Question Hound Says, 'This is Fine.'

Do you recall that the meme 'This is Fine' derived from American artist and cartoonist KC Green's 2013 six-panel 'On Fire'. When you see this meme, this is so NOT FINE. Ooof. Apparently it has been 10 years since this meme took social media and set it... on fire. 

The dog is named Question Hound, and he still appears in KC Green's webcomic 'Funny Online Animals'. But the dog might not be around for much longer in its future storyline. I don't follow 'Funny Online Animals', although I do see posts being shared on IG and such. Not of the meme, but of his other works. 

In an interview with NPR's Emma Bowman published on January 16, 2023, KC Green thanks Question Hound for making him enough money to continue drawing for a living.  

Though his creation has taken on a life of its own, Green accepts it as a natural consequence of what it means to create content online.

He thinks his comic panel has resonated with so many people for so many years because of its simplicity.

"I made it vague on purpose," he said. "Like any good piece of art, people interpret it how they want to."

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Now after 10 years of using the famous dog in his comics to project his own thoughts and feelings, Green tells NPR that he might be ready for a new chapter. 

The Atlantic's Megan Garber wrote that by 2016, people were really identifying with the dog. Everyone used it, for elections, climate change, mass shootings, curtailed rights, et cetera. She wrote, "Question Hound’s cheerful inertia began to read as a proxy for a shared sense of helplessness: flames everywhere, and nowhere to go."

The Washington Post's Kelsey Ables wrote a piece titled, '10 Years Later, 'This is fine' Meme Creator Wants to Put Out the Fire', published on January 17, 2023. With the pandemic and some crazy world events, everyone's finding hard to do, and using this meme to express our mental state is more apt than ever. It feels like your city and your country are both burning. She couldn't have put it better when it comes to the demographic who would happily use the meme,

Stressed college kids, irked congressmen, dispirited crypto bros and disillusioned Christian bloggers have all seen themselves or their situations in the dog. Wearing his tidy little hat and staring at his sad little coffee cup, he has become the internet’s patron saint of denial, a hero of helpless resignation.

I have used that meme a number of times too, to express helplessness in a situation not within my control. But I have also used it as a form of sarcasm, and to the tune of 'I don't really care'. I might have sent it over a few work emails to indicate frustration by way of a reply to someone asking for my opinion on a complex matter. It was hilarious when the recipients replied with other memes. 

While KC Green might retire Question Hound soon in the webcomic's storyline, I'm certain that the viral meme will resurface once in a while, in the manner how all good memes do. The Washington Post said that the meme is indeed indicative of this turbulent decade defined by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and the subsequent resounding global fallout. 

That is the surreal feeling the comic most poignantly captures. Driving to work under a violent orange sky as wildfires burn in the distance. Stopping at the grocery store to buy milk, mid-insurrection. Walking your dog to the tune of blaring ambulances at the height of covid. 

This is fine, we tell ourselves to get by. This is fine, we say when we know it most definitely is not. 

And yet, there is something comforting about having an image to return to in helpless moments, Green said — as if by empathizing with a cartoon dog, we are all exhaling together. 

“For me, it was my feelings about getting my medication right. For some kids, it was about finals. For some, it was about Trump getting elected. For some, it was about covid,” he said. 

“It’s kind of nice. It creates a kind of community.”