Shrek

2010character / cult memeclassic

Shrek is the green ogre from the DreamWorks animated film released May 18th, 2001, who became a cult internet character between 2010 and 2012 through pun jokes, greentext stories, and image macros. Fans of the character call themselves Brogres and built out communities on Tumblr, Shrekchan, and Facebook around slang phrases like Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life.

shrekdreamworks memesironic memesearly 2010s memesfandom discourse memes

Overview

Shrek is the titular green ogre from the DreamWorks animated film series, voiced by Mike Myers and joined onscreen by Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz)3. The character exists twice online: once as the star of a mainstream animated franchise, and once as the mascot of a devoted fan subculture that treats him with mock religious reverence.

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The meme version of Shrek is built around pun jokes, greentext stories, and photoshopped image macros where his face and voice lines are pushed to absurd extremes3. Self-identified fans call themselves Brogres, echoing the Brony label used by adult My Little Pony fans, and lean on catchphrases like Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life5.

How It Spread

The Brogre identity crystallized in late 2012. On November 16th, 2012, a Facebook page for Brogres was created, and two days later Urban Dictionary user sesky added an entry defining a Brogre as someone obsessed with Shrek35. A Facebook page for Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life followed on January 29th, 2013, and pulled in more than 135,000 likes by April 20143. HuffPost covered the fandom's real world reach on February 6th, 2013, reporting on a British couple, Heidi Coxshall and Paul Bellas, who dressed as Shrek and Fiona at their wedding while their four year old son went as Donkey2.

Shrek kept generating headlines years later thanks to Smash Mouth, whose song All Star closes the first film. On August 16th, 2018, Exclaim reported that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan had claimed on Instagram his band was offered the Shrek end credits slot first, prompting the Smash Mouth account to publicly dispute the story4.

On November 6th, 2018, Variety reported that Chris Meledandri, the producer behind Despicable Me, would oversee reboots of Shrek and Puss in Boots, with Meledandri saying he wanted to bring back the original voice cast1. Fan reaction spiked online, and a one word reply of What? from the Smash Mouth account racked up more than 88,000 likes and 21,000 retweets in under a day3.

How to Use This Meme

Shrek content typically pairs stills or renders of the ogre with pun jokes swapping words for ogre or shrek variants, such as ogredrive for overdrive or shrekt for wrecked. Greentext stories often frame Shrek as a chaotic figure who visits fans in their bedrooms, while image macros lean on the Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life format as a stand in for over the top devotion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Shrek

2010character / cult memeclassic

Shrek is the green ogre from the DreamWorks animated film released May 18th, 2001, who became a cult internet character between 2010 and 2012 through pun jokes, greentext stories, and image macros. Fans of the character call themselves Brogres and built out communities on Tumblr, Shrekchan, and Facebook around slang phrases like Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life.

shrek dreamworks memes ironic memes early 2010s memes fandom discourse memes

Overview

Shrek is the titular green ogre from the DreamWorks animated film series, voiced by Mike Myers and joined onscreen by Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz)3. The character exists twice online: once as the star of a mainstream animated franchise, and once as the mascot of a devoted fan subculture that treats him with mock religious reverence.

Loading tweet...

The meme version of Shrek is built around pun jokes, greentext stories, and photoshopped image macros where his face and voice lines are pushed to absurd extremes3. Self-identified fans call themselves Brogres, echoing the Brony label used by adult My Little Pony fans, and lean on catchphrases like Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life5.

How It Spread

The Brogre identity crystallized in late 2012. On November 16th, 2012, a Facebook page for Brogres was created, and two days later Urban Dictionary user sesky added an entry defining a Brogre as someone obsessed with Shrek35. A Facebook page for Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life followed on January 29th, 2013, and pulled in more than 135,000 likes by April 20143. HuffPost covered the fandom's real world reach on February 6th, 2013, reporting on a British couple, Heidi Coxshall and Paul Bellas, who dressed as Shrek and Fiona at their wedding while their four year old son went as Donkey2.

Shrek kept generating headlines years later thanks to Smash Mouth, whose song All Star closes the first film. On August 16th, 2018, Exclaim reported that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan had claimed on Instagram his band was offered the Shrek end credits slot first, prompting the Smash Mouth account to publicly dispute the story4.

On November 6th, 2018, Variety reported that Chris Meledandri, the producer behind Despicable Me, would oversee reboots of Shrek and Puss in Boots, with Meledandri saying he wanted to bring back the original voice cast1. Fan reaction spiked online, and a one word reply of What? from the Smash Mouth account racked up more than 88,000 likes and 21,000 retweets in under a day3.

How to Use This Meme

Shrek content typically pairs stills or renders of the ogre with pun jokes swapping words for ogre or shrek variants, such as ogredrive for overdrive or shrekt for wrecked. Greentext stories often frame Shrek as a chaotic figure who visits fans in their bedrooms, while image macros lean on the Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life format as a stand in for over the top devotion.

Frequently Asked Questions