# Hopkin Green Frog > Hopkin Green Frog is a 2003 lost-pet flier from Seattle created by teenager Terry for his missing toy frog, featuring a childlike drawing that became an early-internet meme through Photoshop remixing. Hopkin Green Frog is an early internet meme based on a handwritten lost-pet flier posted around a Seattle neighborhood in September 2003. The flier, made by a teenage boy named Terry, featured a childlike drawing and earnest plea to find his missing toy frog, and sparked a wave of Photoshop edits and an entire tribute website. It's one of the internet's most well-known examples of a sincere, heartfelt artifact being adopted by online communities for creative remixing. ## Origin Sometime around September 2003, several handwritten fliers appeared stapled to telephone poles in a Seattle neighborhood[1]. The fliers featured a hand-drawn green frog and pleaded for help finding "Hopkin Green Frog." Two Seattle-based bloggers, Jeff Sharman and a woman named Samantha, noticed the fliers and posted about them online[1]. The fliers sat in relative obscurity for about a year. Then in September 2004, the image was uploaded to an online image-sharing community (likely Something Awful's forums), where it quickly became a Photoshop target[1]. An enterprising user registered the domain lostfrog.org to collect and display the growing number of visual riffs on the original flier[2]. Around the same time, MetaFilter hosted two separate discussion threads about the frog flier and the Photoshop edits it inspired[1]. In one of those MetaFilter threads, users did some detective work and identified the frog as a McDonald's promotional toy[1]. Others reported that someone had called the family and confirmed the frog was indeed a stuffed toy, not a live animal[3]. - **Platform:** Seattle neighborhood fliers (source), Something Awful / MetaFilter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Terry (flier author) - **Date:** 2003 ## Overview The meme centers on a hand-drawn lost-pet flier featuring a crude but endearing drawing of a green frog. Written in uneven lettering, the flier asks "Who took my frog?" and "Who found my frog?" and includes the now-iconic line "Him name is Hopkin Green Frog." The poster is signed "Love Terry" and ends with the determined postscript "P.S. I'll find my frog"[1]. What made the flier irresistible to the internet was its combination of raw sincerity and unusual grammar. The broken English and childlike art gave it an outsider-art quality that online communities found both touching and endlessly riffable. The frog in question turned out to be a small stuffed toy distributed as a McDonald's Happy Meal freebie promoting the "Animal Alley" line[3]. ## How It Spread The lostfrog.org website became the central hub for Hopkin-related content, collecting dozens of Photoshop edits that placed the frog in increasingly absurd scenarios[1]. The MetaFilter threads drew significant attention to the meme, driving waves of new visitors to lostfrog.org and inspiring more contributions[2]. Blogger Mike Whybark, who lived in the same Seattle neighborhood as the flier's creator, conducted an investigation in late 2004 and early 2005. He purchased one of the McDonald's frog toys on eBay for about $5 and tracked down the family[1]. His reporting revealed that the flier's author was a 16-year-old boy with autism named Terry. Terry's father told Whybark that his son had forgotten about the frog and that bringing it up again "will probably only bring up a bunch of bad memories"[1]. The father requested that no one send replacement frogs or call the family. Whybark published his findings on his blog in early 2005, and the post itself became a recurring source of traffic. Every couple of months, a large link-aggregator site would rediscover and share the story, generating thousands of visits each time[1]. By July 2005, seven months after publication, the post was still drawing periodic surges of attention from sites like MetaFilter[1]. The meme also spawned merchandise, including t-shirts featuring the original flier image[1]. Urban Dictionary entries documented the meme's distinctive language, with users quoting Terry's original text[3]. ## How to Use Hopkin Green Frog works less as a reusable template and more as a Photoshop prompt. The typical approach: 1. Take the original lost frog flier image 2. Insert the frog (or the flier) into an unexpected context, like a movie poster, famous painting, or news broadcast 3. Alternatively, create a response flier, ransom note, or "sighting report" for the missing frog 4. Some edits place Hopkin in elaborate scenarios, like hiding among other famous frogs or appearing in historical photos ## Cultural Impact Hopkin Green Frog holds a particular place in early internet culture as one of the first "found object" memes, where a real-world artifact became raw material for online creativity. The meme predated the era of Reddit and Twitter, spreading instead through forums, blogs, and dedicated single-topic websites like lostfrog.org[1]. The backstory, once revealed, added an unexpected layer of pathos. Learning that Terry was an autistic teenager who genuinely lost a beloved toy complicated the meme's tone. Some users felt guilty about laughing; others argued the Photoshop edits were a form of tribute rather than mockery[1]. Whybark's investigation became a frequently cited example of early internet journalism, where a blogger tracked down the real story behind a viral image. The meme also raised early questions about the ethics of internet virality. Terry's father specifically asked that people stop calling and not send replacement frogs, noting his son was unaware of the internet's interest and it was better that way[1]. This request was one of the internet's early encounters with the human consequences of turning someone's personal moment into public entertainment. ## Fun Facts - The frog was a McDonald's Happy Meal toy from the "Animal Alley" promotion. Whybark found one on eBay for about $5[1]. - Terry's father told the blogger that he was the first person to call the family about the frog, though a separate account from another forum user (citizenkafka) suggested Terry's mother already knew about lostfrog.org[1]. - It appears Terry made at least two batches of fliers, with a second round posted in May 2004, which his father didn't know about[1]. - The meme's distinctive grammar ("Him name is Hopkin Green Frog") became quotable shorthand in early internet culture[3]. - Whybark's blog post about the investigation kept generating traffic surges for months, with large sites rediscovering it roughly every other month throughout 2005[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Hopkin Green Frog? Hopkin Green Frog is an early internet meme based on a handwritten lost-pet flier posted in a Seattle neighborhood in 2003, featuring a childlike drawing and the plea "Him name is Hopkin Green Frog"[1]. ### Where did Hopkin Green Frog come from? The original flier appeared in Seattle around September 2003, created by a teenager named Terry. It went viral online about a year later in September 2004 when it was posted to image-sharing communities[1]. ### What does Hopkin Green Frog mean? The meme is used primarily as a Photoshop target and a piece of internet nostalgia. The earnest, broken-English text and childlike art made it both funny and endearing to early internet communities[2]. ### How do you use Hopkin Green Frog? Most people engage with it through Photoshop edits, placing the frog or the flier into unexpected contexts. The lostfrog.org website collected these community creations[1]. ### Is Hopkin Green Frog still popular? Hopkin Green Frog is a classic early internet meme. While it's no longer actively remixed, it's well-remembered as a piece of internet history from the pre-social-media era[2]. ### Was Hopkin a real frog? No. Hopkin was a small stuffed toy frog distributed by McDonald's as a Happy Meal freebie in their "Animal Alley" promotion[3]. ### Who was Terry? Terry was a 16-year-old boy with autism who created the original lost frog fliers. His family requested privacy after the internet's interest in the flier was revealed[1]. ### What was lostfrog.org? lostfrog.org was a website created to collect Photoshop edits and visual riffs on the original Hopkin Green Frog flier. It became the central hub for the meme's community[1]. ### Why did the meme go viral? The combination of sincere emotion, unusual grammar, and childlike art made the flier irresistible to online communities who were drawn to both its humor and its heart[2]. ### Did anyone find the frog? Blogger Mike Whybark purchased a matching McDonald's frog toy on eBay for about $5, but Terry's father asked him not to give it to his son, saying the boy had moved on and revisiting the loss would bring up bad memories[1]. ## References 1. [Hopkin Explained – mike.whybark.com]() 2. [Hopkin Explained – mike.whybark.com]() 3. [Hopkins Green Frog - Encyclopedia Dramatica]() 4. [Hopkin Green Frog - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Hopkin Green Frog - Urban Dictionary]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/hopkin-green-frog Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library