Smugglypuff, who's real name is Valerie Williamson, is a student at the University of Toronto. She is Canadian and went to Saint Anne Catholic High School where she spoke on behalf of the LGBT community at her school after vandalization of school property was targeted towards them.

In September of 2016, University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan B. Peterson gave a talk about political correctness, in which he expresses concerns about new “hate crime” criteria that would criminalize hate speech based on gender identity or expression in the proposed Bill C-16 to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act. Additionally, Peterson stated he would not “recognize another’s person’s right to determine what pronouns I used to address them.”

On October 11, 2016, LGBT activists at the University held a protest against Peterson’s statements where a Trans woman assaulted conservative host Lauren Southern before disappearing into the crowd. Immediately after the incident, a Trans man person wearing a yellow beanie tells a nearby police officer that he “didn’t see anything” while grinning. He then disappears back into the crowd and gives the finger to Lauren and her cameraman.

After footage emerged on YouTube of the incident, anons (users) on 4chan dubbed the yellow beanie person "Smugglypuff" due to her body type and smug facial expressions. Smugglypuff caught on quickly and proliferated on Reddit as well as other platforms where people shared their artwork and variations of the meme. Some notable pieces were created by Reddit use the1_action_bastard. ^[1]