About

Emoji are graphical images depicting a wide range of facial expressions, symbols and objects which can be used to convey certain emotions or phrases in SMS and instant messaging, similar to their precursor, emoticons.

Origin

The original set of Emoji, consisting of 172 ideograms framed in 12×12 pixel squares, were invented by Japanese mobile software engineer Shigetaka Kurita in 1998 and officially released as part of NTT DoCoMo’s mobile internet platform i-mode in February 1999. In the following years, i-mode was met with huge success in Japan, reaching 40 million subscribers by 2004 and leading other domestic competitors to launch similar services with their own sets of Emoji-like characters.

Emoji made their international debut in November 2008 with the release of iPhone firmware 2.2. Although they were meant to support Emoji for Softbank iPhone users in Japan, five days later, iPhone news blogger Simon Ng published an English-language guide^[1] on how to enable Emoji characters appear on jailbroken iPhones in all countries. In December, Ng released another guide on how to unlock Emoji on a regular iPhone appeared online.^[2]

Spread

Between late 2008 and early 2009, Numerous Emoji-unlocking apps began appearing in the iTunes Store, prompting Apple^[3] to issue a takedown order on Emoji-unlocking apps, presumably on account of licensing issues. However, as of September 2012, there were 13 apps^[4] that could unlock Emoji keyboards in the iTunes Store, some for-purchase and others available for free. On September 9th, 2012, Apple released iOS5, integrating a free emoji keyboard into all iPhones.^[27]

Despite the international success of Emoji, the term has often been misinterpreted in the English-speaking world as synonymous with text-based emoticons. The earliest semantic distinction was made by Urban Dictionary^[13] user le anime nerd on July 5th, 2013, simply referring to them as “tiny pictures you can put on your texts.” In addition to their widespread usage in text messaging, Emoji have become increasingly visible on Facebook, Twitter and other mobile-enabled microblogging services. On July 4th, 2013, EmojiTracker^[11][12] was created to track the growing use of Emoji in real-time on Twitter.

Notable Examples

iTunes and other mobile app stores offer a variety of Emoji collections for purchase and download, including theme-specific packages like the Christian-themed “Holy Emojis” and Harry Potter-themed packages.^[14][15]

iDiversicons

On June 24, 2014, the iDiversicons app,^[23] which calls itself “The First Diverse Emoji” was released to the Apple Store by Cub Cub Investment. The app was released for Android phones through the Google Play^[24] store the following day. The app includes over 900 icons which represent diversity through a variety of categories including people of color, same sex couples and women in male-dominated fields. Though the icons can now only be inserted in texts by using copy and paste, creator Katrina Parrott hopes to to make it available through the keyboard in the future. On July 21st, The Daily Dot published an article on the app and Parrott, titled “The one-woman mission to diversify emoji.” The following day the app was covered by Jezebel^[25] and Bustle.^[26]

iOS 8.3 Diversity Update

On April 8th, 2015, Apple released the iOS 8.3 update. which included more than 300 new emoji.^[28] The emoji set included, for the first time, the ability to choose different skin tones for some of the human emoji. The set also included same-sex families. Many users used the hashtag #BlackEmoji to celebrate on Vine^[29] and Twitter^[30].

The update also included the ability to add a secret emoji of the Vulcan Salute^[31].

Related Memes

Emojidick

On Sep 19th, 2009, Kickstarter data engineer Fred Benenson launched a Kickstarter^[19] campaign to fund a translation of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick into emoji. The project reached their funding goal of $3,500 on October 19th, surpassing it with over $3,600. The books was published in 2010 and is currently available for purchase as a black and white paperback for $40 or as a hardcover book in full color for $200.^[20] The completed book has a total of 736 pages, while the text version contains around 500.^[22]

Narratives Told Through Emoji

The Tumblr blog Narrativesinemoji,^[21] which features the plots of television shows, movies, and even events like the SXSW festival explained through emoji filled texts, uploaded its first screenshot on October 19th, 2011. The Tumblr currently has over entires 40 entires as of January 2014.

Song Lyrics Told Through Emojis

The Tumblr blog emojilyrics,^[6] which features the lyrics of pop songs explained through emoji filled texts, uploaded its first screenshot on December 4th, 2011. A similar Tumblr, emojisinging,^[7] was created in 2012. A Buzzfeed Community post titled, “23 Famous Movies And Songs Reenacted In Emojis”,^[8] which collected popular examples, was published on February 5, 2013.

Movie Plots Told Through Emojis

The Tumblr blog emojiplot,^[9] which features screenshots of texts that explain the plots of popular movies through emojis, uploaded its first screenshot on December 9th, 2011. The popularity of movie plots told through emojis spiked after Fail Blog^[5] posted an emoji summary of the plot of the recent film adaptation of Les Miserables on January 3rd, 2013. On January 11th entertainment website Uproxx^[10] published a post titled, “Can You Identify These 8 Movies From Their Emoji Plots?”, which collected some of the most popular Emoji explanations.

#EmojiArtHistory

#EmojiArtHistory is a Twitter hashtag associated with various strings of emoji characters that are supposed to be reinterpretations of famous artworks throughout history.

Human Emoticons

On January 4th, 2014, Innocence en Danger, a child advocacy group based in France, posted images from a campaign featuring “human emojis.”^[16] The campaign is meant to illustrate the threat pedophiles pose online. Several American based websites such as Buzzfeed^[17] and Bustle ^[18] covered the campaign on January 17th.

New York Emoji Art & Design Show

In December 2013, New York City’s digital art collective Eyebeam announced an art and design show dedicated to the medium of Emojis, featuring original works in a wide range of mediums from digital prints and sculptures to video and performance art presented by 23 artists. The exhibition will be on display at the Eyebeam Art+Technology Center in Chelsea, Manhattan from December 12th to December 14th.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Popped a Molly, I’m Sweatin” is a lyric from the 2012 rap single “All Gold Everything” by Trinidad James, indicating that the speaker has taken a dose of MDMA and is beginning to feel the effects. The line is typically used to caption images in which the subject appears to be perspiring or dancing to music.

Origin

“All Gold Everything” was released on Trinidad James’ debut album Don’t Be S.A.F.E. on October 16th, 2012. On the following day, the music video was uploaded by YouTuber TheTrilllMusic, which received over 5 million views and 11,500 comments over the next four months.

Etymology

“Molly” is a slang term for a powder or crystal form of the drug methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA), which implies a higher level of purity to the pressed pill form known as ecstasy. On December 18th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[4] user Eckstahsee submitted an entry for “MDMA,” which used the word “molly” describing pure MDMA in capsule form.

Spread

On November 30th, 2012, YouTuber stoopehdfresh uploaded a six-minute looped clip featuring the lyric from “All Gold Everything.” (shown below, left). Within two months, the video accumulated over 700,000 views and 1,400 comments. On December 9th, YouTuber stoopehdfresh’s video was highlighted in an article about Trinidad James on Gawker.^[2] On December 13th, YouTuber victorxinhere uploaded a five-minute looped clip of professional basketball player LeBron James mouthing the lyrics “popped a molly, I’m sweatin” (shown below, right), which received over 680,000 views and 1,100 comments within the next month.

On January 2nd, 2013, YouTuber fon ducci uploaded a video of a shirtless man dancing to the song “All Gold Everything” (shown below, left). The same day, YouTuber Dillon Francis uploaded a looped clip of himself singing the “popped a molly, I’m sweatin” line for over six minutes (shown below, right). Both videos received over 50,000 views within the next month.

On January 27th, Tumblr^[1] user fr3sh-lik3-dougi3 posted an animated GIF of the dog Jake from the animated television series Adventure Time bobbing his head while wearing a pair of headphones with the caption “Popped a molly im sweatin’ WOO!” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post received over 390 notes.

Notable Examples

The song has also inspired a series of image macros based on the lyric, featuring various photographs of celebrities or advice animal characters in which the subjects appear to be perspiring.

Search Interest

External References

About

Scumbag America is an advice animal image macro series that utilizes Scumbag Steve’s hat placed atop a map of the continental United States with captions that are used to point out hypocrisies in American politics or culture.

Origin

On July 22nd, 2011, Redditor x2sean1x submitted an image to the now-defunct /r/reddit.com subreddit titled Scumbag America^[3] with the caption “Starts space program uniting the world / Shuts down program to fund wars” in response to NASA’s final space shuttle launch earlier that month.^[4] The post gained 16,151 upvotes, 653 comments and 1,805 points overall prior to being archived.

Precursor

On May 2nd, 2011, a Scumbag Steve image macro titled “Scumbag America” was submitted to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[1] subreddit with the caption “Osama dead / Stay in Afghanistan another 10 years” (shown below, left) suggesting that the United States would continue their war despite the objective being met. On July 15th, another Scumbag America was submitted to /r/pics^[2], placing the Scumbag Hat on an eagle with an American flag juxtaposed across its face (shown below, right) with the caption, “Raises minimum wage / Lowers value of dollar bill.” Neither of these posts received more than 2 points overall.

Spread

On November 8th, 2011, Buzzfeed^[9] named Scumbag America one of the best Scumbag Steve spin-off series. The same month, a Scumbag America image macro was featured on We Know Memes.^[10] In February 2012,HypeHumor^[11] featured a compilation of Scumbag America images. Days later, a Quora^[12] post inquiring about the most shared images in the series was posted, resulting in a handful of responses. In March 2012, a Facebook fan page^[13] for the series was created, gaining 34 likes as of July 2013. Also in 2012, Scumbag America instances were discussed on message boards including the League of Legends community^[14] and Happier Abroad^[16] as well as humor sites including Memecenter^[15] and FunnyJunk.^[17]

Notable Examples

As of July 2013, more than 960 Scumbag America instances have been submitted to Meme Generator^[5] and an additional 3,400 can be found on Quickmeme.^[6] Other instances have been shared on the /r/AdviceAnimals subreddit^[7] and Tumblr.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995. The manga has since been adapted into two anime series produced by Toei Animation: Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1996. Additionally, Toei has developed nineteen animated feature films and three television specials, as well as two anime sequels, Dragon Ball GT, which takes place after the events of the manga, and Dragon Ball Super, which takes place in-between chapters 517 and 518 of the manga.

History

In late 1984, the first issue of Dragon Ball appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump.^[1] The series ran for nearly eleven years, ending in May 1995. Dragon Ball became the best-selling manga of all time, before being overtaken by One Piece. Shortly after the first publication of the manga, Toei Animation began production on an anime adaptation. The anime series premiered in February 1986 on Fuji Television. It ended in 1989, with the sequel series Dragon Ball Z picking up where the original series left off. Dragon Ball Z ran until 1995. Several movies and OVAs were also made over the years. A full length movie titled Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods was announced on July 10, 2012.^[2] It premiered in Japanese theaters on March 30, 2013. The movie takes place after Dragon Ball Z and is co-written by series creator Akira Toriyama. A sequel movie titled Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of “F” was announced in July 2014.^[3] The film premiered at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California, on April 11, 2015. The first new Dragon Ball series in over 18 years, titled Dragon Ball super, was announced on April 28, 2015, and aired in Japan on Fuji TV on July 5, 2015.^[4][33]

Online Presence

Dragon Ball has an immense online following, both within the online anime community, as well as outside of it. The franchise has been referenced under numerous tags on Tumblr. ^[5][6][7][8] There are also numerous Tumblr pages based around Dragon Ball in the vein of Single Topic Blogs, such as Dragon Ball Lovers,^[9] Fuck Yeah Dragon Ball Z,^[10] Fuck Yeah Saiyans,^[11] Fuck Yeah DBZ Memes,^[12] and several others.^{[13][14][15][16]} On Reddit there are several subreddits dedicated to the franchise.^{[17][18][19][20]} On Fanpop there are various clubs dedicated to the franchise.^{[21][22][23][24][25]} The franchise also has numerous pages on My Anime List.^[26] There are also various sites dedicated to organizing and cataloging details from the franchise such as the Dragon Ball Wiki^[27] and TV Tropes. ^[28] On YouTube various clips from Dragon Ball gain tens of millions of views.

Dragon Ball Z was later re-cut into an abridged series by the group Team Four Star. Dragon Ball Z Abridged, is Team Four Star’s most popular series with each episode having at least a million views.

Fan Animations

On YouTube there are various fan-made films and animations about the Dragon Ball universe.

On October 27, 2011, YouTuber Gonzossm uploaded a video entitled “Dragon Ball Zee (18 +)” as a parody of the final fight of the first season of Dragon Ball Z. The video has gained nearly 7 million views as of May 2015. Gonzossm later released a sequel entitled “Dragon Ball Zee 2 (18+)” on October 11, 2012. The video has nearly 10 million views as of May 2015.

On December 19, 2011, YouTuber OneyNG uploaded titled “Dragonzball P” as a parody of the final episodes of Dragon Ball Z’s first season. As of May 2015 the video has over 20 million views. On December 20, 2012 OneyNG released a sequel entitled “Dragonzball PeePee”. As of May 2015 the video has over 23 million views.

On November 22, 2012 YouTuber Mellavelli uploaded the first episode in his fan made series titled Dragon Ball Absalon (shown below), which takes place after the events of Dragon Ball GT. As of July 2015 the video has over 11 million views.

Live-Action Fan Adaptations

On December 4, 2012, YouTuber K&K Productions uploaded a video entitled “DragonBall Z – Saiyan Saga (DBZ Live Action Trailer)” depicting a live-action adaptation of the first arc in Dragon Ball Z. The video has over 9 million views as of May 2015. Several years later on February 24, 2015, YouTuber RobotUnderdog2 uploaded a video titled “Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope – Pilot” as a live-action adaptation of the Dragon Ball Z“The History of Trunks” TV special. As of May 2015, the video has over 15 million views.

Fan Art

Dragon Ball has a very lively and active fan art community. On DeviantART there are over 300 groups dedicated to the franchise,^[29] as well as over 228,000 pieces of fanart.^[30] On the Japanese fanart site Pixiv, there are over 42,000 images under the tag “ドラゴンボール”,^[31] as well as over 14,000 videos on the Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico.^[32]

Notable Sub-memes

It’s Over 9000!

It’s Over 9000! is a catchphrase from the DBZ character Vegeta, typically used as an innumerable quantifier to describe a large number.

Bitch, I Look Like Goku

Bitch I Look Like Goku is an exploitable catchphrase and lyrical reference to Soulja Boy’s 2010 hip hop single “Goku,” a musical tribute to the protagonist character in the popular Japanese manga / anime series Dragon Ball Z.

Shoop Da Whoop / I’M A’ FIRIN’ MAHLAZER!!

Shoop Da Whoop is an exploitable image from the face of Semi-Perfect Cell. It shows a blackface mouth and eyes suddenly shooting a powerful stream of laser.

Yamcha’s Death Pose

Yamcha’s Death Pose is an image exploitable series based on a stillshot of Dragon Ball character Yamcha fallen on the ground after suffering a fatal injury. The images depict Yamcha or other anime character lying inside the crater and they are typically used to indicate failure or weakness.

The Balls are Inert

The Balls are Inert is catchphrase from an scene from Dragon Ball Z, that were parodied in some videos.

Daily Dose / Piccolo Dick

Daily Dose (or Piccolo Dick) refers to a gif of Dragon Ball character Piccolo having sexual intercourse with fellow character Vegeta. The gif is usually associated with various images of the colors green and purple in order to introduce a trigger in which whenever one sees the associated colors, they will think of the explicit gif.

Super Saiyans are Real

Super Saiyans are Real is a YouTube video of a teenager named Jalen discussing the possibility of becoming a Super Saiyan, the transcendent state of being assumed by the warring members of the Saiyan race.

Ginyu Force Pose (Tokusentai)

Ginyu Force Pose (Tokusentai) is a pose made by the Ginyu Force. The pose has become popular with Dragon Ball fans, as well anime fans in general, due to its flamboyancy, despite the fact that the characters preforming said pose are said to be among the most powerful individuals in the universe.

Hide Your Power Level.

Hide Your Power Level is an expression used to describe individuals who actively hide their interest in various forms of entertainment such as anime and manga in order to avoid negative connotations. The phrase is used commonly on image sharing boards such as 4chan

Search Interest

External Links

About

Age of Empires is a historical real time strategy video game series originally developed by Ensemble Studios. The series centers around the player creating an empire of a chosen civilization and defeating other players by various means either through conquest, economic superiority, wonder construction, etc.

History

Main Series

On October 26th, 1997, Age of Empires was released for the PC. Being one of the first historical real time strategy game, Age of Empires gives players the option to control one of 12 civilizations that spans from the stone age to the iron age. The game’s expansion, The Rise of Rome, was released On October 31st, 1998. The expansion adds new features and 4 new civilizations, including the Romans.

On September 30th, 1999, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings was released for the PC. The game focuses around the middle ages with 13 playable civilizations. The game’s first expansion titled The Conquerors, was released on August 24th, 2000. The expansion adds new units, refined game mechanics, and 5 new civilizations.

On October 18th, 2005, Age of Empires III was released for the PC. The game centers around the age of exploration and colonialism with 8 playable European civilizations. On October 17th, 2006, the first expansion to Age of Empires III, titled The War Chiefs, was released. The expansion adds 3 new native american civilizations. On October 23rd, 2007, the game’s third expansion titled The Asian Dynasties, was released. The expansion introduces 3 new Asian civilizations to the game.

On April 9th, 2013, Age of Empires II: HD Edition was released digitally on steam. The game was developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and was spear headed by Matt Pritchard, the original lead programmer by the now defunct Ensemble Studios.The game contains both the original Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion with improved graphics, compatibility for newer systems, mod workshop support, widescreen support and 3D rendering water. On November 7th, 2013, the second expansion in the series titled The Forgotten was released on steam. The expansion adds 5 new civilizations and 2 new game modes.

On April 9th, 2015, Ryan Chaply, the producer of Age of Empires II HD, announced an upcoming third expansion to the game which is being developed by Forgotten Empires, the same team that previously worked on The Forgotten Expansion.^[1] The announcement was covered by a number of gaming news site such as Gamespot,^[2] Polygon,^[3] Destructoid,^[4] and PC Gamer.^[5]
On June 20th, 2015, Forgotten Empires announced on their website that the upcoming expansion is titled The African Kingdoms. The game will feature new African civilizations including the Malians and the Berbers. The game is currently scheduled to be released later in 2015.^[6]

Spin-offs

Age of Mythology is a mythology based real time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios which was released for the PC on October 30th, 2002. The game takes the basic formula of Age of Empires and features the Greeks, Norse, and Egyptians as playable civilizations with mythology based gameplay. The game’s expansion titled The Titans was released on September 30th, 2003. The expansion features the Atlanteans as a new playable civilization and new features such as the ability to summon Titans in the game.

Age of Empires: The Age of Kings is a turn based strategy spin-off game developed Backbone Entertainment and published by Majesco for the Nintendo DS. The game features the Britons, Franks, Saracens, Mongols, and Japanese as playable civilizations. The game was released on November 14th, 2006. Age of Empires: Mythology is the second turn based strategy spin-off game which is developed by Griptonite Games and published by THQ for the Nintendo DS. The game takes the same system from its predecessor and replaces the historical civilizations with the three mythological civilizations featured in Age of Mythology. The game was released on November 24th, 2008.

On August 16th, 2011, Age of Empires Online was released for the PC on Games for Windows Live. The game was developed by Robot Entertainment and Gas Powered Games. The game ran on a free to play model with micro transactions in the form of buying premium content. The game’s servers ran from August 16th, 2011, to July 1st, 2014. On September 17th, 2014, Age of Empires: Castle Siege was released as a Windows app for the Windows 8.1 and the Windows Phone. The game was developed Smoking Gun Interactive. The game followed a free to play model that focuses in a tower defense gameplay with micro transactions to aid in developing the castle and to improve its defenses. The game was later released for the iOS on May 20th, 2015.

Reception

As of July, 2015, Age of Empires holds a metacritic score of 83.^[7] Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings holds a score of 92^[8] with The Conqueror Expansion holding a score of 88^[9] and the HD edition holding a score of 68.^[10] Age of Empires III holds a score of 81^[11] with The War Chiefs expansion holding a score of 80^[12] and The Asian Dynasties expansion holding a score of 81.^[13] Age of Empires is often considered to be the series that pioneered the Real Time Strategy genre in Video Games, inspiring other titles such as Empire Earth, Rise of Nations, and Halo Wars.

Online Presence

Since its release, the game has gathered an online following with sites dedicated to each of the games that dates back as early as 1997 with Age of Empires Heaven.^{[14][15][16][17]} On April 19th, 2006, Urban Dictionary user Aliii submitted an entry regarding the series.^[18] The official Age of Empires Facebook page has gathered over 784.000 likes as of July, 2015^[19] while the official Age of Empires Twitter page has gathered over 16.100 followers as of July, 2015. Age of Empires has a number of subreddits dedicated to each game in the series with the most popular one, the Age of Empires II subreddit, having over 13.600 readers as of July, 2015.^[26]

Mods

The series has inspired a number of user created modifications for the games which can be found in sites such as Age of Empires Heaven, ModDB,^[21] and the Steam Workshop.^[22]

One of the most notable mods is the Forgotten Empires.^[23] The mod was an unofficial expansion pack to Age of Empires II developed by Forgotten Empires in 2011 before being picked up by Microsoft and made into an official expansion pack under the name The Forgotten for Age of Empires II HD Edition in 2013.^[24]

Fanart

On the art sharing site Deviantart, typing the keyword “Age of Empires” would yield more than 18.100 results.^[24]

Related Memes

Age of Empires Logic

Age of Empires Logic are a series of advice animals that aims to poke fun at some of the logical flaws in Age of Empires (Age of Empires II in particular) due to the graphical limitations the game had when it was first developed.

Wololo

Wololo is the sound made by the Priest unit in the 1997 game Age of Empires. It is used as an interruptor, causing the color of something to change colors between red and blue.

Search Interest

External References

About

Religion Pigeon is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a pigeon with a blue and yellow color wheel background. Similar to the Advice God and Scumbag Christian advice animals, the captions typically mock perceived religious contradictions found in various denominations of Christianity.

Origin

The original pigeon photograph comes from the photo blog AndysLens^[13] (shown below, left). In August of 2010, a page for “Religion Pigeon” was created on the image macro website Meme Generator.^[4] The first uploaded example included the caption “Drugs offer false hope and lies / turn to god instead” (shown below, right). Religion Pigeon can be seen as a companion meme to Advice God, another advice animal series satirizing Christian beliefs that emerged through Meme Generator around the same time.

Spread

On August 30th, 2010, a Religion Pigeon image macro with the caption “God put fossils in the ground / to test our faith” was submitted to the 4chan image archive Chan4Chan.^[5]

On September 25th, the “Fuck Yeah Religion Pigeon” Tumblr^[1] blog was created. On September 29th, Redditor DrCE submitted a post to the /r/atheism^[3] subreddit titled “Anyone familiar with Religion Pigeon? He’s pretty funny”, which linked to the “Fuck Yeah Religion Pigeon” Tumblr. On January 8th, 2011, an image macro with the caption “Guy builds a boat and fits every animal in the world on it / but evolution is plain ridiculous” (shown below) was submitted to the /r/atheism^[9] subreddit, which received over 3,150 up votes and 320 comments prior to being archived.

On April 27th, 2011, BodyBuilding Forums member CanadaBBOY submitted several image macro examples in a thread titled “Religion Pigeon Meme”^[8], which received over 239 replies within 14 months. On July 26th, the Internet humor blog Rat Road^[6] published a top 10 compilation of Religion Pigeon image macros. On August 12th, the first Religion Pigeon Quickmeme^[11] upload was submitted, which included the caption “Gravity? That’s a myth. / Guy resurrected from the dead? Sounds legit” (shown below). On August 14th, the “Religion Pigeon” Facebook^[7] page was created, which featured both Religion Pigeon and LOL Jesus image macros. As of June 19th, 2012, the Meme Generator page has received over 800 items and the Quickmeme^[12] page has accumulated over 340 submissions.

Notable examples

Scumbag Christian

The stereotype portrayed by Religion Pigeon also bears many resemblances to its 2011 successor Scumbag Christian, an advice animal image macro series featuring a photo of American actor and Christian evangelist Kirk Cameron with Scumbag Hat photoshopped onto his head. Similar to Religion Pigeon, the captions typically associate the character with hypocritical biblical beliefs, homophobic attitudes and creationist debate arguments.

Search Interest

Search query volume for “religion pigeon” rose significantly in September of 2010, the month after the Meme Generator page was created.

External References

About

Wololo is the sound made by the Priest unit in the 1997 game Age of Empires. It is used as an interruptor, causing the color of something to change colors between red and blue.

Origin

Wololo originates from a unit, or class, of characters from the first installment in the strategy game series Age of Empires produced by Ensemble Studios and released in 1997 by Microsoft.

The Priest units can both heal and convert enemies to their team.^[1] When a member of the opposing team is converted, their outfit switches color to show their alliance to the new team. While the priest is converting the player, he makes a noise similar to “wololo.”

Spread

On June 7th, 2005, YTMND user oftoronto created a page titled “You are being converted” (shown below, left) which gained over 8.600 views and a 3.73 out of 5 star rating in 10 years.^[2] On September 16th, 2006, YTMND user Jokerkaaos created a page titled “Wololo!” (shown below, right) which gained over 35.000 views and a 3.85 out of 5 stars in 8 years.^[3]

On February 23rd, 2009, Youtuber Nov1706 uploaded a 10 minute loop video of the Wololo audio (shown below, left) which gained over 1.320.000 views in 6 years. On November 27th, 2010, Youtuber ccmazza uploaded a video titled “Wololo Blues [NOWWITHLYRICS!!!]” (shown below, right) which gained over 461.200 views in 4 years.

On February 21st, 2010, Deviantart user pokketmowse submitted an image titled “WOLOLO” (shown below, left) which gained over 25.700 views and 492.000 downloads in 5 years.^[4] On March 4th, 2012, FunnyJunk user nissanshitbox submitted an image titled “Age of Empires” (shown below, right) which gained over 35.400 views and 1.796 upvotes in 3 years.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“I Happen To Be An Expert On This Subject” is an expression used to declare one’s advanced level of knowledge or expertise within a particular topic or subject field. On image boards and discussion forums, the phrase is typically iterated in the form of reaction images featuring various anime and manga characters, similar to the use of the expression “let me tell you why that’s bullshit”.

Origin

The earliest known use of the phrase in image macros was posted in a thread on the Canon Digital Photography Forums^[2] on December 21st, 2008^[2], which featured a photograph of science educator Bill Nye with the caption “I happen to be an expert on this subject” (shown below).

Spread

On June 6th, 2010, the anime news blog Re-Jinx^[3] highlighted an image macro featuring the character Cirno from the Touhou Project shooter games with the caption “Excuse me, / … but I happen to be an expert on this subject” (shown below, left). On August 24th, the image macro was reblogged by Soup.io^[4] user penpen. On February 22nd, 2012, an image macro featuring the character Rias Gremory from the anime series High School DxD was posted on the /a/^[6] (anime and manga) board on 4chan (shown below, right).

On May 31st, 2014, Redditor ravenex submitted an illustration of the character Madoka Kaname from the anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica with the title “I happen to be an expert on this topic” to the /r/awwnime^[5] subreddit (shown below).

Notable Examples

Additional image macros have used illustrations of other anime characters from a variety of franchises, including Fate/Stay Night and Katawa Shoujo.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

“Chubby Chubby Chip Chip” is a chiptune song produced by English musician and video game composer Mark Knight, also known as “TDK” (The Dark Knight) or madfiddler, in 1992. Nearly two decades after its original release, the song resurged in popularity after it was adapted by the YouTube Poop Music Video community as a popular audio source in 2010.

Origin

The song was composed and produced in August 1992 by English demoscene artist Mark Knight^[1] on the Commodore Amiga personal computer with the freeware tracker program Protracker. As a game musician, Knight worked for PC game developers like 3D Realms and Electronic Arts and wrote original compositions for many console formats from the Nintendo Entertainment System through to the PlayStation and PC.

Knight left the demo music scene shortly afterwards in 1993 to pursue his career in video game composition, but the song was rediscovered many years later by YTPMV artist DWL1993, who paired Knight’s original chiptune song with Team Fortress 2 video footage and uploaded it onto YouTube on October 20th, 2010.

Spread

In the early 1990’s, the song “Chubby Chubby Chip Chip” was reportedly used in chiptune intros and demo tracks released by Melon Dezign and Anthrox, of which he was a member of the group. On April 24th, 2005, the song was uploaded onto Newgrounds^[4] by user DJFuzzy as a flash-based music video accompanied by a visualizer application. On September 8th, 2009, YouTuber Checkingokop uploaded a modified version of Knight’s original track, which was also accompanied by screensaver-like visualizations.

Aside from occasional reuploading of the original composition and remix versions on music-sharing sites like Soundcloud^[5] and Last.fm^[6], the song stayed mostly dormant throughout the rest of the decade. Years later, “Chubby Chubby Chip Chip” saw the light of YouTube again on October 20th, 2010, when YouTuber DWL1993 uploaded a YouTube Poop music video (YTPMVs) titled “RED Flash,” featuring footage from Team Fortress 2.

On the following day, DWL1993’s remix was shared on the Russian TF2 fan site TF2in.ru^[3], though follow-up responses from other artists in the YTPMV community didn’t arrive until April 2011. Several dozens of YouTube Poop remixes^[2] emerged in between May and August of that year, including “Bender Flash” featuring the Futurama character and DWL1993’s remake of his original “RED Flash.”

On January 27th, 2012, YouTuber AmazingFilms247 uploaded his YTPMV remix of the song, which gained more than 150,000 views in less than six months.

Since gaining a cult-like status in YouTube’s remix community, Knight has been working on an updated full synth version of “Chubby Chubby Chip Chip,” a preview of which can be found on his Soundcloud page.^[7]

At the end of 2012, Knight released his first full chiptune album with a new mix of “Chubby Chubby Chip Chip”. This can also be found on his Soundcloud page.^[8]

Notable Examples

The music videos are titled after the snowclone “X Flash,” in which X represents the name of characters featured in the footage. Some of the more notable instances combine other well-known YouTube video memes like Senor Chang’s “Ha, Gay!”, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, ASDFmovie and MysteryGuitarMan among others.

Search Interest

[not available]

External References

About

Stock Photos are photographs created specifically for the purpose of commercial licensing. Because of the need to create photos that will suit a wide variety of situations, photographers and agencies creating stock photos often include images that play off of cultural stereotypes and cliches. Stock Photos are known for their crude illustrations of everyday life and numerous instances where they illustrate very unusual situations.

History

Stock photography dates back to the mid-1880s, when the half-tone printing press was invented for use by newspapers to reproduce photographs. When an event could not be photographed or the photographs could not be transmitted fast enough for the newspaper, the stock photos were made to recreate the event.

In 1920 a company called RobertStock was founded, which was the first major stock photography vendor. The popularity of stock photography grew in the 1980s when stock photographs were first made available via widely distributed photobooks, such as “Sell & Resell Your Photos.” The first Internet stock photography vendor was iStock, founded in 2000. Notable stock photography sellers include Getty Images,^[1] Shutterstock^[2] and iStock.^[3]

Online Presence

Stock photos are often mocked online for their surreal or unrealistic portrayals of everyday life. Stock Photos are commonly captioned, edited or used as reaction images on sites like 4chan, Reddit or Tumblr.

Stock Photos grew in online popularity when the Awkward Stock Photossingle topic blog was created on Tumblr, featuring various odd or out-of-context stock photos. The blog’s content was quickly taken down by a cease-and-desist order from iStockphoto (shown below), although the blog continued later on. The blog and the DMCA takedown was covered by various news media websites like TechDirt or Buzzfeed, increasing the blog’s popularity. The concept of the blog inspired other single topic blogs on Tumblr, such as WTF Stock Photos^[7] and Overly Specific Stock Photos.^[8][9]

On January 31st 2012, the r/stockphotos subreddit was created, but was replaced by r/wtfstockphotos a day later.^[4][5] Both subreddits were made to share stock photos that users found funny, awkward or bizarre. As of April 2015, the subreddit has over 19,000 readers. On October 31st 2013, the r/youdontsurf was created, where users took stock photos and captioned them. ^[6] As of April 2015, the subreddit has over 165,000 readers.

Related Memes

Captioned Stock Photos

Captioned Stock Photos are a series of stock photos with captions depicting vulgar dialogue between the models in the photograph, often using the Comic Sans font. These types of images are often shared on the r/youdontsurf subreddit and Tumblr.

Stock Photo Clichés

Stock Photo Clichés are a variety of themes commonly used in stock photography, such as people looking at their food while laughing or old people using computers.

PornHub Comments On Stock Photos

PornHub Comments On Stock Photos (NSFW) is a series of stock photos of people using laptops captioned with various comments found on the adult video website PornHub, originating from the single topic blog of the same name.

Hide The Pain Harold

Hide The Pain Harold is the nickname given to a senior stock photography model, whose facial expression appears to show discomfort. Photographs including the model are commonly used as reaction images and are often edited on the r/youdontsurf subreddit.

Identifying Wood

Identifying Wood is a book written by R. Bruce Hoadley. The book’s cover shows a middle-aged man examining the texture of a slab of wood with a microscope. This image has spawned many edits which manipulate either the book’s title, the slab of wood or the man studying it. The first edits were uploaded to the website FARK upon request on a thread titled “Photoshop this guy and his wood”.

Stocking

Stocking is a photo fad where people take pictures of themselves imitating various stock photos, and post them with the photo they were imitating for comparison.

I Bet The Jews Did This

I Bet The Jews Did This is an ironic catchphrase used to mock anti-semitic conspiracy theorists and trolls who blame the people of Jewish descent for their own personal woes and misfortunes. The original image macro (pictured below) is based on a stock photograph of an angry looking man holding tangled Christmas lights.

Advice Animals Adapted from Stock Photos

There are also a lot of advice animals based off stock photos, most notably Net Noob, Successful Black Man, Lazy College Senior and Unhelpful High School Teacher.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Hetalia refers to a popular manga webcomic and Anime series first written by Hidekaz Himaruya and later adapted by Studio DEEN. The series has garnered a significant online fanbase since it’s original creation, spawning a number of fan creations such as Fan Art and Fanfiction, as well as creating a number of notable sub-memes.

Premise

Hetalia is a comedy short following anthropomorphised countries of the world, re-enacting historical events within a comedic fashion. Primarily the show follows the main character of Italy, as well as his fellow Axis Powers Germany and Japan. On top of this, there is also the Allied Forces, consisting of America, Britain, France, Russia and China, as well as a host of other countries.

History

Hidekaz Himaruya originally created Hetalia as an online webcomic. So far four tankōbon have been published by Gentosha Comics, the first on March 28, 2008, the second on December 10, 2008, the third on May 20, 2010 and the fourth on June 30, 2011.

An anime adaptation of Hetalia: Axis Powers was announced on July 24, 2008, produced by Studio DEEN, also known for their work on the Higurashi franchise. The show lasted from January 24, 2009 to March 5, 2010, running for 52 episodes. A second adaptation was also announced on December 10, 2009, retitled as Hetalia: World Series, and ran for 48 episodes. A fifth season, this time titled Hetalia: The Beautiful World, was also created, running for 20 episodes from January 25 to June 21, 2013. A sixth season, Hetalia: The World Twinkle was also announced. A movie adaptation, Hetalia: Paint it White! was also released on June 5, 2010.

Online Relevance

In North America, Hetalia is licensed by Funimation, and is available for streaming on their website. The show has gained a large online following on many sites, including on Tumblr^[1], Reddit^[2], 4chan’s /a/ (Anime and Manga) board^[3], Fanpop^[4], My Anime List^[5], and DeviantART^[6]. There are numerous sites that provide episodic information about the series, such as the Hetalia wiki^[7], TV Tropes^[8] and Anime News Network^[9]. In addition, the Hetalia Facebook page also has over 300,000 likes^[10].

Controversy

There has definitely been some controversy about the show and comic due to it making light of many of the events surrounding WWII. People have also voiced their displeasure on the stereotypes portrayed by the countries as some have found them offensive. (examples: “America” is annoying and often shown eating hamburgers, Italy is portrayed as a pasta-loving weakling)

Fandom

The Hetalia series has spawned a significant online fanbase since it’s creation, which has created much fanart and fanfiction. On the Japanese fanart site Pixiv, there are over 50,000 images tagged under “ヘタリア”^[11], as well as over 46,000 videos on the video sharing website Nico Nico Douga^[12]. On DeviantART, there are also over 1,000,000 images tagged related to the series^[13], as well as over 111,000 stories on Fanfiction.net^[14]

Related Memes

Dance Dance World Revolution

Dance Dance World Revolution is an avatar dance meme featuring anime characters dressed in the color schemes of different country flags dancing to a looped version of the number “Positive Vibe” by Newgrounds member NIGHTkilla. It started with a video of the character America, but spread out to other countries and series as well. The characters representing the countries commonly use the character models of the Hetalia cast, but fan made characters are also used.

Marukaite Chikyuu

Marukaite Chikyuu (Draw a circle, that’s the Earth) is a meme that originated from the ending theme for the first and second seasons of Hetalia. The original version was sung by the character North Italy (voiced by Daisuke Namikawa), but it spread out to other members of the Hetalia cast as well. This inspired fans to create their own versions of the song with even more characters from the series.

Become One With Russia

Become One With Russia is a meme based on a line often spoken by Russia’s in-show sister, Belarus, while around him, due to her obsessive infatuation with her brother. Eventually, fans took this one creepy phrase and turned it inside out, twisting the meaning so that Russia is the one who asks others to ‘become one’ with him.

Search Interest

External References

About

Satoru Iwata was a Japanese video game developer and businessman who served as the fourth CEO and president of Nintendo. Ever since rising to leadership in 2002, Iwata has been widely credited with reinvigorating the company’s stature within the video gaming industry by introducing next-generation hardware consoles, namely the Nintendo DS handheld system and Wii, as well as improving its public relations by personally interacting with the fans through social media. On July 12th, 2015, Iwata passed away at the age of 55 due to complications with bile duct tumor.

Biography

Early Career

Satoru Iwata’s pursuit of video game production began early on in his high school years, during which he came up with several simple number-oriented games using an electronic calculator that he had shared with his schoolmates. After graduating from high school, Iwata was admitted to the computer science program at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he continued his study and began working as a freelance programmer for HAL Laboratory, Inc.^[1], a video game developer closely affiliated with Nintendo.

Work at HAL Laboratory Inc.

Following his graduation from the institute, Iwata joined HAL Laboratory as a full-time developer to work on several SNES projects, such as EarthBound and the early Kirby titles, before being promoted as the president of the company in 1993. As the head of HAL Laboratory, Iwata turned the company around from the verge of bankruptcy and stabilized its finances, while remaining close to his programming roots by contributing to the development of Pokémon Gold and Silver for the Game Boy Color and the Pokémon Stadium for the Nintendo 64.

Work at Nintendo

In 2000, Iwata left HAL Laboratory to work as the head of the corporate planning division at Nintendo, though he would remain as an advisor to HAL Laboratory for the remainder of his life. On May 31st, 2002, Iwata succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi as the CEO of Nintendo, which was facing many challenges and obstacles at the time with the poor performance of the Gamecube console in comparison to its competitors. As the company’s first president without any familial relations to the Yamauchi family, Iwata oversaw the development of many crucial hardware and software projects, including Nintendo’s seventh-generation console Wii and Nintendo DS, the long-awaited successor to the popular Game Boy handheld console system, as well as several influential franchises like The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Animal Crossing. In April 2013, Iwata took on a new role within the company as CEO of Nintendo of America, where he garnered a large fan following from all over the world for his personal interactions with the fans through social media and close involvement in Nintendo Direct online press conferences.

Death

In 2014, Nintendo announced Iwata would not be able to attend E3 2015 on advice from his physician, after surgery to remove a tumor from his bile duct. On July 11th, 2015, Nintendo released a statement^[13] announcing the death of Iwata at the age of 55 due to a bile duct growth.

Various online outlets responded to Iwata’s death. On 4chan, /v/ (video games) board embedded a video of the song “Smiles and Tears” from EarthBound. Various notables from the video game industry tweeted regarding Iwata’s passing, including Masahiro Sakurai,^[6] Hideki Kamiya,^[10] and Geoff Keighley^[11], as well as Sony’s official Twitter account for PlayStation] In addition, several game news outlets such as Kotaku] Gematsu,^[4] and Polygon^[5] ran articles covering Iwata’s death, as did general news outlets like BBC^[8] and the Wall Street Journal.^[9]

Online Presence

Iwata Asks

Iwata Asks^[7] is a series of developer interviews conducted by Satoru Iwata, and posted to the Nintendo website. Within them, Iwata asks a number of questions to developers of upcoming Nintendo games and products, with the aim to help provide more information as to what the games entail. The series has garnered much praise online, due to the informative and helpful nature of the interviews.

Nintendo Direct

Nintendo Direct is a series of online digital presentations, typically hosted by Iwata, detailing information and gameplay videos about upcoming Nintendo products, first starting on October 21st, 2011 in Japan, before heading overseas with a number of other directs dedicated to specific regions around the world. Within the directs, Iwata became known for his act of gesturing his hands towards the camera whenever the term “direct” is mentioned, spawning a number of parodies within the community, an even from Nintendo themselves.

Related Memes

“Please Understand”

Please Understand is a phrase often associated with Satoru Iwata and has many times in the past said “please understand” when apologizing for something. It has even been said to be one of Iwata’s “favorite excuses.”^[2] Many image macros of Iwata saying “please understand” have been made. The phrase grew greatly in popularity coinciding with the Pokébank delay.

Satoru Iwata Holding Bananas

Satoru Iwata Holding Bananas refers to a gag clip shown during Nintendo’s pre-recorded direct, shown off at E3 2012. Within the clip, Satoru Iwata is featured holding a bunch of bananas, staring intently at them for a short time before putting them down and carrying on with the presentation. Due to the odd nature of the scene, many parodies were created online.

Reggie vs. Iwata

Reggie Vs. Iwata is a promotional video featuring Nintendo executives Reggie Fils-Aime and Satoru Iwata competing in a battle which was released during the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Wikipedia – HAL Laboratory

^[2]Iwata’s Favorite Excuse.. ‘Please Understand’

^[3]Kotaku – Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Dies at 55

^[4]Gematsu – Nintendo President Satoru Iwata dies at age 55

^[5]Polygon – Nintendo president Satoru Iwata dies at 55

^[6]Smashboards – Satoru Iwata Has Passed Away

^[7]Nintendo – Iwata Asks

^[8]BBC– Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata dies at 55

^[9]Wall Street Journal – Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Dies of Cancer

^[10]Twitter – Hideki Kamiya

^[11]Twitter – Geoff Keighley

^[12]Twitter – Playstation

^[13]Nintendo – Notification of Death and Personnel Change of a Representative Director

About

Dankey Kang refers to a two-pane image that consists of a Jeopardy! question describing Sonic the Hedgehog and a screenshot of a contestant erroneously answering “Dankey Kang,” a misspelling of Nintendo’s iconic gorilla character Donkey Kong. Though it was subsequently debunked as a photoshopped hoax, the image went viral on Twitter anyway, wrongly labeled as an example of FAIL humor.

Origin

On May 31st, 2010, YouTuber geminitech uploaded a video clip of the Final Jeopardy round on the television game show Jeopardy!, in which the contestant Jen McFann answers “What is Berkeley?” in response to a clue about the only United States city to share a name with an element from the periodic table (shown below).

On January 8th, 2014, cartoonist Mike Rosenthal tweeted a photoshopped screenshot of the Jeopardy! clip with the answer “Who is Dankey Kang?” written as a response to a clue about the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog. Within the first week, the tweet gained over 1,300 retweets and 1,000 favorites. According to the Jeopardy! Archive,^[4] the Sonic the Hedgehog clue has never been used on the game show.

Immediately after, Rosenthal tweeted another screenshot of a Jeopardy! contestant whose answer had been photoshopped to read “Who is Princess Zorldo,” a misspelling of Princess Zelda from the Nintendo action-adventure game series Legend of Zelda.

Spread

Also on January 8th, 2014, Redditor lividd3ad submitted a link to Rosenthal’s tweet to the /r/gamegrumps^[1] subreddit, where it garnered more than 150 up votes and 20 comments in the following week. On January 9th, Rosenthal tweeted a screenshot of his Twitter interface displaying the hashtag “#DankeyKang” as a trending topic in the United States.

On January 11th, the image was reposted to the /r/funny^[8] subreddit, gathering upwards of 26,000 views and 900 comments. On the same day, DeviantArtist^[2] Kevin Bolk uploaded several illustrations of a blue gorilla named “Dankey Kang,” who bears many similarities to the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog (shown below, left).

Also on January 11th, the Jeopardy! image was reposted by blogger Tyler Oakley on his Tumblr blog.^[7] On January 12th, NeoGAF Forums^[5] member Vanillalite posted the Dankey Kang screen capture in a thread titled “Who is Dankey Kang?" On January 14th, an eBay^[3] listing was created for a shirt with the phrase “Who is Dankey Kang?” screen printed on the front (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Pakalu Papito is a novelty Twitter account for a fictional Indian convenience store clerk which is known for posting joke tweets using puns and irreverent humor.

Origin

The @pakalupapito Twitter feed was launched on July 12th, 2013, with the first tweet announcing “hello twitter I am single.”^[1] Over the next two years, the tweet gained over 17,000 retweets and 6,000 favorites, while the account gathered upwards of 739,000 followers. The character is presented as a 7-11 convenience store clerk who has an intimate relationship with his pet camel.

Spread

On September 2nd, 2013, the Pakalu Papito Facebook^[2] page was launched, which reposts tweets from the @pakalupapito feed. In two years, the page received more than 478,000 likes. On October 5th, Urban Dictionary^[6] user pakulu submitted an entry for “pakulu papito,” defining it as “the act of crashing a camel into a bridge.” On March 17th, 2014, Imgur^[4] user somedaymynudeswillcome uploaded a gallery of notable @pakalupapito tweet screenshots. On January 18th, 2015, Redditor zealousear submitted a screenshot of a @pakalupapito tweet referring to Kanye West as his brother to /r/indianpeoplefacebook^[10] (shown below).

On April 20th, the men’s interest blog MensXP^[3] published a compilation of 36 tweets from the account. On May 4th, the Pakalu-Papito Tumblr^[7] blog was launched, which highlights screenshots of tweets from the @pakalupapito feed. On May 11th, the Yahoo Singapore Tumblr^[9] blog pointed out similarities between tweets posted by Facebook user Lee Nova^[8] and the @pakalupapito feed (shown below). On June 10th, Tumblr user oiltipped published a post titled “Those ’Pakalu Papito” posts need to fucking die," which accused the account of racism.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

FOREVER! is a meme featuring an exploitable image of Pinkie Pie, a character from the Hasbro franchise My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, being edited into various situations and accompanied by a heavily accentuated “Forever!” in the caption.

Origin

The meme originates from episode 20, “Green Isn’t Your Color”.^[2] A sub-plot of the episode features Pinkie Pie^[1] continuously appearing in physically impossible contexts (from boxes, buckets, and inside a mirror) to tell Twilight Sparkle that “breaking a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend, FOREVER!”, in reference to secrets that Twilight Sparkle’s friends had entrusted her with.

Spread

Regarded as one of Pinkie Pie’s catchphrases, the meme is also an example of Bronyspeak. It has been featured in several fan-made compilation and tribute videos. Examples include remixes by Youtubers such as Teh3dSpartan^[4] and ThePonyMix^[5] (shown below).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External Sources

About

Danced like a Butterfly (Japanese; 蝶のように舞いーニョ, Chou No You Ni Maiinyo), also known as Maiinho Series (舞いーニョシリーズ) on the Japanese web, refers to a series of MAD/hand-drawn animated videos inspired by the sexy Gay Dance by a Brazillian adult model Richardo Milos. In late 2010, he accidentally became a sensation by being featured on Nico Nico Douga’s (NND) Billy Herrington/Wrestling Series meme.

Origin

The dance video was originally uploaded to an English gay porn website “Jock Butt”, and inported to NND as one of the wrestling series videos on October 15th, 2010.^[1] His groovy dance and smug look frequently shown on the video soon caught much attention among wrestling series fanatics. He soon became one of the popular characters in the series and was nicknamed RonalGiinho (ロナウ自慰ニョ; “自慰” Gii means “masturbation” in Japanese) by NND users because his looks wearing a bandanna evoked the famous Brazillian football player Ronaldinho.^[2] In this time, none imagined that his real masturbating video was leaked.^[3]

Then, the trigger of this fad was the video reproducing his dance and smug look by hand drawn animation with the Swedish pop duo SMiLE.dk’s popular song “butterfly (UPSWINGMIX)” which was famous for being included in Dance Dance Revolution^[4] series by KONAMI. This video “Dancing like a Butterfly” was uploaded to NND on July 14th, 2011.^[5]

The character performing this crazy dance in this video is Yuyuko Saigyouji from Touhou Project series.

Spread

This video got the 1st rank in NND daily ranking, and spreaded the appeal of the dance to the web. Other amatuer creators soon began mimicking the video by their hand drawn animations or 3D characters models by Miku Miku Dance. Moreover, the SMiLE.dk’s song shared the spotlight with the dance, and began being reused a lot in MAD videos.

As of July 2012, the amount of videos related to this series on NND is more than 280.^[6]

Notable Examples

MADs

Search Interest

External References

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

About

Crotch-Rubbing Dance, also known as Rubbing Series (Japanese: こするだけシリーズ, Kosuru Dake Series), refers to a style of MAD/hand-drawn animated videos that features a weird crotch-rubbing in Wrestling series.

Origin

The source video for this fad was uploaded as a part of wrestling series to Nico Nico Douga (NND) in October 11th, 2009^[1], and it is a compilation of some guys dancing scenes splitted from 2002 gay porn video “Max Men: Strip Fantasies, Volume One”.^[2] In this video, a Czech actor Jirka Kalvoda is performing a weird dance: sexy moving with rubbing his crotch by his shirt (shown below, left). On NND, he is better known as his nickname “Skull Nipple: Golden Horn” (スカル乳首金閣, Sukaru Chikubi Kinkaku) which comes from phonetic translations for his dialogs in Wresling series videos and is given by the fanatics of this series.

However, his dance hadn’t caught attention by itself in the beginning. The trigger video putting him in the spotlight was tracing his dance by hand-drawn animation with a solemn music, which was uploaded to NND on March 9th, 2010 (shown below, right). The girl starring in this video was Remilia Scarlet from Touhou Project series.

Spread

A funny combination consisting of Remilia’s surreal face expression, weird crotch-rubbing dance, a solem music which was taken from a Japanese TV anime series Space Runaway Ideon^[3] and its unexpectedly smooth animation caught attention among NND users. Since then, some of them follow the style and have been copying crotch-rubbing dance with various characters by hand-drawn animation or Miku Miku Dance. Addinitonally, a hundred of NND users who were inspired by this dance held offline meetups reproducing it at 6 cities in Japan around May, 2010.

As of June 2012, the amount of videos in this series is abuo 250.^[4]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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

About

HIWIRE is an irregular electronic music rave party at a fictional techno/hip-hop nightculb Club-Shinnippori, usually written as “crab(蟹)-shinnippori” on the Japanese web, which is in Shinnippori (Japanese: 新日暮里) that is also a fictional section of Nippori (日暮里), one of the existent east Tokyo areas.

These words also refer to a series of the musical remixes in Billy Herrington/Wrestling series on Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

With the developments in Billy’s “Gachimuchi” phenomena, many kind of creators had joined into it and released their own works. Among them, amatuer/semi-professional music composers and DJs introduced techno/house music to this phenomena, and have been making orthodox dance music remixes sampling the voice of Billy and others, and competing its quality.

This music movement gradually began in early 2008, and was led to a substantial increase in popularity by the song uploaded to NND in July 14th, 2008.^[1] Though the original video caught no attention and was soon deleted, it spreaded to the web by the promoting style video by another user on October 8th, 2008.^[2] The song is “Billy Herrington is Still Alive !” by a user called Macedonia.

Spread

The series of those music remix videos is called “crab-shinnippori” which is a pun for club and crab, and it comes from a phonetic translation “I wanna be a crab!” (蟹になりたい!, Kani ni naritai !) in Billy Herrington videos. NND users also give the other name “HIWIRE” to this series. This is also a pun for Hiwai (卑猥) that means “lewd” in Japanese and WIRE that is the Japanese techno rave event.

The amount of video related to both key words on NND are about 300.^[3] Most of those videos are original music by composers, but they are sometimes audaciously sampling classic techno/house anthems.

In addition, Super Kazuya’s Theme is one of the popular sub-series in this series.

IRL Event

Since 2010, HIWIRE has been actually held yearly by NND users.^[4] The 1st session in 2010 was held in MOGRA, a club which is famous as the stage of many music events related to online phenomenon in Akihabara. Popular composers in this series have joined into this event as regular DJs.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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

About

Super Kazuya Theme Song Remixes (Japanese: スーパーカズヤのテーマ, Super Kazuya no Theme) refer to a series of musical remixes for a nondescript audio track played in a sexy performance by a Canadian profesional dancer Danny Lee who is nicknamed Kazuya Kiyoshi (木吉カズヤ)^[1] which comes from phonetic translations in his videos in Billy Herrington/Wrestling series on Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

Because of many funny phonetic translated dialogues with Billy Herrington in the 1st video in wrestling series^[2], Danny Lee a.k.a Kazuya Kiyoshi is one of the most popular sub-characters in this series. As a proof of this, many MAD videos featuring him have been posted on NND^[3] and he has many fan illustrations on pixiv.^[4]

In addition to this, his solo performance video including the audio track which is nicknamed “Super Kazuya Theme” by NND users has been also watched hundreds of thousands of times on NND.^[5][6] That video was first uploaded to NND on October 11th, 2008.

The music remix movement was suddenly begun by 3 videos uploaded by each different NND users on June 14th, 2009. Those are “Super Kazuya Theme (Ver. Purple)”,^[7]“Super Kazuya Theme (Ver. Blue)”^[8] and “Super Kazuya Theme (Ver. Pink)”.^[9]

Spread

Other music creators in HIWIRE, a music remix movement in wrestling series, followed those strange remixes, started making their own remixes mostly with the phrasal template “Super Kazuya Theme (ver. X)”. Because many of versions are colors, the catchphrase for this fad on NND is “Please select your favorite color” ( お好きな色をお選び下さい).

As of July 2012, the amount of videos in this series on NND is about 180.^[10] This is the most popular subject in HIWIRE movement.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

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

About

VAN-sama (Japanese: VAN様) is a respected nickname given to a Vietnamese American gay porn star/performing artist Van Darkholme^[1] by the fanatics of Wrestling Series.

His impressive F-word voice in a video is called Fercussion (ファ楽器, Fagakki) as a special vocal percussion and frequently reused in MAD videos in Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

Van Darkholme appeared on NND as the first Asian actor in Wrestling Series by the video posted as one of the series on April 21st, 2008^[2], which was taken from 1999 American gay porn video LORDS OF THELOCKERROOM. This video soon caught much attention among Wrestling Series fanatics because of his eccentric costume and his neat F-word cuss.

Following this, many videos featuring his bondage costumes and fetish play were uploaded continually. Those videos became to the popular sub-series in Wrestling Series named “BONDAGE M@STER”, usually called BONM@S for short.

In those days, he also had another nickname TDN Kosugi (TDNコスギ)^[3] or simply TDN. This is because his looks resembled to Kazuhito Tadano^[4] who was called TDN in the other online gay porn phenomena A Midsummer Night’s Lewd Dream and Japanese American martial arts actor Kane Kosugi^[5] for their sensibilities.

Spread

His F-word voice is the essential resource for MAD videos along with Billy Herrington’s Hip Drum, and known as Fercussion (ファ楽器, Fagakki)^[6], which is a pun for F-word and Percussion (打楽器, Dagakki). Many of Wrestling Series videos set his Fercussion into their main subject.

Moreover, Darkholme himself gets much respect from the fanatics by his earnest attitude against the business and fetishism told in the interview video titled “Interview with the VANpire”, which was uploaded on October 15th, 2009.^[7]

Nowadays, He is usually called VAN-sama respectfully as the true seeker of Deep Dark Fantasies.^[8] As of July 2012, the amount of videos ralted to him in NND is more than 900.^[9]

Darkholme’s Response

Darkholme noticed his popularity in the MAD video fad by a fan letter, and posted about this to his blog on November 28th, 2009. In the post, he chose the favorite video and seemed to receive his popularity in Japan favourably though he didin’t know why he was called TDN.

Web Date 11-28-2009

I got this email and I thought I share it with you. I had no idea and it’s so funny. I don’t know why the Japanese call me TDN. Can you someone explain this to me? Well, I looked at a bunch of them. It takes a lot of time and effort to put a video like this together. I’m flattered. My favorite one is by Keisuke0000000001 “TDN (Van Darkholme) x Evans X Dj Yoshitaka”. It has pretty much all of my work. You can see it at the bottom of this page.

dear Master Van,

i’m writing you in the hopes of hearing your thoughts on your recent popularity in Japan. there is an entire community (some would call it a universe) devoted to mixing and editing videos you and other pornstars (most notably billy herrington) have starred in. don’t ask me. this universe is known as the Gachimuchi universe. again, don’t ask me. you are known as TDN in this universe. by now you could be dizzy with confusion if this revelation isn’t a huge moonlanding to you.

i scoured your site in order to find something on this, but sadly there was nothing. there was a bunch of interesting stuff to read on your site though. keep it up. you are god.

here are “some” (lol) example videos. there are literally thousands of videos like these on the internet. hearing what you have to think would be interesting for both me and your japanese fans.

….

sincerely,
(name withheld)

And the winner is….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyjSWaFk_RQ

Via: VANDARKHOLME– JOURNAL– BLOG^[10]

Many NND users exulted to his response, and the video approved by Darkholme in this post, which uses Evans for its music resource, has been watched over 1 million times on NND as a sort of the official MAD video.^[11]

Notable Examples

MAD videos

Illustrations

Many fan/parody illustrations for Darkholme are uploaded the Japanese social network service for illustrators pixiv.^[16]

Search Interest

External References

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