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

About

“Designated Shitting Streets” is a catchphrase used to mock India’s open defecation issues, which is employed on some online communities like 4chan in order to make fun of Indian users, also being used as shitposting practise. An associated catchphrase, “Poo in the Loo”, has been used in similar way.

Origin

The earliest use of the phrase comes from a 4chan’s international board /int/ thread submitted on July 13th, 2015, where an Indian user complained about the “India smells bad and is dirty” jokes, claiming that people only defecates on “designated shitting streets” and not everywhere. That statement was consequently mocked in the thread and several compilations of reactions from users were made. The earliest archived use of the phrase can be found on a post from the politicaly incorrect board /pol/ from July 22nd, 2015.^[1]

Click to enlarge

Background

India is the lead country in open defecation, with near half of the population not using toilets in order to defecate.^[2][3] During recent years, government from India has tried to find a solution to the issue.

Spread

During the following days, the catchphrase started gaining traction on /pol/, being used as reply to Indian posters and any post related to India, and shitposting practises like vertical posting or Lankyposting.^[5] In late July 2015, a Mehmet, My Son version mocking the catchphrase and a post claiming India would be a “superpower by 2020” started circulating on /int/, being the first archieved use on /pol/ a post from July 25th, 2015.^[4] On September 16th, 2015, reddit user binaryballsbikers submitted to /r/4chan a reaction compilation from the original thread, gaining near 500 points and over 60 comments in the following months.^[6] On December 26th, 2015, reddit user butthole-scientist asked about the meaning of the catchphrase, gaining over 2,200 points and 360 comments in two weeks.^[7]

Poo in the Loo

On February 14th, 2014, UNICEF India released a song titled “Take The Poo To The Loo” and launched a campaign by the same name in order to fight open defecation in the country, with the music video of the song recieving over 900,000 views in less than two years (shown bellow). However, the campaign was mocked on several online communities like /pol/, gaining traction in early July 2015, the time when “designated shitting streets” started being used.^[8] Since then, it has become an equivalent catchphrase, being used to mock India too.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“WE WUZKINGZ”, also iterated as “KANGZ N SHIET”, is an expression primarily used by users of 4chan’s /pol/ (politically incorrect) board to poke fun at those who adhere to the Black Egyptian Hypothesis, an often disputed theory which postulates that Ancient Egypt was a Black civilization and that some of the most notable royal figures from the Dynastic era were of African ethnicity, including Tutankhamen, Cleopatra and Pharaoh Khafra, who is generally believed to be the face depicted on The Great Sphinx of Giza. In addition to its widespread usage on /pol/, the phrase has been also adopted by detractors of Pan-Africanism on other discussion forums, including white supremacist and nationalist websites.

Origin

The phrase is believed to have been coined on 4chan’s /pol/ (politically incorrect) board sometime around late 2015 by users who began assuming an increasingly skeptical and critical stance towards the new wave of African American civil rights protests surrounding a series of racially charged police brutality controversies, most notably the #blacklivesmatter movement and civil unrest in Baltimore.

Background

The Black Egyptian Hypothesis^[1] is a theory claiming that Ancient Egypt was a Black Civilization, thereby questioning the ethnicity of the Ancient Egyptian population and affirming that the civilization was comprised of a black majority. Upon its introduction during the first half of the 20th century, the theory quickly gained support among several leading African American scholars and became a popular subject of academic studies for historians, though it has been since largely marginalized as inconclusive or anachronistic by most scholars.

Spread

According to Encyclopedia Dramatica,^[3] the phrase was anonymously coined on 4chan sometime around November 2015, which subsequently spread to YouTube with the upload of a video titled “We wuz kings and shit fam” on November 21st (shown below).

The phrase continued to gain momentum through its frequent usage on /pol/, which in turn spawned many iterations driven by shitposting and vertical posting. As a result of the trend, a sizable collection of satirical images featuring made-up facts regarding the ethnic background of White European historical figures subsequently emerged online. Furthermore, the satirical meme has been also used to critique hip hop and rap albums that champion the theme of black pride, most notably Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly and Vince Staple’s Summer ’06, both of which contain numerous lyrical references that portray black people as ancient royalties.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Zootopia is a 2016 Disney 3D computer-animated comedy film set in a world populated by animals who poseess the level of intelligence comparable to that of humans. The main story follows Judy Hopps, a bunny rookie police officer, and Nick Wilde, a fox con artist, as they attempt to solve a missing persons case together. Since its announcement, the film has been widely discussed online due to its appeal to the furry community.

History

Production

In August 2013, The Walt Disney Company announced the production of Zootopia, described as a 3D animated comedy film taking place in a modern-day world where different animal species peacefully coexist without humans.^[3] Marketed in the United States with the tagline “Welcome to the Urban Jungle”,^[4] the film heavily emphasizes both the social relationships between different members and species of the animal kingdom and the urban environment that they inhabit.

Marketing

On June 11th, 2015, the first teaser trailer for the film was unveiled via Walt Disney Animation Studios’ YouTube page, followed by the releases of second teaser trailer on November 23rd and the official theatrical trailer on New Year’s Eve in 2015. On December 10th, 2015, Disney shared a series of Zootopia-themed posters parodying some of the most notable films of the year (shown below), which generated a lot of buzz in the blogosphere and social media.

On February 26th, 2016, just a few days before the 88th Academy Awards ceremony, Disney showcased a parody montage trailer in honor of the 2015 Oscars-nominated films (shown below).

On March 1st, BuzzFeed^[14] and Gizmodo^[13] reported that Disney has been strategically marketing the film to the furry fandom through a digital marketing firm, citing screenshots of the company’s outreach emails in which it asks various furry groups to promote the film on Instagram and Twitter.

Release

In February 2016, the film was released in select European countries, including Belgium, Spain and France, while its release date in North America is slated for March 4th, 2016.^[5]

Reception

Zootopia has received overall positive reviews from the critics. It has received an average of 81% from IMDb with over 6,000 user reviews.^[8] It drew a 9/10 rating from IGN,^[9] which praised it for its world-building and message of breaking stereotypes. Metacritic’s critic review average gave Zootopia 78 out of 100, based on a total of ten critics’ reviews.^[10]

Online Presence

Zootopia’s official Facebook account^[6] has garnered over 330,000 likes, while its Twitter account has gotten over 37,000 followers and 40 likes.^[7]

Fandom

Search queries for the keyword “zootopia” returns over 3,500 instances of fan art illustrations on DeviantArt^[1] and more than 190,000 results on YouTube^[2], as well as several hundreds of posts on Tumblr^[11] and Pinterest.^[12]

Fan Art

Search Interest

External References

About

jacksepticeye (Sean “Jack” McLoughlin) is an Irish born let’s-player who is known for his enthusiastic and humble nature. He’s predominately known for his GTA V and Skate 3 videos, however he has branched into other games over time. He is also known for his “Reading Your Comments” series.

Online History

During his days on YouTube, Jack started out almost unnoticeable at first, but due to a shout out from the most subscribed YouTuber. He gained a massive amount of subscribers and it has only grown more and more since. He started making noise in the Let’s Play community when he uploaded his popular GTA V and Happy Wheels videos. The views reach nearly a million each! Along with Jack rising to be a big name, he regularly talks with fans in the comment section right after the videos upload. Also, his humbleness has always been admirable, especially in his Omegle videos where he never acts like he’s some big deal. Currently Jack does single Let’s Plays, and often times collab videos, and hasn’t changed his formula since.

Catchphrases

Top of the morning to ya laddies!

He wouldn’t be an Irish gamer without having an Irish saying. Accompanied with a high five at the beginning of the video. This phrase has been a huge staple in Jack’s videos. Being said in every video currently.

LIKE A BOSS!

“X that like button in the X. Like a boss!, and, high fives all around (simulates high fives), and I will see all you dudes. (screeching) In the next video!” A big saying from Jack that is met with the outro saying said above, but it stands out as a catchphrase by itself and is the name of the people in his fanbase. The phrase no doubt originating from the Lonely Island song with the same name.

Sticky bomb!

Pronounced (S-ticky bamb!). It’s a phrase uttered by Jack in his GTA videos where he throws a sticky bomb at something.

BILLY!

The son character with Bicycle Dad from Happy Wheels. Jack has deep rooted hatred for Billy. The fanbase treats Billy as the ultimate evil, as he is the primary antagonist in many fan games.

Von Dooorf!
The main antagonist in Valiant Hearts. Jack stated this was inspired by Fairly Oddparents meme. Dinkelburg.

Cleverbot Evie

In this series Jack tries his patience with the infamous Cleverbot/Evie conversation simulator. As expected the videos are all about him getting surprised, annoyed, angered, etc. At the simulator for saying confusing and idiotic things. Evie even knew his real name.

Bossitron

Jack often jokes about not being a human, but rather a resident of Bossitron. As a Bossitronian he has access to special abilities and alien weaponry. This concept is a common element in the fan games, as it helps them be unique.

Septiceye Sam

Septiceye Sam is Jack’s mascot. He is often used as a companion to Jack much like Tiny Box Tim is to Markiplier.

His Accent

Jack has an Irish accent, which gets him mixed results as Irish accents aren’t viewed very highly.
Surprisingly enough this is not why it’s so debated. Due to audio quality of his older videos, he sounded a lot more American(save for the little Irish pronunciations). People wonder if Jack’s accent is actually fake. Jack has stated that it is his actual speaking voice, but of course. The debate still rages on, despite Jack and many other YouTubers already confirming that he does.

Reception

Jack has earned 5,000,000+ subscribers, and 34,000+ followers on Twitter. He always tries to find ways to meet fans, and this has earned him a positive reputation among YouTubers.

About

The Yogscast is an online collective of eight gamers who host and produce Let’s Play videos on YouTube. Created by Lewis “Xephos” Brindley and Simon “Honeydew” Lane, the Yogscast is best known for its coverage of Minecraft, but has also featured World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Diablo III and other popular massively multiplayer online games in their videos.

Online History

Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane created the YouTube channel BlueXephos^[1] on July 9th, 2008, using the acronym Y.O.G.S. from the name of their former Something Awful-organized World of Warcraft guild, Ye Olde Goone Squade.^[4] According to the Yogscast FAQ^[8], they came up with the idea after Brindley took notice of Lane’s ability to provide unique commentary while playing games and wanted to share his humor with a broader audience through YouTube. Their first video was a play-through guide for conquering the World of Warcraft boss Kalecgos.^[9] As of August 2012, the video has more than 384,000 views. This video was later hidden.

Podcast

On Feburary 5th, 2009, the group began a spinoff podcast^[7] series titled “YoGPoD,” featuring discussion of world events and personal news, as well as fan questions and answers.^[11] In 2011, YouTuber FredMalm^[12] began animating some of the stories told during the podcasts. As of August 2012, there are nearly 50 animations^[13] for the 88 recorded episodes.

Shadow of Israphel

Shadow of Israphel is a separate comedy-drama series^[27], in which Lewis and Simon play a spaceman named Xephos and a Honeydew the dwarf who find themselves stranded in a fictional world called Minecraftia. The characters are faced with a mission to save the world from Israphel^[28], a Creeper-like character out to destroy the world. As of August 2012, the show has 42 episodes^[29] split across three seasons.

Yogventures

On April 6th, 2012, the Yogscast launched a Kickstarter campaign^[30] to create their own open world sandbox adventure game, Yogventures. It surpassed its goal of $250,000 on May 6th, 2012, raising $567,665 to fund the creation of the game. At E3 2012, the group had a booth where they revealed the first demo of the game. Planned features for the game include zombies, crystal harvesting, carnivorous plants, ice and fire biomes and character customization.^[31] As of August 2012, the game is still in development but their official website^[32] is accepting pre-orders for the open beta, scheduled to be released in January 2013. However, on July 7th, 2014 the Yogscast announced that the game was stopping development due to several complications including the rising costs, difficulties in programming the game, and many of the developers leaving the project. After the announcement, many took to Youtube comments to protest the decision, citing the large amount of funds put into the game development via Kickstarter that would not be returned.

Notable Episodes

Reputation

On October 8th, 2011, Yogscast published a video to celebrate the milestone of breaking 1 million subscribers. On July 9th, 2012, which marked the channel’s 4th anniversary of launch, the channel broke 2 million subscribers.^[10] As of August 2012, BlueXephos has 2,201,441 subscribers and 1,204,071,283 views across their 1619 videos, averaging out to approximately 806,478 views per day. The Facebook fan page^[5] has almost 75,000 likes while the fan page for their podcast^[6] has 194,000 likes. The group also maintains an official Twitter^[3], which has nearly 252,000 followers. There is also a YogWiki^[14] and a forum^[15] where fans, known as Yognauts^[16], convene.

Whale Lords

Whale Lords is a modded Minecraft Skyblock survival series featuring Simon, Lewis, Duncan, Sjin and Sips.

Issues With Notch

At the second annual Minecon in November 2011, several members of The Yogscast were invited as special guests to host a panel on their show. Instead of doing a Q&A, the crew chose to show videos instead. On November 21st, 2011, Notch made several tweets^[17] stating that he was disappointed in the behavior of the Yogscast crew, noting that they were the only people who demanded to be paid to attend the convention, calling them “an isolated island of egos.” The same day, a Minecon staff member submitted a Reddit post^[18], calling the team “self-entitled pricks” who “acted like they were the Kings of Minecraft.” However, these reports were refuted by another Minecon staffer in the comments^[19], who was supposedly escorting the team around the event. These accusations were covered by gaming site Edge^[20], Nerd-Age^[21], Crafthub^[23] and appeared in discussion threads on the Yogscast Forum^[22] and Neogaf.^[24]

Due to their travelling from the convention in Las Vegas back home to England, the Yogscast was not able to issue an official response to the tweets until two days later on November 23rd via Reddit^[25] and YouTube (shown above). In the video, Brindley and Lane stated that they were not paid, nor did they demand to be, and that the things Notch attributed to them in the tweets were not said or published by them. Following their response, Notch apologized via Twitter, calling his initial response a “stress related misunderstanding.”^[26]

Related Memes

Diggy Diggy Hole

In Shadow of Israphel’s eighth episode (shown below, left), posted in February 2011, Lewis and Simon must dig to proceed on their quest. While doing so, Simon begins repeating “diggy diggy hole” in a singsong manner. The phrase caught on with fans of the series and six months later, other YouTubers began posting their own versions of the song, either via animation or recreated in Minecraft (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

“I’m Ethan Bradberry” is a memorable quote uttered by YouTuber Ethan Bradberry during the introduction to a prank video uploaded to the channel MoeAndET. After YouTuber h3h3 Productions posted a reaction to the video, a clip of Bradberry’s intro was used in numerous remix videos.

Origin

On November 25th, 2015, the MoeAndET channel uploaded a video titled “Would Your Child Know How To Escape A House Fire!? (Social Experiment)”, in which Moe and Ethan Bradberry use a fog machine to test how a child would react to a house fire (shown below, left). On December 24th, 2015, YouTuber Watch My Videos?! posted a remix video of Bradberry’s aggressive introduction repeated several times (shown below, right).

One of MoeAndETs pranks were later revealed to be fake.

Spread

On March 3rd, 2016, YouTuber h3h3 Productions uploaded a reaction to the original prank video, in which hosts Ethan and Hila Klein mocked the menacing and aggressive tone of the intro. In less than two weeks, the video garnered more than 600,000 views.

The following day YouTuber VinnytotheK uploaded an edited version of the prank video, featuring Bradberry repeatedly introducing himself (shown below, left). Also on March 4th, YouTuber Nela uploaded a greenscreen of Ethan shouting his name (shown below, right). As March 13th, searching “i’m ethan bradberry” on YouTube leads to over 1,000 results.^[1] On March 10th, the /r/imethanbradberry^[3] subreddit was launched, featuring remix videos of using the audio clip. On March 12th, a button for the audio clip was added to the web app My Instants.^[2]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“It’s Time to Stop" is a memorable quote uttered by YouTube personality Filthy Frank in an exploitable green screen video that was uploaded in late December 2015. The video, which shows Filthy Frank walking into a green screen set with an oversized clock and yelling out the phrase, has inspired a series of remix videos from his fans.

Origin

The green screen videos come from a video uploaded on December 24, 2015 by one of the alternate channels of Filthy Frank, saying that many people had asked him for greenscreens, leading to him uploading various greenscene shots to the channel and to his website for free use. The most popular greenscreen is the “It’s Time to Stop” shot, which has Frank shaking a large clock repeatedly saying “It’s time to stop”, which received over 900,000 views in the following two months.

Spread

The first videos regarding the meme were both uploaded on December 25, 2015 by YouTubers Popsicle Juice and Creepypasta Archives (shown below, respectively), both compilations of all the greenscreens available for download from Frank’s website. Within the days following, multiple edits of the scenes were uploaded to YouTube^[1] as well as multiple edits of the “It’s time to stop” shot^[2], with the most popular video featuring the shot uploaded by YouTuber Pyrocynical on January 1 2016, garnering a little over 400,000 as of February 2016. The phrase “it’s time to stop” also has multiple results on Tumblr relating to the greenscreen shot^[3].

An image macro of the scene featuring Filthy Frank holding the clock with the overlaying text reading “It’s time to stop” also gained usage as a reaction image, in a similar way as the Stop Posting meme. The image was also combined with various fictional characters whose abilities revolve around time, including various characters from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

A Hideo Kojima Entry

About

A Hideo Kojima Game is a brand name on the box cover and titles of video games that were directed by famed game designer Hideo Kojima. The brand gained notability online after video game publisher Konami removed Kojima’s name from his studio, the box cover and all promotional ads for Metal Gear Soild V: The Phantom Pain as part of the rumored fracture between the two.

Origin

On March 19th, 2015, several gaming news sites including Kotaku,^[1] PC Gamer,^[4] Polygon,^[5] and Eurogamer^[6] reported about the rumor that Hideo Kojima might be leaving Konami, among the evidence include the renaming of Kojima Productions Los Angeles into Konami Los Angeles Studio and the removal of Hideo Kojima’s name from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s title on the official Konami website (shown below, top was before the change).

On July 14th, 2015, a NeoGAF thread was submitted by user Love Deterrence that shows the final version of the official box art for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which reveals Kojima’s brand being completely removed.^[7]

Spread

The brand name has become the subject of discussion on a number of websites including Tumblr^[8] and 4chan.^[9] Over on Twitter^[10] and Tumblr,^[11] the hashtag #AHideoKojimaGame was launched by fans in response to the removal of the brand by Konami and to show their support towards Hideo Kojima.

On August 4th, 2015, Konami announced the release date for Metal Gear Solid V for the PC on the game’s Steam community page.^[12] On the same day, users began spamming the comment section of the announcement with the brand name as part of their protest towards the removal of Kojima’s name.

On August 19th, 2015, JB Hi-Fi, an electronic retail store in Australia, began placing their stock of Metal Gear Solid V on display. Among the promotional campaigns include adding Kojima’s brand name on game display shelves across all stores in Australia. On the same day, Twitter user and JB employee Jasmin Lee tweeted a photo of one of the stores. in the coming days, the tweet gained over 400 favorites and was retweeted more than 350 times, among them by Hideo Kojima himself.^[12] In the coming days, news of the promotional campaign was covered by a number of gaming news sites including Kotaku,^[13] Polygon,^[14] Metro,^[15] and IGN.^[16]

On august 31st, 2015, an image was submitted to the image sharing site Imgur which shows the PSN cover for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain that still has Kojima’s brand name on the title.^[17] The image gathered over 62.300 views and was shared on r/MetalGearSolid where it gathered over 1.260 points (98% upvoted) and over 150 comments.^[18]

On September 1st, 2015, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released. On the game’s steam page, users began spamming the Steam reviews with Kojima’s brand name. On the same day, news of the steam reviews was covered by Kotaku.^[19]

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Harambe the Gorilla was a 17-year-old Western lowland silverback gorilla who was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a child fell into his enclosure in late May 2016. The incident was wildly criticized online by many who blamed the child’s parents for the gorilla’s untimely death.

Background

On May 28th, 2016, a 4-year-old boy crawled into the enclosure of the Western lowland gorilla Harambe at the Cincinnati Zoo. The gorilla then grasped the child and began dragging him about the enclosure before a Cincinnati Zoo employee fatally shot Harambe with a rifle.That day, YouTuber maxi uploaded footage of the incident to YouTube, where it gathered upwards of 12.6 million views and 41,000 comments in the next 48 hours (shown below).

Developments

Online Reaction

On May 29th, a post about the incident reached the front page of /r/news,^[6] where it garnered more than 7,100 votes (87% upvoted) and 6,200 comments in the next two days. The same day, a petition titled “Justice for Harambe” was created on Change.org^[2] which called for authorities to hold the child’s parents responsible for Harambe’s death. Within 48 hours, the petition gained over 338,000 signatures. Meanwhile, the hashtags #JusticeForHarambe and #RIPHarambe began circulating on both Facebook^[4][5] and Twitter.^[3]

News Media Coverage

On May 31st, the Mirror^[1] published an article about the child’s parents Michelle Gregg and Deonne Dickerson. In the coming days, the story was covered by CNN,^[7]BBC News,^[8]NBC News,^[9] Time^[10] and The Daily Dot.^[11]

AFL Athlete Racist Joke Controversy

On June 1st, 2016, a Facebook page titled AFL Memes^[15] posted two image macros comparing the gorilla to Adam Goodes (shown below), a retired professional Australian rules football player of Indigenous ancestry who was controversially called an “ape” by a 13-year-old girl in 2013. Immediately after the images were posted, many viewers accused the page of promoting racist stereotypes of Indigenous Australians.

On June 2nd, the online backlash surrounding AFL Memes’ posts on Facebook were reported on by dozens of Australian news outlets and many other English-language news sites overseas, including BuzzFeed,^[14] which misidentified another Facebook page with the same name as the party responsible for the controversy. Later that day, the Facebook page^[12] that was incorrectly cited in the BuzzFeed article issued a statement clarifying that it had been misattributed as the source of the controversial posts, while condemning the racist memes aimed at Adam Goodes as “horrifying.” Furthermore, the group claimed that it would be seeking legal action against BuzzFeed for defamation (shown below, left). That same day, the AFL Memes page^[13] responsible for publishing the original posts issued a public apology for offending viewers, along with a confirmation that the images in question have since been removed (shown below, right).

Memes

Weird Twitter quickly jumped on turning Harambe into a meme, photoshopping into image macros and ironically featuring him alongside photos of Prince, David Bowie, and Muhammad Ali in tributes to famous celebrities that died in 2016.^[23]

Harambe Memorialized In Song

One popular Weird Twitter trend involved taking popular songs and changing their lyrics to be about Harambe. The trend was so popular it ended up getting its own “Twitter Moments” page.^[24] In one popular tweet, Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus jumped in on the trend with his own song (shown below, right).

Dicks Out For Harambe

On July 2nd, 2016, Twitter user @sexualjumanji^[19] posted a selfie photograph in which he is shown pointing a replica firearm at the camera along with the caption “We comin with them dicks out to avenge harambe!!!” (shown below, left). On July 4th, comedian Brandon Wardell tweeted^[20] the phrase “dicks out for harambe” (shown below, right).

That day, Wardell posted a Vine of a group of men chanting “dicks out for Harambe” (shown below, left). On July 6th, Wardell uploaded a Vine of himself with actor Danny Trejo in which the pair say the phrase “dicks out for Harambe” (shown below, right). Within five days, the video gathered upwards of 2.2 million loops, 1,100 likes and 700 revines.

The following day, Twitter user @weebriel^[21] tweeted to @sexualjumanji that he previously coined the phrase in a Twitch chat session (shown below).

On July 9th, the Trejo Vine was submitted to /r/NotTimeAndEric.^[16] Meanwhile, Redditor lotsoftuna launched the /r/dicksoutforharambe^[18] subreddit. The following day, the “Another Sad and Pathetic ironic meme page” Facebook page created a posting for an event titled “Dicks Out For Harambe,” encouraging people to visit the White House on July 16th and expose their genitals to “show solidarity and love for Harambe.”^[17]

Street Name Prank

On July 10th, 2016, Ohio teen Max Brinton pranked Google into changing the street their high school is on, Shankland Road, into Harambe Drive. Less than two weeks later, Google updated their maps and Shankland Road was Harambe Drive.^[25] Their story was popular enough to get picked up by Buzzfeed.^[26]

Search Interest

External References

About

WikiHow is an online resource community that offers step-by-step guides on how to complete various tasks that may require a certain level of prerequisite knowledge or skills.The website features over 190,000 instructional articles on a broad range of tasks, typically accompanied by visual aids, tips and warnings to assist the readers in acquiring the necessary know-hows to achieve their end goals. Since its launch in 2005, many Wikihow articles have gained online notoriety due to the over-explanatory or oversimplified nature of the content.

History

The website was founded by American internet entrepreneur Jack Herrick on January 15th, 2005 in honor of the anniversary of Wikipedia, which was launched four years prior on January 15th, 2001. The concept of the website was in part inspired by the success of Wikipedia’s open source and crowdsourced content model, as well as the limitations of eHow, another online how-to website that Herrick had previously acquired with his business partner Josh Hannah in 2004.

In 2006, Herrick and Hannah sold eHow to Demand Media, enabling Herrick to focus on the development of wikiHow in full-time capacity. Wikihow is a hybrid organization (a for-profit company run for a social mission); all of its content is licensed under a Creative Commons license and its software MediaWiki is freely available for download and modification. On September 21st, 2007, WikiHow published its 25,000th article, “How to Make an Eiskaffee (Creamy Iced Coffee)." In 2009, the website surpassed 20 million monthly visitors and completed a redesign.

Online Presence

WikiHow maintains an active presence in the social media through a number of official accounts on various platforms, including a Twitter^[5] feed, Tumblr^[4] blog, Facebook^[6] page and YouTube^[34] channel. As of February 2016, WikiHow has 63,500 followers on Twitter, 2.78 million likes on Facebook and just over 4,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Reception

Since its launch, WikiHow has received a number of awards and accolades; In 2008, WikiHow was chosen by Mashable as the runner-up for best wiki site in Open Web Awards; In 2009, WikiHow won a Webby Award for Community; In 2010, WikiHow won the Co-Creation award in The Guardian and Nesta’s Open Innovation competition; In 2014, Google selected wikiHow as one of the launch partners for Google Contributor, an ad-free internet product.

Fandom

The Internet’s ironic appreciation for WikiHow has been steadily gaining momentum since as early as December 2010, mainly through several single topic blogs on Tumblr and Twitter that are devoted to curating odd and bizarre “how-to” guides and visual aids, including Fuck Yeah WikiHow^[36], WikiHuh^[27], WikiHow Ridiculous Is This^[26], WikiFAILs^[37], WikiHow Illustrations^[25], WikiHow Out-of-Context^[38] and @WikiHowArt^[33], as well as the /r/weirdwikihow^[31] and /r/wikiwhat^[30] subreddits on Reddit.

Blog Coverage

Some of the more bizarre “how-to” articles and exploitable visual illustrations within them have been highlighted in the form of listicles by a wide range of Internet humor and viral media aggregation sites; On February 3rd, 2009, Cracked^[15] ran an article titled “The 11 Most Unnecessary ‘How To’ Guides on the Web”; On June 28th, 2011, Listverse^[20] ran a post titled “Top 15 Funny and Bizarre Wikipedia Pages”; In 2013, BuzzFeed^[12] and The Huffington Post^[13] ran similar articles; In 2014, Imgur^[10] user MoSj submitted a compilation of funny illustrations from the site in a post titled “Wikihow is a treasure trove of amazing art,” Jezebel^[9] published an article titled “15 Utterly Deranged Wikihow How-To Guides” and The Independent^[11] ran an article titled “24 gloriously weird wikiHow guides”; In 2015, Something Awful^[21], Mental Floss^[35] and CollegeHumor^[17][18] ran similar listicles highlighting select “how-to” articles.

Traffic

According to Alexa^[24], WikiHow is ranked the 188th most visited website in the United States and the 220th most visited website in the world, while Comscore ranks WikiHow in the top 150 most visited publishers in the world. According to the company, the website is used by over 100 million people per month.

Search Interest

External References

About

“NEET” is an acronym standing for “Not in Education, Employment or Training,” which was originally coined in the United Kingdom as a classification for people between the ages of 16 and 24 who were unemployed and not in school. In Japan, the term is used to identify anyone between the ages of 15 and 34 who is unemployed, not in school and not seeking work, and is closely associated with social recluses known as “Hikikomori.”^[1] Online, the acronym is often used to label those who fit the “neckbeard” stereotype.

Origin

In July 1999, the phrase “Not in education, employment or training” was first used in a report titled “Bridging the Gap”^[2] released by the United Kingdom-based Social Exclusion Unit, which provided an investigation into young people who were unemployed and not in school.

Spread

On March 15th, 2005, Urban Dictionary^[5] user Rolf Mason submitted an entry for NEET, defining it as a sociological term “applicable to a social under-class lacking drive, motivation or ambition.” On March 26th, 2010, the Spill Media YouTube channel uploaded a video about NEETs living in the Swansea county of the United Kingdom (shown below).

On October 1st, 2012, an anonymous 4chan user submitted a “NEET lifestyle thread” to the /r/jp (otaku culture) board.^[4] On February 12th, 2014, YouTuber Bretty_Good uploaded a thread simulator video for 4chan’s /r9k/ (robot9000) board titled “4chan /r9k/ Frozen Thread Simulator, NEET Edition” (shown below).

On April 13th, Redditor Leonisius submitted a screenshot of a green text story on 4chan titled “Anon is genetically a NEET” to the /r/4chan^[6] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 3,800 votes (95% upvoted) and 350 comments prior to being archived (shown below). On February 9th, 2015, Redditor Spacejams1 submitted a post titled “What is a NEET” to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[3] subreddit.

Search Interest

External References

About

Hang In There, Baby refers to a motivational poster of a cat hanging on to a bar captioned “Hang in there, baby.” It has been widely imitated, parodied, and recognized as a relic from the 1970s.^[1] In the 2000s, it has come to serve as a symbol of corporate coldness.^[5]

Origin

The original “Hang In There, Baby” poster (shown below) was published in late 1971 by photographer Victor Baldwin. He got the shot of his Siamese cat, Sassy, in 1963, and published the image in a book called Outcast Kittens in 1970. He made the poster after choosing the caption “Hang in there, baby” in 1971.

Spread

After The Music Man composer Meredith Wilson purchased the first copy of the poster, demand quickly increased over the 1970s. People were drawn to the poster’s inspirational message and wrote Baldwin describing how it helped them get through surgeries, accidents, and other tough periods in life.

During the 70s, dozens of imitators, bootlegs, and variations appeared with different cats and different texts, but the general idea of a cat hanging to a branch with text saying “hang in there” grew into a popular trend. Baldwin, who owned the copyright to the picture and poster, sued every imitator and won. It is now a collectible and considered one of the first motivational posters.

Pop Culture References

The popularity of the “Hang In There” cat has made it a ubiquitous reference in pop culture. It appeared in the Simpsons episode “The Twisted World of Marge Simpson,” where Marge commented, “‘Hang in there, baby!’ You said it, kitty…Copyright 1968. Hmm, determined or not, that cat must be long dead.” It also appeared in a Terminator film, on a Survivor episode, the 2003 film The Cat in the Hat, and more.^[1] In 1999, The Onion^[3] posted a headline declaring the cat had died after hanging on the branch for 17 years.

Online Presence

“Hang In There, Baby” is cited as one of the more prominent precursors to LOLcats, and there are several LOLcat images devoted to a cat hanging off a tree branch.^[2] Pleated Jeans^[4] wrote a satirical article from the perspective of the Hang In There cat. Happyjar^[6] used it in a webcomic with its popular character Business Cat (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Carter the Banana Boy is a photoshop meme based on a picture of a young boy in sunglasses and looking at the camera while eating a banana. In this series, an exploitable cutout of the boy is photoshopped into a variety of base images to portray him as the star of an action film, in somewhat similar vein to The Action Movie Kid.

Origin

On May 12th, 2014, Redditor Theone211 submitted a photograph of a little boy eating a banana in a post titled “This is Carter. He knocked on my door to ask if he could have a banana then left” to the /r/funny^[1] subreddit (shown below). In the first 24 hours, the post gained over 73,100 upvotes and 2,600 comments.

In the comments section, Redditor FuriousGeorge06 suggested someone should “photoshop an explosion behind him,” which was promptly followed up by a set of three “explosive” photoshopped parodies from Redditor Saurongetti, along with a blank template of the boy eating the banana (shown below, far right).

Spread

That same day, Reddit sodelll posted an image macro of the photo with the caption “I’m here to fuck bitches and eat bananas / and I’m almost done with my banana” to /r/funny^[2] (shown below, left). Meanwhile, Redditor dayofgreed submitted the picture of Carter to the /r/photoshopbattles^[3] subreddit, where several Redditors posted images with Carter superimposed into the backgrounds of film posters (shown below, right).

Also on May 12th, 2014, other photoshopped images featuring Carter reached the front page of Reddit,^[4][5][6] many of which earned upwards of 10,000 upvotes in 24 hours (shown below). Later that day, compilations of notable examples were subsequently posted on BuzzFeed^[7] and Mashable.^[8]

On May 13th, actor Wil Wheaton tweeted that Carter was his “favorite person on the Internet today,” receiving over 240 favorites and 85 retweets in less than 12 hours.

3D-Printed Figurine

On May 23rd, a 3D-printed figurine of Carter was added to the 3D printing marketplace Shapeways^[9] (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

#TonyTigerGate was the hashtag name given to a scandal surrounding the massive block of Twitter users who identify as furries by @RealTonyTiger, the official Twitter account for Tony the Tiger brand of Kellogg’s breakfast cereal, in response to a flood of lewd and lascivious demands tweeted at the corporate account by members of the furry fandom. Although the raid already gained traction in November 2015, the blocking began months later in January 2016.

Background

The Twitter account for Tony the Tiger^[1] was launched on July 30th, 2013, but didn’t post its first tweet until September 18th of that year which simply read “Hello Twitter.”^[2] Since then, the account has tweeted hundreds of messages in character of Tony the Tiger, including many promotional posts about Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes-brand cereal and enthusiastic statements about sports seasons. The mascot character itself is officially known as Tony Jr., the second generation Tony the Tiger and son of the first Tony.^[3]

Notable Developments

As early as in July 2014, Twitter users already began sending lewd messages at @RealTonyTiger (shown below).

On November 4th, 2015, Gawker first picked up on the noticeable influx of furries tweeting lewd and lascivious demands at Tony the Tiger’s account, several of which were highlighted in an article titled “Tony the Tiger Can’t Tweet Without Furries Begging Him for Sex.”^[4] The official tweet^[5] created alongside the article was also posted on the r/justneckbeardthings subreddit,^[6] where it managed to get over 300 upvotes in the following few months. The next day, several other news sites also ran similar articles focused on the tweets, including Bustle,^[7] Death And Taxes^[8] and The Daily Dot.^[9]

On January 26th, 2016, @RealTonyTiger began blocking a substantial number of its followers considered to be furries, though little distinction was made between those who actually tweeted inappropriate messages at the account and other followers who simply identify themselves as part of the subculture. Furries and supporters of @realtonytiger subsequently shared their reactions on the #TonyTigerGate hashtag.^[14]

Following the blocks by @realtonytiger, several furries started looking for a new Twitter account to follow. Initially they went to the official Twitter account for Pizza Hut, @pizzahut, after it coincidentally created a tweet featuring the word “knot”,^[14] which also refers to a canine’s penis^[15] and is used in the furry fandom as a slang term for an erection. Several other food chains were also targeted, most notably Applebee’s who reacted positively towards the furries.

Chester Cheetah’s Response

Later that day, other furries stumbled accross the official Twitter account of Chester Cheetah, the official mascot for Cheetos brand snacks, and respectively asked him to be their “daddy”.^[17] Suprisingly to many, the Twitter account replied positively, after which many furries started following the account and sending tweets to it.

Kellog’s Official Response

On January 27th, Kellog’s provided BuzzFeed^[19] with a statement about the blocking of all the furries:

“As a company grounded in the values of integrity and respect, we recognize people’s right to creative expression, but we reserve the right to block individuals who post offensive content.”

News Media Coverage

As many furries took their reaction to the massive block on Twitter, several news sites published articles about the blocks and Twitter users’ reactions, including Gawker,^[10] Metro UK^[11] and Huffington Post.^[12] The welcoming by @ChesterCheetah was also subsequently documented by various news sites, including Paper Magazine,^[13] Uproxx^[18] and Buzzfeed.^[19]

Various Examples

External References

About

The furry fandom is a subculture interested in fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. The word furry has several meanings, dependent on the context in which it is used. Predominantly, it means “consisting of or resembling fur.” Furries is also used to refer to the community of people with an interest in anthropomorphic animals and creatures who gather on the internet and at furry conventions.

History

Pre-Fandom

Anthropomorphic animals have been created by humans for as long as our history goes. Creatures possessing both human and animal traits were found in the earliest cave paintings. Anthropomorphic animals as gods are an important part of many ancient cultures: Egypt, pre-colonized Americas, etc. One of the earliest examples of anthropomorphic literature is Aesop’s Fables, which dates to around 500 BC Greece.

Comic Books

The 1980s saw the debut of several key comic book series starring humanoid animal characters, including Steve Gallacci’s Albedo Anthropomorphics (June 1984), Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (May 1984), and Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo (first episodes appear in Albedo Anthropomorphics and Critters anthologies, circa 1984; standalone publications began in 1987).

Though all three series gained much praise, partly for their use of anthropomorphic characters in more mature and serious contexts, Gallacci’s Albedo series is the one regarded as being the most influential to the creation of the Furry fandom. An illustration of Albedo’s main character, Erma Felna, at the NorEasCon II World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, 1980, gathered significant attention at the convention, and generated much conversation about the use of intelligent animals in science fiction and fantasy. Subsequent conventions (such as Worldcon and Westerncon) featured informal gatherings to further the discussions about anthropmorphics, and to share other independent anthropomorphic drawings and concepts.

Online Presence

Furaffinity

Furaffinity^[4][5] is the Furry fandom’s largest online community; hosting artwork, animations, literature, and music; all dedicated to the furry fandom. Created on January 16th, 2005, by Alkora^[6] as an alternative to DeviantArt and the, currently on indefinite hiaturs, SheezyArt.^[7] Since then, it has suffered a few outages, most notably a month-long downtime over July 2008. The site’s succes also lead to its own furry convention, FA: United,^[8] which was first held in August 2007 in Newark, New Jersey; drawing 310 attendees and 25 fursuiters in the parade; and was followed by another in August 2008. No event was scheduled for 2009 due to the economic downturn, but the convention became an annual event starting in 2010.

[FA: United 2007 Shirt]

Wikifur

WikiFur^[9][10] is a website dedicated to the collection and preservation of information about the furry community and culture. The wiki is built on MediaWiki, a free software open source wiki package written in PHP, originally for use on Wikipedia; using the Wikifur url since 2009. As of 2016, the English site has over 19,000 articles, its own community hub, and an international portal. Translation and localization efforts exist over 20different languages, with the most notable being in Russian (5,100+ articles) and Italian (1,700+ articles).

e621

e621 is a website designed to archive and redistribute furry and anthropomorphic content, infamously known for the abundant collection of pornographic materials in its gallery. After the shutdown of sidechan in 2007, e621 was created with the intention of hosting sidechan content. In July 2009, e961 was launched with the intention of being a safe for work counterpart to e621. However, the site got aliased to the original site in November 2009 due to traffic issues; it was rebuilt as e926 in 2012 and displayed strictly SFW content from e621.

Flayrah

Flayrah^[34][35] is an online furry news magazine, consisting of contributions by community members. Its stories are syndicated by Furry 4 Life, FurNation, Furry News Network and Google News. Flayrah temporarily went offline at the end of June 2006 due to hosting issues, but returned mid-August after a switch in webmaster, before switching a final time in November 2009 with a relaunch in January 2010. Since January 2010, it is run as an independent project; traffic has increased steadily since. It also won the 2011 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine, after a decision to move it from the Websites category.^[37][38] It was nominated again for the 2012 award,^[39] and won the 2013 award.^[40]

On 4chan

4chan and furries had been long time rivals ever since 4chan launched. Furry porn had become a common thread topic on 4chan’s /b/ (random) board over the years after its launch. In response to this, 4chan users began to post images of the F40PH diesel-electric locomotive. The phenomenon of posting train images began as early as December 2006, largely in reaction to the heavy influx of furry porn threads on 4chan’s /b/ (random) board in honor of Furry Fridays, a 4chan tradition that had been around since 2005. At the time, anon posters felt that furries did not belong on /b/,^[12] which was considered a random board for anime and Japanese culture. Because of this, any furry thread would frequently end up flooded with photos of the Amtrak locomotive.

On 7chan

7chan is an imageboard site modeled after the Japanese site Futaba Channel and launched on September 25th, 2005, by founders Symbion and Zeneslev. The site rose to prominence in 2006 as 4chan users fled to 7chan for fewer posting restriction. Unlike 4chan and other non-furry friendly boards, 7chan maintained a dedicated, semi-protected, furry board (/fur/) under the “Porn” section. As with some 2ch furry image-boards, this board had no DNP or copy-protection rules, with the exception of a rule that forbids the posting of art from furry artist Jeremy Bernal and the Pleasure Bon Bon website.

Fandom

Fursonas

Fursonas^[42] (a portmanteau derived from the terms furry and persona) are furry characters, personas, alter egos, avatars, or identities assumed by a person or player normally associated with the furry fandom; based on various animal species (whether real or fictional). Players commonly include a realization of the player’s mental impression of their fursona, commonly in the form of an illustration or textual description. Fursonas are often used to roleplay or in other story-based mediums. A documentary about furries titled Fursonas also premiered at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival and was directed by Dominic Rodriguez.^[43][44] Originally a 12-minute short film, the film was later expanded into a feature length documentary.

Fursuits

Fursuits^[14][15] are animal costumes, worn for personal enjoyment, work or charity. Believed to have been coined in 1993, a fursuit is usually used to describe custom-made animal costumes owned and worn by cosplayers or members of the furry fandom, and represent a standalone character (unlike mascot suits). Fursuiters may adopt another personality while in costume for the purpose of performance. Many suits include special padding or undersuits to give the character its desired shape. Other suit variations include the partial suit, which only has a mask, gloves, a tail, and possibly feet, with regular clothing covering the rest of the body; and Quadsuits, which are designed with arm-extending stilts so that the wearer can walk on all fours, for a more realistic appearance. Fursuit related media is also documented on Fursuit Archive.^[36]

Furry conventions usually schedule fursuit parades into their list of events, where every fursuiter who has brought his or her own fursuit and would like to show it off is invited to join the parade. At either the beginning or the conclusion of the parade, there is commonly a group photograph taken of all fursuiters. The idea of a fursuit parade originated at Anthrocon 2006.^[16]

Fursecution

Fursecution^[47][48] (a portmanteau of furry and persecution) is a term that describes, as the term implies, the perceived persecution of furries by elements outside the fandom. The topic of fursecution is commonly debated by furries and critics alike, with some claiming it to be a legitimate form of discrimination, while others find it a severe overreaction. Use of the term has been documented in Usenet posts as far back as 1998.^[49]

A popular piece commonly associated with fursecution is Standing Proud (shown below), a drawing of an anthropomorphic fox standing in front of the gay pride rainbow-colored flag and created by Taurin Fox in 2004.^[50][51] Although originally created to be a statement about what the author considered to be the dire state of gay rights,^[52] the popularity of the piece has made it subject to misrepresentation, parody, and ridicule.^[53]

Renamon

Renamon is a Digimon from the series Digimon which resembles an anthropomorphic fox. The character has become an icon of the furry fandom and arguably the most well known Digimon. Many Renamon works can be found on a variety of websites. As of May 2015, DeviantArt alone hosts over 27,000 images tagged as Renamon,^[17] FurAffinity has over 9,000 works,^[18] and e621contains over 5,000 images tagged under Renamon and also has the character mentioned on the site’s help page.^[19][20] On both FurAffinity and e621, Renamon takes up the majority of Digimon fanart, with over half and two-thirds on respectively e621 and FurAffinity as of May 25th, 2015.

Yiff

Yiff is a slang word used in the Furry fandom with a variety of meanings.^[21] Although originally being something as simple as a greeting in the furry fandom’s foxish language,^[22] it has over time gained more explicit meanings: referring to sexual intercourse between furries and the onomatopoeic sound produced by that; likewise turning yiffing into a term for sexual intercourse between furries. A very common word in furry lore; it can be used as an interjection, an adjective, a verb, or a noun.

“Yiff in Hell, Furfags” is a phrase used by those that oppose the furry fandom, directly aimed towards furries as a message to take the activities commonly associated with yiffing elsewhere. On 4chan, “Yiff in Hell” is typically found in furry threads, used as a protest towards furries in an attempt to lower the amount of furry content posted on the site.

Knotting

Knotting is a term used by members of the furry fandom to describe a person receiving a canine’s penis, with a knot describing the section at the base of a canine’s penis that swells up upon ejaculation. The earliest known use of the phrase in a sexual context was posted on the alternative sex story site, asstr.org, on March 8th, 2002.

Gatherings & Conventions

Occasionally members of the fandom will have small group gatherings in various places to exchange artwork, or simply hang out and do everyday activities, with or without fursuits. These gatherings aren’t restricted to small groups however. There have been many conventions over the years. Anthrocon^[23][24] is the world’s largest furry convention, taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania each June or July, first held in 1997 in New York State, and draws over 5,000 attendees annually. Anthrocon 2016 drew 7,310 attendees, with 2,100 fursuiters participating in the fursuit parade. Other more notable conventions include: Eurofurence,^[25][26] a furry convention held in changing places in Europe annually 1995 with over 2,500 attendees in 2016, making it the largest furry convention outside the United States; and Midwest Furfest,^[27][28] which takes place in Rosemont, Illinois each December since 2000, increasing in popularity from 388 attendees in 2000 to 5,600+ in 2015, making it the second-largest furry convention in the world.

[Anthrocon 2016 Fursuit Group Photo]

Notable Events

April Fur’s Day

April Fur’s Day^[29][30] (a pun on April Fool’s Day) was a 2005 4chan event where the imageboard added /fur/, a board dedicated to furries, to its site, in an attempt to stop the posting of furries to the /b/ board according to the site’s moderators. Due to the addition of the board on April first, many 4chan users believed it to be an April Fool’s Day joke which would be gone by April 2nd, resulting in an explosive increase in popularity. However, these doubts decreased on April 2nd when the board was still around. It wasn’t until April 3rd that the board disappeared, alongside with the banning of every poster on the board with no distinction made between posters. Although the joke hasn’t been repeated since, it did cause doubts over the creation of pony-oriented /mlp/ board in February 2012, which many posters believed to be a similar “ban trap” during its first few days even after 4chan’s creator, moot, attempted to debunk these claims.

Anthrocon 2007 Raid

The 2007 Anthrocon Raid^[31] was an organised attempt by /b/ users from 4chan and 7chan to “raid” the convention. The protesters stood outside the convention, holding signs and wearing outfits referencing the “Yiff in Hell, Furfags” phrase and Pool’s Closed meme. Although the succes of the raid can be questioned due to it consisting of only 3 people, their presence managed to gather the attention of numerous convention-goers attending the event throughout the day.^[32]

Midwest Furfest Poison Gas Attack

The 2014 Midwest Furfest Poison Gas Attack was a chlorine gas attack that took place at the Hyatt hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, where the 15th annual convention was being held for the weekend. The attack sent 19 people to the hospital and made headlines the following day. Throughout the next day, the story continued to circulate among the furry communities on the web,^[33] along with several news photographs of people standing by outside of the hotel while still dressed in fursuits.

#TonyTigerGate

#TonyTigerGate was the hashtag name given to a scandal surrounding the massive block of furry Twitter users @RealTonyTiger, the official Twitter account for Tony the Tiger brand of Kellogg’s breakfast cereal, in response to a flood of lewd and lascivious demands tweeted at the corporate account by members of the furry fandom. Although the raid already gained traction in November 2015, the blocking began months later in January 2016. While the account was blocking a substantial number of its followers considered to be furries, little distinction was made between those who actually tweeted inappropriate messages at the account and other followers who simply identify themselves as furries. Following the blocks by @realtonytiger, several furries started looking for a new Twitter account to follow; eventually stumbling accross the official Twitter account of Chester Cheetah, the official mascot for Cheetos brand snacks, who replied positively to the influx of tweets.

Related Subcultures

Scalies

Scalies is a furry term use to describe anthropomorphic creatures of the reptile and amphibian variety, and furries that identify themselves as such or prefer the concept of such beings over furred characters. As the name implies, scaly characters tend to have a coating of scales much like the animals they represent, instead of fur like normal furries. Dragons are commonly considered as the most popular type of scaly.

Kemonomimi

Kemonomimi, literally meaning “animal ears,” is an anime and manga terminology that describes characters that possess animal like features such as ears or tails. Kemonomimi characters typically appear predominately human except for the added animal-like qualities, unlike kemono characters who possess a large percentage of animal parts in ratio with their human parts. The most popular types of kemonomimi are Catgirls (Neko or Nekomimi) and Foxgirls (Kitsune or Kitsunemimi).

The concept has some connection to the furry fandom, although fans of both genres often question this due to the different scales of anthropomorphism. Due to this, various Furry Scales (also known Anthro Scales) exist, referring to a series of charts and discussions regarding the artistic continuum between humans, furries and animals.

Pokémon

Pokémon is a media franchise spawned from a role-playing video game series developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo beginning in 1996. Pokémon takes place in a world populated by not just humans but also many species of creatures called Pokémon. Pokémorphs,^[46] also known as anthro-pokémon, are fictional anthropomorphic species of Pokémon. Most Pokémorphs resemble normal furries, except that they were created based on the stock Pokémon creatures. Certain types of Pokémon are more popular as Pokémorphs than others, commonly depending on the species they are based on and their official character model (examples shown below).

[Arguably the most common Pokémon in anthropomorphic art, from left to right: Lopunny, Lucario, Zoroark, Braixen]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP:FiM) is a Canadian/American flash cartoon series based on the My Little Pony universe. Since its on-air debut in October 2010, the series has become extremely popular across the Internet by gathering a massive online following; fans outside the show’s target demographic, especially teen and adult male fans, have come to be known as “bronies”. The brony fandom has a significant crossover with the furry fandom, with 21% of bronies considering themselves furries as well according to the 2014 State of the Herd Report;^[41] who are primarily represented through the fandom’s active anthropomorphism scene.^[45] Many things familiar to furries have equivalents in the brony fandom, such as an active art scene, costuming (from simple accessories to fursuits), conventions, and an adult scene. Despite this, critics on both sides prefer not to be associated with each other, albeit arguably due to possible negative advertisiment this gives their own fandom as a result of focus placed on specific aspects of the other’s fandom. The comparison was questioned following the announcement of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls in December 2012, a companion series featuring the cast of MLP:FiM in a highschool setting while taking on humanized forms.

Zootopia

Zootopia is a 2016 Disney 3D computer-animated comedy film set in a world populated by animals who poseess the level of intelligence comparable to that of humans. The main story follows Judy Hopps, a bunny rookie police officer, and Nick Wilde, a fox con artist. Since its announcement, the film has been widely discussed online due to its appeal to the furry community. Following the film’s overall positive reviews from critics and growing fandom following its release, it also became a running gag amongst the furry fandom for having an underlying purpose of “recruiting the next generation [of furries].”

Media Coverage

• Pittsburg City Paper — “Animal Passions: The furries come to town” / 2006-06-29
• Pittsburg Tribune-Review — “Furries purr over Pittsburgh reception” / 2007-07-06
• BBC Magazine — “Who are the furries?” / 2009-11-13
• Bizarre Magazine — “Super Furry Animals” / 2008-05 (PDF)
• Hartford Advocate — “Hell Hath No Furries” / 2007-11-01
• Montreal Mirror — “Welcome to the jungle: Montreal’s furries and furverts defend their unusual lifestyle” / 2001

Search Interest

External References

About

GiIvaSunner is a YouTube account imitating the original video game music ripper, GilvaSunner, by using a name similar in appearance with a capitalized I in place of the L. Unlike the original, which uploads video game soundracks, this parody account uploads bait and switch videos. The songs often follow soundclown jokes or are remixed.

Background

The original GilvaSunner account,^[2] upon which this parody account is based, first became popular for uploading video game soundtracks under the name SilvaGunner,^[1] which was terminated for copyright infringement. After the initial termination, GilvaSunner^[5] was created on October 10th, 2010 for uploading game OSTs, but again received copyright infringement notices on YouTube. Through a related Twitter account, GilvaSunner notified his viewers that he would not upload anymore songs because he didn’t want the channel to be taken down for copyright infringement again.^[3]

On January 9th 2016, the fake account GiIvaSunner was created to parody the OST uploader.^[6] Visually, the page mirrors the original GilvaSunner page, like the similar profile picture and background image with some alterations. Another difference is on the about page, which states that “Every video is submitted by a small group of content creators with their approval. Also, requests are fine but please don’t make the same one more than once.” The first upload was a bait and switch video that claimed to be the OST for Wild Pokémon Battle – Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire (below). Since being uploaded in January of 2016, the video has received over 27,000 views

Online Presence

The parody account uploads videos extremely frequently, with close to or more than one video per hour. Every video uses the original cover art, to parody regular YouTube music rippers. However, a large quantity of the videos are soundclown remixes. In a similar fashion to the honobono shrine remixes, a frequent joke on the channel is a song is mixed with The Flintstones theme, a reference to one of the Vinesauce Joel stream where Joel plays Mariobootlegs. The opening title of the game “7 Grand Dad” is an 8-bit remix of the opening theme Meet The Flintstones^[4].

The most popular video on the account is a mix of Super Mario 64– “Slider” and The Flintstones theme.

Account Termination

On April 6, GiIvaSunner’s account has been terminated by youtube due to the violations of terms and service. GiIva promised that he will get the account back as soon as possible on his twitter^[7]. Meanwhile, users on twitter reproved the decision of youtube with the hashtag #HighQualityVideoGameRIP.^[8]

The original parody account is not retrieved yet. But on Apr 12, GiIvaSunner anounced that the new account (with the name “SiIvaGunner”) has been created^[9] to continue hosting parody tracks. Also including an anouncement video, which is a direct reference to the Baneposting. As for the launch, the channel released a Metal Gear themed album which has been created by multiple users.

Reboot and ARG

On June 9, SiIvaGunner uploaded a video titled “Futari Happiness (NOZOMI Mix) – Love Live! School idol festival” where the song would regularly start before being replaced by the crashing of SiIvaGunner’s ripping software (shown below, left). The song would eventually continue into a mashup of Quad City DJs’ Space Jam after getting new ripping software from the “Nigra Store”. On June 17, SiIvaGunner uploaded a video originally titled “Snow halation – Love Live! School idol festival” (shown below, right) showing what would be a rip of the song Snow Halation be replaced by a Blue Screen of Death and a reboot sequence.

This would bring about two new changes to the channel, one being the start of an alternate reality game (ARG)^[11], starting with the upload of a brand new album on Bandcamp^[10] and ending with a picture (shown below) containing the email address enlightenedrhombus@gmail.com, and new rips that replaced memes and jokes previously seen in rips before the reboot with new ones, such as the theme song for The Flintstones or 7 Grand Dad being replaced by the theme songs for Family Guy and The Simpsons, and Snow Halation being replaced by the song “GO MY WAY!!” from multimedia project The Idolmaster.^[13] These new rips would be considered somewhat lower quality compared to the pre-reboot rips, whereas for those who participated in the ARG and emailed the address receiving an audio file from the aforementioned email address.

On June 26, a new video, originally titled “S͏͔̜͍n̶͔̲͓̹ò͓w̨̯̻̲̼̩ ҉̲͎̲̣͙h̶a̫͖l҉̱̞͍̯̰█,” was uploaded (shown below, left), containing the contents of the audio file along with a more detailed explanation regarding the reboot. In the video, dialogue is exchanged between Youtube troll Chad Warden and an entity known as “The Voice Inside Chad’s Head,” also referred to by Chad as “The Gay Mexican-Ass In My Ass” The Voice reveals that he caused the crash and subsequent reboot. The Voice also decides to strike a deal with Chad in getting the old memes back, but will take a few days to formulate. On June 30, another video, originally titled “▀7̩̜̀ ͈͎̭͕͈̣͚̰́G̸͚̞͖̭͖̀R͏̛͇̟̼̺█Ḑ̤̜̙̪̳▓D͙̲̝̘̤̦̣̗̥█,” was uploaded to the channel (shown below, right) where The Voice reveals to Chad his deal to get the old rips and the old universe back. It proposes to merge the two universes, the old universe containing the Flintstones and Snow Halation rips,and the new universe universe containing the Family Guy, Simpsons, and “GO MY WAY!!” rips, together to create a new universe, but without Snow Halation. The Voice gives Chad until 7/7 (July 7) to give his verdict.

On July 7, a video titled “A Grand New Era _Ending– SilvaGunner: Rebooted” (shown below, left) was uploaded, showing Chad agreeing to the deal The Voice made with him and merging the universes together while purging Snow Halation in the process. Many users lamented the loss. Meanwhile, a second ARG was kickstarted eventually culminating to contacting the aforementioned Enlightened Rhombus email address once more.^[12] On July 9th, A new video titled “Melody of the Heart _{True Ending}– SilvaGunner: Rebooted” (shown below, right) was uploaded to the channel, showing the aftermath of the new universe and through the power of the “MF like button,” Chad destroys The Voice, while sacrificing himself, to bring back Snow Halation to the channel.

The End of SiIvaGunner

On September 30th 2016 a video was posted on the SiIvaGunner channel titled “the nutshack theme but the first nutshack is replaced with me ending the channel” in which the owner of the channel, going by the name of Chaze The Chat, explains his plan to end the channel, and thanks the team members and those who made “rips” for the channel.

Related Memes and Sub-memes

7 Grand Dad

7 Grand Dad refers to a Super Mario-like bootleg of the Nintendo Entertainment System game The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy. The game gained notoriety after being featured in a Vinesauce Joel stream. The game, its opening title music (a rendition of The Flintstones Opening Theme), and Joel’s reactions have since been featured in multiple rips. Grand Dad is the first established meme, appearing on the very first rip of the original GiIvaSunner channel (Wild Pokémon Battle – Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire; see Background section above).

Snow Halation

Snow Halation is a popular song from the Love Live! series. As one of former channel contributor Triple-Q’s favorite Love Live! songs, the song quickly became a reoccurring trend. This has resulted in controversy, sparking “dislike-bombs” on most rips featuring the song. The song is typically identified for its melody and the chorus lyrics “Todokete setsunasa ni wa”.

Loud Nigra

Loud Nigra refers to an audio clip of OG Mudbone screaming while having an orgasm. The clip is typically inserted in sections of rips, such as near the ending (shown below, left), but is sometimes sampled and used as part of the melody of a rip (shown below, right).

The Nutshack

The Nutshack is an American animated sitcom known for its toilet humor, poor animation, and repetitive theme song. The show’s opening theme gained notoriety following the Reboot, in which it became featured among numerous rips.

Search Interest

External References

About

No Fap September, and other “no fap” months, are challenges in which the participants must abstain from masturbation (known as “fapping”) for an entire month. While participants may not pleasure themselves during the course of the month, they can engage in sexual intercourse with another person. The challenge bears many similarities to the 7-day No Fap Challenge, in which male Redditors attempt to cease ejaculation for seven days in order to raise testosterone levels.

Origin

No Fap September is an annual event that is rumored to have begun in the /b/ (random) board on 4chan in August of 2009, but an archived thread has yet to be found.

Precursors

Academic Research

In March 2003, three researchers at Zhejiang University, Jiang M., Xin J., Zou Q. and Shen JW., published a paper titled A Research on the Relationship Between Ejaculation and Serum Testosterone Level in Men. The research project consisted of 28 volunteers who were tested. The results of the paper suggested that “on the 7th day of abstinence, however, a clear peak of serum testosterone appeared, reaching 145.7% of the baseline”^[31].

No Fap Ironman Competition

On October 20th, 2006, the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club Forums^[2] member Asinine submitted a post titled “The Official No Porn, No Fap Ironman Competition – Round One, Fight!”, which invited other members to abstain from masturbation for as long as possible. Contestants would be awarded one point for every six hours that porn and masturbation were avoided and persons who abstained from any type of sexual activity were awarded two points every six hours. Within two years, the post received over 422 responses.

Spread

On August 28th, 2009, Cheat Engine Forums^[5] member Jonas submitted a post titled “No fap september”, which included a calendar image with the captions “No Fap September” and “Must not fap.” On August 29th, YouTuber AlmightyDevin uploaded a video titled “No Fap September – Official Video”, which included the calendar image accompanied by instructions on how to participate in the event.

On August 31st, Club RSX Forum^[4] member awp_map submitted a post titled “No Fap September”, which urged other members to join him in the challenge. The same day, Mustang World Forums^[7] member Ducky posted a thread titled “No FAP September”, announcing that sex would be allowed during the challenge. On September 1st, Urban Dictionary^[1] user stewfubuddy submitted a definition for “no fap september”, which described potential costs and benefits of participating in the challenge. On July 5th, 2010, YouTuber AngryAussie uploaded a video titled “Must Not Fap! The remix”, which included a spoken word remix urging viewers to avoid masturbating.

On September 1st, Cheat Engine Forums^[6] member Nirojan posted a thread titled “It’s no fap September”, in which he remarked that he had already lost the challenge. On the following day, Body Building Forums^[8] member Squeeks posted a thread titled “No Fap September”, who revealed that after two days he was “humping everything I lay on.” On June 20th, 2011, the /r/nofap^[3] subreddit was created, which serves as a community for those who wish to abstain from masturbation. On October 18th, Body Building Forums^[22] member Preparation submitted a thread titled “The No Fap Thread to End All No Fap Threads”, which lauded the benefits of abstaining from masturbation, citing the website Your Brain on Porn.^[23] On May 16th, 2012, the TED YouTube channel posted a talk by Southern Oregon University professor Gary Wilson titled “The Great Porn Experiment”, which warned about the dangers of frequent use of porn by male Internet users and referenced the /r/nofap subreddit (shown below). On May 19th, Redditor Mind_Virus submitted the video to the /r/technology^[21] subreddit, where it received over 1,730 up votes and 400 comments within three months.

Notable Examples

Following the inception of No Fap September, many began implementing the challenge in other months with events like No Fap February^[17][18][19], No Fap October^{[9][10][11][12]} and No Fap November^{[13][14][15][16]}, thus bringing about derivative events based around the same concept: no masturbation. Online discussions pertaining to the topic of No Fap challenges can be found on a wide range of communities, from gaming and car enthusiast forums like G-Shack, IGN and FacePunch to word reference sites like Urban Dictionary and Yahoo Answers. In addition to monthly challenges, the hypothetical concept of No Fap Decade has been also discussed on various communities like IGN Forum^[20], 4chan’s /b/ board^[24] and Bungie.net Forum^[25] among others.

Motivational Videos

On Youtube, users have uploaded motivational videos for the challenge using clips from various animated television shows such as Dragon Ball (shown below, left) and He-Man (shown below, right).

#Rory100 Challenge

On April 5th, 2014, Rory Patrick of Portland, Oregon announced on Twitter that he would abstain from masturbating or sexual activities for 100 days (shown below). On July 14th, Patrick completed the challenge and celebrated his achievement via Twitter (shown below).

During the challenge, as Patrick continued to share updates on his progress, his friends and followers on Twitter soon began expressing support for his self-imposed challenge with the hashtag #Rory100.

In the week following Patrick’s completion, VICE^[27] ran a feature interview with Rory Patrick, who explained that he decided to abstain from masturbation for self-motivational reasons.

I’d just noticed how jerking off had altered the trajectory of my day-to-day life. For instance, sometimes I’d planned to go to the gym or go on a run, and then I’d say to myself, “OK, you’re going to run, so let’s have a nice moment to yourself before that.” After masturbating, though, I’d find myself curled up in my bed watching television with a bag of chips instead of actually running. Coming was also my primary coping strategy for stress or pain, and that just didn’t seem healthy at all.

By July 23rd, Patrick’s 100-day “no fap challenge” had been picked up by BuzzFeed^[30] and The Daily Dot.^[26]

Search Interest

External References

About

Cat Keyhole Bra (Chinese: 猫咪镂空刺绣荷花边抹胸, lit. Openwork Cat Bra) (Japanese: ねこランジェリー, lit. “Cat Lingerie”) is a set of lingerie designed by Nonori and sold by China based online retailer Taobao.^[2][6] The set features a bra with a cat head shaped cut-out in the centre, which reveals the chest of the wearer. A sudden popularity surge led to the outfit becoming a new fetish fad in January 2016, much like the Keyhole Turtleneck the previous year.

Origin

The clothing set first appeared for sale on Taobao as part of the Nonori collection of clothing.^[2][6] The bra set features a characteristic cat-shaped keyhole between the breasts, a cat paw print on the back of the underwear, and a bell choker, and is available in the colours black and white. Following its release, a single piece of fanart of the clothing first appeared on Pixiv in July 2015,^[1] featuring Touhou Project characters Chen and Rin Kaenbyou (shown below, right). In late January 2016, a sudden surge in popularity occurred, leading to many more pieces of fanart being created for the outfit, mainly by Japanese fans.

Precursor: Keyhole Turtleneck

In December 2014, Japanese cosplayer Myako (みゃこ) tweeted photos of a keyhole turtleneck sweater and herself wearing it, which was immediately shared on the social web. Inspired by the sexy keyhole turtleneck, illustrators began creating their own illustrations featuring or parodying it on Twitter, Pixiv and Nico Nico Seiga. After a week the amount of illustrations had already surpassed 1,000. This popularity was also noticed by several Japanese clothing retailers, such as online retailer Rakuten^[5] who released their own version featuring a catface around the keyhole.

Spread

According to pixiv Encyclopedia^[13], The lingerie suddenly caught an attention on the Japanese social web in January 2016, by a tweet by user @pomupome1 on 22nd of that month. This tweet had earned over 13000 retweets and 12000 favorites within its first 3 weeks.

みんなたち女の子の推しにこれ着せて… pic.twitter.com/RApKrmYmfT

— ぽむっきん (@pomupome1) January 21, 2016

Translation:

Everyone, Please dress your favorite girls in this…

The artwork, typically featuring characters from various anime series wearing the attire, first started appearing more often on January 23rd on sites such as Pixiv,^[3] Twitter,^[4] Tumblr^[12] and DeviantArt. These illustrations had amounted to over 100 within the first day of the fad beginning. The rise in popularity towards the bra set was also noted and written about by Japan-orientated websites Sankaku Complex^[10] and RocketNews24,^[11] where it also became one of the weekly most popular articles at the latter. By January 27th, the amount of illustrations had surpassed over 450 on Pixiv,^[3] and over 250 on both Danbooru^[8] and Gelbooru.^[9] That same month, the bra set also became available on the international Japanese fashion website Pocket Tokyo for preorder.^[7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

[Note: The peak in 2009 originates from keyhole surgery and CAT scans]

References

About

Zettai Ryouiki (Japanese: 絶対領域, lit. “Absolute Territory”) is a term used to refer to the area of bare skin showing in the gaps between over-knee socks and a skirt or shorts. This quite well-known moe situation was born on the online otaku culture in 2001 and it has become popular with the general public as a fashion style since late 2000s.

Origin

According to Pixiv Encyclopedia^[1] and Nico Nico Pedia^[2], the earliest instance that used “Zettai Ryouiki” to express the area was found on an online diary by MIY, a famous contributor to a Japanese otaku-beloved desktop agents platform Ukagaka (伺か)^[3], also called as Nanika (何か) or Nise-Haruna (偽春菜) in those days. On March 21st, 2001, he uploaded a diary to his web page EXTRASTAGE, that used the term to praise the area of Mayura, a new user-made Ukagaka character which was gaining a lot of popularity just after its birth in the 9th of that month (shown below, left). 5 days later, he also uploaded a picture explaining the area that he pointed out (shown below, center).^[4] In the following month, Mayura’s creator Yume Hotaru added a description of Zettai Ryouiki to the official character sheet for her (shown, below, right).^[5] He also mentioned in a now-defunct 2005 blog post that he came to know Zettai Ryouiki by that MIY’s diary, and then introduced it to one of the official features of his character.^[6] Meanwhile, it’s considered that this expression, Zettai Ryouiki, comes from Neon Genesis Evangelion where several early guidebooks and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s comic edition for the anime used it as a translation term for “Absolute Terror Field”, which is also explained as “a holy area no one can intrude upon” in the 18th episode of the 1995 TV anime series.

Translation:

As I said before, the area between a mini skirt and knee-socks is invincible. It’s almost the Zettai Ryouiki of the God (lol
Via: EXTRASTAGE (March 21st, 2001)^[4]

Led by the popularity of Mayura and dozens of Mayura-inspired Ukagaka agents wearing over-knee socks, her most characteristic feature, Zettai Ryouiki, established its concept on Ukagaka user communuty in 2001. The first doujin book for Zettai Ryouiki “the absolute area” (shown below, left) was released by a doujin circle NF121^[7] at Comiket in December 2001. Besides, an online grossary in a web site Hanataba Terrace uploaded a text about Zettai Ryouiki in January 5th, 2002, which defined its golden ratio as “4:1:2.5” (length of mini-skirt : bare skin : length of over-knee socks above the knee).^[8] And even after the popularity of the platform was declined, doujin convention projects dedicated to the moe concept started in the spring of 2005 and then small conventions, “Zettai Ryouiki” (shown below, center)^[9] and “Suteki Kuukan” (shown below, right)^[10], were held on Osaka and Tokyo in the autumn of that year. However, the term had been a minor jargon among otaku groups till the first half of 2000s.

Spread

Japanese Wikipedia^[11] explains that the further spreading of Zettai Ryouiki beyond the otaku communities began after the online otaku culture became to attract a lot of attention on mass media by the success of Densha Otoko^[12] TV drama in the summer of 2005. Even in major TV stations shows, the moe concept became to be reported as one of the remarkable examples in the otaku culture (shown below). In addition, otakus’ severe online backlash against Banpresto^[13], a Japanese toy company that filed 2 applications for trademark registration of the term “Zettai Ryouiki” in September of that year^[14], also led the further increase of visibility of the concept among non-otaku internet users. Both applications were rejected in June 2006 because the company unpaid registration fees.

Left: “The Akiba King Contest” from a Japanese TV variety show TV Champion^[16] aired on September 15th 2005
Right: Tokoro-san no Gakkou dewa osiete kurenai soko’n tokoro aired on October 21st, 2005

Afterward, various kinds of Zettai Ryouiki-themed contents such as an adult game (shown below, left), school girls or cosplayers photobook/DVD (shown below, center) and even PC case (shown below, right) were released along with popularization of moe culture in the commercial media in the late 2000s. In September 2009, a Japanese portal service published an article of men’s favorite fetishes ranking, where Zettai Ryouiki ranked into the top of the ranking that was based on a questionnaire completed by 1,026 male members of an online marketing research service Goo Research.^[15]

Against the backdrop of the large popularity among Japanese people which had been developed throughout 2000s, nowadays Zettai Ryouiki is widely recognized as one of the typical fashions for female characters in otaku contents. As of March 2016, the amount of illustrations tagged under the fashion on Japanese illustrators communities, such as Pixiv^[17] and Nico Nico Seiga,^[18] is more than 10,000 in total.

Unofficial Knee-high Socks Day

Since 2013, November 28th has been considered by some on the Japanese web as Good Knee High Socks Day. The day is considered to be the unofficial anniversary for knee high socks. While not specifically celebrating Zettai Ryouiki, the day does focus on a key component of the fashion style.

Absolute Territory PR

Absolute Territory PR (絶対領域広告) is an advertising technique developed by a Japanese advertising agency Wit in 2012, which utilizes the Zettai Ryouiki of women walking in Shibuya downtown as billboard space. The agency had recruited about 1300 women in total and practiced the campaigns for Green Day (shown below, left),^[29] the American comedy film Ted (shown below, middle)^[30] and others between 2012 and 2013.

This weird advertising technique made a headline on online gossip news media^[31][32] as well as reported in English news outlets by Kotaku^[33], RocketNews24^[34], Daily Mail^[35], Yahoo!^[36] and The Guardian.^[37]

Outside Japan

The earliest instances that reported Zettai Ryouiki on the English-speaking web are a post in Animesuki Forum^[19] and a blog post by DarkMirage^[20] in 2006. Citing the latter, a Singaporean’s English blog Anime Desho Desho? proposed a grading method of Zettai Ryouiki in September of the following year.^[21]TV Tropes entry^[22] and other following blog/wikia articles are largely based on these blog posts. Urban Dictionary got a page for Zettai Ryouiki in March 2010.^[23] And Reddit launched a subreddit dedicated to the fashion, r/ZettaiRyouiki, in March 2012.^[24] As well as pixiv and niconico, DeviantArt has over 1,000 posts related to the fashion^[25], and many of those user-created contents are reblogged/reprinted to Tumblr^[26] and Danbooru/Gelbooru.^[27][28]

Various Examples

Ideal Ratio

The oldest instance which explained the ideal ratio of Zettai Ryouiki is 4:1:2.5 is an article uploaded to a Japanese individual’s website Hanataba Terrace on January 5th, 2002.^[8] Since this explanation is cited in several books about fashions or online cultures published in mid-2000s, it’s widely known like the officially-determined ratio.

Grading System

A grading system which defines Zettai Ryouiki in 5 levels by the length of the stockings or socks was originally proposed by a Singaporean’s English anime blog Anime Desho Desho? (ADD) on September 25th, 2007.^[21] Along with an additional grade S: A combination of Grade A Zettai Ryouiki, Twintail hairstyle and Tsundere personality. ADD also explained that only Grades A (and thus S) and B are considered as true Zettai Ryouiki. This ADD’s grading system is sometimes treated as the official grading as well as the ideal ratio by Hanataba Terrace, while being modified a little. For example, some of the explanations add Grade F (ankle socks) to the chart.

Illustrations

For more images featuring the fashion, check out KYM Collection – Zettai Ryouiki

Search Interest

External References

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

Overview

The Nazi Pepe Controversy refers to the discourse surrounding a rumor spread by the Hillary Clinton campaign and several news organizations in the summer of 2016 that claimed Pepe the Frog is used as a white supremacist symbol.

Background

On May 26th, 2016, The Daily Beast^[1] published an article titled “How Pepe the Frog Became a Nazi Trump Supporter and Alt-Right Symbol.“ The article included an interview with Twitter user @JaredTSwift,^[2] identified as an “anonymous white nationalist,” who claimed there was a “campaign to reclaim Pepe from normies” by creating anti-Semitic illustrations of the frog character.

Developments

Hillary Clinton’s Campaign

On August 25th, 2016, Hillary Clinton gave a speech denouncing the alt-right. During Clinton’s address, a /pol/ user posted a thread revealing that he is a member of the audience at the event, to which another user suggested to the OP that they yell “Pepe” as to interrupt her speech.^[3] In the YouTube livestream, a man off the screen can be heard yelling “Pepe!” at approximately 56 minutes in.^[4]

On September 9th, 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that half of Donald Trump’s supporters were in a “basket of deplorables.“ On September 10th, Donald Trump Jr. posted a photoshopped movie poster on Instagram^[5] of the 2010 action film The Expendables, which features various prominent conservatives and Pepe the Frog with the title “The Deplorables.”

On September 11th, NBC News^[6] published an article about the photoshop, which referred to Pepe the Frog as a “popular white nationalist symbol” based on a statement made by Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi Beirich. That same day, several news sites including The Hill,^[7] Vanity Fair,^[8] Talking Points Memo^[9] and CNN^[10] published reports describing Pepe as a “white supremacist meme” and “white nationalist symbol.”

On September 12th, the official Hillary Clinton presidential campaign blog^[11] published a post titled “Donald Trump, Pepe the frog, and white supremacists: an explainer,” which labeled Pepe the Frog as “sinister” and a “symbol associated with white supremacy.”

Online Reaction

Over the next 24 hours, posts about the news coverage and the Clinton campaign’s reaction reached the front page of various subreddits, including /r/cringe,^[17] /r/politics,^[12][13] /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[14] /r/KotakuInAction,^[18] /r/4chan,^[15] and /r/The_Donald^[16] where many Redditors mocked the Clinton campaign and the mainstream media for failing to understand the Pepe meme. Meanwhile,

News Media Coverage

On September 13th, The Daily Dot^[19] published an article titled “Pepe the Frog is not a Nazi, no matter what the alt-right says,” stating that “Pepe lacks political affiliation.” On September 14th, the Daily Caller published an interview with @PaulTown_ and @JaredTSwift in which the two Twitter pranksters admitted fabricating the basis of the Daily Beast report.^[20] That same day, in an article titled “No Hillary, Pepe the Frog is Not a Racist Meme”,^[21] Ian Miles Cheong of Heat Street wrote that “no single group or ideology has ownership of the meme.” Heat Street would later retract the article and issue a full apology. On September 17th, the Economist^[22] published the article “Pepe and the stormtroopers: How Donald Trump ushered a hateful fringe movement into the mainstream” which described Pepe the Frog as “a cartoon-strip creature co-opted into offensive scenarios” and gave the “Deplorables” poster as an example of such an offensive scenario. On September 19th, Heat Street founder Louise Mensch wrote “Hillary Clinton Is Absolutely Right, ‘Pepe’ Meme Is Antisemitic – An Apology.”^[21] Heat Street retracted Cheong’s article in full and added a note stating “This article was wrong and we should never have published it.”^[24] Cheong said on Twitter that “I was wrong about Pepe. It has, in fact, become an anti-semitic meme.” By September 26th, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had added Pepe the Frog to its list of hate symbols.^[25] The ADL noted that “The majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted” and warned that “it is important to examine use of the meme only in context.”

Creator’s Response

In an interview^[26] from Esquire with the character’s creator Matt Furie, he stated that he “had never heard of the alt-right or any of that stuff--even white nationalism” and that “I’m learning about that stuff with you, about what the hell is going on.” He would later go on to say how coverage on those who make these memes are “giving this fringe group more attention. They’re just these scattered nihilistic guys, I don’t even know what their intention is.” In another excerpt of the interview where he is asked about his thoughts on the group who has co-opted his creation, he states:

Obviously it’s not in line with any of my beliefs. I’ve seen outrageous stuff involving Pepe online before, but I try not to dwell on it. I blame Trump for all of this, because he kind of looks like this smug Pepe meme. Now it’s just this runaway train. But the people who are driving this train are these anonymous Internet trolls who don’t stand for anything except for nihilism and getting a rise out of whatever racist or sexist or disgusting thing they can do. It’s just an idiotic joke. They kind of seem like this group that tried to intellectualize white power, and they’ve appropriated Pepe for that. It sucks, but I can’t control it more than anyone can control frogs on the Internet.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References