Most Pokémon cards take themselves seriously: dramatic battle poses, holographic foil, Legendary Pokémon lit like movie posters. But in thirty years of printing, a handful of cards slipped through that are just silly. Some are deliberate jokes. Some are art that went sideways. A few have rules text that asks you to sing.
We pulled this list together from collector favourites - including a long r/PokemonTCG thread where players showed off their silliest cards - and checked every one against the TCG Companion card database, so each card below is a real print you can look up.
Got a funny card of your own? Scan it with TCG Companion to see exactly which print it is and what it’s worth.
Imakuni? and the cards that break the fourth wall
If there is a patron saint of funny Pokémon cards, it’s Imakuni? - a designer, illustrator and musician at Creatures Inc., the company that makes the cards. He showed up as a character in the Game Boy Color Pokémon TCG games, then started appearing on real cards in Japan, and eventually in English sets too. His cards have rules you can’t really play with, art that looks like a kid drew it on purpose, and the question mark is part of his name.
Fellow joke artist Dr. Ooyama has a similar style - and both of them got secret rares in the 2016 Evolutions set, which is how many English collectors first discovered them.
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Imakuni? - Generations
#63 · Uncommon
A real photo of Imakuni? - a Creatures Inc. designer and musician - in a black outfit with ears. The Supporter's whole effect is "Your Active Pokémon is now Confused." Yours, not your opponent's.
Imakuni?'s Doduo - Evolutions
#112 · Secret Rare
Drawn by Imakuni? himself: a sweating Doduo fleeing the artist and his net. Its attack, Harmonize, makes you start singing a song, and its Pokémon Power tells you to throw the card as hard as you can.
Exeggutor - Evolutions
#109 · Secret Rare
A secret rare in an English set printed entirely in Japanese, with a hand-drawn Exeggutor by Dr. Ooyama, who appears at the bottom of the card. Collectors love it precisely because it makes no sense.
Magikarp & Wailord-GX - Team Up
#161 · Alternate Art
Ooyama again, this time on a TAG TEAM. Wailord is one of the largest Pokémon there is, so naturally the alternate art shows a giant Magikarp and a tiny Wailord swimming beneath it.
Faces you can’t unsee
These cards weren’t necessarily meant to be jokes. Something about the expression, the angle or the art style just landed in the wrong place - and collectors love them for it.
Grimer - Aquapolis
#79 · Common
Wide eyes, wider mouth. This Grimer looks like it turned a corner and saw something it can never unsee - and the early-2000s CG background only adds to it.
Diglett - Crystal Guardians
#50 · Common
Diglett pops out of the ground just in time to notice a huge wave about to land on it. The single bead of sweat says everything.
Typhlosion - Expedition Base Set
#28 · Rare Holo
Meant to be an intimidating fire-breathing pose. The perspective gives Typhlosion a huge body and a teeny tiny head instead.
Gengar - Scarlet & Violet 151
#94 · Rare Holo
A Ghost-type that is supposed to be sinister, drawn in a busy, scribbly style with its eyes pointing in two different directions, mid-dance.
Dark Slowking - Neo Destiny
#20 · Rare
An evil mastermind smirk and a plotting chin scratch - undone by the harsh, almost cartoonish contrast. One collector summed it up as Slowking saying "you aren't the chosen one."
Zapdos - Pokémon Rumble
#8
A Legendary bird rendered in the toy-like Pokémon Rumble style. Zapdos looks less like a thunder god and more like a rubber duck that wandered into a cartoon.
Alolan Dugtrio - Surging Sparks
#123 · Uncommon
Three Dugtrio with flowing golden hair, posed on a beach like a glamour shoot - collectors call it "Fabio Dugtrio". Its attack, Trio-Cheehoo, does nothing unless you have exactly 3 cards in hand. The illustration rare (#208) is just as dramatic.
Bonsly - Diamond & Pearl
#71 · Common
Bonsly has tripped over and is crying, bottom in the air. Its attack is called Fake Tears, which tells you how much sympathy it deserves.
Pokémon caught in very human moments
The Illustration Rare era (Scarlet & Violet onwards) gave artists a full card to draw Pokémon in everyday scenes instead of battle poses. A lot of the best comedy in the modern TCG lives here - along with a few older cards that got there first.
Charmander - SV Black Star Promos
#44 · Promo
Charmander presses its face to the window, glaring at an unbothered Pidgey outside. Its only attack, Heat Tackle, also does 10 damage to Charmander - frustration hurts.
Psyduck - Scarlet & Violet 151
#175 · Illustration Rare
Psyduck sprints down a long flight of stairs clutching its head, as if it just remembered something terrible. The attack is called Overthink. Extremely relatable.
Pineco - Paldea Evolved
#4 · Common
Pineco stares at an ordinary pinecone on the tree trunk next to it, with the look of a dog meeting a stuffed animal for the first time.
Sudowoodo - Paldea Evolved
#219 · Illustration Rare
A tree-lined street with one tree that isn't. Sudowoodo is doing its best tree impression and its first attack is literally called Hit and Hide.
Slakoth - Surging Sparks
#212 · Illustration Rare
Just a little dude lying on his back in an empty field. The attack is called Take It Easy: Slakoth heals itself, then refuses to retreat next turn. Committed.
Gulpin - Generations
#RC12 · Common
Gulpin and its trainer waiting at the table for dinner, balancing forks on their faces. The attack, Starvin', does nothing if you flip tails.
Iron Hands ex - Paradox Rift
#248 · Special Illustration Rare
A terrifying future robot, gleefully smashing its way through ancient ruins like it just heard someone call its name. Pure Kool-Aid Man energy.
Mew ex - Paldean Fates
#232 · Special Illustration Rare
Mew has sealed itself inside a bubble, drawn in a simple doodle style, while the Pokémon around the edges look on, baffled. The bystanders are the joke.
Bonus: cards that join into one picture
One tip from the collector thread: some modern illustration rares line up into a bigger picture when you place them side by side. The best-known pair is from the Scarlet & Violet base set - slot the Spidops ex special illustration rare above the Tarountula illustration rare and the scene continues across both cards. It’s a great excuse for a themed binder page.
Tarountula - Scarlet & Violet
#199 · Illustration Rare
A tiny Tarountula drifting through the air on a thread of silk, in Miki Tanaka's painted style. On its own it's a sweet little card.
Spidops ex - Scarlet & Violet
#243 · Special Illustration Rare
Also by Miki Tanaka: a gangly Spidops dangling from the same tree. Put it above the Tarountula in your binder and the two cards join into one scene.
Chonky, derpy and doing impressions
Sometimes the joke is the Pokémon’s shape. These are the round, fluffy and shameless cards the community has adopted as memes.
Pikachu VMAX - Vivid Voltage
#44 · Rare Holo VMAX
"Fat Chu." Gigantamax Pikachu is a round, chubby throwback to the original 1996 design, and the community adopted it as a meme immediately.
Eevee-GX - SM Black Star Promos
#SM233 · Promo
An extremely chonky Eevee looking very pleased with itself, drawn in a loose sketchy style nowhere near the usual "cute" Eevee.
Dedenne-GX - Unbroken Bonds
#195a · Alternate Art
Kanahei's alternate art turns Dedenne into a huge, derpy face that fills the card. Collectors call it one of the goofiest - and cheapest - Sun & Moon alt arts.
Simisear VSTAR - Crown Zenith
#GG37 · Galarian Gallery
A fluffy, sparkly, pastel Simisear with a ridiculous little dance going on in the background. Nobody knew Simisear could boogie.
Ditto - XY Black Star Promos
#XY40 · Promo
Ditto doing a Pikachu impression - right shape, wrong colour, and very much Ditto's face. It is not fooling anybody.
Japanese-only joke cards worth knowing
Some of the most famous silly cards were only ever printed in Japan. They don’t have English versions, but they come up in every “silliest card” conversation:
- Hama-Chan’s Slowking (CoroCoro promo) - a deliberately childlike drawing of Slowking by Masatoshi Hamada, the comedian who voiced Slowking in Pokémon the Movie 2000. Its crown looks more like a hard hat, and the attacks ask you to mumble lines like “Umm, should I?” three times before using them.
- Trade Please! (promo Trainer) - two scribbled kids conspiratorially trading a Poliwhirl and a Weepinbell, drawn by Imakuni?. Weepinbell looks horrified.
- Imakuni?’s Japanese Vending Series cards - the Vending series has several Imakuni? cards with chaotic, hastily-drawn art, and Series 3 even uses a different card back. Collectors hunting for “kid’s-drawing-core” art usually start here.
- Psyduck “The Scream” (SM-P promo) - Psyduck recreating Edvard Munch’s The Scream, made for the Munch exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Pikachu, Eevee, Mimikyu and Rowlet got versions too, but Psyduck was born for it.
- Yu Nagaba’s Eeveelution promos - simple line drawings of Eevee and its evolutions with emoticon-like faces. Unconventional, minimalist and strangely funny to pull from a pack.
- Gyarados (Pokémon Snap Best Photo Contest) - a card made from a winning Pokémon Snap photo, which is an extreme close-up of Gyarados’ face. It’s so close you can barely tell what you’re looking at.
If you want to hunt these down, search eBay for the card name plus “Japanese” and “promo”, and buy from sellers with clear photos of the card back.
Are funny Pokémon cards worth anything?
Mostly, no - and that’s part of the charm. The majority of cards on this list are Commons, Uncommons and promos that sell for a few dollars or less. Several collectors in the r/PokemonTCG thread mentioned picking up their favourite silly card for about a dollar at a local game store, and the Fabio Dugtrio illustration rare was described as “only an 8 dollar card.”
The ones that do carry real value tend to be:
- The funny secret rares - Imakuni?’s Doduo and the Japanese-text Exeggutor from Evolutions are secret rares, so they’re scarcer than the rest of the set.
- Alternate arts and special illustration rares - Magikarp & Wailord-GX, Dedenne-GX, Iron Hands ex and Mew ex are premium prints of popular Pokémon, so they’re priced like chase cards, not jokes.
- Japanese-only promos - Hama-Chan’s Slowking, Trade Please! and the Vending series are hard to find outside Japan, which keeps prices up.
- Graded copies - plenty of people grade a silly card just to protect it for display. A PSA 10 of a meme card can sell for far more than the raw copy.
Prices move, so the fastest way to check any of these is to scan the card with TCG Companion. The app identifies the exact set, number and variant and shows the current raw price plus every tracked graded tier.
Funny Pokémon cards FAQ
What is the funniest Pokémon card?
Collectors most often name Imakuni?’s cards - the Imakuni? Supporter from Generations, which confuses your own Active Pokémon, and Imakuni?’s Doduo from Evolutions, whose attack makes you sing. Other favourites are the shocked Aquapolis Grimer, Fat Chu Pikachu VMAX and the Charmander promo glaring at a Pidgey.
Who is Imakuni?
Imakuni? (Tomoaki Imakuni) is a designer, illustrator and musician at Creatures Inc., the company that makes Pokémon cards. He appeared as a character in the Game Boy Color Pokémon TCG games and then on real cards, first in Japan and later in English sets.
Are funny Pokémon cards worth anything?
Most are Commons and Uncommons worth very little. The exceptions are the funny secret rares, alternate arts and special illustration rares - such as Imakuni?’s Doduo, the Evolutions Exeggutor, Magikarp & Wailord-GX and Mew ex from Paldean Fates - plus Japanese-only promos, which are scarce outside Japan.