What Does “Poggers” Mean?

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Discover the meaning and origins of this beloved Pepe emote
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“Poggers” is both a slang word and emote that signifies surprise and eagerness. On the Twitch streaming platform, the word is represented by an image of Pepe the Frog (a green cartoon frog with large eyes and pronounced lips) with his mouth wide open. We’ll cover everything there is to know about this fun emote and slang word, including how to use it and where it came from.

Things You Should Know

  • Poggers is shorthand for a surprised or excited reaction to something.
  • The poggers emote is used frequently on Twitch streams, and resembles Pepe the Frog with his mouth wide open.
  • Poggers comes from the old “PogChamp” emote, which was removed from the Twitch platform in 2021.
Section 1 of 4:

Poggers Definition

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  1. Did your friend just make an amazing play in a game, or did you witness something spectacular in a gaming stream? Poggers is a simple but effective way to share this shock, excitement, and amazement, especially within the gaming community. [1]
    • Poggers is a pretty niche slang word with deep ties to online gaming, so it’s mostly used within a gaming or streaming context. It can also be used when chatting with someone well-versed in gaming lingo.
  2. The poggers emote resembles Pepe the Frog (a green cartoon frog with large eyes and distinctive lips) looking surprised with his mouth wide open. Pepe is the star of several other popular Twitch emotes, including: [2]
    • Pepehands: An emote of Pepe crying with his hands held up (used to express sadness)
    • MonkaS: An emote of Pepe looking nervous while visibly sweating (used to express anxiety)
    • Feelsbadman: An emote of Pepe looking bummed and disappointed (used to express disappointment)
    • Feelsgoodman: An emote of Pepe looking happy (used to express happiness)
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Section 2 of 4:

How to Use Poggers

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  1. Whether you’re playing games with friends or tuning into your favorite Twitch streamer, use poggers or the poggers emote to show how psyched or surprised you are.
    • “I can’t believe you managed to steal dragon, dude. That was so poggers”
    • “That play of the game was pretty poggers”
  2. If you’re chatting with a tech- or game-savvy friend, sprinkle the word poggers into your convos to express your approval or agreement.
    • Person A: “Work was slow, so my manager let me early”
      Person B: “Poggers”
    • Person A: “I thought I forgot to save my BG3 file, but auto-save really came in clutch 😌”
      Person B: “That’s so poggers”
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Section 3 of 4:

Poggers Origins

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  1. The PogChamp emote features the shocked expression of Ryan Gutierrez (also known as “Gootecks”), which was clipped from a 2010 outtake video for the Cross Counter TV YouTube channel. The name “PogChamp” comes from a different Cross Counter TV video where Gutierrez and Mike Ross face off in a game of Pogs (also known as Milk Caps) to ultimately advertise a piece of merchandise for the Street Fighter franchise. At the end of the video , Gutierrez notably says the phrase “pog champions.” [3]
    • The PogChamp emote became a mainstay on Twitch starting in the early 2010s.
    • Pogs were paper caps for a special milk drink called POG (which is short for passion-orange-guava), made by Haleakala Dairy. Pog caps came in all sorts of colors and designs and were popularly collected in the latter decades of the 20th century. [4]
  2. To this day, the poggers emote is still used to express shock and excitement by members of the Twitch community. [5] It’s even outlived the original PogChamp emote, which was removed from Twitch following a controversial statement made by Gutierrez during the 2021 Capitol Riots in the USA. [6]
  3. In July 2018 (after poggers was already an established Twitch emote), user cawayee made a Twitter post discussing how she’d sent a guy a sexy image of herself, only for him to respond with “poggers.” This is a great example of how poggers started to be used more conversationally (even for joke purposes).
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Section 4 of 4:

Similar Slang and Emotes

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  1. “My Little Pogchamp” is a meme format from 2020 in which popular fictional characters (notably, protagonist Ryuko from the anime Kill la Kill ) tell the viewer “Okay, fine—I guess you are my little pogchamp.” [7]
  2. PogU is another Twitch emote featuring Gutierrez making the same surprised/impressed expression as he does in PogChamp, only he’s facing straight ahead rather than to the side. Like PogChamp and Poggers, PogU is also used to show one’s enthusiasm. [8]
  3. After Twitch removed the well-known PogChamp emote from its platform, the company began looking for an adequate replacement. After creating a poll, an emote featuring a shocked/excited komodo dragon was designated as the PogChamp replacement. [9] On Twitch, this emote is known as KomodoHype. [10]
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      References

      1. ↑ https://7esl.com/poggers/
      2. ↑ https://www.polygon.com/2018/5/14/17335670/twitch-emotes-meaning-list-kappa-monkas-omegalul-pepe-trihard
      3. ↑ https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pogchamp
      4. ↑ https://archives.starbulletin.com/2005/07/30/news/whatever.html
      5. ↑ https://www.polygon.com/2018/5/14/17335670/twitch-emotes-meaning-list-kappa-monkas-omegalul-pepe-trihard
      6. ↑ https://www.polygon.com/2021/1/6/22218059/pogchamp-twitch-removed-emote-ryan-gootecks-gutierrez-trump-capitol-hill
      7. ↑ https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-little-pogchamp
      8. ↑ https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pogu
      9. ↑ https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/12/22280810/twitch-pogchamp-komodo-dragon-komodohype-replacement
      1. ↑ https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/komodohype

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