About

Pudgywoke, or Pudgy, is an elderly long-haired chihuahua that gained viral fame on TikTok in late 2020. He is known for his distinct "owa owa" bark and strange growling noises.

Origin

On December 5th, 2020, the account @pudgywoke, run by Pudgy's owner Malachy James, posted his first video to TikTok,^[1] a Stitch reacting to a woman scooping macaroni from a dish in order to show off the wet sound, only for it to be completely dry (shown below). In the video, James points the camera at Pudgy for a reaction, resulting in the dog making an extended growling noise which some commenters likened to a fax machine, a cicada, and a dial-up modem. The video gained over 1.7 million views in just over a month.

Spread

Malachy James continued to upload new videos of Pudgy to TikTok daily, many of which went viral. On December 7th, 2020, James uploaded a video^[3] showing Pudgy react to a comment reading, "it's got rabies," garnering over 2.5 million views in just over a month (shown below, left). Routinely, commenters will sincerely ask if Pudgy is okay and the noises he makes are normal. On December 7th, James uploaded a video to TikTok^[4] in which he tells the story of how he got Pudgy and assures commenters that Pudgy is okay, theorizing that Pudgy may have been hit by a car once when he ran away for a brief period of time, as he started making the noises shortly after the incident (shown below, right). The video gained over 3.9 million views in a comparable span of time.

On December 11th, James uploaded a video to TikTok^[5] where he compares Pudgy's bark to Yoshi from Super Mario Bros., garnering over 18 million views in just over a month (shown below, left). On December 26th James uploaded a video^[6] in which Pudgy attacks the microphone on his headphones and barks, garnering over 51 million views in under a month (shown below, right).

On January 4th, 2021, James uploaded a video to TikTok^[7] of Pudgy barking for "the gravy train" referencing rapper Yung Gravy, garnering over 42 million views in 2 weeks (shown below). On January 12th, yahoo!sports^[2] published an interview with James, where he says, “My goal for me and Pudgy is to advocate positive vibes and to show the world it’s totally normal to be unique in your own way." As of January 18th, @pudgywoke has over 6.2 million followers on TikTok.

#owaowa

As @Pudgywoke grew in popularity, users began uploading skits and videos set to the sounds of Pudgy to the hashtag #owaowa. On January 5th, @its.randy.luv uploaded a scene from Attack on Titan set to the sound of a @pudgywoke video to TikTok,^[8] garnering over 2.2 million views in 2 weeks (shown below, left). On January 15th, @mr_mayonnaise_ uploaded a skit^[9] using another @pudgywoke sound under the hashtag, garnering over 1.6 million views in 3 days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References