every so often i remember pog stands for pomegranate orange guava and i am struck down by the sheer strength of the butterfly effect
1. Haleakala Dairy creates a juice of passion fruit (not pomegranate, my bad), orange, and guava and calls it "P.O.G."
2. A game involving milk bottle caps pops up in the 70s, haleakala makes their lids collectable to play that game with the "POG" label
3. Game gets very popular in the 90s, gets called "pogs" based on the og caps (primarily) used having "POG" on them
4. Streamer Ryan Gutierre makes funny haha exaggerated faces in 2010
5. In 2011, same guy releases a video called "Pogs Championship"
6. PogChamp emoji is created, short for the "Pogs Championship' video, and its used to signify excitement (also sometimes "Play Of the Game" since it shares an acronym)
its all fruit
Just to finish the "PogChamp" narrative because it's kinda interesting:
7. After skyrocketing, in use upon the release of Overwatch in 2016 (which utilised the term "Play Of the Game"), "PogChamp" would eventually become shortened by Twitch users to "pog" (and then "poggers"), escaping into the lexicon of the wider internet around 2019.
8. On January 6th, 2021 Gutierre has a 'milkshake duck' moment by stoking unrest in response to the US Capitol Hill riots.
9. The same day, Twitch removes the emote from their platform.
10. In an effort to distance "pog" from Gutierre, Twitch has the PogChamp emote display a rotation of faces similar to the original before selecting a permanent replacement in the form of a... Komodo dragon?
Whether or not the term "pog"/"poggers" will outlive their association with Gutierre is to be seen. Perhaps pog will once again fade into relative obscurity only to be inexplicably revived by Gen Alpha following another utterly unpredictable series of events.
