Recently, a bizarre fad has been spreading across the online world. While internet fads have had their fair share of questionable content from time to time, this one has had the most interesting content by far. Videos of a dog named Pibble, usually shown as a small, male pitbull, asking you to do one thing: wash his belly. While perplexing at first, this new internet meme might have more to it than what meets the eye, and might show us how the younger generation can communicate complex messaging through seemingly nauseating videos and images. So let’s explore the question at hand here: should you wash his belly?
First, let’s talk about a more thorough description of his appearance. As mentioned before, he usually appears as a male pitbull infant, but the intriguing thing is that his appearance is never the same. Throughout the different memes of this character, his appearance is shown through several unique images of baby pitbulls, with these images changing every second or so throughout the videos. This brings up an interesting idea, though. The idea that these videos might be showing groups of these pitbulls, with the group having the overall title of Pibble, and each pitbull using the name of their group to identify themselves.
Next is the actual content of the video, or what these Pibbles say. The sayings go along in this format:
“My name is Pibble.”
“Wash my belly.”
“Clean my belly!”
While not all videos follow this format, it represents a large majority of these videos’ content. Now, to understand the message of these videos, let’s analyze the few words these Pibbles say. In the first sentence, the Pibble announces its name to the viewer while its appearance is also shown. While there isn’t much to say about the Pibble’s introduction, it does show his formality to the viewer.
The next sentence, while seemingly mundane, has a lot to unpack. The Pibble asks the viewer to wash its belly, showing its true relationship with the viewer; It shows the Pibble’s absolute trust in the viewer to wash its belly. For a long time, there has been a concept in psychology known as a person’s intimate zone. A zone that a person usually only lets close family members or their romantic partners get near. Anyone else who invades this zone usually receives negative attention from the person. In this case, with Pibble, he allows the viewer to wash his belly and go into that intimate zone. Another thing to take into consideration is his allowing the viewer to wash his belly specifically, which is usually a weak point due to it containing vital organs that are needed for survival, and even take care of it by wiping off any dirt or grime. This communicates how he already trusts the viewer, despite not knowing their name, to take care of his weak points, whether physically or even emotionally.
Finally is the last phrase, where Pibble asks the viewer to clean his belly. This is simple to understand, the viewer just has to dry and shine his belly… or do they? Note that the Pibble only asks to wash and clean its belly; the viewer has a choice whether or not to do these actions to its belly, which leads to the real message behind these seemingly shallow videos.
To put it into one interpretation, these Pibbles look to represent groups of unfortunate, poor people who are searching for someone’s generosity in a world where they get none. The abnormal look of these Pibbles is meant to simulate how people look down on these groups, regarding them as ugly or inferior to themselves. The societal pressure and ridicule for being in disadvantaged groups often make them desperate for a way to leave those groups and try to fit in with the rest of mainstream society. So when these Pibbles introduce themselves, or identify themselves with the group, and initially tell the viewer to wash their belly, they’re trying to wash off all the ideas and beliefs that the group had, and fit into the groups that laugh and ridicule them. But these Pibbles exclaim the statement of “clean my belly”, so what’s with that? Simple. These Pibbles want help; they want to feel better about themselves by removing the dirt that’s on them, but while still keeping who they are and being proud of it. Not erasing what made these Pibbles’ themself, but making sure that they feel equal and the same as others.
That brings an interesting question to the table, though. These viewers have the complete choice whether to wash these Pibbles’ bellies, clean their bellies, or ignore their bellies altogether. So, would you wash their belly? Would you clean their belly? Or would you ignore their existence entirely, leaving someone else to choose for you?
