Doge (
usually , or ) is an
Internet meme
An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...
that became popular in 2013. The meme consists of a picture of a
Shiba Inu
The is a breed of hunting dog from Japan. A small-to-medium breed, it is the smallest of the six original dog breeds native to Japan. The Shiba Inu was originally bred for hunting. Its name literally translates to "brushwood dog", as it is us ...
dog, accompanied by multicolored text in
Comic Sans font in the foreground. The text, representing a kind of internal
monologue
In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts ...
, is deliberately written in a form of
broken English. The meme originally and most frequently uses an image of a Shiba Inu named
Kabosu, though versions with other Shiba Inus are also popular.
The meme is based on a 2010 photograph of Kabosu which became popular in late 2013, being named as ''
Know Your Meme
Know Your Meme (KYM) is a website and video series that uses wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki ...
''s "top meme" of that year. The Shiba Inu had a notable presence in popular culture in late 2013, including a
cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.
Individual coin ownership record ...
based on Doge, the
Dogecoin, launching in December of that year. Several online polls and media outlets recognized Doge as one of the best
Internet memes of the 2010s.
Structure

Doge uses two-word phrases in which the first word is almost always one of five modifiers ("so", "such", "many", "much", and "very"), and the departure from correct English is to use the modifier with a word that it cannot properly modify.
For example, "Much respect. So noble." uses the Doge modifiers but is not "proper" Doge because the modifiers are used in a formally correct fashion; the Doge version would be "Much noble, so respect."
In addition to these phrases, a Doge utterance often ends with a single word, most often "wow" but with "amaze" and "excite" also being used.
Since the inception of the meme, several variations and spin-offs have been created, including "liquefied Doge",
a variation wherein the dog's shape is morphed into other animals, and "ironic Doge",[ a version wherein the Doge character is put into ironic and uncharacteristic situations. The ironic Doge memes have spawned several other related characters, often dogs themselves, one of which is Cheems, another Shiba Inu who is typically characterized by a ]speech impediment
Speech disorders, impairments, or impediments, are a type of communication disorder in which normal speech is disrupted. This can mean fluency disorders like stuttering and cluttering. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is co ...
that adds the letter "M" throughout its speech.
Walter, a Bull Terrier character who is typically portrayed as liking " moster trucks" and firetrucks, is another commonly recurring ironic Doge character. These memes are mostly present on subreddits like r/dogelore. One meme which became popular in 2020 was "Swole Doge vs. Cheems", in which a muscular, anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...
Doge and a baby Cheems are depicted as something considered better in the past, and its modern version, respectively.
Origin and pronunciation
The original meme featured Kabosu, a female Shiba Inu
The is a breed of hunting dog from Japan. A small-to-medium breed, it is the smallest of the six original dog breeds native to Japan. The Shiba Inu was originally bred for hunting. Its name literally translates to "brushwood dog", as it is us ...
dog. The famous picture of her first appeared in a 2010 blog post by her owner Atsuko Sato, and variations of the pictures using overlaid Comic Sans text were posted afterward from a Tumblr
Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...
blog, ''Shiba Confessions''. Another Shiba Inu featured in the meme is Suki, a female belonging to photographer Jonathan Fleming from San Francisco. His wife had accidentally put a scarf in the wash, making it shrink. He took a photograph of Suki wearing the scarf outside on a cold night in February 2010. However, the use of the intentionally misspelled word "Doge" dates back to June 2005, when it was mentioned in an episode of '' Homestar Runner''s puppet series. The use of the word began to grow in popularity after it was used on Reddit
Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
in October 2010 in a post of a corgi titled "LMBO LOOK @ THIS FUKKEN DOGE."
The most common pronunciations of "Doge" are and , though "doggy" is also used. In non-English-speaking countries, "Doge" is occasionally pronounced "dodge". Those unfamiliar or unacquainted with the meme also use the pronunciations , , or simply like the word "dog" itself, i.e. or .
In Poland the meme is known as "pieseł" (), derived from the Polish word "pies", which means dog.
History and spread
Initial 2013 spread
Online searches for the meme began to increase in July 2013.[ In August 2013, images of the meme were spammed on ]Reddit
Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
's r/MURICA subreddit by 4chan
4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...
's random imageboard, /b/. In late December 2013, members of the U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
produced material in the meme's style. ''The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
'' commented that Doge was "killed" because of the Congress members' usage of the meme. In December 2013, the Dogecoin was introduced as a new cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.
Individual coin ownership record ...
, making it the first cryptocurrency to be based on an Internet meme; the viral phenomenon
Viral phenomena or viral sensations are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the te ...
, along with usage of the Comic Sans MS typeface, gave it "the Internet density of a large star" according to Medium writer Quinn Norton.
Continued popularity
By early 2014, Doge's popularity was sustained by Internet communities on social media, accompanied by the rapid growth and acceptance of Dogecoin. In April 2014, Doge experienced a second major media resurgence due to revelations of the Dogecoin community's intent to sponsor Josh Wise in NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
and place a picture of the Shiba Inu on his vehicle. The car features in downloadable content for the video game '' NASCAR '14''. Media outlets have embraced the meme while reporting on the cryptocurrency and the car, with titles featuring phrases such as "so wow" and "very vroom". A report on ''The Daily Dot
''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It was founded by Nicholas White in 2011, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newsp ...
'' in December 2016 found that Doge's popularity peaked in 2014 and then fell due to "overexposure and co-option by advertisers and mainstream 'normies, but remained stable since then and returned to Tumblr
Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...
's top 10 shared memes of the year in 2016. For April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...
in 2017, China Central Television
China Central Television (CCTV) is the State media, national television broadcaster of China, established in 1958. CCTV is operated by the National Radio and Television Administration which reports directly to the Publicity Department of th ...
published a hoax story of the death of Kabosu. In 2021, a non-fungible token
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...
depicting the meme was acquired by PleasrDAO for $4 million. In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, an online phenomenon and group dedicated to countering Russian propaganda and Russian disinformation called NAFO (or the North Atlantic Fella Organization), where participants, who refer themselves as "Fellas", use Doge as their avatar. In addition to posting pro-Ukraine memes, or ones mocking Russian war effort and strategy and "shitposting
In Internet culture, shitposting or trashposting is the act of using an online forum or social media page to post content that is of "aggressively, ironically, and trollishly poor quality".:
:
:
:
: Shitposts are generally intentionally desig ...
", the group also raises funds for the Ukrainian military and other pro-Ukrainian causes.
Kabosu died of leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
on 24 May 2024 at the age of 18. Her owner, Atsuko Sato, announced the news on her social media, stating that Kabosu died peacefully while being caressed. Sato shared a heartfelt message, expressing her gratitude for the time she had with Kabosu and the joy she brought to people's lives through the "Doge" meme.
Cultural depictions
In advertising
''Convergence
Convergence may refer to:
Arts and media Literature
*''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen
*Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics:
**A four-part crossover storyline that ...
'' viewed the use of the image in commercial advertising as a result of it being a widely recognized cultural icon. In mid-2014, the advertisement agency DDB Stockholm had Doge featured prominently in an advertising campaign for the public transport company SL in Stockholm, Sweden. The advertisement concerned the company's special summer tickets, and featured Doge holding a public transport ticket in his mouth, with phrases such as "many summer", "such cheap" and "very buy".
Online
Google created a Doge Easter egg
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The ...
: when ''doge meme'' was entered into the YouTube search bar, all the site's text would be displayed in colorful Comic Sans, similar to the kind used by the meme. In January 2014, Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
-based web developer
A web developer is a programmer who develops World Wide Web applications using a client–server model. The applications typically use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the client, and any general-purpose programming language in the server. is used ...
s Katia Eirin and Bennett Wong created ''Doge Weather'', a weather website and mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...
incorporating the meme. ''Doge Weather'' reports the temperature and weather conditions based on the user's geographic location. In April 2014, ''Doge Weather'' became available as a mobile app for iOS 7
iOS 7 is the seventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 6. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2013, and was released on September 18 ...
. Mozilla's Servo project incorporated the meme into the project logo between May 2016 and February 2020.
Between April 3 and 7, 2023, Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
replaced Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
's bird logo with an image of Doge for website users. Some speculated that it may have been a late-posted April Fools' Day joke; however, Thomas Barabbi of ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative
daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
'' said that the Dogecoin logo appeared just days after Musk's lawyers asked a judge to dismiss a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit, accusing the billionaire of boosting the digital currency's value.
In entertainment
In the video for "Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...
's 2014 song "Word Crimes
"Word Crimes" is a song by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic from his fourteenth studio album, ''Mandatory Fun'' (2014). The song is a parody of the 2013 single "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I. The song par ...
", a song about bad grammar, a Doge tweet is used to illustrate the types of bad grammar referenced in that part of the song. In the 2015 video game '' The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes'', a reference to the meme can be found in the North American version only. When examining one of the ancient bookshelves, the text reads "Still, coming here has at least afforded me the rare chance to explore these ancient ruins. So ancient. Such ruin." The reference was met with mixed views from fans of the series. In the 2015 online game ''Agar.io
''Agar.io'' is a Massive multiplayer online game, massive multiplayer online action game created by Brazilian developer Matheus Valadares and published by Miniclip. Players control one or more circular Cell (biology), cells in a map representin ...
'', Doge appears as a playable skin in the game by typing in the name "Doge". ''Just Cause 3
''Just Cause 3'' is a 2015 action-adventure game developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. It is the third game in the ''Just Cause'' series and the sequel to 2010's '' Just Cause 2''. It was released w ...
'' also included a special mode that popped up text in the style of the meme in response to certain player actions. In 2017, the video game '' Smite'' added a Doge skin for the goddess Skadi.
Reception and legacy
"Doge" was one of several additions to Dictionary.com in November 2015. The website defines it as not just the image macro and its variants, but also the form of "language" that it uses. Several media publications included Doge on a list of memes that helped define Internet culture in the 2010s, and wrote on the meme's influence of further online developments, such as DoggoLingo and WeRateDogs.[ '']io9
''io9'' is a sub-blog of the technology blog ''Gizmodo'' that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology and futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under ...
'' compared the internal dialog of the Shiba Inu dogs to lolspeak. Evan McMurry of ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to:
* ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company
ABC News may a ...
and Stacey Ritzen of ''The Daily Dot
''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It was founded by Nicholas White in 2011, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newsp ...
'' both ranked Doge as the number-one meme of the 2010s. In December 2019, Doge was voted as the best Internet meme of the 2010s on a poll held by ''The Tab
''The Tab'' is a youth news and entertainment site, published by Digitalbox Plc.
It was launched at the University of Cambridge and has since expanded to over 20 universities in the United Kingdom. Now it is better known as a voice-driven pop ...
'', gaining 737 votes, or 22 percent of total votes cast. '' Vox''s Aja Romano included Doge on their 11 memes "that captured the decade," writing that it took " cat memes to new, absurdist heights, an early hallmark of neo-Dadaist
Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
millennial humor." It was included on MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
's "50 Things Pop Culture Had Us Giving Thanks For" in 2013. Angela Watercutter of ''Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'' described it as one of the best memes of 2013, and was named the "top meme" of 2013 by Know Your Meme
Know Your Meme (KYM) is a website and video series that uses wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki ...
. In 2014, it became the first meme that was not a cat to win a Webby Awards
The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...
for meme of the year. ''Mashable
Mashable is a Online newspaper, news website, digital media platform and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005.
History
Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2004. Early iterations o ...
'' said it is one of the best "internet moments turning 10 in 2023".
The Japanese perception is remarkably different; Kabosu and Sato are known as pet and owner rather than a meme, and her blog was the fourth-most-popular pet-related blog in the country as of December 2013. Reacting to the meme, she explained, "To be honest, some pictures are strange for me, but it's still funny! I'm very impressed with their skills and taste. Around me, nobody knows about the Doge meme. Maybe I don't understand memes very well, because I'm living such an analog life." Sato has also expressed that she had learned that "the risk of the internet is that anyone in the world can see my life on my blog". Fleming stated that in his experience, the Shiba Inu breed has become more recognized due to the meme.[
In 2023, a monument to Kabosu was installed in ]Sakura, Chiba
is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 173,740 in 78,483 households and a population density of 1700 people per km2 (4300 per sq. mi.). The total area of the city is .
Geography ...
. A manhole cover with Kabosu's image was also installed in Sakura in 2024. On November 12, 2024, president-elect Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
announced that Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
would lead the new administration's Department of Government Efficiency
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative by the second Trump administration within the federal government of the United States. Its stated objective is to modernize information technology, maximize productivity, and cut ...
(DOGE), in reference to the internet meme and its namesake cryptocurrency.
See also
*List of individual dogs
The following is a list of individual dogs.
Actors
Advertising
* Alex the dog, Banjo, portrayed Carlos, an Irish Setter-Golden Retriever mix and star of Stroh Brewery Company, Stroh's beer advertising in the 1980s. Also mentioned in the 1 ...
*List of Internet phenomena
Internet phenomena are social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet, such as Internet memes, which include popular catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly ...
References
External links
Original blog post featuring Kabosu
(moved fro
post
on old blog)
{{Authority control
2010s fads and trends
2010s photographs
2013 in Internet culture
2020s fads and trends
Color photographs
Internet meme characters
Internet memes about dogs
Internet memes introduced in 2013