In the realm of social media, where memes and trends come and go quickly, some manage to stick around. 'Doge,' for example, is one of the most famous canine memes on the internet. The Shiba Inu puppy who inspired a Shiba Inu meme and a cryptocurrency has turned 16 years old!
A meme is a type of cultural communication that spreads ideas, symbols, styles, and other cultural elements from one person to another. The term has been around since 1976, but it has only lately resurfaced to define viral internet memes — those amusing words, images, and symbols that are repeated again and over and spread quickly throughout the internet. The doge meme got so famous that the term "doge" was coined to describe any dog that resembled the meme's star, a Japanese Shiba named Kabosu.
Atsuko Sato, a blogger and teacher, adopted Kabosu in 2008. The Shiba, a Japanese medium-sized dog breed, comes in a variety of hues, ranging from blackish sesame to white cream, although the doge (and Kabosu) are invariably tan or red. Surprisingly, the doge meme has yet to get widespread in Japan, despite the fact that Atsuko and Kabosu are the owners of one of the country's most popular pet-related blogs. Atsuko, on the other hand, is aware of them and finds the memes humorous.
Kabosu initially surfaced on the internet in 2010, thanks to her owner Atsuko's blog post. The image showed a reclining Kabosu with an un-doglike expression looking at her master. This led Shiba Confessions, a Tumblr blog, to republish the image, this time with the Comic Sans overlay that would become the doge's signature. These variations and various faces are known as the Doge meme template.
Kabosu, a popular Japanese meme that has fans including Elon Musk, honored the big day with a little party. Photos of the beautiful pooch wearing a party hat and smiling for the cameras have gone viral.
Kabosu, a rescue dog that was acquired in 2008, shot to celebrity in 2010 when she was 5 years old and her owner performed an impromptu photoshoot to capture her juvenile antics. The canine lives with its paw-parents and feline brother, going on regular travels and setting travel and style goals for the rest of the world.
In less than a day, the post received over 80K likes, with many fans wishing Kabosu a happy birthday and wishing her good health.
When the original image was put up for a Nonfungible token or NFT earlier this year, the owner stated on Instagram, "Never in a million years would I have envisioned the impact that my photoshoot of Kabosu would have on the internet." "It's a moment that's evolved and taken on a life of its own over the previous decade — being shared millions of times and establishing a whole community around the Doge meme," the article said, adding that the photographs were placed up for charity auction.
PleasrDAO, the auction winner, placed a bid of 1,696.9 of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, worth nearly $4 million, according to the auction site Zora, and it went on to become the most expensive meme NFT of all time.
"We're ecstatic to be a part of this momentous day in the history of the internet." Doge, more than any other meme, deserves to be the new meme NFT record holder." At the time, Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of the online meme database 'Know Your Meme,' remarked. The meme had been validated by the database prior to the auction to confirm that it was being sold by its legitimate owner.
After being broken into 17 billion pieces in September, the value of the Doge meme NFT skyrocketed from $4 million to $220 million overnight. According to PleasrDAO, selling the Doge meme NFT is similar to the Louvre auctioning off stakes allowing the general public to buy a portion of the Mona Lisa, as reported by Business Insider.
