Two2Bad news from the creative community: Is Penguin Admin claiming copyright, forcing fan creators to pay?
It must be said, this statement does sound quite explosive and somewhat brain-burning. Let me explain what happened in terms that even Chen Qianyu can understand: The AI Little Penguin Administrator went viral, the author applied for copyright intending to profit, netizens erupted in anger causing the author to kneel in apology, and the aftermath of the event continues—how to describe this continuation? On the Tieba hot topic list, which is best at stirring up rhythm, this matter has already reached millions in heat, indicating its considerable influence.
Currently, many netizens have started direct personal attacks against this behavior of collecting Cullinan fragments, and some have even initiated reports with just a few clicks. Of course, the intensity is still not comparable to the heavy crackdown on that streamer who destroyed accounts next door.
To understand why netizens are so angry, we first need to see how this penguin became popular and where it came from.
First, what is Penguin Female Admin?
During this year's Spring Festival, you definitely scrolled through a large number of AI-made short animated videos featuring this seemingly cute little penguin as the protagonist. They often garnered hundreds of thousands or even millions of views, reaching a very wide audience and inexplicably breaking out into the mainstream.
And the prototype of this penguin character shouting "goo goo gaga" is the Administrator who shattered two thousand anchors with stones, threw Tower Guard Five into the Hyperdomain, and brought grace to Tower Guard Two so that it never experienced night again. Specifically, it refers to the (female) Administrator.
Thanks to a batch of new AI video generation tools that emerged during the Spring Festival, netizens completely lost any creative bottlenecks. As these videos spread widely and became memes, eventually anyone who wanted to play with this meme could write a plot, operate a couple of times, and post a video. Thus, more and more little penguin AI animations were born, and numerous fan works spread across the internet through the hands of全民制作人 (everyone is a producer).
In these fan-made animations, the Administrator transformed into a little penguin looks quite cute—
Sometimes she just blankly does silly things, muttering "goo goo gaga," looking as if she has been assimilated by the silly dragon beside her.
Sometimes she also falls into a claw machine filled with dragon bubbles, waving helplessly with tears in her eyes, waiting like a child for Perlica to figure out how to rescue her.
Sometimes, it's just to show off how cute she is, letting young people understand why their parents love watching AI kids on their phones.
Finally, its popularity crossed national borders, with many videos reposted to platforms like TikTok and X, captivating foreign netizens with the "goo goo gaga" Administrator. Many people feel that the transformation of this little penguin from Administrator form to "goo goo gaga" form is very similar to scenes in the anime Himouto! Umaru-chan, appearing quite contrastingly cute.
Just like Doro in Nikke, this little penguin character shouting "goo goo gaga" indeed brought a wave of traffic from outside the circle to Arknights: Endfield—who wouldn't want to go into Endfield and frantically pull wires for an entire afternoon after watching the AI Administrator videos?
At this time, both domestically and internationally, many people were curious about the origin of this cute character; even those who knew this little thing was a fan creation for Arknights: Endfield were curious why the Administrator had to shout "goo goo gaga."
And the most direct source of this image is actually easy to find. On February 19, Bilibili uploader "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai" posted a video titled "Nothing, Just Want to Let You Know the Origin of This Penguin," clearly explaining the ins and outs of this image—it is simply a pure meme image created by him using AI.
Initially, this image was used in the afterword page of a niche hobby doujinshi he created (the doujinshi was actually drawn using AI), and he also announced in the video that "this character is 100% AI-generated, so using it for AI videos is naturally 100% acceptable."
In fact, up to this point, the whole matter was merely stuck in the gray area between AI painting and fan doujin creations, belonging to classic matters that one laughs off and moves on from. Therefore, most people's attitudes toward this AI image leaned neutral, or even slightly positive. The reason is none other than the fact that the AI Little Penguin videos were indeed popular enough to break out of the circle, and the content was made vividly by everyone acting as producers—moreover, the original author's open-source statement even gave the Penguin Administrator a touch of entering the public domain.
It can be said that as long as the true copyright holder behind this image does not take action, netizens can happily proceed with related secondary creations, tertiary creations, and secondary-secondary creations.
However, we must admit that such gray areas are indeed prone to hidden mines. Especially since this gray area simultaneously involves fan creations and AI. If something goes wrong, these mines will explode, sending those on the minefield spiraling into the sky—and such mishaps have already occurred.
A few days ago, it was revealed that Bilibili uploader "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai" applied for copyright registration for the AI Penguin Administrator image, and based on this, claimed that manufacturers using this image infringed on his property rights, while also demanding revenue shares from shops making merchandise based on this image.
We all know that whenever a new meme appears on the internet, a bunch of related merchandise will surely pop up on e-commerce platforms—and most of it is unauthorized. Usually, this kind of merchandise just rides the hype wave; it's an inevitable phenomenon, and people rarely take it seriously. But when "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai" actually intended to take a cut, it triggered the first wave of backlash, and related information quickly spread online.
Subsequently, "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai" released more chat records, explaining that he only discussed revenue sharing with a few shops that contacted him proactively, and did not extort other shops with copyright claims as stated online.
He stated that he did not want to see others profit from his work and asserted his right to retain the copyright for fan creations of this image—which made many people find it hard to accept and raised numerous questions about all his actions.
If we summarize netizens' doubts, they mainly fall into three categories: First, the source of his image itself is improper; Second, these memes were conceived by netizens; Third, can AI images even apply for copyright?
First, regarding the origin of this image itself, he already mentioned it in his video—it's an illustration from the afterword page of a doujinshi. If this matter were still in a gray area, no one would say anything, not even about the afterword page, let alone the thick erotic pages. However, applying for copyright clearly means bringing this character into the spotlight. Since the original author wants to use legal weapons to protect their copyright, don't blame netizens for examining the origins of this image in the same way.
Secondly, netizens also believe that the image of the Penguin Female Admin shouting "goo goo gaga" is the crystallization of collective wisdom among netizens and cannot be monopolized by one person—and this brings us to the complex development history of this meme image.
Regarding the statement that "the Administrator looks like a penguin," this perception existed as soon as netizens noticed the Administrator's image, leading to the creation of numerous related videos during the third beta test of Arknights: Endfield. For example, the video "Why is the Administrator a Penguin?" provided a complete argument: First, the outfit is very similar, both featuring a dark coat over a light inner layer, with a touch of yellow as an accent. Second, the Female Admin's performance in the game also has a dorky cuteness reminiscent of a penguin. Most importantly, the Administrator plays with stones, and penguins also like to play with stones, proving great success.
And why does the Penguin Administrator shout "goo goo gaga"? This also starts with the origin of "goo goo gaga." Abroad, people use "goo goo gaga" to simulate the sounds made by newborn babies, serving as a general onomatopoeia without actual meaning. Tracing back further, in the 1943 episode of Tom and Jerry titled "Baby Puss," when Tom was dressed as a baby by his mistress and put into a stroller to drink milk, he made sounds like "gaga gaga gaga" and "goo goo."
Cat-Mouse Team is still carrying
In the 2012 comedy Key & Peele, Jordan's character, a baby, uttered the phrase "goo goo gaga" in a deep voice, formally introducing the combined usage of "goo goo gaga" into internet pop culture—on YouTube, this clip has nearly twenty million views.
Subsequently, in the 2017 animated film The Boss Baby, the villain pretended to be a baby when answering the phone and said "goo goo gaga," gradually evolving the term to carry a hint of playing dumb. On the foreign internet, there are many parodies and pranks derived from this.
The one who brought it into the gaming circle was a TikToker named tornn44, whose videos mainly feature the game Roblox. During gameplay, he often adds heavily distorted "goo goo gaga" screams—imagine the full-loss quality room-destroying sound effects you usually hear in various game public mics, but replace the base with "goo goo gaga," and that's what tornn44 usually does.
By the way, in the comment section of his video, people occasionally come for cyber pilgrimages, looking for this god-tier person who brought the fully distorted "goo goo gaga" sound into the mainstream.
At this point, "goo goo gaga" has completely become a universal sound effect for pranks, and can be seamlessly paired with a "goo goo gaga" in various funny scenes or god-tier videos.
However, just as Garen FaFa cannot lose that blue-and-white bed and the waving God's Hand, "goo goo gaga" also needs a suitable carrier to achieve its explosive popularity on the Chinese internet. And this carrier is MyGO!!!!!'s lead singer from BanG Dream!—Tomori Takamatsu.
As everyone knows, fan creations for Girls Band Cry always have a touch of absurdity. In December 2024, Bilibili uploader interlilnk uploaded a fan-made video using AI voice to make Tomori Takamatsu sing "Inspiration Mushroom" at who-knows-how-many times speed, which was quite amusing.
The lead singer is trying too hard
Subsequently, this method of using AI voiceovers for pranks began to spread widely, with the most influential being the "gugugaga" created by Bilibili uploader Tushan Baibaimiao. After that, no matter which platform you are on, whenever you see the image of Tomori Takamatsu, you inevitably see someone say "goo goo gaga," and whenever you hear "goo goo gaga," it's hard not to think of Tomori Takamatsu.
Also, did you notice the common point between these two videos? Their titles both include "Penguin." In fact, according to the setting, Tomori Takamatsu herself likes penguins, her merchandise resembles penguins, and even trolls went to vote for Tomori Takamatsu when naming penguins at various aquariums... Over years of fan creation, Tomori Takamatsu has long been equated with penguins.
At this point, our logic loop is closed—next, let's use the knowledge learned in second grade to review the summary just made:
Administrator = Penguin
Goo Goo Gaga = Tomori Takamatsu
Tomori Takamatsu = Penguin
Proven: Administrator = Goo Goo Gaga
Thus, it can be seen that the image of the Penguin Administrator shouting "goo goo gaga" actually comes from a mixture of various forces on the internet. If we had to give a name to these combined forces, it would be the pan-ACG community on the Chinese internet. In short, during the messy dissemination process, it had long become a meme enjoyed by many Endfield players and even ordinary passersby—although there is no unified image, this meme is indeed the collective wisdom of netizens.
However, even though "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai" ultimately gave it the most widely disseminated unified image, this picture was fundamentally generated by AI. Therefore, whether it can be considered a work with originality is still controversial in current discussions—generally speaking, the core of copyright protection is human intellectual achievement, but as mentioned above, the intellectual achievement embodied by this Penguin Administrator is half from the official game character design and half from the "goo goo gaga" meme nurtured collectively by netizens. Although we cannot deny that the specific details of this image indeed required "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai" to personally polish the prompts and draw cards, attempting to reverse roles and apply for copyright to profit solely based on these contributions is difficult to justify within the public's simple values.
Finally, amidst numerous questions from netizens, "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai" faced unprecedented backlash. By noon on March 7, he issued a final apology statement, admitting all errors and abandoning his copyright claims. Everythinggj seemed to have settled—the image can continue to be used without worrying about anyone profiting from it.
Although admitting mistakes and correcting them is a good thing, it is obvious that his apology cannot stop netizens' discussions. Originally, this little penguin Administrator shouting "goo goo gaga" should have allowed netizens to enjoy the fun of creating and playing with memes together using AI tools through repeated breakthroughs into the mainstream. However, due to the mysterious operations of the image's author, this meme might end up in a mess... In the end, a win-win situation turned into a lose-lose scenario. Perhaps the only real winners here are the speculators using "goo goo gaga" to trade virtual currencies; they make money much faster than those collecting copyright fees or making merchandise.
But seriously, through this backlash, we also see that in the copyright gray areas related to fan creations and AI drawing, there are always numerous, difficult-to-identify mines buried. They need to be recognized and clarified. Before that, future creators can likely take this incident as a lesson to avoid such controversies as much as possible.
At least for now, we have seen progress from another aspect—although it seems like kicking a corpse now—some merchants have already marked the "Source Uploader" in their descriptions. "Jian Tu Si Shun Gai"'s right of attribution was ultimately implemented in a strange way.
