# Doge

> Doge is a 2013 image-macro meme of a Shiba Inu named Kabosu with multicolored Comic Sans captions in deliberately broken English.

Doge is an internet meme built around photos of a Shiba Inu named Kabosu, overlaid with colorful Comic Sans captions in deliberately broken English. The format took off in 2013 after years of quiet spread across Tumblr and Reddit, earning Know Your Meme's "top meme" of the year[3]. Kabosu's sideways glance launched a cryptocurrency worth billions, inspired an NFT sale of over $4 million, and gave its name to a U.S. government department, making it one of the most consequential memes in internet history.

## Origin
The word "doge" as a playful misspelling of "dog" traces to June 24, 2005, when the puppet character Homestar Runner spelled out "d-o-g-e" while calling Strong Bad his friend in the episode "Biz Cas Fri 1"[6]. Strong Bad's baffled reply, "Your doge?! What are you talking about?" gave the misspelling its first documented use[6].

The image half of the equation arrived on February 13, 2010, when Japanese kindergarten teacher Atsuko Sato posted photos of her rescue Shiba Inu, Kabosu, to her personal blog[10]. Among those photos was a now-legendary shot: Kabosu sitting on a couch, glancing sideways at the camera with raised eyebrows and crossed paws[10]. Kabosu had been rescued from a puppy mill shutdown in November 2008, one of 19 Shiba Inus sent to a shelter where most were euthanized[10]. A volunteer from the organization Chiba-Wan saved her, and Sato adopted her, naming her after the Japanese citrus fruit her round face resembled[10].

On October 28, 2010, a Reddit user submitted a photo of a corgi to the /r/Ads subreddit with the title "LMBO LOOK @ THIS FUKKIN DOGE," pulling 266 upvotes and fusing the word "doge" with the concept of funny dog photos[11]. Whether this post referenced Homestar Runner intentionally or was simply a typo is unknown, but the name stuck[11].

- **Platform:** Tumblr and Reddit
- **Creator:** Atsuko Sato (photographer/owner), Kabosu (subject dog)
- **Date:** 2010 (original photo), 2013 (meme format)

## How It Spread
The meme developed slowly through 2012 before exploding in 2013. In April 2012, Tumblr user leonsumbitches uploaded an audio file of a computer reading a passage about encountering a "doge," paired with a dog photo, which collected over 33,000 notes[2]. By summer 2012, doge threads were appearing on 4chan boards including /v/, and the Tumblr blog "Shiba Confessions" launched in September, pairing Shiba Inu photos with Comic Sans captions[10]. The growth of Shiba Confessions helped establish the visual language that Doge would later adopt wholesale[12].

In August 2012, the Tumblr blog "F--k Yeah Doge" launched, followed by the subreddit /r/Doge in January 2013[2]. Google Trends data shows interest in "doge" stayed flat until July 2013, when Kabosu's specific photo locked in as the meme's defining image[10]. On July 29, 2013, a doge thread was sticky-featured on 4chan's /s4s/ board, drawing over 600 replies[2].

The meme crossed into mainstream awareness in August 2013 when 4chan's /b/ board raided Reddit's /r/Murica, flooding the subreddit with patriotic Doge photoshops[1]. The moderators of /r/Murica mostly welcomed the invasion, with one writing: "4chan decided we wouldn't like this, or something. We totally do. FREEDOM OF SPEECH SUCKA"[1]. The Daily Dot covered the raid, and by late 2013, Doge was inescapable online[1].

In November 2013, YouTube implemented an Easter egg: searching "doge meme" turned all site text into colorful Comic Sans[2]. By December, Know Your Meme crowned Doge its top meme of 2013[3]. That same month, members of the U.S. Congress produced material in Doge's style, with Texas Representative Steve Stockman tweeting a Doge-ified image of Senator John Cornyn[10]. The Huffington Post declared the meme "killed" by congressional usage[3].

## Cultural Impact
Doge crossed from internet joke to mainstream culture faster than almost any meme before it. In 2014, a California gaming company attempted to trademark the word "Doge" with the U.S. Patent Office, prompting the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Corynne McSherry to note the filing was problematic for attempting to trademark an entire common word[2].

The meme found particular resonance in China, where Weibo implemented Kabosu as an emoji[3]. Chinese internet users interpreted her expression as enigmatic rather than comedic, and the emoji became widely used to convey whimsy or ambiguous sarcasm[3].

Dogecoin's cultural footprint dwarfed the meme itself. The cryptocurrency funded charitable causes, from the Jamaican bobsled team's Olympic trip to clean water projects in Kenya[14]. SpaceX announced in May 2021 a rideshare mission to the Moon funded entirely by Dogecoin, making it the first space mission funded by cryptocurrency[4]. The Dogecoin Foundation was re-established in 2021 with advisors including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and a representative of Elon Musk[4].

In 2023, Kyle Craven, the real person behind the Bad Luck Brian meme, met Kabosu during a trip to Japan, and the photo of two meme legends together went viral on its own[5].

Writing about Doge's legacy in The New Yorker after Kabosu's death, Kyle Chayka reflected that the meme "projected a sense of hopeful naïveté about the Internet which has lately disappeared from digital culture"[12]. Unlike modern viral content optimized for algorithmic promotion, Doge emerged organically, belonging "both to everyone and to no one"[12].

After PleasrDAO bought the original Kabosu photograph NFT for approximately $4 million in 2021, a community called Own The Doge formed around the fractionalized $DOG token. The organization officially acquired the legal rights, licensing, and provenance for the iconic Kabosu "Doge" meme directly from Atsuko Sato. Rather than creating a standard memecoin, the DAO fractionalized the original Doge image NFT into $DOG tokens, allowing holders to digitally own a piece of the internet's favorite meme. The image was minted as an NFT, auctioned off by Sato and sold to the DAO that now holds the copyright and exclusive usage rights for the original Doge image, alongside additional Shiba Inu IP such as the Neiro rights.

In 2023 Own The Doge partnered with the National Day Calendar to make November 2 an official holiday, International Doge Day, timed to Kabosu's birthday[41][43]. The inaugural celebration on November 2, 2023 marked Kabosu's 18th birthday and drew 23 fans who flew to Sakura, Japan for a mayoral opening, a Doge quiz, and a Q&A with fellow meme veterans Bad Luck Brian and Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain" fame[42]. The centerpiece was a bronze statue of Kabosu in Sakura Hometown Square that took over a year and roughly $100,000 in community funds to commission, built in partnership with Atsuko Sato, Dogecoin, NFD, and Sakura City[42]. Own The Doge framed the holiday around its "Do Only Good Everyday" ethos, which spells out DOGE, and the group says it has directed over $1 million to charitable causes including Save The Children[41]. The Sakura celebration has run every November 2 since.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Doge?
Doge is an internet meme featuring photos of a Shiba Inu named Kabosu overlaid with multicolored Comic Sans text in deliberately broken English, using modifiers like "so," "such," "much," "many," and "very"[3].

### Where did Doge come from?
The source photo was posted by Japanese kindergarten teacher Atsuko Sato to her blog on February 13, 2010[10]. The word "doge" as a misspelling of "dog" dates to a 2005 Homestar Runner episode[6].

### What does Doge mean?
"Doge" is slang for "dog," and the meme's captions represent a dog's excited internal monologue in fractured English. The format uses deliberate grammatical mismatches for comedic effect[11].

### How do you use Doge?
Take a Shiba Inu photo, add scattered multicolored Comic Sans text using modifiers like "such," "much," and "very" paired with mismatched words, and include a "wow" somewhere on the image[3].

### Is Doge still popular?
The original captioned photo format peaked in 2013-2014, but derivatives like Ironic Doge, Cheems, and Dogecoin kept the meme culturally relevant through the 2020s[3]. Kabosu died in May 2024, prompting a global wave of tributes[16].

### Who is Kabosu?
Kabosu was a female Shiba Inu born in 2005, rescued from a puppy mill by the organization Chiba-Wan in 2008, and adopted by Atsuko Sato. She lived in Sakura, Chiba prefecture, Japan until her death on May 24, 2024 at age 18[10].

### How do you pronounce "Doge"?
The most common pronunciations are "DOHJ" (rhymes with "vogue" with a soft J) and "DOHG" (rhymes with "vogue"). Other variants include "DOHZH," "doggy," and in some non-English contexts, "dodge"[11].

### What is Dogecoin?
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency created in December 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a parody of Bitcoin, using Kabosu's face as its logo. It reached a peak market capitalization over $85 billion in May 2021[4].

### How much did the Doge NFT sell for?
PleasrDAO acquired an NFT of the original Kabosu photograph for approximately $4 million in 2021[3].

### What is "Ironic Doge"?
Starting around 2017, Ironic Doge formats placed the Kabosu character in surreal, absurdist, or dark scenarios, moving away from the original wholesome captioned photos. The community centered on Reddit's /r/DogeLore[3].

### Who is Cheems?
Cheems is a separate Shiba Inu character from the Ironic Doge universe, known for a speech impediment where the letter "M" appears throughout words, as in "Cheemsburger" for "Cheeseburger"[3].

### What is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)?
In November 2024, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump announced plans for the Department of Government Efficiency, abbreviated as DOGE. The name is a reverse acronym referencing both the meme and Dogecoin[3].

### Did 4chan raid Reddit with Doge?
Yes. On August 26, 2013, 4chan's /b/ board flooded Reddit's /r/Murica with patriotic Doge photoshops. The raid backfired because /r/Murica largely enjoyed the content[1].

### When did Kabosu die?
Kabosu died on May 24, 2024, at age 18. Her owner Atsuko Sato announced the death on her blog, describing a peaceful passing on a quiet morning[16].

### Was Doge's death reported as an April Fools' prank?
Yes. On March 31, 2017, the CCTV Twitter account reported Kabosu had died at age 16, but it was an April Fools' Day hoax[2].

## References
1. [I've got Swagger, TM87](<https://web.archive.org/web/20120510135201/https://leonsumbitches.tumblr.com/>)
2. [4chan spammed Reddit with an army of Shiba Inus](<https://dailydot.com/4chan-raid-reddit-r-murica-shibe>)
3. [Dogecoin: Not a viable alternative to Bitcoin, but possibly the best invention on the internet - Geek.com](<https://web.archive.org/web/20200414133017/https://www.geek.com/apps/the-best-invention-on-the-internet-dogecoin-a-more-viable-alternative-to-bitcoin-1579442/>)
4. [Doge - Know Your Meme](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/doge>)
5. [Doge (meme)](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_%28meme%29>)
6. [Doge - Urban Dictionary](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Doge>)
7. [Doge](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge>)
8. [Dogecoin](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogecoin>)
9. [The Doge Dept. of Education Meme Origin Story](<https://eathealthy365.com/the-doge-and-dept-of-education-memes-origin/>)
10. [Meme icon Bad Luck Brian got to meet fellow legendary meme Doge](<https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/meme-icon-bad-luck-brian-got-to-meet-fellow-legendary-meme-doge-381470-20230601>)
11. [schnauze - I Has A Hotdog - Dog Pictures - Funny pictures of dogs - Dog Memes - Puppy pictures - doge](<https://cheezburger.com/6857859072>)
12. [Biz Cas Fri 1 - Homestar Runner Wiki](<http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Biz_Cas_Fri_1>)
13. [Dogecoin - An open-source peer-to-peer digital currency](<https://dogecoin.com>)
14. [Dogecoin price today, DOGE to USD live price, marketcap and chart | CoinMarketCap](<https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dogecoin/>)
15. [Dogecoin Digital Currency Takes On Bitcoin With A Bit Of Meme Flair](<https://www.slashgear.com/dogecoin-digital-currency-takes-on-bitcoin-with-a-bit-of-meme-flair-11308557/>)
16. [4chan spammed Reddit with an army of Shiba Inus](<https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/4chan-raid-reddit-r-murica-shibe/>)
17. [Доге — Википедия](<https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Доге>)
18. [The Origin of the Dog Meme: Uncovering the History Behind the Internet's Favorite Meme - SmallDogsHeaven](<https://smalldogsheaven.com/where-did-the-dog-meme-come-from/>)
19. [Doge | Meme Reference](<https://www.memereference.com/meme-database/doge>)
20. [Doge Meaning: 8 Explosive Facts From Memes To Millions (Ever Wondered?)](<https://www.tidbitsofexperience.com/doge-meaning/>)
21. [Doge Meme — Origin, Meaning, History | MemesGuy](<https://memesguy.com/meme/doge>)
22. [What Does Doge Mean? | OKX](<https://www.okx.com/learn/what-does-doge-mean>)
23. [Собака Doge: история мема с Кабосу, создание криптовалюты Dogecoin, мемы с Doge и Чимсом, болезнь и смерть сиба-ину](<https://postnews.ru/a/28923>)
24. [Millions of Dogecoin stolen in Christmas hack | The Verge](<https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/26/5244604/millions-of-dogecoin-stolen-in-christmas-hack>)
25. [Charities | Doge](<https://very.auction/charities>)
26. [Dogecoin, A Cryptocurrency For Doges, Is Now A Thing | The Mary Sue](<https://www.themarysue.com/dogecoin/>)
27. [Wow this is doge | The Verge](<https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/31/5248762/doge-meme-rescue-dog-wow>)
28. [doge | Memes | Dictionary.com](<https://www.dictionary.com/e/memes/doge/>)
29. [What Does 'Doge' Mean? - Origins, Examples & Usage](<https://www.whatdoesit.com/mean/doge/>)
30. [What Doge Taught Me About the Internet | The New Yorker](<https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/what-doge-taught-me-about-the-internet>)
31. [Much wow, very meme: what the revival of the ancient doge meme tells us about the lifecycle of the internet](<https://theconversation.com/much-wow-very-meme-what-the-revival-of-the-ancient-doge-meme-tells-us-about-the-lifecycle-of-the-internet-203560>)
32. [The Rise of Doge: A Cultural Phenomenon](<https://jenniejohnson.com/bestjobs/the-rise-of-doge-how-a>)
33. [The Cultural Impact of Memecoins: More Than Just a Meme](<https://www.noobpreneur.com/2024/05/28/the-cultural-impact-of-memecoins-more-than-just-a-meme/>)
34. [The History of Dogecoin: From Meme to Cryptocurrency - ItsEasyTech](<https://itseasytech.com/history-of-dogecoin-from-meme-to-cryptocurrency/>)
35. [Meme To Machine: The Rise Of Doge & Memecoins](<https://yapglobal.com/yap-insights/https-yapglobal-com-blog-doge-memecoins/>)
36. [What the Revival of the Ancient Doge Meme Tells Us About the Lifecycle of the Internet](<https://singularityhub.com/2023/04/30/what-the-revival-of-the-ancient-doge-meme-tells-us-about-the-lifecycle-of-the-internet/>)
37. [[ANN][DOGE] Dogecoin - very currency many coin - v1.10.0](<https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=361813.0>)
38. [Dogewallet hacked!](<https://web.archive.org/web/20140707055130/http://doges.org/index.php/topic,5283.0.html>)
39. [今夜のご飯は何ですか？ : かぼすちゃんとおさんぽ。](<https://kabosu112.exblog.jp/9944144/>)
40. [ありがとう、かぼちゃん！ : かぼすちゃんとおさんぽ。 Powered by ライブドアブログ](<https://kabochan.blog.jp/archives/51831907.html>)
41. [International Doge Day — Own The Doge](<https://www.ownthedoge.com/doge-dayold>)
42. [First Annual 'Doge Day' Happening On November 2nd In Celebration Of Kabosu's 18th Birthday](<https://knowyourmeme.com/news/first-annual-doge-day-happening-on-november-2nd-in-celebration-of-kabosus-18th-birthday>)
43. [MEDIA ALERT: International Doge Day | November 2](<https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/read/media-alert-international-doge-day-november-2>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/doge
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