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Dat Boi
Dat Boi
Dat Boi
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A still frame of the original GIF, created for the Animation Factory before becoming the "Dat Boi" meme

Dat Boi is an Internet meme originating from the clip art website Animation Factory.[1][2] It depicts a frog riding a unicycle. The meme garnered popularity on Tumblr in 2015 before gaining more recognition through Twitter in 2016.[3] It is usually accompanied by a person saying "here come dat boi".

History

[edit]

According to Animation Factory employee Ryan Hagen, the frog GIF used in the meme was created by designer Josh Doohen.[4]

The meme's name originates from an edited news screenshot.[5] The line of text often used in association with the image ("here come dat boi! o shit waddup!") was taken from memes involving "Here Comes Pacman", an animation based on the Pac-Man segment of the Bloodhound Gang song "Mope".[6][1][5] The frog image and its caption were first put together on Facebook, according to Vox.[7] The Verge writer Chris Plante referred to the caption in a June article, stating that the Dat Boi image itself was "not enough" and should be paired with the caption.[8]

In May 2016, the "here come dat boi!" caption came under criticism after various Facebook users claimed to find it an "appropriation of African-American Vernacular English".[9][10] As a result, certain Facebook groups discouraged use of the meme.[11]

Dat Boi was featured in The Guardian's "Month in Memes" article for June 2016.[12] Matt Furie, creator of Pepe the Frog, explained in a June 2016 interview with Comic Book Resources that he was "devastated" to find out that Dat Boi had "begun to overshadow Internet Pepe".[13]

Notable uses

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Dat Boi

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Dat Boi is an internet meme featuring a three-dimensional animated model of a green frog riding a unicycle, derived from stock clip art produced by Animation Factory. The character gained prominence in May 2016 through a Tumblr post that paired the unicycle-riding frog GIF with the caption "here come dat boi!!!!!!," prompting responses of "o shit waddup." This combination exemplified early 2010s "dank" meme aesthetics, emphasizing absurd, low-effort humor and surreal imagery that subverted expectations for comedic effect. The meme proliferated rapidly across platforms including , 's r/me_irl subreddit, and , amassing significant engagement such as a related video exceeding 17 million views and a 400% spike in searches following media coverage. Its cultural footprint included derivative works like crossovers with imagery, political endorsements, and even a short-lived flash game, reflecting the era's enthusiasm for niche, wholesome absurdity before mainstream adoption led to hipster backlash and oversaturation. By 2017, sporadic revivals occurred, such as the "Dat Boi Renaissance" on , underscoring its status as a cult artifact of transient internet virality rather than enduring phenomenon.

Description

Visual and Thematic Elements

The primary visual element of Dat Boi is a low-resolution animated GIF depicting a green frog with gangly limbs, a homely face, and black beady eyes pedaling a unicycle forward. This clip art, created by designer Josh Doohen for the stock graphics site Animation Factory, features a cartoonish style typical of early 2000s digital assets, including visible compression artifacts on the unicycle and a simplistic, endearing yet bizarre frog design. Thematically, Dat Boi embodies surreal and absurd humor, centered on the random, unprompted appearance of the unicycling as a symbol of unexpected intrusion into everyday or contextual scenarios. This draws comedic effect from subverting viewer expectations through the frog's nonchalant confidence juxtaposed against exclamatory reactions like "o shit waddup," creating a form of that thrives on irony and rather than traditional punchlines. The meme's enduring appeal in subcultures stems from its expression of niche enthusiasm via randomness, often repurposed in remixes to convey casual surprise or ironic positivity, reflecting broader trends in visual communication where simplicity amplifies shareability and communal recognition.

Core Phrase and Dialogue

The central phrase of the Dat Boi meme is "Here come dat boi," which announces the arrival of the unicycle-riding character. This exclamation is frequently paired with a responsive line, "O shit waddup," simulating a casual, surprised greeting between the frog and an observer. The phrasing employs intentional grammatical errors and , such as "dat" for "that" and "waddup" for "what's up," to evoke a humorous, informal tone characteristic of early humor. In meme usage, the dialogue often appears as a caption directly beneath the image of the frog, with "Here come dat boi" preceding the visual and "O shit waddup" following it, creating a scripted exchange. Variations may include elongated punctuation, such as "Here come dat boi!!!!!!," to heighten the exclamatory effect, but the core structure remains consistent across instances. This call-and-response facilitated its adaptation into remixes, including musical tracks and animations, where the phrases are voiced or looped for comedic repetition. The simplicity and absurdity of the dialogue contributed to its rapid spread, as it required minimal context for recognition and replication on platforms like and in .

Origins

Clip Art Source

The clip art depicting Dat Boi—a lime-green, anthropomorphic frog riding a unicycle—originates from Animation Factory, a subscription-based platform offering royalty-free 3D animations and illustrations for web, educational, and presentation use. Launched in the late 1990s, Animation Factory maintained a library of over 600,000 assets, including cartoonish 3D models like the "Frog Unicycle" clip, which features simple, low-poly rendering typical of early 2000s digital stock media designed for compatibility with tools such as PowerPoint and early web browsers. This specific asset, available as a looping animation file, predates the 2016 meme by years, serving as generic filler content for whimsical or humorous contexts without any attributed individual creator, as was standard for stock libraries emphasizing volume over authorship. The clip's neutral, non-proprietary nature facilitated its extraction and recirculation online, with users downloading it via Animation Factory's service, which required membership for full access but allowed embedding in public-facing projects. No official metadata specifies the exact upload date to the platform, though archival web patterns indicate such 3D frog models proliferated in stock catalogs around 2000–2010, coinciding with the rise of affordable 3D modeling software like Blender precursors and Clip Art aggregators. Unlike bespoke meme creations, this source material's banality—lacking narrative or branding—contributed to its adaptability, enabling seamless integration into GIFs and edits without legal barriers beyond basic licensing terms, which Animation Factory enforced loosely for non-commercial reuse.

Early Phrase Usage

The phrase "here come dat boi" first emerged on in June 2015, when user phalania posted it as an exclamation preceding an image of the character , prompting responses such as "o shit waddup!" in the accompanying commentary. This initial usage introduced the phrase's playful, anticipatory tone and call-and-response dynamic, detached from any specific visual motif beyond the reference, which drew from earlier internet humor involving the character's chomping animation. By early 2016, the phrase saw limited but notable recirculation on , including a post by user gollypon featuring a satirical "" image of captioned "Here come dat boi!" This instance reinforced the phrase's association with sudden or unexpected arrivals in contexts, though it remained niche and primarily confined to Tumblr's reblog . Such early deployments highlighted the phrase's absurd, phonetic slang rooted in informal English variations like influences, but without broader viral traction until later visual pairings. These pre-2016 uses established "dat boi" as a colloquial for "that boy," evoking surprise or greeting, often in low-stakes, humorous scenarios, setting the stage for its eventual fusion with imagery. The phrase's simplicity and exclamatory style facilitated organic spread among online communities favoring ironic or "dank" content, predating its iconic linkage to the unicycling frog by nearly a year.

Popularization

Initial Online Spread

The Dat Boi meme's initial online spread commenced on April 3, 2016, with a post on the page "Fresh Memes About the and Other Delectable Cuisines," featuring the -riding image paired with the caption "here come dat boi!!!!!! o shit waddup!". This combination of the Animation Factory clipart and the pre-existing represented the meme's formative iteration, originating within a niche meme-sharing community. On April 26, 2016, Tumblr user "browsedankmemes" shared a low-resolution version of the image captioned "Here comes dat boi," amplifying its reach among 's meme enthusiasts and prompting reposts across the platform. The meme's dissemination accelerated in late April and May 2016, transitioning to where users incorporated it into threads and reactions, leveraging its concise absurdity for humorous announcements or greetings. By late May 2016, the meme had garnered enough momentum for explanatory coverage in digital media, with outlets noting its rapid proliferation from obscure social media posts to widespread recognition. This early phase highlighted the role of cross-platform sharing in meme virality, driven by the image's visual simplicity and the phrase's phonetic playfulness.

Peak Virality in 2016

The Dat Boi meme achieved its peak virality during April through June 2016, transitioning from niche online communities to broader internet recognition via social media platforms including Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook. On April 3, 2016, the Facebook page Fresh Memes posted an image of the unicycle-riding frog, which marked the beginning of its explosive spread as users began associating it with the phrase "here come dat boi." This post contributed to the meme's momentum, leading to subsequent adaptations on Tumblr, such as a multi-pane comic shared by the blog Browse Dank Memes on April 23, 2016, and a compressed version of the frog image on April 26, 2016. By early May 2016, the meme's reach expanded significantly through content. On May 3, 2016, ZimoNitrome uploaded a video titled "dat boi!!!!" featuring the phrase set to music, which amassed over 8 million views by June 2017. The following day, May 4, 2016, Twitter user @MrMagDude shared an image claiming the frog appeared in an textbook, garnering 11,000 retweets and 16,000 likes. These viral moments amplified engagement, with the dedicated page "It's Dat Boi" surpassing 100,000 likes during this period. Mainstream media coverage further solidified Dat Boi's status in June 2016, highlighting its rapid ascent to ubiquity. Publications such as New York magazine on May 12, 2016, described it as "the year's best meme so far," emphasizing its enigmatic appeal. Vox followed on May 27, 2016, analyzing its cultural resonance, while The Guardian noted on June 8, 2016, its "rapid rise to internet ubiquity in recent weeks." This confluence of user-generated content and press attention underscored the meme's transient dominance in online humor during mid-2016.

Variations and Applications

Digital Remixes and Animations

Digital remixes of Dat Boi emerged rapidly following its initial viral spread in May 2016, often combining the meme's core phrase with electronic music genres and animated visuals of the green frog on a unicycle. One early example is the trap remix video "DAT_BOI.mov" uploaded by Dj CUTMAN on May 8, 2016, which features flashing colors, multiple frog instances, and epilepsy warnings due to rapid visual effects. Similarly, producer VANTAGE released an extended version of "Dat Boi" on SoundCloud on May 14, 2016, alongside a vaporwave edition on May 11, 2016, adapting the meme's audio for lo-fi and synthwave aesthetics. Animated GIFs constituted a primary form of digital , circulating widely on platforms like and , where users looped the frog's motion with overlaid text such as "here come dat boi" to emphasize surprise appearances. These GIFs, often sourced from the original 3D , were edited into fan videos integrating Dat Boi into diverse contexts, including footage like simulations uploaded on July 22, 2016. A notable adaptation, "HERE COME DAT BOI.mov" by Run For Cover Records, was posted on May 13, 2016, syncing the phrase to beats with animated frog elements. Later animations extended the meme's longevity, such as a self-described "animation meme" video uploaded on August 5, 2021, incorporating into custom character designs and motion sequences. remixes, like one from May 16, 2016, accelerated the audio while retaining unicycle frog visuals for heightened absurdity. These remixes and underscored Dat Boi's adaptability, transforming static clip art into dynamic, shareable content that proliferated across , , and .

Cross-Media Appearances

Dat Boi has seen limited but notable references in brand marketing during its 2016 viral surge. of America incorporated the meme into a poll on May 6, 2016, pitting the character against Slippy Toad from with the prompt "Fav for Slippy, RT for dat boi," engaging fans in a lighthearted comparison that highlighted the meme's cultural penetration. Restaurant chain leveraged Dat Boi for social media posts on and around the same period, creating content around the unicycling frog that garnered significant engagement and exemplified brands' adoption of internet s for audience interaction. The meme's image appeared in the 2016 textbook AP Physics 1 Essentials on page 179, used potentially as a humorous or illustrative element amid physics explanations, as documented in contemporaneous online discussions.

Reception

Achievements and Appeal

Dat Boi achieved rapid virality in mid-2016, exemplified by a Tumblr post combining the unicycling frog GIF with the caption "Here come dat boi" that amassed over 75,000 notes. Associated YouTube remixes and videos garnered millions of views, with one early upload reaching 17 million by later reporting. Google search interest for the meme spiked by over 400% within three days in May 2016, reflecting its swift dominance across platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr. The meme's appeal lay in its absurd simplicity: a clip-art frog on a unicycle accompanied by the exclamation "o shit waddup," offering a random, low-effort expression of surprise or enthusiasm that bypassed traditional narrative humor. This nonsensical pairing resonated with internet users valuing visual, memetic communication over verbal explanation, particularly among younger demographics immersed in "dank" meme subcultures. Its versatility facilitated endless remixes, including photoshopped insertions into images of political figures like Bernie Sanders or extraterrestrial landscapes, amplifying shareability and community engagement. As a cultural marker, Dat Boi embodied the essence of meme proliferation, functioning as an "empty signifier" where humor emerged from collective recognition and in-group signaling rather than standalone wit, cementing its status as a touchstone for online absurdity. This insider-driven appeal propelled it to ubiquity, with adaptations like multiple-choice memes ("yes/no/o shit waddup") serving as tests for meme-savvy audiences.

Criticisms of Quality and Overuse

Some observers have critiqued Dat Boi for its perceived lack of intrinsic humor and reliance on rather than or depth. A June 8, 2016, in noted that "there is little about Dat Boi that is intrinsically funny," attributing any appeal to viewers' personal context and familiarity with conventions rather than the meme's content itself. Similarly, a July 11, 2016, blog post described the meme as "objectively speaking, total garbage," framing its low-production-value origins and simplistic phrasing as emblematic of "dank" , which prioritize ironic detachment over craftsmanship. Critics on platforms like have argued that the meme's format lacks a substantive , rendering it unremarkable beyond initial novelty; one June 2, 2016, discussion contended it qualifies as "typical nonsense" without creative repurposing to sustain value. By late 2019, detractors labeled it "the worst of the decade, and probably of all time," citing repetitive deployments that eroded its charm. Regarding overuse, Dat Boi's rapid proliferation in led to saturation across , contributing to its designation as a "dead " by the late , with forums noting that incessant variations distorted its original intent and induced fatigue among users. A 2025 retrospective video highlighted how aggressive remixing and "killed" the through overexposure, underscoring how viral peaks often precipitate backlash against ubiquity in spaces.

Controversies

Cultural Appropriation Claims

In May 2016, members of the private group Post Aesthetics—a community of approximately 40,000 users, many affiliated with elite universities—raised objections to the "Dat Boi" , alleging it appropriated elements of (AAVE). Specifically, critics contended that the caption "here come dat boi," paired with the unicycle-riding frog image, derived its humor from mimicking Black speech patterns, such as the of "that" to "dat," without cultural or credit, thereby commodifying and subtly deriding AAVE in predominantly white online spaces. These users, including Black members and people of color, viewed the as emblematic of broader patterns where non-Black creators repurpose minority vernaculars for ironic or absurd effect, stripping them of origin while profiting from virality. The controversy escalated within the group, sparking heated debates that divided participants: defenders argued the phrase represented neutral , not racial mimicry, emphasizing the meme's focus on the surreal imagery over . Opponents countered that such dismissals ignored power dynamics in culture, where AAVE features are frequently adopted by majority groups for novelty without reciprocity or acknowledgment of historical marginalization. This internal rift contributed to the group's fragmentation, with leveled against both the meme's proponents and its detractors, ultimately hastening Post Aesthetics' decline. Media reports on the dispute, primarily from outlets like ATTN: and Inverse, highlighted it as a microcosm of tensions between meme appreciation and sensitivity to linguistic origins, though coverage was limited and often reflected the progressive biases of the reporting platforms, which tend to amplify identity-based critiques over empirical scrutiny of slang diffusion in digital environments. The claims did not gain traction beyond niche forums, failing to derail the meme's rapid spread on platforms like and , where the caption originated from user phalania on , 2016, without evident ties to AAVE advocacy. Subsequent analyses noted the debate's role in exposing fault lines in "dank" meme subcultures but found little evidence of intentional mockery, attributing the phrasing to casual, dialect-neutral ebonics-like stylization common in 2010s humor.

Counterarguments and Broader Context

Critics of the meme, particularly within certain online communities like the group Post Aesthetics, contended that its caption "here come dat boi" appropriated and subtly mocked (AAVE) by non-Black users employing phonetic spellings of slang terms. These objections, emerging in May 2016, led to internal debates and calls to ban the meme from meme-sharing spaces, framing it as an example of cultural insensitivity in predominantly white internet subcultures. Counterarguments emphasized the meme's origins in stock from Animation Factory, predating its viral caption, and its appeal rooted in visual —a lime-green unicycling into frame—rather than linguistic for derogatory purposes. Defenders in meme communities noted that the phrasing "dat boi" and "o shit waddup" functioned as playful, exaggerated exclamations common in informal English, evolving spontaneously without evidence of targeted racial , and that such risked overinterpreting harmless as malice. The controversy remained niche, failing to halt the meme's rapid dissemination across platforms like and , where it amassed millions of views by late May , suggesting limited broader resonance for the appropriation narrative. In broader context, the Dat Boi episode illustrates tensions in 's "dank meme" ecosystem, where ironic detachment and non-sequitur humor prioritized over semantic depth, often borrowing from diverse vernaculars without cultural gatekeeping. This era's s, including Dat Boi, thrived on user-generated in closed groups before mainstream spillover, highlighting how subjective offense claims in echo-chamber forums could amplify minor linguistic gripes into perceived scandals, yet empirical virality data—such as exponential shares post-May 18, , origin—demonstrated audience embrace of its apolitical whimsy over activist reinterpretations. Such dynamics underscore s' causal roots in collective playfulness, not orchestrated borrowing, with appropriation accusations often reflecting participants' priors more than the content's neutral mechanics.

Legacy

Enduring Influence

Dat Boi's enduring influence manifests in its recurrent appearances within internet subcultures and creative remixes, even nearly a decade after its viral peak. The meme's simplistic absurdity—a unicycling accompanied by the phrase "here come dat boi! o shit waddup!"—has inspired ongoing animations, musical parodies, and high-quality rips on channels like , where it functions as a staple motif in game soundtrack alterations. This adaptability has sustained its presence in niche communities dedicated to preservation and ironic content creation. Academic discourse further evidences its lasting impact, with researchers employing Dat Boi as a for dissecting deadpan humor and meme propagation. A 2021 analysis in New Media & Society highlights how the meme's comedic value derives not from inherent narrative but from viewers' predisposed recognition of its ridiculousness, underscoring its role in broader theories of digital comedy. Similarly, examinations of memes' social effects reference it as emblematic of informal, community-driven greetings that foster shared . Retrospectives as recent as April 2025 affirm Dat Boi's iconic status, with media outlets documenting its historical dominance and symbolic "death" in meme evolution narratives, reflecting persistent cultural nostalgia and debate over meme longevity.

Recent Developments

In 2024, social media users highlighted the meme's origins tracing to around 2014, marking roughly a decade since its clip art foundation, with discussions on platforms emphasizing its enduring niche appeal despite being considered a "dead meme." A lighthearted reference to Dat Boi appeared in League of Legends' 2024 Halloween event, where developers named an element after the meme to evoke its whimsical tone, integrating it into gaming culture. In April 2025, The Daily Dot featured Dat Boi in its "Meme History" series, analyzing its rapid 2016 rise to dominance in online humor through simple, absurd visuals and captions like "o shit waddup." A companion YouTube video from the same period examined the meme's lifecycle, framing its decline as a natural evolution rather than a failure, while affirming its status as an iconic early internet phenomenon. By July 2025, commentary on AI's influence in meme creation referenced Dat Boi to illustrate how algorithmic enhancements to visuals and audio could revive low-fi formats, though no major new viral iterations emerged.

References

  1. https://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/meme-history-dat-boi/
  2. https://www.vox.com/2016/5/27/11789968/dat-boi-o-shit-waddup
  3. https://blog.clipart.com/dat-boi-from-animation-factory-is-everywhere/
  4. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/05/dat-boi-frog-unicycle-3d-animation.html
  5. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jun/08/the-month-in-memes-viral-comedy-june-2016
  6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341738736_Just_a_Joke_The_Social_Impact_of_Internet_Memes
  7. https://siivagunner.fandom.com/wiki/Dat_Boi
  8. https://incomplet-design-history.simplecast.com/episodes/clip-art-4VFLE8f5
  9. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dat-boi
  10. https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/boi/
  11. https://meme.fandom.com/wiki/Here_Comes_Pac-Man
  12. https://northwesternbusinessreview.org/here-come-dat-boi-the-new-dank-meme-thats-taking-over-the-internet-603eac3ee367
  13. https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1112704-dat-boi
  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqISbInXq-Q
  15. https://soundcloud.com/vantagenoise/dat-boi-extended
  16. https://soundcloud.com/vantagenoise/dat-boi-vaporwave-edition
  17. https://tenor.com/search/dat-boi-gifs
  18. https://giphy.com/explore/frog-unicycle
  19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQnbXddzvq0
  20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJAOawGFxxo
  21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da4Cf7yn_lY
  22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWkD_ifU8Hw
  23. https://www.tiktok.com/discover/dat-boi-dat-boi
  24. https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/731170778276712448
  25. https://adage.com/article/digital/marketer-mvps-social-media/304097/
  26. https://williamshawwriter.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/o-shit-waddup-a-critical-analysis-of-dat-boi/
  27. https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/4m7059/cmv_dat_boi_is_a_classic_meme/
  28. https://twitter.com/IntroSpecktive/status/1205123979364753410
  29. https://supermarioglitchy4.fandom.com/wiki/Dat_Boi
  30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMS7IBS4qB8
  31. https://www.attn.com/stories/8700/frog-meme-dat-boi-causing-major-controversy
  32. https://www.inverse.com/article/16209-dat-boi-might-be-racist-and-it-s-ruining-a-facebook-group-for-dank-memes
  33. https://www.theawl.com/2016/07/post-aesthetics-and-the-memetic-marxists/
  34. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211054011
  35. https://www.reddit.com/r/LeagueOfMemes/comments/1fyieg4/unfun_fact_dat_boi_meme_is_2014_10_years_old/
  36. https://reelmind.ai/blog/dat-boi-background-music-ai-for-meme-culture
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