It’s Sunday, and it’s time for another “picdump!” Here are the memes, pictures, and cartoons floating
around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Share them far and wide!
Today — Tuesday, February 17, 2026 — marks the start of the Lunar New Year, and this year is traditionally known as the Year of the Fire Horse.
But thanks to a manufacturing error, it’s also the Year of the Sad Horse.
Since the Chinese zodiac characters are animals (here’s their origin story), each new year sees the release of a plush version of that year’s animal, made out in red, gold, and white, which are the colors of good fortune.
Since this is the year of the horse, here’s what this year’s plushie is supposed to look like:
However, because of a manufacturing error, many of those plush horses’ snouts were attached upside-down, turning their smiles into these glum expressions:
Surprisingly, this error made the horses incredibly popular, probably because they’re reflecting the current mood.
At a time of slowing economic growth and dimming job prospects for many workers, the toy has been embraced as the “cry cry horse” and become an internet sensation.
“The economy hasn’t been great, and life’s been tough for a lot of people these past couple of years,” said Zhang Ziqi, 24, a teacher in Hebei province. “That crying expression really matches how most people feel — stressed, anxious, kind of down.”
“It’s about allowing yourself to not be OK, to admit you’re in a low period,” she said in an interview this week.
Zhang Huoqing, owner of the Happy Sister shop in Yiwu, a wholesale hub in central Zhejiang province, explained that a worker sewed its snout on the wrong way. When a customer pointed out the mistake, she offered a refund — but the customer didn’t return the horse.
Photos of the sad horse appeared online, spread via social media, and it’s now a viral hit.
“Many customers liked it, and then it started selling very well,” she told Reuters. “So we just kept producing them.”
Since then, Zhang’s shop has been rushing to keep up with orders for the “accidental edition,” including some from overseas, and knockoffs have proliferated online. According to media reports, the worker who first made the mistake has been rewarded with an annual bonus of 8,888 yuan ($1,280) for the next 12 years.
Why 8,888? Because 8 is the lucky number in many Asian cultures. Pronounced bā in Mandarin, it sounds like fā which means “to get rich.” In fact, the New Year greeting in Mandarin, gong xi fa cai, really means “Hope you get rich.”
I’ll let Ronnie Chieng explain:
And yes, you can order a Sad Horse here in the U.S.! I ordered mine through Walmart:
If there’s a lesson to be learned from this, it’s that sometimes a bug can be a feature, or as I like to say: “When life gives you SARS, you make SARSaparilla.”
It’s Sunday, and it’s time for another “picdump!” Here are the memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Share them far and wide!
It’s Sunday, and it’s time for the first of two picdumps. Here are some of the memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Feel free to share these far and wide.
Want to see the other picdump? It’s here.
It’s Sunday, and it’s time for the second of two picdumps. Here are more of the memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Feel free to share these far and wide.
Want to see the other picdump? It’s here.
The ridiculousness continues. So much that this is just the third of three Sunday picdumps today.
In case you haven’t seen the others:
The picdump here on The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century is usually a collection of images that I found amusing, interesting, or relevant that week. And yes, this week’s set does contain a lot of relevant pictures, editorial cartoons, and screen captures, but they are far from amusing.
But they are important.
Usually, I say “Share and enjoy!” at the end of the intro to each picdump, but I can’t do that in good conscience this week. Instead, I’ll say “Share — and do what you can to make things better.”
The ridiculousness continues. So much that this is just the second of three Sunday picdumps today.
In case you haven’t seen the others:
The picdump here on The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century is usually a collection of images that I found amusing, interesting, or relevant that week. And yes, this week’s set does contain a lot of relevant pictures, editorial cartoons, and screen captures, but they are far from amusing.
But they are important.
Usually, I say “Share and enjoy!” at the end of the intro to each picdump, but I can’t do that in good conscience this week. Instead, I’ll say “Share — and do what you can to make things better.”
