Get An Art History Lesson From The World's Most Ambivalent Egg

For everyone who has off days, can’t get out of bed or deeply feels the futility of everyday life, there’s Gudetama, Sanrio’s fried egg who constantly wallows around giving offResting “Meh” Face.

He’s tired, he’s lazy, and he has a cute little butt. The character is a bit enigmatic, seeming to shrug in the face of cheerier cartoon counterparts like Hello Kitty and co. Unlike those perpetually smiling characters (that is, if they have a mouth at all), he lives in a world that allows space for our less pleasant tendencies.

That acceptance — the fact that we all have a little Gudetama in us — is part of what makes the character so appealing.

Is it the weekend yet...

A post shared by gudetama (@gudetama) on May 8, 2015 at 11:13am PDT

Now here’s some Gude news: Our ovoid friend is filling in for some of art history’s most famous faces.

Gudetama's take on da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."
Gudetama's take on da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."
Gudetama offering a very cute interpretation of "The Milkmaid" by Vermeer.
Gudetama offering a very cute interpretation of "The Milkmaid" by Vermeer.

If you’re a little rusty on famous paintings, here are the O.G. versions to compare.

Dave Marchi, vice president of brand management and marketing at Sanrio, described the collection in the following statement.

The Gudetama “Museum” Collection is a design series developed for Japan and inspired by Gudetama’s visits to museums around the world. Select pieces from the series are currently available onsanrio.com; expanded distribution is in the works for later this year.

For a lazy egg, Gudetama sure gets a lot of traveling done. A Facebook post from the official Gudetama page hints that other artworks, like “The Scream” by Edvard Munch and “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli, will soon get the Gudetama treatment, too.

If you’re a fan of the “Mona Lisa” and “The Milkmaid” images, you can grab them on postcards,memo pads,notebooksandclear files.

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