the Apple HeadPod Pro Max headphones would be a Victreebel swallowing the user. This would provide "a truly encapsulating experience," joked one response
Another Twitter user, a Twitch affiliate named Tony, compared the AirPods Pro to the Flash Liquidizing Ultra Dousing Device, which is the water squirting device that Mario uses in Super Mario Sunshine. Just like the iPhone 8 and the many phones that Apple has released after it, the new AirPods Pro are water resistant so Tony's comparison isn't so far off. The AirPods Pro are also being compared to the plants from Plants vs. Zombies, Birdo, and a variety of different hairdryers. Most of the comparisons seem good natured, though, with few being extremely outraged at Apple's design team.
Apple is likely enjoying the memes and probably isn't upset at those clowning on its hard working product designers. It's not just incredibly expensive Mac Pro monitors that Apple makes money from as the AirPods Pro have a price tag of of $249. The memes help more people to learn about the new phones and potentially buy them, so these memes are only going to make one of the world's richest company get richer.