The emote 'pog' is a popular expression of excitement, amazement, or surprise in Twitch chat. It's typically represented by a face with an open mouth showing astonishment. The image shown appears to be a yellow smiley face with glasses making a surprised expression, which is a stylized variation of the classic pog concept.
In Twitch culture, saying 'pog' or using a pog emote communicates that something impressive, exciting, or surprising has just happened during a stream. It's essentially the digital equivalent of a jaw-dropping reaction.
The term 'pog' originated from a milk caps game called 'Pogs' that became globally popular in the 1990s. The game itself was inspired by caps from a Hawaiian juice drink called POG (Passion Orange Guava).
The most famous pog-related emote, 'PogChamp', came from a 2011 promotional video called 'Pogs Championship' featuring Ryan 'Gootecks' Gutierrez. The original PogChamp emote showed Gutierrez's surprised face after seeing a camera trip over its tripod during recording.
The 'pog' emote specifically is often a zoomed-in version focusing just on the mouth portion of the original PogChamp emote, though many variations exist across different emote platforms (Twitch, 7TV, BTTV, FFZ). The yellow smiley version shown in the image appears to be a custom or third-party variation that maintains the core 'surprised' expression that defines pog emotes.
The original PogChamp emote was removed from Twitch in January 2021 following controversial comments by Gutierrez, but the concept and meaning of 'pog' has remained firmly embedded in streaming culture.
The 'pog' emote is commonly used in Twitch chat in the following situations:
The emote has become so popular that streamers and viewers often verbally say 'pog' or 'that's pog' to express excitement even outside of chat.
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