Doge first burst onto the meme scene in 2013, when a silly photo of a dog called Kabosu that had been taken a couple of years prior became the face of countless memes. They seemed to exist for no other reason than that people just liked looking at her, along with the occasional photo of another Shiba Inu if people wanted to switch it up a bit.
Soon enough, Doge started to become the 2010s' canine answer to LOLcats, distinctive dialect included. Some would argue that it is even more iconic, with that skeptical-looking dog being just as recognizable as other famous meme characters of the era, such as Wojak or Pepe the Frog. We were truly amaze by the much humor and very cuteness that kept presenting itself on our screens. Even today, it is possible to come across recently made memes that make a Shiba Inu the main character purely because of the influence of Doge.
Naturally, a meme that is an all-time classic like this has lived on due to its spinoffs. There are a whole cast of Doge characters out there, like the eternally goofy Cheems or the Swole Doge, whose powerful muscles are frequently used to highlight Cheems' puny ones. There are entire books' worth of Dogelore created by Doge enthusiasts, and it has inspired a cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, which remains active today. Elon Musk even infamously tried to stop the meme from being funny by naming his cost-cutting government department after them.