In 2000, Sega released a game called Sonic Shuffle for their Dreamcast console. This game came out after the first Sonic Adventure game but before the second one. It is a party game similar to Nintendo's long-running Mario Party games (and in fact, was developed by the same company, Hudson Soft). Players take turns moving across the board, playing mini-games, and trying to achieve the most goals by the end of the game. Reception of the game was rather mixed, with some people accusing it of being a second-rate Mario Party clone and disliking a lot of its aspects, while others have enjoyed the game for providing unique gameplay mechanics not present in the Mario Party games. However, one aspect of the game has gained notoriety thanks to a web series called Game Grumps.

One of the aspects of Sonic Shuffle are the Forcejewels, gems that can be collected from defeating monsters in battle, winning certain mini-games, and buying them from Jewel Shop spaces. These allow you to do such things as use multiple cards to travel across the board or battle monsters, warp to a specific space on the board, or turn every space into a specific type for several turns. One of the Forcejewels is called the Carbuncle, which is really a disguised fairy that eats the other Forcejewels in the inventory of the player who possesses it. When there are no other Forcejewels left, the Carbuncle resorts to eating itself, hence a message that says, "The Carbuncle ate itself." As of August 2, 2020, this message has gained notoriety thanks to Game Grumps, as it has appeared in Episode 2 of their playthrough of Sonic Shuffle when Amy won a Carbuncle in a mini-game. Viewers watching the playthrough have found this message hilarious, and some have even wanted official "The Carbuncle ate itself." merchandise. This could be a reality if Sega chooses to sell such merchandise on their official Sega Shop website. This could include apparel such as T-shirts and hoodies, phone cases, notebooks, and coffee mugs. If the merchandise sells well enough, it might even convince Sega to re-release Sonic Shuffle for modern consoles, as unlike the two Adventure games, it has not received any modern re-releases (though the Dreamcast's VMUs may have also had a hand in this, due to them being used to hide the player's cards from the other players).