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Why Borzoi Dogs Have Taken Over Social Media

‘Long dogs’ are the internet’s latest obsession.

Credit: Natalie Fedosova / Shutterstock

Dogs and other creatures are always great meme material. Some of the greatest memes of all time have been animal centered, such as doge and keyboard cat. However, a new dog has captured the internet’s attention and has become the subject of countless memes. TikTok and Instagram are filled with reels featuring ‘long dogs’, better known as borzois, a Russian breed of dog. Thanks to their hilariously long faces and odd proportions, borzois have become the internet’s latest obsession.

Borzoi memes really began taking off on TikTok in late 2022. These memes see people either drawing cartoonish borzois or using three dots to turn generic household items into a face reminiscent of a long dog. These videos are accompanied by a cover of the song ‘Cellophane’ by FKA Twig. People got really creative, turning their nails into Borzois or even making some latte art of a long dog.

Credit: aminaoui / TikTok

However, this meme was started by a real borzoi. TikToker @sugarthesilken posted a video of her borzoi taking a bath with the accompanying song on December 11th, 2022. Her video quickly blew up, gaining 9.9 million plays and 2 million likes in a month. Other borzoi owners on TikTok followed her lead, with TikToker @thatoingosmyboingo posting a similar video featuring their borzoi to the same sound two days after her.

Credit: sugarthesilken / TikTok
Credit: thatoingosmyboingo / TikTok

Where does the long dog song even come from?

The sound used in all these videos has a whole origin story of its own. The song is FKA Twig’s ‘Cellophane’ but sung by someone doing a Miss Piggy impersonation. The Miss Piggy cover was originally sung by someone as a joke over text. They then uploaded the voice note to YouTube where it was remixed with the piano accompaniment from the original song. The sound circulated throughout early 2022 before being used in the borzoi dog meme.

Credit: Will Orrick / YouTube

Borzois have been top dog for much longer than TikTok thinks

Whilst it might seem like borzois have only become the most memeable dog in the past two months, they have been the feature of memes for much longer than that. The earliest borzoi meme dates to Vine’s heyday in 2016. User j_ethan posted a vine featuring his borzoi Esper in which she is wearing a blanket like a hood and looks like a Russain Babushka. This vine launched Esper into viral fame, as the video had 10.4 milllion loops and 1,300 likes.

Credit: no this is not jillian / YouTube

Another borzoi to become a meme was Lapsha, who has a prominent following on her Instagram page @loopsnoot. Images of Lapsha using a wide-angle lens close to the tip of her nose made her snout look extra long were quickly adopted by meme pages. Borzois became known as ‘long dogs’ at this point and by 2021, ‘long dog’ memes were across all social media platforms.

Animals have long been highly memeable material and borzois are perhaps one of the most meme-worthy dogs out there. Between their amazingly long noses and their odd proportions, they don’t even need anything added to them to make them funny. As far as memes go, long dog memes are both wholesome and adorable. Long live the long dog memes.

Written By

Postgraduate student studying journalism at Edinburgh Napier University. Fandom enthusiast and ex-Wattpad writer.

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