pogu meaning and origin

PogU Twitch Emote Meaning & Origin

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Last Updated on 04/11/2021 by Dean

What does PogU mean on Twitch?

PogU is a variant of the original PogChamp emote. The PogU emotes features Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez’s face doing a surprised wide-mouth expression. This emote is used when something cool or exciting is happening on stream. It’s also used to hype up a particular moment.

The word POG means ‘play of the game’.

Since the original PogChamp emote was removed from Twitch and Ryan’s face was replaced with a lizard, the PogU emote has risen in popularity.

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Origin of PogU emote on Twitch

The PogU emote is a variant based on the original PogChamp emote which was added to Twitch back in 2012.

PogU can only be found on browser extensions such as FrankerFacez and BTTV.

The original emote featured Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez’s face doing a surprised expression on camera. The original PogChamp was taken from a video, seen below, where Ryan is seen reacting to the cameraman tipping over his tripod.

This infamous reaction became the face that Twitch added as the original PogChamp emote back in 2012.

The PogChamp emote immediately took off among the Twitch community and quickly became one of the top emotes used on Twitch.

Due to the emote popularity, the naming ‘PogChamp’ became a very popular slang word on Twitch and is frequently used by small and big streamers. Chess.com even started a Twitch chess tournament and named it PogChamps because of how popular the name is.

Variants of the name are also frequently used such as POG and POGGERS.

Because of how popular PogChamp had become, many variants started being uploaded to FrankerFaceZ and BTTV.

In case you didn’t know, FrankerFaceZ and BTTV are browser extensions that allow users to upload emotes that can then be integrated with Twitch.

PogU was one of those variants which was added to FrankerFaceZ in 2018. The PogU variant was created from the same blooper video the original variant was taken from but in a different angle.

Currently, over 77,000 channels allow the PogU emote from FrankerFacez. According to Stream Elements, the PogU emote has been used over 135,000,000 times.

In 2021, the original PogChamp emote, which was a global Twitch emote, was removed from Twitch.

Twitch made this decision because they believes the face of the emote, Gootecks, was inciting violence after the events that happened in the US Capitol on January 6th.

1 month later, Twitch re-uploaded the PogChamp emote but switched the face of the emote from Gootecks to a wide-mouthed lizard.

If you want to read the full origin of the PogChamp emote and why it was banned, you can read our article on the PogChamp emote.

How to get PogU emote on Twitch

If you want to get PogU on Twitch, you will have to install the Better Twitch TV browser extension. We have a separate article dedicated to the installation of BTTV. Here’s the TL;DR:

  1. Go to BetterTTV.com select your browser and download the browser extension, you can then see the emotes on supported Twitch channels.
  2. To configure your BTTV options, head on over to the chat of any Twitch streamer (they don’t have to be live) and hit chat settings, where you can personalize your BTTV settings. You want to enable FrankerFaceZ emotes so you can see their emotes as well.

If you wish to add the PogU and other emotes to your OWN Twitch channel, you can do so by signing in to BTTV using your Twitch credentials and authorizing your Twitch account. Next, you can head over to the emote list and add PogU to your Twitch channel.

Afterward, your viewers will then be able to use the PogU emote on your Twitch channel and they will see it if they have BTTV installed as a browser extension (which the majority does already anyway).

When to use PogU on Twitch

If you want to hype up a situation, you can use the PogU emotes or its variants Pog and PogChamp.

PogU Variants

EmoteHow to use thisMeaning
PogChampThis is a global Twitch emotePogChamp is the original emote. It used to feature Gootecks’ face but it was replaced by a lizard in 2021 due to controversy.
PogFrankerFaceZ / BTTVPog is a close-up of the original PogChamp emote from Twitch.
PauseChampFrankerFacez / BTTV
WeirdChampBTTVWeirdChamp is used whenever you are in disbelief or are dissapointed.
PainsChampFrankerFaceZ / BTTVPainsChamp is a close-up of Ryan Gutierrez’s face in a painful expression. This emote could be used to express pain but it’s mainly used in sarcastic manner.

PogU emote banned

Since the Ryan Gutierrez controversy, FrankerFaceZ has removed every emote based on the PogChamp emote and Gootecks’ face.

You can still see the PogU emote on BTTV.

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