The Doge meme (2010-Present) represents a framework for meme literacies because it contains a strong, consistent structure which is customizable within its aesthetic constraints. The Doge meme is accessible and fairly “safe for work” and, as this project entails, it happens to be one of the most powerful memes ever made. In this Meme Literacy Primer, we’re going to explore the history of the doge meme, how its variations contain memetic structure, and where its power lies in a historical context. We’ll help you understand how memes evolve and rewrite history in real-time.

1. The Doge Meme
Understanding the Internet’s
Most Important Digital Meme
A Visual Media Primer from the Digital Void Meme Literacies Project
Learn more at memeliteracies.com

2. Introduction to Memes and
The Doge Meme
“That’s why you’re my d-o-g-e”
Digital meme: “(a) a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of
content, form, and/or stance, which (b) were created with awareness of each
other, and (c) were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the internet
by many users”
- Limor Shifman, Memes in Digital Culture, 2014
The Doge meme (2010 - present) : (pronounced /ˈdoʊdʒ/ DOHJ) is a slang
term for "dog" that is primarily associated with pictures of Shiba Inus. A
merged meme from the audio of a YouTube video with a message board
image.
- Know Your Meme
Doge (historical): Chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice
between 726 and 1797. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-
state's aristocracy.
- Wikipedia Entry

3. The Importance of Meme Literacies
We share visual media to communicate our emotions and ideas more efficiently and effectively. We use emojis,
memes, sounds, and gifs to increase our the substance and depth of our messages, increasing nuance and
engagement. External to ourselves, cultural evolution fuses with our methods of communication. Now, with
millions of meme variations and over 3,000 emojis, our use of graphical language has shifted from ideographic to
pictorial. This means that the more specific memes and emojis become, the more we have to understand the
nuance of the image being shared. More importantly, pictorial language overwrites textual language and
contextual history. Memes and images have more power than we realize.
😂
💀

4. Reading the Internet Visually
We need meme literacies.
The Doge meme (2010-Present) represents a framework for meme literacies because it contains a strong, consistent structure which
is customizable within its aesthetic constraints. The Doge meme is accessible and fairly “safe for work” and, as this project entails, it
happens to be one of the most powerful memes ever made.
In this Meme Literacy Primer, we’re going to explore the history of the doge meme, how its variations contain memetic structure, and
where its power lies in a historical context. We’ll help you understand how memes evolve and rewrite history in real-time.
Venetian Doge: 727AD - 1797AD; Doge Sound: 2005; Doge Image: 2009; Reddit Origin: 2010; Peak Internet Popularity: 2013;
DogeCoin: 2013; Commercial Use: 2014; Swole Doge: 2019

5. The Most Important Meme on the Internet
Doge is the most important meme.
Yes, the iconic Shiba Inu associated with everything from cryptocurrency to the imagined internal speech of a dog, is more
important than Pepe the Frog, Wojack, or any other popular meme because of how this meme overwrites history.
“Such wow!”
When we interact with memes, we always do so in a present context: memes rely a temporal reference. Pepe the Frog in 2010
meant something different than Pepe the Frog in 2016. Similarly, Doge means something different in the 15th century than it does
now. You read that correctly–the 15th century.
All memes and graphical language are culturally coded expressions of knowledge which contain important origins to understand
and historical evolutions. This project illustrates how we use the Doge meme, where it came from, why that’s important, and what
power it holds. We provide takeaways for educational use and empower you to become more meme literate so you can use
memes more responsibly, but also recognize the power of internet memes in the context of history.

6. Rules of the Doge meme
The Doge Meme Has Consistent Standards:
1. Must include Kabosu’s side-eyed glance (or at the very
least, a shiba inu)
2. Use comic-sans font
3. Linguistic grammar: “wow” “so” “much” “very”
The doge meme is also one of the few memes that can be enjoyed by all ages–though you must always be careful when searching any meme.

7. Generations of internet graphical languages
➔ Version 01
• Direct connection between image and text where the
image relies on the text
• Images Macro (Photoshop) memes like Lolcats, Bad Luck Brian,
Snarky Wonka
• Consistent structures: IMPACT font, objects
➔ Version 02
• Mixing and merging more visual/textual concepts
• Adding communicative visual properties
• New consistencies: breed of dog or type of font
➔ Version 03
•Relatable (“when you” “me when”)
• Referential and layered, usually temporal (meaning time-
sensitive)
• Nuance embedded in the combination of words and text - capable
of dogwhistling
• Sender aware of recipient’s meme fluency
Web Languages
The evolution of graphical web languages

8. Reading Memes
Most memes are layered with references that can be read vertically and stratigraphically
Reading memes with media archaeology
● The image may reference a mood, emotion, reaction or
even a popular cultural moment
○ This means that the image contains nuance
originating at the source.
○ Reading a meme properly means investigating
origins and exploring the original meaning and
whether or not it carries through to the meme
● The image may stand in for a completely different
origin, connected only through its aural referent
○ Using homonyms, puns, word replacements, or
ironic interpretations, a meme may replace
several layers with new references.
● The words may contain additional nuance
○ Slang, dogwhistles, and rhetoric may be added
to trick people into sharing harmful content
=
Origins: Taylor Armstrong, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,
2011 and Smudge the Cat, Tumblr post, 2018
Combined in 2019. The layers are temporal and meaningful.

9. Doge and Derivatives
The original was simple and modifiable
within the rules of the meme. It resulted
in thousands of variations.
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that was
established a “meme coin” - a satirical crypto
based on the idea that memes can hold
scarcity value
Swole doge vs. Cheems is a typical Chad
vs. meme. Typically a binary
better/worse comparative meme. The
original doge is the head of the Swole
Doge, Cheems is another Shiba meme
Original Doge Meme DogeCoin (meme cryptocurrency) Swole doge vs. Cheems
The longer a meme survives, the more derivatives are created

10. The Doge Meme Origin Story
In 2005, in a puppet version of the
popular webseries “Homestar Runner,”
Homestar endearingly tells Strongbad
that he’s his “dog” but misspells it “D-O-
G-E”
Five years later, Kabosu, the shiba inu
rescued by Atsuko Sato, was posted on an
image board. While there were many
images of the shiba, the side-eyed glance
would become the famous meme image.
Through the magic of meme forums,
in October of 2010, a reddit user
posted the first combination writing
“Look at this Doge” - Reddit acts like a
meme factory, group codifying Doge
as the new usable term.
Most importantly, the Doge meme is a cultural combination meme using multiple references across
multiple platforms and years and combining audio with the image
That “dōhj” sound became an
earworm to reemerge years later
The comic sans were added as a protest reaction to the dominance of
the impact font on memes. It would unlock text variations in memes.

11. Overwriting History
The Doge of Venice, occasionally referred to as Duke, was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of
Venice between 726 and 1797. That’s over a millennium in time. That’s over four times how long the United
States has been a country. The Doges were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. The title “Doge” would
have been for the senior-most elected official of Venice. Doges were also in Genoa, Italy.
Doges were identifiable by their Corno Ducale, the ducal hat they wore to symbolize their office.
Leonardo Loredan, Doge of
Venice, by Giovanni Bellini
(1501)
The Doge’s Palace in Venice is in Piazza San Marco.
Constructed in 1340, it is one of the most recognizable
buildings in Venice. The interior of the palace contains the
meeting rooms for the Great Council.
Each Doge minted their own coin known as the “ducati” -
In contrast of course to “DogeCoin”
If you asked a Doge in 1503 if they’d be remembered
forever, they’d scoff. How could you erase 700 years of
history? What weapon could delete such a history?
The Return of the Bucentaur to the Molo on
Ascension Day, Canaletto (1730)
A short history of the original Doge

12. The Power of the Doge Meme
What digital erasure looks like
Search for “doge” (retrieved Nov. 20, 2021) Search for “venetian doge” (retrieved on Nov. 20, 2021)
Note the Doge Doge in the search results.
A word used for 1000+ years could be overwritten by the sheer volume of new material using that word. The structure of the doge meme
empowers creators to remix and reshare at scale. The later inclusion of DogeCoin and SwoleDoge further saturates the search field. Now
you have to add a qualifier in the search for the historical Doge with “venetian doge” to see the original.

13. Applying Meme Literacies
Important Notes About the Doge Meme
Rights - The original photo of Kabosu, the Doge Shiba Inu, is copyrighted by the photographer. This is why
President Obama used a variation on the meme to sell Healtcare.gov on subway posters in 2014. Now, the image
has been converted into an NFT (non-fungible token), further securing the rights of use away from commercial
applications.
Usage - Doge is a fairly accessible meme and can still be used as a meme in digital spaces, it just cannot be
monetized or used commercially. The Doge meme today is reminiscent of language two of the web and acts as a
static meme - therefore somewhat outdated. Due to its overwhelming recognition, the meme is still being remixed
and shared. In present iterations, the multicolor comic sans and language two expressions (“such,” “wow,” “so”) are
rarely used.
DogeCoin Cryptocurrency - Originally created as a joke, the DogeCoin is an “altcoin” cryptocurrency. It has
nothing to do with the original Doge meme, so much as it influences how people interact with cryptocurrency and
memes simultaneously. Through a rush of excitement, Redditors raised money and interest in the meme and the
coin to sponsor a Nascar vehicle in the 2014 Nascar Talladega Race.
Doge (the word) - The word/sound now means as much as the image. By saying “Doge” (dōhj), you are invoking a
shibu inu giving a side eyed glance. As a meme, it is recognized both aurally and visually and conveys both when
seen or heard. This represents the power of the cultural artifact in contemporary discourse.

14. Applying Meme Literacies
Projects, Lessons, and Thoughts
Projects and Lessons:
Can we teach an old Doge new tricks?
❖ Using the original Kabosu shiba inu photo, what variation can be created? How far can you photo-manipulate or alter the image
before it’s no longer The Doge Meme? Does the shape matter?
❖ Discussion: What makes The Doge Meme a meme? How can it still be used? Is it updatable? Does SwoleDoge vs Cheems enable
new formats on an old Doge? How does the Doge Meme remain recognizable?
Fragile History: Linguistics, Language, Codification
❖ The word “Doge” overwrote the historical word “Doge” - What other words have done this? Explore etymologies of language to
see where a similar event has occurred. Describe historical situations that enabled this rewriting.
❖ Discussion: What does this have to do with power? How can this be misused (ie propaganda or misinformation)? What is our
responsibility in a world where language fluctuates? How is graphical language making this more possible?
Dogwhistles and Dangers
❖ Images hold far more context and language than words. What images have been repurposed to mean new things? What ways
can we disguise dangerous rhetoric into graphical language? Propaganda is designed to persuade, dogwhistles are meant to
encode multiple meanings in one image.
❖ Discussion: How can we detect dogwhistles in images? Encourage seeking the definition to all the references any meme is
making (safely). Do the multiple meanings cause different audiences to interpret the memes differently?