If a Dog Wore Pants

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About

If a Dog Wore Pants is an illustration of a dog wearing pants on all four legs juxtaposed with the same dog wearing pants on his hind quarters, asking viewers which style would be correct. The image was widely circulated across a variety of social media platforms in late December 2015.

Origin

On December 28th, 2015, the Utopian Raspberry – Modern Oasis Machine Facebook^[1] page posted two illustrations of a dog wearing pants with the caption "If a dog wore pants would he wear them like this or like this?" (shown below). Within 48 hours, the post gained over 4,800 shares, 1,500 likes and 400 comments.

Spread

That evening, Jared Keller, deputy editor of the men's interest publication Maxim, posted the image on Twitter.^[6] In two days, the tweet garnered more than 35,900 likes and 31,000 retweets. That evening, Keller revealed that 81% of Twitter responses voted that the dog should wear the pants on two legs (shown below).^[7]

The following day, Redditor boobsareforever reposted the image to the /r/funny^[2] subreddit, where it received upwards of 5,300 votes (94% upvoted) and 1,800 comments in the first 24 hours. Also on December 29th, Redditor flooid submitted an edited version of the image titled "If a man wore pants," featuring a human substituted for the dog in the illustration (shown below). In less 24 hours, the post gained over 4,000 votes (82% upvoted) and 900 comments on /r/funny.^[8] In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the meme, including the Washington Post,^[3] Business Insider^[4] and the IBI Times.^[5]

If Pants Wore Pants

On April 5th, 2017, Twitter user @bobby^[9] revived the debate by asking "If pants wore pants, would they wear them like this, or like this?" His tweet, shown below, gained over 3,000 retweets.

His tweet generated dozens of responses as people argued over the proper way pants would wear pants. The tweets made Twitter Moments^[10] and Mashable^[11] that day.

If a Snake Wields a Knife

On June 8th, 2018, Tumblr^[12] user Marjahh posted an illustration of a snake from the visual novel The Arcana holding a knife in its mouth next to the same snake holding the knife at the base of its tail, captioned with the question "If a snake wields a knife would she hold them like this or like this?" (shown below). Over the next 10 days, the post garnered upwards of 92,100 notes.

On July 9th, Twitter user @ChappellTracker^[13] tweeted the image along with the message "Finally found a reasonable question." Within one week, the tweet gained over 63,600 likes and 23,900 retweets. In response to the tweet, several Twitter users posted edited variations of the snake illustration (shown below, left, middle). On July 13th, Redditor Meowyye submitted another edit of the image to /r/animemes,^[14] where it gained over 2,200 points (99% upvoted) and 60 comments within 72 hours.

If Bulbasaur Wore a Hat

On January 4th, 2019, Twitter user @sidekicketra posted a tweet asking how her Bulbasaur stuffed animal would wear a hat: on its head or its bulb. The tweet gained over 35,000 retweets and 104,000 likes (shown below).

Other Twitter users responded with photoshops and examples of Bulbasaur wearing hats from the anime. User @adnor photoshopped the hats on both areas, gaining over 400 retweets and 3,000 likes (shown below, left). User @anoraktheclever posted a still from the anime showing Bulbasaur wearing a hat on its head (shown below, right).

The original tweet grew popular enough that the official Pokémon Twitter account responded, writing, "Hmm…there’s nothing in the Pokédex about this. We’ll need to check with Professor Oak and get back to you. 😉" The tweet gained over 9,800 retweets and 50,000 likes (shown below).