Dick Butt (or dickbutt) is an internet meme and absurdist viral internet character,[1] involving an illustration of an anthropomorphic penis that itself has a penis and testicles protruding from its backside ("butt").[2][1] The meme seems to have first appeared on 4chan and deviantART,[3] later spreading to sites such as Reddit and Imgur, and then further from there.

Origin

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The origin of the meme is a web comic called Horribleville by artist K.C. Green, specifically a strip titled "Tree. You’ve Been Good to Us", published on July 6, 2006.[2][4] When asked about the origin of the original image, K.C. Green said "It’s simple. The joke was that I wanted to honor trees for what they gave up. Then I go and draw the stupidest thing. I thought, 'What is the stupidest thing?' And then I had my answer."[3]

The premise of the meme is to surreptitiously insert the Dick Butt image into another image, animated GIF, video, or group of images, or otherwise to surprise the reader with it when they are expecting something else, much in the same way as a rickroll, to which it has been compared.[5] The use of Dick Butt differs from that of a rickroll, however, in that it is considered most effective when placed at or near the end of the expected content, instead of in replacement of it. An early use of the Dick Butt meme was also simply to spam "DICK BUTT" in a thread.[3]

Spread

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The term dickbutt made its first appearance in the slang dictionary Urban Dictionary on April 12, 2007, where it was defined as "the weirdest thing you can think of."[6][2] Other definitions soon followed. On December 3, 2007, it was claimed on a Horribleville webcomic that "Dickbutt is a 4chan meme now." In 2009, it appeared in a Buzzfeed post[7][2]