Where did Butterdog come from?

iFunny user coal uploaded the original clip on September 23, 2020, and it collected over 2,900 smiles on the platform within a month.

What does Butterdog mean?

The name is a literal description taken from the owner's narration about the butter packet sitting on the dog's head, with alternate spellings like 'Butta Dawg' circulating in fan posts.

How do you use Butterdog?

People typically share the original clip, post fan art of the dog in different styles, or layer the mumbled narration audio over animated edits, as ArtistNcs did on Twitter.

Is Butterdog still popular?

Butterdog is a classic 2020 wholesome ironic meme that peaked on October 29, 2020, when a Lessons in Meme Culture explainer drew more than 107,000 views in a day.

Butterdog

Q: What is Butterdog?

Butterdog is the nickname for a brown dog filmed with a single-serve butter packet balanced on its head while thrashing a red toy, as the owner narrates 'dog with the butter on him, dog with the butter'.

2020viral videoclassic

Published October 22, 2026

Butterdog, also spelled Butter Dog, is the nickname for a brown dog filmed with a single-serve butter packet balanced on its head while thrashing a red toy, as its owner mumbles 'dog with the butter on him, dog with the butter.' iFunny user coal uploaded the clip on September 23, 2020, and within a month fan artists on Twitter and reposters on Instagram had turned it into a wholesome ironic staple. By October 29, 2020, YouTuber Lessons in Meme Culture had posted an explainer that drew over 107,000 views in its first day.

pet video memes dogs ifunny memes wholesome memes fan art memes

Overview

What makes the clip stick is the mismatch between the dog's aggressive thrashing of the red toy and the owner's flat, mumbled narration. The butter packet stays balanced on the dog's head through the whole bit, while the voice off-camera keeps looping 'dog with the butter on him, dog with the butter' without ever changing tone. KYM compared the delivery to the earlier Salami Lid video, which uses the same kind of plain, matter-of-fact description of what is physically on an animal6.

Instead of becoming a text template, Butterdog spread as reposts of the clip and as fan art. Twitter user RinCDot posted an illustration on October 23, 20202, and some_ape followed the next day with a different stylized take3. Remix accounts also layered the original audio over animations and still artwork, and alternate spellings like 'Butta Dawg' and 'Butterdawg' circulated alongside the standard name.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

iFunny (origin) / Twitter and Instagram (viral spread)

Creator

iFunny user coal

Date

2020

On September 23, 2020, iFunny user coal uploaded a short video of their brown dog standing with an individual butter packet balanced on its head, while off-camera the owner says 'dog with the butter on him, dog with the butter' in a flat, mumbled voice1. The dog ignores the butter entirely and instead attacks a red and green object that looks like a tug or chew toy. The post collected more than 2,900 smiles on iFunny over the following month before being lifted onto other platforms6.

How It Spread

Butterdog's first viral moment came through Twitter fan art rather than reposts of the clip itself. Illustrator RinCDot drew a Butterdog illustration on October 23, 2020, which collected over 50 likes and 16 retweets in a week2. The next day, user some_ape posted a different artistic take that drew about 105 likes and 13 retweets in six days3.

Reposts caught up a few days later. On October 25, 2020, the Instagram account cloutwhore.mp4 uploaded the original clip to its feed, where it drew over 5,100 views in five days4. Two days after that, criminalmonkeygang.inc posted a reenactment with a different dog performing the same butter-and-toy routine, which drew around 500 views in three days5.

Butterdog peaked on October 29, 2020, when three large posts landed the same day. Twitter user ArtistNcs posted an animated art edit set to the original audio that collected over 11,600 likes and 2,700 retweets in 25 hours8. YouTuber Lessons in Meme Culture uploaded an explainer breaking down the clip's origin, drawing more than 107,000 views and 9,400 likes in its first 24 hours7. 10HoursMovies posted a ten-hour loop of the video the same day that reached 51,000 views and 6,000 likes within 24 hours9.

Timeline

2020-09-23

IFunny user coal uploads the original Butterdog video showing their dog with a butter packet on its head thrashing a red toy.

2020-10-23

Twitter user RinCDot posts the first widely shared Butterdog fan art illustration.

2020-10-24

Twitter user some_ape posts a second stylized Butterdog artwork.

2020-10-25

Instagram account cloutwhore.mp4 reposts the original clip, drawing over 5,100 views in five days.

2020-10-27

Instagram account criminalmonkeygang.inc posts a reenactment with a different dog.

2020-10-29