How the 'lone alpha wolves' meme took over the internet and became an unofficial Gen Z mascot

• Over the last few years, wolf memes have become increasingly popular among Gen Zers.
• The latest TikTok obsession involves users and brands roleplaying as "alpha wolves."

If cat memes dominated the 2000s, and the internet was obsessed with doge-like dogs in the 2010s, then the 2020s' unofficial internet mascot is the wolf.

Illustrations of the animal staring solemnly at the night sky are the soundtrack to rap music. Verified brand accounts are even jumping on the trend, like this recent TikTok from ice cream brand Drumstick pretending to transform into an "alpha wolf." Men online have even created a new personality type called the "sigma wolf," where they seem to revel in being enigmatic outsiders.

The wolf, which has long been a fixture of folklore like the "Big Bad Wolf," or real-life tropes like the solitary alpha wolf who leaves the pack, is now the face of niche, surrealist Gen Z humor.

The wolf has become an unofficial mascot for Gen Z's humor and looming loneliness

Its renaissance is both in Gen Z's partially ironic embrace of furry culture and a growing sense of isolation for the young, internet-raised generation. Because Gen Z's growth has been stunted by a global pandemic that forced everyone to stay inside and created the highest rates of loneliness, the "lone wolf" has become their poster child.

The most popular wolf drawings can be traced back to a single person: the DeviantArt user @WolfRoad. Starting in the early 2010s, the pseudonymous illustrator began uploading pictures that are still widely used today. Her most renowned is titled "Voices," which features an intricately drawn human-like wolf sitting next to a tree, gazing thoughtfully off into a turbulent horizon. The replies are packed with recent comments like, "HOLY SHIT I FOUND THE ORIGINAL!!!"

An early hub for wolf memes was the Facebook group Sentimientos De Un Lobo Solitario, according to the digital culture database KnowYourMeme. Since the Spanish-language page launched in 2015, members posted constant wolf illustrations, sometimes inscribed with Minions-core inspirational quotes, like, "Whatever it takes, I will achieve my goals."

The trend has carried over to TikTok in more recent days, where people have made melodramatic tributes pretending they're "howling through the pain."

The latest TikTok trend involves users and brand pages pretending to transform into alpha wolves. The creator @willuzi — who recently deleted all of his videos for reasons unknown — was the first to popularize the meme by using the augmented reality "Alpha Werewolf Transformation" filter in 2021. His wolf-transformation persona was meant to be intentionally cringe, setting the blueprint for many of the TikTok wolf memes to come.

Brands have also begun participating — which some users argued has sapped the fun out of the meme entirely. In September, numerous companies, like Axe, Drumstick, Miniso (plush toys), and O'Reilly Auto Parts have made clips pretending to be "alpha wolves" saving "kittens" from harm. It's become so widespread that the US PGA Tour even made their own joke TikTok meme.

The problematic way some wolf memes have been co-opted by online men's groups

While many of these memes are harmless and fun, there is a slightly dark underbelly to it. In recent years, wolves have been adopted by men's groups, like the "sigma males," who promote philosophies like isolation and going rogue.

Over the last few years, the term "sigma" has become popular in these circles to characterize people who aren't alphas or beta types — but a third type. Sigma males are described as lone wolves who "go their own way," writes the site The Adult Man. They rarely hang around people, but are respected for their stoicism, intellect, or self-possessed nature. For some sigma males, the fictional banker-turned-unhinged killer Patrick Bateman from "American Psycho" is considered a hero. Rather than interpreting the film as a critique of his character, self-identified sigma males look to him as a role model. (Other popular sigma males include Vladimir Putin and Steve Jobs.)

The "lone wolf" trope has become indelibly attached to the sigma male aesthetic. The imagery is all over their YouTube videos and thumbnails. Fans have even designed sigma wolf-themed clothing. The prevalence of people identifying with lone wolves could speak to an underlying sense of social anomie, where people are trying to gussy up their solitude with the mask of hypermasculinity.

Still, wolf memes live on in niche irony, and have even found their way to the music industry

Luckily, the dominant strain of canis lupus content has remained benign and surreal. Wolf memes have even become associated with certain music fandoms, like the collective Drain Gang, whose dreamily melancholic pop-rap makes listeners imagine they themselves are wolves listening in peaceful solitude. Wolf imagery has become so popular that people are creating collections of "wolf staring at the moon" pictures and having to defend the obsession to people who don't get it.

My favorite wolf trend involves the rapper Destroy Lonely, whose enigmatic artistic persona is like a real-life embodiment of the lone wolf meme. Fans have created numerous clips using his song "If Looks Could Kill" and images of wolves to both pay tribute to him and satirize the way he's branded himself.

Ironically, against the principles of sigma males and urging people to act antisocial and wallow in isolation, the meme has brought more fanbases together.