Down Boy

Meme
Synonyms:	Down Boy
Date Started:	2025
Related:	Ship Dynamic (Art Meme)
See Also:
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"Down Boy" is a redraw art meme based on a comic panel. The meme usually features two members of a ship, one of them saying "Down Boy!", and the other barking.

The original comic panel comes from an Archie Comics publication in which the character Veronica Lodge commands, "Down boy!!" at Archie Andrews and points to the floor, while Archie obeys, shown in crouched in a sitting position and saying, "Arf!" like a dog.

Examples

Arcane

• art by DominiqueGioo, featuring steb/scar.

Castlevania

• art by azeitchenko, featuring Trevor Belmont/Sypha Belnades

Conclave

• DOWN BOY! meme but make it benitesco by SteinWanda, featuring vincent benitez/goffredo tedesco

Dungeon Meshi

• art by kamiyaaaaaa_218, showing labru.

Homestruck

• art by tin-bt, on dirkjake.
• dirkjake's your art trends by docileroamer, redrawing jadevris.

Project Sekai

• down boy trend with ichishiho, ^{Archived version} by ruxxifystars, redrawing IchiShiho.

Stardew Valley

• art by asophiamills, drawing an OC with Sam.
• art by qube-aga, redrawing Farmer/Mr. Qi
• art by alekk2018, redrawing Farmer/Sebastian

Sonic the Hedgehog

• art by crowcage, redrawing Sonic x Shadow
• Down boy!! but make it metamy by inezisa, redraw featuring metamy.

Team Fortress 2

• art by casserpillarr.

Racism controversy

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Overall, public controversy and discourse seem to be very rare occurrences for this meme, across many fandoms.

There have been some complaints of racism in response to the depiction of lighter-skinned characters commanding "Down boy!", and darker-skinned characters obeying and barking. Some report observing a disproportionate trend of racebending headcanons in which fan artists have changed the canon skin colors in their depictions of the characters, so that a canon light-skinned character is dark-skinned when playing the dog-like role in the "Down Boy!" meme.

These complaints may be based on making connections between this meme and a long history of racialized arts and culture that idealize lighter-skinned people as enlightened and rightfully dominant, coupled with darker-skinned people as animalistic and subservient.

Fan artists usually have no intention of spreading racist ideology. In the case of racebending headcanons, fan artists commonly intend to increase racial diversity and counter racism in art. In many cases, the artists have had these skin color headcanons before the "Down Boy" meme. However, some would argue that an artist's intent may not always dismiss the racialized influences, implications, and impacts of art.

Some believe at least some of the racism complaints could be concern trolling, or false accusations intended to fuel harassment^{editor's note: specify, what kind?} against artists.

See also: Race and Fandom

Example: Draculaura/Clawd fan art

In one example, some Twitter (also known as X) users have had a tense exchange over "Down Boy!" art depicting the Monster High character Draculaura and her canon boyfriend, Clawd Wolf. As in various canon media, Draculaura is a pale vampire whose ethnicity has been presented as white Romanian or biracial Taiwanese-Romanian, and Clawd is a werewolf whose race has been presented as Black or Afro-Latino. In this piece of fan art, Draculaura is in the command role and Clawd is in the dog role.

Some users complained this fan art of "Down Boy!" was racist.

Other users counterargued the art was not racist because it's inspired by the canon of Clawd having shown some dog-like behaviors, as he is a werewolf—presuming the "Down Boy!" meme connects the dog-like behavior only to his canon werewolf status, and not to the character's skin color or race. Some have claimed that the racism complaints are unfair accusations based in ignorance, and the complaints would be disproved by knowledge of the original canon.

One user shared GIFs from a Monster High movie as evidence of Clawd's dog-like behavior in canon, depicting a scene in which Draculaura comforts Clawd by calling him a "good boy" while he makes puppy eyes.

Another user replied to the racism complaint with: "under any normal circumstance i would agree with you, but this is quite literally their entire dynamic😭".

Another user wrote: "why do yall^{editor's note: who?} make everything abt skin colour CALM DOWN".

Another claim implies that Draculaura having an East Asian parent could also be necessary context in the racism discussion.^{editor's note: clarification needed? how? why?}

[summary by Aliandry on Discord]
Art meme where one part of a pairing yells “down boy” to their counterpart who usually barks. The person was saying it was racist because the partner who barked was of a darker skin colour/brown. They had a screengrab of about 4 of the memes that all featured this dynamic.

People were being harassed
The artists had to apologise after the harassment
The harassment continued

[Aliandry]
It seems that accusations and finger pointing stops once the doggy/puppy dynamic is explained, sometimes if the perceived ethnicities of the characters are also explained in depth (Draculaura being Asian, for example, her counterpart being a literal werewolf)

It seems many people aren’t aware the point is the puppy dynamic

More examples/incidents

• Children today! Can we spot the pattern? deleted tweet by khrunchie
• WRAP THIS TREND THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW tweet by bloupriint
• “down boy/girl!” trend was a mistake tweet by mOoVtUiLvATION