very origin, such meme

December 31, 2013 6:57 PM

On February 12, 2010, a photograph of a rescue dog was posted on a blog in Japan. Three and a half years later, that photo changed western popular culture.
posted by ardgedee (107 comments total)

I love Doge!
posted by Windopaene at 7:10 PM on December 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's cute, but no lolcats. Wow. Such overhyped.
posted by Atreides at 7:14 PM on December 31, 2013 [12 favorites]

I feel like I almost get this meme. Almost. But not quite.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:16 PM on December 31, 2013 [9 favorites]

"Changed Western popular culture" maybe might be overstating the significance a little?
posted by dersins at 7:16 PM on December 31, 2013 [53 favorites]

I don't speak fluent doge but it's still interesting to me how we've gone from cat to dog over the course of 2013. Whenever I try to make a jokey doge comment in real life I always seem to get it wrong (and I always forget the wow part). So I'm kinda grumbly about doge in general, and it makes me feel like an out of touch old lady. (I was taking off every zig before you were born!) But now that I know the squishy-faced doge is a puppy mill rescue, I'm on board. Aaaaawwww, rescue puppy!
posted by Mizu at 7:17 PM on December 31, 2013 [7 favorites]

"You won't believe what happened next" ugh what has upworthy done to everyone
posted by gucci mane at 7:19 PM on December 31, 2013 [92 favorites]

I'm sorry. This meme has been piledriven into the ground for me. Not every situation applies.

Appreciate the post, as I'm sure it's funny to some people. If I were on *another* website I'm sure I'd be "downvoted to oblivion" for my opinion. It's just what I think.

Happy New Year. I'm not trying to be a curmudgeon.

I promise I'm not. I'm glad people find it funny*

*Not said with sarcasm - seriously! Happy New Years everyone!
posted by glaucon at 7:23 PM on December 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'd been curious where the original photo of the Shiba Inu dog used in the meme came from. Now I know, and I'm enjoying looking through Kabosu's owner's blog, for the fun pictures of Kabosu and the pet cats.
posted by needled at 7:29 PM on December 31, 2013 [5 favorites]

Wow. Such dumb.
posted by chillmost at 7:31 PM on December 31, 2013

Occasionally in my darkest moments I think maybe I'm getting bored with doge and then one comes along that just kills me and it's funny forever again.

Also because things that sound like doge come up in real life a lot.
posted by emmtee at 7:31 PM on December 31, 2013 [65 favorites]

Such nice shibe

Much cultural relevance

Very overturn world economy

Many free New Year DOGE

Memail Address
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 7:31 PM on December 31, 2013 [11 favorites]

Wow. Such post. Much snark.
posted by arcticseal at 7:37 PM on December 31, 2013 [3 favorites]

I really disliked this article. "You Won't Believe What Happened Next" which really pissed me off. Then it described a photo I had to scroll down two pages to see. It would be better re-worked as a puff peace about the dog in the picture. Calling it the origin of the meme ignores the much better reporting that's gone on elsewhere.
posted by rebent at 7:37 PM on December 31, 2013 [5 favorites]

gucci mane: ""You won't believe what happened next" ugh what has upworthy done to everyone"

I read that as tongue in cheek -- that, to me, reads as the current big meme -- mocking upworthy titles.
posted by cavalier at 7:38 PM on December 31, 2013 [14 favorites]

After "Grumpy Cat" ran roughshod over the meme scene and established the LOLCAT as a symbol of negativity (although, as I noted elsewhere, Tardarsauce was not the first Bigtime Feline Grump), it was almost inevitable that the counterpoint meme would be canine.

And so it came to pass.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:43 PM on December 31, 2013 [3 favorites]

"Changed Western popular culture" maybe might be overstating the significance a little?

It's right up there with Alfred Hitchcock, the Beatles, and...wow, that bar has been lowered quite a bit now...even if poochie is cute...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 7:44 PM on December 31, 2013

Sometimes I forget that there are non-rescue dogs and cats out there.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:45 PM on December 31, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm quite sure I've been on the internet all year (probably too much so) but I missed this meme (I remember a reference or two about a 'doge meme').

I guess I'm hanging around the 'maturer' corners or something?
posted by panaceanot at 7:52 PM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm in ur meme, eatin ur lunch
posted by bleep at 7:59 PM on December 31, 2013 [11 favorites]

Dogecoin is the future of money!
posted by humanfont at 8:01 PM on December 31, 2013 [5 favorites]

I am aware of all internet traditions, including "I am aware of all internet traditions."
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:03 PM on December 31, 2013 [11 favorites]

Wow.
posted by Artw at 8:03 PM on December 31, 2013 [3 favorites]

For some reason I thought Shibus were bigger.
posted by longdaysjourney at 8:03 PM on December 31, 2013

I made a doge joke once in the library and now the student workers think I'm on their level so rock on shibe don't go away I can't keep up with your tumblr friends and their meme languages such old so tired
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:14 PM on December 31, 2013 [21 favorites]

Dogecoin is the future of money!

One nation under Doge!
posted by Talez at 8:25 PM on December 31, 2013 [5 favorites]

As a rule, if something says to me "You'll never guess what happened next", I don't read the article. That kind of lazy click bait needs to stop, pronto.
posted by Effigy2000 at 8:28 PM on December 31, 2013 [5 favorites]

This is my favourite doge.
posted by jeather at 8:29 PM on December 31, 2013 [28 favorites]

There is a simpleness (in a good, down to earth way) to doge that keeps it from getting old to me. It is goofy, typically non-degrading, and just plain beautifully silly. Its a nice distraction from some of the mean crap that the internet seems to generate as a by product.

I will take an endless stream of doge over one more advice dog variant.

wow
posted by Twain Device at 8:36 PM on December 31, 2013 [30 favorites]

dogecoin is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, favored by Shiba Inus worldwide.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:44 PM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

someone set up us the doge.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 8:44 PM on December 31, 2013 [20 favorites]

It's interesting how an occasional inadvertant mispelling sticks. Another example is "pwn".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:49 PM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

I also took "You'll won't believe what happened next" as tongue-in-cheek. It's an article about memes. That type of headline is another popular meme. Plus it was in the subheadline, so I doubt it was meant as linkbait. It doesn't even appear on the Verge frontpage.

Yeah, those headlines are annoying, but, geez, it's just a joke.

And if we're talking best doges, this one is my favorite.
posted by mokin at 8:53 PM on December 31, 2013 [19 favorites]

gucci mane: "You won't believe what happened next" ugh what has upworthy done to everyone

Yea, this fucking buzzfeed subtitle made me close the tab instantly.

Does the entire internet really need to be dragged down to the level of buzzfeed/upworthy just to get page views? The verge used to be a pretty respectable site.

I wonder if it's the editorial staff forcing this on the writers or what.

cavalier: I read that as tongue in cheek -- that, to me, reads as the current big meme -- mocking upworthy titles.

The thing is, satire that's indistinguishable from the real thing isn't very good satire. It reads as grubbing for pageviews even if it's not. Looks like garbage, quacks like a duck, etc.
posted by emptythought at 8:55 PM on December 31, 2013 [5 favorites]

This is my favourite doge.

See, I somehow missed the genesis of the meme, so that picture (or one like it) was the first one I saw. I could not figure out how Italian rulers somehow became a weird internet meme.
posted by curious nu at 9:08 PM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is my favorite doge.
posted by triggerfinger at 9:20 PM on December 31, 2013 [12 favorites]

The thing is, satire that's indistinguishable from the real thing isn't very good satire.

or that some people are bad at detecting satire...
posted by nadawi at 9:23 PM on December 31, 2013 [5 favorites]

or that some people are bad at detecting satire...

or just allergic to something due to massive over exposure; maybe it's funny but I can't laugh with my throat swelling shut
posted by philip-random at 9:30 PM on December 31, 2013 [6 favorites]

Again, it's down to whether you're an lolcats person or a doge person. I'd much prefer the evil, plotting, sneaking lolcat to the sparkly-eyed wondrous doge anyday.

That being said, I'm happy for the rescue of doge, and am able to crack a smile. Wow! Such win!
posted by nevercalm at 9:50 PM on December 31, 2013

"This is my favourite doge."

So, I only first saw this the other day with a mention somewhere of dogecoin. Only today did I read about the meme, by way of a mention in Krugman's blog.

Anyway, my point is that from the other day to today, I totally could only read that as, you know, the real word doge, I assumed that was what it was about, somehow, and while this sort of sounds like I'm patting myself on the back for being all educated and erudite and stuff, I'm really mentioning it because it's a kind of culture shock for me, like it never occurred to me that it wasn't that and was something else and I feel pretty sure that approximately 0.5% or less of the internet has any idea that doge is an actual word.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:13 PM on December 31, 2013 [6 favorites]

I have yet to see doge in the wild. I've seen article after article dissecting doge, and talking about how it's the hot cool meme of the year and explaining how relevant it is and now the minutely dissected history of it all but have I seen actual doge like I used to see LOLcats back in the day? No. I haven't seen one yet. Granted I am only ever hanging out on mefi and twitter and facebook but nevertheless, I am a bit baffled. Actually it's getting kind of entertaining, waiting for doge and all.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:15 PM on December 31, 2013 [7 favorites]

I'm in Bangkok right now. One New Year's tradition is HM The King of Thailand makes his own New Year's cards every year. Featuring himself and his dogs, with text overlaid on top very much in doge style. Or at least it looks that way to me, but I'll admit that's probably grand coincidence fueled by my inability to read Thai. Still there's some similarity in form.
posted by Nelson at 10:21 PM on December 31, 2013 [23 favorites]

mygothlaundry, surely you meant "waiting for Go-doge."
posted by dendrochronologizer at 11:04 PM on December 31, 2013 [10 favorites]

i saw a leetle doge puppy this evening and there was hugging involved
posted by elizardbits at 11:10 PM on December 31, 2013 [6 favorites]

a real one outside in the world i mean
posted by elizardbits at 11:10 PM on December 31, 2013 [10 favorites]

Am I wrong in thinking that Doggie is spelled like D.O.G.G.I.E.?
I don't know what D.O.G.E. is, other than, and I am going out on a limb here, a misspelling of doggie, and is defined as Japan, Japan, Internet, Japan.

It makes me feel old. My SO feels older. I can't quote him, but it involved a lawn.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 11:17 PM on December 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

Wait, so is dogespeak not inspired by Lynda Barry's Beat Poodle Fred Milton?
posted by straight at 11:27 PM on December 31, 2013 [6 favorites]

No, doge is definitely pronounced dōjh. See the strongbad cartoon cited in the Know Your Meme above.
posted by idiopath at 11:27 PM on December 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't get how it's changed western pop culture.

Especially since it's from the east.

The "changed western pop culture" bit is definitely hyperbole, but I don't understand what the second sentence has to do with that.
posted by kmz at 11:29 PM on December 31, 2013

Appreciate the post, as I'm sure it's funny to some people. If I were on *another* website I'm sure I'd be "downvoted to oblivion" for my opinion. It's just what I think.

excuse me but
posted by elizardbits at 11:50 PM on December 31, 2013 [11 favorites]

It makes me feel old.

I'm with ya. Who let the doges out?
posted by XMLicious at 12:16 AM on January 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

My comment wasn't clear; I meant to note that the New Year's cards in this style date to 2005, well before the shibe/doge thing started on the Internet. They're great cards, quite personal, I wish I could read the Thai. The commonality with doge is the laying of text right on top of the images, with little outline or backdrop. I wonder if that's a common typographic style anywhere; it seems unusual to my American design sense.
posted by Nelson at 12:17 AM on January 1, 2014

like it never occurred to me that it wasn't that and was something else and I feel pretty sure that approximately 0.5% or less of the internet has any idea that doge is an actual word.

wow

most serene

so flooded

wow
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:17 AM on January 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

My favourite shibe is space shibe. There's many variants, the source ad is hilarious.
posted by Nelson at 12:19 AM on January 1, 2014 [4 favorites]

Wow. Very options. Such interactive. Many calmig.

(Doge also gave us a great moment in an inscrutably odd thread. Warning: Does not really make sense without context.)
posted by dhens at 12:22 AM on January 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

If we're spending time mocking Upworthy, I need to vent about hating the move to making *everything* a video on the intertubes. I want to read the transcipt of the interview like an educated human being without having to put on my headphones goddamn.
posted by dhens at 12:28 AM on January 1, 2014 [24 favorites]

Gary Larson should sue for royalties.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:31 AM on January 1, 2014

I actually liked the linked article. It's interesting to know that doge is a rescue doge whose owner was totally oblivious about its fame.

And despite having to google it the first time I came across a reference to doge, I think it's a cute meme. It's like one of those gags that starts off slightly amusing, and then gets old quickly, but eventually becomes more funny again just through the ridiculousness of sheer repetition.
posted by damonism at 2:04 AM on January 1, 2014 [6 favorites]

I liked that business cat one.
posted by thelonius at 2:04 AM on January 1, 2014 [5 favorites]

I first saw this in context of dogecoin, and thought it was a riot, and didn't know that it was just an instance of a deeper meme. I'll go read my business cat magazines now.
posted by thelonius at 2:06 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

I was thinking of making a Venetian Doge meme but I was beaten to the punch.

Oh well. At least I have the consolation of a few K of dogecoin which should buy a ticket to the moon.
posted by honestcoyote at 2:40 AM on January 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

Somehow this meme has entirely passed me by. I find this mysterious, since I spend my entire life on the internets.
posted by Decani at 2:44 AM on January 1, 2014 [5 favorites]

I was getting awfully tired of the doge thing a couple of months ago, but I think I've swung all the way back around again. This is because I am like a superman. Like a beautiful smooth skyrocket superman.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:44 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Could doge simply evolve The way yhis article describes, or is it too complex? Surely Egod must have created doge.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:54 AM on January 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

It's always Caturday in my house.
Except on Bunday.
posted by Mezentian at 3:35 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Very arrive earlier on MeTa
posted by Namlit at 3:38 AM on January 1, 2014

wow
so meta
such blue
many beanz
posted by 0 answers at 3:42 AM on January 1, 2014 [8 favorites]

> This is my favourite doge.

I was playing Scrabble with my mom over the Christmas break and it made my 2013 when I realized that doge is a real word and that it can be played. My mom was just confused when I tried to explain, but if it's in the Scrabble Dictionary she's cool with it.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:17 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Knowing doge is a rescue dog makes it impossible for me to dislike this meme.
posted by tommasz at 5:59 AM on January 1, 2014 [7 favorites]

If we're spending time mocking Upworthy, I need to vent about hating the move to making *everything* a video on the intertubes. I want to read the transcipt of the interview like an educated human being without having to put on my headphones goddamn.

This is because you can make more money on youtube than website ads because the close ad buttons move up and down when you try to close because the video control menu pops up. This means you get paid for lots of unintentional clicks.
posted by srboisvert at 6:21 AM on January 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

but eventually becomes more funny again just through the ridiculousness of sheer repetition.

i was lukewarm on doge until one night my husband narrated our getting ready for bed routine in doge-speak, which amounted to 50-75 doge "jokes" in a row. the first 10 were cute, the next 30 were baffling, and the last burst was hysterical. and now we doge just about everything.
posted by nadawi at 6:57 AM on January 1, 2014 [6 favorites]

wow. such obamacare funding. oppose ted cruz.
posted by eddydamascene at 7:28 AM on January 1, 2014

Another recent gem from Rep. Stockman.
posted by Flashman at 7:38 AM on January 1, 2014

I'm tired of this meme and hope something replaces it soon, and yet sometimes it's still funny.

this one's my favorite.
posted by Foosnark at 8:24 AM on January 1, 2014 [5 favorites]

pls pet doge
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 8:36 AM on January 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm tired of this meme and hope something replaces it soon

Grwow. Ton disagree

Many potentials

huge develop
posted by Namlit at 9:10 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

I vote this for Doge of 2014.
posted by Artw at 9:24 AM on January 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

pls pet doge
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 11:36 AM on January 1

Such already posted
Many beaten to the punch
Wow

(Very apologize.)
posted by dhens at 9:38 AM on January 1, 2014

I vote this for Doge of 2014.

Just. No.
posted by arcticseal at 9:47 AM on January 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

Such double. Very embarrass.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 9:54 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

you can haz absolution
posted by Namlit at 9:56 AM on January 1, 2014

[very alternative universe]
posted by Namlit at 9:56 AM on January 1, 2014

If we're spending time mocking Upworthy, I need to vent about hating the move to making *everything* a video on the intertubes. I want to read the transcipt of the interview like an educated human being without having to put on my headphones goddamn.

That circlejerk is over here.

Much jerk. so bitter
posted by emptythought at 10:20 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

After 47 years of observation, I've found that humans like to repeat what they see other humans say and do.

Good job monkeys.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:37 AM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

I feel pretty sure that approximately 0.5% or less of the internet has any idea that doge is an actual word

I don't know about that, there are a lot of people who has played Assassin's Creed.
posted by ymgve at 10:45 AM on January 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

Good job monkeys.

no they're shiba inus
posted by emmtee at 11:38 AM on January 1, 2014 [6 favorites]

As a rule, if something says to me "You'll never guess what happened next", I don't read the article

Here's a good rule of thumb: If you go to war with developing Internet conventions because they irritate you, you're going to lose, alas, and if you complain about then on Metafilter rather than have a substative discussion about the content of a link, you're getting threadshitty.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 11:51 AM on January 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

Happy New Years everyone!

many years

so oops
posted by heyho at 11:57 AM on January 1, 2014

The food was lousy and there wasn't enough of it. I want my money back and another helping of them noodles.

But the dog is sweet. And he rescued her from certain death.

You gotta dig through the shit to get to the neat stuff, but at least they had lots of cute pictures.
posted by mule98J at 12:04 PM on January 1, 2014

The answer might surprise you.
posted by Artw at 12:07 PM on January 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

This blog entry describes what Kabosu was like initially after rescue. The dog apparently had never been walked outside, from the state of her overgrown claws. She did not know how to play with toys, never barked, and ran away if people tried to hug her. Looking at later blog entries, it's amazing how much Kabosu changed under Ms. Sato's care (Ms. Sato's two cats are also rescues).

It makes me smile that there's such a sweet story behind an internet meme.
posted by needled at 1:01 PM on January 1, 2014 [14 favorites]

New year, time passing, another meme that I don't understand. Fuck me I'm not even thirty and I feel ancient.
posted by Think_Long at 1:20 PM on January 1, 2014

another meme that I don't understand

"understand" what

Your'e doing this wrong
posted by Namlit at 1:58 PM on January 1, 2014

Doge is integrating itself into parts of the internets...
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:09 PM on January 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

I seriously had not at all heard of this "doge" thing until like 2 days ago.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:37 PM on January 1, 2014

I have to say that if you aren't on tumblr, vine or reddit then you may not have seen much of doge. It's exploded over the past few months for sure but tumblr/reddit seem to be ground zero.
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:47 PM on January 1, 2014

Yeah, I'd only heard of it just before Christmas too, but I'm not on Vine, Reddit, Tumblr or 4Chan.

And then something amazing happened that you won't believe!

Ready to find out that one amazing discovery I made just days after discovering the doge meme?

Keep reading for a secret that surprised me....

Dogecoins — an alternative cryptocurrency.
posted by Mezentian at 9:30 PM on January 1, 2014

a lot of people who has played Assassin's Creed

No, you cannot has old meme.
posted by dhens at 10:08 PM on January 1, 2014

(Sorry that two of my comments in this thread have been me having fun at someone else's expense...)
posted by dhens at 10:09 PM on January 1, 2014

"This is my favourite doge."

Hah, I made that! I'm pleased it struck a chord. :)
posted by daisyk at 10:42 PM on January 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

I worked for excite.com back in the day. Nice to see the logo still floating around the inter webs...
posted by Annika Cicada at 10:51 PM on January 1, 2014

I first encountered doge in November, watching Desert Bus For Hope 7. They had an overlay pop up occasionally.
posted by Shmuel510 at 10:53 PM on January 1, 2014

emmtee: " Also because things that sound like doge come up in real life a lot."

I was amused by a makeup sample I recently got.
posted by Lexica at 10:35 AM on January 2, 2014 [3 favorites]

A little while back I got a package for our neighbours that was very heavily branded with the name of the store, that I barely managed to hand over with a straight face.
posted by emmtee at 10:57 AM on January 2, 2014

My god, this website, I gathered 11 extremely illiquid, non-transferable, cryptographically insecure tokens for my post above, but only one person maybe wants the freely available secure tokens which can be exchanged for USD with some delay.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 3:35 PM on January 2, 2014

I just need to point out that in the machine translation of Ms Sato's blog, it says Do not warp the first assimilation in the sidebar.
posted by salix at 5:34 PM on January 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm really mentioning it because it's a kind of culture shock for me, like it never occurred to me that it wasn't that and was something else and I feel pretty sure that approximately 0.5% or less of the internet has any idea that doge is an actual word.

You haven't seen the Crusader Kings subreddit, then.
posted by mippy at 3:30 AM on January 3, 2014

For me "doge" was a stonerism or maybe just one of those in joke things you share with a friend. Like "kitteh" or "key key"
posted by lordaych at 10:26 PM on January 3, 2014