![]() ![]() took the internet by storm when the React series, a YouTube show dedicated to capturing people’s live reactions to internet oddities, had popular YouTubers watch the videos. Then, video-makers created dramatic readings and animated adaptations using 3D models of Shrek. People wrote increasingly devotional and sexual iterations of the tale. The original post came from an anonymous 4chan user, but the story picked up popularity over the next few months. Shrek is Life., the story of a young boy who prays to and is then sodomized by Shrek. The first - and most infamous - development was 2013’s Shrek is Love. In the mid-2010s, they hit a fever pitch with three distinct branches of franchise fandom. The memes became stranger, darker, and more obsessive with each passing day. ![]() In 2009, Shrek talked to fans in the first person on “his” Facebook page, marking the slow transfer of ownership from DreamWorks to fans calling themselves "brogres." Shrek art and fanfiction spread across the web. Tim Heidecker and Erik Wareheim dedicated a notable amount of time to satirical Shrek the Third promotions on their Adult Swim program, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! After that, the history of Shrek’s obsessive online fandom is already well documented. Granted, people had been having fun with Shrek before the 2013-2014 tipping point. The people who once only played a passive role as consumers literally had a field day with their favorite ogre. Eventually, though, the internet’s artisan memers took over the franchise. In retrospect, the marketing strategy resembled nothing more than multi-million dollar memes, saturating the public zeitgeist with an image until it becomes overbearing. Shrek Twinkies oozed “Ogre Green Creamy Filling.” If they could make it green, they made it Shrek. In a strange display of early crossover culture, Heinz and DreamWorks dropped green Shrek ketchup. Between every new release, Shrek’s corporate masters saturated the market with ( mostly awful) video games, costumes, and birthday party kits. How did it become so strangely ubiquitous and weirdly potent? DreamWorks, the studio behind the film, certainly put a lot of effort into making sure their star ogre was everywhere, but a triumvirate of Shrek-related happenings in 20 might just mark the moment when the fans picked up Shrek’s momentum - for better or worse.Īfter the 2001 film that started it all, DreamWorks made sequels, spinoffs, and TV shorts, most of which couldn’t live up to the original. Shrek, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, went from “ scrappy, brash comedy” to, according to some, “ the pinnacle of human creation.” Over the past two decades, Shrek became a movie, a franchise, an unstoppable meme, a cruel god, and a generational symbol of love, life, and togetherness. ![]()
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