Commit Sudoku

About

“Commit Sudoku” is an expression intentionally confusing the Japanese word “seppuku” for suicide by disembowelment with the Sudoku puzzle game. It is often associated with the engrish catchphrase “shamefur dispray”.

Origin

On September 7th, 2006, the earliest known usage of the term “commit sudoku” was featured in a YTMND page titled “DISTURBING! Japanese Girl Committing Sudoku”, highlighting a photograph of a woman solving a Sudoku puzzle (shown below).

Seppuku vs. Sudoku

Seppuku^[1] (“stomach-cutting” in Japanese), is a ritual suicide practiced by the Japanese samurais in which a blade is plunged into the stomach to perform a ceremonial disembowelment. It was used as a method for the samurai to die an honorable death or as a type of capital punishment for the disgraced. Sudoku is a number placement puzzle popularized by a Japanese puzzle company Nikoli,^[2] in which the player populates different sized square grids with single digits.

Spread

On October 31st, 2006, a YTMND page titled “I order you to commit Sudoku” was submitted, which included a photoshopped picture of a ceremonial disembowelment (shown below).

On July 8th, 2007, the women’s interest blog Big Girl Underoos^[7] posted an overheard conversation in which the word “Sudoku” was confused with “seppuku.” On February 12th, 2008, Democratic Underground Forums^[8] member Richardo submitted a thread titled “You want me to commit Sudoku?” On December 2nd, 2010, DeviantArtist^[9] Karoyence uploaded a comic titled “Committing Sudoku,” in which a man corrects his friend’s confusion of the words "Sudoku and “seppuku” (shown below).

In March 13th, 2012, an Urban Dictionary^[5] user Synchronous Failure submitted an entry for the word “Sudoku” referencing the replacement for “seppuku” on 4chan.

“On online message boards, particularly 4chan’s /v/, people mix the word for Japanese ritual suicide, ‘seppuku,’ with ‘sudoku.’ The typo has since spread and became adopted in a similar fashion to “pwn” in regards to ‘own.’"

On February 6th, 2013, artist Andrew Gregoire posted a comic depicting a samurai carving a Sudoku puzzle on his chest to the website I AM ARG!^[6] (shown below).