Doge
“ Doge” is internet slang for dog. In 2010, a Japanese woman posted a number of pictures of her adopted shiba inu, named Kabosu, to a Facebook group.( Fig. 13) It took off as a meme in 2013, as part of an ongoing meme of internal monologes.( Fig. 15) A Tumblr page called“ Shiba Confessions” is well known for this format being applied to images of shiba inus in humorous situations. Mostly in the font Comic Sans, a number of phrases would surround the face of some person, animal, or character. Comic Sans is a typeface, much like
Impact, which has become universally associated with the internet. In late 2013, Youtube added an Easter egg where if the user searches“ doge meme” the Youtube layout’ s text changes to multicolored comic sans, similar to the meme.
Similar to the grammar of lolspeak, the doge meme featured rearanged sentences and incorrect grammar. This in itself has become a meme since there is humor in the simplistic phrasing. Doge often uses two word phrases, one of which is usually a modifier such as‘ so’ or‘ much’ and the other being a noun not usually modified by that word, such as‘ much like. so enjoy.’( Fig. 16-7)
fig. 13
10 | Part Two: The Language of the Internet