Mug Root Beer / Mug Moment

About

Mug Moment based on the soda brand Mug Root Beer refers to a joke first made on a Vinesauce Twitch stream in March 2020. Memes using the catchphrase "Mug Moment" began surfacing on Reddit in March 2020 sparked from the live stream. Mug Root Beer memes began surfacing on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok starting in August 2021. The content made surrounding Mug Root Beer relates to an ironic obsession with the brand as well as its competition with or superiority to other root beer brands like Barq's or A&W. In early 2022, ironic Mug Root Beer content appeared on TikTok.

Origin

On March 22nd, 2020, Twitch^[1] streamer Vargskelethor, also known as Joel, who's part of the Twitch collective Vinesauce, ^[2] was playing the video game Black Mesa live for his viewers. During the stream, Joel asked his viewers, "What's that root beer that's like a giant dog on it?" The chat responded, "Mug." Joel then asked, "Is Mug any good?" never having had it because he is from Sweden. The chat started spamming "Mug" and "It's Mug," quickly turning it into a spammable copypasta. One viewer in the chat then typed, "Mug Moment," causing Joel to laugh and repeat it. On March 23rd, 2020, YouTube^[3] channel, Vargskelethor Uncut: Full Joel Streams, uploaded the clip (shown below) and received roughly 140,200 views and 9,200 likes over the course of a year and a half.

Spread

On March 23rd, 2020, Reddit^[4] user NicholasTheEgghead14 posted a meme to the r/Vinesauce subreddit layering Impact font captions over an image of a Mug Root Beer can. The Reddit post (shown below, left) received 583 upvotes over the course of two years. On April 2nd, 2020, Reddit^[5] user HatKid42069 posted a meme editing in "Mug Moment" into the Mug Root Beer logo. The post (shown below, right) received 117 likes over the course of two years. More Mug memes were posted to r/Vinesauce^[6][7] throughout 2020, many using the term, "Mug Gamer."

On August 3rd, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @EdwardStockwell tweeted about how the brands Mug and Barq's have been, "forever waging a cold war against each other with no shifting front lines." The tweet (shown below) received roughly 377,800 likes over the course of two months. In the replies^[9] to the tweet, multiple Mug Root Beer memes surfaced from the r/Vinesauce subreddit.

On August 7th, 2021, the subreddit r/MugDog^[13] was created which has 207 members as of October 2021.
Also, in August 2021, memes about Mug Root Beer began to surface on Instagram. On August 13th, 2021, Instagram^[10] account @cardboard_memes_ posted a Mug Root Beer meme using an image of Quagmire with his jaw dropped. The meme (shown below) received roughly 3,400 likes over the course of two months. It was also reposted to other platforms like iFunny^[11] in September 2021.

Going into September 2021, more and more Mug Root Beer memes began to surface on Instagram and TikTok,^[12] some using the Drake The Type Of.. meme format as well as the X Fandom Is Dying, Repost If You're a True Fan meme format.

Mug Root Beer TikToks

In January 2022, ironic Mug Root Beer content appeared en masse on TikTok. On January 26th, 2022, the TikTok^[14] account mugenjoyer posted a video that included an American anthem-style song about loving Mug Root Beer, earning roughly 861,700 plays and 98,800 likes in a month and a half (shown below, left). On March 3rd, 2022, the TikTok^[15] zzomboo posted a video that used the audio from mugenjoyer's TikTok, earning roughly 3.8 million plays and 631,000 likes over the course of four days (shown below, right).

On January 17th, 2022, the account mugenjoyer posted another video that received engagement in large, earning roughly 760,700 plays and 129,100 likes in two months (shown below, left). The audio from the TikTok also received a lot of usage by other creators, like TikToker^[17] thedogfrommugrootbeer, who posted a video with the audio on March 1st, earning roughly 430,000 plays and 70,900 likes in six days (shown below, right). Overall, more and more users on TikTok started to use the bull dog from the Mug Root Beer logo as their profile pictures.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References