Dat Boi is an Internet meme originating from an "Animation Factory" animation of a unicycling Poison Dart Frog. The meme garnered popularity on Tumblr in 2015 before gaining more recognition through Twitter in 2016.
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History
According to Animation Factory employee Ryan Hagen, the frog GIF used in the meme was created by designer Josh Doohen. Before becoming an Internet meme, the image was used in AP Physics 1 Essentials, a textbook published in 2013.
The meme's name originates from an edited news screenshot and the line of text often used in association with the image ("here come dat boi! o shit waddup!") was taken from a different meme featuring a computer-animated Pac-Man character. The frog image and its caption were first put together on Facebook, according to Vox.
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." As a result, certain Facebook groups discouraged use of the meme. The Verge writer Chris Plante referred to the caption in a June article, stating that the Dat Boi image itself was "not enough" and that "it must say something."
Dat Boi was featured in The Guardian's "Month in Memes" article for June 2016. Mat 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."