Dust Storm Dog

Submission 33,839

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

About

Dust Storm Dog is an object-labeling series featuring an image edit of a dog's head overlaid the front of a dust storm in Phoenix, Arizona. Online, people add details from a variety of subjects to express an opinion on that subject.

Origin

On August 2nd, 2018, helicopter photographer Jerry Ferguson tweeted ^[1] an aerial photograph of a dust storm approaching Phoenix, Arizona (shown below, left). That day, Twitter^[2] user @chopperguyt tweeted an edited variation of the image. The post received more than 10,000 likes and 5,200 retweets in less than two years (shown below, right). The following day, Redditor ^[3] ggfergu posted the image on /r/pics, receiving more than 45,000 points (93% upvoted) and 1,100 comments in less than two years.

The following year, on November 4th, 2019, Instagram ^[10] user @robinlopvet shared the image with the dog's head added to the front of the storm. They wrote, "haboub doggo" The post received more than 710 likes in less than five months (shown below).

Spread

On December 4th, 2019, Facebook ^[4] user DavidHartman16WAPT shared the image. They wrote, "My viewers crack me up. This was sent to me. A haboob with a corgi in it. A haboob is a type of intense dust storm carried by strong winds also known as a weather front. Haboobs occur regularly in dryland area regions throughout the world. IE southwestern U.S." The post received more than 140 reactions in less than two months (shown below).

Later that month, the image appeared on the Facebook^[6] group GayDogAgainstTerrorism, receiving more than 650 reaction and 100 shares, and Reddit,^[7] where it received more than 1,400 points (96% upvoted) in less than three months.

Two days later, on December 30th, Redditor^[5] user Cassandra_Nova shared the earliest known object-labeled variation of the meme. The dog is labeled "The U.S. Army spraying poison to see where it lands" and the city is labeled "Mostly-black neighborhoods in St. Louis in the '50s." The tweet received more than 1,300 likes in less than two years (shown below, left).

Weeks later, on January 28th, 2020, Twitter^[8] user @quenblackwell shared an object-labeled variation of the meme to feature the words Party Rock Anthem-LMFAO and the words "society in 2011" over the city. The post received more than 199,000 likes and 37,000 retweets in less than one month (shown below, center).

On February 15th, Redditor^[9] maximusgibus posted a variation with the words "Gangnam Style". The post received more than 132,000 points (95% upvoted) and 885 comments in less than one week (shown below, right).

Storm Husky / Mike Wazowski Variants

On November 2nd, 2020, Zereon posted a photoshopped version of the Dust Storm Dog image with a second image underneath to /r/singapore,^[11] titled "Took a stab at making a meme template from the storm clouds photo" (shown below). The lower image depicts an image of a storm over Singapore, which was posted to the same subreddit that day,^[12] making it appear as if a husky's head is sticking out of it. The post gained over 1,700 upvotes and 10 Reddit awards in 22 days.

Labeled versions of the image began popping up on Reddit on November 21st. On that day, Redditor dragoion000 posted a labeled image macro using Zereon's image to /r/memes,^[13] garnering over 77,500 upvotes and 120 Reddit awards (shown below, left). On the same day, DarkGamer1507 posted a variant to /r/dankmemes,^[14] garnering over 111,000 upvotes and over 300 Reddit awards (shown below, right).

On November 23rd, another variation began circulating on /r/dankmemes and /r/memes with a third panel on the bottom featuring the Mike Wazowski-Sulley Face Swap image photoshopped between an orange and a gray cloud, representing each storm dog. On that day, idea4granted posted a variation of the format to /r/dankmemes^[15] garnering over 82,000 upvotes and 80 Reddit awards in a day (shown below, left). Redditor agabcharif uploaded one to /r/memes^[16] the same day, garnering over 11,000 upvotes in the same span of time. A template was uploaded to /r/memeeconomy on the same day.^[17]