This is Fine Dog and others on display at Chicago Meme Museum
The This is Fine Dog and other memed-puppers and on display at a Chicago museum.
The This is Fine Dog and other doggos are on display at a meme museum in Chicago.
This news was first reported by Block Club Chicago, and it’s located in the 6th Dimension Space and Gallery at 2511 W North Ave in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
It is a pop-up museum similar to other pop-up themed restaurants or clothing stores at holiday time, and it will be open until at least the end of September.
“Instead of opening a typical print shop — nobody’s going into a print shop, especially right now — let’s create an experience, to lighten up the mood and make people happy,” founder Nancy Calderon told Block Club Chicago.
Since Calderon and her partner Renee Costa own a screen-printing business together, they figured it was an innovative way to keep themselves afloat during the pandemic if they showcased meme-themed merchandise (think key rings, etc) in a museum-like way.
The museum covers two floors of the gallery, and visitors are encouraged to take photos of themselves with their favorite memes, which could include Crying Michael Jordan for sports fans or the Shocked Pikachu for Pokemon fans.
The This is Fine Dog, Hissing White Cat and Doge Shiba Inu would draw our attention if members of the Dog O’Day staff were able to attend (unfortunately, none of us are near Chicago).
According to The Verge, the This is Fine Dog started out as part of a six-panel 2013 webcomic called “On Fire” by KC Green, which is part of a series called Gunshow. The dog, who is wearing a small hat, is sitting at a table drinking out of a coffee mug while the room around him is in flames, while he just sits there and goes, “This is fine.”
In the original comic, the This is Fine Dog’s face then melts off, which is rather alarming and decidedly disheartening.
It became a meme around 2014 via Reddit, and the world has only made it more timeless since (which is why it’s a good thing Dog Twitter exists).
“It’s a feeling we all get of, just like, ‘Things are burning down around me, but you got to have a smile sometimes,'” Green told The Verge in 2016, trying to pin down why the meme has endured.
Admission to the Chicago meme museum is free, though there is also a VIP package option for $25 each where visitors can host a small party with bring-your-own-alcohol allowed.
“We were trying to come up with a way to bring people together,” Calderon told Block Club Chicago.
This definitely seems like it would work to inspire hope and joyfulness, which is always important, yet hard to hang on to in these trying times.