ViralWorld

Doge

You might remember it as Doge Shiba Inu

“much wow”, “such doge”, “very scare”
The archive does not hold a copy of this image that it may show.

Most viral ever9 of 32

2013·The social era

A photograph of a Shiba Inu called Kabosu giving the camera a sideways look, covered in short broken phrases set in Comic Sans: much wow, such doge, very scare.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Doge Shiba Inu
Spread in
2013
Began as
A photograph
Format
Meme
Era
The social era
Who or what it shows
Kabosu, a Shiba Inu owned by Atsuko Sato
Photographed by
Atsuko Sato, who posted it on her blog in 2010
What it said
“much wow”, “such doge”, “very scare”
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

Why it matteredWhat changed

It gave the internet a grammar as well as a picture — two-word phrases that pair the wrong modifier with a noun — and that grammar outlived the image. It is also the only meme whose name ended up on a cryptocurrency and, eleven years later, on a United States government department.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The word “doge” is first used, as a deliberate misspelling of dog, in an episode of the Homestar Runner puppet series.1

  2. Posted

    Atsuko Sato posts the photograph of her dog Kabosu on her blog.1

  3. Picked up

    A Reddit post of a Welsh Corgi titled “LMBO LOOK @ THIS FUKKEN DOGE” helps attach the misspelling to pictures of dogs.1

  4. Took off

    Searches for the meme begin to rise.1

  5. Picked up

    Users of 4chan’s /b/ board flood the subreddit r/MURICA with Doge images.1

  6. Mainstream

    Dogecoin launches, named after the meme and carrying Kabosu’s face. In the same month members of the United States Congress post Doge-style material of their own.1

  7. Record

    Doge becomes the first meme without a cat in it to win the Webby Award for meme of the year.1

  8. Corrected

    China’s CCTV airs a report that Kabosu has died. It is an April Fools’ hoax.1 What else happened on 1 April

  9. Later

    The collective PleasrDAO buys an NFT of the original photograph for four million US dollars.1

  10. Came back

    Elon Musk replaces Twitter’s bird logo with the Doge for four days.1

  11. Later

    Kabosu dies of leukaemia, aged 18.1 What else happened on 24 May

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asA 2013 meme.

ActuallyThe photograph was posted in 2010 and the word is from 2005. 2013 is the year the two were put together and everybody saw it.1

Commonly remembered asEvery Doge picture is the same dog.

ActuallyThe meme also used a second Shiba Inu: Suki, photographed by Jonathan Fleming in February 2010 wearing a scarf that had shrunk in the wash.1

What it createdWhat came out of it

LegacyWhat it left behind

Later lifeAfterwards

More from hereIn this collection

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · copied, redrawn and reused until the original stopped mattering · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast

This began as a photograph, not as a video.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a photograph, not as a video.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

What this was built on, each one a record of its own.

More from the social eraMore of the archive

ConnectedFollow it further

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Doge (meme)

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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