Colonel Toad

Confirmed 52,460

Part of a series on Frogs. [View Related Entries]

About

Colonel Toad, also known as Sir Toad, refers to a painting of a toad in gentleman's clothing that is used as an exploitable in image macros. The image was first uploaded online to an Etsy store that was selling the print in 2011. It was shared to Pinterest shortly after. The image was first used in a meme on Facebook and Instagram in 2017 but received more attention starting in 2020 on Twitter and Reddit. The image has also become associated with It's Wednesday My Dudes.

Origin

In 2011, an Etsy store named paintingbrooklyn began selling the image as a high-quality, shippable print under the name "Colonel Toad." Although paintingbrooklyn's store is no longer active on Etsy, the image of "Colonel Toad" was shared to Pinterest^[1] on August 1st, 2011, by user Carla Stey where it can still be accessed. The image (shown below) received 6 comments over 10 years.

The image was first used as an exploitable in a meme in 2017 on both Instagram and Facebook. The meme was made by Facebook^[2] page Viva La Frog Memes, however, it can be accessed on their Instagram^[3] page, posted on October 6th, 2017. The meme (shown below) received 61 likes over the course of four years and it references lyrics from Man's Not Hot which was made in August 2017.

Spread

Colonel Toad didn't see much usage in memes until the image resurfaced on Twitter in May 2020. Twitter^[4] user @ChappellTracker posted the image of Colonel Toad on May 19th, 2020, pairing him with another handsome-amphibian painting, captioning them "guess what it's 𝕔𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕫𝕖𝕕 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕘 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖." The tweet (shown below) received roughly 125,600 likes over the course of roughly a year and a half.

On August 23rd, 2020, Twitter^[5] user @roobeekeane used Colonel Toad in a tweet, captioning the image, "when the Zoom call ends and I am left with my thoughts." The tweet (shown below, left) received roughly 184,700 likes over the course of a year and a half. Colonel Toad and the tweet's caption was then turned into an Impact font meme posted to Reddit^[6] on August 24th, 2020. The meme (shown below, right) received roughly 730 upvotes over the course of a year and a half.

On January 13th, 2021, Redditor^[7] yayo123452 posted a Colonel Toad meme to r/memes which subsequently added a new frog image to the "It's Wednesday My Dudes" lore. The meme (shown below) received roughly 32,600 upvotes over the course of 10 months.

The "It's Wednesday My Dudes" version of the meme received variations^[8] going into the rest of 2021. Meme creators mostly remixed the "It's Wednesday My Dudes" version of the meme by keeping the top caption reading, "Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I inform you that," and replacing the bottom caption with something to inform the viewer. For instance, on September 26th, 2021, Redditor^[9] Ac3_HUNT3r used the template to inform people that "today is my birthday." The meme received roughly 18,200 upvotes over one month (shown below, top left).