Jotchua | Know Your Meme

Origin

Although a full image of the dog exists (shown below), it is unknown who originally posted it.

There are a number of posts across the web (including comments under Jotchua-related memes) asking for the origin of the dog, but none has ever been confirmed. Some users know the image as “money dog” or “perro dinero,” based on a Spanish image macro featuring the dog that claims posting the image as your profile picture will award the user money (shown below). It is unknown when this meme was first posted, but seems to have inspired a number of Spanish internet users and meme pages to change their profile pictures to the dog (for example, private meme page Danksitos Ardidos V2) around January 2021 or shortly prior to it, which eventually lead to memes about the dog.

Hola Esquizo

On January 6th, 2021, Spanish language Facebook page K’s Randoms, who posts animal-themed memes, changed their profile picture to the image of Perro Dinero. On January 20th, K’s Randoms posted a series of image macros titled “Hello schizo” depicting an exchange between a staring cat and the dog, who is portrayed as crazy, garnering over 9,000 reactions and 21,000 shares in three months. On January 22nd, they uploaded a video version of the meme to the K’s Random YouTube page , garnering over 427,000 views in just under three months (shown below).

This video left many knowing the dog as “Esquizo,” the Spanish word for “schizo.” On February 18th, K’s Randoms posted another comic to Facebook and uploaded a video version of it to YouTube featuring the character as “Esquizo,” garnering over 1,100 reactions on the former and 507,000 views on the latter in two months (shown below).

Rumored Gore Video

There is a rumor that the image comes from a gore video in which the dog is cut open, however, this has not been proven and is likely untrue. It is unknown where this rumor comes from, and is only supported by word-of-mouth and people claiming that the setting of the photo is suspicious (example comments shown below). So far, the video has not been uncovered and this claim is unconfirmed.

Jotchua

On January 24th, 2021, Instagram user @_kingorange uploaded a demotivational poster featuring a grainy image of a dog and the text “JOTCHUA,” garnering over 29,000 likes in three months (shown below). This is the earliest known upload of the dog in association with the name Jotchua.