About

“Spoopy” is an Internet slang word used to describe something that is comical and spooky at the same time. Originally seen on a photograph of a misspelled Halloween sign, the term is also closely associated with another slang word 2Spooky on the microblogging site Tumblr.

Origin

On October 15th, 2009, Flickr^[1] user Mike Woodridge uploaded a photo of a Halloween sign with the word “Spoopy” written in a skeleton-style font (shown below).

Spread

On February 7th, 2011, the Tumblr^[4] blog Arts Farts & Cocks posted another photograph of a “spoopy” Halloween sign (shown below, left), gaining over 20,400 notes in the first three years. On December 28th, 2012, Flickr^[1] user Lindsay Blankenship posted an illustration of a woman in front of a cobweb with the word “Spoopy” written on the bottom (shown below, right).

On June 18th, 2013, Tumblr user sp00pyzorak3^[2] posted Woodrige’s photograph of the spoopy sign juxtaposed with a picture of a cake with the word “creppy” written on it (shown below). In the next three months, the post gathered upwards of 137,500 notes.

On September 26th, FunnyJunk^[6] user orgodemir submitted a post titled “2spoopy” to the Internet humor site, featuring an animated GIF from the 2007 horror film Paranormal Activity with the character Patrick from the animated television series Spongebob Squarepants edited into the scene (shown below).

On October 2nd, Redditor Wretched cereal submitted an image macro titled “2spoopy wow” to the /r/SuperShibe^[3] subreddit, featuring an edited photograph of the “Doge” Shibu Inu with an exposed skull (shown below).

Various Examples

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About

Beta Uprising is a term used to refer to a rebellion or rebel movement instigated by beta males, especially those with anti-women opinions, against alpha males and females. The term, which originated as a serious call among men’s rights activists, gained popularity as an ironic rallying cry on 4chan’s /r9k/ (ROBOT9001) board, often accompanied by Angry Pepe and Wojak images.

Origin

The earliest online uses of the term can be found on the men’s rights movement blog Fight For Justice in a post named “The Beta Uprising” submitted on December 9th, 2011. The author, a user named legalfighter, defined the term as a fight against the male individuals with power, a.k.a. Alpha Males, taken from the book Liberty or Equality by the Austrian socio-political theorist Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn.^[10]

The earliest uses of the term on /r9k/ can be found in a thread about the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting perpatrator James Holmes, submitted on August 7th, 2012, referring to that massacre as being part of a beta uprising.^[6] Another post on /r9k/ referenced the beta uprising two days later.^[7] However, the term didn’t gain traction until late 2013, when an anonymous user posted a copypasta on November 14th which described the scenario of a modern beta uprising.^[8]

Spread

Over the next year, the term grew in use, with posters beginning to associate it with images of Wojak and Pepe the Frog (mostly the Angry Pepe variant). /r9k/ users claimed the term as referencing the start of a violent revolution against normies and others who deny them a happy life.^[5] On December 19th, 2014, a blog titled “Beta Uprising” was created, with just one post containing the definition of the term.^[3] On June 6th, 2015, reddit user Buttonwalls submitted a thread on /r/OutOfTheLoop asking about the term, gaining over 20 points (74% upvoted) and 60 comments in less than 4 months.^[2] On August 27th, 2015, imgur user xawedude9000 uploaded an album titled “The Beta Uprising”, containing screencaps from /r9k/ referencing the term, gaining over 18 points and 15,000 views in a month.^[4]

2015 Umpqua Community College Shooting

On September 30th, 2015, a thread was posted on /r9k/ where the poster told users from the Northwestern United States to not go to school,^[9] with some of the posters encouraging the OP and giving him tips, proclaiming the OP the founder of a beta uprising. The next day, a mass shooting was reported at Umpqua Community College in Roseberg, Oregon; the shooter was identified as Chris Harper-Mercer. In the following hours, the archived thread was flooded by reactions and featured in various news reports, many of them highlighting the term.^[11][12][13]

In the next few days after this event, the /r9k/ board was flooded with threads about the beginning of the beta uprising. On October, 1st, 2015, another thread on /r/OutOfTheLoop asking about the term was created by user concretetown, gaining 35 points (83% upvoted) and over 70 comments in three days.^[1] A day later, Taiwanese animators from Next Media Animation uploaded a video titled “Oregon shooting: 4chan users post ‘beta-uprising’ jokes before UCC school shooting – TomoNews”, featuring an animation explaining the beta uprising and gaining over 90,000 views in two days.

Various Examples

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About

I Hate Everything (sometimes shortened to IHE), is the YouTube channel run by Alex Bolton, a New Zealand-born English vlogger who specializes in critiques of various digital media and productions, including video games, films and TV shows, and many other aspects of contemporary pop and internet culture. Since its YouTube debut in August 2013, Bolton’s channel has garnered moderate popularity for its thoughtful and to-the-point commentaries.

Online History

The channel for I Hate Everything was created by Alex Bolton, the videos’ main narrator, on August 23rd, 2013. IHE’s first video, which is about fans of the YouTuber PewDiePie, was uploaded 2 days later. The video has received 370,000 views and 18,000 likes as of November 2015.

IHE continued to make videos for popular trends both on and off the Internet. His most popular videos as of November 2015 discuss Minions (shown below, left), /b/ (shown below, right), and the Don’t Judge Me Challenge.^[1][2]

The channel also featured a series titled “Search for the Worst”, a series in which IHE looks at the lowest ranked movies on IMDB (including Troll 2, Birdemic, The Room, and Cool Cat Saves the Kids), reviews them, and then ranks them from best to worst. The lowest rated movie on his list is The Amazing Bulk (2013).

Cool Cat Copyright Claims

Following the publication of his review of Cool Cat Saves the Kids in early November 2015, Derek Savage, the creator of the children’s anti-bullying movie, filed a copyright infringement claim against IHE’s videos along with two other review videos from other YouTube accounts. Following the copyright claim, IHE posted a reaction video to the claim, announcing that he had put The Search for the Worst on hold. After tweets by Savage’s purported Cool Cat Twitter account began circulating online, IHE posted a follow-up video to address the tweets and criticize what he perceived as arbitrary aspects of the copyright enforcement process, for instance, why the review of the same film by his peer critic YourMovieSucks remained untouched.

Bolton briefly removed both videos after receiving e-mail complaints from Savage, which characterized IHE as “bullying” and “threatening,” though they were soon made available again with a third video discussing Savage’s emails. Bolton received support from fellow YouTube critics, such as YourMovieSucks and Caddicarus, as well as his fans. On November 28th, 2015, the strike by Savage against IHE was eventually dropped by YouTube and IHE uploaded a video detailing the events that had transpired between him and Savage since his last video (shown below, right). According to IHE, Savage had impersonated attorneys of a law firm in order to scare him into removing several videos from his channel. Savage has not yet responded to this assertion.

Channel Suspension

On January 19th, 2016, Bolton uploaded a video to his second channel, JAR Media, explaining that his main channel had been suspended (shown below). At the end of the video, Bolton called on his fans to complain to YouTube about the suspension using the hashtag #FREEIHE, and that he would wait to see what would happen. In the comments of the video, several popular YouTubers including JonTron and h3h3 Productions offered their support along with the hashtag. On the following day, IHE’s main channel was reinstated.

Search Interest

External References

About

Shuric Scan refers to a series of YouTube Poop Music Videos based on Shuric Scan 1.99crk, a keygen song created by tPORt.^[1] The song is also a remixed version of the audio track Battling Precariously from TECMO’s 1990 game for NES console Ninja Gaiden II.^[2][3] Shuric Scan eventually became known for the high quantity of .veg replaces for the song, which are considered low quality by many.

Origin

The first YTPMV using the song was “manwith10scans” by YouTube user tomgoodmen^[4], who uploaded it to YouTube on June 29th, 2010. The video has since gained over 7,000 views in under 6 years.

Spread

Later, on September 29th, 2010, YouTube user ThatR0bGuy uploaded a video titled “YuricScan” featuring the character Reo Kawamura from the anime series Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo (shown below, left). The video has since gained over 140,000 views in under 6 years. On September 23rd, 2011, YouTube user edyneedsstp created a .veg file for a compilation of scans, and linked the .veg in the description (shown below, right). The .veg later went on to become highly used due to the simplicity of using it.

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About

“Cheeky Nando’s” is a British expression typically used on social media to describe a quality dining experience at the South African restaurant chain Nando’s. In late 2014, the phrase began trending in captions of selfie photographs featuring subjects making an “A-OK” hand signal.

Origin

The British slang term “cheeky” is often used to describe someone who is exhibiting charming or irreverent behavior. The exact origin of the phrase “cheeky Nando’s” is unclear. The earliest known use was featured in the title of a hip hop track uploaded by SoundCloud user Buzy Ray on November 25th, 2011 (shown below).

Spread

On September 26th, 2012, Flickr^[6] user Finn Harries posted a photograph of himself pointing to a plate a food with the caption “having an exceptionally cheeky Nandos.” On January 19th, 2014, Twitter user Marcus Butler posted a tweet about “cheeky Nandos,” gaining over 3,400 favorites and 820 retweets over the next two years (shown below).

On October 26th, 2014, Twitter user @LukeLiddle^[3] posted a photograph of the singer Morrissey making an “A-OK” hand sign while performing on stage, accompanied by the tweet “When your Nandos is extra cheeky” (shown below).

On December 21st, 2014, Urban Dictionary^[1] user CheekiPeriPeri submitted an entry for “Cheeky Nandos,” associating the phrase with men who wear “converse/flip flops”, “skin-tight pants,” “skimply composed vests/T-shirts” and an “orgy of gel.” On March 27th, 2015, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Rekt92 submitted another entry for “cheeky nandos,” defining it as a phrase used by “fuckboys” on social media. On May 9th, Tumblr user ahrned^[7] reblogged a post by user chavvesty explaining the meaning of “cheeky Nandos,” gathering upwards of 58,300 notes in the next 72 hours (shown below).

On May 12th, BuzzFeed^[4][5] published a listicle highlighting examples of “cheeky Nando’s” tweets, along with a separate article about Americans confused by the expression. In the coming days, several other news sites published articles about American’s confusion with the phrase, including Cosmopolitan,^[8] The Irish Examiner^[9] and Vpoint News.^[10]

Various Examples

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External References

About

h3h3 Productions is a YouTube channel run by the married couple Ethan and Hila Klein, which typically feature videos reacting to content uploaded by pranksters and hip hop artists (specifically producer DJ Khaled) on the video sharing platform.

History

On April 29th, 2011, the h3h3productions YouTube^[1] channel was launched. On March 13th, 2013, the first video was uploaded to the channel, which discussed the different methods for wiping after defecation (shown below).

On May 12th, the channel uploaded a YouTube poop video titled “warm it up exe That’s a 10!,” which gathered upwards of 3.7 million views and 1,600 comments within three years (shown below, left). On November 20th, 2014, the channel posted a reaction video to a news story about a woman who dropped out of college after accidentally purchasing a computer with the Ubuntu operating system (shown below, right). Over the next year, the video garnered more than 800,000 views and 3,400 comments.

On December 3rd, h3h3productions uploaded a video criticizing “kissing prank”: videos on YouTube, which received over 4.1 million views and 3,900 comments within one year (shown below, left). On July 22nd, 2015, the channel posted a video reacting to the Tai Lopez “Here in My Garage” advertisement (shown below, right).

On October 5th, h3h3productions posted a video examining prank videos targeting homeless people, which guest starred YouTuber Filthy Frank (shown below). Within two months, the video gained more than a million views and 6,400 comments. As of December 2015, the YouTube channel has upwards of 440,000 subscribers and 54 million video views and the couple’s Patreon^[8] page has more than 1,200 patrons. Later, on January 22nd, the pair released a 2nd video, titled Ravioli Hungry Gold Digger Prank, in which Frank and Ethan play out a fake prank involving a gold digger women chasing after a man with ravioli.

Online Presence

On Spetember 13, 2013, the h3h3productions Facebook^[7] page was created, gathering over 51,000 likes within three years. On August 19th, 2014, the /r/h3h3productions^[6] subreddit was launched for discussions about the YouTube channel. On November 24, 2015, the h3h3 Wiki^[9] was created.

Fandom

Fans often publish posts related to the channel on Tumblr under the tag “h3h3”.^[2] On YouTube, a variety of mashups and remixes featuring content from the channel’s videos have been uploaded.^[4] On September 17th, 2014, YouTuber alex richards uploaded a remix of Ethan coughing to create the h3h3 theme song (shown below, left). On April 20th, 2015, YouTuber Ollie White uploaded a dubstep compilation featuring the cough clip (shown below, right).

Additionally, various remixes have been uploaded to Soundcloud^[5], including at mashup featuring music by Death Grips (shown below).

Fanart

On DeviantArt there are several pieces of artwork featuring Ethan Klein tagged under “h3h3productions”.^[3]

Fullscreen Copyright Controversy

In late July 2015, the video company Fullscreen flagged h3h3production’s most popular video, which was subsequently removed for copyright infringement. On August 4th, Klein posted a video to his Ethan and Hila channel reacting to the take down, which claimed his video qualified as “fair use” (shown below). The same day Ethan uploaded his response, YouTuber and game critic, Jontron tweeted a link to the video. Within four months, the video gathered upwards of 520,000 views and 2,100 comments. Following the backlash, Fullscreen removed their copyright claim.

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: This entry contains graphic content and may be offensive to some users. View it with your own discretion.

About

“Sweden Yes” is a catchphrase used to mock multiculturalism and gender equality politics, specifically Swedish ones. The catchphrase has also inspired the phrasal template “X Yes”, refered to countries with a progressive ideal.

Origin

The first use of the phrase can be found on the German imageboard Krautchan’s international board in mid-January 2012, when a problem with the board software removed users’ flags. On January 18th, 2012, a thread asking the users to tell reply with their country of origin and if they had ever tasted semen was submitted, with the first reply being, “Sweden Yes,” as a mockery of Sweden’s bad multicultist reputation.

Click for more detail

Background

Sweden has been known for being positive towards non-european immigration, and being the EU member state that accepts the most political refugees. A poll made in January 2015 showed that more than the 70% of the Swedish population was positive towards non-european immigration, 23% of which were very positive towards it.^[9]

Spread

On November 13th, 2013, the subreddit /r/SwedenYes was created, featuring news related with immigration and gender equality.^[8] The earliest archived instance in /pol/ comes from a novelty thread where the Family Guy character Brian Griffin asks for the best country to immigrate to. One of the posts, made on November 29th , 2013, contained the message “Sweden Yes”.^[3] On the same day on the same board, a thread about Swedish military contained a post with the catchphrase.^[4] The same thread featured various posts with the catchphrase.

Captain Sweden

Captain Sweden is a series of webcomics featuring an anthropomorphisation of Sweden multiculturalist and progressive thinking named Captain Sweden, often depicting him having interracial intercourse. The first instance of the comic can be found on a Diary.ru post by user ~dovolen, on April 5th, 2007, featuring two immigrants robbing a woman, when Tolerastov, a man dressed as a drag queen, appears and persuades the robbers into having intercourse with him.^[5] The first translated version of the comic can be found on Rule34, adding the Swedish flag to Tolerastov and naming him Captain Sweden, also featuring the catchphrase.^[10]

On May 4th, 2013, user Taikuri uploaded to the Finnish media sharing webite Naamapalmu another Captain Sweden comic, despicting Captain Sweden making a snowman more “tolerant”.^[7] Both comics began being posted on multiculturalist discussions, specially on /pol/.^[6]

On March 28th, 2015, animator Alerta Judiada uploaded to YouTube a video named “Captain Sweden Saves the Day!”, featuring an adaptation of the original comic, gathering over 72,000 views in less than two months.

Various Examples

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About

Brendan Fraser’s Alimony refers to a series of jokes on various imageboards about American actor Brendan Fraser’s alimony payments, which mock the actor’s mental health with speculation that he is depressed and suicidal. The jokes are sometimes accompanied by an edited photo of Fraser with the dentist Gino DiGiannantonio’s hair from The Barber image macro series and the phrase “Just fuck my shit up.” The jokes also derived into a movement to help Fraser and revive his actor career.

Origin

On December 27th, 2007, Brendan Fraser announced that he and his wife Afton Smith were getting a divorce after nine years of marriage.^[4] In early 2013, Fraser petitioned the courts for a reduction of his alimony, asserting he was unable to meet the annual obligation of $900,000.^[1] On February 16th, 2015, a thread featuring an edited picture of Fraser with DiGiannantonio’s hair and the post “I-is he gonna make it?” was submited on 4chan’s /tv/ board.^[5] The image was originally made by the Tumblr user stargates on December 10th and 12th, 2014.^[12][13]

Spread

The phrase “Just fuck my shit up” has been used as a forum game on 4chan, with one poster starting with “JUST” and others trying to follow in a combo, in a similar vein to Lankyposting. On April 11th, 2015, the board /just/ was created on 8chan^[3] for Brendan Fraser-related posts. On March 30th, 2015, YouTuber Beavan Cotterhill uploaded a video titled “Latest Brendan Fraser 2015 #savebrendanfraser #unfuckhisshit”, featuring a song about Fraser and promoting the hastags #savebrendanfraser^[8] and #unfuckhisshit (shown below, left).^[9] The next day, the @SaveBrendanFraser Twitter account was launched, which highlights edited photos of Fraser.^[7] On April 3rd, 2015, YouTuber Justin Cuck uploaded a video titled “Just Fuck My Shit Up – Help to save Brendan Fraser’s career”, featuring footage of Fraser with the song “Bring Me Back To Life” playing in the background. On April 17th, Redditor PointOfRecklessness submitted a post asking about the Fraser meme to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[11] subreddit. The meme continues to be a popular topic on /tv/, with users discussing plans to revive Fraser’s career and “un-fuck his shit”.

Various Examples

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About

Dindu Nuffin is a pejorative term that originated on /pol/ to mock and criticize black people during the numerous riots throughout 2014 and 2015.

Origin

The phrase “dindu nuffin” is derived from a bastardization of the phrase “didn’t do nothing”, a plea for innocence often used in reference to unarmed black men killed by police. One of the most famous instances of the usage of this phrase can be found in a comic. Detractors often use “dindu nuffins” to refer to sympathizers of the black community.

The phrase originated on /pol/ around August 2014^[1], during the riots in Ferguson, Missouri started as a response to the shooting of Michael Brown.

Spread

Including the Ferguson Protests, the phrase has been used in /pol/ and /b/ threads about Baltimore Riots, The Death of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin’s death and other threads mocking black people.

Search Interest

External References

About

“YouTube Poop Music Videos”, also known by the acronym “YTPMV”, are musical YouTube Poops, similar to a MAD video. Like a YouTube Poop, they feature various clips from TV shows, movies, commercials, and other video sources, but the clips are sequenced to fit to a rhythm and tone of a song. Some videos also follow the “Lyrical” formula, which involves causing the characters imitate singing to the song. Videos in the Lyrical formula often have original compositions as the background music.

Origin

The first example of a YTPMV is YTPMV: You Are An Egghead, uploaded on October 21st, 2007, by YouTube user Vorhias. The video included clips from the Super Mario World TV show matched up to an original composition. The video has since gained over 100,000 views in under 9 years.

Spread

YTPMVs have become a popular genre of videos, and have garnered a community which participate in various activities such as Soccers and Collaboration videos.
YouTube user MrRoboto113 later uploaded a video on January 19th, 2008 of a YTPMV made out of Dr. Octogonapus clips and the song Someday by the band Sugar Ray (shown below, left). The video has since gained over 2 million views in over 8 years. Later, on May 28th, 2010, YouTube user EnigmaEvocative uploaded video combining Trololo and Rainbow Tylenol (shown below, right). The video has since gained over 3 million views in under 6 years.

Various Examples

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About

Gabe the Dog Remixes are a series of YouTube Poop Music Videos (YTPMV) which typically feature various music tracks dubbed over footage of a minature American Eskimo dog named Gabe.

Origin

Gabe the Dog is owned by the Canadian YouTube user deathtrips, formerly known as gravycp.^[1] On January 8th, 2013, a video Gabe barking titled “The New Dog Source” was uploaded onto the gravycp account, where it gained over 60,000 views in the next three years. On November 1st, 2014, deathtrips posted the video “Newest Dog Source” of Gabe (shown below, right).

Spread

One of the most popular remixes was created by the YouTube user shaliek, which featured the Herp Alpert song “The Midnight Tango”; this remix has been viewed nearly 400,000 times since its January 27, 2013 upload. On February 6, YouTube user Lewdachris uploaded a remix featuring the song “Time to Air” by 青龍, which was viewed over 130,000 times. On June 14, YouTube user skylark uploaded a remix featuring “I Am A God” by Kanye West, which has been viewed over 160,000 times. On July 4, 2014, YouTube user widddddd uploaded an edit which swapped Gabe’s bark with the word “fuck” taken from a video of a teenage boy, which received over 150,000 views.

deathtrips himself created several popular remixes, including a remix of “We No Speak Americano” by Yolanda Be Cool, which was viewed over 200,000 times, and a remix of “The Next Episode” by Dr. Dre which was viewed over 175,000 times.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Editor’s note: The interest spike in August of 2012 is due to the release of the movie Gabe the Cupid Dog. Anything after that may be interpretted as relating to the meme.

External References

About

Evil Toddler is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a laughing child with captions describing mischievous pranks and behaviors associated with young children.

Origin

On October 19th, 2012, Redditor altmedsol submitted a photo to the /r/pics^[1] subreddit titled “Evil Plan,” featuring a smiling toddler clasping his hands menacingly (shown below, left). In the comment section, Redditor Lochness Digital linked to a photoshopped version of the boy’s image edited to look like a Snidley Whiplash^[2] scene from the 1960s animated television series Dudley Do-Right (shown below, right). Within three months, the post received over 14,000 up votes and 200 comments.

Spread

The same day, Redditor tattedspyder submitted an image macro to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] subreddit, featuring altmedsol’s original photo with the caption “I will save all of my urine / for right in the middle of the changing!” (shown below). Over the span of three months, the post received more than 10,100 up votes and 100 comments.

On October 22nd, The Huffington Post^[4] and the Internet humor blog Pleated Jeans^[5] published compilations of notable examples from the series. In the coming weeks, additional examples of the meme were posted on the Internet humor sites BuzzFeed^[6] and UpRoxx.^[7] On December 2nd, 2012, a Facebook^[9] page titled “Złowrogi Brzdąc” (“Sinister Toddler” in English) was created, which featured Polish-language variations of the image macro series. Within the next two months, the page accumulated more than 20,000 likes. On January 19th, 2013 Redditor AlphaPigs submitted an image macro describing the placement of stickers on car windows (shown below) to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[8] subreddit. The post garnered over 7,200 up votes and 50 comments in the next three weeks.

Various Examples

In Polish Language

Search Interest

External References

About

“Damn Daniel” is a catchphrase that stems from a Twitter video montage featuring a voiceover of a teenager complimenting his friend Daniel on his fashionable attire on a number of different occasions. Due to the narrator’s particular obsession with Daniel’s sneaker shoes, the video has drawn comparisons to the 2015 viral video sensation “What Are Those?!”

Origin

On February 15th, 2016, Twitter user joshholzz, whose real name is Josh Holz, tweeted the original “Damn Daniel” video.^[1] It received more than 16,000 likes in the first 48 hours, according to Mashable;^[2] four days after the initial tweet it had 121,938 retweets and 148,382 likes. In it. the narrator can be repeatedly heard praising fellow student Daniel Lara’s look, including his “White Vans.” According to the Twitter account, both boys attend Riverside Poly High School in Riverside, California.^[3]

Spread

The spread was initially spurred by other students at Riverside Poly High School, who retweeted the video frequently. On February 16th, the tweet was retweeted by several fake WorldStarHipHop Twitter accounts, which are generally operated as third-party re-uploaders; these accounts, which included WORLDSTARC0MEDY^[4] and WORIDSTARHIPH0P,^[5] helped the video receive tens of thousands of more views and retweets, increasing the spread of the original video.

On February 17th, the account Four_Pins created the Damn Daniel starter pack, which included White Vans; the tweet received over 19,000 retweets and 23,000 likes.^[6] On February 21st, an eBay seller named m_shopping_loft created a listing for a pair of white Vans attributed to Daniel Lara;^[14] while they were not the real shoes, they were quickly bid up to more than $400,000 on eBay; several copycat listings also received high bids.^[15] Among many other media mentions, the video’s catchphrases were used in the title of an article about Justin Bieber, who was also seen wearing white vans.

The video’s popularity caused #DamnDaniel to initially trend briefly on Twitter, especially on the West Coast; however, the hashtag consistently began trending on Vine through February 24th, where it acquired many parodies from popular Viners like King Bach.^[16] When Daniel Lara and Josh Holz appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show on February 23rd, Degeneres estimated that by that point, the original video had been seen almost 45 million times through various sources.

Brand Engagement

On February 18th, Vans tweeted about the video, creating a Twitter poll with two options: “Back At It” and “With the White Vans;” as of February 19th, with 5 days to go, the poll had received almost 50,000 votes.^[7] Clorox^[8] and Axe^[9] also tweeted about the video, making jokes about the whiteness of the Vans and Daniel’s physical appearance, respectively. In addition, both Axe Body Spray and Denny’s Restaurants created popular tweets based on the meme.^[17] On February 23rd, Daniel Lara tweeted that Vans had invited him to star in a commercial.^[18]

Swatting

On February 23rd, 2016, ABC7 Los Angeles reported that the owner of the Twitter account which had originally posted the Damn Daniel tweet, @josholzz, had been swatted. According to the report, a false 911 call had been made reporting that someone at a residence in Riverside, California had shot their mother with an AK-47. The police arrived to find out that the call was fake.^[12]

DURRPLANT

DURRPLANT is a meme unintentionally made by YouTube user I Hate Everything to mock and compare the equivalent of the Damn Daniel meme and has later been edited and remixed in other media platforms.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Carl the Cuck and AIDS Skrillex are nicknames given to two unidentified young men featured in a viral video depicting a clash between supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and anti-Trump demonstrators. After clips of the two protesters began circulating on 4chan’s /pol/ (politics) board and Reddit in mid-March 2016, the two were mocked by many for their argument tactics, including the invocation of Godwin’s Law and discounting a Trump supporter’s arguments for being a “White male.”

Origin

On March 11th, 2016, The Alex Jones Channel YouTube channel posted a video titled “Anti-Trump Protesters Go Berserk!”, featuring a heated argument between Trump supporters and anti-Trump activists taking place outside of a Trump rally in St. Louis, Missouri (shown below).

Spread

On March 12th, YouTuber chickenfingers991 posted an edited version of the video, focusing on clips of the two men interacting with the Trump supporter (shown below).

On March 16th, an anonymous 4chan user submitted a thread to /pol/,^[2] identifying the Trump supporter in the video as YouTuber Owen Shroyer.^[1] The same day, Redditor SherlockDoto submitted a video of one of the men proclaiming “You fucking white male” to the Trump supporter to /r/videos^[4] (shown below, left). Over the next day, the video received upwards of 11,900 votes (67% upvoted) and 6,900 comments. Meanwhile, a clip of the other demonstrator saying “are you kidding me?” when asked to explain why Trump is similar to Adolf Hitler was upvoted to the top comment in the post (shown below, right).

On March 17th, Redditor turtledan87 uploaded a Just Girly Things-style image macro titled “#JustCarlThings” with the caption “Asking your wife’s boyfriend to vote for Sanders” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post gained over 5,000 votes (65% upvoted) on the /r/The_Donald^[3] subreddit.

Also on March 17th, a post asking about the meme was submitted to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[6] In the coming days, several 4chan^[5] threads were created featuring images mocking the two anti-Trump demonstrators nicknamed “Carl the Cuck” and “AIDS Skrillex” (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“SM64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x A Presses” is a video uploaded by the Super Mario 64 glitch exploiter pannenkoek2012, where he obtains one of the game’s stars through tool-assisted superplay (TAS). After the narrated version of the video was released, it went viral on 4chan‘s video game board /v/ due to the complex nature of its analysis, as well as the narrator’s peculiar wordings and phrasings, most notably “But First, We Need to Talk About Parallel Universes”.

Origin

On January 12th, 2016, the original gameplay was uploaded, featuring pannenkoek2012 using a Tool Assisted Software to obtain the star “Watch for Rolling Rocks” from the level Hazy Maze Cave using “half” of a press of the A button (by keeping it pressed from before Mario enters the level). The video gained over 13,000 views in the following week (shown below, left). The same day, a narrated version was released, explaining in detail the exploits used in the run. The most notable of these exploits was the use of “parallel universes”, faraway places where the game thinks Mario is standing in the level when he isn’t, which can be accessed with enough momentum. The narrated version gained over 200,000 views in the following week.

Spread

The same day as its release, the video was posted on /v/, where some users quickly picked up the parallel universes quote.^[1] Though other threads about it were created,^[4] the catchphrase didn’t catch on until a thread from January 17th, when it was featured along a distorted image of Mario’s head.^[3] Prior to being archived, the thread gained over 500 replies.

Soon after, more threads were created on 4chan, flooding the board with jokes related to the video (shown bellow, left).^[2] On January 18th, YouTuber João Mostarda uploaded a voice remix of the video titled “‘Henry’ builds speed for over 12 hours in order to cross the extent of QPUs to shitpost on Youtube”; this remix gained over 2,000 views in less than a day. In late January 2015, the video also got viral on Tumblr.^[6][7]

Related Memes and In-Jokes

Scuttlebug

In the video, pannenkoek2012 uses a Scuttlebug (spider-like enemy) to reach the star, first attracting it in order to place it into the correct spot. Due this, Scuttlebug has gained some fan following.

Build Up Speed for Twelve Hours

One of the most notable parts of the video is when pannenkoek2012 builds up Mario’s speed over the course of 12 hours in order to be able to travel the parallel universes and reach the star. Due the absurd amount of time employed to gain speed, it has become a notable joke.

Misaligned QPUs

Quadruple Parallel Universes (QPU) is a term used by pannenkoek2012 in the video to describe the set of four PU that are needed to actually travel to a parallel universe (as the engine checks the hitboxes for errors 4 times during a movement). If Mario ends up out of bounds before he goes the full distance, the game cuts his movement short, aligning him incorrectly between QPUs. “Misalignments” make it much more difficult to return to the original level, putting Mario into a limbo of sorts. Because of this, the term has become an in-joke describing something negative, frightening, or frustrating.

TJ “Henry” Yoshi

TJ “Henry” Yoshi is a YouTube user who appeared in the video, questioning in a comment how the “A” button could be pressed a half time. His likeness has been used in the threads as a sort of archnemesis to Pannenkoek. Henry would later go on to do an AMA session on /v/.^[5]

TJ Yoshi’s YouTube channel has seen an influx of spamming in the comments of his videos, with remarks pertaining to the original video. On January 18th, he uploaded a video in reference to those comments.

Various Examples

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About

Pacha Edits refers to a photoshop meme based on several exploitable images of Pacha, one of the main characters featured in Disney‘s animated buddy comedy film series The Emperor’s New Groove, most notably a stillshot of the character signaling an OK gesture with his left hand in satisfaction. Since debuting on 4chan in late January 2016, the still shots of Pacha have spawned hundreds of photoshopped derivatives on numerous forums within the imageboard community, often accompanied by snowclone variants based on the quote “When The Sun Hits That Ridge Just Right.”

Origin

The pose originates from a scene in the 2000 Disney animated film The Emperor’s New Groove^[11] wherein Pacha, a peasant father and one of supporting characters in the film series, informs Emperor Kuzco on the ideal spot for natural sunlight exposure atop the ridge where his hometown village is located. In late January 2016, 4chan users began using the still shot of Pacha’s “OK” hand gesture as a reaction image to express approval of a post.

Spread

On January 29th, 2016, a thread was started on 4chan’s /v/ (video games) board with a blank template of the Pacha image and a message encouraging others to recreate and share their own photoshopped versions.^[1] After drawing hundreds of responses, the thread went on to spawn multiple copycat threads on other sub-forums within the community, most notably on /vp/ (Pokemon) and /co/ (Comics & Cartoons). A Danbooru.styled website was consquently created several days after the spike in popularity of the explotable.^[12]

Various Examples

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About

“DURRPLANT” is a sarcastic phrase originally spoken by YouTube personality I Hate Everything in response to the “Damn Daniel” meme to make fun of its frivolous nature.

Origin

On February 23th, 2016, YouTuber I Hate Everything (IHE) uploaded a video^[2] in which he discusses the popularity of the “Damn Daniel” clip^[1] and goes on to explain why he disapproves of it in his usual outspoken fashion. At the 2:45 mark of the video, in a sarcastic attempt at demonstrating the senselessness of the “Damn Daniel” meme, IHE likens the crux of the joke to a clip of him pointing his finger at a plant and yelling “Durr Plant!!!” in a dopey accent (shown below). Within the first 48 hours of upload, IHE’s “Damn Daniel” rant video accumulated more than 728,000 views.

Spread

In the following hours, several parodies and remixes of IHE’s “DURRPLANT” gag began surfacing on YouTube^[3] and Vine^[4], with the earliest known instance sampling the soundbite uploaded by Viner Yoshi The Lion (shown below). In less than 48 hours, the Vine clip garnered over 12,000 loops. The vine was later deleted. That same day, Redditor Infinite901 created a dedicated subreddit^[5] for parodies and remixes of IHE’s “Durr Plant” clip. On February 24th, YouTuber YeloPartyHat uploaded a remix of The Duck Song featuring the soundbite.

On March 3rd, IHE created another video discussing DURRPLANT, and joke thieves. The video received over half a million views in 3 days.

Various Examples

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“Marge Krumping”, also known as “Marge Dance,” is a photoshop meme based on an exploitable still shot of The Simpsons character Marge Simpson trying to krump, a style of hip hop dance characterized by highly energetic and expressive movement of one’s head and the limbs.

Origin

The image stems from Episode 6, Season 19 of The Simpsons titled “Little Orphan Millie”^[1] in a scene where Marge tries to cheer up Bart by attempting to krunk,^[2] albeit unsuccessfully. The earliest known use of the exploitable can be found in a two-panel image of Marge trying to krump after looking at a digital clock that displays “420”, a time popularized in stoner culture as the time of day to smoke marijuana, which was posted on January 26th, 2016, to The Simpsons Shitposting page^[5] on Facebook (shown below, right). The post garnered 1,800 likes and 1,000 shares within the first week.

Spread

On January 30th, a Facebook page^[10] dedicated to the curation of the meme was launched under the name " Marge-Core." On January 31st, a photoshopped instance of The Top Ten Anime List parody that depicts Marge Krump battling Vegeta, a recurring character from Dragon Ball, was uploaded to Tumblr^[3], where it accumulated over 50,000 notes in just over 72 hours. On February 2nd, Tumblr user Pickleplayer^[4] uploaded a photoshopped GIF of Marge doing the Shoryuken move in a Street Fighter battle, where it gained over 16,000 notes. The two Tumblr posts have since inspired a slew of additional parodies, which can be found under the search query “Krumping Marge” on Tumblr.^[6]

Various Examples

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Squidward Dab is a Vine video of an amusement park employee doing The Dab while costumed as the SpongeBob SquarePants character Squidward at Universal Studios Orlando in January 2016. Upon entering online circulation through Vine, the video clip quickly went viral and spread to other social networking and media platforms like Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram.

Origin

The original video was recorded and uploaded by Deon_dunk to his Vine^[2] and Instagram accounts on January 26th, 2016 (shown below). In just over a week, Deon_dunk’s Vine clip accrued more than 22 million loops. That same day, Instagram celebrity @Daquan^[1] re-uploaded the original video to his account, where it garnered more than 259,000 likes within the same timespan.

Spread

As the original video continued to gain traction on Vine and spread elsewhere online, several remixes, mash-ups and parodies began to surface on Instagram^[9], Twitter^[6][7] and Tumblr.^[8] On January 27th, 2016, Viner Michael K. uploaded a remix version featuring a tune from SpongeBob SquarePants (shown below), which gained seven million loops within the first week.

On January 28th, WorldStarHipHop tweeted a two-pane still image of the Squidward mascot doing the dab (shown below), accumulating over 2,800 retweets and 3,900 likes within a week.

Examples

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About

“Hello Darkness, My Old Friend” is the opening lyric from the 1964 soft rock song “The Sound of Silence” performed by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Online, the introduction of the song is often used as background music in a variety of parody and remix videos for dramatic effect.

Origin

In October 1964, Simon and Garfunkel released the song “The Sound of Silence” as a track on their debut studio album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which features the lyrics “hello darkness, my old friend” in the first verse.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In May 2013, Season 4 of the American sitcom Arrested Development was released on Netflix, which contained several scenes featuring the song when the character Gob experiences a moment of deep regret (shown below). Following the season’s release, search interest for the phrases “hello darkness” and “hello darkness my old friend” saw a dramatic spike on Google Trends.

Spread

On July 8th, 2014, YouTuber Joe Bell uploaded a clip of the Sad Brazilian Fan with “The Sound of Silence” playing in the background (shown below, left). On July 30th, YouTuber convulsion0inc uploaded footage of electronic dance music producer David Guetta performing at the Tomorrowland music festival with “The Sound of Silence” dubbed in the background (shown below, right). The following day, Redditor dragonsky posted the video to the /r/youtubehaiku^[4] subreddit. Within two years, the videos received upwards of 7.1 million views and 1.3 million views respectively (92% upvoted).

On January 27th, 2015, Redditor larperdoodle submitted a post titled “Hello dankness my old friend” followed by the phrase “I’ve come to browse your memes again” to the /r/dankmemes^[6] subreddit. The same lyric was subsequently used in a page on the humor site DankMayMays^[7] featuring the Gnome Child with “The Sound of Silence” playing in the background (shown below).

On February 7th, the /r/TheSoundofSilence^[3] subreddit was launched, featuring various YouTube videos with the song edited into the background audio. On March 14th, YouTuber rockwillor uploaded footage of feminist protester Chanty Binx with “The Sound of Silence” verse playing at the end of the clip (shown below, left). On May 1st, YouTuber TeamZoo uploaded a video of a man appearing expressionless while riding a reverse bungee thrill ride with “The Sound of Silence” playing in the background (shown below, right). In four months, the video gained over 1.2 million views and 580 comments. On July 25th, Redditor beet111 submitted the video to the /r/videos^[2] subreddit, where it received more than 5,700 upvotes (89% upvoted) and 700 comments in two months.

2016 Billboard Hot Rock Songs

On March 24th 2016, Yahoo! News published a video interview with the Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice lead actors Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, in which they were asked how they felt about the mixed to negative reviews the film had received. Cavill then took the lead in answering the question while Affleck remained seated in silence with a noticeably sad look on his face. That same day, YouTuber Sabconth created a parody of the interview clip titled Sad Affleck, featuring a collage of headlines from review articles, indicating the negative reception of the movie, set to the intro from “The Sound of Silence”(shown below). Within three weeks, the video gained more than 21 million views and 32,500 comments.

On March 29th, the heavy metal band Disturbed performed a live cover of “The Sound of Silence” during an appearance on the late night talk show Conan (shown below). Within two weeks of being uploaded to YouTube, a recording of the performance gathered upwards of 2.02 million views and 4,00 comments.

Billboard Hot Rock Chart

In April 2016, “The Sound of Silence” reached the No. 6 position on the Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart. On April 6th, Billboard^[8] published an article revealing that the song’s resurgence in popularity was influenced by the Sad Affleck video and Disturbed’s cover. Additionally, Billboard reported that the song had reached the No. 2 position on the Rock Streaming Songs chart, with upwards of 5.6 million streams up 582 percent.

Various Examples

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