Maddy the Pitbull / Perro ._.XD

About

Maddy the Pitbull, also known as Perro ._.XD (which translates to "._.XD dog"), refers to a series of reaction images and image macros of a dog, often coupled with aggregations of emoticons, inspired by the image of a pitbull who's growling at the camera but appears to be grinning. Memes using the photo typically express humorous emotions due to the dog's bizarre smile, but also attribute various cursed image qualities to it for the unsettling nature of the grin.

Origin

In early March 2018, the Instagram account maddy_n_bros, dedicated to a rescued female pitbull named Maddy and her family, posted an image of the dog smiling at the camera, as documented by a screenshot (shown below, left) shared on March 9th to the subreddit /r/DogFree.^[1] On March 22nd, maddy_n_bros^[2] posted a part of the source video (shown below, right) in which Maddy growls at one of her brothers. The post gathered over 109,000 views as of December 2020.

One year later, on March 21st, 2019, maddy_n_bros reuploaded a short clip from the video, gaining over 40,000 views in less than two years.^[3]

Spread

Over the following months, both Maddy's pictures and edits were shared through many social media. For example, on July 2nd, 2018, Imgur^[4] user bladpaul posted the photo with the title "Rictus grin," receiving over 1,100 upvotes and 94,000 views in three years. On October 5th, a now-deleted Reddit user shared an edit of Maddy with shrunken eyes (shown below, left) to the subreddit /r/WhatsWrongWithYourDog,^[5] which gained over 20,900 upvotes (87% upvote ratio). On October 6th, Imgur^[6] user MissBehaves posted two edits with eyebrows added (shown below, center and right).

On October 7th, YouTuber^[7] AnEvilGhost posted a void meme video featuring different cursed edits of Maddy with eerie music (shown below), which received over 2,000 views in three years.

Perro ._.XD

In 2018, Maddy's photo grew in popularity among Latin American users, as an image macro with the emoticon "._.XD" whose earliest known appearance was posted by YouTuber^[8] The Kasaneru on October 29th, 2018, in a joke creepypasta video about a Hispanic meme known as "Día del plátano" (shown below, right). A cropped version (shown below, left) was then posted by the Facebook^[9] page Memes que hago mientras D U E R M O. on December 31st, 2018.

The image macro inspired further edits using a variety of emoticons and Photoshop edits (examples shown below, left). On July 9th, 2019, YouTuber^[10] DracerGx made a video comparing power levels of many versions of the meme (shown below, right), gaining over 139,000 views as of December 2020.

Reaction Image

On October 10th, 2019, Redditor u/No-Mercy_ posted a meme to the subreddit /r/memes^[11] comparing the pitbull to a demon summoned after failing to read Latin (shown below, left). The post received over 35,400 upvotes (95% upvote ratio) within one year. The next day, Twitter^[12] user @OneEyedDoll posted the picture of the dog with the same captions, gaining over 1,200 retweets and 5,100 likes. The format inspired more versions that became popular on platforms like Reddit (examples shown below, center and right).^[13][14]

Search Interest

External References