Balltze (Chinese: 波子, 9 January 2011 - 18 August 2023), nicknamed Cheems in online memes, was a Shiba Inu from Hong Kong. He was called Ball Ball (Chinese: 波波; Cantonese Yale: Bōbō) by his owners.
Balltze was born on 9 January 2011.[2] He was adopted at the age of one from an emigrating friend,[3] by fashion designer Kathy from Kowloon.[4] Kathy's brother named him after Ramune, a Japanese beverage in which a marble ball inside the bottle is pressed down to let the drink flow.[4] He was known as Ball Ball by his owners.[5]
In May 2022, Balltze was diagnosed with pancreatitis.[6] He recovered in June.[7] In May 2023, his owners reported that he had serious respiratory problems.[8] He had cancer and was undergoing thoracentesis (the draining of fluid from his chest) when he died on 18 August 2023, aged 12.[9] His funeral was held on 23 August, and donations of US$13,000 were sent to local animal charities.[10]
In a 2020 interview with Know Your Meme, Kathy said that Balltze wanted his legacy to be "Meme fade, [fellow Shiba Inu meme] Doge is eternal. Remember me as 'Balltze', not 'Cheems' or 'cheemsburger', I'm just a Balltze".[4]
After Balltze's death, Kathy adopted a new Shiba Inu named Pochita on 3 October 2024. Pochita was named after the protagonist of the manga Chainsaw Man for being strong and sweet.[11]
Balltze appears as the Internet meme character Cheems, whose name comes from his taste for "cheemsburgers" [sic]. The character adds the letter "m" into words as he speaks.[6] The meme was first posted to the r/dogelore subreddit on Reddit in June 2019.[4] The image used for the meme was uploaded originally on Balltze's Instagram account on 4 September 2017, and shows him sitting on the floor.[5]
Cheems also features in the "Swole Doge vs Cheems" meme in which a muscular version of Doge represents something considered better in the past, and Cheems represents its current, lesser state.[5] The meme became viral in mid-2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.[12][13] In another meme format, Godzilla and King Kong represent two competing concepts, while Cheems armed with a baseball bat is the winning third concept, chasing the other two away.[14]
In 2020, another meme circulated, in which Cheems hits another dog with a baseball bat causing the onomatopoeia "bonk", while saying "go to horny jail"; the meme is posted in response to sexually suggestive messages.[5] The Guardian journalist Caleb Quinley noted this image in protests against the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.[15]
Cheems appeared in several other memes in the Spanish-speaking world, including saying "no puede ser" ("It cannot be") and "me da amsiedad" ("It gives me amxiety" [sic]).[16][17] In 2021, Spain's public broadcaster RTVE wrote "What is clear is that a meme is worth more than a thousand words and Cheems and Doge now form part of Internet popular culture, reinventing themselves constantly to brighten our days or put us in our places".[5] Balltze's owner Kathy's favourite Cheems meme was one in Spanish, in which he takes a bath and says "Could you carry on scrolling? It's just that I'm taking a bamth [sic]".[4]
Kathy initially did not understand the Cheems memes for their absurdist nature. She later signed deals with a management company and an American toy company, as well as making T-shirts which benefitted local canine charities.[4]
Balltze inspired the Cheems (CHEEMS) cryptocurrency as well as a number of "wannabe dog-themed coins" competing against Dogecoin and the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency according to Parth Dubey of the International Business Times.[18]
- Kabosu
- DoggoLingo
- Official website
- Cheems entry at Know Your Meme
