Hat Putato

Hat Putato is a meme so old that it is legally allowed to drink, originating from a series of Usenet shitposts in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They started on alt.tv.game-shows, but spread out to many other boards. The posts concerned the 1984 US game show Hot Potato, which was hosted by the late Bill Cullen. The original post (from former ATGS regular Dan Harrisfield under the alias "Pete Sweat") read as follows:

how wus hat putato played? did bill cullen toss a putato around the studio? that would be a funny

From here, trolls would continue to annoy other users by repeatedly reposting the question, usually with even more words deliberately misspelt. Eventually the entire post consisted of deliberately misspelt words, resulting in the classic form of Hat Putato:

how wuz hat putato plaed? did bil kulin tos uh putato at thu kuntestintz? tat wuld b a funi.

Numerous variations of Hat Putato evolved over time, including a Spanish-language version:

Como la Patata Caliente fue jugada? Bill Cullen lanzo una patata en los jugadores? Eso seria divertido.

And Kat Putato:

how wuz kat putato plade? did bil kulin shuv a putato up a katz but an tos it tu thu kuntestintz? tat wud be aminal krulty, an bob barkur wud hav kikd bil kulin in da but, an tat wud b a funi.

A related shitpost concerned Bill Cullen himself, who suffered from polio as a child, and walked with a limp.

wy did bil kulin wok funi? did he wunt tu b a klown? he shuda wor a klown nos tu.

Another related post which has continuously been rehashed and distorted is "i lick bigg munny game shows", which also originated with Harrisfield's "Pete Sweat" character.

All of this is yet more proof, if proof be need be, that internet folk (including myself) have way too much time on their hands.