About

“Intimidation Game” is an episode of the American TV police drama Law and Order: Special Victims Unit which was based on the GamerGate movement and its surrounding events. Following its broadcast in mid-February 2015, the episode was quickly met with mostly negative reactions and mockeries from both pro and anti-Gamergate camps due to its corny screenplay, as well as its oversimplification of the actual events.

Episode Information

“Intimidation Game” aired on February 11th, 2015. The episode follows a female video gamer who is kidnapped and abused by a group of gamers who call themselves “Killed or Be Slaughtered” (KOBS) in allusion to Quinnspiracy and its aftermath. The episode also features references to 8chan and Reddit, as well as Anita Sarkeesian.

Online Reactions

The Law & Order episode was poorly received by those both for and against GamerGate in part for its perceived bad writing and cringeworthy delivery. The gaming news site Kotaku^[1] wrote a review of the episode, in which it heavily criticized the episode for “turning complicated conversations over misogyny in gaming into a cartoon caricature of good vs. evil.” Other sites also covered the episode and its following online reactions, such as The Verge,^[3] Jezebel,^[4] Mashable,^[5] ArsTechnica,^[6] PC Magazine^[7] and The Washington Post.^[8]

The episode was also criticized for demonizing gamers and a perceived lack of knowledge of the gaming subculture. Largely due to its “so bad it is good” appeal, the episode quickly spawned an ironical fanbase who quote lines from the episode to the likes of Baneposting. On February 13th, 2015, the 8chan board /redchanit/^[2] was created, the name being a portmanteau of Reddit and 4chan, which is referenced numerous times in the episode as the online hub where KOBS members congregate.

PoV Pistol

One of the exploitables features a member of the group KOBS pointing a gun to a police officer in a similar fashion to a first-person shooter game. The image is often photoshopped with different items and HUD’s from classic FPS games.

KOBS Uniform

This exploitable consists of changing certain characters to fit the pattern of the gamer terrorist group featured in the episode. Following the airing of the episode, the product page of the mask^[10] on headgear website ZanHeadgear^[9] received various fake reviews for the mask written in the style of the KOBS members or by using Baneposting. The page later redirected to the shock site Meatspin on February 14th, 2015, after it was discovered that Javascript could be embedded into the comments.

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About

“Electric Boogaloo” is a phrase typically appended to the title of a sequel TV or film production to mock its poor quality. Originally featured in the title of the poorly received 1984 dance film Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo^[3], the term refers to a type of dance move that arose out of funk and hip hop styles in the 1970s, popularized by the street dance team The Electric Boogaloos.^[9]

Origin

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (trailer shown below) (trailer shown below) was released on December 21st, 1984 and was met with mediocre reviews from Variety^[10] who called it a “comic book” and Roger Ebert^[11] who gave it 3 stars. As of March 2013, the film has been given 4.3 stars out of 10 on IMDb^[3] and 3.4 starts out of 5 on Rotten Tomatoes.^[12] Online, the phrase became adopted as a denotation of any sequel release as early as October 2nd, 2001, in a blog post about a radio show by actor Wil Wheaton.^[3]

Spread

In the early 2000s, the phrase was used offline in titles of works by Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy^[14] and indie rock band Minus the Bear.^[15] In July 2005, the first YTMND site using this title format was created by user Pandaman87^[16], as it was a sequel to one of his previous sites. As of March 2013, there are nearly 20 other sites^[17] that use “Electric Boogaloo” in their titles.

In November 2005, “Electric Boogaloo” was first used in this manner by a journalist on the Huffington Post^[7], regarding election reform in Ohio. In July 2007, the New York Times^[18] used the term in reference to the sequel to the viral video “I’ve Got a Crush on Obama,” marking one of the first times it was used in a negative fashion. In August of that year, a blog post on the Oxford University Press^[1] examined the titling structure and defined it as a snowclone that is used to denote any sequel production, which later became supported through its documentation on the Snowclone Database^[19] in 2008. On May 25th, 2008, “Electric Boogaloo” was similarly defined as a general description for sequels on Urban Dictionary.^[8]

As of March 2013, there are nearly 500 search results for “electric boogaloo” on Reddit^[20] and more than 100,000 on YouTube^[21], although a handful of these relate to the original movie or the dance. There are also articles chronicling the use of the term on TV Tropes^[5] and Encyclopedia Dramatica.^[6]

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“Jesus Christ How Horrifying” is an expression associated with a webcomic panel that is typically used as a reaction image to a shocking or disturbing post, in similar vein to Tony Kornheiser’s Why and Mother of God.

Origin

The original comic panel (shown below) was featured in the March 29th, 2009, issue of the webcomic series Horribleville, by KC Green, in which a passerby exclaims “Jesus Christ, how horrifying” in horror after confusing a fully grown man with a “fat ugly disgusting baby."

Spread

On April 6th 2009, YouTuber Shesellssheshells posted an animated version of the comic (shown below).

On September 10th, 2010, Facepunch Forums^[10] member The Man of “Wat” responded to a thread titled “You Boner You Lose” with the Horribleville panel as a reaction image. On July 4th, 2011, a page titled “Jesus Christ How Horrifying” was created on the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic image board wiki Gyropedia.^[9] On December 12th, a Dragon Ball photoshopped version of the panel was featured at the end of a dubbed Dragon Ball Z episode by YouTuber TeamFourStar (shown below).

On November 25th, 2012, Katawa Shoujo Forums member Lord Darkness posted a Katawa Shoujo version of the panel (shown below). On June 17th, 2013, Redditor hackerbots linked to the original panel as a reaction image in response to an illustration created by Redditor Shitty Watercolour.

Notable Examples

Additional photoshopped versions of the panel have been created featuring illustrated characters from a variety of fandoms, including Pokemon, Mega Man and My Little Pony.

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“I Swear On Me Mum” is British-Irish variant of the English idiomatic expression “I swear on my mother’s grave," a pledge of telling the truth. On the web, the phrase is often used in discussions and comments as a hostile retort in the character of Internet Tough Guy.

Origin

On May 24th, 2011, Body Building Forums^[1] member kidnamedsteve submitted a thread titled “u are 1 ****ing cheeky kunt mate i swear i am goin 2 wreck u i swear on my mums life,” including a threatening copypasta filled with British slang terms in a similar vein to the navy seal copypasta.

“u are 1 ****ing cheeky kunt mate i swear i am goin 2 wreck u i swear on my mums life and i no u are scared lil bitch gettin your mates to send me messages saying dont meet up coz u r sum big bastard with muscles lol ****in sad mate really sad jus shows what a scared lil gay boy u are and whats all this crap ur mates sendin me about sum bodybuildin website that 1 of your faverite places to look at men u lil ****in gay boy fone me if u got da balls cheeky prick see if u can step up lil queer.”

Spread

On November 24th, 2012, a thread was started on the /r9k/ (Robot9001) board on 4chan,^[8] in which several users posted various British slang terms including “I swear on me mum.” On March 29th, 2013, Tumblr^[5] blog Sshibe submitted a two-pane image macro featuring photographs of the Doge Shiba Inu with the captions “u avin a ggl ther m8 / ill bash ye fookin ead in I sware on me mum” (shown below, left). In the next seven months, the post garnered close to 160,000 notes. On April 10th, Redditor ItsLewis submitted a post titled “How I see most British teenagers” to the /r/funny^[2] subreddit, featuring an animated GIF from the 2013 first-person shooter video game Aliens: Colonel Marines with several aggressive British slang captions including “I swear on me mum” (shown below, right). Prior to being archived, the post received more than 9,100 up votes and 400 comments.

On May 23rd, DeviantArtist^[6] RoseCrown submitted an illustration titled “I Sware On Me Mum.” On July 14th, YouTuber pancakewafflebacon uploaded a video titled “bash ye fookin ead in I sware on me mum” featuring a morphing photograph of the Doge Shibu Inu (shown below).

On July 27th, the /r/uwotm8 subreddit^[7] was launched, which features the BodyBuilding copypasta on the sidebar. On September 1st, the two-pane Doge image macro was posted to the /tg/ (Traditional Games) board on 4chan.^[3]

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Matching Icons, often followed by the phrase “for you and your friends” or “for you and the bae,” are a series of photosets featuring two or more avatar images of fictional characters from manga/animes and TV shows that humorously complement each other(s).

Origin

The earliest known instance of matching icons was uploaded by Tumblr user Dodocity on September 7th, 2012. The post featured two symmetrically inverted images of Peter Parker from Spider-Man.

Spread

On June 16th, 2013, Tumblr user Zovii^[3] uploaded two icons of Kaworu Nagisa and Shinji Ikari from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion for shipping purposes. The post garnered 493 notes^[4].

In September 2013, the series saw a huge surge on Tumblr, and since then, the hashtag #matching-icons^[1] has remained active on the site. Furthermore, additional instances of the meme can be seen on Twitter^[2] and on Deviantart, where the search query for “matching icons” yield over 13,000 tagged results^[5].

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“Because You’re Worth It” is the slogan of the French cosmetics company L’Oreál. The slogan and its accompanying hair-swinging gesture has become the subject of parody.

Origin

L’Oréal was founded in 1909 by Eugène Schueller^[1] and the L’Oréal slogan was written by Ilon Specht on 1973.^[2] Early forms of its use as a joke can be found in Saturday Night Live transcripts as early as 1976.^[3]

Man: Mmm-hmm. The Vice-President of DataCorp, Bill Holding, told me about this place, a man and his wife turn their own home into a restaurant three nights a week. It got a four-star rating in Food Map magazine.
Woman: Oh, wow!
Man: They said it was real expensive, but I made reservations two months in advance, because you’re worth it.

The first instance of the meme online is unknown.

Spread

Sometime during the summer of 2011, Cheezburger released a series of LOLcat image macros featuring the tagline. Later instances would include the logo transposed onto the image in the fashion of a photoshop meme.

Many examples quickly became available on other sites like Meme Center^[4] and Quick Meme.^[5] Deviantart has 1,939 results^[6] tagged with the meme L’Oreál. While the tag #l’oreal is often used for cosmetic photography and images of the models of L’Oréal, the meme can be easily spotted on tumblr with the tag #because-you’re-worth-it.^[7]

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The Hunger Games Simulator is a web-based simulation game that allows players to create their own rosters, as well as use tributes from the 74th and 75th Hunger Games, for a virtual arena deathmatch using custom avatar images and names for the tributes. Upon submission, the simulator generates an outcome through a series of events during which all but one are killed in some manner. Since its launch on December 25th, 2014, hundreds of screen captures, thousands of tweets, and many videos of users’ simulations have been shared on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, 4chan and many other places online.

Origin

The simulator was conceived and structured by Jacob^[2] and brought to life by the Brant^[3] on December 25th, 2014. The concept and rules of the Hunger Games Simulator are inspired by the book and film The Hunger Games. Just as in the book, the Hunger Games simulator features two participants from each of the 12 Districts, allowing for a total of 24 individual avatars to be added. On top of this, the simulator allows users to increase the tribute-limit to 36 and 48 (2-4 tributes per district).

Spread

On January 24th, 2015, Redditor PopsicleIncorporated submitted the earliest known Hunger Games simulator screenshot to /r/survivor^[4], which featured the cast of the reality TV show Survivor. The post received 0 points (45% upvoted) and five comments. In the following months, screenshots of in-game notifications featuring various cartoon, video game and anime characters began to surface on Tumblr and Reddit, with many posts incorporating humorous references to specific communities or subcultures. On February 27th, Tumblr user comedycorpse^[5] uploaded another instance featuring Looney Tunes characters, which received 115 notes. On March 7th, Redditor mightyeggroll shared a series of screenshots in a r/anime^[6] post titled “Anime Battle Royale,” garnering 1,194 points (86% upvoted) and 39,804 views for the corresponding images on Imgur.

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Miguel’s Guitar (alternatively known as ’Miguel’s Banjo’ or ’Miguel’s Ukelele’) refers to an animated GIF of Miguel, one of the protagonists in the 2000 American animated film The Road to El Dorado, playing his guitar (more accurately, his lute,) fervently in one of the opening scenes. The GIF has been parodied and remixed upon multiple times, often with other fictional characters furiously strumming their own stringed instruments with a hunched pose and/or a serious facial expression.

Origin

The specific scene in the 2000 DreamWorks movie The Road to El Dorado where Miguel performs his iconic strumming happens when the duo, Tulio and Miguel, attempt to gamble for the legendary map that leads to El Dorado, the city of gold. Miguel plays the lute to add dramatic, if not untimely, flair. The gambling eventually turns sour and chaos ensues.

Spread

Miguel’s lute-strumming GIF has seen massive spread online, appearing in multiple GIF-themed websites like WeKnowGifs.com^[2] and GifSoup,^[3] uploaded by different users before appearing in much larger-scale communities such as "Reddit^[4] and Tumblr^[5]. On DeviantART, a search for the phrase ’Miguel’s Guitar’ yields almost 500 results, with an additional volume of derivatives based on the original GIF that are tagged under ‘Miguel plays guitar.’^[1]

Various Examples

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“Let’s Go! Onmyouji” (Japanese: レッツゴー！陰陽師; lit. “Let’s Go! Yin-yang Masters”) is a song insert taken from the 2006 fighting game Shin Goketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnou Kaihou.^[1] The song’s music video has since went on to gain widespread popularity during the early days of the Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga (NND) in 2006-7, inspiring video remixes, musical covers, and dance parodies.

Origin

The song was originally used as the background theme for character Thin Nen from the Japanese fighting game Shin Goketsuji Ichzoku: Toukon Matrimelee, released for arcades in Japan during 2003.^[2] The song would featured in a CG-animated music video, which features the song being sung and danced by characters Hikomaro Yabeno and Kotohime, while being accompanied by the Bozu dancers as backup, and be included in Shin Goketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnou Kaihou, released for the PlayStation 2 on May 25th, 2006. The video would later be uploaded to YouTube (shown below) by YouTuber bussan00 on May 28th, 2006, three days after the games release.

The video would eventually gain momentum several months later, after it was uploaded to NND during the day of the site’s beta launch on December 16th, 2006.^[3] The oddness of the video would help it become one of the first to gain popularity within the site, with early users posting comment-stream barrages in-tune with the song’s lyrics, often time misinterpreted lyrics. During that time, the video would gain over 640 thousand views on NND, and over 5 million views overall on the original YouTube upload.

Spread

As the video continued to gain attention, the first known remixes of the song began to emerge. One of the earliest examples was a MAD mashup with the Touhou arrangement “Marisa Stole the Precious Thing” (shown below), created by YouTuber c0ldcup and uploaded to YouTube on February 10th, 2007, and later to NND^[4] the next day. The remix was proven to be popular, with the YouTube upload gaining over 1.2 million views, and also helped sparking eventual remixes based off of “Marisa Stole the Precious Thing.”

A month later, after being denied access from YouTube, NND was officially relaunched on March 6th, and immediately videos began being uploaded, with “Let’s Go! Onmyouji”^[5] being one of the first ten videos. With the newly-launched site, users began picking up where things left off and started to give the video extra attention then before, and as time went on, remixes and parodies began being created within the site.^[6]

As of March 2014, the video is known as the oldest within the site, and in honor it has been given the nickname sm9, which refers to the video’s URL.^[7] The song has since been recognized by being featured multiple times in Nico Nico Medleys,^[8] and through compilation CDs featuring songs that also became popular on the site. The song has also been considered as one of the first three phenomenons to ever hit NND, alongside Kishimen and Musical The Prince of Tennis.

10 Million Views Anniversary Edition

On July 7th, 2012, sm9 reached 10 million page views. In response, Noise Factory, the developer of the video game, uploaded an Anniversary video to celebrate this milestone with NND users on the 30th of this month.^[9]

Notable Examples

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Michael Rosen is a source of YouTube Poops and Montage Parodies videos featuring the british author, broadcaster, novelist and poet “Michael Wayne Rosen”. His humorous presence in his vlogs, performances and other videos are favoured by many children, fans and also YouTube Poopers.

Origin

Before becoming a popular subject for YTPs, Mark Foster, the owner of the british design agency “Artifice Design”, uploaded from May 2007 until August 2011 92 videos on YouTube featuring Michael Rosen performing poems based from his books. One of the most popular videos on Artifice Design’s YouTube Channel is “Michael Rosen – We’re Going On A Bear Hunt”, which it gained over 1 million views.

Spread

YouTube Poop series

In June 11, 2009, Michael Rosen performed the book “The Opposite”, written by Tom McCrae and Elena Odriozola, as a Bedtime Story for BBC’s TV series “CBeebies” airing at 6:50 PM (UTC+0). The TV performance was then used for the first Michael Rosen YTP titled “Youtube Poop recites a bedtime story for kids” created by YouTube user Lnsector and uploaded it on June 13, 2009, but then Lnsector deleted his account. His Michael Rosen YTP videos inspired poopers like cs188 and KatanaSoul, which they made the fad growing more to popularity.

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Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by J.K. Rowling between 1997 and 2007, following the adventures of an adolescent wizard named Harry Potter and his two friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The main story arc revolves around the conflict between Harry and an evil wizard named Voldemort. The series became incredibly popular among youths and adults alike and is often credited with introducing an entire generation of children to reading. Thematically, it is a coming-of-age story, and has many subplots relating to self-discovery and overcoming the challenges of life.^[1]

The novels were made into a highly successful series of eight movies between 2001 and 2011, introducing the series to a wider fanbase. Despite being largely book- and film-centered, the series maintains a large online presence and has generated lots of fan art and fanfiction.

History

Books

The first book in the Harry Potter series, entitled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was released on June 30th, 1997. The first three books were published and released solely in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury before the books were picked up for worldwide release by Scholastic Press in the US. Tehe last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released on July 21, 2007. The series has received worldwide acclaim, and has been translated into 67 languages. The last four books set records for being the fastest selling books ever^[1], due to eager readers who purchased the newest books as soon as they were released. Additionally, the series is noted for help boosting literacy in young children. In 2006, American publisher Scholastic conducted a study^[14] finding that 51% of Harry Potter readers between ages 5 and 17 did not read for fun before the series.

Films

The series has also been adapted into a successful film series with movies released between 2001 and 2011. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was split into two films, allowing for more content to be covered. The film series has been very well received, and has grossed over $7.7 billion.^[2] With the release of the final film on July 15th, 2011, the series officially “ended.”

Pottermore

Pottermore^[6] is a website created by J.K. Rowling for people wishing to stay connected to the _Harry Potter) universe after the end of the book and film series. Its content is similar to an alternate-reality game (ARG), in that it features games and quests intended to enhance the experience of reading the books. Initial registration for the closed beta release began on July 31st, 2011, with the first million fans who completed a series of challenges being allowed to register. On April 14th, 2012, registration was opened to everyone.^[3] As of May 2012, the interactive experiences available are limited to the first novel.

On July 8th, 2014, J.K. Rowling added a short story to Pottermore in the form of an article in The Daily Prophet, the newspaper in the wizarding world, written by Harry Potter character Rita Skeeter. The article, titled “Dumbledore’s Army Reunite at Quidditch World Cup Final” features updates on the lives of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and other key characters from the book series in 2014, meaning Harry is 34.

The article revealed details about the characters’ careers, for example Hermione now works as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and descriptions of their physical appearance, for example Harry has gained another scar on his cheek. Other characters mentioned include Bill and Fleur Weasley, their daughter Victoire, Teddy Lupin (the son of the late Remus and Tonks), Charlie Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. Many sites published lists of things that could be learned from the article the same day, including Buzzfeed,^[51] AndPop^[52] and Mashable.^[53] Also on July 8th, Daniel Radcliffe, who starred as Potter in the films, expressed disinterest^[54] in reprising his role in any adaptations of the short story, saying of the story:

“I haven’t read it yet, though I will. But my understanding is that it’s very short, not worthy of adaptation to film.”

Reception

On the internet, Harry Potter fan sites devoted to the series began appearing as early as 1999 with the now-defunct Harry Potter Network.^[7] The following year, both MuggleNet^[8] and The Leaky Cauldron^[9] were created, both of which are active as of May 2012. In 2003, The Harry Potter Lexicon^[11] was established, offering a full encyclopedia to the Potterverse. The Harry Potter Wiki^[10] has more than 10,000 unique pages on the site.

Some characters from the series have fan-created Twitter accounts that have attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, most notably Lord Voldemort^[4] and Severus Snape.^[5]

Fandom

The Harry Potter series has garnered a large following of both children and adults, due to the books’ accessibility to both audiences. “Pottermania” was coined in 1999^[12] to describe the intense love fans have for the series. The fandom is considered large enough to have its own Wikipedia page.^[15] There are more than 300 LiveJournal communities^[16] that list “Harry Potter” as an interest, an active Tumblr tag^[17], Twitter hashtag^[18] and more than 489,000 pieces of fan art for the series on deviantArt^[19] as of May 2012.

Fanfiction

Harry Potter fanfiction is abundant, with more than 468,500 stories found on Fanfiction.net^[20] as of May 2012. There are also several sites dedicated to Potterverse stories including Harry Potter Fanfiction^[21], established in February 2001, The Sugar Quill^[26] from June 2001 and a LiveJournal community^[25] created in 2003. Additionally, fanfiction has a separate category^[24] on the fansite MuggleNet. There are also adult-themed fiction communities like Erised^[22], the Restricted Section^[23] and LiveJournal community Pornish Pixies^[30], which was taken offline for several days by LiveJournal administrators without warning in 2007 for containing inappropropriate search terms.^[31]

There are also a variety of fan creations that have become “fanon” (fan-canon), which are chronicled on the Harry Potter Fanon Wiki.^[42] In 2012, actor Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) was asked to read an especially racy fanfiction, Broken Innocence^[27] on the Bravo talk show Watch What Happens Live.

Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles

On August 24th, 2014, FanFiction.net^[55] user proudhousewife published a piece of Harry Potter fanfiction titled “Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles.” The piece of fan fiction imagines a world in which Harry is taken from his atheist aunt and uncle to a Christian school to learn about God. The author, Grace Ann, explains she wrote the piece of fan fiction as a Christian alternative to the original book series, saying:

“Hello, friends! My name is Grace Ann. I’m new to this whole fanfiction thing; but recently, I’ve encountered a problem that I believe this is the solution to. My little ones have been asking to read the Harry Potter books; and of course I’m happy for them to be reading; but I don’t want them turning into witches! So I thought….. why not make some slight changes so these books are family friendly? And then I thought, why not share this with all the other mommies who are facing the same problem? So-Ta da! Here it is! I am SO excited to share this with all of you! So, without further ado-

On September 23rd, Jezebel^[56] published a post titled “Mom’s Evangelical Christian Rewrite of Harry Potter CANNOT Be Real .” The story was covered by several websites on September 25th, including The Mirror^[57] and Metro.^[58] Within a month, the story gained over 3,000 notes.

Shipping

The main characters of the series often have been subject to shipping on Tumblr, with many shippers torn between which of the two main male characters, Harry or Ron, the female lead, Hermione, should ultimately end up with. Crush^[35], a directory of Harry Potter fan sites dedicated to different ship pairings, was created in 2007. The fandom’s obsession with Harry’s romantic pursuits was also featured in an August 2005 article on the San Francisco Gate^[33] and in the Albany, NY newspaper Times Union^[34] in March 2007.

J.K. Rowling commented on the love triangle and shipping within the fandom in July 2005, stating that she felt it was clear that Ron and Hermione would be together throughout the first five books.^[32] She also noted that she found Harry/Hermione shippers to be militant and overly energetic about being right, often being overly harsh on Ron’s character, but found the whole culture extraordinary. Following this interview, MuggleNet chronicled^[36] several dozen posts about Rowling’s comments from a Harry/Hermione forum that called it “ridiculous” and “blasphemous,” going as far as to call Rowling talentless.

JK Rowling on Hermione and Ron

On February 2nd, 2014, The Sunday Times^[47] published selections from an interview with Harry Potter star Emma Watson and JK Rowling that will be published in the February/ March issue of Wonderland magazine.^[48] In the interview Rowling discusses Ron and Hermione’s relationship saying:

“I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment. That’s how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.”

The author also expressed her ambiguous feeling towards the fictional couple in retrospect, adding:

“If I’m absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility. Am I breaking people’s hearts by saying this? I hope not.”

Rowling’s explanation of the pairing caused a backlash from media outlets and fans on Tumblr, where many reacted to the author’s comment in disappointment and even anger, while some predicted that this may spark a shipping war between those who are behind Hermione/Ron and those who prefer Hermione/Harry as a couple.
On February 3rd, Entertainment Weekly^[49] published a piece titled “Regrets over Ron/Hermione pairing?! An open letter to J.K. Rowling” which criticizes Rowling for adding canonical details to the series so long after the conclusion of the series. On February 4th, Flavorwire^[50] published an op-ed titled “Let’s Stop Pretending There’s a Love Triangle in ‘Harry Potter,’” which speculated that Rowling’s remark may have been aimed at fueling the Harry Potter love triangle in the light of similar fandom trends found in some of the more recent novels for young adults, such as Twilight and The Hunger Games.

My Immortal / The Worst Fanfiction Ever

My Immortal was written in 2006 by fanfiction.net user Tara Gillesbie. It is often considered to be the worst fanfiction ever written due to its abysmal grammar, preposterous plot featuring members of rock band My Chemical Romance and unexplained shipping. It gained further notoriety due to the large number of dramatic readings and parodies that have been created.

The Draco Trilogy

The Draco Trilogy^[37] consists of the stories Draco Dormiens, Draco Sinister and Draco Veritas. They were written by American author Cassandra Clare^[38] between 2000 and 2006. The series is known for helping create a fanbase for an alternate portrayal of the antagonist character known as Fanon Draco.^[39] While Draco is portrayed as a coward and bully in the novels and films, in fanfiction, Draco has been commonly viewed as a misunderstood anti-hero.

In June 2001, Clare was banned from Fanfiction.net after a plagiarized paragraph from a Pamela Dean novel was found in the ninth chapter of Draco Sinister.^[44] However, since the first installment was one of the most popular stories on Fanfiction.net at the time, Clare’s fans fought to get it back online, which was the catalyst for the creation of FictionAlley^[45] several months later as a new home for the fanmade novels. LiveJournal community Fandom Wank^[43] chronicled the drama surrounding The Draco Trilogy in 2006, followed by a lengthy blog post^[46] two years later detailing the history of the conflict by the user that found the plagiarism.

The Draco Trilogy is also known for coining the term “Draco in Leather Pants.” Since he is described as wearing them throughout the story, the phrase went on to describe the way a fandom can retool a villain to make them desirable or deserving of empathy.^[40] This technique is frequently referenced on Tumblr^[41] and explained on TV Tropes.^[40]

Related Memes

You’re a Wizard, Harry!

You’re a Wizard, Harry! is a phrase spoken to Harry Potter by Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, informing him that he is a wizard. Harry had been previously unaware of this, and this fact completely changed Harry’s life; he went from being absolutely miserable to being joyful and excited overnight. Online, it is a catchphrase frequently used on forums to express a tone of extreme condescension, as if the poster is having to explain something very simple to someone very stupid.

Severus Snape

Severus Snape, who is played by Alan Rickman in the films, is the potions master of Hogwarts school and one of the main antagonists throughout the Harry Potter series. However, in the last book, he is revealed to be a tragic hero. His constantly acerbic attitude and wit, as well as the revelations in the last book, have made him a fan favorite. Alan Rickman’s portrayal of the character in the film series only increased fan interest and Snape is frequently featured in fan art and fanfics.

Ten Points from Gryffindor

“Ten Points from Gryffindor” (or alternatively to Gryffindor) is a phrase commonly used throughout the series. In the books, the four houses of Hogwarts (Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor) use a merit point system called House Points. The points are added for good behaviour and are removed for poor behaviour. Snape was particularly fond of removing points from Gryffindor for questionable reasons, often because of personal grudge against Harry. Online, the phrase is used in a similar context; it is used in forums and image boards to comment on both good and bad behaviour, and is most often used facetiously to poke fun at fails.

Snape Kills Dumbledore

Previous to the sixth book’s release, a scanned page from a preview copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince began circulating online, spoiling the scene in which Severus Snape kills Albus Dumbledore, Harry’s mentor/guide and the headmaster of Hogwarts. A LiveJournal community named _dumbledoredies^[28] was created on July 15th, 2005, featuring neon colored GIFs with spoilers in a large font. It mass-friending users who had Harry Potter listed as an interest, causing commotion among the fans on the site.^[29] The scan of the book also inspired several YTMND sites and fan reaction videos, which show fans in tears after reading the scene.

Potter Puppet Pals

Potter Puppet Pals is a YouTube series started in 2006 by Flash animator Neil Cicierega, using puppet versions of the main characters from the Harry Potter universe in humorous or satirical situations. The first episode was released in September 2006 as a flash animation on Albino Blacksheep.^[13] In March 2007, Cicierga debuted a version with hand-made puppets on YouTube with an episode titled The Mysterious Ticking Noise, which has been viewed more than 126 million times as of May 2012. Potter Puppet Pals has spawned many fan responses and knock-off series.

No Post on Sundays

No Post on Sundays refers to a remembrance event orchestrated by Harry Potter fans on March 31, 2013, in memory of actor Richard Griffiths, known for his portrayal of Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films. “No post on Sundays!” was a quote spoken by Uncle Vernon, and in memory of Griffiths, Potter fans refrained from posting on community sites, such as FunnyJunk, Reddit, and Tumblr.

Search Interest

Search interest for Harry Potter has remained consistently high, spiking around the release dates of the books and films.

External Links

About

“Thrift Shop” is a 2012 song by the American rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis, with additional vocals by R&B singer Michael “Wanz” Wansley. The song’s lyrics describe Macklemore’s penchant for discovering rare bargains at thrift clothing stores, while eschewing expensive designer brands. The music video became widely popular online shortly after it was uploaded to YouTube in August of 2012, inspiring the creation of many parody video tributes.

Origin

The song “Thrift Shop” was released as a single on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ debut album The Heist on August 28th, 2012, and the official music video was uploaded to YouTube on the following day. As of January 2013, the video has received over 70.9 million views, 469,000 up votes and 86,000 comments.

Spread

The same day the video was uploaded to YouTube, Redditor pricklypete submitted it to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it received over 2,000 up votes and 160 comments in the next six months. On September 10th, Redditor orangepeelz reposted the video to the /r/videos^[2] subreddit, where it garnered more than 7,500 up votes and 640 comments over the next five months. On September 26th, a fan page for “Thrift Shop by Macklemore” was created on Facebook,^[5] which accumulated over 9,000 likes over the next four months. On October 8th, 2012, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis participated in an “ask us anything” (AMA) post on the /r/IAmA^[3] subreddit, in which they revealed that The Heist had become the #1 album in America on the online music store iTunes during the course of the AMA. On December 6th, YouTuber whatsupelle uploaded a parody of the “Thrift Shop” music video in which a poor father is forced to shop at thrift shops (shown below). Within two months, the video received over 460,000 up views and 600 comments.

On December 11th, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and Wanz performed “Thrift Shop” on the talk show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. On December 17th, the “Thrift Shop Memes” Facebook^[4] page was created to showcase various image macros with captions inspired by the song’s lyrics (shown below).

On January 9th, 2013, YouTuber steveberkecomedy uploaded a “Thrift Shop” parody video titled “Pot Shop,” with lyrics calling for the legalization of marijuana (shown below, left). The same day, Redditor mysterieuxmystere submitted the video to the /r/videos^[6] subreddit. Within 19 days, the Reddit post received over 6,700 up votes and 600 comments and the YouTube video accumulated more than 1.3 million views and 2,400 comments. On January 17th, the video game news site IGN uploaded a parody titled “Game Shop” to their official YouTube channel, with lyrics describing the experience of shopping for video games in retail stores (shown below, right). Within two weeks, the video received over 993,000 views and 4,400 comments.

On January 23rd, “Thrift Shop” reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.^[9] The following day, the Seattle PI^[8]reported that Macklemore was the first Seattle-based artist in over two decades to reach the top position on the Billboard chart. On January 25th, Time Magazine^[10] published an article reporting that “Thrift Shop” was the first indie hit to top the Billboard chart since 1994.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Unnecessary Explosions refers to GIFs or videos which have been edited to include an exaggerated explosion effect in a situation where such an explosion had obviously not occurred.

Origin

On February 8th, 2010, YouTuber Sindri Johannsson^[11] uploaded a video titled “If Michael Bay Directed the Super Bowl” which featured Super Bowl footage with an explosion edited in. As of September 2014, the video has gained over 120,000 views.

On September 8th, YouTuber Rosarioproductions1^[8] uploaded a video titled “Unnecessary Explosions” which featured video clips with exaggerated explosions edited into them. As of September 2014, the video has gained over 400 views.

Spread

On April 17th, 2013, Redditor wildman50 submitted an animated GIF of a skateboarder landing a trick with a giant explosion titled “Skateboarding: directed by Michael Bay” to the /r/funny^[4] subreddit, gathering upwards of 3,400 up votes and 120 comments prior to being archived (shown below, left). On October 4th, Redditor ArcherJF posted an animated GIF featuring scenes from the 1997 period drama film Titanic edited with explosions titled “Titanic, as directed by Michael Bay” to /r/gifs,^[5] accumulating over 5,400 up votes and 75 comments in four months (shown below, middle). On February 15th, 2014, Redditor HowIChrgeLazer submitted a GIF of two bees colliding into a giant explosion titled “So I heard Michael Bay is getting into nature documentaries” to /r/gifs,^[6] garnering more than 2,400 up votes and 25 comments in the next 10 days (shown below, right).

On May 22, 2013, YouTuber AHarperFilms^[9] uploaded a video titled “Extremely Unnecessary Explosions” (Short Comedy)." As of September 2014, the video has gained over 500 views.

On August 4th, 2014, Reddit user jerip123 posted an Imgur album to the r/funny^[1] subreddit titled “Unnecessary Explosions” which features GIFs edited to include exaggerated explosions. Within 48 hours the thread gained over 3,000 points and over 800 comments. The same day the Tumblr blog TastefullyOffensive^[7] posted a collection of the GIFs. Within 24 hours the post gained over 25,000 notes. On August 4th, Elite Daily^[4] published a round-up of unnecessary explosion GIFs titled “When You Add Unnecessary Explosions To Funny GIFs, They Become Even Better.” The GIFs were covered the same day by Heavy^[5] and Pleated Jeans.^[6] The following day UpRoxx^[3] published a roundup titled “Meme Watch: Unnecessary Explosions Added To GIFs Make Everything More Rad.”

Notable Examples

Exploding Actresses

Exploding Actresses is a series of videos and animated GIFs by digital artist Simone Rovellini, featuring scenes from famous films which have been edited to make a character’s head explode. On June 16th, 2013, the “Exploding Actresses” Tumblr^[2] blog was launched, with the first post highlighting an animated GIF of a scene from the 1959 musical The Sound of Music edited with Julie Andrews’ head exploding (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Don’t Lose Your Way Goes with Everything is a series of YouTube Poop videos that play any footage with a segment of “Before My Body is Dry”^[1], a popular song from the anime Kill la Kill^[2], in the background, where the line “Don’t lose your way” is sung. It is done in a similar fashion to Guile’s Theme Goes with Everything, making the footage to appear more epic^[3].

Origin

The first known mashup video using the song was posted by a YouTuber Stalker Humanoid^[4] titled “Kill la Eddie” on January 5th, 2014. The video contains a scene from television crime drama series Miami Vice^[5] in which Eddie gets shot with a shotgun while “Don’t lose your way” segment plays in the background, parodying how the song is used in Kill la Kill. On January 7th, a redditor defearl^[6] posted a link to the video on Kill la Kill subreddit^[7], coining and popularizing the phrase “Don’t Lose Your Way Goes with Everything” among the anime community.

Spread

Following defearl’s thread, many redditors on Kill la Kill and anime subreddits began creating and posting similar videos, stating “it really does go with everything”. The used footage range from television shows and other anime to video game clips.^[8]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

“This is nice entry”– Bury Pink Gril, 2015

About

“This is Nice Board” is a phrase commonly accompanied by a picture of a recolored version of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica character Madoka Kaname, and often used as a form of shitposting on 4chan’s /s4s/ (shit 4chan says) board. This character is also known as Bury Pink Gril, a mispelled way to write “very pink girl”.

Origin

The original illustration of the anime-styled girl with pink background, blue hair, red hair bows, and green eyes is related to the Madoka Magica series. The illustration was cropped from an awkward looking futanari hentai, which was drawn by gbb for a drawing chat thread in “may” of the /b/ boards in Futaba Channel (2chan). Then he reposted it to his pixiv page on May 6th, 2012.^[1]

The first known use of the phrase was on 4chan’s /s4s/ board thread on November 8, 2013.^[2] On the same thread, a mesage with the same image featured the message “she is bury pink girl”, name that later would be given to the fanart crop.

Spread

On November 13th, 2013, a thread on /s4s/ featured the same message with a real life modified picture of Katya Lischina, with blue hair, green eyes and everything else pink (shown bellow, left).^[3] That made the original picture to be used as exploitable. and other pictures modified to have the same color scheme as it.^[4] On December 16th, 2013, another /s4s/ thread featured a modified image of Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons with Bury Pink Gril’s head and white skin (shown bellow, right).^[5] This one was the first derivate from the picture.

The modified image started a series of derivates, being some of the most popular ones “very pink girl”, first featured on a May 4th, 2014 thread;^[6] and “beary pink girl”, first featured on a February 16th, 2015 thread.^[7] Also, crops from the original hentai image started being used.

Made by Peacock Roy

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available

External References

About

Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics superhero who fights crime in a fictionalized New York City. He is the alter ego of high school student Peter Parker, an orphan raised by his aunt and uncle who becomes a vigilante upon acquiring several superhuman skills, including super strength, speed, clairvoyance and abilities to stick to surfaces and shoot spider webs from his wrists, as a result of being bitten by a radioactive spider.

History

Comics

In 1962, writer Stan Lee created the Spider-Man character in the midst of a growing interest in comics from the teenage demographic. After several arguments with Marvel published Martin Goodman, Lee’s spider-costumed superhero was reluctantly approved for a trial run in the August 1962 issue of Amazing Fantasy (shown below, left). In March 1963, the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko was published. It eventually went on to become Marvel Comics’ top-selling series of all time (shown below, right).

In 1966, Ditko left Marvel Comics and was replaced by artist John Romita, Sr. In May to July of 1971, The Amazing Spider-Man issues #96-#98 were released with a story depicting the negative effects of drug use, following pressure from United States president Richard Nixon’s Department of Health, Education and Welfare for the series to push an anti-drug message.

In 1985, the series The Web of Spider-Man was launched, which featured Spider-Man in an alien black costume (shown below, left). In 1990, the monthly title Spider-Man was released (shown below, right), which was written and drawn by artist Todd McFarlane and sold a record-breaking three million copies.

In 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man series was renammed The Superior Spider-Man, with the villain Doctor Octopus inhabiting the body of Peter Parker as the new Spider-Man (shown below, left). In April 2014, The Amazing Spider-Man was relaunched with the return of the real Peter Parker (shown below, right).

Television

In September 1967, ABC began broadcasting the Spider-Man animated television series, which ran until June 1970 (shown below, left). Screen captures from the series subsequently inspired the 60s Spider-Man image macros. From 1978 to 1979, CBS broadcast the live-action series The Amazing Spider-Man (shown below, right).

Many other Spider-Man animated television shows were subsequently released, including Spider-Man and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends in the 1980s, Fox Kids’ Spider-Man and Spider Man-Unlimited in the 1990s, followed by Spider-Man Unlimited (1999), Spider-Man: The Animated Series (2003), The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008) and Ultimate Spider-Man (2012).

Films

On May 3rd, 2002, Sony Pictures Entertainment released the Sam Raimi directed film Spider-Man, starring actor Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Williem Dafoe as the Green Goblin, James Franco as his son Harry Osborn and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson (shown below, left). On June 30th, 2004, the sequel Spider-Man 2 was released, in which Spider-Man faces the villain Doctor Octopus (shown below, right).

On May 4th, 2007, the final film in Sam Raimi’s trilogy Spider-Man 3 was released, in which Spider-Man faces an extraterrestrial symbiote who turns into the villain Venom (shown below).

On June 30th, 2012, film The Amazing Spider-Man was released, starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors (shown below, left). On May 2nd, 2014, the sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released (shown below, right), in which Spider-Man faces the living electric generator villain Electro (played by Jamie Foxx).

Online Presence

On April 17th, 2000, the Spider-Man news site Spider-Man Crawlspace^[9] was launched. On October 3rd, 2005, the Spider-Man Wiki^[8] was created, which gathered upwards of 2,500 entries in the next nine years. On July 2nd, 2010, the /r/spiderman^[7] subreddit was launched for discussions related to the superhero. On Feburary 4th, 2011, a Facebook^[6] page titled “Spider-Man” was launched, gathering over 11 million likes in the first four years.

Fandom

There are numerous Spider-Man fan blogs on Tumblr, including The Amazing Spider-Man Blog,^[3] Fuck Yeah Spider-Man^[4] and Spider-Man Spider-Man,^[5] among many others. As of May 2014, more than 94,200 images have been uploaded to DeviantArt] under the tag “spider-man” andover 2,500 Spider-Man-related stories have been submitted to the fanfiction database Fanfiction.net.^[1]

Related memes

’60s Spider-Man

’60’s Spider-Man, also known as “Retro Spider-Man," is an image macro series based on still shots from the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon series, typically featuring an absurd internal monologue that correspond with the actions depicted in the images.

Dancing Spider-Man

Dancing Spider-Man is an animated GIF image of Spider-Man performing a dance in front of a blank white background.

Toei Spider-Man

Toei Spider-Man is the Japanese tokusatsu television series loosely based on the Marvel Comics character. In this version, Spider-Man is portrayed as a live-action hero equipped with a giant mecha and cheesy, over-the-top entrances.

How Do I Shoot Web?

“How Do I Shot Web?” is a catchphrase associated with a comic panel of Spider-Man holding hands in front of his body to express confusion.

Crippled Spider-Man

Crippled Spider-Man is a YTMND fad featuring a photograph of a person in a Spider-Man costume holding a walking frame.

Italian Spider-Man

Italian Spider-Man is a 2007 Australian Spider-Man film parodying Italian action-adventure films released in the 1970s.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

BP Oil Spill, also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, occurred between April and July 2010 was the largest accidental spill in the history of the industry. The spill itself and the unsuccessful attempts to stop it were criticized by internet users and the event itself became the subject of a variety of mediums including comics, image macros and games.

Background

On April 20th, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, leased to BP in 2001, exploded after an erosion of various materials, like mud and methane.^[1] At the time of the explosion, the rig was produciing up to 336,000 gallons of oil a day and holding nearly 700,000 gallons on board. Two days later, a second explosion caused Deepwater Horizon to sink, and on the 24th, the Coast Guard reported nearly 42,000 gallons of crude oil had spilled 5000 feet below the surface.^[27]

By May 3rd, carcasses of threatened and endangered animals began washing ashore and 16 days later, oil began seeping into the shores of Louisiana marshland. On May 27th, scientists announced that the spill had become the most damaging in history, leaking nearly 800,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf per day. By June 1st, BP’s stock dropped more than 50% in US trading markets since the explosion. Officials estimated that at max, the leak was spilling 2,604,000 gallons of oil per day into the ocean, with a total of 205.8 million gallons spilled by the time the well was sealed in September 2010.^[28]

Notable Developments

May 2010: @BPGlobalPR

In early May, a novelty Twitter account @BPGlobalPR^[2] was created to mock the way BP’s actual Twitter account, @BP_America^[9] was handling the disaster. They often used the hashtag #bpcares^[11] with their sarcastic and sometimes dark tweets. By May 26th, the blog had been featured on CNN^[10] who noted the account had more than 38,000 followers, compared to the 5000 that BP’s official account had at the time. The next day, Mashable^[5] published an exclusive interview with “Terry,”^[12] the pseudonym for the man running the account. Following this in-character interview, Wired journalist Matt Honan claimed the account was written by the blogger Mike Monteiro via Twitter^[13], although he denied it was him.^[8]

On June 2nd, 2010, a manifesto from a man known as Leroy Stick was posted on the blog Street Giant^[6], claiming he started the Twitter feed as a way to call BP out for what he saw as empty public-relations statements when he felt they should be providing hard answers. Two days later, he did an interview with Ad Age^[7] where he continued to refuse to reveal his name. The same week, The Daily Beast^[4] published a series of tweets from both accounts, asking users to spot the differences between the two writing styles. On June 9th, when the account had nearly 150,000 followers, BP went to Twitter^[3] to ask that the parody feed specify that it is not directly related to the oil company. As of November 2012, the account has broken 150,000 followers but updates sparingly.

2010: Social Media Response

Following the spill, people frustrated with the situation took to social media as a way to speak out about it. BP set up Facebook^[29], Twitter^[9] and YouTube^[30] accounts to keep consumers updated on their clean up efforts and much of the initial backlash was directed at them.^[31] A Facebook group calling for a boycott of the oil giant^[32] has more than 772,000 likes as of November 2012.

May-October 2012: Greenpeace Photos

In August 2010, Greenpeace filed a request in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act looking for any communication relating to endangered and threatened animal species to be released to the public. The first of these photos were made available nearly two years later in May 2012, showing dead sea turtles covered in oil.^[18] That October, more photos were released of a dead sperm whale^[19], which was found dead 77 miles from the spill site from undetermined circumstances on June 16th, 2010.^[20] Though these photos had appeared in the New York Times^[21] and on a teacher’s blog^[22], the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had asked that the photos not be shared with the public.^[23] After the photos were released, the NOAA confirmed that the whale was included in the tally of carcasses found after the spill but they could not determine the animal’s cause of death, as the body was too decomposed when it was found. Discussion of the attempt to hide the dead whale photos took place on The Age^[24], the Guardian^[25] and the Huffington Post.^[26]

November 2012: BP Pleads Guilty

On November 15th, 2012, BP agreed to plead guilty to fourteen charges including 11 felony counts of misconduct and neglect in the deaths of workers at the explosion site and one count of obstruction in congress and was given a fine of $4.5 billion.^[14] Furthermore, two BP employees were charged with manslaughter and a third was charged with lying to federal investigators outside of the larger settlement.^[15] This is the single largest criminal fine and total criminal resolution in history.^[16] The day the settlement was announced, “BP oil spill” was mentioned on Twitter nearly 5000 times.

Search Interest

External References

About

Emma Watson is an English actress and model known for portraying the character Hermione Ganger in the Harry Potter fantasy film series. The actress has gained a significant fandom online on sites like Reddit, where users frequently laud her attractiveness and sex appeal.

Online History

On January 19th, 2006, YouTube christmassacre uploaded footage of Watson punching an interviewer (shown below, left), which gained over 5.6 million views and 8,800 comments in the first eight years. On November 21st, 2007, YouTuber mag2b uploaded slowed-down footage of Watson crossing her legs during an appearance on the talk show Late Show with David Letterman (shown below, right). Within six years, the video accumulated more than 1.64 million views and 600 comments.

He for She Campaign

On August 18th, 2014, Emma Watson sent out a tweet in advocacy of women’s rights movement with the hashtag #heforshe. Within a month, the tweet was retweeted over 27,000 times and the hashtag was tweeted out over 160,000 times. On September 20th, Watson attended a special event at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City to deliver a speech on the current state of gender inequality across the world, during which she announced the launch of the He For She campaign. On the following day, YouTuber normaljean2 uploaded a full-length video of Watson’s U.N. speech, which gained more than 2.5 million views in less than 48 hours.

“I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too – reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.”

Nude Photo Leak Hoax

On September 22nd, the single serving site EmmaYouAreNext.com^[15] was created with a photograph of Emma Watson and a countdown clock implying that the actress, who is no stranger to being the subject of sexually explicit photoshopped images, has been chosen as the next victim of the ongoing leaks of celebrity nude photographs by hackers in affiliation with The Fappening, presumably in retaliation for announcing the launch of the international feminist campaign He for She at the U.N. Headquarters earlier that same week.

Meanwhile, the hashtag #RIPEmmaWatson^[10] was introduced on Twitter in an attempt to disseminate Watson’s death hoax. Within a week, the hashtag was tweeted out over 500 times. On September 23rd, The New Statesman^[11] published an open letter to Watson titled “Dear Emma Watson, it’s great that you’ve come out as a feminist. Here’s what to expect,” which explains:

“All I can say Emma, is: fuck them. It makes me furious that these men, these boys, are attempting to grind you down, in the same way that similar men have tirelessly attempted to grind down the emergence of our gender as a viable political threat for generations now. Fuck them. I know that you will not let them stop you, just as we other feminists will not let it stop us.”

Within hours of reports claiming that 4chan threatened to release nude pictures of Emma Watson, some of the 4chan users managed to track back the website’s server status and identify a company called Rantic Marketing as the owner of the domain. Furthermore, others soon uncovered evidence linking Rantic with Fox Weekly,^[12] an online news site that has previously gained notoriety for running hoaxes as news stories in order to generate traffic. After the countdown reached 00:00 on September 23rd, the website redirected to Rantic.com^[13], which provided a statement detailing the true intentions behind the stunt, mainly to shut down 4chan in retaliation for the celebrity nude photo leak known as The Fappening:

Dear Barack Obama,

“We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention. The recent 4chan celebrity nude leaks in the past 2 months have been an invasion of privacy and is also clear indication that the internet NEEDS to be censored. Every Facebook like, share & Twitter mention will count as a social signature -- and will be one step closer to shutting down www.4chan.org. "

Sincerely,
Rantic.com

On September 24th, The Daily Dot^[14] published an article identifying the social media pranksters SocialVevo as the brainchild group behind the stunt and the fake marketing firm Rantic. The same day, NY Mag published an article about the hoax, which referred to Rantic as a “fake viral marketing firm” created by Social VEVO founders Jacob Povolotski, Yasha Swag, Swenzy and Joey B.

Social Media Presence

On July 16th, 2010, Watson’s official Twitter account @EmWatson^[1] was created, which received upwards of 10 million followers in the next four years. On July 19th, an official Facebook^[2] page for Watson was launched, gaining over 10 million likes in the same time frame.

Fandom

Several fan sites dedicated to Emma Watson have been created, including Emma-Watson.net,^[5] I Heart Watson,^[6] Emma Watson Updates^[7] and Fuck Yeah Emma Watson.^[8] Many of the sites contain news, biographical information and media related to the actress. On November 20th, 2009, the /r/EmmaWatson^[3] subreddit was created, garnering over 52,000 subscribers in the following five years. Within two years of the creation of the /r/gentlemenboners^[11] subreddit, over 660 photographs of Watson were submitted, many of which reached the front page. As of September 2013, over 27,500 fan arts have been uploaded to the website DeviantArt^[12] under the tag “#emmawatson” (shown below).

On June 27th, 2011, YouTuber ThePortraitArt uploaded a speed drawing of Watson’s face (shown below). In the following three years, the video gathered more than 2.58 million views and 4,000 comments.

On June 18th, 2013, the pop culture blog Complex^[10] published an article highlighting several Emma Watson animated reaction GIFs and image macros (shown below).

Richard Dawkins Comparison Photo

A “totally looks like” image of Richard Dawkins and Emma Watson has circulated online in which the two bear many striking similarities with one another (shown below, left). On July 11th, 2009, Redditor aescent pointed several details showing how the original images were photoshopped to create the illusion.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

Fallout is a role-playing video game series originally created by Interplay Entertainment and Black Isle Studios and currently developed by Bethesda Softworks. The games take place in a retro-futuristic 22nd and 23rd century in North America where humanity is trying to survive in a world devastated by the effects of full nuclear war. Its story and artwork are heavily influenced by the post-World War II nuclear paranoia of the 1950s.

Gameplay

In each game, the player assumes the role of a survivor living in a post-apocalyptic United States. The player must also utilize several skills (Science, Repair, Energy Weapons, etc.) and attributes (SPECIAL) that can be improved to tailor the game to the character’s play style. The player is equipped with a “PIP-Boy” wrist-computer that can be used to access quests, inventory and player statistics. Battles in first two games are turn-based with the player using an point system to complete attacks and other actions during battle. The latter games in the series relies on 1st to 3rd person action rather than turn based action. Fallout and Fallout 2 feature 2D isometric graphics, while Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas use a 3D graphics engine.

History

The original Fallout game was released on September 30, 1997 as the spiritual successor to the cult 1988 game Wasteland. On September 30th, 1998, the sequel Fallout 2 was released, which contained an improved game engine and the ability to control the moods of party members. In the coming years, the spin-off games Fallout: Tactics (2001) and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004) were released. Bethesda Softworks began developing Fallout 3 in 2004 to run on their Gamebryo engine, the same engine used in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. On October 28th, 2008, Fallout 3 was released, which takes place 36 years after the events of Fallout 2 in Washington, DC. On October 19th, 2010, the game Fallout New Vegas was released, which takes place in post-apocalyptic Nevada, California and Arizona.

Fallout 4

On January 9th, 2013, the voice actor Erik Todd Dellums, known for voicing the character Three Dog in Fallout 3, posted a tweet hinting that his character may return in an upcoming sequel:

On January 10th, Redditor GNR_Informant submitted a post to the /r/gaming^[14] subreddit, claiming that an upcoming Fallout game will take place in Boston, Massachusetts and will have a more “cyberpunk” aesthetic. On the following day, GNR_Information confessed that his claims were fabricated.^[15] On July 12th, the gaming news blog IGN^[16] published an article claiming that Fallout 4 was “currently in development at Bethesda.”

TheSurvivor2299.com Hoax

On November 14th, 2013, Redditor ButcherDX suggested in an /r/Fallout^[9] post that Bethesda may have begun promoting the release of Fallout 4 with thesurvivor2299.com, a blank webpage embedded with an audio file signaling “11.12.2013” in morse code. On the same day, Redditor Jozoz submitted a post about the mysterious site to the /r/Games^[10] subreddit, adding that the page had been updated with a timer counting down to December 11th, 2013 (shown below).

In the comments section, many Redditors expressed doubts towards the site’s relevance to Fallout 4, with Redditor salromano pointing out that all of Bethesda’s other domains were registered through a different service and another who suggested that it may be a promotional website for the VGX video game award show. Also on November 14th, NeoGAF Forums^[11] member scytheavatar posted a thread speculating that the domain was registered by someone in Poland. On November 15th, the video game news blog Rock Paper Shotgun^[7] posted an article about thesurvivor2299.com, noting that Bethesda had refused to comment about on its existence. On the same day, a Twitter account for the website was launched with the handle @12072299, or December 7th, 2299, adding even more mystery to the website.

On November 26th, the video game news blog Kotaku^[12] published an article speculating that the website may be a hoax. On December 5th, Bethesda’s marketing VP Pete Hines issued a statement via Twitter that the company would not be revealing any new products at the upcoming VGX awards.

On the following day, thesurvivor2299.com was updated with a confession that the site was an elaborate hoax and thanked members of the /r/Fallout subreddit. Also on December 6th, Bethesda posted a tweet^[13] advising fans to “assume all rumors and speculation are false” unless posted on an “official channel.”

On December 7th, Redditor DCHoaxer submitted an “ask me anything” (AMA) post to the /r/Fallout^[8] subreddit, in which he claimed to have orchestrated the hoax. In the first four days, the post garnered more than 6,900 up votes and 2,900 comments.

Countdown Timer

On the June 2nd, 2015, Bethesda’s official Fallout website was updated with a mysterious countdown timer set to expire at 10 a.m. (EST) on June 3rd, sparking yet another flurry of speculations and anticipation among the fans for a possible announcement of the long-awaited sequel to Fallout 3.

Reception

Each game in the series has been released to critical acclaim. As of December 2013 on Metacritic, Fallout has a score of 89, Fallout 2 has a score of 86, Fallout 3 has a score of 91 and Fallout: New Vegas has a score of 82.

Related Memes

Vault Boy

Vault Boy is an image macro series inspired by Fallout 3, which features a superimposed head of the Vault-Tec corporation mascot Vault-Tec, which was contracted by the United States government before the Great War to design and produce the vault system in the Fallout franchise. The captions either describe humorous actions that a typical Fallout 3 player may perform or jokes about the game itself.

Tunnel Snakes Rule!

Tunnel Snakes Rule! is a catchphrase from the game Fallout 3, which is uttered by the leader of a gang of greasers in Vault 101.

Speech Check Comments

“Speech check comments” are YouTube comments written in the style of the speech check system in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, which is used to determine if a player has enough skill to complete a task.

War… War Never Changes

“War… War never changes” is the motto of the Fallout series. In the Intro of every major fallout game the narrator (Ron Perlman) discusses the events that led up to the current Fallout game and how these events happened. His first line states that even though civilisations means of warfare have changed as time passes, the ends always remain the same.

Search Interest

External References

About

Silk Road is an online black market which can only be accessed via The Onion Router (TOR) anonymous web browsing client. On the site, goods are sold in exchange for Bitcoins, a peer-to-peer digital crypto-curency created by Satoshi Nakamoto. Many of the sellers specialize in selling drugs, oftentimes shipping to countries where they are illegal to possess.

History

The Silk Road^[11] website began development in November of 2010 and was launched three months later in February of 2011. The site remained relatively unknown until June 1st, 2011, when Gawker^[5] published an article by staff writer Adrian Chen titled “The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable.” On July 28th, 2012, the tech news blog Gizmodo^[13] reported that a man from Melbourne, Australia had been arrested for attempting to import drugs purchased on the site. On August 1st, 2012, a paper titled “Traveling the Silk Road: A measurement analysis of a large anonymous online marketplace”^[12] was released by Carnegie Mellon computer security professor Nicolas Christin, which reported that the site’s total sales had increased to approximately $1.9 million a month (shown below).

Use of Bitcoin

The Bitcoin protocol was first described by Satoshi Nakamoto^[2] in a paper^[4] distributed on a cryptography mailing list^[3] on October 31st, 2008. The Bitcoin network itself was created on January 3rd, 2009, which included the release of the first Bitcoins and an open-source Bitcoin client. Bitcoins use a peer-to-peer network that regulates the currency according to network software, with no more than 21 million Bitcoins issued in total by 2140. Bitcoins can be purchased and current exchange rates can be viewed on the MT Gox^[8] Bitcoin exchange.

FBI Seizure & Closure

On October 2nd, 2013, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) shut down Silk Road and arrested its suspected owner Ross William Ulbricht, a 29-years-old University of Texas graduate living in San Francisco, California, on charges of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. In addition, the authorities also seized $3.6 million worth of digital currency Bitcoin, the de facto currency used to complete transactions on the site. According to the court documents^[18], the site allegedly facilitated more than 1.2 million illegal transactions involving 146,946 unique buyers and 3,877 unique vendors, generating more than 9.5 million bitcoins, or $1.2 billion, in total revenue. The files also revealed that Silk Road collected about $79.8 million worth of bitcoins in commission and site administrators received salaries of $1,000 to $2,000 weekly.

That same day, The Daily Dot published a summary digest of the FBI’s official complaint filed against Ulbricht. According to the files, the investigation began in January 2011, around the same time Silk Road was launched, with an individual who used the handle “Altoid” to advertise a Tor-protected anonymous black market on recreation drug forums and BitCoin discussion sites. Then in October, Altoid posted a job listing on BitcoinTalk forum in search of “an IT pro in the Bitcoin community,” adding his personal e-mail account “rossulbricht at gmail dot com” as the reply address. After examining his records from Google, the FBI was soon able to determine that “Altoid” is an account used by Ross William Ulbricht.

Reopening

On November 6th, 2013, the deep web news site All Things Vice^[19] reported that the Silk Road had re-opened under the name “Silk Road 2.0,” speculating that the newly restored website could be an authentic effort made by old Silk Road administrators or a so-called “honeypot” site set up by the law enforcement. As of November 15th, account registration remains limited to invitation-only. In the following days, the rumored revival of Silk Road was picked up by numerous internet blogs and mainstream news outlets.^[20][21][22]

BitInstant CEO Arrest

On January 27th, 2014, the U.S. federal authorities arrested Charlie Shrem, the CEO of Bitcoin exchange website BitInstant, at the JFK International Airport on charges of laundering more than $1 million worth of bitcoins for Silk Road customers and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. On the following day, the FBI arrested one of Shrem’s suspect partners Robert Faiella on the same charges. According to the criminal complaint and an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Shrem and Faiella exchanged $1.05 million in bitcoins over a 10-month period, during which they stayed in touch via e-mail correspondences to ensure that their transactions remain undetected from cash-processing companies.

Silk Road 2.0: FBI Seizure & Closure

On November 6th, 2014, the FBI announced in a press release^[23] that the operator of Silk Road’s successor site has been arrested, identifying the man as 26-year-old San Francisco resident Blake Benthall^[24] (a.k.a. Defcon). According to the federal officials, Silk Road 2.0 facilitated upwards of $8 million per month in transactions through more than 100,000 users over the course of one year since the closure of the original marketplace. That same day, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency posted a notification of seizure and closure on the website of Silk Road 2.0 (shown below).

The Daily Dot^[25] published an article about Benthall, which included images taken from his Facebook^[26] and Instagram^[27] pages (shown below). The article also revealed that Benthall could face decades in prison on charges of conspiring to commit narcotics trafficking, conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in fraudulent identification documents and money laundering.

Features

The site allows users to browse an online market through several categories linked in the sidebar, including drugs, apparel, books, digital goods, drug paraphernalia, erotica and forgeries. The drugs category contains several subcategories, including psychedelics, cannabis, dissociatives, ecstasy, opioids, prescriptions and stimulants. Buyers can register for free without an email but sellers must purchase a special account. Similar to other online marketplaces, users can rate their experiences with individuals sellers to report back if the product they purchased was of sufficient quality and delivered in a timely manner.

TOR

The Silk Road website can only be accessed via TOR anonymous browsing client, which allows its users to browse the Internet anonymously by separating identification and routing, thus concealing network activity from surveillance. The alpha version of the TOR software was announced via FreeHaven.net^[9] mailing list on September 20th, 2002, followed by its presentation at the 13th USENIX Security Symposium on August 13th, 2004.

Reception

On June 6th, following the publication of Adrian Chen’s article on Gawker, United States senators Joe Manchin and Charles Schumer sent a letter^[10] to the U.S. Attorney General urging law enforcement agencies to shut down the Silk Road website. On June 12th, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article titled “Drugs Bought With Virtual Cash,” reporting that the site would be moving to a new server in order to handle a marked increase in traffic. The article went on to report that Silk Road’s increase in popularity corresponded with a rise in the value of Bitcoins. On July 16th, 2012, Gawker^[7]published a follow-up article titled “Are Authorities Closing in on the Online Drug Market Silk Road?”, which reported on rumors that had been circulating about authorities going after Silk Road’s administrator known as “Dread Pirate Roberts.” On June 30, 2013, the site was subject to a DDOS attack which limited access to it through the following day.^[14]

Search Interest

External References