It's not a dead project. It started as a joke... and never pretended to be anything else. So, as a project, it's pretty successful since it achieved its goals.
However, as an investment, I see it as financial suicide:
"100 billion coins have been in circulation by mid 2015 with an additional 5.256 billion coins every year thereafter. Unlike deflationary cryptocurrencies (like bitcoin), there is no limit to how many Dogecoins can be produced. This puts Dogecoin in the same league as other inflationary coins."