About

The Gainax Pose (Japanese: ガイナ立ち, Gaina Dachi; lit. “Gainax Standing Pose” or “Gainastance”), also known as “Gunbuster Pose” in the English-speaking web^[1], refers to an iconic pose often appearing on anime franchises produced by a Japanese anime studio Gainax.^[2] The concept of this cool and commanding pose has been shared among anime otakus since late 2000s, and it’s a popular subject on illustrators communities.

Origin

The first appearance of this pose, later called as “Gainax Pose”, is a scene in the 4th episode of original animation video (OAV) Gunbuster^[3] released by Gainax in 1988-89, where Gunbuster is standing with its arms crossed and coming up to deck of a space warship slowly in its first launch (shown, below, left). This robot’s pose also appears on later episodes along with the protagonist’s same pose with her face filled with strong determination against the battle for the future of the earth (shown below, right).

As same as many other scenes and settings in the anime, this pose is also the homage to a panel in the 2nd title of Getter Robo^[4] series, Getter Robo G^[5], written by Ken ishikawa in 1975, where Getter Dragon standing on the head of a metal beast Uzala is coming up from under the sea with its arms crossed in the final battle.

Spread

This pose began to catch an attention among anime otakus by two Gainax’s works in the middle of 2000s. One is the sequel OAV for the anime Diebuster^[6] released in 2004-2006. Since main characters struck this pose in many highlights as the self homage to the original Gunbuster and its pilots, this pose became to be recognized as an iconic pose of that anime studio among viewers of the anime. The name “Gainax Pose” was originally coined to refer that pose in Diebuster by them.

Gainax Pose in Diebuster

The other is 2007 TV anime Gurren Lagann that scenario was written by Kazuki Nakashima^[7], the well-known follower of Ken Ishikawa and Getter Robo series. Since “Gainax Pose” is often cited as the signature pose also in this smash hit anime in that year, its moniker and concept came to be shared among many Japanese anime viewers.

Gainax Pose in Gurren Lagann

By establishment of presence as the pose holding special meanings and atmospheres, “Gainax Pose” is known as a popular motif for illustrations in online illustrators communities. Fan creations or parodies of characters striking “Gainax Pose” have been continually posted to the Japanese illustrators communities pixiv^[8] and Nico Nico Seiga^[9] since the middle of 2008. And, some of them are reprinted to Tumblr.^[10]

Notable Examples

Manner

“Gainax Pose” doesn’t means a simple arm-crossed pose. It’s recognized that these 3 points are important to be called as “Gainax Pose” in the illustrators communities.

• Atmosphere of the stately appearance
• Character’s commanding look filled with strong determination or pride
• Excessive visual effects by winds, smoke, flames, splashes, lights, particles, etc…

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original illustrations listed in this section.

About

The Misadventures of Skooks is a series of YouTube Poops (YTP) remix videos based on original footage from the animated children’s TV show Scooby-Doo. Upon its debut in 2011, the series was met with widespread acclaims from the YTP community for their high-quality production and comedic values, as well as its abundance of quotable soundbites. In the fall of 2014, the series saw a resurgence in popularity on 4chan’s /co/ and /v/ boards, though its high-volume influx into the latter site has led many users to consider it a form of shitposting.

Origin

On July 27th, 2011, YouTuber Orpheusftw^[1] uploaded a video titled “YTPeen: The Misadventures of Skooks – Part 1/5" using sampled footage from Scooby-Doo. As of October 2014, the video has gained over 420,000 views.

Spread

On August 15th, 2011, the second video in the series was uploaded, as of October 2014, the video has gained over 340,000 views. The third video was uploaded on December 7th, 2011, as of October 2014, the video has gained over 440,000 views. The fourth video was uploaded on January 9th, 2013, as of October 2014, the video has gained over 240,000 views. The fifth and final video was uploaded on July 19th, 2013, and as of October 2014, the video has gained over 300,000 views.

Swooce

Swooce refers to a scene within second instalment of the series, in which Norville “Shaggy” Rogers announces “watch me swooce right in,” followed by a looped, exaggerated motion as the word “swooce” repeats. The word “swooce” itself is an example of Sus, as Shaggy’s unedited line is “swoop right in.” The phrase “swooce right in” would be used repeatedly in the series, and has evolved to mean any form of dramatic entrance.

Shaggy Dancing

Another joke from the series stems from Shaggy, the character’s movements while flailing have been noted to resemble dancing. Looped and edited, Shaggy is then superimposed onto another scene, typically one of other characters dancing. The dance is commonly paired with the line “you’re shaking it all wrong” from Adventure Time

The Caveman

An iconic gag from the series’ third part features Shaggy rambling nonsensically about a caveman being a sheriff, then forgetting he is not frozen in a block of ice. The monologue has become something of a copypasta, and is second only to “swooce” in the sheer volume of posts it has inspired.

Search Interest

External References

About

Pepe the Frog is an anthropomorphic frog character from the comic series Boy’s Club by Matt Furie. On 4chan, various illustrations of the frog creature have been used as reaction faces, including Feels Good Man, Sad Frog, Angry Pepe, Smug Frog and Well Meme’d.

Origin

In 2005, artist Matt Furie created the comic series Boy’s Club, which stars the teenage monster characters Pepe, Brett, Andy and Landwolf.^[2]

In early 2008, a comic in which Pepe pulls his pants down to his ankles in order to urinate was popularized on 4chan’s /b/, (random) board, along with the expression “Feels good man.”

Spread

Throughout 2008, Pepe was mostly associated with the “Feels Good Man” reaction image. In 2009, an edited version featuring a distraught-looking Pepe with the caption “Feels bad man” began circulating as a reaction image on 4chan and the Body Building Forums. On January 25th, 2011, an interview with Furie was published on Know Your Meme, in which he discussed the origins of Pepe the Frog. On June 13th, 2014, the PepeTheFrogBlog Tumblr^[11] blog was launched. On July 23rd, the Pepe the Frog Instagram^[14] feed was created. On October 25th, the /r/pepethefrog^[13] subreddit was launched for content featuring the frog character. On December 7th, a Facebook^[10] page for “Pepe the Frog” was created. On December 18th, the PepeTheFrogNet Tumblr^[12] blog was launched.

Notable Examples

Sad Frog

Sad Frog is an illustration of a depressed-looking Pepe, often accompanied by the text “Feels Bad Man." It is used to denote feelings of failure or disappointment, either by posting the image or using the phrase “feelsbadman.jpg.”

Smug Frog

Smug Frog, also known as Smug Pepe, is a reaction image of a smug-looking version of Pepe (shown below).

Angry Pepe

Angry Pepe, also known as Angry Frog, is a reaction image featuring a hostile-looking variation of Pepe. The image is often accompanied by expressions of rage and intense frustration.

Poo Poo Pee Pee

Poo Poo Pee Pee is the name given to a series of images and comics that feature Smug Pepe committing various unethical acts, typically involving urine or feces. Most commonly found in 4chan’s /r9k/ (robot9000) board, the comics were created as a reaction towards the usage of Pepe’s likeness in various mainstream social media sites. The first instance of the comics can be found on a /r9k/^[7] thread posted on November 16th, 2014, featuring an image of an obese Smug Pepe with the message “Poo poo. Pee pee. Now mommy has to change me.” On November 28th, another comic was posted to r9k^[8] in which Pepe excretes over character Wojak.^[8] On December 24th, the Poo-Poo-Pee-Pee-Frog Tumblr^[9] blog was created.

Nu Pepe

Nu Pepe is an alternate depiction of Pepe in which the frog is drawn with crossed arms and wearing a blue long sleeve shirt. On December 9th, 2014, an image of Pepe resembling the character Javert from Les Misérables was highlighted on the Finnish imageboard Ylilauta^[6] (shown below, left). On January 24th, 2015, an edited version in which Pepe is wearing a Bane mask was posted on the Russian imageboard Два.ч^[5] (shown bellow, middle). On March 1st, an unedited version of the image was posted on 4chan’s /qa/ (question and answer) board,^[4] referring to the reaction image as “nu pepe” and nominating it as “the official meme of /qa/” (shown bellow, right).^[4] The next day, the image was stickied on the [s4s] (shit 4chan says) board.^[3]

Well Meme’d

“Well Meme’d” is an ironic expressioon typically accompanied an exploitable image of a character laughing and saying “Hahaha, great post!” followed by “Well meme’d, my friend!," based off an original comic featuring Pepe wearing a sweater and tie (shown below).

Rare Pepe

Starting in October 2014, /r9k/ users began submitted posts to share “rare” images of Pepe as if they were trading cards.^[17] On March 28th, 2015, a thread was submited to /r9k/^[16] about collecting “rare Pepe images” in order to “flood the market” and depreciate their value.^[16] On March 31st, a /r9k/^[18] user posted an imgur gallery^[15] with over 1,200 pictures of Pepe. In the first week, the gallery received more than 260,000 views. In early April, the collection of Pepe image were listed on eBay, which reached a price of $99,166 before being removed from the site.

On April 3rd, the Internet humor site Smosh^[19] published an article about the rare Pepe images, which subsequently began to appear on other sites like Reddit^[20] and Tumblr.^[21] By April 9th, there were over 230 “rare Pepe” listings on eBay.^[22]

Search Interest

External References

About

The Binding of Isaac is an indie RNG-based adventure video game series created by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. The game, where players control a naked crying child named Isaac, has been notorious for its use of gruesome and religious content, being often described as “potentially blasphemous content”.

Premise

All of The Binding of Isaac games revolve around the same basic plot: The main character, Isaac, lives alone with his mother. However, his mother receives what she believes is a message from God, who tells her to murder her son because he has “become corrupted by sin”. When she goes to do the deed, Isaac discovers a trap door in his bedroom, and escapes his mother to the caverns underneath his house. The game is inspired in the biblical story of the same name, in which God asks Abraham to offer his son Isaac as sacrifice.^[13]

Gameplay

With a similar playing style to the orignal Legend of Zelda games, each level in the game consists of a floor, with monsters that Isaac must kill by using his projectile tears, being also able to pick up items that either change his stats or give him special abilities. These levels, which are random generated, get exponentially harder, and the players must restart the entire game if they die.

History

The Binding of Isaac was first hinted at when developer Edmund McMillen, previously known for games like Super Meat Boy and Gish, released a post concerning it on his blog.^[5] McMillen and Florian Himsl worked on the game during the following months and released it on Steam on September 28th, 2011 as a Flash game.^[1] Half a year after the original game release, the expansion Wrath of The Lamb was relased for Steam, notable for its added content and more complex gameplay.^[2]

Rebirth

At some point of 2014, McMillen announced the developement of a remake, named The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. The game’s main feature was the remake of the sprites in GBA-styled pixel art, also adding more content respect its percursors.^[17] The game, developed and published by the company Nicalis, became available to the public on November 4th, 2014.^[3] On April 1st, 2015, a new expansion for Rebirth called Afterbirth was announced by McMillen on his Tumblr blog.^[8] The expansion, which adds new items, enemies, characters and game mods it’s setted for release on October 30th, 2015.^[4]

Reception

The games received multiple awards, including the PlayStation 2014 Best PS Vita Game of the Year Gold Award, which was awarded to Rebirth.^[11] The game has also been well recieved by players, The Binding of Isaac has with 96% of the user reviews on Steam being positive for The Binding of Isaac and 97% for The Binding of Isaac:Rebirth as of October 9th, 2015.

Controversy

The game has some gruesome elements, and was rejected by Nintendo because of “questionable religious content”.^[9] However, in 2015, the game became accepted onto the Nintendo 3ds, WiiU, and Xbox One consoles, albeit with some edits, anounced by McMillen on May 2015, like using a fig leaf to cover Isaac’s nudity or replacing “God” by “Dog” (shown bellow).^[10]

However, on April 1st, Tyrone Rodriguez, founder of Nicalis, posted various videos of 3DS version gameplays, finally announcing the next day that the game would be uncensored (shown bellow).

Online Relevance

On October 2nd, 2011, a dedicated subreddit was created, gaining over 61,000 subscribers in the next four years.^[7] On June 12th, 2013, a wiki about the game was created.^[6] On the image macros creation page QuickMeme, a template named “First-World Problem Isaac” was created on October 22nd, 2011, with captions usually describing problems that players have experienced while playing the game. As September, 2015, there’s over 350 instances of this advice animal on Quickmeme.^[12]

The game has also inspired several animations. On July 7th, 2012, animator KawaiiPiranha uploaded an animated parody of the game, gaining over 850,000 in the following years. On July 25th, 2012, animator MyFuckinMess uploaded an animation titled “Eyesaac”, gaining over 440,000 views in the following years. The game has been also played by several Let’s Play channels, with some of them being dedicated to it, being Northernlion one of the most notable ones.

Since its release, the series has gained a sizeable following. As October 9th, 2015 the artist community DeviantART leads to over 9,000 results under the keyword “the binding of isaac".^[14] Fandom presence can also be found on other communities like 4chan^[16] or Tumblr.^[15]

Search Interest

External References

About

Agar.io is a web browser-based game where the player must increase the size of of their own circular cell by engulfing other player’s cells and pellets called “Agar”. The game is notable for its simple addictive gameplay. It gets its name from Agar, a substance found in cell walls of certain algae.

History

The Java script-based game was originally created by a user of 4chan’s/v/ (Video Games) board and launched under the domain name Agar.io^[1] per another anonymous poster’s suggeston^[6] on April 28th, 2015. On the the day of its launch, the game began attracting massive attention after it was linked on 4chan. On May 3rd, the game was submitted to Steam Greenlight, where it was promptly approved.^[4]

Gameplay

In Agar.io, the player is a cell with the objective of growing larger by engulfing three types of pellets called Agar as well as other players. The player can split into smaller cells by pressing the space bar or colliding with viruses. The player can also shoot parts of their cell at other players by pressing W.

Features

Custom Skins

Players can apply a skin to their cells by selecting certain hidden keywords as their nickname, including Doge, Wojak, 4chan, 8chan (under 8ch), and 9gag., among many others.

Game Modes

As of May 11th, a new game mode was added where players can play as teams in addition to free-for-all. In the teamplay mode, the players are divided into three teams wherein cells of the same color cannot be engulfed. The leaderboard in this mode was removed in favor of a pie chart showing the three teams total mass. Custom skins are disabled for this mode.

On June 17th, an “Experimental” mode used to test new entities for the game was added, with minor differences from the main game such as brown viruses that spit out Agar that players can consume, and also break down players that go into them.

On July 12th, Party Mode, Facebook profile linking, and endgame stats. were added to the game. The party mode allows players to play with friends (Or enemies) on a server with other players. The facebook profile login starts the player with extra mass and the player can level up to start with more mass. The endgame stats display statistics of the players game once they die (Mass, time alive, cells eaten, etc.)

Online Presence

A subreddit for the game was created at /r/Agario on April 29^[2] and small Russian-language Wikia for the game was created around the same time.^[3] On May 2nd, Let’s Player ZeRoyalKing uploaded a YouTube video of himself playing the game, which received over 50,000 views over the next few days. On May 3rd, YouTube video game channel Vinesauce uploaded footage from a stream of the game, which gained over 25,000 views.

Reception

Throughout May 2015, the growing popularity of the web-based multiplayer game was reported on by dozens of video game-focused news sites and blogs from all around the world, including BoingBoing^[10] (United States), CHIP^[11] (Germany), Beşer Haber^[12] (Turkey), CanalTech^[13] (Brazil), FOK^[14] (Netherlands) and Playground^[15] (Russian), among many others. As of early June, the game serves between 100,000 to 150,000 simultaneously active players in a 24-hour period.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

Minions are yellow, dwarf-like characters who serve as the mischievous henchmen of the main super-villain protagonist Gru in the American computer-animated comedy film franchise Despicable Me. Since making their debut appearance in the 2010 feature film, the Minions have become a hallmark of the popular film franchise, spawning an extensive line of character merchandises, several short films and even a full-length spin-off prequel film centered around their lives.

Origin

The Minions were first introduced as the supervillain antagonist Gru’s personal army of clumsy but lovable assistants in the original film Despicable Me^[1] (shown below, left). Upon the premiere of Despicable Me in 2010, the film was mostly met with positive reviews from the critics and moviegoers, many of whom also highlighted the adorability of the curious and mischievous Minions for their cute appearance and quirky demeanors. In 2013, the yellow pill-shaped characters made their reprisal in the sequel film Despicable Me 2 (shown below, right), in which the Minions play a larger role in the storyline as some of them are turned into purple-furred mutant savages by another villain Eduardo Pérez.

As the popularity of the minor characters continued to grow, three short films loosely connected to the storyline of Despicable Me were released with the DVD edition that same year, Home Makeover, Orientation Day and Banana, in all of which the Minions are prominently featured as main characters. In July 2012, a simulator ride attraction named Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem opened up at Universal Studios Florida, which features a short film starring the characters. In 2013, an additional set of three short films starring the Minions, Puppy, Panic in the Mailroom, and Training Wheels were released as part of the DVD edition of Despicable Me.

Spread

Fandom

On August 18th, 2013, YouTuber Benjamin Storrusten uploaded a video compilation of the Minions’ most memorable moments from the first two films in the series, accumulating more than 34 million views over the course of approximately two years.

The films Minions, yellow oval shaped creatures that help Gru in the films and are often featured heavily in the films’ trailers, have gained their own following, especially on Tumblr and DeviantArt^[21], where there are over 67,000 submissions under the Minion tag. Fan Artists often put the Minions into different fandoms, like The Simpsons. (shown below, left) Minions are often inserted into already popular image macro memes including Grumpy Cat (center) and Ancient Aliens (right).

Spin-Off Film: Minions

On June 11th, 2015, Minions, the third and prequel to the first two installments in the Despicable Me franchise that focuses on the lives of the titular characters, premiered in London, with the worldwide release scheduled for July 10th, 2015.

During the weeks leading up to the box office premiere in July, a wide variety of Minions-themed merchandises, products and tie-in advertisements began popping up in retail stores and the mainstream media under the largest-scale and most expansive promotional campaign launched by the film’s distributor Universal Pictures in its history. Among the nearly a dozen companies involved in the partnership include McDonald’s, General Mills, Tic Tac, Hostess, Amazon and Kotex, as well as major media and tech companies like the UK’s Sky Broadband and China’s VIVO, as well as Universal’s parent company Comcast.

Anti-Fandom

However, due to their intrusiveness and on multiple products, as well as the insistence to continually use the Minions for advertisements organized by Comcast as well as unrelated motivational posts and images, the minions have similarly gathered an anti-fandom online. Due to the mass publicity and merchandising minions got from Comcast and other brands, multiple people became annoyed and enraged by their intrusion, mostly on Facebook in unrelated motivational quotes.

On June 5th, 2015, the subreddit /r/MinionHate was created in which users post minions intruding in brands as well as social media while having a negative reaction to them.^[2] On June 29th, the popular media site Buzzfeed wrote an article in which it posts multiple instances of people “struggling” with Minion posts.^[3] On July 1st, 2015 BuzzFeed posted an article titled “33 Things that prove minions are officially over”.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

About

Wilhelm Scream is a stock sound effect of a man’s yelp which has been used in hundreds of films and television shows since 1951. The scream is named after the fictional character Private Wilhelm from the 1953 western film The Charge at Feather River.

Origin

In 1951, the Wilhelm scream was first used as a sound effect in the Florida western film Distant Drums, in which a soldier lets out a loud cry while being dragged underwater by an alligator (shown below, left). In 1953, the scream was used in the film The Charge at Feather River, featuring the character Private Wilhelm who lets out the scream when he is struck by an arrow (shown below, right).

In the 1970s, sound designer Ben Burtt nicknamed the sound “Wilhelm scream” when he noticed the effect was used in numerous films. The scream was most likely voiced by actor Sheb Wooley,^[4] who Burtt discovered on a Warner Brothers call sheet for Distant Drums.^[3]

Spread

On June 17th, 2006, YouTuber chrisofduke uploaded a compilation of notable Wilhelm scream clips, gaining over 7.05 million views and 9,500 comments over the next nine years (shown below). On November 8th, 2006, YouTuber HwdLostAndFound uploaded a video in which HollywoodLostAndFound.net^[7] creator Steve Lee explains the history of the sound effect (shown below, right).

On July 1st, 2007, YouTuber snappygallbladder’s channel uploaded another Wilhelm scream compilation, which received more than 1.6 million views and 3,000 comments in the next eight years (shown below, left). On September 6th, YouTuber UnfilteredNoise uploaded a video titled “Scenes that should have the Wilhelm Scream,” featuring edited clips from various films with the Wilhelm scream dubbed over the original footage (shown below, right).

On November 12th, 2008, the single serving site WilhelmScream.net^[5] was launched, featuring a single button which produces the sound effect when clicked. On April 20th, 2011, the CINExcellence YouTube channel posted a montage of Wilhelm scream clips from various films, accumulating upwards of 1.2 million views and 2,300 comments over four years (shown below, left). On February 24th, 2013, YouTuber followthefoot uploaded a video titled “The New Wilhelm Scream,” which featured samples of yelling goats edited over screams from various films (shown below, right).

On March 28th, 2014, Redditor WhatTheFhtagn posted a reactionGIF of actor Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park titled “Whenever they use the Wilhelm Scream in a movie” to the /r/reactiongifs^[6] subreddit, where it gained over 3,200 votes (93% upvoted) prior to being archived (shown below). On November 25th, the facts and trivia site Mental Floss^[3] published an article about the history of the Wilhelm scream. As of February 2015, the Internet Movie Database^[2] lists over 300 titles under the “wilhelm scream” tag.

Notable Examples

Voldemort’s Wilhelm Scream

In the trailer for the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the antagonist Voldemort lets out several screams that sound identical as if the sound effect were reused, leading some to refer to it as “Voldemort’s Wilhelm Scream”. On June 27th, 2011, YouTuber Movies, Music & More! uploaded a video in which Voldemort’s scream from the various Harry Potter films are replaced with the Wilhelm scream (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Nathan Fielder is a Canadian comedian best known for his Twitter pranks and his Dumb Starbucks parody. He currently stars in the Comedy Central comedic show Nathan for You.

Career

In 2007, Fielder became a writer and actor^[6] on the Canadian variety comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes. That following year he and his fellow This Hour Has 22 Minutes writers were nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series and a Writers Guild of Canada Award for Variety Program. He went on to write for two Comedy Central shows, Important Things with Demetri Martin (2010) and Jon Benjamin Has a Van (2011) before gaining his own show with the station, Nathan for You, in 2013.

Online History

Social Media Pranking

Got 2 Grams for $40

Got 2 Grams for $40 refers to a Twitter prank launched by Fielder on April 24th, 2013, that involved encouraging others to text message their parents “got 2 grams for $40," and immediately follow up with a second text asking them to ignore it and tweet a screenshot of their response. The comedian later explained that he devised the idea with the help of Michael Koman, the co-creator of Nathan For You. Within two days, the tweet had been retweeted more than 4,100 times and favorited more than 2,000 times.

If You Think U Gave Someone an STD, Is It Illegal Not to Tell Them?

If You Think U Someone on STD, Is It Illegal Not to Tell Them? referees to a Twitter experiment launched by Fielder on June 6th, 2013. Fielder instructed his Twitter followers to text their parents asking them if it is illegal to not tell a sexual partner that they may have given them a sexually transmitted disease and specify that they were asking for a “friend.” In less than 24 hours, this instructional tweet was retweeted nearly 1,900 times and favorited more than 900 times.

Instagram Troll

On June 1st, 2013 Fielder created an Instagram account.^[3] The first photo he posted was a selfie featuring Fielder in sunglasses which reflected a computer screen with a pornographic image. Fielder’s next three images featured similar subtle reflections of the same pornographic image, reflected in his sunglasses, a CD, and a knife.

On June 23rd, Fielder posted a picture of the e-mail he had gotten from Instagram telling him he had violated Instagram’s community guidelines, which lead to one of his photos (an image in which the pornographic image was reflected in a rearview mirror) being removed. The same day several sites published articles on his trolling photos, including Splitsider^[4] and UpRoxx.^[5] The account has gained over 5,000 followers.

Nathan For You

On February 28th, 2013, the first episode of Nathan Fielder’s show, Nathan For You, premiered on Comedy Central.^[7] The show was a parody of a business consulting reality television show. Nathan, as the show’s main character and its business consultant, attempted to help out real struggling businesses, who were often not sure if his strange, outlandish suggestions for their businesses were real or fake.^[8] Nathan then executes the proposals he makes, often going to extreme lengths to guarantee that his premise succeeds.

Because the show is filmed months before it airs, some of Nathan’s business improvements have made headlines before it was well known that they were part of the show, especially some where external marketing and buyer response were part of the conceit. Some of the more popular examples are below; more in-depth examination can be found in the subreddit devoted to the show.^[12]

Petting Zoo Hero

In the second episode of the show, Fielder proposes to a petting zoo that a viral video may boost their popularity and earn them more visitors.^[9] He constructs an elaborate set and directs a video where a small pig “saves” a goat from drowning – in reality, the pig was running across a plastic course set right underneath a water. An actor yells “goat in the water, goat in the water.”

Posted by the user jebdogrpm on September 19th, 2012 (over six months before the episode featuring it aired), the video acquired over 9.4 million views as of November 3, 2015. A user, now deleted, posted a link to a Liveleak mirror of the video to the popular subreddit, /r/videos, where it earned 3,537 points (96% upvoted).^[10] From the subreddit, the video was consequently picked up by a variety of local and national news broadcasts and publications, often as a “Cute video of the day.” Months later, when the video’s provenance was revealed during the show’s promotional tour, Kelly McBride, the senior faculty for ethics, reporting and writing at the Poynter Institute, called the news media’s willingness to display the video “embarrassing for journalists.”^[11]

Dumb Starbucks

Dumb Starbucks Coffee is the name of a coffee shop that Fielder opened in Los Feliz, California as a parody of the American global coffeehouse chain Starbucks. Upon its opening in February 2014, the store gained much notoriety online after photographs of the storefront began circulating on various social media sites.

Online presence

As of June 2014, Fielder’s Twitter account^[1] has gained over 110,000 followers and his Facebook page^[2] has gained over 4,000 likes.

Search Interest

External References

About

Kappa is a graphic emoticon commonly used by trolls as a postscript to a sentence to convey sarcasm on the live streaming video platform Twitch; it’s popularity has also lead to the emoticon being used as a form of spam.

Origin

The Kappa emote is based on a grey-scale photograph of Josh DeSeno^[1], then an employee of Justin.TV working on the chat client, which was uploaded during the early days of Justin.TV, along with others emotes based on JTV employees.

Spread

As of February 2014, the emote is used 900,000 times on average per day;^[2] by June 2015 this had already increased to around 1 million times on average per day. Twitch has added a total of four emotes featuring Kappa: Kappa (), Keepo (), MiniK () and KappaHD (); another unique Kappa titled KappaRoss, featuring the original with Bob Ross’ hair, was added in October 2015 in celebration of Twitch Creative. On February 18th, 2012, r/kappa/ subreddit was established.^[3] It has got over 13 900 readers. On July 13th, 2014, first submission for Kappa on Urban Dictionary was made,^[4] and on October 13th, the top definition of the “Kappa” emote was submitted by R4D1AT10N.

Notable Examples

ASCII Variation

There’s also a popular ASCII used as a replacement for emoticon variantion:

░░░░▄▀▀▀▀▀█▀▄▄▄▄░░░░
░░▄▀▒▓▒▓▓▒▓▒▒▓▒▓▀▄░░
▄▀▒▒▓▒▓▒▒▓▒▓▒▓▓▒▒▓█░
█▓▒▓▒▓▒▓▓▓░░░░░░▓▓█░
█▓▓▓▓▓▒▓▒░░░░░░░░▓█░
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Search Interest

External References

About

Jimmy Neutron Happy Family Happy Hour is an animated video inspired by the Nickelodeon computer animated TV series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The video gained notoriety on YouTube due to its poorly executed 3D rendering and memorable quotes, including “the pizza is aggressive” and “bond with me, Jimmy.”

Origin

On August 14th, 2013, YouTuber seinfeldspitstain uploaded a computer animated video titled “Jimmy Neutron Happy Family Happy Hour” (shown below), featuring poorly 3D rendered characters from the television series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, with voice over dialogue created with a text-to-speech program. In the video, Neutron’s father kills his mother and forces his son to watch television with him before an “aggressive” pizza is delivered which decapitates him. In the first three months, the video gained over 1.27 million views and 8,900 comments.

Spread

On September 10th, 2013, YouTuber theMariofan345 uploaded the “Jimmy Neutron Family Happy Hour” video played in reverse (shown below, left). On September 13th, YouTuber seinfeldspitstain uploaded another 3D animation titled “The Talk,” in which Neutron talks to his poorly-animated father while his face becomes distorted (shown below, right). In the next two months, the video received more than 125,000 views and 600 comments.

On September 17th, YouTuber greenmegsandham uploaded a recording of several people reacting to the original seinfeldspitstain video (shown below, left). On September 19th, seinfeldspitstain uploaded another Jimmy Neutron-related video containing a slideshow of characters that had died during the course of the television series (shown below, right).

On September 24th, YouTuber jb200930 posted a Hitler reacts remix video in which the German dictator Adolf Hitler rants about the “Jimmy Neutron Happy Family Happy Hour” video (shown below, left). On October 14th, seinfeldspitstain uploaded a sequel video titled “Jimmy Neutron Happy Family Happy Hour 2,” in which Neutron lays in a grave surrounded by headstones with various Internet memes engraved, including over 9000, ermahgerd, arrow to the knee, Le and the cake is a lie (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Matryoshka (Japanese: マトリョシカ) is a song created by Vocaloid producer Hachi, which featured the Vocaloid characters Hatsune Miku and Gumi. After the song was uploaded to the Japanese video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga (NND) during the Summer of 2010, it has managed to become a source of remix and vocal tribute, along with fan art and cosplay inspired by the visual art-style of the video.

Origin

Matryoshka was originally written and composed by Vocaloid producer Hachi^[1] (ハチ), and was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga^[5] on August 19, 2010, along with a reprint to Youtube (shown below) on the same day. The song featured a duet of the Vocaloid characters Hatsune Miku and Gumi while being set to an Alternative Rock sound. The name of the song refers to the Matryoshka^[6] (Russian: матрёшка), which is a wooden nesting doll-set originating from Russia.

One of the most notable and talked-about aspects of the song are the lyrics, as they appear to be nonsensical. Much debate and many interpretations about their true meaning has been brought up since its release. According to a Vocaloid wikia^[2] page for the song, many believe that the lyrics could portray hidden sadden or insanity, while other say it’s about the stress of Gumi and Miku put on by their creators. There is also belief that the song has no true meaning, and that it is meant to be open for interpretations.

Spread

After the song was uploaded to NND, it immediately captured the attention of the Vocaloid community, generating over 1 Million views within its first 32 days, a feat that was reported on the fan-site Vocaloidism^[8] on September 23, 2010. Soon, remixes mimicking the original video and musical covers began appearing on NND, and as of January 2013, more then 7,000 videos^[7] can be found on the site. On the Japanese art community pixiv, fan illustrations intimating the art style of the video has shared, with over 10 thousand submissions^[9] being found on the site.

Western Web

The song has also managed to grasped the attention with western Vocaloid fans as well, with the original Youtube upload (shown above) accumulating over 7 million views and over 2,000 comments in just three years. Reprints from NND can also be found on the video sharing site.^[10] On DeviantART, multiple groups dedicated to Matryoshka has been formed, with the most popular being CrazyMatryoshka^[3], with well over 1000 watchers, and as of January 2013, over 15 thousand fan submissions can be found under the term “matryoshka vocaloid.”^[11]

Notable Examples

Parodies

Musical Covers

Fan Art

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.

About

“No Flex Zone” is a trap song released as the debut single for the American hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd. The track was a commercial success, reaching number 36 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and receiving multiple remixes by notable artists, including Waka Flocka Flame^[1], Nicki Minaj and Pusha T.^[2]

Origin

On May 18th, 2014, the song was released by EarDrummers and Interscope Records as the first single off Rae Sremmurd’s debut album SremmLife.^[3] On August 11th, 2014, the RaeSremmurdVEVO YouTube channel uploaded the official music video for the track, which gained over 111 million views, 500,000 likes and 49,500 comments over the next year.

Spread

On July 25th, 2014, YouTuber SpikeFe released a “No Flex Zone” parody video (shown below, left). On August 15th, YouTuber Tpindell uploaded a parody music video titled “No Sex Zone,” garnering upwards of 800,000 views and 1,200 comments in 10 months (shown below, right).

On August 31st, the RaeSremmurd SoundCloud channel uploaded a remix of “No Flex Zone” featuring Nicki Minaj and Pusha T (shown below). In the next 10 months, the remix gained over 4.7 million plays and 62,000 likes.

On September 26th, 2014, a music video for a “No Flex Zone” remix by the hip hop duo Karmin and rapper George Watsky was uploaded to YouTube (shown below, left). Within nine months, the video accumulated more than 2.5 million views and 34,100 likes. On October 16th, the Karmin and Watsky video was submitted to the /r/listentothis^[5] subreddit. On December 15th, YouTuber ADoseofBuckley ranked Rae Sremmurd’s original version of “No Flex Zone” as the 4th worst song of 2014 (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Solange Knowles’ Choreographed Dance

On November 17th, 2014, Vimeo user Charlotte Hornsby uploaded footage of singer-songwriter Solange Knowles performing a chereographed dance to “No Flex Zone” following her wedding with music video director Alan Ferguson in New Orleans (shown below). In the coming days, the video was reposted by various news sites, including Gawker,^[6]BuzzFeed,^[7] Noisey^[8] and Perez Hilton.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

/v/ is an image board on 4chan dedicated to video games. Being one of the first boards created on the site, it has grown to become one of the biggest video game discussion on the internet, while also ironically gaining the reputation to essentially not be about video games. Users of the board are commonly referred to as /v/irgins.

History

/v/^[1] (Video Games) was first created in October 2004, making it one of the oldest boards on 4chan that’s still around in its original form. Since its creation, the board grew to become one of the most frequently used and notable boards on the site. Over time the board’s popularity grew significantly enough that it was split up into 3 more boards: /vg/^[2] (Video Game Generals), /vr/^[3] (Retro Games) and /vp/^[4] (Pokémon).

Board Culture & Reputation

Although /v/ is a board in 4chan that primarily discusses about video games, the board ironically gained a notorious reputation on other boards for not talking about video games. The cause of this is /v/‘s critical opinion of video games, resulting in many games, especially mainstream games, generally receiving negative opinions from the board’s users. Most of these opinions became more parroted as /v/ formed different injokes revolving around their loathing in video games. This reputation even grew to a point that both board users and outsiders consider the board “anti-fun.”

Video game news sites and their reviews grew to gain a notorious reputation amongst the board’s users, with many accusing nearly all positive reviews of pre-released or newly released games as a form of viral marketing by the related publisher. The board is also known to highly dislike social news aggregation website Reddit and its culture, with users attempting to frame the website on multiple occasions for things /v/ did.

Vidya

Vidya (or Vidya Gaem) is an intentionally misspelled slang term for video game. The term became highly popular on /v/, to the point that referencing to games as vidya became more frequent than just games. The term can also be found back in the Vidya Gaem Awards, a /v/-organised event handing out awards to games and publishers through voting polls for /v/ users.

The Rage Guy

The Rage Guy is the default avatar used to represent /v/ in comics and animations as a personified version of the board. The figure is known for nearly always having an angered expression on its face, reflecting /v/’s anti-fun reputation. Over time multiple variations of the figure were created, most notably Neo-/v/, which has the Snoo antenna on top of its head to represent Reddit users that started using /v/ over time; and Punished /v/, a version dressed as the Metal Gear character Punished Snake which represents pro-GamerGate users on the board.

PS3 Has No Games

The PS3 Has No Games is a phrase commonly used by the board’s users to critique what they consider to be a lack of games available for the Sony PlayStation 3. The topic is often brought up during console-related discussions to incite arguments between advocates and critics of the gaming system. Although the phrase grew inaccurate over the years, with more games being released for the console, it kept its popularity on the board.

Launchpad McQuack & Albert Einstein

Launchpad McQuack & Albert Einstein became a popular duo on /v/ due to one of the most well-known raids of the board, during which they raided a popularity poll organised by Gamestop and voted for both Launchpad McQuack and Albert Einstein to win the award of “Best Sidekick.” Alongside the succesfull raid, users on /v/ also attempted to frame Reddit for it.

Fucking Gamestop

Fucking Gamestop is a popular type of greentext stories posted on /v/ containing fake experiences with the American video game and entertainment software retailer Gamestop, ending with the catchphrase “FUCKINGGAMESTOP”. These stories commonly involve the intention of buying a videogame, the clerk not willing to follow the customer’s demand, or Gamestop’s used games policy.

Search Interest

External References

About

Trap Music is a music genre known for its use of 808 kick drums, multi-layered synthesizers and generally dark hip-hop sound. Online, the genre gained notoriety with the song Turn Down For What soundtrack, and begun to infect pop culture with hits such as Watch Me by Silento, tracks by Canadian artist Drake, including Hotline Bling, and Fetty Wap with his hit single Trap Queen. and is often featured in montage parody videos.

History

The word “trap” was originally coined in the 1990s in Atlanta, Georgia to describe locations where drug deals were made. During this time, rappers who often discussed drug dealing were called “trap rappers,” including UGK, 8Ball, Three 6 Mafia and Master P.

Second wave

Trap music gained mainstream popularity when hip hop producer Lex Luger^[5] started producing the instrumentals for multiple rappers including Rick Ross, Jay-z and Kanye West, and heavily influenced the production of Waka Flocka Flame´s debut album “Flockaveli” who’s second single Hard in Da Paint (shown below) skyrocketed his popularity.

Lex Luger signature production, which includes heavy use of hard-hitting 808’s, crisp snares, frantic synth keys, and bombastic orchestration of ominous brass, strings, woodwinds and keyboards^[6] was then heavily used in other songs until it became the standard sound for trap music today.

Related Memes

Damn Son! Where’d You Find This?

Damn son! Where’d you find this? Is a popular sound sample or trap music drop used very often on trap musics.^[2] The origin sample has been voiced by the 42 year old music producer Shadoehaze^[3].

On Feb 6, 2013; the producer Shadoehaze uploaded an introduction video to brief more information behind the popular sound sample made by himself. On Dec 27, 2013 the website Vice has published an article detailing other infos about the Shadoehaze. On Sep 10, 2014 youtuber Nyanners published a rap cover “I am ur leader” featuring the sample at the beginning.

Turn Down For What?

Turn Down For What? refers to a popular trap EDM single produced by DJ Snake featuring rapper Lil Jhon, which celebrates the state of being turnt, the single has received a lot of popularity, specially on the internet with the official video receiving 151,849,360 views and 905,299 likes, as well as spawning multiple parodies. For more info

Airhorn / Airhorn Remixes

Airhorn refers to a sample commonly used in EDM music, although it tends to heavily appear on trap EDM tracks, it has gained infamy among the music community, normally criticized for its annoying sound and heavy use among multiple tracks, it has thus been used as a joke among multiple music remixes on soundcloud or youtube and montage parody videos which frequently uses trap music.

O.T Genasis “Coco”

“CoCo” is a 2014 trap single by Belizean-American hip hop artist O.T Genasis, which has garnered viral attention on Vine and elsewhere in the social media for explicit references to illicit drugs and humorous mondegreens upon its release in October 2014. The song “CoCo,” the lyrics of which almost entirely consist of allusions to the cocaine-trafficking business, was written by Odis Flores, a Belizean-American rapper from Long Beach, California (better known by the stage name O.T. Genasis), and first unveiled online as a music video via the artist’s YouTube channel on October 13th, 2014.

No Flex Zone

“No Flex Zone” is a trap song released as the debut single for the American hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd. The track was a commercial success, reaching number 36 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and receiving multiple remixes by notable artists, including Waka Flocka Flame, Nicki Minaj and Pusha T.

Trap Queen

“Trap Queen” is a hip hop song by rapper Fetty Wap about his appreciation for a loyal girlfriend with whom he makes and distributes illegal drugs. Since its release in April 2014, the song has been widely covered, parodied and remixed online. On August 7th, Fetty Wap released the official music video for the track on YouTube, where it received upwards of 237 million views and 76,000 comments in the next year.

Hotline Bling

“Hotline Bling” is a 2015 single by the Canadian hip-hop and R&B artist Drake. Following the release of the song’s music video, which features the artist dancing in a color-shifting cube-like structure, it became popular among fans, spawning parodies, remixes, and reaction images.

Search Interest

References

About

“I Put on My Robe and Wizard Hat” is a memorable quote from a chat room log in which a user with the online handle Bloodninja role-plays as a wizard during a cybersex session.

Origin

In 2002, a chat log was uploaded to quote database Bash.org,^[4] featuring a conversation between users Bloodninja and BritneySpears14. In the dialogue, Bloodninja assumes the role of a wizard when the two begin to engage in cybersex, initiating the roleplay with “I put on my robe and wizard hat” (shown below). Although unconfirmed, the Internet humor site Fugly^[5] claims to have created the Bloodninja chat logs.

bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BritneySpears14: Aight.
bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.
bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
bloodninja: Me too baby.
BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
bloodninja: I cast Lvl. 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BritneySpears14: Hey…
bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl. 8 Cock of the Infinite.
BritneySpears14: Funny I still don’t see it.
bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty F*ck of the Beyondness.
BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
bloodninja: Don’t f*ck with me bitch, I’m the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid.
BritneySpears14: Don’t ever message me again you piece of ****.
bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik’s evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it’s getting hard now.
bloodninja: Baby?

Spread

In 2003, the chat log was reposted on Albino Blacksheep.^[7] On May 17th, 2005, Urban Dictionary^[8] user Melissa Mouse submitted an entry for “I put on my wizard hat,” which cited the Bloodninja chat log as the origin of the quote. On June 27th, 2008, the Xkcd^[1] published a webcomic titled “Xkcd Loves the Discovery,” which referenced the “I put on my robe and wizard hat” line in the 8th panel (shown below).

On August 2nd, 2010, a page for “I Put On My Robe and Wizard Hat” was created on TV Tropes.^[2] On April 16th, 2011, a page for Bloodninja was launched on Encyclopedia Dramatica.^[3] On September 30th, 2012, YouTuber LilyRaichu uploaded a reading of the chat log (shown below).

On January 12th, 2015, Redditor N8theGr8 submitted a GIF titled “MRW 18/f/cali tells me she wants to cyber,” featuring the character Rupert Giles (played by Anthony Head) in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer putting on a robe and wizard hat (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 3,200 votes (94% upvoted) and 90 comments on the /r/shittyreactiongifs^[6] subreddit.

Search Interest

External References

About

Pizza is an oven-baked flat bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings. Although already a widely popular food type worldwide due to its diversity, online pizza has managed to gain a cult following similar to Bacon.

History

Foods similar to pizza have been made since the neolithic age. Although the word “pizza” was first documented in the Southern Italian town of Gaeta in 997 AD, the origins of the term are uncertain and the history of the dish has not been very well documented. The innovation that led to flat bread pizza was the use of tomato as a topping, after tomatoes were brought into Europe from the Americas in the 16th century. By the late 18th century, the dish gained popularity in the Italian town of Napels, soon becoming a tourist attraction for Napels.^[1][2]

Online Presence

As of April 2014, the Facebook page^[5] for pizza has over 33.4 million likes. The official page for Pizza Hut^[6] has over 11.3 million likes and the official page for Dominos^[7] has over 9.1 million likes. Many pizza chains allow costumers to order their pizza online such as Dominoes^[8], Papa Johns^[9] and Pizza Hut.^[10]

Fandom

As of April 2014, there are over 120,000 fan art submissions for pizza on DeviantArt^[3] and over 2,000 fan fiction submissions on Fanfiction.net.^[4] Fan sites for pizza include the Fanpop^[11] page for pizza. Viral content site Buzzfeed has created several posts dedicated to the pizza fandom including “What It’s Like to Be Romantically Attracted to Pizza”^[12] and “How Extreme Is Your Devotion to Pizza?”^[13] Various types of handmade and vintage items related to pizza are also offered on the online shopping website Etsy.^[14]

Related Memes

Special Delivery Instructions

Special Delivery Instructions are photos of unusual pizza delivery requests which typically include pizza box illustrations or pizzas cut into a variety of shapes.

Pizza is a Vegetable

“Pizza is a Vegetable” is a satirical expression inspired by a spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress in November 2011, which bars the Department of Agriculture from changing the nutritional guidelines for public school lunches, such as raising the minimum amount of tomato paste on pizza to be counted as a serving of vegetables. The proposed bill became a target for mockery on the internet due to its bizarre nature, resulting in various parody images to be created in relation to it.

Random Acts of Pizza

Random Acts of Pizza is a sub-community on the social news website Reddit where users can ask to receive free pizza or volunteer to donate pizza to others in need under the slogan of “Restoring Faith in Humanity, One Slice at a Time.” Since its creation in late 2010, the subreddit has been lauded as an example of Reddit’s potential to encourage and foster altruism and generosity, and gained notable attention following the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings when hundreds of users donated over 1,500 pizzas to the emergency centers and hospitals in the area.

Gimme Pizza

Gimme Pizza is the title of a rhyming singalong song featured in the 1995 film You’re Invited to Mary Kate and Ashley’s Sleepover Party (shown below, left), which features five little girls trying to create their ideal pizza by adding ridiculous toppings. The video experienced a resurgence in popularity in 2010 after a slowed down version was uploaded by YouTuber philipmserious (shown below, right), cut from a video titled “When does a dream become a nightmare?”^[15] uploaded earlier that year.

P1ZZ4 GUY

P1ZZ4 GUY is an exploitable series based on a scene from the 2004 film Spider Man II during which a clueless passerby catches Peter Parker changing into his Spider-Man costume to make a pizza delivery in time, but confuses the sight as Spider-Man stealing a pizza alongside the phrase “Whoa! He stole that guy’s pizza!” The short but memorable soundbite spawned over 300 derivative sites on YTMND as well as YTP movies on YouTube.

Pizza Hut Japan’s “I Like Pizza” Commercial

Pizza Hut Commercial MADs / YTPMVs (Japanese: ピザガスキー, Pizagasukī; lit. “I like pizza”) refer to a series of YouTube Poop Music Videos (YTPMVs) on YouTube and MAD videos on Nico Nico Douga (NND), which feature a Japanese TV commercial movie (TVCM )for an American restaurant chain and franchise Pizza Hut. It has been a slightly well-used visual resources for those parody videos on both of the video sharing services since 2010.

DiGiorno’s Design-A-Pizza Kit

DiGiorno’s Design-A-Pizza Kit is a promotional web application introduced by the DiGiorno brand of frozen pizzas in which users can create a custom arrangement of various toppings on a blank template of a cheese pizza pie. Upon its launch in June 2014, the website was raided by 4chan users with a series of design submissions that are visually evocative of well-known internet memes and pop culture references.

Pizza Rat

Pizza Rat is the nickname given to a rodent that became an overnight Internet sensation after it was spotted carrying down a slice of pizza down the stairs of a New York City subway platform in September 2015.

Search Interest

External References

About

Absolutely Disgusting is an image macro featuring a screen-capture of an appalled-looking news reporter with the lower-thirds caption reading “absolutely disgusting.” In discussion forums and image board communities, it is often used as a reaction image to express one’s disapproval.

Origin

In May 2008, American writer Mike Sacks uploaded a compilation of screen captured images taken from various local news segments in a webpage titled “Photos of TV,”^[5] which included a screenshot of a New Jersey UPN9 news reporter providing a description of something that is “absolutely disgusting” in his vicinity, as suggested by the accompanying lower-third caption. (shown below).

Spread

On May 21st, 2008, Gawker^[3] highlighted the gallery in a post by writer Nick Douglas. On October 6th, 2010, the image was posted to the /nom/ (food) board on the Britfags^[4] image board. On February 27th, 2012, the reaction image was submitted to the /tg/^[2] (Traditional Games) board on 4chan in response to a thread containing stories about the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. On March 30th, 2013 Operator Chan^[1] user Pervasive Vagrant submitted the image to the /meet/ (Meetings & Shoots) board on the image board site.

On May 9th, Tumblr user bohnbohn posted an edited version of the image with rapper Lil B head superimposed and the lower-thirds caption “absolutely based” (shown below, left). On October 28th, Tumblr user syauska highlighted an edited image of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic character Sweetie Belle posed as a news reporter with the lower-thirds caption “absolutely disgusting” (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Terry Crews: Old Spice is a series of television commercials for the Old Spice deodorant brand starring the American actor and former National Football League player Terry Crews. The commercials are often used in YouTube Poops Music Videos (YTPMVs) and MAD videos on the Japanese video sharing website Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

On March 31st, 2010, Old Spice uploaded the “Odor Blockers” series of commercials to their official YouTube^[1] channel. The videos starred Terry Crews and were directed by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim from the sketch comedy television series Tim and Eric Awesome Show.

The Actor

Terrence Alan Crews was born in Flint, Michigan and attended Western Michigan University where he was a defensive end on the school football team. In the 11th round of the 1991 NFL Draft, Crews was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams and played in the NFL for a total of seven seasons before retiring in 1997 to pursue acting. Crews played the role of the family patriarch Julius in the television sitcom Everybody Hates Chris and has appeared in several films including Training Day, White Chicks, Idiocracy and The Expendables. As of April 9th, 2011, Crews has a Facebook^[2] page with over 311,000 likes and a Twitter^[3] account with over 116,000 followers.

Spread

On April 1st, 2010, the Internet culture blog UpRoxx^[4] published an article about the commercials titled “Tim & Eric’s Old Spice Commercials Are Awesomely Ridiculous,” which compared the series to the extreme advertisement video Powerthirst. The same day, it was posted to the online video blog Videogum^[5], which lauded the directorial talent of Heidecker and Wareheim. On May 10th, Crews was interviewed about the commercials on G4TV’s Attack of the Show.

On September 30th, Redditor myarlak submitted an Odor Blocker video to the /r/videos^[6] subreddit in a post titled “I don’t care what you guys thing Terry Crews is the best old spice guy.” Redditor OffBeatBiologist commented to the post linking to a Duck Tales moon themeYTPMV using footage from the commercial.

On October 17th, 2011, the Odor Blocker video was reposted by Redditor bobob102, reaching the front page of the /r/videos^[7] subreddit and receiving over 1,477 up votes prior to being archived. On February 1st, 2012, Old Spice released another series of Terry Crews commercials titled “Smell is Power”. In the videos, Crews interrupts two different household product commercials, rolls his head down a bowling lane and explodes his brain after using the deodorant.^[12]

On Nico Nico Douga

On April 3rd, 2012, the original Terry Crews Odor Blocker videos were uploaded to NND.^[8] In the following days, Crews was nicknamed “the fairy of body soap” and several MAD videos were created using the Old Spice commercial footage. As of April 9th, 2012, the original Old Spice video has received over 665,000 views and over 70 MAD videos^[9] have been created.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to view the Nico Nico Douga videos listed in this section.

About

“The Living Tombstone” (TLT) is a popular 24-year old Israeli YouTube musician who is known for dubstep remixes within various subcultures, collaborations, memes, and his own original compositions. The Living Tombstone joined YouTube on May 29, 2011, when he began posting his own original dance music.

Online History

The Living Tombstone opened his YouTube account on May 21st, 2011, but his first video is dated on August, 28th, 2011, when he uploaded “Alex S. (feat. Ghost) – Melting Pot of Alcohol (The Living Tombstone’s Remix)”. However, the two first videos did not receive much recognition. His first pony-related video was “Alex S. – Party With Pinkie (The Living Tombstone’s Remix)”, uploaded on September 3rd, 2011 and gaining over 650,000 views in the following four years. Due the video’s success, the main next following remixes would be related with ponies.

The Living Tombstone has then been steadily growing popular, eventually producing videos that generate millions of hits in a matter of weeks. His most famous video being a song dedicated to the first game in the popular Five Night’s At Freddy’s horror video game series, uploaded on August 31, 2014, which gained over half a hundred million views (shown below, top left).

The Living Tombstone has a Twitter account with roughly 50,000 followers^[3] and a Facebook account that has amassed 155,149 likes^[4]. He also runs his own official website^[7], a tumblr account^[2], and a SoundCloud account (inactive)^[5].

Reputation

The Living Tombstone then made a name in the Brony fandom by making remixes based on the hit 2010 show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The Living Tombstone currently has over 1,445,903 subscribers^[1] and was a very popular icon within the Brony community along with other dubstep Brony musicians such as the WoodenToaster and MicTheMicrophone. An Earth Pony with a blue mane, grey coat, donning headphones with his initial logo as a cutie mark serves as his OC and has been immediately accepted and associated with the musician ever since its debut (shown below.)

The Living Tombstone has a page dedicated to him in the My Little Pony Fan Wiki documenting the music he produced for the show and the fandom.^[6] DeviantArt’s search bar yields 2,200 results for ‘The Living Tombstone’.^[8]

Related Memes

Tomb’s Face

Tomb’s Face refers to the photoshop fad where the cropped face of The Living Tombstone is used on various images and gifs to create a surprising, humorous effect, similar to the image variation of Nigel Thornberry Remixes.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Pat Robertson’s Gay AIDS Ring refers to a video clip of the conservative Christian talk show host claiming that some in San Francisco’s gay community intentionally try to spread the HIV virus by cutting each other with special rings. The video saw a surge in popularity in late August 2013 after Robertson failed to have it removed from YouTube, resulting in the blowback phenomenon known as the Streisand effect.

Background

On August 27th, 2013, the left wing news blog Right Wing Watch^[1] published an article highlighting a video clip of Robertson from his Christian Broadcasting Network program The 700 Club in which he claims that gay men in San Francisco infect one another with the AIDS virus by cutting themselves with spiked rings while shaking hands (shown below). Immediately after, the video was submitted to the /r/atheism^[2] subreddit, where it gained over 2,400 up votes and 450 comments in the first three weeks.

Notable Developments

On the same day, Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) filed a copyright claim to have the video clip taken down from YouTube, as well as removing Robertson’s remarks altogether from the original broadcast.

Also on August 27th, The Atlantic Wire^[4] published an article about the controversy, which included a statement from Robertson who defended his claims by citing a warning he received from security officers in San Francisco:

“In my own experience, our organization sponsored a meeting years ago in San Francisco where trained security officers warned me about shaking hands because, in those days, certain AIDS-infected activists were deliberately trying to infect people like me by virtue of rings which would cut fingers and transfer blood.”

On August 28th, CNN host Anderson Cooper showcased the controversial clip and criticized Robertson’s comments in a segment called The Ridiculist on his show Anderson Cooper 360 (shown below).

On the same day, Redditor DrCE submitted Robertson’s video to the /r/cringe^[5] subreddit, where it garnered more than 700 up votes and 240 comments in less than three weeks. On September 13th, Right Wing Watch^[3] published a follow-up article reporting that the YouTube clip has restored after the website filed a counter claim asserting that their upload is protected under fair use. On September 15th, Redditor Archaeopterygidae resubmitted the video to the /r/videos^[6] subreddit, noting that Robertson unsuccessfully attempted to have it removed from the Internet. In the first 24 hours, the post accumulated upwards of 13,600 up votes and 1,100 comments.

Search Interest

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External References