Uncle Murphy

About

Uncle Murphy, or simply Murphy, is a Dogelore character depicted as an old, overweight Shiba Inu dog sitting down with a slight, calm smile on his face. He is often portrayed as a kind uncle in wholesome Dogelore memes. The image of the dog was uploaded online in July 2019, becoming a part of Dogelore in December that year. The dog's real name is "Moja" and is owned by Instagram user moja412744.

Origin

The real "Uncle Murphy" dog is owned by Instagram^[10] user moja412744 and is named "Moja." Moja turned 14 in December 2021. On April 19th, 2019, the user posted a series of images of Moja sitting in the park to Instagram,^[12] gaining over 6,500 likes in three years (shown below).

On July 3rd, 2019, a now-deleted Redditor posted an Imgur^[1] link to an image of Moja sitting in the park to /r/photoshopbattles,^[2] gaining over 70 upvotes in three years. It is unknown when the character was first used in a Dogelore post, but on December 7th, 2019, Redditor u/spookytime8899 posted a cropped image of the dog to r/dogelore,^[3] writing, "anyone know the what this dog name is." On December 8th, the same user posted a transparent PNG template of the dog (shown below).^[4]

Spread

Uncle Murphy became an increasingly well-known character in Dogelore over the following years, most often used in wholesome comics about the caring uncle. On December 19th, 2019, Redditor u/i_consume_lean posted a PNG of Murphy in a mechanics hat to /r/dogelore,^[5] gaining over 2,600 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On 26th, the same user made a comic using the mechanic Murphy on /r/dogeslore,^[6] gaining over 10,700 upvotes in the same period of time (shown below, right).

On June 1st, 2020, Redditor u/CritzD posted part 2 of a "dogelore actor interview" series to /r/dogelore^[7] where Murphy describes himself, gaining over 15,400 upvotes in a year (shown below, left). On September 17th, Redditor u/DuccBro posted a wholesome comic to /r/dogelore^[8] using the character, gaining over 47,000 upvotes in a similar span of time (shown below, right). The comic was reposted to Instagram^[9] page sarc.bro on September 22nd, gaining over 8,600 likes.

On February 14th, 2022, the owner of Moja posted a painting of Moja to their Instagram^[11] page, captioned "Golden 'uncle Murphy'" gaining over 4,400 likes in a day (shown below).

Death

On May 8th, 2023, Instagram^[13] user moja412744 announced that Moja died, sharing a photo of the Shiba laying in the car. The post gained over 12,600 likes in two weeks and was shared to /r/dogelore^[14] that day, garnering over 5,200 upvotes and many condolences for Moja and his owner.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References