dankWave

dankWave is used to express a chill, relaxed, or cool vibe in chat. The emote conveys feelings of being laid-back, smooth, or 'too cool' for a situation. It's often used when something aesthetically pleasing happens on stream, when music with a vaporwave or synthwave sound plays, or when the streamer or chat wants to establish a relaxed atmosphere. The sunglasses and vaporwave styling give it an air of casual confidence and internet culture sophistication. It can also be used ironically to mock someone trying too hard to be cool, or genuinely to appreciate something that has a retro or aesthetic quality.

dankWave is a variant of the Pepe the Frog meme that became popular on Twitch around 2016-2017. The emote features Pepe wearing sunglasses with a triangular/pyramid shape above his head, styled in a vaporwave aesthetic with muted green and tan colors. This emote is part of the broader 'dank memes' culture that proliferated on Twitch and other internet platforms. The vaporwave aesthetic elements (the triangle, the color palette, and the overall retro-futuristic style) combined with Pepe created this particular variation. It's commonly found as a third-party emote on BetterTTV (BTTV) and FrankerFaceZ (FFZ), and has been widely adopted across many Twitch channels since its creation.

dankWave typically appears in chat during: music segments featuring electronic, vaporwave, synthwave, or lo-fi beats; moments when the streamer does something smooth or effortlessly cool; artistic or visually aesthetic moments on stream; chill gaming sessions or relaxed conversation segments; as a greeting or farewell emote to set a laid-back tone; in combination with other emotes to create an 'aesthetic' spam pattern; when discussing or appreciating retro gaming, retro music, or 90s/early 2000s internet culture; and sometimes ironically when something awkward happens but chat wants to play it cool.