You must have heard about Advice Dog, an image macro popularized by the notorious 4chan. It is an image of a happy labrador’s face overlaid on a colour wheel and offering outrageous and oft funny counsel on anything from a breakup to returning library books. However, it’s not as funny as lolcats, for example – it becomes repetitive and commonplace because of its fixed format.
Among the popular spinoffs of Advice Dog is the Socially Awkward Penguin:
The Socially Awkward Penguin replaces the dog with a waddling penguin and has (generally) two lines of text describing situations that are socially awkward and embarrassing. The top line is a premise which describes a situation that can potentially go wrong with embarrassing consequences and it gives you a premonition of this which is then stated in the bottom, the punch line.
What makes it work is the picture of the penguin taking awkward baby steps and the universality of the situations it describes. It derives its humour from the hilarity and extent of social gaucherie and also in the vicarious realism of these embarrassing situations.
Although the penguin image is constant, the sheer range of socially embarrassing moments and situations makes this meme evergreen and limitless.
Also check out Philosoraptor, equally funny.
