About

Joe Emoji, also known as EmotiGuy or Rjumen, refers to a yellow emoji character, created by Daz 3D in 2005, which became the subject of several reaction images, image macros, exploitables and animated GIFs throughout the 2010s and 2020s, notably including Picardía, Yellow Emoji Typing, Yellow Emoji In Darkness and Sad Emoji.

The character was nicknamed Joe in a Discord server called JOE HUB in 2020, where renders, animations and GIFs of Joe spread en masse. However, new animated Joe content since 2023 can mainly be attributed to the 3D animator nicknamed @joes_intern. His most recent viral success being the GIF of Joe shaking his rear-end, which was created only months prior^[21], went particularly viral on X in late 2025, inspiring use of the butt-shake GIF across platforms such as Instragram and Tiktok.^[14]

IP Rights

The prominent Ethereum meme coin cryptocurrency community based on the character called Joe Coin (ticker $JOE), have also become the full IP holders for Joe / EmotiGuy^[18][19] as of August 1st, 2025. They are currently producing a majority of the Joe content found across X and across other social media platforms using the character (a prominent example being the 'Joe booty shake' GIF from late 2025).^[21]

Boasting hundreds of YouTube videos, Tenor GIFs, GIPHY stickers, and Instagram Reels uploaded from their accounts^[16][26] and the $JOE community.^[27]

Origin

On February 9th, 2005, the 3D art group Daz Originals (also known as Daz 3D) published 'EmotiGuy', a free 3D model, which allowed users to pose and render a male yellow emoji with various expressions and gestures.^[1]

The creator/modeler of Joe was Steve Corder (3D Universe) and was purchased by Daz 3D for free publication within their first version of 'Daz Studio', as they were seeking a character that was fun and easy to play with while allowing users to explore the depth of their program.^[23]

Industry Proliferation

In 2006 the game company SlingDot who were a division of THQ Inc. at the time, used Joe as a mascot in their PC game Super Aneurysm (a gem-based puzzle game, akin to Bejeweled and Candy Crush).^[17]

In 2012, Daz 3d released the Barf App,^[2] which gave users a new way to render their own versions of the EmotiGuy emoji outside of traditional editing software.

On March 4th, 2013, a Facebook ^[3] page called Do you think i give a heck shared its first post. The page focused on sharing renders of EmotiGuy paired with captions that riffed on the catchphrase "Do You Think I Give a Heck."

The page was active until December 2013 and amassed over 19,000 followers as of September 2025.^[4] Throughout 2012 and 2013, screenshots of the page's posts spread on Tumblr and 4chan.

The Birth of "Joe"

The EmotiGuy character was nicknamed Joe by the JOE HUB Discord^[8] server, which was created on May 3rd, 2020.^[9] The server was dedicated to sharing absurd renders of Joe heading into the 2020s.

The name Joe was coined sometime on or before May 18th, 2021, per a message shared in the #joe channel by Discord^[10] user Brooen on that day, who said, "I will be posting daily Joes here," captioning an Among Drip version of Joe.

Viral Meme Spread

In 2014, an EmotiGuy render of the character wearing sunglasses, smiling and giving a thumbs-up gesture began spreading on the Argentinian website Taringa. The emoji was nicknamed Picardía, meaning "mischief" in Spanish.^[5]

The Picardía image spread to 4chan's /int/ ^[6] (international) imageboard on December 8th, 2015. In the following years, the image was used to joke about and mock political ideologies.^[7]

As of April 2026, Joe is consistently one of TikToks top trending GIFs/Stickers.^[26]

Joe was introduced to the official Steam Points Shop^[11] in 2020 as an animated avatar and stickers, nicknamed "Rjumen," the Russian moniker for the meme.^[11]

3D renders of Joe became increasingly involved in the JOE HUB server heading into the 2020s. For instance, on October 8th, 2021, Discord^[12] user Brooen shared a render of Joe as John Wick, gaining several reactions in the #joe channel.

On June 1st, 2024, Discord^[13] user liam shared an animation of Joe breakdancing in The Backrooms in the #joe channel, gaining several reactions in a year.

Daz Productions (Daz 3D) sold the full IP rights to the EmotiGuy character to the memecoin project $JOE Coin on August 1st, 2025.^[18] Marking the first time a crypto project has purchased FULL rights to a classic meme such as EmotiGuy.^[19]

On September 13th, 2025, X^[14] user @GiFShitposting posted a GIF of Joe shaking his buttcheeks. Over nine days, the post gained over 14.6 million views and 50,000 likes. Created by the X user @joes_intern who actively creates and uploads 3D animated Joe content on behalf of the Joe Coin community.^[16]

On September 20th, 2025, X^[15] user @NoLiquidity77 tweeted a GIF of Joe typing angrily, with the meme going viral garnering over 5 million views within the first 48 hours of being uploaded without even including any text. This allowed users to exploit the photo and include their own captions using quote replies on X. The tweet received thousands of likes within the day.

On April 16th, 2026, YouTuber Lugalan uploaded a video regarding Joe, titled "Who Actually Made This 3D Emoji Guy?".^[23] The video is a fleshed out documentary of Joe and his status as a timeless meme. What is very important about this video, however, is the revealed identity of Joe's creator, Steve Corder (3D Universe)^[24], formerly known as 'Dark Whisper', a fact that was not widely known until the release of the video. Lugalan also updated the description of the video to correct himself on the inaccuracies tied to the Ethereum $JOE Coin.^[25]

Related Memes

Yellow Emoji Typing

Yellow Emoji Typing or Yellow M&M Typing refers to an exploitable video of a 3D-modeled smiley-face character typing at an old computer. The video and screenshots from it became the subject of memes in 2021, particularly on Instagram, Twitter / X and TikTok, often accompanied by absurd text that the emoji is implied to be typing.

Yellow Emoji In Darkness

Yellow Emoji In Darkness refers to an exploitable video and GIF of a 3D-modeled judging-face character hiding in the shadow. The image became the subject of memes in June 2023, particularly on Instagram and Twitter / X, often accompanied by ironic text and also used as a reaction image when someone shared a controversial opinion on social media.

Sad Emoji

Sad Emoji is an exploitable image macro depicting a pixellated 3D emoji looking sad with white-gloved hands hanging by his side. The image is generally set to the song "The Reason Why" by Japanese artist Ayasa and is used to depict sadness or disappointment in a variety of memes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References