A still from the 2012 Lorax movie
A still from the 2012 Lorax movie
Happy 2012
2012. You look online and see tons of memes of various people and animals placed on top of pinwheel colors. Chuck Norris jokes were still plentiful. Call Me Maybe was playing on the radio. Tumblr still had paragraph-long fake text posts. And I was still in middle school.
Middle school was a weird time for me, 8th grade especially. I mainly hung out that year in my French teacher’s room for lunch with a few people I was friends with (relevant later). I didn’t have a phone or anything, but by this time I had a Nook tablet (that I never read anything on…). On this tablet, I mainly contacted a friend of mine at the time who was a year older on Yahoo messages (since Youtube Inbox went down by then I think) so we could continue roleplaying in our messy Durarara!! X OC x various media universe.
March 2nd, 2012, the world was permanently changed.
Well, not yet for me. No, that would come around a month later.
March 2nd, 2012 and Subsequent Months
March 2nd, The Lorax released. I’m sure at first, little Brie was very cynical towards this (especially as I was younger, I was not a fan of the idea of remakes– I really liked the original Lorax animation and this 3D stuff did not interest me.). However, this would change when I heard “How Bad Can I Be?”
I think I actually first watched the video on my Mom’s laptop… I was obsessed. I know I downloaded it onto my IPod Nano ASAP. I was entranced. I can guess why– the Onceler kind of vaguely looked like my favorite OC at the time– which in turn kind of looked like every other emo boy who didn’t opt for eye-covering bangs and instead went with the swoopy look. The kicker was the dress style. I was painfully heteronormative at this time and any guy who dressed in that suit/dress shirt type of look made 13 year old me go crazy.
Old art of the OC in question, dated Sept 2015
Anyway, time to introduce my Tumblr. I had a Tumblr before my current one; I made it a year before this whole incident and quickly gave it up, instead opting to just visit the site and write down URLs on pieces of paper to look at later (mainly supernatural– ghosts and stuff, not the show– blogs.) However, in April of 2012, I changed that.
I didn’t do a lot in my first few months on the site. In fact, I lost my password sometime in May and didn’t find it until July of that year. However, the fact that during this time I was not maintaining a Tumblr blog was not deterring me– I drew the Onceler. In fact, I remember specifically drawing him a LOT on the white board in my French teacher’s room. A lot. Like, every day repeatedly. Somewhere there’s photographic proof, hidden in some obscured folder on my laptop that is likely to start an electrical fire.
I knew this behavior was a little strange. In fact, I hid the fact I was really interested in the Onceler from friends online I had known for years. It was kind of embarrassing to me– I’m not going to lie. However, the urge was painfully strong because I kept drawing him nonstop on that damn whiteboard even when guys who bullied me sat in the room for some god forsaken reason.
The Fandom Itself
Back to what I can find via going back through my Tumblr. I know I knew about ask blogs early on and that was a big draw in general to keep the wheels turning. I remember finding the whole thing fascinating– I had been in fandom for years (yes, years– I was in fandom online as early as elementary school)-- but this was untrodden terrain. The idea of sending anonymous messages and receiving art in-character was crazy cool to me– and honestly? It still is!
I think people oversimplify what the Onceler fandom really was. Yes, it was people obsessing over the literal villain from a kids movie. Yes, it spurred a lot of iterations of the same man. However, I think people need to understand how amazing the community was. I don’t so much remember a lot of negatives (I’m sure there were some! I just was a bystander, afterall, who followed blogs and reblogged pictures. I think there was some ship drama, but that’s only a hazy memory.) A lot of people were so sweet and loved talking to others. A lot of gorgeous art came from the fandom– absolutely beautiful pieces people poured love into. A lot of people made amazing cosplays– even of ask blog Oncelers! It was crazy cool! There were silly memes and really cool gif sets and animations done during this time.
Honestly, even though I wasn’t directly in the fandom by way of creating/interacting via asks, I really do have to say even years later it was my best and favorite experience of fandom. I really think it was a beautiful and fun community. Yes, you can argue a lot on how it derailed from canon, but people’s creativity on how the canon split was also really interesting and unique.
Lovely fanart by Shilloshilloh @ dA
What Was Up With Oncest Anyway?
Most people remember Oncest. I mean, next to the introduction of Tumblr Sexyman-ism and the general phenomenon of the Onceler, Oncest is probably the most remembered element. For those uninitiated, the term refers to shipping the Once-ler with himself, usually in the form of pre-corruption (i.e, a starting out entrepreneur) and himself when he becomes massively wealthy. The former is usually referred to as just Onceler, the latter is usually referred to as Greedler. These are more or less categories, but there’s a lot more to the specifics. Usually, a Onceler is paired with a Greedler.
If you haven’t watched the movie or don’t know the lore, you might ask: Why? The simple answer is the fact there was no one else to ship him with. The main character, Ted, is a child, and obviously that's a no-go. Audrey, the female companion to Ted in the film, is also a child (I will say: Yes people did ship her with the Onceler. This was NOT common though and you only saw it very rarely.). You then have two options: Granny Norma, who tells Ted about the Once-ler and is around the Once-ler’s age when she tells him this, and the actual Lorax.
Did people ship the Once-ler with Norma? Occasionally! Did people ship the Onceler with the Lorax? Occasionally! But I’d say that was probably ~5% combined.
I’d say you’d generally assume most people shipped Oncest in the fandom. Obviously, there were people who were not so concerned with the shipping aspect either. There was also a small portion I saw shipping the Once-ler with the Warden from Superjail!-- but in general, crossovers between those two series were common.
Oncest fanart by eyewhiskers @ tumblr
Ask Blogs and AUs
If you knew anything about this phenomenon, you definitely know vaguely about the ask blogs. For those who never experienced the joy of ask blogs: They’re pretty much roleplay blogs where people send in questions. Incredibly fun and cute concept, really an explosion of creativity. A lot of times, people drew answers in addition to text responses. Sometimes, blogs used fanart to respond as well.
I can’t say I know what Once-ler came first. I do know that two of the most popular blogs– Swag-ler (Swag Once-ler) and One-ler (A cannibal Once-ler) were one of the biggest ships. And yes, I followed both and enjoyed them. Aside from them, there were others such as Bitter-ler (Once-ler who’s company failed), Gentleman-ler (A gentleman who was just very lovely– Baby Brie sent fanart to this one, actually!), and 72-ler (based off the 1972 version). There were also blogs that had a Once-ler and a Greedler in different themes (I believe Steam-ler and Crud-ler, off of steampunk aesthetics, fit that). These just barely scratch the surface (ANYTHING was Once-ler-ified!) and in fact, a lot of these had AUs on top of being AUs! (I remember female versions were a thing too.) There were also community events like Camp Weehawken– an AU event where younger versions of the blogs went to summer camp. Thneedmas was also a thing, which was pretty much a fandom secret santa event. There was another AU that was zombie apocalypse based called Truffula Flu.
Aside from the Once-ler, there were ask blogs of other characters from the movie too! There were blogs of different characters from the movie, such as Audrey, Ted and Norma, alongside people who roleplayed as the Once-ler’s relatives. In addition, normal people who ran blogs (i.e., your average tumblr user) also became part of the lore by responding to posts from ask blogs.
Amazing art of Swag-ler and One-ler done by CatnipPackets, known later for their work in animation and comics.
So, About the Movie...
Now, if you’ve read up to this point, you might notice something: I have barely talked about the movie. I did not actually watch the movie until I was years into the fandom, probably 2014 or so. It sucked. The movie is absolutely horrible. It’s not worth the 86 minutes. I can’t do a full review because I only saw it once but I remember being so painfully disappointed at how bad it was.
Did this deter my love for the fandom? No, not at all! In fact, I think this is a rare instance of me preferring what the fandom created for a piece of media (sans the original, of course; But at this point, it felt so divorced from that). Anyway, “How Bad Can I Be?” Still rocks.
Decline and De-Once-ler-Ification
Around late 2013 is when the fandom started to die down. It wasn’t a complete death, but I’ll discuss that in a bit. There were some postings here and there, but I suspect some things have gotten deleted for whatever reasons (I know there are missing posts from Swag-Onceler for example; you can see this reflected in One-ler’s archives.)
De-Once-ler-Ification started probably around 2014 or so. By this time, the fandom had been around for quite some time. I can’t say I kept up with every blog’s direction or every de-onceler-ified character.
The Once-ler fandom dissipated, people moved onto new passions and new series. The whole phenomenon caused the whole Tumblr Sexyman idea– something that’s its own rabbithole.
A reply to an anon from Swag Once-ler during Weehawken Weekend.
What Now?
You may be surprised to read this, but the fandom is still alive. Granted, it’s a fraction of what it used to be, but there are still people running AU blogs! In fact, there are people still actively keeping tabs on it as well!
To further read on the intricacies of it, I really recommend the following links which have archived a ton of information on it:
- This Google Doc containing a directory from 1 archival Tumblr Blog
- This Tumblr that also has a lot of archival and links to blogs
Another Personal Tangent To Close It Out
The Once-ler fandom to me is something very special. I might not keep tabs on it anymore, and I wasn’t really an active member in terms of community– I don’t think I even talked to anyone while I was in it about it– but it really meant a lot to me while it was thriving. I remember being so happy to go on Tumblr and read the new antics blogs were up to.
I feel a lot of retrospectives on it are from people who were not in the fandom first-hand and instead only have an external perspective on it. This isn’t bad; I appreciate any archival of it… But I feel people often view it as a weird phenomenon instead of a vibrant community that really brought a lot of creativity and together-ness. Yeah, you can view being obsessed with the Once-ler of all characters as strange– even a younger me knew that– but it was so much more than that.
I don’t think I’ve experienced fandom or community like that since. I really think it was a special moment in time and I remember being genuinely sad to see it slowly fade. I don’t actually know anyone else who experienced the fandom, and talking to friends about it, they seem to only know me.
I want this fandom to be remembered more for its creativity and amazing network of people rather than just the fact it was a bit “weird”. I saw people fall in love after meeting via this fandom, I saw friends being made, I saw people’s art and creativity grow so beautifully. I’m glad to have experienced this special moment in history and I genuinely wish more people did as well.
A doodle as an ode to the Onceler fandom
7:34 PM ... 06.21.2025