Mr. Peanut Devouring His Son Goes Viral

Planters bet their chips on a peculiar ad campaign ahead of the Super Bowl as they officially “killed” the character of Mr. Peanut. In the lead up to the big game, Mr. Peanut heroically sacrificed himself in an ad while on a road trip with actor Wesley Snipes and Veep star Matt Walsh resulting in sympathy from fellow mascots and a changing of the Mr. Peanut account to “The Estate of Mr. Peanut.” After the unfortunate passing of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant however, the promotion was mostly put on pause but Planters did air the second half of their ad during the Super Bowl which saw the rebirth of Mr. Peanut as the newly christened “Baby Nut.” Overall, it was a very outlandish and bizarre turn of events. Now it has been taken to its furthest possible conclusion.

Artist Nina Matsumoto took to Twitter to lampoon the entire scenario and parody a famous painting, revealing a piece she titled “Mr. Peanut Devouring His Son” and her image has really taken off. This art parodies both the entire Mr. Peanut scenario that has unfolded with the Planters commercial while also being a parody of the famous painting “Saturn Devouring His Son” by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The original painting hails from the early 1800s and depicts the greek myth of Saturn eating one of his children, fearing that when they grew up they would overthrow him, something Matsumoto’s painting alludes to as well with the full grown Mr. Peanut and Baby Nut. You can check out the image for yourself below!

As of this writing, Matsumoto’s has over 116k likes on Twitter and 26.9k retweets, with more likes in that one tweet than any of the official “Baby Nut” tweets that appeared after the Super Bowl. “I quietly posted this at 2 in the morning yet look what happened,” Matsumoto wrote, later hinting that prints of her piece might be on the horizon.

A fun bit of semi-related trivia is the influence of the original “Saturn Devouring His Son,” with regard to fan-favorite movies. Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has often cited Francisco Goya’s paintings as major influences on his work with “Saturn Devouring His Son” specifically influencing the film Pan’s Labyrinth. Del Toro would model the “Pale Man” character (played by Doug Jones) after the iconic painting. Another famous painting by Goya, his 1808 work “Colossus” would also influence Guillermo del Toro for his 2013 film Pacific Rim. We shudder to think of a version of that image with a mountainous Mr. Peanut standing over a town.