About

Human Dog is a series of YouTube videos, which show various pet dogs dressed in people's clothes and doing things like eating a snack or reading the newspaper, with a bit of help from the puppeteer's hands. The videos really speak for themselves.

Origin

One of the earliest pre-internet examples of human dog puppeteers can be traced to William Wegman, an American artist best known for his photographs and videos featuring dogs in unconventional settings and poses. His works have appeared on mainstream television like Saturday Night Live, Nickelodeon and has been regularly featured on Sesame Street since 1989. In 1989, Wegman made a film with his dogs entitled The Hardly Boys , which was screened with some success at the Sundance Film Festival. Click here to read more on the famous photographer.

Spread

On February 14, 2007, YouTube user meck81146 posted a video of a dark lab dog dressed in a t-shirt, throwing peace signs around.

Later that same year in July 2007, YouTube user biglazylab posted a video of her dog Manatee talking on the phone to wish someone happy new years. In another upload, Manatee can be seen rapping in French.

But the parody phenomenon didn't begin until February 6, 2010, when YouTube user todaysbestvideo1 posted a clip titled "Dinner For One," featuring a lab grubbing on some snacks at the dinner table. The video has gained nearly 700,000 views in the first four months and has been re-blogged on popular blogs and social networks, such as Facebook, HuffingtonPost, Buzzfeed, Naver Blog (Korean) and Nate News (Korean).

Examples