Refers to an image featuring a custom-drawn Emoji with a smiley golden tooth and holding one hand up as if he’s about licking someone. Text reading “Dab Me up” is also included. This image quickly became a very popular reaction photo on Twitter. It was accompanied by text reading, “Dab Me Up.” The mobile game Mafia City is where the emote was created.
Mafia City: “Stronger than You” Emote
The “Dab Me Up Emoji”, which is an emote that originated in the mobile game Mafia City, was created by their art team. It is also known as the “Stronger than You” emote and used to taunt players via the in-game chat. On January 7, 2019, ME.MEcollected a macro image that featured a screenshot of an emote used in Mafia City’s chat.
On January 27th, 2020, Redditor u/richm random posted an image to /r/comedyheavenfeaturing the emote with the words “imaging vaccinating your children” in response to an anti-vax Facebook page, garnering over 63,000 upvotes in a year (shown below). “Dab Me Up”
Soon, the emote was shared on Discord. The image was posted by DoubleJ TheG on January 25, 2021. It shows a grainy image with an additional hand holding the emote up like he is about to shave someone. The origin of the hand is not known.
YouTuber DoubleJTheG posted the video on the same day. They used the Dab Me Up Emoji to spam an Instagram group chat and were kicked out. The video has over 91,000 views (shown below).
Urban Dictionary defines Dab Me Up as “a sweet handshake and grab, then pull out with an slide snap.”
Spread Dab Me Up
Twitteruser Schleepy SSBU posted a Dab Me Up Emoji under a tweet on January 29, 2021. Later that day, FUNDIES platinum posted a mirror image of the image and text saying, “I gotchu Fam”, as if ready to dab the Emoji back.
The same day, ItsAxel meme uploaded an image photoshopping two Dab Me Up emoticons onto the Behind the Reddit Stock Market Frenzy Newscast format. This resulted in over 3,400 likes, 100 retweets, and a total of 3 months.
Twitteruser goodkidd ropout replied to a comment from =ItsAxel meme, offering the original meme along with a new mirror photoshop of it. This time, the text “ight” is included.
Over the next few months, Twitter users continued to use emojis, often getting replies with edited, mirrored emojis to their dabs. YouTuber Benson uploaded “Dab Up” on January 31st. It shows the emojis rubbing each other. The video garnered more than 22,000 views in just two months (shown below).
Twitteruser Sweaty Gamer9 replied to the original Dab Up Emoji post on March 8th with an original image of two emojis rubbing each other (shown below). Twitter user react jpg posted a series emojis on March 9th with an original photoshop showing the two of them rubbing each other. This got over 170 likes (shown below) and 20 retweets within four days.
SaintlyGhost78, an iFunnyuser, uploaded a meme with the emoji on the same day. It received over 11,600 smiles in just four days (shown here). She added the golden tooth the next day and shared it as a comment to the original tweet.
Thecreator_wav, a Twitteruser, posted a photoshop of an emoji that replaced the text “Dab Up” with “*grabs you balls*” on March 23rd. It received over 4,700 likes and 360 replies in less than a month.
DoubleJTheG uploaded a second “Dab Me up” video to YouTube on April 15th. It received over 975,000 views within a month
