Chill Guy

The artwork was created by the North Carolinian artist Phillip Banks, which according to Banks' Tumblr account, is a pseudonym. It consists of a brown dog with a human figure, wearing a grey crew neck sweater, blue jeans, and dirty red Converse shoes. He is smirking with his hands in his pocket, with the caption written by Banks that he is a "chill guy". but according to Banks, he was not based on anything in particular. As for the artwork's name, Banks tweeted on September 2, 2024, that he disliked the use of the name My new character as opposed to Chill Guy, which was his original intention for the piece. == History ==

On October 4, 2023, Banks posted the original image on Twitter with the caption "my new character. his whole deal is he's a chill guy that lowkey doesn't give a fuck" . According to the Indian English-language newspaper Times Now News, the meme likely resonated online because it was a playful but relatable piece which "encourag[es] people to focus on themselves", remain stress-free, and approach life with a "laid-back attitude", Between the two social media platforms, the original posts by Banks have received over 100 thousand likes and over ten thousand reposts. The meme coin, which was launched on Solana earlier on November 15, was made by anonymous creators without permission from Banks. The coin's growth was driven in part by a post from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele on his official Twitter account, Another reason credited to the artwork's increased in popularity came after the creation of Chill Girl on November 17 by the TikTok user Stopscrolling_22, which features Chill Guy with superimposed long hair. The result was a sudden spike of memes using the artwork on social media, which saw a greater focus on male mental health. Large corporations and entities, including the German athletic apparel company Adidas, the American basketball bracket March Madness, the American football channel NFL on CBS, the European distributor for Sprite, and the food delivery service Uber Eats all used the artwork in their own posts. Despite the success of the artwork, Banks wrote on his Twitter account on November 21, 2024, that he had copyrighted it. Banks further stated he had issued notice and take downs against "mainly unauthorized merchandise and shitcoins" using the artwork for profit; stating "I do not, and will never, endorse or condone any crypto-related projects involving my work," but clarified this did not impact brand accounts using the artwork as a trend. Soon after issuing the notice, Banks was subsequently doxed, prompting him to set his Twitter account to private to avoid further harassment. These controversies caused the price of $CHILLGUY coin to drop to about half of what it was worth before ($220 million). == Legacy ==

of the artwork At the end of 2024, the artwork was regarded as one of the top ten best memes of 2024 by the American newspaper USA Today, and one of the top eight best by the Indian digital media company ScoopWhoop. The piano piece "Hinoki Wood" by Gia Margaret, often paired with the meme on social media, peaked at the number two spot of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for the week of December 7, 2024. The song, which had a "laid-back" tone compared to the drill music the group traditionally made, became one of their most successful, and was partially responsible for inspiring them to switch away from drill. Sometime after the controversies surrounding $CHILLGUY, Banks began the sale of plush toys of the artwork. From April 11 to May 5, 2025, a Chill Guy-themed pop-up retail existed at Festival Walk shopping center in Hong Kong. The event, which claimed to be official, included inflatables and sculptures of the artwork, as well as sold clothing and collectable items with the artwork on it. == See also ==