Music

Crazy Frog Is Now A Trans Icon, According To This Very Odd And Elaborate Twitter Joke

Crazy Frog did not say 'trans rights', but didn't not say 'trans rights', either.

by Jared Richards  12 November 2019
Is Crazy Frog trans?

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Earlier this year, Crazy Frog was presumed dead, as nostalgic lurkers realised his last proper in-character tweets were from 2009, writing that he had contracted swine flu.

But now, a small pocket of the internet is saying that Crazy Frog is trans, citing a series of articles and official-seeming tweets. #CrazyFrogTrans took off on Twitter after @NiallSnipars today shared a screenshot of apparent message from Warner Music asking him to use “she/her” pronouns when referring to the frog.

Niall had tweeted to ponder why the Crazy Frog had “his dick out in the music video” for ‘Axel F’, his 2005 banger. Supposedly, Warner Music supposedly had tabs on the frog’s name, and were eager to offer up some info on the frog’s journey, perhaps explaining why the frog’s genitals change from image to image.

“Hi Niall,” the screenshot reads. “It may not answer your question, but The Crazy Frog is now officially classed as a Non-binary Trans Woman, so please refer to her as such from now on.”

With this, a small pocket of Twitter ran wild: some celebrated the frog’s bravery, while others spewed transphobia. Soon, screenshots of articles by Breitbart News and videos by Now Next circulated both disparaging and celebrating the frog’s label-offered announcement, with conservatives forgetting that actual frogs can ‘naturally’ change their sex at will.

Elsewhere, users were sharing screenshots from Crazy Frog’s supposed Facebook account, which takes a page out of J.K. Rowling’s book to say “The Crazy Frog has never truly conformed to any gender”.

A new trans icon was in front of us all along — a self-defined annoying thing who, like Arca, explores her gender through embracing the monstrous. Or a way for a forgotten novelty to regain relevance in 2019 and receive a spike in ironic streak revenue?

But it all falls apart with a bit of research: Warner Music never signed The Crazy Frog — let alone kept its contract going till 2019. He was signed to Sony imprint Ministry Of Sound, releasing three albums between 2005 and 2009. If you dare search Breitbart News, you’ll find no article about the left ruining Crazy Frog; the Now Next video comes from a parody account, seemingly made for this purpose. It’s quite an elaborate joke.

Why? Well, maybe Crazy Frog’s history helps explain it. He was first created by Swedish designer Erik Werquist in 2003, inspired to make a character around an audio clip of a then-teenage boy Daniel Malmedahl pretending to be an engine on Swedish TV — proof that content has always been bad.

Related
Lady Gaga Keeps Tweeting Weird 'Memes', And We're A Little Obsessed

It soon made its way to ringtone company Jamba!, who turned it into a ringtone that was advertised ad nauseam on television. Somehow, in addition to his three albums, Crazy Frog had two video games and toured Australia for a series of mall concerts. In an incredibly unappealing image, this disgusting frog was absolutely milked dry.

If Crazy Frog wasn’t dead from swine flu, his overlords would probably push him back into the spotlight with a stunt. In 2019, that probably means jumping on a social trend, and given that just today a three-decade spanning cinematic lesbian love story went viral for its end reveal as a 3-minute ad for Renault Clio’s new car, it’s not a far-stretch to imagine a ringtone company flogging a dead frog by co-opting queerness to generate headlines.

Crazy Frog would be far from the first, either: beyond Renault, you merely need to check out the rainbow brands seen on the @unhappypride Instagram.

And just as the response to the video is divided (with some calling it a sign of how far we’ve come, others finding it reprehensible to equate repressed love’s journey to a car “three decades in the making”), not everyone’s in on the joke, with some sincerely congratulating a fictional frog for coming out as trans. Finally, the representation we need.

Revisit Crazy Frog’s ‘Axel F’ below to examine its trans subtext.