Twitch Global Emote

BrainSlug is one of the oldest emotes in Twitch chat: in December 2011 it was already listed among the chat codes next to Kappa, PJSalt and MrDestructoid. The name matches the brain slugs from Futurama, though nobody involved ever confirmed that.

Today's BrainSlug is not the original. The first version showed a person, and chat widely misused it with a racist alt-code. Around 14 April 2013 the art was replaced, and viewers noticed right away: 'Brainslug on twitch has been changed!' Requests to 'bring back the old brainslug' kept coming for years. In 2015 Bwana claimed responsibility: 'And people wonder why I removed the BrainSlug emote. That's the Twitch chat you guys love, right? #E32015'.

Chat kept it as the mind-control emote, for when Twitch memes take over: 'Dig with the first pick BrainSlug. Twitch memes have entered the matrix.'