The Cute, The Bad, The Ugly: Why The Labubu Is Nothing Newnew

I don’t want to break up with my Labubu yet.

But I’m already emotionally checked out. 

In moments of crisis, what are we encouraged to do by our close friends when it’s time to seriously consider the value of a currently malfunctioning relationship? A pros and cons list. We ponder, assessing the way someone looks, what they do for us and ultimately, what we get out of having them in our lives. More often than not the cons column heavily outweighs the pros. Alas, we still go along with it all because, ‘he’s cute’ and apparently that trumps everything else. 

The cute is the most powerful and problematic of our aesthetic categories, ‘since cute things evoke a desire in us not just to lovingly molest but also to aggressively protect them’. The cute is a classification that can be performative, maternal and fetishised all rolled into one and identified objectively without difficulty, since something cute will induce a visceral reaction often accompanied by the word ‘awwh!’. The Labubu is an exemplary concoction of the above which is why they are currently trending. 

A brief history of the Labubu in bullet form (since I’m assuming you already know rather a lot about them.

• They were born in 2015

• They’re a girl

• They have 9 teeth 

• Popmart collectable dolls is an 18 billion dollar business

Labubus had been on my radar for a few months, but I can’t say that I was desperate to get my hands on one and I was by no means an early adopter. In fact I will gladly identify here as a Laggard, not to mention I am someone who boasts a Lafufu, it feels a bit more edgy to say that I have the bootleg version and not the real deal. It feels rebellious. 

Figure 1 // The Product Adoption Curve. Image courtesy of Userpilot ©

The whole craze didn't really compute with me until I began to see an escalation of online discourse surrounding the monsters. It’s no surprise that the internet directed their disapproval at the consumer, slamming them for buying into yet another ephemeral trend that will, if we are being totally honest, end up in land fill pretty soon. In the Polyester Podcast episode ‘Labubu? Lafufu? LaTime Has Come To Stop This Nonsense’ Ione Gamble points out that “Everyone is acting like this Labubu craze is the likes of which have never been seen before.” Remember, Beanie Babies, Jelly Cats, Squishmallows and Fuglers all ran so that Labubu could walk.

It is notable that the toys listed above are cute. But why? What actually denotes somethings’ cuteness? And what does that mean for us trying to keep body and soul together in a post-consumerist era?

Lets go back to 1895 where toys were produced to appear far less infirm, they were made of materials far more destructible and they fluctuated unequivocally in the uncanny valley - a special place where human likeness and familiarity personifies nonhuman objects and make us feel some type-o-way. 

Figure 2 // ‘The Girl From Paris’ Figurine Advertisement, American Mechanical Doll Works Company ©

I’ll note here that conspiracy theorists today are wrongly claiming that Labubus are haunted and can possess people. But personally, I wouldn't put anything past the girl from Paris. I think she has some unfinished business. I can understand how they have come to this conclusion though, since the person who gifted me my Lafufu frequently reminds me that it looks like a ‘maledition’. I’ve also had strangers exclaim that the fuzzy brown elf hanging off my handbag is ‘creepy’ and ‘ugly’. So, Kasing Lung’s illustrations turned collectable dolls must be doing something right. In terms of arousing strong feelings and reactions merely by looking.

Figure 3 // I’m smart, I’m sexy AND I have a Labubu.

Sianne Ngai draws attention to the commodification of the cute that we can recognise in the context of Labubus’ recent virality. She states, ‘it is the continuousness and the everydayness of our aesthetic relation to the often artfully designed, packaged, and advertised merchandise that surrounds us in our homes, in our workplaces and on the street.’ ₁ I will dutifully add, ‘and on our phones’ to this equation. Because I don't think the majority of people would be persuaded to acquire a Labubu if it weren't for Instagram, let's be real. 

I know there is something deeper at play here, Labubus are not just a toy. They are a status symbol. Humans have long been concerned with how we are perceived and the best way to do this is by sending visual messages to our observers. ‘The cute index(s) the uncertain status of performing between labour and play, the increasing routing of art and aesthetic experience through the exchange of information, and the paradoxical complexity of our desire for a simpler relation to our commodities … they are about production, circulation and consumption.’ ₂ In this post capitalist culture, perpetuated by our online existence, buying things to make us appear a certain way is commonplace. John Berger's seventh essay in Ways of Seeing remains ever relevant, by referring to publicity (advertisements for products) as a system that makes only one proposal. ‘It proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more. This more, it proposes, will make us in some way richer - even though we will be poorer by having spent our money.’ ₃ Sound familiar? You want that Labubu because you have been told that it is desirable. Que neo liberalism undertones when we discover the sour taste of extraordinary resale value. A limited edition Art Basel Labubu sold for about $2,000 and the omnipresent Depop seller will successfully flog you one for way over its actual value, all because you feel insecure that you don't have one. ‘Publicity persuades us of such a transformation by showing us people who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable. The state of being envied is what constitutes glamor. And publicity is the process of manufacturing glamor.’

Think of all the celebs you've seen photographed with one of these fluffy things. It's the it girl. For now.

Labubu owners nod saccharinely to the classic American doll - people are further accessorising their accessory by dressing the thing up in tiny outfits and brandishing it with designer logos. Piling on the layers of luxury. 

Figure 4 // Gucci Labubu, Image courtesy of MY FUNBOX Official Store ©, 2025.

Making accessorising accessible for the masses was bound to happen sooner or later. I find myself in a weird simulacrum of luxury at the car boot sale over the weekend, because with the rise of ‘fake’ Labubus mixed with the speed at which trends turn around, people will practically be giving away their Labubus in a few months' time. But for now, I’m told I can have two for fifteen or one for a tenner. 

Figure 5 // Man selling the newest football kits and air fresheners alongside our beloved bootleg beasts.

So what is cute? Rounded features, pappy textures and minimal details. Think of disproportionate cartoon-like eyes, soft forms and overall kitschy style. Ngai explains, ‘cute objects have no edge to speak of, being simple or formally non-complex and deeply associated with the infantile, the feminine, and the unthreatening.’₅

It's not until the late 19th century that manufacturers began to market toys that pertained to ‘false simplicity’ - a term coined by Walter Benjamin that describes the appearance of the kind of toys we are peddled today and has since been the aesthetic ideal for toy design. ‘Although the modern toy, made of softer substances with fewer intricate parts, might seem cuter by contemporary standards, it is clearly cuteness or something like it that Benjamin seems to mean by “false simplicity”. The genuinely simple toy, by contrast, bears witness to its process of making in an overt or transparent way. At the same time, Benjamin concedes that the modern toy’s merely formal (and therefore false) simplicity may have been founded on an authentic longing to rediscover the relationship with the primitive, to recuperate the style of a home-based industry that at this very time was locked in an increasingly hopeless struggle.’ ₆ Here Ngai is confirming how industrialisation revolutionised mass production and how its effects continue to penetrate the minds of consumers today. We want the cute, we want the bad, we want the ugly. Our inner child is hungry. Our maternal instincts are kicking in. And we really, really want that Labubu. 

Links to read on // 

1. Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin UK, 2008.

   ₃John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Penguin UK, 2008), 131.

   ₄  John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Penguin UK, 2008), 131.

2. Hansford, Amelia, and Amelia Hansford. “Conspiracy Theorists Are Claiming Labubu Dolls Are Haunted and Can Possess People.” PinkNews | Latest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans News | LGBTQ+ News, July 14, 2025. https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/14/are-labubu-dolls-haunted-nope/.

3. Ngai, Sianne. Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, 2015.

   ₁ Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, 2015, 58.

   ₂ Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, 2015, 13.

   ₅Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, 2015, 59.

   ₆ Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, 2015, 74.

4. O’Neill, Lauren. “Labubu? Lafufu? LaTime Has Come to Stop This Nonsense — Polyester.” Polyester, June 23, 2025. https://www.polyesterzine.com/podcast/labubu-lafufu-latime-has-come-to-stop-this-nonsense.

5. Wang, Vivian. “Can This Not-Particularly-Cute Elf Make China Cool?” The New York Times, June 16, 2015. Accessed July 16, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/world/asia/labubu-china-cool.html.