About

Jaden Smith is a child-actor and rapper who is the son of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Online, Smith is known for his bizarre philosophical and poetic tweets for which he gained online notoriety in November 2013.

History

Jaden Smith made his acting debut in the American biographical drama film The Pursuit of Happyness (shown below, left), which was released in theaters on December 15th, 2006. In December 2008, Smith played the role of Jacob Benson in the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still (shown below, right).

In June 2010, Smith starred in a remake of the 1984 martial arts action film The Karate Kid (shown below, left). In May 2013, Smith starred with his father in the science fiction film After Earth (shown below, right).

Online Presence

Intense Eyebrows

In October 2012, Tumblr user Vondell Swain^[1] highlighted several photos of Smith (shown below), noting that he “always looks like he’s really concerned about something he sees in the distance.” The post was subsequently deleted. On October 12th, the Internet humor blog Pleated Jeans^[2] reblogged several of the photos.

Twitter

On October 14th, 2013, the viral content site BuzzFeed^[3] published an article about Smith’s strange, poetic tweets, highlighting several notable examples superimposed over photographs of the actor (shown below).

On 4chan

In November of 2013, image macros featuring Smith’s tweets began circulating on the /b/ (random) board on 4chan. On November 7th, 2013, Redditor xEphixia submitted an image macro to the /r/4chan^[4] subreddit, mocking Smith’s tweet about the relationship between mirrors, eyes and reality (shown below). In the first 19 days, the post gained over 9,100 up votes and 600 comments.

On November 14th, a Jaden Smith thread was created on the /b/ board in which users posted things Smith might say on Twitter. The same day, a screenshot of the thread was submitted to the /r/4chan^[5] subreddit, where it gathered more than 6,100 up votes and 240 comments in the next two weeks.

On November 21st, Redditor thhath submitted an Imgur gallery featuring photoshopped pictures of Smith (shown below) to /r/4chan,^[6] garnering upwards of 8,900 up votes and 400 comments in the following five days. On November 23rd, the Internet news blog The Daily Dot^[7] published an article reporting that 4chan had crowned Smith the new “King of /b/.”

Personal Life

Jaden Christopher Syre Smith was born on July 8th, 1998 in Malibu, California. He is the older brother of Willow Smith and the younger half-brother of Trey Smith.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Trigger” is a term referring to any stimulus that evokes the memory of a traumatic event or episode. While the word is most commonly used in the context of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it has been since adopted by those in the social justice blogosphere to refer to any topical issue that is deemed contentious or debatable, and to a lesser extent, the term has been also re-appropriated as an ironic term used by their detractors to criticize certain issues that may be seen as too trivial or irrelevant to discuss in length.

Origin

The word originated from the psychological phrase “trauma trigger,”^[1] or something that causes a traumatic past event to come back into memory. The concept of triggering was initially formulated in 1918 in relation to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),^[2] a disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to one or more traumatic events, indicated by recurring distressing flashbacks.^[10] According to BuzzFeed,^[10] the first mentions of triggering and “trigger warnings” were posted to feminist message boards discussing sexual assault in the late 1990s.

Spread

In the early 2000s, Livejournal users started posting warnings for potentially triggering fanfiction.^[10] On July 9th, 2002, Livejournal^[11] user innocent warned followers that she was pro-anorexia, adding that entries may be “triggering” to those with eating disorders (shown below).

On July 1st, 2003, Livejournal^[12] user morbid-thoughts submitted a quiz titled “What Type of Self-Mutilation Are you?(Warning:Triggering Pictures).” By 2007, “trigger warning” was used over 60 times on the blogging platform.^[10][13] On November 2nd, 2008, Twitter user @jlandrith^[14] tweeted a link to a blog post accompanied by the phrase “trigger warning” (shown below).

On April 13th, 2010, the news site True/Slant^[16] published an article by writer Susannah Breslin, who criticized feminists for using the phrase too generously. On February 5th, 2011, the “Fuck Yeah, Trigger Warnings” Tumblr^[15] blog was launched, which describes itself as being “dedicated to education and awareness about the proper usage and necessity of trigger warnings.” On August 29th, 2012, the feminist news blog Feministing^[17] published an article by writer Maya Dusenbery, who admitted that she doesn’t “really believe in trigger warnings” while still using them in articles. On December 15th, 2014, the news site Reason reported that a University of Michigan student who mocked trigger warnings in a satirical op-ed for The Michigan Review^[18] had the doorway to his apartment vandalized by those who were offended by the article.

Melody Hensley’s PTSD Claims

In April 2014, Washington resident Melody Hensley claimed that cyberbullies on Twitter caused her PTSD, which many met with skepticism. The story was subsequently covered by various news sites, including The Daily Dot,^[3] The Daily Mail^[4] and Fashion Times.^[5]

In Homestuck

In the online webcomic Homestuck, the character Kankri Vantas^[7] often uses the term, which author Andrew Hussie confirmed was inspired by its use on Tumblr.^[8]

On 4chan

In December 2014, 4chan’s /pol/ (politics) board was updated to with a scrolling “[Trigger Warning]” to sarcastically indicate that all posts on the board were potentially offensive (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Gyate Gyate (Japanese: ぎゃてコラ, Gyate-Kora), occasionally called as “Ohayou” in English-speaking web, refers to a series of parody illustrations for a grin by Kyouko Kasodani^[1] from Touhou Project. In a similar vein to Gununu and Moetron, her facial expression is one of the popular templates for drawing among Japanese amateur illustrators.

Origin

The original “Gyate” face is appeared on a 4-panel comic where Marisa Kirisame^[2] pokes a bit of fun at Kyouko’s Yamabiko^[3] or parrotry nature. This yonkoma^[4] manga was written by a Japanese illustrator/mangaka Nekomura Otako^[5], and posted to pixiv on April 30th, 2011.^[6]

Translation:

Marisa: Good Afternoon / Kyouko: Good Afternoon!!
Marisa: Woof Woof / Kyouko: Woof Woof!!
Marisa: Meow Meow / Kyouko: Meow Meo-…
Marisa: C’mon, What’s the matter? Not gonna say it? (snicker snicker) / Kyouko: (tremble tremble tremble)

Spread

The people who got inspiration from her grin in the first panel were anonymous users in the Japanese imageboard community Futaba Channel (2chan). They set that facial expression of her as a template of tracing, Futaba’s most famous drawing activity represented by Gununu and Moetron, and became to call it as “Gyate-Kora” (lit. “Gyate Collage”), which “Gyate” comes from Kyouko’s remark in the original game “Gyātē Gyātē” (ぎゃーてー ぎゃーてー). Gyate-Kora started to be practiced on Futaba by the middle of 2011 at the lastest, and it’s said that all Touhou characters including minor characters appearing only in books had been drawn in this style by Futaba users. However, there are no archives for those early works on the web due to the characteristic of Futaba.

Then, this manner was inported to pixiv circa the middle of 2013, many Gyate-Kora illustrations became to be found on that Japanese illustrators community in that year.^[7] Nowadays, various kinds of characters not limited in Touhou are drawn in this “Gyate” style. Additionally, dozens of Gyate illustrations are also found on deviantART.^[8] And those illustrations are usually called “Ohayou” in the illustrators community in English-speaking web.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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

About

“Wasted” is a slang term indicating that a person has been killed which is displayed on screen in the open world video game series Grand Theft Auto if a player runs out of health.

Origin

The “Wasted” death screen first appeared in the original Grand Theft Auto game released in 1997. As the player character faces death, the message will appear, followed by a groan noise while the camera zooms in on the deceased player.

Upon death in Grand Theft Auto 2, the death screen features the “Wasted” text along with an announcer cheerfully saying the expression (shown below, left). Starting in Grand Theft Auto III and continuing with the sequals Vice City and San Andreas, the “Wasted” message is displayed by panning away from the character aerially (shown below, right).

Starting with Grand Theft Auto IV, the death screen showed the player dying in slow motion against a black-and-white filter, followed by the message “Wasted” displayed in red text. The same death screen is used in Grand Theft Auto V.

Spread

On January 8th, 2014, the /r/wastedgifs^[1] subreddit was launched, highlighting animated GIFs edited with the Grand Theft Auto death screen display (shown below).

On April 25th, CollegeHumor^[2] published a compilation of notable “Wasted” GIFs. On May 9th, YouTuber Szczery Jerry uploaded a video titled “Wasted in real life,” featuring a montage of FAIL videos with the Grand Theft Auto death screen (shown below, left). In the first four months, the video gained over 200,000 views and 280 comments. On May 11th, YouTuber mari cano uploaded a similar montage of “real life wasted” FAIL videos (shown below, right).

On May 14th, Smosh^[3] highlighted several notable “Wasted” animated GIFs. On May 24th, YouTuber GIFs With Sound 2 uploaded a montage of “Wasted” GIFs (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

You see Ivan refers to a series of images of Russian soldiers superimposed with humorous text, often in broken English. The image macros typically convey an attitude of reckless enthusiasm for war or weaponry.

Origin

The original picture was created on February 3rd, 2013, on 4chan’s /vg/ (video game general) board’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. thread^[4]. The image was created by superimposing a comment post on a screenshot, making fun of a graphical bug where a character holds a pistol like a rifle.

Spread

The original picture was uploaded to FunnyJunk under the title “You must aim like this” on October 31st, 2013.^[1] A compilation album of images related to the meme was uploaded to Imgur on August 4th, 2014, titled “Another Russian Comp, Comrade”.^[2] This was followed by another compilation titled “You see Ivan…” on October 28th.^[3]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Bait is a an internet slang term used to describe comments or opinions which are considered to be made purposefully to troll other posters or to start a flame war. The term is commonly found on message boards and in comment sections, including the 4chan imageboards.

Origin

In the 1990s, the term “flamebait” was used on Usenet to describe posts made specifically to incite an argument. One of the earliest examples of this was posted to the rec.autos.tech^[2] newsgroup on August 20th, 1995, in response to a complaint that American-made cars used soft suspensions and automatic transmissions that made Americans look weak and incompetent. After the poster went on to complain that the United States was spending money that they thought should have been allotted for healthcare and education on the military, another user referred to the comments as “flamebait.”

Spread

“Flame bait” was added to the Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing^[3] on May 27th, 1998, defining the term as a Usenet post that is intended to elicit hostility. It was similarly defined on Urban Dictionary^[4] on March 24th, 2004. By September of that year, discussions self-identifying as “flame bait” had begun to appear on message boards as well.^[5] In 2005, the tech site Search SOA^[6] and the English education blog Antimoon^[7] (shown below) compared the differences between flame baiting and trolling, noting that the actions were often quite similar but fueled by different motives.

On February 2006, flame bait was added to Wiki Wiki Web.^[8] In similar fashion to U WOT M8, the shorthand “b8” is often used on 4chan in phrases like “gr8 b8 m8,” used as early as May 2013.^[9]

This Is Bait

As early as May 2013, an image macro featuring a royalty free clip art image of a fish chasing a hook^[1] with the caption “this is bait” began circulating 4chan as a method of drawing attention to baiting posts. One of the earliest archived uses of the image was posted to /a/^[10] (Anime and Manga) in response to a post speaking negatively about the character Kirino Kousaka from the Japanese light novel series Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. The image and photoshopped derivatives of it have since appeared on a number of other 4chan boards including /vg/^[11] (Video Game Generals), /tg/^[12] (Traditional Games) and /s4s/^[13] (Shit 4chan Says). “This Is Bait” images have also been found on deviantART^[14] and Ponychan.^[15]

Notable Examples

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External References

About

Metal Gear is an action-adventure stealth video game franchise created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The series paved way for stealth-adventure games and explores themes of warfare and philosophy. The series has sold 30 million copies worldwide and spawned various sequels and spinoffs.

History

The first Metal Gear game was released in Japan in 1987 for the MSX2 home computer, starring the series main protagonnist, Solid Snake. A heavily modified port of the game was made for NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and released in Japan, Europe, and North America. A sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, was released in Japan in 1990 for MSX2.

The series boomed in popularity with the release of the third installment in the series, Metal Gear Solid, released in 1998 for PlayStation home console. Following that, numerous sequels, spinoffs, and remakes have been made.
In 2001, a sequel named Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released for PlayStation 2, which introduced the new character, named Raiden. The third numbered installment in the series, called Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, was released in 2004 and set before the events of all previous games, and featuring a new protagonist Naked Snake.

The series main story was concluded in 2008 with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, made for PlayStation 3 consoles. In 2010, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was released on the PSP and later ported to the PS3 and the Xbox 360 which takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3. The most recent game, a spin-off named Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, starring Raiden, was released in 2013 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and eventually ported to PC.

On March 27th 2013, Hideo Kojima announced Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain. The game will be set after Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and be starring Naked Snake. A prologue to Phantom Pain, named Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was released on March 18, 2014. The game currently has a release date of September 1st, 2015.

Notable Memes

Metal Gear Solid Enemy Alert

Metal Gear Solid Enemy Alert refers to the sound effect and exclamation mark prompted when a player is spotted by the enemy in the game Metal Gear Solid. Following the mainstream success of the series, the alert has been referenced in webcomics, cosplay outfits and YouTube poop videos.

Balloon Solid Snake

Balloon Solid Snake refers to a twisted balloon sculpture of Solid Snake from the franchise. It rose to notoriety in early 2013 after a picture of the effigy was shared on Konami’s Facebook page, where it drew attention for its poor resemblance to the protagonist character.

Nanomachines Son

“Nanomachines, Son” is an expression uttered by Senator Armstrong in a cinematic sequence from the 2013 action video game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The phrase is typically employed as a non sequitur response to an unrelated question.

Rules of Nature Goes With Everything

Rules of Nature Goes With Everything is a meme derived from the song “Rules of Nature” in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. In the game, Rules of Nature plays during the boss battle between Raiden and Metal Gear RAY. The song is paired up with video clips from other media to coincide with the beginning of the song’s vocals.

Metal Gear Solid Game Over Parodies

Metal Gear Solid Game Over Parodies refer to screenshots created in the style of a “Game Over” screen from the Metal Gear franchise. Various derivatives featuring characters from a variety of different franchises have been made.

They Played Us Like A Damn Fiddle!

They Played Us Like A Damn Fiddle! is a quote from the 2014 action-adventure video game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes said by the supporting character Kazuhira Miller to the protagonist, Big Boss. Because of the phrase’s cheesy-sounding nature, this quote was transformed into many image macros and video parodies.

Revolver Ocelot

Revolver Ocelot Posting is form of shitposting that refers to an edited screenshot of the character Revolver Ocelot from the action stealth game Metal Gear Solid 1. The joke involves screenshots of overlapping posts from various sites which are only saying “Revolver Ocelot” with the edited screenshot being the original post.

Big Boss Salute

The Big Boss Salute is an reaction image used to express sadness or sorrow. It comes from the ending of the 2004 video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater when the protagonist salutes the grave of his former mentor.

Metal Gear Solid Game Over Parodies

Metal Gear Solid Game Over Parodies refer to screenshots created in the style of a “Game Over” screen from the Metal Gear franchise.

200% Mad

200% Mad is a reaction image series featuring angry-looking subjects accompanied by the caption “200% Mad” written in the cut-out character style of the Expand Dong meme.

Monsoon

Monsoon is one of the primary antagonists in the 2013 hack and slash action game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Monsoon’s nihilistic in-game monologue about memes as units of culturally transmitted information that control humanity gained much online notoriety, with fans eventually associating the speech with internet memes.

Search Interest

About

Sword Art Online (Often abbreviated to SAO) is a Japanese Science-Fiction series created by Reki Kawahara. Ever since it’s creation, the series has spawned a significant fandom, as well as a significant anti-fandom, mainly due to the themes presented in the series.

Premise

The series takes place in the world of Sword Art Online, an MMORPG released in 2022, controlled using Virtual Reality helmets which allow players to play their onscreen avatars using their minds. However when players log in for the first time, they find that they are unable to log out, with the only way of escaping being to beat the final boss on the 100th floor of the in-game tower. However, also find out that if a player is to die in-game, they also die in real life. The series follows the adventures of Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya, one of the chosen beta-testers for the game, joined by female player named Asuna, who tries to stop the game’s creator and free all the other players.

History

The original Light Novel for Sword Art Online, written by Reki Kawahara, was first created in 2002 as a competition entry for the ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Game Novel Prize, but as the work exceeded to required page limit, he instead decided to publish the work as a web novel under the pseudonym Fumio Kunori, later adding three further volumes as well as several short stories alongside it. However, in 2008, after winning the competition’s grand prize with his work Accel World, he was requested to send in his original Sword Art Online novel as well. He then later took down his novels online after agreeing to this deal, with the first republication being released on April 10, 2009. A second novel series, titled Sword Art Online: Progressive, was also released on October 10, 2012. An anime adaptation of the series, created by A-1 Pictures, was also aired between July 7 and December 22, 2012, with a movie recap titled Sword Art Online: Extra Edition airing on December 31, 2013. A second season is also set to air in July 2014. As well as this, there have been a total of 8 manga adaptations of the series published to date, all written by Reki Kawahara, as well as a number of video game adaptations also. Also, starting on July 27, 2013 and concluding on February 15, 2014, the anime series was also aired on Adult Swim’s Toonami block.

Reception

The Sword Art Online series has received mixed reception since its first creation, especially in regards to the anime adaptation, with many critics criticizing the second arc of the show especially. Kotaku’s Richard Eisenbeis, while originally praising the show as being one of the smartest series in recent years after viewing the first arc^[1], lost some of these positive opinions after viewing the second arc, especially in regards to the portrayal of the character Asuna, stating that she is “reduced to nothing but the quest item the male lead is hunting for.”^[2] Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network also criticized the series, pointing towards it as having pacing problems and “sloppy writing”^[3]

Online Relevance

In North America, Sword Art Online is licensed by Aniplex of America and available for streaming on Crunchyroll^[4]. The show has gained a large online following on many sites, including on Tumblr^[5], Reddit^[6], 4chan’s /a/ (Anime and Manga) board^[7], Fanpop^[8], My Anime List^[9], and DeviantART^[10]. There are numerous sites that provide episodic information about the series, such as the Sword Art Online wiki^[11], TV Tropes^[12] and Anime News Network^[13]. In addition, the Sword Art Online Facebook page also has over 600,000 likes^[14].

Fandom

The series has spawned a large number of fan creations on the web since it’s creation, such as Fanart and Fanfiction. For example, on the Japanese fanart site Pixiv, there are over 8000 illustrations tagged under “ソードアート・オンライン”^[15], as well as over 2800 results on video sharing website Nico Nico Douga^[16]. On the western web, DeviantArt also has over 29000 images based on the series^[17], and Fanfiction.net also has over 1400 fanfictions based on the series^[18]. On Tumblr, there are a number of blogs dedicated to Sword Art Online, including Sword Art Online Fans^[19], Sword Art Online Confessions^[20] and Sword Art Online ^[21], among others.

Related Memes

Glop Glop / Chapter 16.5

Chapter 16.5 (Also referred to as Glop Glop) refers to a special chapter from the original Sword Art Online novel, featuring a sex scene between the characters of Asuna and Kirito. Due to the out of place and awkward nature of the scene, the chapter became notorious online, spawning many parodies.

Search Interest

External References

About

When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Hitler is an anti-Nazi propaganda poster created and widely distributed by the United States government during World War II to encourage carpooling among American citizens to conserve gasoline for the war. The image has inspired various propaganda parodies online, mocking its use of hyperbole and Godwin’s Law.

Origin

Illustrated by American painter Weimer Pursell, the original poster was commissioned and distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office for the Office of Price Administration in 1943 as part of domestic efforts to encourage rationing and conservation of resources. The image depicts a suited man driving a car with a phantom-like silhouette of Adolf Hitler in the passenger seat, captioned with “When you ride alone you ride with Hitler! / Join a car-sharing club today!” (shown below).

Spread

In October 2002, American political commentator and comedian Bill Maher published the non-fiction book When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden, featuring a parody of the original poster with Osama bin Laden substituted for Hitler as the cover illustration (shown below, left).^[3] On June 3rd, 2010, FunnyJunk^[7] user MrShake submitted a poster parody of a woman sleeping with an outline of Hitler and the caption “When you cuddle alone / you cuddle with Hitler!” (shown below, right).

On July 19th, 2012, the original Pursell poster was submitted in a post titled “Wow, it’s that serious?” to the /r/WTF^[5] subreddit. On October 22nd, Redditor Danteros posted a mock propaganda poster featuring a young man seated at a computer neat to a communist devil with the caption “When you pirate MP3s, you’re downloading communism” (shown below, left). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 1,400 votes (87% upvoted). On August 8th, 2013, Redditor mitigateaccomp submitted an edited version of the original Pursell poster with a caption urging readers to ride bicycles to the /r/bicycling^[6] subreddit, which received more than 2,000 votes (87% upvoted) before it was archived (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Rules Of Nature Goes With Everything is a series of videos that combine various footage of over-the-top action sequences with “Rules Of Nature,” a boss battle theme from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for an enhanced viewing experience.

Origin

The theme can be heard in the tutorial level of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance^[1] wherein the protagonist Raiden^[2] is ambushed by Metal Gear RAY, a type of Unmanned Gears. The vocals kick in when Raiden initiates the finishing move on his enemy, which involves launching the machine upward before jumping on it and cutting off its arm, and the song returns for a reprise when he cuts off the other arm and bisects the Metal Gear.

The first parody video utilizing the theme song was posted by YouTuber KazNDS on March 8th, 2013, which featured footage of an obese woman picking up and throwing a table and subsequently blocking and dodging chairs thrown at her during a riot (shown below, left). In homage to the original Guile’s Theme Goes With Everything video^[3], another YouTuber by the name of RulesOfNatureFitsAll juxtaposed footage of the Super Mario Brothers live-action film with the song on April 24th, 2013, utilizing “Soundtrack Dissonance”^[4] in order to make the scene seem more engaging (shown below, right).

Spread

Following the initial wave of parodies, additional montages featuring the song began to make their way onto YouTube; Versacality uploaded two volumes of moments edited to feature the song, and two other users known as Baiken 梅喧 and CesiumHippo included their own moments. Each video has over 10,000 views and over 100 “Likes”.

Furthermore, more users selected single scenes from shows, films, and video games to combine with the song. The series of videos became popular enough that “Rules Of Nature Goes With Everything” became a search tag on YouTube.^[5]

Search Interest

External References

About

“Nanomachines, Son” is an expression uttered by the final boss character in a cinematic sequence from the 2013 action video game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. On the web, the phrase is typically employed as a non sequitur response to an unrelated question, in a similar vein to the use of Aliens.

Origin

In the video game Metal Gear Rising, the final boss character Senator Armstrong is confronted by the game’s protagonist as to why he cannot be killed, to which he responds “Nanomachines, son” (shown below). The phrase is meant to indicate that he is using nanotechnology to repair himself and achieve immortality.

Raiden: Why won’t you die?
Senator Armstrong: Nanomachines, son!

Spread

On February 21st, 2013, YouTuber SSSniperWolf uploaded an extended version of the scene (shown below), which gained over 19,000 views and 200 comments in the next 10 days, with the majority of comments made in reference to Senator Armstrong’s nanomachines. On the following day, Gamespot Forums^[3] member Kobe_Got_Jam linked to the YouTube video in a thread titled “Time to spread a ‘Nanomachines Son’ meme!”

Also on February 22nd, “Nanomachines, son” was added to a list of quotes about nanontechnology on the pop culture database site TV Tropes.^[2] On March 15th, a Meme Generator^[4] page titled “Nanomachines, son” was created, featuring a still shot of Senator Armstrong as the template image (shown below).

On March 8th, a Facebook^[5] page titled “Nanomachines, son” was launched. On March 31st, Urban Dictionary^[1] user OhShitSon submitted an entry for “Nanomachines, son,” which defined the term as a catch-all answer to a variety of questions.

Search Interest

External References

About

Confused Black Girl is an image macro series featuring a teenager with an incredulous expression on her face. The overlaid text generally centers around a frustrating or confounding situation. The meme gained attention when the subject of the photo supposedly sued Instagram when she realized the photo had become a meme.

Origin

One of the earliest incidents of the photo used as a meme was on April 30th, 2014, when 9Gag^[3] posted the photo with the title “New meme incoming: Confused Black Lady.” As of July 2014, the photo has gained over 80 points.

Spread

On May 11th, 2014, a Facebook page^[1] titled “Confused Black Girl Meme” was launched. As of July 2014, the page has gained over 68,000 likes. Another Facebook page^[2] dedicated to the meme titled “Confused Black Girl,” was launched on June 22nd, and gained over 26,000 likes in less than two weeks.

Instagram Lawsuit Hoax

On July 1st, 2014, radio station site 101.9 Online^[4] reported that a 16-year-old from Birmingham Alabama, Kiesha Johnson, was the face of the meme and was suing Instagram for $500 million because the photo was originally taken by and posted to a friend’s Instagram account before it spread online. Johnson explained her anger about the unflattering photo becoming a meme saying:

" “My face looked ugly like I was about to throw up.. I look nothing like that in real life… Im really a bad b*tch!”

The lawsuit was covered the same day by WordOnDaStreet^[5] and RomanceMeetsLife^[6], though both sites seemed skeptical that the story was true. The following day it was covered by larger sites, including The Source^[7]. On July 3rd, PetaPixel^[8] traced the source of the story to the satire site Odosogossip^[9] which posted the hoax article “Confused Face Meme Girl Sues Instagram for $500 Million Dollars Because People Keep Using Her Picture” on June 30th.

Notable Examples

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External References

About

“Le Wrong Generation” is a pejorative label used to refer to youths and young adults who believe and often proclaim that they should have been born in a different time period, mainly due to their disdain for contemporary music and popular culture.

Origin

The earliest known use of the term “le wrong generation” was posted on March 2nd, 2013 in a thread on 4chan’s /mu/^[6] (music) board in reference to a YouTube video of a child complaining about being born in the wrong generation. The video has since been removed.

Spread

On August 15th, 2013, the /r/lewronggeneration^[1] subreddit was launched to satirize teens and children who wish they had been born in a different time period. On November 8th, the /r/lerightgeneration^[10] subreddit was created for discussions about “senseless hatred of older pop culture.” On January 15th, 2014, 9gag^[7] user Tobiasaasen submitted a Confession Bear image macro with the caption “Im born in 1997 / and I hate my generation” (shown below). On August 13th, a screenshot of the 9gag post was submitted to /r/lewronggeneration,^[8] where it gained over 1,300 votes (93% upvoted) and 180 comments in the following four months.

On January 5th, 2015, YouTuber Filthy Frank uploaded a video titled “Born in the Wrong Generation,” in which he rants about teens who complain about their generation’s taste in music in YouTube comments (shown below). In the first 24 hours, the video gathered upwards of 161,000 views and 5,000 comments.

“Defener”

A “defener” (an intentional misspelling of “defenders”) refers to people that consider old culture superior to current pop culture and belittle anything current. The phrase come from a rage comic created circa 2012. The earliest found instance of the rage comic was first found at /mu/ in June 2012 but has been created earlier than that. ^[11] The image was later reposted to reddit’s /r/cringepics on December 15, 2012, receiving over 1000 upvotes and 197 comments. ^[12]

Notable Examples

Related Meme: Dadrock

“Dadrock” refers to classic rock music produced in the 1960’s and 1970’s, including Led Zepplin, the Rolling Stones and Beatles, which is commonly associated with baby boomer generation adults who have a disdain for all other types of music. On January 21st, 2004, the term was submitted to Urban Dictionary^[3] by user donth, who claimed “Dad rockers have no desire to listen to recent music and are stuck in the past.” An infographic titled “A Dadrocker Guide To Modern Music” is often seen circulating on 4chan’s /mu/ (music) board, which lists several albums that should be given to dad rockers to expand their music tastes (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Evangelion Opening Parodies refer to a series of parody videos for the opening credit movie of the Japanese TV anime Neon Genesis Evangelion produced by Studio Gainax.

Origin

The TV anime series aired 26 episodes between October 1995 and March 1996, and gave a huge impact to the Japanese subculture. The opening movie for the anime is known for the characteristic rendition in the latter part which inserts foreshadowing characters and keywords consecutively without staff credits. Its theme song “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” (Japanese: 残酷な天使のテーゼ, Zankoku na Tanshi no Thesis)^[1] made a large success on the music market, too. The number of CD/digital copies for the song had reached over 1 million in January 2014.

Spread

A huge amount of fan works for the historical hit anime have been created since late-1990s, and both of this opening credit movie with the challenging rendition and its theme song have been one of the popular subjects for MAD, hand-drawn animation, live-action and filksong. And it’s still popular on 2channel, YouTube^[2] and Nico Nico Douga.^[3] In particular, YouTube’s popularization in 2006 shed light to many old Evangelion MAD videos which had been circulating on the underground web from late-1990s to early-2000s. Those parodies/fan works are usually named by the phrasal templates“X-gelion” (○○ゲリオン) or “A Cruel X’s Thesis” (残酷な○○のテーゼ).

Meanwhile, those parody videos have been often removed from the video hub sites due to the copyright claims by Studio Khara^[4] and King Records.^[5] That’s because both of copyright holders for the movie and the song have particularly unfriendly attitude toward fan creations utilizing their own contents.

Various Examples

Live-Action Parodies

Since mid-2000s, live-action versions for the opening credit movie have been made by indie film or otaku groups and posted to the web. Additionally, a Japanese TV show’s 2010 live-action parody was starring a Japanese actress Natsuki Kato^[6], a dedicated fan of the anime.

A Cruel Angel’s Thesis Tributes/Parodies

Numerous parodies/tributes to the song are posted to YouTube^[7] and Nico Nico Douga^[8] as well.

Search Interest

External References

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

About

Flappy Bird is a mobile game in which the player controls a flying bird by touching the screen to flap its wings and navigate between a series of pipes without any contact.

Origin

Flappy Bird was created by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen^[5] and released by dotGears Studios on Apple’s iOS app store^[1] on May 24th, 2013. In the game, the player assumes the role of a pixelated flying bird and must guide it safely through a series of obstacles while keeping it afloat by pressing on the touch screen.

Spread

On November 17th, 2013, Redditor Bronxsta included Flappy Bird in a list of “masochistic” iOS games submitted to the /r/iosgaming^[2] subreddit. On January 17th, 2014, Redditor Transizzleator submitted a post urging viewers to “help Flappy Bird take off” to the /r/gaming^[3] subreddit. On January 27th, YouTuber PewDiePie uploaded a video in which he plays Flappy Bird (shown below), which gathered more than 5.4 million views and 45,000 comments in the next week.

On January 30th, the game was released on the Google Play^[10] store. By the following day, the game had reached the top downloaded spot on both Google Play and the Apple App Stores.^[4] Also on January 31st, the iPhone app company Chocolate Lab Apps^[7] published an interview with Nguyen about Flappy Bird’s success, who claimed he did not promote the game at all. Meanwhile, the tech blog Bluecloud Solutions^[6] published an article speculating that Flappy Bird used bots to artificially augment its App Store rank, pointing out the strange sudden rise in popularity of Nguyen’s apps and several similarly-worded reviews left on the Flappy Bird store page (shown below).

On February 1st, the tech news blog Tech Crunch^[8] published an article about Flappy Bird, noting that his other games “Super Ball Juggling” and “Shuriken Block” had reached the App Store’s #2 and #6 spots respectively. On February 2nd, Redditor ducksizedhorses submitted a post comparing Flappy Bird to the flash game titled “Helicopter Game” to the /r/gaming^[9] subreddit, where it accumulated upwards of 14,600 up votes and 770 comments in the first 24 hours. The same day, Redditor H00PSHER posted a screenshot of a Flappy Bird game with edited Nyan Cat-themed textures to the /r/teenagers^[12] subreddit (shown below, left). On February 3rd, Redditor VirtualWhopper posted a Flappy Bird image macro with the caption “You don’t win / You just eventually delete the app” to the /r/gaming^[13] subreddit (shown below, right).

Removal From App Stores

On February 8th, 2014, Nguyen tweeted that although Flappy Bird was a success, he hated the game for ruining his “simple life.” Several hours later, Nguyen posted a follow-up tweet announcing that he would be removing Flappy Bird from app stores in 22 hours, adding that it had “nothing to do with legal issues.”^[18] The same day, Redditor iamacowgod submitted a screenshot of the tweet to the /r/gaming^[14] subreddit, where it gained over 18,800 up votes and 3,800 comments in the first 48 hours.

On February 9th, the game was taken down from both the iOS app store and Google Play. The same day, Redditor city18 posted a backup copy of the Android version of the game to the /r/AndroidApps^[15] subreddit. Also on February 19th, Redditor moonchav posted a link to a text only version^[17] of the game to the /r/WebGames^[16] subreddit. In the coming days, the app removal was reported on by several news sites, including IBI Times,^[19]CNN^[20] and CNET.^[21]

In a February 2014 interview with Forbes^[26], Nguyen explained that he felt compelled to cancel the game due to its addictive nature.

“Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed. But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.”

Nintendo’s Statement

Despite Nguyen’s statement, rumors soon began to spread on gaming-related discussion forums that the creator of Flappy Bird decided to remove the app due to legal pressure from the Japanese video game company Nintendo, whose universally popular Super Mario video games has been frequently cited by the critics of Flappy Bird as the source of its inspiration. On February 10th, Nintendo’s spokesman officially denied the rumors of legal threats or future plans for such action.

Planned Re-release

However, in March 2014, Nguyen refused to rule out the possibility of a relaunch in an interview with Rolling Stone, followed by an announcement of his plan to eventually re-release the game, and revealed that the game would return in August with multiplayer capability in an interview with CNBC’s Kelly Evans.

On May 15th, 2014, Nguyen tweeted^[25] a photo which he suggested was part of a new game he is developing.

Notable Parodies

Shortly after Ngyuen’s announcement of the removal of Flappy Bird from app stores, several parody versions of the game for iOS, Android and web browsers began to surface. A text-only version of Flappy bird titled “The Pipes Are My Solitude” was posted on the website Philome,^[23] which displays descriptions of a bird flying through pipes each time the player clicks the word “Flap” (shown below).

A browser game Flappy Doge^[22] was created, in which the player clicks the screen to navigate the “Doge” Shibu Inu character in between pipes (shown below, left). The Nicolas Cage-themed Flappy Bird mod was released on iOS, in which the player controls the actor’s disembodied head (shown below, right).

A modification featuring a tipping fedora which navigates through cans of mountain dew was made available for both iOS and Android (shown below, left). In addition, a Super Mario Flappy Bird mod was released on iOS, in which the player controls the character Mario to jump in between pipes (shown below, right). The Flash game “Flappy Bird Therapy”^[24] is an easy version of the game, which moves the pipe gaps in sync with the bird’s height.

Search Interest

External References

About

Shrek is the titular character from the animated film series by the same name created by DreamWorks Studios based on a book^[4] by American cartoonist William Steig. Although fans for the character already existed as early as 2001 with the release of the first film, the character didn’t got substantial cult-like following online until 2010 to 2012, after Shrek became a popular character in pun jokes and greentext stories. These fans commonly refer to themselves as “Brogres”, in similar vein to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic enthusiasts known as “Bronies”.

Origin

The computer animated film Shrek was released on May 18th, 2001.^[2] There were 3 official sequels to the franchise,^[1] including Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010). The films feature the titular green ogre Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) as the main protagonist, his companion Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) and his love interest Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz). The movies are a parody of the standard children’s fantasies films, specifically those produced by Disney.

Spread

A number of websites have been created dedicated to the franchise and its characters. The official DreamWorks website Shrek.com^[13] features character bios, downloadable media, video games and a store to purchase DVDs. The official Shrek Facebook^[17] page was launched in December of 2009, and gained over 36 million likes in the next four years. Shrekchan^[3] is an image board dedicated to Shrek launched on May 29th, 2012.

On January 17th, 2010, DeviantArt User Cmara uploaded a comic(shown below left) featuring Shrek and Shadow the Hedgehog, from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, as they reunite after a fight.^[20] The bizarre combination of the two characters due to multiple reasons, such as the difference in species and the universes they originate from, quickly made the duo a popular crack pairing on DeviantArt and outside, resulting in various fanworks based on the couple throughout 2010 and the years following.^[21] This eventually lead to Shrek being used in other crack pairings as well.

On November 4th, 2012, Tumblr user fuckyeahmeelz made a Hey Girls post using Shrek (shown below, left).^[10] On November 13th, Tumblr user mossball made a post featuring a life-size Shrek doll sitting in a car with the note “PUTTHATSHITINTOOGREDRIVE” (shown below, middle).^[11] As of June 2013, both posts managed to respectively gain more than 38,000 and 46,000 notes. The LittleShrekThings^[5] Tumblr blog was relaunched on January 10th, 2013, after the previous incarnation turned into an adult media blog, and contains more than 1400 posts as of June 2013.

Brogres

Fans of Shrek are often referred to as “Brogres.” On November 16th, 2012, a Facebook^[15] page for “Brogres” was created, which accumulated over 1,200 likes within the next four months. The same day, MLP Forums^[19] member DJ Enty submitted a “Brogre thread” to the discussion board, including a photoshopped image of Shrek with the caption “check urself before u shrek urself [sic]” in the style of Are You Frustrated images (shown below, left). On November 18th, 2012, Urban Dictionary^[14] user sesky submitted an entry for the term “Brogre,” defining the label as a person who is “obsessed with Shrek.” On January 29th, a Facebook page^[22] for the phrase “Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life” was created, which has accumulated more than 135,000 likes as of April 2014. On February 1st, 2013, a page for the term “Brogre” was created on the Shrekchan wiki.^[16] On February 6th, 2013, The Huffington Post^[18] reported two Shrek fans cosplayed as Shrek and Fiona at their wedding (shown below, right).

Brogres commonly make use of a large variety of pun jokes and slang phrases which are a play on popular terms and phrases associated with Shrek and the series, in similar vein to the bronyspeak vocabulary used by bronies. This vocabulary can often be found back in greentext stories and image macros featuring Shrek. These greentext stories are commonly found on Shrekchan^[3] and through the Tumblr tag “#shrekchan.”^[12]

Notable Examples

Fanart, photoshops and image macros featuring Shrek commonly make use of the vocabulary of pun jokes and slang phrases used by brogres. Additional examples for this can be found through both the DeviantArt tag for “#shrek”^[8] and the Tumblr tags for “#shrek”^[6] and “#shrek-jokes.”^[7]

Search Interest

External References

About

Air Horn Remixes are audio tracks and music videos that feature samples of the loud, high-pitched sound produced by the portable pneumatic instrument. While the sampling of air horns in music production has its roots in reggae music, and more recently popularized through reggaeton, electronic dance music (EDM) and trap music, it is most commonly featured as an ironic-comedic device in montage parodies and other mashup tracks by remix artists on YouTube and Soundcloud.

Origin

For several decades, air horns have been used by American sports fans to root for their teams while attending outdoor sporting events, most notably in the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Soccer (MLS).

Usage in Music Production

According to an article published by the Red Bull Music Academy,^[3] the air horn was first sampled in songs played at Jamaican dancehalls in the 1970s. On January 6th, 2010, YouTuber dannyeye2k6 uploaded an audio clip of an air horn, which gained over 889,000 views and 320 comments in the next five years (shown below, left). The earliest known ironic air horn remix was uploaded by the Soundcloud user EPIQUE on Dec 6, 2011, featuring electronic versions various Christmas songs with air horn sounds (shown below, right)

Spread

On November 13th, 2013, the TVNorge YouTube channel uploaded a sketch by the comedy duo Ylvis, featuring covers of popular songs with air horn blasts added (shown below). In the first year, the video gathered more than 1.7 million views and 1,300 comments.

On January 16th, 2014, the /r/airhornremix^[8] subreddit was launched for submissions of songs with added air horn sounds. On April 1st, Soundcloud user Airhorn Orchestra uploaded an air horn remix of Beethoven’s “Symphony No.5, Op.67” (shown below). On June 24th, Redditor rkz submitted the Airhorn Orchestra Soundcloud track to the /r/montageparodies^[9] subreddit, where it accumulated upwards of 2,200 votes (96% upvoted) prior to being archived. On October 7th, CollegeHumor^[7] published a list of songs “improved with the inclusion of air horn.”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Ratboy Genius is a character created by Ryan Dorin in 2007. The digitally created human-like creature is depicted with oversized rat ears and a human body. The character is used in a number of different video series on Dorin’s personal homepage^[1] and YouTube channel.^[2]

Origin

The first Ratboy Genius video was uploaded to YouTube on July 23rd, 2007. The video was the first chapter in the Ratboy Kingdom series, describing the absurd events of the character’s every day life. The video places the animated characters over on scenic photographs, depicting Ratboy Genius turning into a fish and going for a swim. As of June 2013, the video has more than 14,000 views.

Spread

As the series progressed, Ratboy Genius evolved in to a 3D animation and by October 2007, the series began to incorporate animated scenery elements as well as music sung by the character (shown below, left). In 2009, Dorin began a blog for Ratboy Genius^[3] to accompany the video series. The character began seeing attention outside of YouTube in 2010, when a thread about the Happyman series (shown below, right) was posted on the Tip of the Hat forums^[4] that September. The same month, a "Facebook:/memes/facebook fan page^[9] for the character was created, gaining 680 likes as of June 2013. The first mention of Ratboy Genius on 4chan appeared that November in a thread on /tv/ (Television and Film).^[16] In December 2010, an in-character Ratboy Genius Twitter account^[8] was created.

In August 2011, fan art of the character began to appear on Newgrounds.^[5] In September 2011, additional fan art began to appear on deviantART^[6] and another discussion thread was posted on the Bungie forums.^[7] In January 2012, Ratboy Genius appeared in a screenshot from Left 4 Dead 2 posted to the Steam Community.^[10] In October 2012, the subreddit /r/RatboyGenius^[11] launched, accruing 24 readers as of June 2013. In February 2013, one of the Happyman episodes was submitted to /r/Cringe^[12], pointing out its “terrible CGI” and “nightmarish voice filters.” The video gained 387 upvotes, 302 points overall and 92 comments. The following month, the first single topic Tumblr blog dedicated to Ratboy Genius^[13] launched, averaging 75 posts per month. Throughout 2013, the fandom grew on Tumblr resulting in an anonymous confession blog^[14] and an ask blog^[15] dedicated to the character. Additional posts can be found under the tag “ratboy genius.”^[16]

Notable Videos

Search Interest

External References

About

PONY.MOV^[8] directs to a series of fan-made videos of the popular animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic created by artist Max Gilardi, aka HotDiggedyDemon^[1]. Each video focuses on one of the characters of the MLP:FiM series, although with drastically different, grotesque personalities than in the canon episodes. Various phrases and scenes from the episodes have also gained their own popularity on the web.

Origin

The first video in the series, “APPLE.MOV”, was uploaded to YouTube on October 11th, 2011. It featured the character Applejack from the MLP:FiM series being obsessed with apples. The video was also featured on Equestria Daily the same day.^[7] As of February 20, 2013, APPLE.MOV has over seven million views.

HotDiggedyDemon (Max Gilardi)

HotDiggedyDemon (Max Gilardi) is a flash cartoon animator known on both Youtube^[2] and Newgrounds^[3]. Before the My Little Pony Parodies, he has created various other popular series such as Jerry and Wacky Game Jokes 4 Kids, amongst other seperate flash animations, although these have not reached the popularity of the MLP:FiM parodies.

Spread

As a follow up to the original APPLE.MOV, other flash animations have also been created, centering on other characters of the main cast of MLP:FiM; on February 20, 2013, Gilardi released SWAG.MOV, the final entry in the series. Although APPLE.MOV would remain mostly unrelated to the other five, the later videos focused on Twilight Sparkle’s quest to find the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord and, after SHED.MOV, resurrect Rainbow Dash.

Also, there have been numerous of fandubs, remix’s, and clips made from the viewers of these videos. They may not be as recognized as much as the originals, but they continue to grow in amount (See ‘Recent Videos’). In addition, a group was created on February 8th, 2012 on DeviantArt dedicated to the fan art of the series^[9].

Phrases

Various quotes and phrases used in the series have also gained their own popularity, resulting in usage in various image macros and other fanworks. These phrases include:

• “Fuck you, I can eat all these apples.”
• “Huhuhuhuhu, Swag.”
• “I am your god now! Bring me your virgins!”
• “Stay out of my shed.”
• “My daddy makes me put glass in my vagina.”
• “How about you resurrect my penis…with sex.”
• “CRUSH, KILL, DESTROY, SWAG.”
• “…Yeah far out, dude…”
• “Welcome to Ponyville, faggot.”

Jappleack

Jappleack is the name given to the parodised Applejack in the the first flash animation of the series. Japplejack is known for being rude, constantly using swears, and being extremely addicted to apples. Hotdiggedydemon also made a Japplejack Ask Me Anything style Tumblr blog, which also often features just art.^[4] Jappleack also has her own Facebook fan pages.^[5][6]

The voice actor for Applejack from the original MLP:FiM series, Ashleigh Ball, was requested to say “Fuck You, I Can Eat All These Apples”, one of Jappleacks phrases from APPLE.MOV, during BronyCon on January 7th, 2012. However, due to the profanity present in the quote, it was replaced with “Forget You, I Can Eat All These Apples”. Hotdiggedydemon also made a response video to this using Jappleack.

April Fools

On April 1st, 2012, HotDiggedyDemon posted a fourth video, “SPIKE.MOV,” as a joke for April Fools Day. It consists almost entirely of Spike playing with a Tech Deck toy skateboard.

Interview: Ashleigh Ball

During an interview by Everfree Radio with voice actress Ashleigh Ball (Rainbow Dash / Applejack), she mentions the PONY.MOV series: “… I was pretty blown away… A lot of it’s pretty gory…”.

Fan Conventions

After fans at Bronycon began chanting “CRUSH. KILL. DESTORY. SWAG” in reference to MAGIC.MOV during a concert, Gilardi posted an animation in reaction, with the character R-DASH 5000, the original speaker of the quote, ironically refers to those chanting saying, "What a bunch of freaks.

In addition to the PONY.MOV series, Gilardi’s characters also appeared in two brief animated panels. The first, posted to YouTube on August 20, 2012, was created for the Everfree Northwest and Trotcon conventions while the second, posted to YouTube on October 2, 2012, was created for the Pon3 and Canterlot Gardens conventions. The video game Rainbow Dash plays in the first panel, “Wolf Puncher 2,” was later turned into a Flash game and hosted on wolfpuncher.com^[10] on October 10, 2012.

Gilardi also hosted a panel at Equestria LA in November of 2012, which was interrupted by Egoraptor, who provided the voice for Pinkie Pie and Rarity in the PONY.MOV series.

External References

About

“Like Skyrim With Guns” is a memorable quote by Adam Kovic of the Machinima YouTube channel comparing the open world first-person shooter game Far Cry 3 with the action role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which was widely mocked by the online gaming community.

Origin

At the Gamescom conference in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany held in August 2012, Machinima host Adam Kovic interviewed Far Cry 3 producer Dan Hay, saying the game was “like Skyrim with guns.”

Adam Kovic: I didn’t realize what you guys were demoing and it’s open world… and I’ve already told you this, but it feels like Skyrim with guns.

Spread

On August 17th, 2012, Kovic tweeted that he hoped Ubisoft used his “Skyrim with guns” quote on the Far Cry 3 game box.

On November 13th, IGN Forums^[3] member Shaggy_Drew posted a thread questioning why the Machinima quote “Like Skyrim with guns” was featured in advertisements for the game Far Cry 3 (shown below). On November 29th, the game developer Ubisoft released Far Cry 3 for the Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.

On November 30th, Machinima’s Adam Kovic posted a video defending his “Skyrim with guns” quote (shown below). In the first two years, the video garnered upwards of 190,000 views and 2,100 comments.

On December 6th, Redditor ronasd4 submitted a promotional image for the 2008 roleplaying game Fallout 3 titled “This is the original ‘Skyrim With Guns’” to the /r/gaming^[1] subreddit (shown below, left). On December 12th, 2012, redditor “thedz” submitted a screenshot of a Far Cry 3 character walking up the side of a mountain titled “Wow, Far Cry 3 really IS Skyrim With Guns” to the r/gaming^[2] subreddit (shown below, right).

On June 6th, 2013, YouTuber Peckett uploaded footage of a modded Skyrim game which allows the player to dual wield revolvers as functional weapons within the game (shown below).

Search Interest

External References