Someone Put a Labubu on Karl Marx's Grave — "The Labu-bourgeoisie Must be Stopped!"

While the collectible craze of Labubus is growing in fever pitch by the day, not everyone is loving the message that the obsession drives home. On its surface, the collectible craze is all about getting the most coveted items, and showing other people your prized possessions.

It's funny, it's whimsical, and it's all about getting lucky and being determined.

But under the surface lies a message about gross consumerism and obsession with idolatry and becoming hollow shells who focus on getting the next best thing rather than enriching your life through more studied pursuits. Which, of course, is at the core of many of the philosophies of Karl Marx, father of the communist movement.

In 2025, someone laid a Labubu on Marx's grave, leading to a surge of conversation about the move online.

Here's what we know.

Labubus are funny little plush dolls that come with a keychain clip. Influencers and celebrities obsessively collect them, and an entire world of Labubu fakes, aka Lafufus, has risen to meet the consumerist craze that has arisen around the Pop Mart plushies.

According to a video widely circulating TikTok, someone placed the Labubu, or possibly a Lafufu, on Marx's grave. At first, it seems like a funny little gesture to make; a cute little plush sits on the grave of a historic figure.

But it seems likely that there's a greater meaning behind the gesture.

After all, Marx was a famed critic of capitalism and gross consumerism, and Labubu is the heart and soul of what many people consider to be "wrong" with capitalism. As TikTok user @din00bot points out, Labubu was once an individual and unique art creation, but it has become a hot commodity. Marx famously warned against commodity, and the use of scarcity and demand to control access, along with the fetishization of objects (via Stanford University).

Which sounds a lot like exactly what Labubus have become.

The irony of it all and the apparently meaning-laden juxtaposition of the fetishized object on the grave of Marx has led to many philosophical takes online.

In the comments of @din00bot's video, one user notes that the placement of the Labubu is almost like a Black Mirror episode, cheering on the anonymous user who made the first video.

User @the_sexpert writes in the comments of his own video, "'The labubu on Karl Marx’s grave' — how did we get here (oh wait Marx tells us exactly how)." And he jokingly adds, "The Labu-bourgeoisie must be stopped!" The bourgeoisie, of course, is a reference to Marx's description of the ruling class in capitalism (via Britannica).

Overall, it seems that many people believe the placement of the Labubu was a quiet but strong statement that points out how our society has fallen into a cycle of fetishizing and commodity, things Marx warned about as capitalism reaches its weakest and most vulnerable points.

As one person quipped in a TikTok comment section, "the next step is Labubus for all!"