Chihuahua in Hat Balancing on Four Loko Cans

Submission 9,317

About

Chihuahua in Hat Balancing on Four Loko Cans is an image macro series featuring a photograph of a small white chihuahua dog wearing a hat with each of its paws on a respective can of Four Loko alcoholic energy drink. The image has been used in a number of object labeling expressing the instability and precariousness of a situation.

Origin

On August 26th, 2018, Redditor ^[1] LuisParamo posted the earliest known version of the photograph in the /r/hmmm. The post received more than 580 points (98% upvoted) in less than two years (shown below).

Spread

Over the next few months, the image continued to spread around the internet. On October 29th, 2018, Twitter ^[2] user @feelingfrisky shared the image with the dog labeled "the avatar" and the cans labeled "fire," "air," "water" and "earth." The post received more than 1,700 likes and 465 retweets in less than two years (shown below, left).

Days later, Twitter^[3] user @stubasceve published a Halloween costume based on the dog (shown below, center). They captioned the post, "It’s ok that no one guessed my costume for the second year in a row." Within two years, the post received more than 475,000 likes and 103,000 retweets.

On December 14th, 2018, Redditor^[4] scientistthrowaway23 shared the image on the /r/dankmemes subreddit. They labeled the chihuahua "my mental health" and the cans "anime," "chocolate pudding," "my mum calling me handsome" and "memes." The format would become the dominant one for the image.

The following year, Twitter^[5] user @violetlovechild shared the image with the caption "walk a mile in these louboutins." The post received more than 60,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in less than one year (shown below).