I used the doge meme for years.
I laughed at it, captioned it, dropped it into group chats like punctuation.
And I never knew her name. 😭
Her name was Kabosu.
She was a Shiba Inu from Japan.
And she passed away in May 2024. 💔
That hit harder than expected.
The Face We All Recognized
You know the photo.
Tilted head. Round eyes. Slight side-eye.
It’s the face of “I’m fine” when you’re clearly not.
It’s the face of “much wow,” “so scare,” “very tired,” and every other chaotic Comic Sans caption we’ve ever thrown at our feelings.
Kabosu wasn’t trying to be iconic. She just was.
Her human, Atsuko Sato, posted the photo in 2010.
The internet saw it.
And did what it does best.. turned it into a language.
How Gen Z Made It Personal
Doge didn’t fade.
Gen Z didn’t just inherit the meme.. we possessed it.
We used it to say things we couldn’t say out loud.
We turned it into sarcasm, into existential dread, into a way to laugh at the mess.
Doge became the emoji before emojis got complicated.
She was the reaction image for everything:
- When someone asked if you had a five-year plan.
- When you opened your bank app.
- When you saw your own reflection at 3 a.m.
She was us. And we didn’t even know her name.
The Crypto Curveball
Then came Dogecoin.
A joke cryptocurrency launched in 2013, using Kabosu’s face as its logo.
It was never meant to be serious.
But it became real.
People bought it. Elon Musk tweeted about it.
Suddenly, the meme dog was influencing markets.
It was surreal.
And very on-brand for the internet.
Dogecoin became a symbol of chaos, hope, and impulsive optimism.
And Kabosu, without knowing it became part of financial history.
Why Doge Still Works
Doge isn’t just funny. It’s kinda way of express the emotional.
She captures the internet’s ability to turn randomness into resonance.
She’s proof that one image can become a shared language.
And in a world of curated feeds and algorithmic perfection, her raw absurdity feels like a relief.
Doge is the meme equivalent of “I’m not okay, but I’m laughing anyway.”
And that’s very Gen Z.
Kabosu’s Final Bow
Kabosu passed away peacefully at 18.
Her human shared the news with grace, thanking fans around the world.
And suddenly, the internet paused.
Because even if we didn’t know her name, we knew her face.
We used it. We laughed with it.
We built culture around it.
And now, we remember her, not just as a meme, but as a symbol of everything weird, wonderful, and wildly emotional about growing up online.
FAQ Section
1. What does Doge mean?
“Doge” is a deliberately misspelled version of “dog,” used to describe the Shiba Inu meme that features internal monologue-style captions like “much wow” and “so scare.” It became a way to express chaotic emotions with humor and simplicity.
2. When was the Doge meme created?
The original photo of Kabosu the Shiba Inu behind Doge was posted in 2010. The meme format took off around 2013, when people began adding Comic Sans captions and turning her side-eye into a full-blown internet personality.
3. Is the Doge dog still alive?
No. Kabosu passed away peacefully in May 2024 at the age of 18. Her legacy lives on through memes, tributes, and the internet culture she helped shape.
4. How did Dogecoin start?
Dogecoin was launched in December 2013 as a joke cryptocurrency, using Kabosu’s face as its logo. It was meant to parody Bitcoin but ended up gaining real traction, especially after celebrity endorsements and viral tweets. It’s now part of meme history and crypto chaos.
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