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Among all the new villagers, shops, and items revealed for Animal Crossing: New Horizons' free November update was the Froggy Chair, and it has led the internet fandom to run wild with memes and celebration. On the surface, Animal Crossing's Froggy Chair is just a simple green chair with a frog's face. To fans, though, the chair has practically become an icon of the Animal Crossing series.
The chair is part of the froggy set, which has only two pieces: the chair itself and a lily-pad table. This set has been around since the original game and has been in Animal Crossing: Wild World, City Folk, and New Leaf, so the chair is far from new and has actually existed since the N64 game in 2001. As for its rise to meme and game icon, that did not happen until way later in 2019.
How The Humble Froggy Chair Became A Star
The wholesome fame of the Froggy Chair began with Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was released in 2012, and two years later, the Froggy Chair was put on a website called NewLeafHQ, which is a resource site for gamers looking for information about various items in the game. It simply showed a picture of the Froggy Chair and its price of 1,440 Bells.
Fast forward to Tumblr in 2019, November 12th. A post was made using the NewLeafHQ Froggy Chair image along with a meme of Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War saying "A small price to pay for salvation." The post exploded in popularity, reached Reddit, and a picture of Thanos was later added on with him sitting on the Froggy Chair. More memes started to be made, with Thanos instead saying "A small price to pay for Froggy Chair" rather than "for salvation." Another example is when young Gamoora in Infinity War asks Thanos "What did it cost?", there is a picture of Froggy Chair and Thanos replies "1,440 Bells."
These Animal Crossing memes were the catalyst of Froggy Chair's popularity. Since combining the wholesomeness of Froggy Chair with Thanos' dire lines, the Animal Crossing furniture piece became a meme icon. Independent fan artists made Froggy Chair fan art, pins, patches, stickers, bags, jewelry and so much more. Even when the chair was not available in the original Animal Crossing: New Horizons, fans created custom designs with the chair. In fact, it is likely that the lack of Froggy Chair in New Horizons only made fans love it all the more.
The popularity of the meme has a lot to do with the humor that makes sites like Reddit and Tumblr so popular. Popular memes often combine two opposing forces, like a light and silly quote from an innocent game being paired with a dark image for a horror movie. This is what happened with the Froggy Chair, as it is a wholesome furniture piece from an innocent Nintendo game that got paired with Thanos from a heavy, dark, and action-oriented Marvel movie.
The Story Of Froggy Chair And Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Nintendo gave fans a ton of news on October 15th, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will get a free update in November with Brewster's coffee shop, new villagers, food recipes, more items to grow, and more shops. However, the fans immediately latched onto an image that showed a room in possession of the Froggy Chair. Then, the Froggy Chair was shown again, this time in two different colors of green and yellow. So not only did Froggy Chair return but there are subtle hints that it can now be acquired in more colors.
The return of Froggy Chair truly shows that Nintendo pays attention to its fans. After all, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was near completion in 2019 when the meme rocketed the amphibious chair to fame. By that time, it was likely too late to add Froggy Chair into the game. Now, along with so much else fans have asked for, the Froggy Chair can be placed in player homes. They can look upon their chair, think of all the waiting they have done since New Horizons first came out, and finally get to say the line, "A small price to pay . . . for Froggy Chair."
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for the Nintendo Switch and the free update will be released on November 5th.