“I need to emphasize how unserious this is for me”: Meet City Pool Warrior, Toronto’s funniest meme account

Since November of 2024, City Pool Warrior has been posting extraordinarily relatable memes on Instagram about life in Toronto, from the prevalence of Canada Goose coats to most people’s inability to spell “Eglinton.” There are frequent jokes about the GO train, Blondie’s Pizza, Kibo Sushi, Fat Bastard Burritos and the King West party bar Paris Texas. The account’s genius lies in its dead-on specificity. It’s easy to instantly envision the subject being skewered, whether it’s Liberty Village-dwelling finance bros who went to Queen’s or women whose only winter footwear is a pair of salt-stained Uggs.

Behind the semi-anonymous account (she shows her face but not her name) is Vic McNabb, a 25-year-old U of T grad who works in marketing and seems totally unfazed by my prying questions. When I reach her, she’s bouncing on an exercise ball on the floor of the Florida apartment belonging to her boyfriend, whom she met while travelling. McNabb speaks at a rapid clip, thoughts pouring out faster than she can express them. She has the countenance of an Energizer Bunny whose personality falls squarely into the chaotic-good category of the D&D alignment chart. In conversation, she’s just as smart and biting and observant as she is in her assessments of niche Toronto archetypes.

We spoke about being mutuals with Olivia Chow, her hatred of 6ixBuzz and the sheer joy of clowning on the things you love.

I’m so curious to learn more about you. What do you do for a living? I work in marketing, data analysis and operational management. For the past few years, I had a really good remote job, so I’ve been doing the digital nomad thing. I’ve travelled to 18 countries over the past three years. Right now, I’m at my boyfriend’s place in Florida—we met while travelling.

Wait—you run a meme account about Toronto but don’t live in the city? How does that work? I grew up in St. Catharines and came to Toronto for the first time on a school field trip to see the Terracotta Army exhibition at the ROM. The bus drove through the city, and I remember thinking, We’re not in Kansas anymore. Once I got a glimpse of Toronto, I knew I wanted to live here. I started at U of T Scarborough in 2019, but I wanted to be downtown, so I tried really hard and got good grades in first year so I could transfer to the downtown campus, which worked. It took me six years to finish my degree—I did a double major in ethics, society and law, and urban studies—because I worked four internships and kept taking time off. Toronto is so expensive that I had to work throughout my degree to afford school. I have an apartment there that I’m subletting until April.

How did the meme account get started? Not even lying, I was sitting on the toilet at Sidney Smith Hall at U of T, during class break, about to make a post on my Instagram story, and I thought, I need to make a stupid page where all these memes can live. A lot of the content I make is very observatory. I’d been noticing little trends and characteristics of people who live in Toronto, and I wanted to poke fun at the things I was seeing.

What is a City Pool Warrior? City Pool is this dive bar on Dundas West that I religiously go to. There was a time in my life when I was going three or four nights a week. The City Pool Warrior, in my mind, is someone just like me: a warrior for this dive bar. You can show up alone because you know you’re going to see your tattoo artist, your hairdresser, someone you made out with once. I’d like to say I gave it that much thought, but mostly I just thought it was funny.

What does the owner of City Pool think? She’s a fucking sweetheart. She’s super chill with the name. She just told me to write in my bio that I’m not the official City Pool Toronto, which I’ve done.

I’ve noticed that you have running jokes about Jelly King, Juicy Dumpling and Black Market Vintage, among many others. What makes those things so ripe for parody? Quite frankly, they’re all just things that I observe in my own routine. I don’t drink anymore, so when I go out, I’m always ordering a Jelly King non-alcoholic sour. If I’m hungry and want to get something cheap: Juicy Dumpling. If you ask someone where they got their really cute jacket, they’re going to say Exile, Black Market or Expo Vintage.

When you hear the same things over and over, you start to notice patterns and it feels easy to pick up on. When I make a post about a restaurant or a store owner or a DJ in Toronto, it’s funny because people will say, “I recognize that thing.” You go to pretty much any dive bar in the city and they will have Jelly King. It’s fun to poke fun at things that are unique to the city but that other people might have never realized.

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How do you come up with the ideas for each meme? I literally get into a flow state. I will be scrolling on Instagram and I’ll find a picture that’s really funny, so I screenshot it. Then, because I travel a lot, I’ll be on a sleeper bus or at the airport and go to my screenshots folder and start making posts. It’s like filling in the blanks. The memes I make are pretty lazy. I’ll just add a word that is very specific to Toronto into a tweet or an image that already exists, and that’s kind of it. Some of the memes don’t even make sense, but because they’re so specific to Toronto, I know that people will laugh and be able to see themselves and their own Toronto experiences in them.

Why do you think the account resonates with people? People like to laugh at themselves. I think City Pool Warrior makes Toronto feel a bit smaller than it actually is. It is genuinely funny to go to the same bars and clubs and see the same groups of people. It pulls at the intimacy that exists in these niche spaces. I find it really entertaining when someone finds the page compelling. I can see why—I work in marketing—but at the same time, it’s just really unserious for me.

Is there anything inherently funny about Toronto? Or is this a formula that could be replicated in any city? I think it could be replicated in any city. There are a few other niche regional meme pages I know of. I lived in Sydney for six months, and there’s a page there called Monkey Boy Sydney. Montreal has Datcha Tonight Queen. If anything, I’m the one replicating the formula in Toronto. There are other niche Toronto meme pages like I Love the TTC and Toronto Hood Fails. The format already exists; it’s just up to people to decide which niche realm of their city they want to poke fun at.

Of all the memes you’ve made, do you have any favourites? I made a Spotify Wrapped meme that says “Olivia Chow is your top artist,” and she followed me after that, which I thought was huge. The fact that I have a OOMF (one of my followers) relationship with the mayor is so funny. Any time Olivia Chow interacts with me, the post will blow up. If I screenshot her replies to my story, that will get 600-plus shares. It’s insane. People love her. I love her. Also, any meme about 6ixBuzz is very important to me. I hate 6ixBuzz. I think they’re actually evil, so I love to make fun of 6ixBuzz.

What’s gone the most viral? The post I did on January 21 was probably the most interaction I’ve ever had. I think it has 30,000 likes now. I find the posts where I speak more generally do better than the ones where I get hyper niche. A post that says, “How it feels to go to Scarborough” will garner a lot more traction than one about walking a goldendoodle at Evergreen Brick Works.

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Is there a highlight of running the account so far? A year ago, I posted a photo of myself holding a WakeWater, which is this Toronto brand of caffeinated water I would get for free at the office I worked at. I guess their marketing team saw the post, because they reached out and offered to send me a PR package. That was a funny moment, when the energy drink I got for free at work reached out to me to send me more free stuff because I posted about them.

Have you ever been surprised by any reactions to your posts? I’ve learned that some people cannot interpret context or understand irony for the life of them. I’m very pro-Palestine, but I talk about the situation ironically. For example, if two DJs are fighting, I’ll throw shade on someone by saying, “This DJ is going to perform in Tel Aviv.” It’s sarcastic. But people have messaged me to say, “Why did you just support Israel?” I realized I have to be genuinely careful about my wording, especially if I’m talking about public figures. With the exception of calling out alleged sexual predators in the Toronto rave scene and 6ixBuzz, I would say I’ve never wanted to send hate toward anyone. Typically, if I’m making fun of something, I’m doing it because I have respect for it. Sometimes I explicitly have to say that I’m being ironic. I guess that’s the internet for you.

What’s been the weirdest thing to happen so far? I need to emphasize how unserious the page is for me. I never thought it would be a big thing. I’ll go out now and people will recognize me, which is so weird. I was riding my bike home from Cafeteria one night at 3 a.m. and my keys fell off my carabiner, so I had to turn around on my bike to go back and get them. I parked my bike, and there’s some guy smoking a cigarette in front of his townhouse, looking at me. Then I hear, “Wait, you’re City Pool Warrior.” Like, “Yes, I am, what’s your name?” I don’t know if I love it, I’m not going to lie. I do feel like there’s some value in having privacy. But I’ve also made a lot of friends from the page, who follow my personal account, and we all hang out. I threw a rave before I left Toronto and invited everyone. I feel like I’ve made a community.

Do you have any goals or aims for the account? Like influencing the next mayoral election? I have no intention of tidying up the page to the point where I turn it into a career. With the exception of throwing a ticketed party, I don’t think I would ever feel compelled to monetize it or move it in an overly formal direction. But I think there’s an opportunity to build a really fun community with it. I would love to do something in-person, like throw a day party. I want to host a meetup in the park where everyone dresses up as a princess and studies for their G1 or G2, because that’s another hyper-specific Toronto archetype in my mind: the passenger princess who moves to the city and never gets their driver’s licence. I also want to do a live create mode where you come and speak an idea into a megaphone, and if people find it funny, I’ll post it. And I’m a Leo, so I’d love to host a massive Leo birthday party.

Is there anything you wish more people understood? I love Toronto with my heart. If I ever make fun of something, it’s probably because I love it, admire it and appreciate it. The city is bustling with talent, and the underground rave scene is so rich and honestly incomparable to a lot of other major cities that I’ve been to. There are so many other cities I love, but every time I come back to Toronto, I’m so happy. I don’t want people to think I’m a hater just because I clown on things.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.