The Crazy Frog Dead Meme Is Spreading Wildly Online, but Where Did It Come From?

Few things are as random and confusing as the internet, which can highlight trends related to everything from the ninja emoji to a specific Reddit board. Now, though, the internet has become obsessed with a new meme related to Crazy Frog, the CGI character who was most popular more than a decade ago. The trend coincides with Easter and suggests that Crazy Frog died and was reborn.

The trend suggesting that Crazy Frog is dead first popped up online on April 17, and followed a post from the account @CrazyFrogInfo that read “Crazy Frog has died.” A follow up post added that the poster would offer additional details as they became available. Eventually, the official Crazy Frog account got involved, writing "I don't think so," in response to a question about whether the frog was actually dead.

Eventually, users discovered that @CrazyFrogInfo had posted the exact same text in June of 2021, suggesting that this is a joke the user returns to regularly. Even though the original joke didn't feature much detail, users on Twitter in particular decided to run with the idea that Crazy Frog, a CGI character who has never actually existed, died and was then reborn.

Of course, many users may have picked up on the theme of rebirth in part because reports of Crazy Frog's death first began to circulate on Easter Sunday, a day that is somewhat obsessed with rebirth.

“Yeah he was just arrested by INTERPOL, it is okay. Crazy Frog was just lying about being dead. Don’t know why," one person wrote, addressing the trend head on.

“3 days later, Crazy Frog rose from the dead,” another added.

“I thought they shot you dead for tax evasion,” one person wrote, alluding April 18 being the deadline to file a tax return.

"Thank god you ain’t dead, it’s an Easter miracle," a third person joked.

Clearly, Crazy Frog still means a lot to plenty of people, even though he isn't quite as popular as he once was.

Crazy Frog was first created by actor and playwright Erik Wernquist in 2003, and eventually became famous for his association with a number of chart-topping singles. At the end of 2021, the frog even released a new single called "Tricky" following a 13-year hiatus. The song already has 36 million views on YouTube, suggesting that there were plenty of people eagerly awaiting the character's return to the spotlight.

Now that a meme has spawned around the character, it's clear that Crazy Frog may be mounting something of a comeback. The character may not have literally died, but he did largely disappear from the collective pop culture mindset for more than a decade. Now that he's back, it's almost like he has returned to life. In this case, though, Crazy Frog was never really gone. He was just waiting for us to find him again.