Game Informer asked Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda two very weird questions in their Pokemon Sword and Shield interview.

The publication asked whether Nintendo characters Yoshi and Kirby are Pokemon. Though Masuda ruled out both, he did mention that Kirby kind of resembles Snorlax:

Are any Nintendo characters Pokémon? Maybe Yoshi? He does say his own name a lot.

Masuda: Yoshi is just Yoshi, but we did work on an old Yoshi game, and I actually created some of the cries for Yoshi and did some of the sound stuff, so there is a connection, but he’s not a Pokémon.

What about Kirby?

Masuda: Not a Pokémon, but there is a connection with Kirby you might not expect. The guy at Game Freak, Mr. [Kōji] Nishino, who was the inspiration for Snorlax… Snorlax’s Japanese name is Kabigon… anyway, Nishino was always someone who ate a lot and would go to sleep, and he kind of resembles Snorlax, but in development we would always call him Kirby. So we nicknamed him Kirby, then when we were naming Snorlax, the Japanese name was Kabigon – Kirby or “cubby”…

Speaking of which, the original naming inspiration for Kirby passed away. John Kirby.