Dab Me Up Emoji

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About

Dab Me Up Emoji, or Dap Me Up Emoji, refers to an image of a custom-drawn emoji with a golden tooth smiling and holding up one hand as if he's about to dab someone up, accompanied by text reading, "dab me up." The image quickly became a popular reaction image on Twitter and resulted in a number of notable videos and photoshops, including multiple variants of related emojis: notably, one about to dab up the original and another featuring the two dabbing each other up. The emote originates from the mobile game Mafia City.

Origin

Mafia City "Stronger Than You" Emote

The "Dab Me Up Emoji" originates as an emote from the mobile game Mafia City and was drawn by their art team, where it is known as the "Stronger Than You" emote, used to taunt other players via the in-game chat (shown below). A wiki page was created for the emote on the Mafia City Wiki^[16] in January 2019.

On January 7th, 2019, ME.ME^[17] collected an image macro featuring a screenshot of the emote being used in the Mafia City chat (shown below).

On January 27th, 2020, Redditor u/richmrandom posted an image to /r/comedyheaven^[18] featuring the emote with the words "imaging vaccinating your children" in response to an anti-vax Facebook page, garnering over 63,000 upvotes in a year (shown below).

"Dab Me Up"

The emote soon started being shared around Discord as a reaction. On January 25th, 2021, Twitter^[1] user @DoubleJTheG posted a grainy image of the emote with an added hand, holding it up as if about to dap someone, with the text underneath reading, "Dab me up" (shown below). It is unknown who first added the hand.

On the same day, YouTuber^[12] DoubleJTheG, the owner of the Twitter account, posted a video in which they spam the Dab Me Up emoji in an Instagram group chat until they're kicked out, garnering over 91,000 views in three months (shown below).

According to Urban Dictionary,^[2] "dab me up" means, "a sweet handshake, grab up and then pull out with a slide snap."

Spread

On January 29th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @SchleepySSBU posted the Dab Me Up emoji under a tweet. Later that day, Twitter^[4] user @FUNDIESplatinum responded with a mirrored version of the image with text reading, "I gotchu fam" as if about to dab the emoji back (shown below, left).

On the same day, Twitter^[5] user @ItsAxel_meme then uploaded an image photoshopping two Dab Me Up emojis onto the Behind the Reddit-Driven Stock Market Frenzy Newscast format, garnering over 3,400 likes and 100 retweets in three months (shown below, right).

On January 30th, Twitter^[6] user @goodkiddropout responded to a comment by @ItsAxel_meme on the thread offering the original meme with a new mirrored photoshop of the image, this time with the text "ight" (shown below).

Twitter users continued to use the emoji over the next few months, often receiving replies with mirrored, edited emojis in response to the dab. On January 31st, YouTuber^[7] Benson uploaded a video titled "DAB ME UP," showing the emojis dabbing each other up, which garnered over 22,000 views in roughly two months (shown below).

On March 8th, Twitter^[9] user @SweatyGamer9 responded to the original dab me up emoji post with an original image showing two of the emojis dabbing each other up (shown below, left). On March 9th, Twitter^[10] user @reactjpg then posted a series of the emojis, with another original photoshop of the two dabbing each other, garnering over 170 likes and 20 retweets in four days (shown below, right).

On the same day, iFunny^[11] user SaintlyGhost78 uploaded a meme featuring the emoji, garnering over 11,600 smiles in four days (shown below).

On March 22nd, Twitter^[8] user @SMcducc posted, "I wanted an HD Dab me up so I made one" along with two HD versions of the meme, although missing a golden tooth. The next day she added the golden tooth and shared it in a comment under the original tweet (shown below).

On March 23rd, Twitter^[15] user @thecreator_wav posted a new photoshop of the emoji replacing the "dab me up" text with "*grabs your balls*" garnering over 4,700 likes and 360 retweets in under a month (shown below).

On April 13th, Twomad replied to a parody CallMeCarson account's Twitter^[13] comment with the Dab Me Up emoji, garnering over 2,800 likes in 17 hours. On the same day, Redditor u/Jerson81777 posted a screenshot to /r/blursedimages^[14] showing an exchange of Dab Me Up emojis resulting in two emojis kissing, garnering over 15,000 upvotes in 11 hours (shown below).

On April 15th, DoubleJTheG uploaded another "Dab me up" video to YouTube, garnering over 975,000 views in a month (shown below).