About

Ahmed Angel’s Modeling Photos are a series of retouched photographs featuring Iraqi student and aspiring male model Ahmed Angel. His pictures have been mocked for being cringe-worthy and absurdly photoshopped on various community web sites.

Origin

On March 29th, 2012, Ahmed Angel began uploading photographs of himself to his profile on the Russian social networking site VK^[6] (shown below).

Spread

On October 13th, 2012, user pelmeshechka on the Russian Internet humor site Pikabu^[5] submitted a photograph of Ahmed with a link to his VK profile. On February 14th, 2013, Redditor illskillz1 submitted a post to the /r/cringepics^[3] subreddit, featuring a link to an Imgur gallery containing several photographs of Angel from his VK profile (shown below). Within three months, the post received over 9,700 up votes and 800 comments.

The same day, Body Building Forums^[7] member Battalion Beast submitted a discussion thread highlighting many of the photos from the Imgur gallery, accumulating upwards of 165 replies in the following month. On February 26th, NeoGAF^[8] member Kraftwerk started a forum thread with several photographs of Angel, which received over 80 replies in the first 24 hours. On March 1st, the “Ahmed Angel” Facebook^[4] page was launched. On March 5th, YouTuber Ahmed Angel uploaded a video titled “Ahmed Angel is planet,” featuring an animated slideshow of Angel’s modeling photos (shown below). Within two months, the video gained more than 10,000 views and 55 comments.

On March 29th, the /r/ahmedangel^[2] subreddit was created. On May 13th, the viral content site BuzzFeed^[1] published a post titled “Meet The Most Beautiful Man In The World,” featuring several notable photographs of Angel taken from his Facebook page.^[12] The following day, the International Business Times^[9] published an interview with Angel, who revealed himself as an 18-years-old Iraqi student studying medicine in Belarus.

“The most important thing in my life is to study medicine! And I’m not a model but I’m Top Model!”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Nuclear Gandhi is the nickname given to the Indian historical figure Mahatma Gandhi as portrayed in the turn-based strategy video game series Civilization. Among the fans of the games, Gandhi has gained much notoriety for his obsessive nuclear warmongering, in stark contrast to the pacifist reputation of the real life counterpart.

Origin

Gandhi’s obsession with nuclear bombing in the series was first noted in the sequel title Civilization II, wherein India would often evolve into the most hostile civilization during the mid to late stages of a match. Cause of this was a glitch in the artificial intelligence (A.I.) settings for Gandhi’s aggression level. Despite starting with the lowest level of aggression to reflect Gandhi’s historical legacy of pacifism, as the game progresses towards the Modern Era the Indian civilization would often become more hostile and confrontational towards other leaders as a result of a coding error. At that point in the game Gandhi’s already low aggression value would lower into a negative value in the game’s code, at which point the error caused Gandhi’s aggression to underflow into the highest setting just as the level of military aggression begins to wane across the world in the game. With the advents of strategic nuclear weaponry in the Atomic Era, Gandhi’s hyperaggression typically leads to rampant threats and use of nuclear bombs on other civilizations, earning him an odd reputation of being a nuke-obsessive warmonger.

Due to the popularity of the bug, it was later intentionally put into later iterations of the game where Gandhi would intentionally be given the highest level as a producer and user of nukes.^[2]/br<>

Spread

In September 2010, the webcomic site Critical Miss published a comic comparing the real life Gandhi to the fictional counterpart as depicted within the Civilization series. On October 23rd, 2014, a copy of this comic was uploaded to Reddit. On the same day, Redditor Kserge commented on another Reddit post^[1] to explain that Gandhi’s obsession with nuclear bombs was initially due to an unintentional glitch, but it later became officially incorporated into the game as a unique feature of the Indian civilization. This comment was later used as a basis for articles from Kotaku^[3] and Geek.com.^[4]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State, is a Jihadist militant group of Sunni Muslims based in parts of Syria and Iraq which originated as part of the global Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda. The group has gained notoriety for their aggressive propaganda campaigns and prolific social media presence, which came under even more scrutiny by the press in June 2014 after the group released morbid photographs of an apparent massacre of captured Iraqi Army soldiers via Twitter.

Online History

#CalamityWillBeFallUS

On June 25th, 2014, as the U.S. armed forces mobilized on the Persian Gulf in the wake of insurgency in Iraq, the ISIS launched a new hashtag campaign dubbed #CalamityWillBeFallUS to threaten retaliation against the United States in the case of military intervention. In the following 24 hours, the hashtag was mentioned nearly 70,000 times on Twitter^[10], along with a slew of graphic images depicting decapitated heads and piles of bodies and anti-American slogans.

Execution of James Foley

On August 19th, 2014, ISIS uploaded a YouTube video that purportedly shows the execution of James Foley, an American journalist who had been reported as a missing person since suddenly disappearing in Syria over 18 months ago. The video begins with Foley, kneeled next to an armed militant dressed in black, reading a presumably scripted message under duress that placed the blame of his death on the U.S. airstrikes and giving his last words before the journalist is seen being beheaded.

“I wish I had more time. I wish I could have the hope for freedom to see my family once again.”

Accompanied by a short description which reads “A Message to #America (from the #IslamicState)” and declares retribution for the American military intervention against ISIS in Iraq, the video quickly began circulating on YouTube and Twitter before most of them were eventually taken offline by the evening later that same day. On the following day, the U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden implicitly confirmed the video to be authentic, citing the analysis of the American intelligence community. Meanwhile, Twitter began censoring still shots taken from the video and even suspending users who posted them, citing that the company decided to respect the Foleys’ request for privacy.

Execution of Steven Sotloff

In August 2013, American-Israeli journalist Steven Joel Sotloff was kidnapped by Islamic militants in Aleppo, Syria. On August 19th, 2014, James Foley’s execution video was released, in which an English-speaking ISIS militant is shown with another U.S. captive, who many speculated was Sotloff.

Days after the threat was released, the United States fired 14 missiles at ISIS targets. On August 19th, 2014, a petition was created on the White House website We the People,^[18] which urged the Obama administration to “do everything possible to free American reporter Steven Sotloff from ISIS” (shown below). In the next two weeks, the petition received over 88,500 signatures.

On August 27th, Sotloff’s mother released a video pleading for ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to release her son (shown below).

On September 2nd, a video was released by ISIS which purportedly shows Sotloff being executed. In the video, a masked figure also threatens to execute a British hostage identified as David Haines. That day, the White House revealed that the video was being analyzed to verify its authenticity.

Cyberattack on the U.S. Central Command

On January 12th, 2015, the official Twitter^[30] and YouTube^[31] accounts of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), one of the nine unified American military commands that oversees combat operations across many countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, including Afghanistan and Iraq, were hacked and defaced with a series of propaganda messages declaring a “cyberjihad” against the U.S. military’s cyberinfrastructure.

That same day, a group of hackers calling themselves the “CyberCaliphate” released a statement via Pastebin^[28] to claim responsibility for hacking the U.S. military’s social media accounts, along with a series of screenshots allegedly showing military intelligence files and personal information of numerous high-ranking U.S. military officials that the group claims to have obtained from mobile devices in the Pentagon network.

“AMERICAN SOLDERS, WE ARECOMING, WATCHYOURBACK. ISIS. CyberCaliphate. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate under the auspices of ISIS continues its CyberJihad,” the group wrote. “While the US and its satellites kill our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan we broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you. You’ll see no mercy infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base. With Allah’s permission we are in CENTCOM now. We won’t stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children. U.S. soldiers! We’re watching you!”

Also on January 12th, a military official at the Department of Defense anonymously confirmed that the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. Central Command had been breached, which was followed by official responses from the spokespersons of the White House and the Pentagon during the daily press briefings later that same day. While the officials acknowledged that the cyberattack against the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts were something to be taken “seriously,” both dismissed the growing speculations of a large-scale data breach of classified information and military intelligence as a result of the attack.

Army Colonel Steve Warren, Pentagon Spokesman: The Defense Department “views this as little more than a prank, or as vandalism. It’s inconvenient, it’s an annoyance but in no way is any sensitive or classified information compromised.”

Josh Earnest, Spokesman of the White House: “There’s a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account.”

Online Presence

Twitter

ISIS runs two Twitter accounts^[4], Islamic_States^[5], which has gained over 9,000 followers as of June 2014, and ISIS_Media_Hub^[6] which has gained over 1,000 followers. The accounts tweet in both Arabic and English. On June 15th, 2014, the group tweeted out a photograph that appears to show the aftermath of a mass killing of over 1,000 Iraqi military recruits at the hands of ISIS.

Facebook

A fan page for the group titled “Shia Ibn E Mutta,” which is a phrase against Shia marriages, was active on Facebook until June 16th, at which point Facebook removed it. It was removed shortly after The Washington Times^[9] published an article titled “HUSAIN: Facebook refuses to take down ISIS terror group fan page,” which covered Facebook’s previous refusal to remove the page. Before the page was removed it had gained over 6,000 fans. Content contained on the page included graphic photos of violence carried out by ISIS and suggestions as to how the group can take over the city of Baghdad.

Criticisms

Burn ISIS Flag Challenge

On August 20th, 2014, Twitter user @Shadow_Creeper tweeted a photo of two youths burning an ISIS flag on the street (shown below).

On August 30th, the “BURNISIS” YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Burn ISIS Flag Challenge,” in which a printout of the ISIS flag is burned with a lighter on camera (shown below). In the video description, the uploader nominates "the whole world to the “BurnISISFlagChallenge” in protest of the militant group’s actions.

The same day, Mother Jones^[19] published an article about the burn ISIS flag challenge, highlighting the BURNISIS video along with other burning examples. In the coming days, several news sites reported about the trend in Arab social media, including BuzzFeed,^[20]IBI Times^[21] and Yahoo News.^[22] On September 5th, Redditor Xanadu_resident submitted the Yahoo story to the /r/worldnews^[23] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 4,900 votes (96% upvoted) in the first 9 hours.

#AskIslamicState

On August 22nd, 2014, British stand-up comedian Lee Hurst^[17] tweeted a joke poking fun at the jihadist group’s social media proficiency using the hashtag #AskIslamicState, intended as a parody of the Q&A hashtags that have been derailed by trolls on several occassions, such as #AskJPM and AskThicke:

In the following 72 hours, Hurst’s tweets prompted a slew of tongue-in-cheek inquiries from other English-speaking Twitter users about the emerging rogue state in the Middle East, covering a wide range of topics that would be deemed first world problems. According to Topsy^[16], the hashtag #AskIslamicState was mentioned over 40,000 times over the span of 72 hours.

#NotInMyName

On September 10th, following the murder of British aid worker David Haines and kidnapping of another humanitarian worker Alan Hemming by the IS militants, London-based integrationist group Active Change Foundation (ACF) launched a Twitter hashtag campaign #notinmyname to raise more awareness about the solidarity of British muslims against the Islamic State, along with a sign holding video that features anti-IS muslims condemning the group (shown below). As of September 23rd, the hashtag has been mentioned at least 28,000 times on Twitter, according to social analytics service Topsy.^[24]

Search Interest

External References

About

Dude! Let me in! I’m a fairy! is a group of various different images, usually with a characters or animals looking through a window or door, with the phrase “Dude! Let me in! I’m a fairy!” on them. The meme is based off two panels from Junji Ito’s Frankenstein where the orginaal text has been replaced with the phrases “Dude! Let me in! I’m a Fairy!” and “Don’t you believe in fairies?”

Origin

The panels originally show up in Junji Ito’s “The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection” Volume 16: Frankenstein (フランケンシュタイン). The original run of the Manga was published from 1994 to 1998, with the collected edition also being published in 1998.^[1] The story is a loose adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel: Frankenstein.
These panels show up on page 176 of the complete collection. In it, it show’s Frankenstein’s monster laughing at Doctor Victor Frankenstein after he discovers that his father and his fiance were killed by the monster

During or prior to 2002, the text “Dude! Let me in! I’m a Fairy!” was added to the first panel, with the text “Don’t you believe in fairies?” added to the second panel.

Spread

It is unknown exactly where or when the original edited text version of this meme came from. One of the oldest known postings of the image was posted on the /b/ board of 4chan on June 9th 2002, with a story about how “This dude tried to break into my house last night through the window at 2am.”

It has since spread to various other sites such as FunnyJunk^[2], Reddit^[5], and Bodybuilding.com^[6].There are several different kinds of variants, ranging from adding different characters to the original panels, completely redrawing the same panels with different settings and characters, to screenshots and photos with the caption “Dude! Let me in! I’m a Fairy!” These may or may not include the phrase “Don’t you believe in fairies?”

There was also a slight rise in popularity of this meme after the announcement of Fairy Type Pokémon starting with Pokémon X and Y, with various different versions using Fairy Type Pokémon in place of Frankenstein’s monster. The oldest know version of this was posted by AsgardGoddess in February 2013 on /r/pokemon^[4] replacing the monster’s face with that of newly announced Fairy Type Pokemon Sylveon.

Variants

Dude! Let me in! Its me! Mittens! is a similar concept, and likely spawned from Dude! Let me in! I’m a fairy! These images are often photos of various wild animals looking into the windows and doors of houses, similar to a house cat wanting to come inside. The caption “It’s me! Mittens!” refers to the fact that “mittens” is a common name for pet owners to give cats. The first known version of this was posted by on June 14th 2012 on Daily Picks and Flicks.^[3]

External References

About

Wikipedia is an open-source, multilingual online encyclopedia that allows its user to add, edit or delete its content using a rich-text editor. Launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001, the website consists of more than 23 million articles in 285 languages written collaboratively by voluntary researchers and editors around the world (as of October 2012). Wiki is also used as a generic term to describe any encyclopedic website that is user-editable and crowdsourced.

History

Wikipedia was launched in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. The name of the site was coined by Sanger as a portmanteau of wiki, the Hawaiian word for “quick”, and encyclopedia. The word “wiki” also refers to the first user-editable website WikiWikiWeb that was launched in March 1995 by Ward Cunningham as part of the Portland Pattern Repository. According to Forbes’ interview with Cunningham in 2006, he named his project after Hawaii’s local airport shuttle bus service “Wiki Wiki Shuttle” that he had heard while on vacation.

Wikipedia was initially envisioned as a drafting companion tool for Nupedia, an online encyclopedia edited solely by experts, but it quickly outgrew its parent website into a global general referential resource with early contributions from Nupedia editors and Slashdot users. By the end of 2001, the site had grown into a vibrant international community with approximately 20,000 articles featured in 18 language editions, 26 language editions by 2002, 46 languages by 2003 and more than 161 languages by 2004.

In 2002, Wikimedia announced that the site will not support any form of commercial advertisements and changed its domain from wikipedia.com to wikipedia.org. The decision was made after the wake of a group of Spanish Wikipedia editors’ departure from the site, who cited growing concerns of its commercial marketability as the reason for leaving. In the following years, the site’s success led to a number of other similar projects like Wikia, a for-profit service co-founded by Jimmy Wales in late 2004, as well as parody sites like Uncyclopedia, a humor site founded by Jonathan Huang in January 2005. By January 2007, Wikipedia had entered the list of top ten most popular websites in the United States for the first time, according to comScore Networks.

Wikipedia Zero

In October 2011, Wikimedia announced the launch of Wikipedia Zero, an initiative to open up free mobile access to the site in select developing countries through partnerships with mobile operators. The project aims to reduce two barriers to accessing free knowledge, namely cost of data usage and network speed, by encouraging local service providers to zero-rate, or waiver data charges, the full mobile version of Wikipedia (m.wikipedia.org) and/or the text-only version (zero.wikipedia.org). The initiative went into effect during the early months of 2012, with the launch of zero-rate partnerships in Uganda and Tunisia in April, Malaysia in May, Niger and Kenya in July, Montenegro and Cameroon in August, and most recently, Ivory Coast, Thailand and Saudi Arabia in September and October.

Features

Unlike traditional encyclopedias, the content of Wikipedia is open to free-editing by any registered user with the exception of select few articles that are particularly sensitive in nature or susceptible to vandalism. Wikipedia’s guidelines for writing and editing articles adhere to the standards and conventions practiced in academia and journalism, such as the site’s “neutral point-of-view” policy. In addition, the content of articles are regularly evaluated by voluntary editors for factual accuracy, objectivity and and attribution of credible sources.

Community

The site is largely maintained and updated by its network of voluntary contributors and editors sometimes known as “Wikipedians,” who primarily interact with each other via “talk” pages built on various levels, including within the articles, user profiles and the site as a whole. Although Wikipedia has been marked by its decentralized decision-making process and anti-elitist philosophy, the community does operate within “a bureaucracy of sorts,” namely a clear power structure that gives volunteer administrators the authority to exercise editorial control," according to Wikipedia. Power users and editors with positive reputation in the community can run for voluntary moderation roles, beginning with the “administrator” who has the ability to delete pages, lock articles from reflecting changes or block users from editing.

Content

In 2008, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Palo Alto Research Center presented a comprehensive analysis of Wikipedia’s distribution of topics and their growth rates, which revealed:

Edit-A-Thons

An Edit-A-Thon is a community-organized offline event in which a group of Wikipedia editors devote a specific amount of time , normally a day or less, to improving the quality of a certain category of Wikipedia entries.

• World War 1

On June 16th, 2012, an edit-a-thon was held in London, England focusing on World War I.^[7] Created by JIsc, a charity group based in the UK focusing on digital technology,^[6] it was held in the British library. More than 30 pages were revised.

• Ada Lovelace Edit-a-thon

The first Ada Lovelace edit-a-thon, held in honor of the famous mathematician, was held on October 19th, 2012, in the library of the Royal Society in London, England.^[8] Particpants focused on entries on women scientists and were helped by representatives from Wikimedia UK.^[9] A second Ada Lovelace edit-a-thon was held on October 15th, 2013, at Brown University.^[10]

• Anyone But Burns

On January 24th, 2014, The National Library of Scotland, located in Edinburgh, held a edit-a-thon that encouraged participants to update the pages of any Scottish poet other than Robert Burns.^[13]

• Art+Feminism

The Art+Feminism edit-a-thon took place on February 1st, 2014, at the Eastern Bloc gallery in Montreal, Canada.^[11] It focused on entries about feminism and contemporary art. At least 15 American colleges also participated, as well as editors who gathered in other Canadian locations such as the NSCAD University Library in Halifax.^[12]

Derivatives

The participatory systems built into the Wiki standard that Wikipedia had created proved that Wikis could be useful in generating massive results from teams of participants, making the concept highly popular. Because Wikipedia was not only popular and useful, but also open source, creating derivative works based on Wikipedia’s source code was easy. There was a low barrier of participation making the wiki format highly exploitable. People created new wikis on a wide variety of special subjects, fields, and interests. Early on, there was much being said about what was being called “The Wiki-Wiki Web”.

Wikia

Wikia is a network of wiki sites that hosts several hundred thousands of smaller-scale encyclopedic projects based on the open-source software MediaWiki. Co-founded by board members of Wikimedia Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley in 2004, the site was originally launched under the name Wikicities, but later changed to “Wikia” in March 2006 to avoid confusions surrounding the nature of the site. Similar to Wikipedia, the site covers a broad range of topics that is practically unlimited. By early 2005, Wikia had seen the launch of its hundredth wiki and by July 2007, the number had grown to over 3,000 wikis in 50 languages and in April 2010, Wikia announced the creation of its 100,000th wiki project. The impressive growth of Wikia has been attributed to both newly launched projects as well as formerly independent projects that had been merged into the network, such as LyricWiki, The Vault, Uncyclopedia and WowWiki.

Uncyclopedia

Uncyclopedia is a satirical wiki site that is meant to be a general parody of Wikipedia. Founded by Jonathan Huang in January 2005, the site began as an English-language project, but it has since grown into a multilingual network of wikis spanning over 75 languages. Uncyclopedia also provides general coverage of internet memes, however with less focus on the perspective of 4chan in comparison to Encyclopedia Dramatica.

Encyclopedia Dramatica

“Encyclopedia Dramatica is a satire wiki site specializing in covering the culture and events of 4chan. Rather than taking the conventional route of objectivity, unbiased language and attribution, the articles and the voice with which the articles are written take on the voice of a highly cynical, highly offensive, possibly basement-dwelling, but often hilarious idiot genius. The articles are written for the intent of bringing lulz because they are written from a standpoint that can only be appreciated after much lurking on 4chan.

Know Your Meme

Although the first incarnation of Know Your Meme was a single page within the Rocketboom wiki, Know Your Meme as it is today is a new type of collaborative knowledge base that is not a wiki. Instead, there is a submissions process by which meme entries are reviewed by staff in order to ensure accuracy and and a certain degree of objectivity. Although Know Your Meme is about memes and highly influenced by the various bits of internet culture researched, confirmed meme entries are to be written neither in favor nor out of favor of the memes presented. Anyone may create a new entry about a meme, and editing to meme entries is reserved for the user who creates the meme, and the site admins, although editing privileges may be granted to additional users who wish to edit.

Related Memes

Citation Needed

[citation needed] is a superscript notation used in Wikipedia articles to identify questionable claims without any basis on reliable sources. Due to its widespread usage on the site, the notation has been also used in other forum communities and weblogs to criticize someone’s argument, as well as in street graffiti art to poke fun at public / corporate advertisements with dubious messages.

The Wikipedia Game

The Wikipedia Game (also known as WikiRace or WikiWars) is a competitive game in which two or more players must navigate through Wikipedia from a randomly assigned page to another page of destination by using the fewest number of links in the shortest amount of time. Usually, the first player to reach the targeted article or the player that reaches the destination with the fewest number of links, wins the race.

Wikipedia Donation Banner Captions

Wikipedia Donation Banner Captions refer to screenshot images based on Wikipedia’s 2011 end-of-year fundraising campaign, featuring various combinations of banner ad images and Wikipedia article titles for comedic effect. The screenshots typically juxtapose pictures of Wikipedia staff members or supporters with oddly fitting article titles that bring sexual or inappropriate implications to the reader’s mind.

Wikipedia Fundraising Campaign

Please Read: A Personal Appeal From X Founder Y is a phrasal template that takes the form of a banner advertisement at the top of a webpage with a close-up profile of an individual representing an organization. The phrase became a popular subject of parodies in late 2010 after Wikipedia launched its first fundraising campaign featuring photographs of the founder Jimmy Wales.

Day without Wikipedia

Day without Wikipedia was a 24-hour blackout that was imposed across English Wikipedia in protest against the legislation of two controversial bills known as Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act on January 18th, 2012. The decision to go offline was collectively made by over 1,800 Wikipedia editors who participated in the community poll. Due to Wikipedia’s established stature as the go-to reference site for all encyclopedic information, many took their grievances about the blackout event to social networking sites and other outlets.

Search Interest

External References

About

Anime Tiddies is an intentionally misspelled term used to refer to gratuitous depiction of breasts of female characters in anime series and films. In late 2014, the term gained popular usage among anime and otaku fans in a similar vein to the phrase “I watch it for the plot”.

Origin

Oppai^[1] (おっぱい) is the Japanese slang word for breasts, generally used to refer to the larger variety. Various anime series have gained a reputation for focusing on fan service and placing less emphasis on the story. In this context, female breasts in anime have gained both a famous and infamous reputation due to their often excessive size even amongst younger characters. Manga and anime featuring oppai are often popular for their fanservice.

Gainaxing

Gainaxing,^[2] also known as the Gainax Bounce Effect, is the act of drawing a female anime character with unusually large breasts and which move around gratuitously and often seemingly without a bra. The practice was coined some time before 1993 in reference to the anime production Studio Gainax, many of whose earlier releases made use of this particular variety of fanservice.

Spread

On October 7th, 2014, Tumblr user Cyberjock^[3] posted a “pick two”-type triangle featuring the choices for an anime with a combination of good story, good art, or big titties. At a later date, Tumblr user Gookgod reblogged this with the comment "*chooses big titties twice*" (shown below, left), although he later deleted it.^[4] In the following half year, the post managed to gather over 70,000 notes, with many reblogs featuring gookgod’s addition.

On March 9th, 2015, Tumblr user Closetanimegirl posted a edited manga panel in which a character searches the internet for “anime tiddies” (shown below, right).^[5] In the following month and a half, the post managed to gather over 52,000 notes.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Chinese Cartoons” is a term used to refer to anime,, both ironically and un-ironically. The un-ironic usage is usually a mistake made by people unfamiliar with anime, while the ironic use is often to parody or poke fun at these people. It is also used as a way to ridicule anime fans and japanophiles.

Origin

The expression “Chinese cartoons” is in wide use by those unfamiliar with anime subculture and Japanese culture in general, due to the common Western confusion between Chinese and Japanese cultures.^[2] The first registered instance of its use to refer un-ironically to anime was a thread on 4chan’s anime and manga board /a/. Posted on February 28th, 2008, the post featured a joke about anime elitism and “intellectual animation”.^[4]

Spread

Beginning as a synonym of anime and as a way to troll anime fans and japanophiles on 4chan,^[3] the usage spread to other communities like Tumblr.^[5] On May 10th, 2012, Urban Dictionary user icantfeelmyarms submitted an entry for “chinese cartoon”, defining it as “what normal people call anime.”^[7] On November 29th, 2013, user Lanik submitted a thread on the MyAnimeList forums asking why people call anime “chinese cartoons”; users responded that the term was a joke.^[1]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Note: Search interest for the ironic use of “Chinese Cartoons” also represents search interest for cartoons of Chinese origin. Top search results are mixed, with ironic usage and un-ironic usage returning about an equal amount of results. However, any results before 2008 refer to cartoons of Chinese origin.

External References

About

Japanese Honorifics are suffixes used in Japanese language to address or refer to different types of people. They are often used online by anime or Japanese culture fans.

Origin

While the first instance of their use online in unknown, honorifics are an important part of the Japanese sociolinguistics. Normally they are used when one is referring to one’s interlocutor, as using on oneself is often seen as arrogant. Dropping the honorific implies a high degree of intimacy and this action is often reserved for close friends, one’s spouse, or social inferiors (for example, a teacher addressing his students). The honorifics fall into three different categories depending on the type of speech the speaker is using (shown below).

Spread

Some honorifics were popularized within the Western audience thanks to anime fansubs and manga fan scanlations, in which they are often featured. These usages predate their online usage.

Japanese honorifics are in wide conversational use on anime fan-boards and forums, and their use has spread to other subjects where users might have an overlapping interest in anime, including the user forums of 4chan.org and the chat boxes of Twitch.

Notable Examples

Chan

-Chan is a diminutive suffix, normally used on little girls and cute things.^[4] On the Internet, it’s normally used as suffix on nicks given to cute girls or characters, like Creepy Chan or Ebola-Chan.

-Tan, a children’s slurring of the -Chan, is also used in this context, and often featured in website anthropomorphism.

Senpai

-Senpai (or -sempai) is a suffix used to address students in higher grades than oneself in school.^[5] The use of senpai relation with students as a common topic on romantic manga and anime spawned a series of parodies related to the catchphrase I hope senpai will notice me.

San

-San is a suffix used as a way to show respect. The closest English analogues are the honorifics “Mr.”, “Miss”, or “Mrs.”^[6] On the Internet, it’s normally used as a generic way to refer to Japanese people, since it is the most common honorific. Translator San and Aka-san are some examples of its use.

-Sama is a more honorable version of -San, often used to designate someone even more honorably.

Sensei

Sensei is a suffix used to designate the master of any profession. It is often used to refer to people who are teachers or scholars by adding it to their end of their name or surname. Sensei can also be used as a direct address, without any name at all. Online, the usage is similar to the real world usage, however sensei often used sarcastically to refer to someone who is actually a noob.

A commonly used phrase is “Teach me Sensei,” which is then attached to either an image of someone having great success at dating or sexual conquest, or an image of someone making a foolish mistake. As of March 2015, content sharing site 9Gag^[8] had 81 entries using the word in the title.

Search Interest

External References

^[7]Urban Dictionary – Sensei

^[8]9Gag – Search: Sensei

About

Batman is a DC comics superhero who fights crime in the fictional city of Gotham. His secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a play-boy billionaire who uses his money to finance gadgets, vehicles and other crime-fighting technology. Wayne’s motivation for becoming Batman stems from witnessing his parent’s murder at the hands of the criminal Joe Chill when he was eight years old. Batman regularly faces certain villains including the Joker, Two-Face, the Penguin, Bane, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Mr Freeze, Ra’s al Ghul, the Scarecrow and the Riddler.

History

Batman was first introduced in May of 1939 in Detective Comics #27 (shown below, left), illustrated by artist Bob Kane.^[2] The character had several cameo appearances in the series before receiving a solo title in 1940, which introduced the villains Joker and Catwoman. In 1966, the television series Batman was launched, which starred actors Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as his sidekick Robin (shown below, right). On July 30th, 1966, the film Batman: The Movie was released, featuring the same cast as the television series.

On June 23rd, 1989, the Tim Burton film Batman^[5] (shown below, left) was released, which starred Micheal Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker. The sequel Batman Returns was released on June 19th, 1992, which featured Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. The cartoon television show Batman: The Animated Series^[12] (shown below, right) first aired on September 5th, 1992 and ran 85 episodes before ending on September 15, 1995. The show introduced Joker’s sidekick Harley Quinn and reinvented the back story of the villains Two-Face and Mr. Freeze.

On June 16th, 1995, the film Batman Forever^[7] was released, which replaced Micheal Keaton with Val Kilmer as Batman (shown below, left). On June 20th, 1997, the film Batman and Robin^[8] was released, with George Clooney as Batman, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl. The animated series Batman: Beyond^[14] (shown below, right) first aired on January 10th, 1999, which took place 20 years after Bruce Wayne retired as Batman, having handed over the alter ego to the teenager Terry McGinnis.

On September 11th, 2004, the television series The Batman^[15] premiered, which ran for five seasons before ending on March 8th, 2008. On June 15th, 2005, the film Batman Begins^[9] (shown below, left) was released, which was directed by Christopher Nolan and starred Christian Bale as Batman. On July 14th, 2008, the sequel The Dark Knight was released, starring Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face and Heath Ledger as Joker. On November 14th, 2008, the show Batman: The Brave and the Bold^[16] (shown below, right) premiered on the Cartoon Network, which ran for three seasons before ending on November 18th, 2011.

On August 25th, 2009, the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum^[17] (shown below, left) was released by Rocksteady Studios for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac. The game revolved around Batman’s visit to Arkham Asylum, a mental hospital used to rehabilitate many of Batman’s greatest enemies. On October 18th, 2011, the sequel Batman: Arkham City^[18] (shown below, right) was released, in which the player battles enemies in a mega-prison designed by the villain Hugo Stange.

Reception

By 1966, sales in Batman comic books rose significantly following the release of the Batman television serious, reaching close to 900,000 copies at its peak. Frank Miller’s limited 1986 comic series The Dark Knight Returns was considered a huge financial success, and was suspected of igniting a resurgence in the character’s popularity. Batman: The Animated Series won four Emmy Awards from 1993-1996 and was nominated for six more. Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman earned over $400 million and won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Christopher Nolan’s 2008 film The Dark Knight received eight Academy Award nominations, winning Best Sound Editing and actor Heath Ledger was awarded Best Supporting Actor after his death.

#Batfleck

On August 22nd, 2013, Warner Bros. announced that Ben Affleck will replace Christian Bale as Batman for the film series, beginning with the upcoming Batman-Superman crossover film slated for release in July 2015. The news of Affleck’s casting immediately triggered negative reactions on Twitter, where many fans demanded Bale to remain on the project and others expressed skepticism towards Affleck, citing his previous superhero role in the 2003 film adaptation of Daredevil.

According to social media analytics firm Fizziology, 71% of the 96,088 tweets within the first hour of Warner Bros.’ announcement were negative comments. In the following 24 hours, several Batman-related hashtags began trending on Twitter, most notably #Batfleck^[26] and #BetterBatmanThanBenAffleck^[27], as well as a slew of photoshopped images portraying Affleck as Batman and his close actor friend Matt Damon as Robin (shown below).

Meanwhile, Kentucky resident John Roden submitted a Change.org^[28] online petition pleading the film studio to remove Ben Affleck from the cast, which gained more than 14,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.

Online Presence

The official DC Comics Batman page features a blog as well as sections dedicated to the comics, films, television, video games and characters in the series. The Batman Wiki^[22] includes detailed information on the franchise, including character bios and summaries of comics, television episodes, films, toys and books. As of July 12th, 2012, the Batman public figure Facebook^[23] page has accumulated over 4.8 million likes. Batman on Film^[24] is a fan blog with news, reviews and a podcast dedicated to covering the Batman films. Batman-related media can be found on the microblogging site Tumblr under the tag “#batman.”^[25]

Related Memes

Batman is a Dick

On November 9th, 2011, artist Sam Spratt uploaded an illustration to his Tumblr blog^[19] titled “Batman is a Dick” ^[20], which featured a smirking Batman holding two thumbs up. Spratt intended for the illustration to be used to make image macros shared under the hash-tag “#batmanisadick”, with captions pointing out irrational decisions and contradictions in Batman’s behavior. The series is also referred to as “Scumbag Batman” in reference to the Scumbag Steve advice animal character.

Bane’s Quotables

Previous to the release of the 2012 film, The Dark Knight Rises, the primary antagonist, Bane was reknowned for several lines uttered during teaser trailers. Notable lines said by Bane include “When Gotham is Ashes, You Have My Permission to Die”, “Your Punishment Must Be More Severe” and “Let the Games Begin”, with the first often used as a snow clone “When X is Ashes, You Have My Permission To Y”.

Other parodies of Bane include photo-shopping of the Mask he wore, unique to the film’s version of the character, onto other characters and people typically with derivatives of one of his notable lines.

I’m The Goddamn Batman

I’m the Goddamn Batman is a catchphrase used to parody the intimidation techniques used by Batman. The phrase originates from the second issue of All Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder, a series written by Frank Miller in which Batman is portrayed as a sadistic and abusive psychopath.

Some Days, You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb!

“Some Days, You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb!” is a catchphrase inspired by a scene in the 1966 film Batman: The Movie in which Batman runs around holding an enormous bomb looking for a safe place to dispose of it, but is constantly thwarted by various hazards.

Why So Serious?

“Why So Serious” is a line quoted in a scene from the 2008 film The Dark Knight in which the antagonist Joker (played by Heath Ledger) explains a possibly fabricated story about the origin of his scars.

Batmanning

Batmanning is a YouTube video series and photo fad in which the subject hangs vertically from an object by their feet, mimicking a bat’s roosting position.

Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn

“Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn” is a line quoted by Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred (played by Michael Caine) in the 2008 film The Dark Knight. It is often used as an ironic caption in image macros and inspired the snowclone template “some X just want to watch the world Y.”

Chacarron Macarron / Batusi Dance

Chacarron Macarron / Batusi Dance is a YTMND fad combining the incoherent gibberish chorus from the song “Chacarron Macarron” by the Panamanian artist El Chombo and the Batusi dance from the 1960s television series Batman.

Batman Eats a Hotdog

Batman Eats a Hotdog (snowclone: Batman eats (a) X) is an exploitable YouTube video which inspired remixes featuring Batman eating various food items.

My Parents Are Dead / Batman slapping Robin

My Parents Are Dead / Batman Slapping Robin is a exploitable comic-book panel featuring Batman slapping his sidekick Robin with a speech bubble for each character.

Dark Knight 4 Pane

Dark Knight 4-Pane Comics are an exploitable comic series featuring screen captures of the Batman and Joker from the interrogation scene in the film The Dark Knight.

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: This entry includes spoilers and graphic content

About

Berserk is a manga and anime series created by Kentaro Miura and published by the Japanese magazine Young Animal. The story is set in a medieval Europe-inspired land, following the adventures of the protagonist Guts, a orphaned mercenary who wields a giant broadsword known as the “Dragonslayer.”

Plot

In the series, the mercenary Guts hunts enemies with demonic powers granted by an artifact known as the “Behelit,” which allows humans to make deals with archdemons belonging to a group known as “The God Hand.” After serving as Raid Leader of the mercenary unit “Band of the Hawk,” Guts and his companion Casca travel in search of their ex-leader Griffith.

History

In 1988, the first Berserk manga titled Berserk: The Prototype was released while Kentaro Miura was a university student. On November 26th, 1990, the first volume of the official series was released by the manga company Hakusensha, followed by two more volume in the next two years. In 1992, Berserk began serialization in the seinen manga magazine Young Animal.^[2]

In 1997, the manga was adapted into a 25 episode anime series by the animation studio OML Inc,^[3] running from October 7th to March 31st, 1998. In 2012, Studio 4ºC^[4] released a series of films known as the “Golden Age Saga” as an adaptation of the manga series.

Online Presence

Berserk has gained a significant online following on sites like like Tumblr,^[6] 4chan’s /a/ (anime and manga) board,^[10] DeviantART^[7] and My Anime List.^[5] On October 20th, 2000, the Berserk fansite SkullKnight.net^[12] was launched. In March 2007, Guts won the SaiGar tournament as the most masculine “gar” character in anime and manga. On April 25th, 2008, YouTuber MMAOmegaRED uploaded a clip from a Berserk episode in witch Guts kills 100 soldiers (shown below, left).

On May 30th, the Berserk Wiki^[8] was created, accumulating upwards of 725 pages over the next seven years. On May 19th, 2010, the /r/Berserk^[14] subreddit was launched for discussions about the anime and manga series. On October 27th, 2011, a page for Berserk was created on TV Tropes.^[13]

Berserk Outtakes

Berserk Outtakes are humorous dubbed videos of the 1997 anime adaptation narrating the condensed version, in a similar style as the Abridged Series of videos. On February 28th, 2007, YouTuber lance43 uploaded a video titled “Berserk Outtakes – Griffiths Greatest Singing Moments,” containing several dubbed clips of the character Griffith singing various songs (shown below, left). On September 9th, 2008, YouTuber jessietheh uploaded an edited clip from Berserk, featuring dubbed dialogue taken from a scene in the 1994 comedy film Clerks (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Miura’s Breaks

Berserk author Kentaro Miura is known for publishing the series on a irregular schedule, with the longest wait time between chapters 334 and 335 reaching 67 weeks.^[1] Fans of the series began joking that Miura was spending his time playing videogames like THE iDOLM@STER, rather than working on the manga series (shown below, left). In chapter 286 of the manga, Guts and his party board a ship with a noble man named Roderick. Due to the erratic publishing schedule and development of the character Griffith’s side story, Guts and his party remained on the boat for seven years (until the chapter 342), becoming an in-joke among fans (shown below, right).

That Thing Was Too Big to Be Called a Sword / Dragonslayer

“That Thing Was Too Big to Be Called a Sword” is an expression associated with Guts’ enormous broadsword “Dragonslayer,” which has inspired image macros using variations of the catchphrase as a phrasal template (shown below, left). The sword has also been featured in crossover art and is often included in Guts cosplays.

Bagserk

Bagserk is a series of manga panels with edited dialogue containing references to “bags,” typically portraying the bags as something extremely valuable or poke fun at Guts for wearing a purse.

Griffith Did Nothing Wrong

“Griffith Did Nothing Wrong” is an expression often used to excuse the actions of the character Griffith for sacrificing his friends to The God Hand.

Rape Horse

“Rape Horse” is a nickname given to a demon-possessed horse who tries to have intercourse with the character Farnese de Vandimion. It’s often used in reference to the many rape scenes in the manga series.

Search Interest

External Links

Overview

Over 9000 Penises is a quote said by Oprah Winfrey during a segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show in which she mistakenly informed viewers of a non-existent pedophile group based on a post left by a troll on her message board.

History

On September 15th, 2008, The Oprah Winfrey Show aired an episode about internet predators.^[3] In the coming days, a post was left on the show’s now defunct Oprah.com message boards, in which a user claimed to be part of a pedophile network, referencing both Anonymous and the meme It’s Over 9000 by saying “We do not forgive, we do not forget; our group has over 9000 penises and they are all raping children.”^[1] In the same month, on a later episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show which aired on September 19th,^[5] Oprah read the message to viewers under the belief the post was written in earnest.^[1]

“Let me read you something which was posted on our message boards from someone who claims to be a member from a known pedophile network. It said this: “He doesn’t forgive, he doesn’t forget, his group has over 9,000 penises, and they’re all raping children.” So, I want you to know, they’re organized, and they have systematic ways of hurting children, and they use the internet to do it.”

Notable Developments

Shortly after the episode’s airing, the “Over 9000 penises” segment was quickly uploaded to Youtube where it was identified by internet users as an obvious troll. Following much mockery, Harpo Productions, Oprah’s production company, had the video taken down^[4] and removed all references to the quote on Oprah.com.^[5] Since then, the original post has most likely been lost; with the only related screen captures originating from later posts by 4chan members posting on the Oprah.com forum as a result of the episode, which eventually caused the forum to be temporarily down (shown below).

Nevertheless, the clip has continued to be uploaded and survived through multiple takedowns, leaving the segment readily available for editing and remixes.^[2] As early as September 19th and on the days following, various Youtube users began posting music remixes of the segment, with many combining them with the original Over 9000 meme. The earliest remix dates back to a reupload by Youtube user FixiousMaximus on September 19th (shown below), using the theme of Mortal Kombat, which gathered over 230,000 views in the following 7 years.

The scene was also shared on the r/funny sub-reddit on September 19th by user kiriyama,^[6] where it received over 1,100 upvotes prior to being archived. Likewise, various websites, forums, and blogs shared the segment and documented Oprah’s mistake; including Buzzfeed,^[7] BoingBoing,^[8] CeleBitchy,^[10]CNN,^[11] and various blogs.^[5][12]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Wonderwall” is a 1995 Britpop song by the English alternative rock band Oasis. Due to the lasting popularity and easy chord progression of the song, it has been cited as one of the most frequently covered songs in the recent history of contemporary music, while equally mocked for its cliched nature and textbook status among novice guitarists.

Origin

Written and co-produced by Oasis’ frontman Noel Gallagher, “Wonderwall” was released on October 2nd, 1995,^[1] as the third single from the band’s sophomore album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. While the song was initially met by Billboard success and critical acclaim, as years passed, the song eventually started to gain notoriety for its prevalence among young, beginner-level guitarists, who would frequently cover the song at parties and social gatherings to impress others.

Although it is unclear exactly when “Wonderwall” first became known as a cliché, such notoriety of the song was noted by the band’s lead singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher in an interview for the June 2002 issue of the Guitarist magazine, in which he recalled running across a sign in front of a guitar shop in Manchester that forbade people from playing the song.

Guitarist Magazine: You say you don’t know chords. But people call the E minor seventh with the two fingers at the third fret, the Oasis chord…

Noel: After Morning Glory came out, I was in Manchester and went into this guitar shop and there was a sign banning people from playing Wonderwall. When I walked in they all groaned, Fucking hell, man, do you realise how many times we’ve heard Champagne Supernova and Wonderwall over the last six months?

Spread

Scumbag Amateur Guitar Player

On March 14th, 2012, a photo of a smiling man with a guitar was captioned "I don’t know that one….here let me play “Wonderwall” again," on Weknowmemes.^[10] The photo was titled “Scumbag Amateur Guitar Player” in reference to the Scumbag Steve meme. The image appeared on the same day on 9gag^[12] and on September 17th, on FunnyJunk^[11].

London Olympics Closing Ceremony

Liam Gallagher, the lead singer of Oasis performed “Wonderwall” with his new band Beady Eye at the closing ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on August 12th, 2012. The video was uploaded to the Olympic’s official YouTube channel^[5] the same day. As of March 2014, the video has over 1.4 million views.

One Direction Cover

On August 14th, 2012, YouTuber Lori B^[6] uploaded a video of the British boy band One Direction performing a cover of “WonderWall.” The cover has reported on by many sites such as Buzzfeed^[7], The Huffington Post,^[8] and Celebuzz.^[9] Within two years the video has gained over 8 million views.

Anyway, Here’s Wonderwall

On December 10th, 2013, YouTuber Julia Banks uploaded a video to her channel^[2] titled “Anyways Here’s Wonderwall,” which featured her introducing her ukulele cover of the song with that phrase, before launching into a parody that altered the song’s first line to “Today is gonna be the day that you’re gonna shut the fuck up about Christmas.” As of March 2014, the video has over 5,000 views.

The phrase became a popular way to caption photos of people with guitars and other string instruments on Tumblr^[4], even spreading to other sites like entertainment site IGN^[3], where a photo of a character from The Walking Dead holding a guitar was captioned with the phrase.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

:^), early defined as “broken nose” and jokingly referred as “Dorito face”, is a variation of the smiley face emoticon with an upward facing arrow representing a nose.

Origin

The exact origin of the emoticon is unknown. But the earliest archive and explanation of it goes back to 1997. The broken nose emoticon was compiled along within the other various emoticons by James Marshall from The University of Maryland : The Department of Astronomy.^[7]
The original webpage does not exist today, but fortunately it has been achieved on the webside Internet Wayback Machine in 11 December 1997. The article defines the emoticon as seen below.

The definition of the emoticon is also submitted to Urban Dictionary^[1] by user “-” on October 22nd, 2008, defining it as “An emoticon describing the feeling of being happy and having a nose.”

Spread

On October 20th, 2013, IGN Forums^[5] member For_I_Am_Cornholio referred to the emoticon as “Dorito face.” On May 22nd, 2014, Redditor Captain_Li_Shang replied to a post on the /r/cringepics^[6] subreddit with the message “le dorito face :^).” On June 3rd, a thread about the emoticon was posted on the /s4s/ (shit 4chan says) board on 4chan, to which user Kekkats replied “it’s called dorito face” ^[4](shown below).

On June 20th, another Urban Dictionary^[2] entry was submitted, which defined it was a “trolling” or “passive aggressive” emoticon. On June 23rd, League of Legends Forums member Trippeh referred to the emoticon as “le dorito face.”

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

How I Met Your Mother is an American TV sitcom created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays that premiered on CBS on September 19th, 2005. The series follows the lives of a group of friends living in present-day Manhattan, New York City, though the story is narrated in retrospect by the main character, Ted Mosby, as a father recounting the events leading up to his marriage to his children in the year 2030.

Online History

Websites Created By Characters

Throughout the show’s nine season run, many of the characters create websites for various situations. For example include tedmosbyisajerk.com^[4] (created by a woman scorned by Barney who was pretending to be Ted), notafathersday.com^[5] (created by Barney after a one night stand’s pregnancy scare), and itwasthebestnightever.com^[6] (created by Marshall to commemorate a double date between himself, Lilly, Robin, and Barney). The real websites were created by the show’s staff members.^[7]

Bro Code: Book Adaptations

The show has also launched four books written by the character Barney Stinson-The Bro Code,The Playbook: Suit up. Score chicks. Be awesome.,Bro on the Go, and Bro Code for Parents: What to Expect When You’re Awesome. All four are either co-written or ghost written by How I Met Your Mother staff writer Matt Kuhn.^[13]

Reception

The series holds a 8.6 on IMDB^[1] and the first season received a 69 from Metacritic.^[14] The show has been nominated for two Golden Globes, both for Neil Patrick Harris’ performance as Barney Stinson, and 28 Primetime Emmy Awards, including one for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2009.^[15] Later seasons where criticized with some critics arguing the show was going on too long, though the ninth and final season has received positive reviews.^[16][17]

Online Presence

The official CBS website offers instant streaming for recently aired episodes, as well as behind-the-scenes footage and Barney’s Blog written from the perspective of Barney Stinson. As of January 2014, How I Met Your Mother’s official Facebook fan page^[8] has over 24,000,000 likes; the Twitter account has over 620,000 followers;^[9] and the YouTube channel has more than 124,000 subscribers and 8.2 million total views.

Fandom

In addition to the show’s branded social media presence, there are numerous fan sites offering news and gossips about the show, including the now-outdated Tripod fan site, HIMYM-Source, HIMYM at Fan Forum and FanPop channel, as well as episode guides offered by TVRage, IGN and Wikia. There are several Tumblr blogs dedicated to the show, such as fuckyeahhowimetyourmother^[10], himymconfessions^[11], and onlyhimym,^[12] and DrinkiWiki offers a list of drinking games that people can play while watching the show. As of March 2014, the Fanfiction.net^[38] page for the show has more than 1,350 submissions.

Death Theory

A fan theory has circulated that at the time Ted is telling the story to his children, their mother is already dead, since at least July 2010, when GQ^[19] published an interview with HIMYM star Jason Segel. During the interview the interviewer said he had a theory that the mother was dead, and Segel replied, “I suggested that also.” The theory resurfaced on March 25th, 2013 when an episode of How I Met Your Mother titled “The Time Travelers” aired. The episode showed a kind of “dream sequence” in which Ted goes to the mother’s door and explains they’ll met in 45 days, but he wants those 45 days with her.^[18] Many fans and entertainment writers believed that Ted’s desire for those 45 days suggests he feels he was robbed of time with her by her death.^[20]

The theory’s strength grew after an episode titled “Vesuvius” which aired on March 3rd, 2014.^[21] In the episode a scene is shown set in 2024 (six years before Ted begins telling his story). Ted and the mother are out to dinner as he recounts the story of Robin and Barney’s wedding. When he mentions Robin’s mother shows up unexpectedly and the mother replies, “What mother would miss her own daughter’s wedding?” Ted begins to cry.^[22] Fans and journalists point to two main pieces of evidence other than those mentioned above to support their theory that the mother is dead. First, the fact that the mother never appears in 2030 while Ted is telling his kids the story, and second, the fact that the cast and writers have alluded to a series finale, including Alyson Hannigan tweeting a photo of the final script covered in tissues.^[23][24]

There is a smaller theory that the sadness, both from the shows creators and characters, is because Ted dies. On the r/HIMYM subreddit^[25] user Vorsa suggests,

“The mother says “No mother would miss their daughters wedding”, she says it without thinking which isn’t something you would do if you were the one on a timer, but what if Ted is the one that’s ill, and he’s upset about the same being said about a Dad (him)? She wouldn’t have clicked until he got upset about it. She then immediately goes back to letting him live in the past, letting him recall all the happy times HE’S had in HIS life with him and his friends. I won’t speculate any further than that, but that conversation reeks of the situation being reversed."

Series Finale

The hour long series finale of How I Met Your Mother aired on March 31st, 2014.

The finale episode was largely met by frustration from the fans and TV critics, many of whom expressed disappointment at the abrupt end of Barney and Robin’s marriage and the reunion of Ted and Robin, which came off as anticlimactic, especially when considering the build-up of anticipation and mystery surrounding the Mother. On April 1st, Buzzfeed^[39] published a piece expressing their disappointment titled “Why We Deserved More From The “How I Met Your Mother” Series Finale,” New York Magazine^[40] published “The How I Met Your Mother Finale Bailed on the Entire Show” and Jezebel^[41] published “People Are So, So Pissed About the How I Met Your Mother Finale.” In the 24 hours surrounding the finale, the hashtag #HIMYM^[42] was tweeted out more than 280,000 times. Many fans on Tumblr created edits with Ted’s reveal of the mother, “And that kids, is how I met your mother.” Examples include “how I met your stepmother” and “how I met your plot device.”

Related Memes

Many of popular GIF and photos sets found on Tumblr from How I Met Your Mother revolve around the characters’ catchphrases, particularly those said by Barney Stinson. Examples include variations of “high five” (sad five, self five) and “challenge accepted.”

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Challenge Accepted

“*Challenge Accepted*” is a catchphrase introduced by Neil Patrick Harrison’s character Barney Stinson in Season 2, Episode 6 “Aldrin Justice” while taking on a dare to seduce an older woman. In rage comics, the phrase is associated with a smug looking stick-figure character in crossed armed stance.

True Story

True Story is a rage comic character based on a black and white contour drawing of How I Met Your Mother character Barney Stinson (played by actor Neil Patrick Harris) smiling smugly while holding a wine glass. Often accompanied by the text “true story,” the character can mostly be found in the final panel of a rage comic to either indicate or falsely claim that it is based on a true story.

That’s a Penis!

“That’s a Penis” is an expression and reaction GIF based on a scene from Season 2 Episode 6 wherein Ted’s client reacts in shock after being presented with a design for a building that is shaped like a penis.

Criticisms

#HowIMetYourRacism

On January 13th, 2014, Season 9, Episode 14 titled “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment at Slapmarra” aired. The episode portrayed three of the show’s main characters (Robin, Lily, and Ted) dressed as Asian individuals. Viewers who felt depicting these white actors as people of color voiced their distaste on Twitter using the hashtag #HowIMetYourRacism.^[2]

On January 15th, 2014, co-creators of the show Carter Bays and Craig Thomas issued an apology via Twitter:

Carter Bays: Hey guys, sorry this took so long. @himymcraig and I want to say a few words about #HowIMetYourRacism. With Monday’s episode, we set out to make a silly and unabashedly immature homage to Kung Fu movies, a genre we’ve always loved. But along the way we offended people. We’re deeply sorry, and we’re grateful to everyone who spoke up to make us aware of it. To everyone we offended, I hope we can regain your friendship, and end this series on a note of goodwill. Thanks. @CarterBays @HimymCraig"^[3]

Craig Thomas: I second everything @carterbays just tweeted -- we love all #HIMYM fans and apologize that we caused offense.

Length of Series

With the show lasting for nine seasons there has been some criticism and jokes about how long the narrator’s children must sit and listen to the story. On a season six episode of The Office the importance of having a “how I met your mother story” was mocked.

How I Met Your Mother poked fun at themselves in a promo for the ninth and final season, depicting the narrator’s children as captives who have been trapped on the couch listening to his story for nine straight years.

Search Interest

External References

About

Sheeple, a portmanteau of “sheep” and “people,” is a pejorative used toward people who exhibit herd-like and conformist behaviors instead of putting critical thinking into practice. Online, the term is commonly employed by conspiracy theorists to criticize those who question the validity of their beliefs, as encapsulated in the ironic phrase “Wake up, sheeple!"

Origin

The earliest known use of term “sheeple” can be found in a volume of the Emory University Quarterly published in 1950.^[11] The term was popularized in the 1980s by radio host and conspiracy theorist Milton William Cooper.^[2][3] On September 26th, 1991, “sheeple” was used in reference to white Americans in a thread on the soc.culture.african.american group on Usenet.^[10]

Spread

In 1999, libertarian political blog Stentorian^[6] published an article titled “Defining a New Political Spectrum,” which contained a paragraph on “sheeple” who are described as those who “advocate state power over individuals.” On March 8th, 2002, the conspiracy theory blog The Forbidden Knowledge^[5] published an open letter addressed to “the sheeple,” which discussed the existence of the secret “New World Order” Illuminati organization. In 2003, several definitions for “sheeple” were submitted to Urban Dictionary.^[4] On October 30th, 2004, a Wikipedia^[3] page titled “Sheeple” was launched. On July 15th, 2009, xkcd^[8] posted a webcomic titled “Sheeple,” in which a group of train riders all think they are “the only conscious human in a world of sheep” (shown below).

On February 1st, 2010, the webcomic GoodNightNeverland^[9] uploaded a comic titled “Redditors Need Apply,” in which a sheep-person wakes their child by yelling “Wake up Sheeple!” (shown below, left).

On February 6th, 2012, xkcd^[1] posted a webcomic titled “Wake Up Sheeple,” in which a civilization of sheep-people hybrids are awakened from their underground slumber after a man yells “Wake up, Sheeple!” (shown below).

Usage History

Search Interest

References

About

Closed Captioning FAILs, not to be confused with YouTube automatic caption fails, are a series of photographs that highlight poorly worded audio transcriptions and subtitles displayed on-screen during the broadcast of a pre-recorded or live television program.

Origin

While the exact origin of online appreciation for erroneous closed captions remains unknown, the earliest known article detailing the phenomenon of closed captioning FAILs was posted online by blogger Joe Clark on March 15th, 2006.^[9] Later that same year, FARK^[10] hosted a photoshopping contest for inappropriate or funny closed captioning in TV broadcast.

Spread

On December 4th, 2007, CollegeHumor^[4] highlighted a photograph of a televised news report with a closed caption describing people “ejaculating” in a road (shown below).

On January 5th, 2009, Flickr^[3] user PowerGeeks uploaded a photograph of a news report featuring a man driving with the caption “Bartered blow job for roof rake” (shown below).

On October 19th, BuzzFeed^[2] published a compilation of 21 news caption fails. On December 9th, 2011, Smosh^[5] highlighted several notable examples of closed caption fails. Throughout 2013 and 2014, additional compilations were featured on The Huffington Post^[6] and BuzzFeed.^[7][8]

Notable Examples

Descriptive Noise

Descriptive Noise refers to a line of text used to describe various noises heard in the background of a movie or television show in closed captioning mode. Screenshots of such scenes are often shared on Tumblr to point out the absurd nature of these descriptions when taken out of context.

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About

“Check out my Mixtape” and “My Mixtape is Fire” are expressions typically used by amateur rappers to promote their self-released records on social media platforms. On Twitter and in online hip hop communities, both phrases are often said ironically to poke fun at the general overuse of the word “mixtape” by aspiring hip hop artists on the Internet.

Origin

On July 7th, 2014, Twitter user @PerfectSceness^[5] posted a stock photo of a woman and a young girl sharing a pair of ear buds with the caption “Daquan’s mixtape is fire” (shown below).

Mixtapes in Hip Hop

While the use of mix tapes in hip hop music can be traced back to the mid-1970s in New York City, when local artists like Kool Herc and Africa Bambaataa began recording their live performances on audio cassette tapes, the term “mixtape” in its contemporary sense has been used since as early as the 1990s to describe any full-length hip hop album that is released for free or for promotion of an artist’s upcoming official release, whether it be made of written verses or freestyle set to original composition and remixes of popular tracks.

Spread

On June 15th, 2014, Twitter user @UrbanEnglish^[4] tweeted a mock translation of the expression “Check out my mixtape” as “ignore me” (shown below). In the first eight months, the tweet received more than 1,000 retweets and 660 favorites.

On November 14th, 2014, YouTuber Filthy Frank uploaded a video titled “Bad Internet Rappers,” in which he mocks amateur rappers for shamelessly promoting their mixtapes and Soundcloud pages (shown below). In three months, the video gained over 940,000 views and 5,900 comments.

On December 10th, Viner The Vertigo uploaded a video titled “Download my mixtape it’s fire,” in which he makes several barking noises as a preview for his music release (shown below).

On January 7th, 2015, Cheezburger^[3] highlighted a Hide the Pain Harold animated GIF titled “Check Out My Mixtape” (shown below).

On January 18th, the 8JTV YouTuber channel uploaded a montage of comedy sketches titled “Check Out My Mixtape,” in which a man attempts to force his mixtape on people in a variety of bizarre scenarios (shown below).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available

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About

Tentacle Erotica, also known as Tentacle Rape, Tentacle Hentai or shokushu goukan (触手強姦), is a theme often shown in Japanese erotica including novels and animation. It is often involved with a creature with tentacles using their said body part to rape any character in the type of media.

History

One of the earliest known examples of Tentacle Erotica comes from an 1814 ukiyo-e (Japanese woodprint) titled The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife^[1] created by Katsushika Hokusai. The print was part of a 3 volume erotica book series called Kinoe no Komatsu (translated as Young Pines).
One of the earliest examples of Tentacle Erotica in anime was in the 1986 horror OVAGuyver: Out of Control (shown bottom left)^[6] though it did not have any actual sexual implications. The 1989 manga series Demon Beast Invasion (shown bottom right)^[7] is often attributed as the first interpretation of tentacle rape in modern japanese erotica.

Online Presence

On September 2nd, 2003, Urban Dictionary user otaku killer submitted an entry regarding Tentacle Rape^[3] which is described as"A type of adult hentai which features characters getting sexually violated by penis-shaped tentacles of a demon or mollusk or malfunctioning machine". On Archive.moe, typing the keyword “Tentacle Rape” would yield more than 17.600 4Chan posts^[4]. On Fanfiction.net, typing the keyword “Tentacle Rape” would yield over 300 fanfics that involves the erotica^[5].

Related Memes

I’ve Seen Enough Hentai To Know Where This Is Going

I’ve Seen Enough Hentai To Know Where This Is Going is a catchphrase often used in image macros to suggest that tentacle rape is imminent. The original images typically have some sort of creature with tentacle-like appendages.

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About

“You Should Be Studying” is an image macro series featuring photographs of celebrities who are regarded as sex symbols, and captions urging the reader to study hard. Intended to serve as a motivational poster for students, the meme has seen quite a few variations on Tumblr, especially during the months of December and May when final exams traditionally take place in primary and secondary schools.

Origin

On December 12th, 2011, Tumblr user Speakington^[1] created a photo set featuring Benedict Cumberbatch,Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Hiddleston with the words, “You should be studying,” photoshopped over each one. As of May 2014, the post has gained over 19,000 notes.

Spread

In 2012, there were at least six notable instances of the meme with more than 1,000 notes each, including Tumblr user atedaryltv’s ^[5]Doctor Who post on December 9th, 2012, which has gained over 17,000 notes as of May 2014. On May 7th, 2013, an Avengers rendition of the meme, which was originally published on Tumblr user danfour’s^[6] blog on May 6th, was submitted to 9gag.^[3] As of May 2014, the photo has gained over 63,000 notes.

Collection posts with many photos, targeted at multiple fandoms tended to gain the most notes. Tumblr user flox-pollimon’s^[2] post, which features actors from the Supernatural,Avengers,Merlin, and Doctor Who was published on May 1st, 2013, and gained over 85,000 notes within a year. In 2013, There were six more related posts that gained over 1,000 notes.

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About

Funny Exam Answers are photographs of humorous responses to questions on student tests that typically obfuscate or misinterpret the intended meaning.

Origin

The earliest known funny exam answers posted online were highlighted on the BBC News^[5] Lancanshire blog on August 28th, 2002, which cited a reader named Sam as the source of the answers.

• Monotony means being married to the same person for all your life.

• Use the word “judicious” in a sentence to show you understand its meaning – "Hands that judicious can be as soft as your face..

• How important are elections to a democratic society? – Sex can only happen when a male gets an election

Spread

On May 19th, 2004, Red and White KOP Forums^[1] member Roger reposted many of the same answers from the BBC blog post in a thread claiming they were collected from the previous year’s General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam in Swindon, England. On November 30th, 2005, Blogspot^[6] user JustSomeGibberish highlighted several pictures of funny exam answers (shown below).

On June 12th, 2006, Snopes Forums^[8] member Midgard_Dragon posted a thread questioning the authenticity off an email forward containing purported funny exam answers. On January 24th, 2007, eBaum’s World^[7] user ebaum uploaded a picture of a math exam question with an elephant drawn on the visual aid (shown below).

On February 15th, 2009, the exam answer photo site FunnyExam^[4] was launched, which collected upwards of 450 submissions in the next six years. On March 9th, a photograph of a math exam answer joking that a woman’s gender prevented her from providing being correct was submitted to the 4chan image archive Chan4chan^[9] (shown below).

On May 31st, 2010, a Facebook^[2] page titled “Funny Exam Answers” was launched, which highlights notable examples of funny exam answer photographs. On December 1st, 2011, Redditor madcowrocks submitted a picture of a test question asking for “an example of a risk” to the /r/funny^[3] subreddit, where it gathered more than 10,900 up votes and 440 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On September 5th, 2012, CollegeHumor^[11] posted a compilation of joke test answers titled “13 Pictures of Smart-Ass Answers.” On May 19th, 2013, Redditor allenme213 posted a picture of a young child’s answer to a question about earning money at home to /r/funny,^[12] gaining over 25,700 up votes and 400 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

Notable Examples

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