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It Gets Better Project

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About

“It Gets Better” Project is a social media campaign launched by American author and gay rights advocate Dan Savage in an effort to prevent suicide among LGBT youth by encouraging gay adults to spread the message that their lives will improve. Since its foundation in September 2010, the project has grown into an international movement with more than 50,000 video messages and 50 million views.

Origin

The project was founded by columnist Dan Savage in response to the suicides of Billy Lucas and other teenagers like Raymond Chase, Tyler Clementi, Ryan Halligan, Asher Brown, and Seth Walsh who were bullied for their homosexual orientation or suspected to be gay. The project was formally announced on September 21st, 2010 in a YouTube[1] video titled “It Gets Better: Dan and Terry” featuring Savage himself and his partner Terry Miller.



In the video, Savage and Miller reaches out to teenagers who have ever been bullied for their sexual orientation and tell them that although life may seem difficult now, things will get better in the future as they grow older. The video was positively received within the YouTube community, accumulating one million views and over 200 video responses the first week of the campaign.

Spread

On the same day that Savage and Miller’s video was uploaded, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton posted a similar message on his YouTube channel, becoming one of the first contributors to the project. In addition, Hilton’s video went on to spawn at least 30 response videos from his YouTube subscribers.



By the following week in early October 2010, YouTube channel ItGetsBetter reached its limit of 650 video uploads and as a result, the project was relocated to its own website at ItGetsBetter.org[2] on October 8th. The project rapidly spread across YouTube and other websites including LGBT communities and advocacy groups, further fueled by the news media and blog coverage as well as active participation from various well-known celebrities and public figures. Savage’s campaign was picked up by a number of major publications including the New York Times[4][5], USA Today[7] and ABC News[9], his long-time column series in The Stranger[3], as well as other blogs like Queerty[13], YouTube Trends Blog[15] and TED Blog[10] among others.



Throughout October 2010, the project drew participation from dozens of other celebrities including TV hosts Lala and Ciara, the cast of Wicked, comedians Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman, actresses like Jenny McCarthy, Anne Hathaway and singer KE$HA among others. Numerous politicians contributed to the project as well, most notably Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and president Barack Obama, as well as employees of Google and Facebook.



By October 20th, It Gets Better Project reached the milestone of 10 million YouTube views and 100,000 pledged supporters. Towards the end of 2010, the project continued to gain video contributions and financial support from influential figures and institutions in various industries and political parties. On the Thanksgiving Day of 2010, It Gets Better hosted its first film festival in Houston, Texas. In January 2011, employees of Microsoft and Yahoo! created their own video messages.



During the New York Fashion Week in February 2011, Derek Fabulous hosted an It Gets Better Lounge event and drew video contributions from dozens of renowned fashion icons and designers. In April 2011, Apple employees created their own video message. In June 2011, the project garnered massive contributions from the employees of well-known financial, tech and media companies, from Dell and CBS to Ernst & Young and GM. In the following months of July and August 2011, numerous American professional sports teams participated in the campaign, including the San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays among others.

Notable Examples



Rise Against Music Video

In June 2011, American punk band Rise Against released its music video for “Make It Stop” in support of Savage’s project, which was later nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in the category of Best Video With a Message.



Clint McCance vs. George Takei

In late October of 2010, an Arkansas School Board member named Clint McCance posted an angry, hateful rant in response to the anti-bullying “Spirit Day” supported by the gay community. It quickly gained a lot of attention, especially from the It Gets Better Project. The group was a large part of the petition[16] to get McClance resigned. Not long after McClance’s rant, actor George Takei released a humorous It Gets Better video in response to the former’s statement. Takei’s YouTube video spawned several views and parodies, further amplifying the movement.



Parodies

Shortly after “It Gets Better” began to gain momentum, Gregory Bonsignore posted a YouTube video parodying the campaign from the perspective of the bully. The video was quickly pulled from YouTube on the grounds that it contained hate speech, but a duplicate version was soon uploaded onto DailyMotion, where it gained nearly 100,000 views.



After Bonsignore’s parody video was taken down from YouTube, the news reached the official “It Gets Better” Facebook group[14] and drew some criticisms in defense of the video. Bonsignore, who is a self-identified gay, later defended his parody as a “coping tool” for LGBT teens to imagine how terrible life has become for the bullies. On October 19th, Mitch Magee posted a similar video on the online comedy site Funny or Die. Magee’s video explored a similar sense of humor by portraying the bully as a ignorant, self-victimizing college dropout.



Search Interest



External References

[1] YouTube – It Gets Better

[2] ItGetsBetter.org – Give Hope to LGBT Youth

[3] The Stranger – Give ’Em Hope

[4] New York Times – Showing Gay Teens a Happy Future

[5] New York Times – Campaign Offers Help to Gay Youths

[6] Gay Times – GT Investigates

[7]USA Today – Gay teens told ‘It Gets Better’

[8] WhiteHouse – President Obama’s Speech on the White House Website

[9]ABC News – The Conversation: The ‘It Gets Better’ Project

[10]TED Blog – Project It Gets Better

[11] Urlesque – It Gets Better Project LGBT Youth

[12] YouTube – Video Search Results for “It Gets Better”

[13] Queerty – William “Billy” Lucas

[14] Facebook – It Gets Better

[15] YouTube Trends – It Gets Better’ Timeline

[16] It Gets Better Project – Your Movement


4chumblr

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About

4chumblr refers to the fictionalized relationship between personified versions of 4chan and the micro-blogging site Tumblr. The anthropomorphized relationship stemmed from a trolling war between the sites known as Operation Overlord.

Origin

On November 11th, 2010[7], 4chan’s random image board /b/ declared war on Tumblr with Operation Overlord for their trolling on anonymous chat site Omegle. Anonymous members began spamming shock images to the site and orchestrating DDoS attacks with a special application called a Low Orbit Ion Cannon.[1] The raid managed to temporarily bring down the home page of Tumblr, although individual blogs continued to function.

In retaliation, Tumblr users posted multiple threads of cat pictures to /b/ the same day, calling this counterattack Operation Overkitten.[2] While it seemed to have little effect, several of 4chan’s moderators felt that Anonymous members had crossed the line with this attack and caused all new threads made on /b/ to 404 upon creation. Because of the mods taking away the ability to create threads, many 4chan users decided they would rather take advantage of Tumblr’s stereotypical hipster female userbase and turn the raid in to a romance.



Referred to as “4chumblr” or “4chumbler,” several threads appeared on 4chan over the next few weeks, including written fan-fiction[3] and cartoon versions of the sites[4] interacting with each other.

Anthropomorphism

Tumblr-tan, the female version of Tumblr was created the same day as the initial raids. She was drawn with the same blue and white color scheme as the site, usually wearing clothing associated with hipsters and a hair clip in the shape of a “T” Tumblr logo. She is often depicted as romantically involved with True/Old Anonymous, a faceless man in a green suit.



Spread

The same day as the raids, 4chumblr was defined on Urban Dictionary[5], a single-topic blog for Tumblr-Tan[10] and a Facebook[6] page for the relationship was created. A deviantArt group[9] was also founded that day, which received over 250 members over its first year. Many of the deviantArt images were turned into video compilations by YouTuber desiredblasphemy[11], generating nearly 5,000 views in under 3 days.

On November 16th, Urlesque[8] covered the imagined relationship, highlighting some of the best fan art.

Notable Examples

Videos



Fan art





Search Interest

The short-lived war between the two websites brought a surge in attention for both of them, causing a noticeable spike in search volume on November 14, 2010. Search for “4chumblr” also peaked in November 2010.



External References

[1] Gizmodo – What Is LOIC?

[2] Buzzfeed – Operation OverKitten

[3] Chanarchive – 4chumbler ship thread

[4] 4chanarchive – Tumblr-tan and 4chan

[5] Urban Dictionary – 4chumblr

[6] Facebook – 4chumblr

[7] Urlesque – 4chan Users Declare War on Tumblr

[8] Urlesque – 4chumblr – What Happens When 4chan Loves Tumblr

[9] deviantArt – #4chumblr

[10] Tumblr – Tumblr-Tan

[11] YouTube – desiredblasphemy

The "!1" Phenomenon

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About

The “!1” Phenomenon is a well-known but sparsely documented typo that is commonly found in online conversations. In most cases, a string of exclamation marks followed by the numeral number “1” can be read as an erroneous typo while typing in a rush, though it has been increasingly used with intention to express a sense of urgency or excitement. It is often considered part of leetspeak, an alternative alphabet for the English-speaking internet users.

Origin

While the configuration of QWERTY keyboard layout varies across different language zones, an exclamation point is usually invoked by pressing the number one (1) key while holding down the shift key. Because the command required pressing down two keys simultaneously, the erroneous input of the numeral number “1” after a string of exclamation points became a common typo in online chat, especially when typing in haste.



Although its earliest appearance in chatrooms remain unknown, the typo gradually became associated with leetspeak in the late 1990s with the introduction of real-time online multiplayer games where punctual grammar leaves the gamer vulnerable to attack from the opponents, according to the academic research paper “Game Geek’s Goss: Linguistic Creativity In Young Males
Within An Online University Forum”[4] by the Australian new media scholar Katherine Blashki in November 2005

Spread

The first UrbanDictionary entry[1] defining the term was submitted on August 11th, 2003, which attributed the typo and over-exclaiming to carelessness of the typist.

!!!!1: Element of punctuation used by morons in place of the period, the full stop, that little dot near the L key. Note: one exclamation point is usually one too many. If you do plan to use more, please take care that you retain muscle control over the finger holding down the right-hand shift key.

Sometime in the early 2000s, some Internet users began invoking the typo as an identifier of Internet elitism, similar to the ironic usage of teh or pwned. The intentional usage of the typo was also suggested in another UrbanDictionary entry[2] submitted on December 28th, 2004:

One: l33tsp33k replacement for the exclamation mark. Originates to the common typo in which a “1” is typed instead of an exclamation mark, as a result of the shift key not being held down. This evolved into the current derivative where the term “one” is fully typed.


Usage

The typo is most commonly iterated as a string of exclamation points postfixed with one or more “1” at the end:

“I DON’T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!11111”


Occasionally, the postfix “1” may be spelled out in letters (“one”) for humorous effect. In cases of extreme sarcasm, other numbers or prerequisite keys like “shift” are used alternately with “one.”

LOL awesome!!!111one11eleven”
PMG!!!!111!11shiftoneoneoneoneoneeightytwo”).


Variations

A similar style of typo has been found in other sentence structures as well, such as substituting question marks with slashes (“/) or backslashes (”\") in interrogative punctuations.

ARE YOU JOKING????///”


Depending on the layout of QWERTY keyboard, other characters adjacent to the numeric “1” key have been incorporated as well, including § (section), ~ (tilde) and @ (ampersat) keys. In the most extreme or urgency cases, a random jumble of non-alphabetical characters is used to convey a sense of chaos.

OMG!!!!!1!1!!!{`{`{`$#+%{&#”)"


Search Interest



External References

[1] Urban Dictionary – Definition of !!!1

[2] Urban Dictionary – Definition of One

[3] Urban Dictionary – Definition of !1

[4] Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society – Game Geek’s Goss: Linguistic Creativity In Young Males Within An Online University Forum

[5] Webster’s Online Dictionary – One

[6] Two Hour Blogger – 10 Painfully Popular Typos Your Competition Can’t Wait to See You Make

[7] PurseBlog Forum- What Does This Mean When Someone Writes ….!!!!!!!11111111

reddit

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About

Reddit is a social news aggregation website that ranks content based on a scoring system determined by user votes. Its users are often referred to as “Redditors”, and belong to what has been called “one of the most influential communities on the Internet” in an article on Voltier.[1] The site has played a significant role in the spread and creation of Internet memes.

History

Reddit was founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian when they were both 22-years-old. According to an article in The Guardian[2], the site received its original seed funding from startup funding firm Y Combinator. On October 31st, 2006, reddit was acquired by the magazine publishing company Condé Nast.[3] An announcement posted to the official reddit blog[4] on September 6th, 2011, revealed that the company had become reddit Inc. and was now owned by Advance Publications, the parent company of Condé Nast.

Traffic

On February 2nd, 2011, the official reddit blog announced that they had reached over 1 billion pageviews in a single month, and posted a Google Analytics screenshot as evidence. As of September 30th, 2011, reddit.com has a Quantcast[5] US rank of 66, an Alexa[6] US rank of 43, and a Compete[7] rank of 1314.



Features

Registered users can submit posts to the site in the form of links or text only submissions. Posts, and comments within them, can be voted upon by clicking the up arrow to “up vote” or down arrow to “down vote”. The posts and comments are then scored accordingly, and can be sorted from high to low. Reddit contains thousands of individual “subreddits” that can be subscribed to that cover an immense variety of topics and interests. Unregistered users can browse existing posts and read comments, but cannot subscribe, vote, comment or submit posts.

Technology

According to the official reddit blog[20], the site switched programming languages from Lisp to Python in 2005. On July 21st, reddit[21] announced that they would be outsourcing their search to index handling service IndexTank. Reddit has strong ties to popular image hosting website Imgur[17], which was created by Redditor mcgrimm. Mobile applications that use reddit’s API include Android apps “reddit is fun”[18] and “reddit pics”.[19]

Highlights

Secret Santa

According to an article in Venture Beat[15], reddit started one of the largest Secret Santa programs in the entire world with over “17,000 Reddit users from 90 countries are exchanging gifts” in the 2010 holiday season. The r/secretsanta[16] subreddit was created on November 10th, 2010, and has 14,154 subscribers as of September 30th, 2011.

Global Meet Up Day

In addition to the Secret Santa event, Reddit community regularly holds regional meet-up events throughout the year, including the annual Global Meetup Day which takes place in mid-June. The idea for a global day of meet up was first proposed by Redditor TheSilentNumber in a series of threads[23] submitted between December 25th and 29th, 2009. The inaugural meet up event was eventually held across at least two dozens of cities between June 19th and 25th, 2010, including one in downtown Los Angeles where it was attended by the co-founder of Reddit Alex Ohanian. The complete listing of meet up events was made available in a FAQ page.[24]



The second annual weekend of meetup took place during the same weekend of June 25th in 2011, which resulted in a turnout of more than 196 regional meetups for 4,000 Redditors in 40 countries across the world. All of the regional events were organized through RedditGifts.com[26], which provided a directory of related threads for local events and a Google map displaying the time and location all planned meetups across the world.



The third annual event is scheduled to take place around the same time as the years before in late June 2012. As of June 25th, more than 477 local meetups have been arranged via RedditGifts.com.[27]

Charity

Reddit has been known for its altruistic community that have participated in several charity events. On December 10th, 2010, a post was made by Redditor Denny-Crane[9] outlining details about a holiday charity drive competition between the r/Christian and r/Atheism subreddits. The r/Islam subreddit ended up joining in as well, and according to an article on The Huffington Post[10] the three communities managed to raise $45,000 combined (the atheists community raised the largest amount).

As of Dec. 16, the 105,587 members of the atheist group had raised $32,802 of their $42,000 goal. The Christian group, with 9,017 followers, had raised $11,443 toward its $12,000 goal. The Muslim group, with 2,224 followers, had raised $360 of its $5,000 goal.

In October of 2010, a story was posted to the site about how 7-year-old Kathleen Edward, who was dying of Huntington’s Disease, was harassed by her neighbors who made fun of her illness. Redditors responded by pooling together to buy the girl a shopping spree. Afterwards, Kathleen made a sign thanking the reddit community for their generosity.

Controversy

The subreddit dedicated to non-nude photos of teenage girls r/jailbait has sparked several debates about whether or not it should exist on reddit. According to a Gawker[11] article by Adrian Chen, the section was shutdown due to an “internal power struggle between moderators” on August 17th, 2011.

One of the most popular of these sections was Jailbait, with over 20,000 subscribers. Jailbait featured pictures of tween girls in various compromising positions, many apparently taken from social networking profiles without their knowledge. There were rules, like “please don’t post pictures of girls with tattoos”: “Generally, girls have to be of the age of consent to get a tattoo, so if she has a tattoo, she’s probably also of legal age, and therefore not jailbait.”

According to a followup article on Gawker[12], the subreddit was reinstated after problems with the moderators were resolved on September 1st, 2011. Reddit General Manager Erik Martin claimed that jailbait’s return was not a result of the move from Condé Nast to Advance Publications.

No, Martin said, “the two are completely unrelated.” In fact, Conde Nast was totally chill with Jailbait, despite an increasing amount of media coverage of it and other stomach-churning subsections dedicated to dead babies and beating women.

On September 30th, 2011, a thread titled “Anderson Cooper Accuses Reddit Of Spreading Child Pornography”[13] was posted that linked to a YouTube clip of the CNN show Anderson Cooper 360 attacking the site’s subreddit and claiming it was essentially child pornography. Cooper read a statement from reddit CEO Eric Marden regarding the decision to not censor the subreddit.

Cooper contacted reddit CEO Eric Marden, who responded with the statement: “We’re a free speech site and the cost of that is there’s offensive stuff on there…Once we start taking down some things we find offensive, then we’re no longer a free speech site and no longer a platform for everyone. We’re exerting editorial control and that’s not what we are.”

Related Memes

Reddit is plays a significant role in both meme proliferation and meme creation.

Memes Originated on Reddit

100 Push-ups
I’m gonna fuck you in the ass.
France is Bacon
He will never have a girlfriend.
Nope. Zero on the final.
I had a pregnant
Orangered
YouTube Virus Comments
Hivemind
Sure_Ill_Draw_That
The Narwhals Bacon at Midnight
Novelty Accounts

Mr. Splashypants
Bozarking
MrOhHai
LouF
The White ‘H’
Disco Ball and Specular Sphere
-vote, -boat, and -goat
Reddit Search
Pun Threads
Bachelor Grandpa
FOUR MAKES TWO UNLESS YOU’RE DEAD

Memes Popularized By Reddit

Vuvuzelas
Troll Science
Restorting Truthiness

Memes Widely Adopted By Reddit

CSI Miami
[Directed By M. Night Shyamalan]
This.
That is all.
Trollface
No, THIS is X!
Tenso

Memes of Uncertain Origin and Status Related to Reddit

Jailbait, Tailbait, Whalebailt
Isometric Room Wallpaper
Wake up, sheeple!

You Wouldn’t Download a Car
Cut all contact, delete from Facebook, hit the gym.

Fan Art

Several pages worth of fan art can be found on the website deviantArt under the tag “#reddit.”[22] Fan art often includes depictions of the reddit alien mascot.



Search Interest

Search queries for “reddit” have risen steadily since the site launched in 2005, and have yet to hit their highest spike as of September 30th, 2011.

External Links

[1] Voltier – Reddits Astonishing Altruism

[2] The Guardian – Reddit.com

[3] TechCrunch – Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Reddit

[4] Blog.Reddit – Independence

[5] Quantcast – reddit.com

[6] Alexa – reddit.com#

[7] Compete – reddit.com

[8] Blog.Reddit – reddit: billions served

[9] Reddit – 963 Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! r/Atheism and r/Christianity have a friendly competition

[10] The Huffington Post – Christians and Atheists Square Off In Online Battle To Raise Money For Charity

[11] Gawker – Nerds’ Favorite Place to Skeeze on Underage Girls Shut Down

[12] Gawker – America’s Most Prestigious Magazine Publisher Returns to Pedophilia Bait

[13] Reddit – Anderson Cooper Accuses Reddit Of Spreading Child Pornography

[14] Urlesque – Kathleen Edward, Harassed Girl With Huntington’s Disease, Thanks Reddit":http://www.urlesque.com/2010/10/12/kathleen-edward-girl-with-huntingtons-disease-thanks-reddit/

[15] Venture Beat – Secret Santa success caps banner year for Reddit

[16] Reddit – r/secretsanta

[17] Imgur – the simple image sharer

[18] App Brain – reddit is fun

[19] App Brain – Reddit Pics Pro

[20] Blog.Reddit – on lisp

[21] Blog.Reddit – new search

[22] deviantArt – #reddit

[23] Reddit – We should organize a GLOBAL Reddit meetup day

[24] Reddit – FAQ on Meetup

[25] Reddit – /r/meetup

[26] RedditGifts – Meet Ups

[27] RedditGifts – Global Reddit Meetup Day 2012

[28] Reddit Blog – Global Reddit Meetup Day III

Advice God

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About

Advice God is an advice animal image macro series featuring a portrait of an old man with grey hair and a long flowing beard. The images are typically captioned with text that denounces religion (often christianity) by pointing out apparent biblical contradictions and attributing mischievous behaviors to God.

Origin

The image of the old man comes from Michelangelo’s artistic rendition of the Christian God in The Creation of the Sun and Moon, one of the many paintings made between 1508 and 1512 that adorn the walls in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican City, Italy.[1][2]



According to Google custom search[11], the Advice God MemeGenerator[6] page has existed since at least August 29th, 2010. The first image submitted to MemeGenerator in the series featured the caption “Pigs? Shellfish? / Abominations.”



Spread

Redditor kabukistar posted a compilation of Advice God images to the /r/pics subreddit[3] on October 9th, 2010. It was subsequently reposted to the /r/atheism[4] subreddit the same day, where it received 1,190 up votes and made it to the front page. A compilation of derivatives were posted on the entertainment blog Zoot Patrol[15] on December 23rd. The “fyeahadvicegod”[7] Tumblr was created on March 9th, 2011 and a round-up of Advice God images appeared on Ranker.com[5] on June 1st. An Advice God android app was added to the Android Market[16] on November 15 but has since been removed.



The meme continued to spread on the sites Funny Junk[8], Reddit[9] and Memebase.[10] The Advice God Quickmeme[12] page has accumulated over 5,900 submissions, the Scumbag Advice God page [13] has over 530 submissions and a Facebook page has 1,029 likes as of February 24th, 2012.

Notable Derivatives



Template


Search Interest

Search queries for “advice god” picked up in October of 2010, shortly after the initial Reddit post.

External Links

Food Network Recipe Reviews

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Overview

Food Network Recipe Reviews is an example of customer review comedy that took place on Food Network’s official website in November 2010. Similar to the tongue-in-cheek reviews of Three Wolf Moon and Tuscan Whole Milk on Amazon, a number of recipe articles on FoodNetwork were flooded with facetious comments poking fun at the overly simplistic cooking instructions.

Background

In November 2010, celebrity chef and cooking show host Rachael Ray’s Food Network recipe article “Late Night Bacon”[1] suddenly began receiving the attention of trolls who pointed out the article’s verbose instructions on how to cook bacon in the microwave. The recipe article was originally posted in May 2004.



Baffled by the overly simplistic recipe, some readers began responding to Ray’s article with tongue-in-cheek reviews of the instruction in the comments section.

LocalBoyMakesGoo: “Tried this recipe last night. The bacon was great, but the paper towels tasted awful.”
I LOVE BACON!: “It’s only 6:54pm… can I make this yet? Or does it need to be later?”
midnightsky: “I think a nice glass of water would wash down this bacon well. So I get the glass out of the cupboard… but I’m not really sure what to do next. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.”


Developments

One of the first websites to pick up on the comment trolling was FoodNetworkHumor.com[2], a website entirely devoted to satirizing the Food Network’s hosts and shows that was launched in January 2009. On November 8th, 2010, FoodNetworkHumour[3] crowned “Late Night Bacon” the most ridiculous food network recipe of all time. On the following day, a link to the recipe article was posted onto Reddit in a thread titled “Rachel Ray’s Bacon Recipe,”[4] which received 777 up votes and over 300 comments.

Pineapple Wedges Recipe

Following the viral rise of “Late Night Bacon,” it was reported that the user signups on Food Network’s website rose by a considerate amount. New members started combing through the site looking for more recipe articles posted by Rachel Ray. Soon, similar user reviews began flooding in the comments section of Rachel Ray’s “Pineapple Wedges”[5] recipe article.



The reviews for the recipe mocked Rachel Ray and also made several references back to “Late Night Bacon.”

rachaelsbacon: I got it confused with the bacon recipe and put it in the microwave. It tasted terrible but I think that may be because I accidentally overlapped the slices.
ilovegnomeland: I’m so glad that she came up with this recipe. I’ve been using Sandra Lee’s recipe for canned pineapples and I sprained my wrist using the can opener. Thank you Rachel, my wrist has healed thanks to you!

Paula Dean’s English Peas Recipe

Another celebrity chef Paula Dean’s “English Peas” recipe[6], originally posted in May 2007, also came into the spotlight later that same month.


Hosted by imgur.com

thedjvan: “This recipe was fantastic! I am a house cat, and after making this recipe I was able to speak english for roughly 30 seconds! I can’t wait to try this wimeow meow meow meow meow meow.”
AnnieFalafel:BUT HOW DO YOU OPEN THE CANS OF PEAS?!?!?!?!?!”
frankw: ?Es posible sustituir los peas mexicano por ingles?"

Ellie Krieger’s Dark Chocolate Recipe

Ellie Krieger’s “Dark Chocolate As A Snack”[7] from May 2007 was also targeted by the trolls, who poked fun at the recipe’s only ingredient: 1 ounce of dark chocolate. By January 2011, it had prompted similarly absurd comments. Although the link to the original article has since been disabled, a screenshot can be seen below.


Hosted by imgur.com

adamwa: "This was just ok. Maybe if it could be simplified some because its too much work.
kelly-davis_125…: “So that’s how you do it!!?!!?!!!!! All this time i’ve been……oh nevermind, I just feel stupid.”
egdohov: “Will this work if I substitute milk chocolate?”


Notable Examples

Many others continued to take screenshots of overly simplistic or verbose recipe articles and shared them on various internet humor sites, including FoodNetworkHumour and FAILblog among others.



Search Interest



External References

[1] Food Network – Late Night Bacon

[2] Food Network Humor – FoodNetworkHumour.com

[3] Food Network Humor – Most Ridiculous Food Network Recipe Of All Time

[4] Reddit – "Rachel Ray’s Bacon Recipe ":http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/e3ode/

[5] Food Network – Rachael Ray’s Pineapple Wedges

[6] Food Network – English Peas

[7] Food Network – Dark Chocolate as a Snack

[8] Facebook – Facebook group

Whatcha Thinkin Bout?

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About

Whatcha Thinkin Bout? is a catchphrase and image macro series in which the subjects are typically laying down with their hands on their chin in an inquisitive pose. Additional frames are sometimes added with “Nothin, just X stuffs” as a reply.

Origin

One of the earliest known images comes from a photo of a man wearing a keffiyeh that was posted to the Arabic Graaam[1] forum on August 12th, 2007. The first known instance of the image with the “whatcha thinkin bout” caption was published in a post on the web culture blog UpRoxx[2] on August 5th, 2010.



Spread

On October 1st, 2010, the original image was submitted to Reddit by user neuralstate in a post titled “Hey Reddit…”[4] Redditor dkrainey[3] replied to the thread with a photo of himself in army fatigues saying “I have the perfect companion for this picture” and Redditor selectrix replied with a combined version of the two photos captioned with “Whatcha thinkin bout / Oh, I dunno.. war stuff, I guess.” The next day, the image was submitted to the viral content site BuzzFeed[10] and was resubmitted to Reddit[6] by user BigDangDude, receiving 5,321 up votes prior to being archived.



Notable Examples

The meme has since spread to sites like deviantArt[7], Tumblr[8] and FunnyJunk[9] with a variety of different chracters including celebrities, video game characters and animals.



Search Interest

External References

[1] Graaam – 2007

[2] UpRoxx – Morning Links

[3] Reddit – dkrainey

[4] Reddit – Hey Reddit…

[5] Reddit – I have the perfect companion picture

[6] Reddit – Whatcha thinkin about?

[7] deviantArt – whatcha thinkin bout

[8] Tumblr – #whatcha thinkin about

[9] FunnyJunk – whatcha thinkin bout

[10] BuzzFeed – Whatcha Thinkin Bout

Pickup Line Panda

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About

Pick Up Line Panda is an advice animal image macro series based on a picture of a panda bear standing by a tree stub with a beer bottle. The captioned jokes typically begins with a predictable pickup cliche followed by a sentence that is contrasted by lack of subtlety.

Origin

The trope of cheesy pick up line cliches has been previously documented and explored through various internet humor sites[1] and the mainstream media prior to the rise of user-generated content on the web. The original advice animal instance was first posted via Reddit by user SotorDamotor on February 14th, 2011 in a thread titled “Introducing Pickup Line Panda [crosspost].”[2]



Spread

The thread was fairly well-received on Reddit’s AdviceAnimals subreddit and went on to spawn over a dozen of derivative uploads via Quickmeme[3] on the same day. Within days, the image macros swiftly spread across other internet humor blogs like Memebase[4], Urlesque[5] and FunnyJunk[6], as well as gaining a strong social network following through the Facebook fan page[7] and single topic Tumblr “Fuck Yeah Pickup Line Panda.”[8]

Notable Examples




Search Interest



External References


Didn't Read LOL

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About

“Didn’t Read, LOL (or simply “Didn’t Read”) is a slang expression commonly used in response to someone else’s post that is deemed long or uninteresting, quite similar to the usage of the term TL;DR. It is typically iterated either in the form of reply comments or animated GIFs of people dancing in a nonchalant manner.

Origin

The earliest known mention of the phrase “didn’t read, LOL” can be found in a ColoradoFans forum thread posted on September 14th, 2006.[1] In the thread, the original poster (OP) shared photographs of his 2006 Silverado pickup truck with a verbose description of upgraded features, to which forum user Dillusion replied:

I didn’t read lol. I just looked at the pictures.

The first known instance as an animated GIF was years later in July 2008, when IGN forum user[2][3] Jaslar_Tha_Kidd_2 posted an animated GIF of dancing Samwell from the 2007 viral music video What What in response to the original poster’s lengthy post about his relationship issue.



Spread

Prior to the emergence of captioned GIFs in 2008, the phrase had been often used in an apologetic tone by forum commentators who hastily replied to a discussion thread without actually reading the original post. Throughout 2009 and 2010, the GIF collection continued to grow as they spread across other highly-trafficked discussion forums, most prominently in male and athlete-oriented communities such as BodyBuilding forum[4][5], Sherdog[6] and InsideHoops forum.[7] In most circumstances, “Didn’t Read LOL” GIFs are used deliberately to heckle others for posting something unworthy of one’s time.

Viral Instance: “Movin’ Like Bernie”

In early 2011, an animated GIF of “Didn’t Read LOL” featuring the “Movin’ Like Bernie”[8] dance began to circulate across the aforementioned forums and became one of the more prevalent iterations to be used in online conversations.



Notable Examples





Search Interest

As Google Insights reveals, search queries for the keyword “didn’t read LOL” didn’t pick up in volume until March 2010 and continues to increase to this date as of November 2011:



External References

Karate Kyle

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About

Karate Kyle is an advice animal image macro series similar to Vengeance Dad and PTSD Clarinet Boy where the original photo consists of a digital composite of the subject’s head enlarged around his entire body with the opacity decreased. The captions generally depict various violent acts Karate Kyle has performed in retaliation to being bullied.

Origin

On February 24th, 2011, the original Karate Kyle photo was uploaded to James Von Helton’s Facebook[1] page. While no archived threads exist, it is rumored to have spread to 4chan shortly afterward. The first Reddit[2] post including the Karate Kyle photo wth the caption “They broke my pencils / I broke their necks” was submitted on February 25th, 2011 but had no mention of the name “Karate Kyle”. The second Reddit thread[3] titled “Introducing Karate Kyle” later that day with a round-up of Karate Kyle image macros.



Spread

The single topic blog for Karate Kyle on Tumblr[5] was created on May 17th, 2011. The first image macro published was captioned with “She deleted me from Facebook / I deleted her from life” and received over 500 notes within 9 months.



Karate Kyle was #21 in BuzzFeed’s[10] “Top 40 Best Memes of 2011” post published on December 8th, 2011. Round-ups of derivatives has been posted to Smosh[8], Runt of the Web[7] and Funny or Die.[6] The Karate Kyle Quickmeme[4] page has 7,898 submissions and a Karate Kyle “public figure” Facebook[9] page has 798 likes as of February 20th, 2012.

Notable Examples



Template

Search Interest

Search query volume for “karate kyle” rose significantly in March of 2011, one month after it was originally posted on Facebook.

External References

Brock Obama

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About

Brock Obama is a fictional hybrid character which combines the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama and Brock, one of the main trainer characters from the anime series Pokémon. The character is usually manifested in the form of photoshopped images with Brock’s head or face superimposed onto portrait images of Obama or President Obama’s face placed onto pictures of Brock. On some occasions, character images of rock-type Pokémons like Geodude or Onix may be added into background for humorous effect.

Origin

Though its exact point or date of origin remains unknown, the mash-up was most likely inspired by the similarity between the two names, Barack and Brock. The earliest known iteration on the web can be attributed to a number of YouTube videos uploaded in November 2008.



Spread

The Facebook page[1] titled “Brock Obama” was launched as early as on January 30th, 2010.



According to the Facebook profile description, Brock Obama is currently serving his term as the President of the United States from his office in Pewter City and presumably the party leader of Brockists, a fictitious political-religious group of users who support Brock Obama. In addition, the administrator of the Facebook page has posted numerous status updates with the so-called scriptures from the book of Brockism. As of July 2011, Brock Obama’s Facebook Page has over 123,000 likes and 2,404 related images.



The Urban Dictionary[2] entry for “Brockism” was first submitted on July 1st, 2011, which reads:


Brockism is the political and religious philosophy of Brock Obama. Contrary to popular belief, Brock Obama is not just a personality on Facebook. He is the single most powerful political mind in the Kanto region.

Brockism centers on kicking as much ass as possible with rocks, trolling religious extremists and political zealots, and addressing honest concerns about Pokemon and the Internet in general. Brockism has spawned a storm of Brock knockoffs, all of which should be trolled, save for his archenemy Amabo Kcorb.


As the Facebook page continued to gain membership, other related pages in tribute to fictional political candidates began popping up on Facebook, the most popular example being Amabo Kcorb[3]. Amabo is Brock’s evil twin, whose name is the palindrome of “Brock” and dons an evil-looking mustache and goatee. Some of the other fictitious candidates promoted through Facebook pages include Brock Ollama[4], Brockoli Obama[5] and Brockette Obama[6]

Hijacking of Facebook Page

On September 18th, 2011, Brock Obama’s page was hijacked by a relatively unknown troll. According to the Facebook page, the hacker took control of one of the admin’s page and vandalized the Brock Obama page. As a result, the page shifted focus from Pokemon-related satire to My Little Pony images and the profile picture of Brock Obama was replaced with a picture of Hitler photoshopped onto Abraham Lincoln’s head. In addition to vandalizing Brock Obama’s Facebook page, the hacker managed to take down another Facebook page for Amabo Kcorb.



For three days, the hijacker continued to post what would be considered very ‘un Brock-like’ status updates and photos. Fans of “Brock Obama” page were dismayed with the irrelevant postings and the page lost nearly 10,000 subscribers in three days. Meanwhile, a mirrored version of the original “Brock Obama” Facebook page was launched and gained over 12,500 members in the first 72 hours. Many other copycat pages soon followed suit, claiming to be the back-up version of the original Brock Obama page.[9] On September 21st, the original administrator regained control of the Facebook page, but similar takeovers of the Facebook page have been reported since.

Search Interest



External References

[1] Facebook – Brock Obama

[2] Urban Dictionary – Brockism

[3] Facebook – Amabo Kcorb

[4] Facebook – Brock Ollama

[5] Facebook – Brockoli Obama

[6] Facebook – Brockette Obama

[7] Facebook – Brock Obama

[8] Facebook – Chazz Black Hawkinson

[9] Facebook – Brock Obama?

He Will Never Have a Girlfriend

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About

He Will Never Have a Girlfriend” (alt: “She Will Never Have a Boyfriend”) is a series of multi-pane rage comics featuring Cereal Guy’s reaction to pre-fame and post-fame comparison photographs of well-known celebrities.

Origin

The first instance of the image macro[1] was posted by Reddit user hannahisapalindrome depicting two photos of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one at young age and another one at older age, on February 8th, 2011. The comics typically use the structure of Cereal Guy’s reaction to the pre-fame or childhood photograph of a celebrity, followed by Cereal Guy’s “food-spitting” reaction to the glamorous photograph of the same celebrity. Prior to this series, unflattering “before-and-after” comparisons of celebrity photographs have been explored on the Korean web in the early 2000s, largely driven by the growth of anti-fan communities.



Spread

The single topic blog He Will Never Have a Girlfriend[4] was on February 25th, 2011. Similar compilations of “He Will Never Have a Girlfriend” pictures have been posted on numerous internet humor sites like Memebase[6], Smosh[3] and Urlesque,[2] as well as on Tumblr[8] and Facebook.[7]

Notable Examples


Blank Template



Search Interest

According to Google Insights, search queries for the phrase “he will never have a girlfriend” yielded a sharp rise beginning in early February 2011. The meme has also led to a rise in the popularity of its parent meme, Cereal Guy:



External References

I Regret Nothing

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About

“I Regret Nothing” is an expression used unapologetically to convey remorselessness for one’s own actions and its consequences. Usually accompanied by GIF images of characters spinning around, the phrase conveys complete disregard for others similar to the usage of Look At All The Fuck I Give and Fuck the Police.

Origin

The colloquial use of the phrase “I regret nothing” has been noted i modern historical documents and records, quoted by the former Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann in a 1960 interview with LIFE magazine while awaiting his trial in Israel. Als that year, French actress and singer Édith Piaf recorded a song titled “Non, je ne regrette rien,” which translates to “No, I have no regrets” in English. More recently, the phrase was also quoted by a nameless character in a 1992 episode of The Simpsons, in which a guy falls through an opening drawbridge while waiting in line for the Itchy and Scratchy movie and yells “I regret nothing!” before hitting the water.



In Online Videos

On the web, the phrase was iterated in a 2004 episode of the Machinima web series Red vs. Blue titled “The Best Laid Plans” in which Red Zealot yells “I regret nothing! I lived as few men dared to dream!” after getting mobbed by several Blue grunts.



Spread

In 2005, Metafilter[6] user Fourmyle started a thread asking about the origin of the phrase “I regret nothing,” to which most users pointed to_The Simpsons_ episode from 1992 and Adolf Eichmann’s unrepentant quote from the 1960 interview with LIFE magazine. In 2007, another thread asking the origin of the phrase showed up in a thread titled “Meme-check on aisle three please” on RPG forum.[4]

On August 2nd, 2009, one of the earliest image macros featuring a picture of a turtle and the caption “I regret nothing” was posted on the Wordpress blog CatMacros.[9] In January 2010, I Can Has Cheezburger[12] user Elrond_Hubberd posted another image macro of a raccoon with the caption “I regret nothing. Your garbage was delicious.”


   

Spinning Disco Chicken

Beginning in 2011, “I regret nothing” became heavily associated with a GIF animation known as “Spinning Disco Chicken” taken from Domino’s Pizza’s mascot for the 2008 advertisement campaign. The GIF animation was first uploaded online as early as in February 2011 and spread to Tumblr where it accumulated over 10,600 likes and reblogs.[13] The GIF file was converted into a YouTube in April that year.



Usage

On :Tumblr":/memes/tumblr, the “spinning disco chicken” GIF has become a popular reaction image usually attached below another image or a link to indicate that the poster has no shame or regret in sharing the said content. Similar images can be found under the Tumblr hashtag #I Regret Nothing. In other discussion forums and comments sections, the image and its variants may be used by the original poster (OP) in counter-reacting to another reader’s reply in the same post, similar to the usage of U MAD? and Haters Gonna Hate.

Notable Examples



Search Interest

Search queries for “I regret nothing” saw an initial peak in October 2005. Online interest stayed pretty stable since March 2006, before experiencing another resurgence in April 2011.


External References

I Know That Feel Bro (To uczucie / To uczócie)

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About

“I Know That Feel Bro” is an expression and reaction image depicting two bald men embracing each other accompanied by a caption that reads “I know that feel bro.” The phrase is a poorly translated version of “I know how you feel, bro” or “I feel you, bro,” that is typically used to show sympathy toward others. The face has been used as an exploitable character and is often seen in “that feel when” threads on image boards, which describe an emotional situation or event.

Origin

The earliest instances of “that feel" are rumored to have been posted on the German image board Krautchan[2] as early as May of 2010. On February 6th, 2012, a user named “Voyack” posted an “ask me anything thread” on Reddit[11] saying he was the Krautchan user “Wojak”, the creator of the meme:



Voyack reported that the bald man picture came from the Polish image board Vichan and was named “twarz.jpg” (“warm face”).



Precursor

““To uczucie” (“this feeling”) became a popular phrase on the Polish ””" />

White People Dancing / LOL White People

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About

White People Dancing (also known as “LOL White People”) is a caption associated with image macros, GIF animations or video clips depicting people of Caucasian descent dancing in an awkward fashion. Such images often the text “white people” or “lol white people” overlaid.

Origin

Preconceptions about White people’s poor sense of rhythm or dancing skills have been explored by Black stand-up comedians as early as since the 1980s with Eddie Murphy’s 1987 standup show “Eddie Murphy’s Raw.” In the skit, Murphy declares it as a simple fact that “white people can’t dance well”:



The comedy trope continued in the mainstream media throughout the 2000s, such as The Dave Chappell Show which frequently made light of the racial stereotype through skits. The most notable skit guest starring singer-songwriter John Mayer aired on February 4th, 2004:



In the world of stand-up comedy, the theme has been also referred to as the “White Dude, Black Dude”[2] trope.

In Internet Humor

The early rise of “white people dancing” GIFs on the web began with a short music video skit found in an episode of MTV2’s Wonder Showzen titled “A Celebration of White People Throughout History,” which showcased various footage of white people dancing to a catchy tune. The original clip was aired on March 11th, 2005.



The song was soon paired with a GIF animation of two cartoon characters dancing awkwardly and uploaded as a YTMND site titled “White People, Yayy!” on October 1st, 2005.



Spread

On April 15th, 2006, YTMND user spanishfli created a new site titled “LOL… White People,” featuring a still image of a middle-aged man dancing wildly in a ballroom. In the following years, many more YTMND sites centered around the theme of dancing white people continued to emerge in the community.

The YTMND jokes fit into the “white people can’t dance” stereotype, sometimes referred to as “white people’s disease” according to the Urban Dictionary entry[1] submitted on March 29th, 2010:

The inability to maintain or play to a rhythm. To have an Awful Sense of rhythm. This term is based on two stereotypes at once, African americans have a good sense of rhythm and Caucasian people do not.

On February 17th, 2008, the single topic blog Stuff White People Like[3] also drew a similar analogy in a post titled “Standing Still at Concerts”:

If you find yourself invited to a concert with a white person, do NOT expect to dance. Prepare yourself for three hours of standing reasonably still. It is also advised to get a beer or (if legal) a cigarette so you have something to do with your hands. Although it is acceptable to occasionally raise one hand and point just above the stage.

Notable Examples



Snuggie Family Commercial

In September 2009, sleeved blanket merchandise company Snuggie released a commercial featuring a White suburban-type family flailing their arms in the air while getting cozy in Snuggies at a camp site. The image was quickly immortalized into a GIF animation with the caption “LOL White People.”



Rebecca Black’s Awkward Dancing Friend

In March 2010, Benni Cinkle, also known as the “awkward dancing friend” of Rebecca Black, became a subject of numerous “LOL White People” GIF animations for her awkward dancing scene in the viral music video sensation “Friday.”



Search Interest



External References

[1] Urban Dictionary – white people’s disease

[2] TV Tropes – White Dude, Black Dude

[3] Stuff White People Like – Standing Still at Concerts

[4] TV Tropes – Acceptable Ethnic Targets

[5]YTMNDWhite People Yay

[6]YTMND Search – White People

[7] Salon – Wonder Showzen

[8] Tumblr – LOL White People


Talking Twin Babies

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About

Talking Twin Babies (also known as “twin babies conversations”) are video remixes using footage of twin toddler boys accompanied by custom subtitles to appear as if the babies are discussing a topical issue, similar to the Hitler Reacts subtitled videos.

Origin

On February 14th, 2011, YouTuber jayrandall22011 uploaded a video of his twin sons titled “Talking Twin Babies.” The video featured two toddler boys babbling incoherently at one another in what appeared to be some sort of primitive baby language.


The original YouTube upload accumulated over 54 million views within 10 months.



Spread

The video hit the front page of Reddit[2] on March 28th, 2011 and received 3,232 up votes prior to being archived. The following day it was posted on BuzzFeed[3] and was subsequently updated with a link[7] to a subtitled version about an escaped Bronx Zoo cobra. On March 31st, 2011, several subtitled versions were posted to the Internet culture blog Urlesque[6] and in an article in The Washington Post.[4] On April 3rd, The Daily Mail[5] published on article revealing that the brothers were Sam and Ren McEntee and were 17-months-old at the time the video was recorded. The mother of the twins maintains the blog Twin Mama Rama[4] that chronicles the lives of her two sons.

Cryptophasia

It has been suggested that the twins were developing an idioglossia called cyptophasia, an autonomous language that twins often develop at young ages that only they can understand. From Wikipedia:[1]

Cryptophasia is a peculiar phenomenon of a language developed by twins (identical or fraternal) that only the two children could understand. The word has its roots from crypto meaning secret and phasia meaning speech disorder. Most linguists associate cryptophasia with idioglossia, which is literally the same, but cryptophasia also includes mirrored actions like twin-walk and identical mannerisms.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Search queries for “talking twins”, “talking twin babies” and “twin babies conversation” spiked in April of 2011, 1 month after the original video had been posted to Reddit.

External References

Redneck Randal

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About

Redneck Randal is an advice animal image macro series centered around a picture of a mustached young man wearing a sleeveless American pride t-shirt and posing with two thumbs up. The captions typically involve poking fun at the lifestyle of so-called American “rednecks[2],” a derogatory slang term for people from the southern United States associated with unabashed American pride, beer drinking, and rural life.[3]

Origin

The earliest known instance of the image macro was shared on Reddit[4] on March 4th, 2011. The caption alludes to an incestual relationship between the character and his daughter, a common trope employed in redneck humor.[5] Originally uploaded via Quickmeme[1], there are 7891 instances of the series on the site as of May 2012.



Following the blog coverage of Redneck Randal, a Memebase[6] user commented on May 11th, 2011 that the identity of the man in the photo is a Texas arcade owner named Cory Clinkscales.[7] Meanwhile, several other commenters claimed that the photo is of a Mississippi resident named Hunter Smith. The image’s original site of origin still remains unclear.

Spread

A compilation of Redneck Randal images were featured on internet humor blog The Bigster[10] on May 22nd, 2011. Two additional sets from the series can be found on image macro gallery site #1 Meme Universal Trend in 2011.[13][14] In 2012, another compilation was hosted on humor blog Runt of the Web.[16] On Reddit, a Redneck Randal image post[8] earned 1172 points on April 12th, 2012. The next month, an instance with the caption “Then I told the teacher lady I ain’t no homosapien, I’m a heterosapien” was featured as the “Meme of the Week” in the Atlanta magazine GA Voice.[15] As of June 2012, there are more than 480 instances[9] of the series on Reddit and more than 10,000 instances on Quickmeme.[1] Redneck Randal has continued to spread on Memebase[11] and Tumblr.[12]

Notable Examples




Almost Politically Correct Redneck

In May 2012, Redditor IanL27 submitted an image macro to the /r/adviceanimals subreddit in a post titled “I present to you: Somewhat Politically Correct Redneck”, which featured a photo of a young shirtless man with a mullet hairstyle standing next to a pickup truck and the caption “Not against gay marriage / unless the couple is colored.” The post was well received on /r/adviceanimals subreddit, spawning a significant volume of image macros that became known as Almost Politically Correct Redneck, portraying the man as a slightly more tolerant peer of Redneck Randal.



Search Interest



External References

Steve Buscemeyes

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About

Steve Buscemeyes are photoshopped images of people, typically celebrities, with Steve Buscemi’s characteristic eyes substituted for their own.

Origin

On April 2st, 2011, the humor website Something Awful posted a Photoshop Friday[1] contest that featured a photo of Steve Buscemi combined with a photo of Justin Bieber created by user Imaginary Friend.



I’m sure you’ve heard some idiot describing a celebrity who kinda looks like a combination of other celebrities as, say, “the lovechild of Dolph Lundgren and Nick Nolte.” And given that you’re reading this on the Internet, you probably had a pedantic response like “it’s obviously impossible for a same-sex couple to produce offspring in such a fashion, and even if they could, they would have been 12 years old when the child was conceived, and furthermore -” Well, let me stop you right there, Dr. Giggles, because technology now enables all sorts of genetic alchemy, and the SA Forum Goons are going to take full advantage! First, though, they’ll make some Photoshops.

Spread

On April 7th, 2011, a thread titled “Justin Bieber with Steve Buscemi Eyes” with the Something Awful photoshopped image reached the front page of Reddit and accumulated 11,059 up votes prior to being archived. The Tumblr blog “Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes”[3], that contains edited images of female celebrities with Steve Buscemi eyes, was created on April 8th, 2011. The following day, BuzzFeed[4] editor Chris Menning posted a compilation of images taken from the “Chick With Steve Buscemeyes” Tumblr. On April 16th, 2011, artist / writer Alex Pardee posted a printable Steve Buscemeyes mask to his personal blog[6] and was subsequently featured on BoingBoing[7] and BuzzFeed.[8]



Notable Examples



The Actor



Steve Buscemi is an American actor from Brooklyn, New York, who is notable for his performances in The Big Lebowski, Ghost World, Fargo and in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire for which he has received a Golden Globe award for Best Actor.

According to Wikipedia[5], his face was badly scarred while aiding a fellow actor in a bar fight:

In April 2001, while shooting the film Domestic Disturbance in Wilmington, North Carolina, Buscemi was slashed and badly scarred on the face while intervening in a bar fight at the Firebelly Lounge between his friend Vince Vaughn, screenwriter Scott Rosenberg and a local man, who allegedly instigated the brawl.

Search Interest

Search queries for “Steve Buscemeyes” peaked in April of 2011, the same month the Reddit thread and Tumblr blog were created.



External References

Shut Up And Take My Money!

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About

Shut up and take my money!” is a catchphrase used to express enthusiastic approval toward a product or idea. It is often associated with an image macro featuring the character Fry from the animated television series Futurama.

Origin

On July 1st, 2010, the “Attack of the Killer App” episode aired during season six of the animated sitcom Futurama. In the episode, the company Mom Industries releases the eyePhone, a parody of the Apple iPhone. When the protagonist Fry attempts to purchase one at a store, he is warned by the cashier about reception and battery life issues to which he interrupts yelling “Shut up and take my money!” while waving several dollar bills (shown at :26 below):

The following day, the German tech blog Crackajack[4] published a post about the episode and included an image macro of Fry with the caption “Shut up and take my money!”



Spread

The phrase is often used on web forums and image boards to express a desire to obtain a certain product or invention, or to show approval for a proposed idea. On Reddit, it is used as the title for posts with pictures and videos of new technology and gadgets. On March 7th, 2011, Redditor calivessel submitted a photo of a credit card with the Fry image printed on top to the /r/pics[10] subreddit. The post managed to reach the front page and accumulated over 4,000 up votes prior to being archived.



The /r/shutupandtakemymoney[2] subreddit was created for “the best, most creative, and classiest gadgets and nerdware on the interwebz” on April 26th, 2011. The domain for the gadget and novelty items retail website shutupandtakemymoney.com was registered on May 3rd, 2011. The meme has since spread to sites like FunnyJunk[8], Tumblr[7] and deviantArt.[9] A Facebook[5] page for “Shut Up and Take My Money” has received 1,895 likes as of March, 7th, 2012.

Exploitables

The original Fry image has been used as a template for a number of exploitable derivatives, using the phrasal template “Shut up and take my (X)!”



Search Interest

External References

Crazy Girlfriend Praying Mantis

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About

Crazy Girlfriend Praying Mantis is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photo of a praying mantis set against a blue and teal colorwheel background. The overlaid text typically describes what an overbearing, irrational or obsessive girlfriend might say to her significant other.

Origin

The first image was posted to Reddit on February 1st, 2011, using a color drawing of a praying mantis. In the comments, Redditor JakeCameraAction[1] suggested using an actual photograph of a praying mantis and provided a template that has been used since.



The “praying mantis” analogy to an intimidating girlfriend stems from the common association between female praying mantis and sexual cannibalism, in which a female kills and consumes her male partner before, during, or after mating.

Spread

The website Smosh[2] featured a round-up of images on April 15th, 2011. More derivatives have been posted on sites like FunnyJunk[3] , Reddit[4], and the Body Building Forums.[5] The Crazy Girlfriend Praying Mantis Tumblr[6] was created on March 17th, 2011, further bringing the series into the light of a broader audience. The meme remains in active circulation under the hashtag #Crazy Girlfriend Praying Mantis.

Notable Examples



Derivative: Jackass Boyfriend

A thread was posted in Reddit’s female oriented subreddit TwoXChromosomes titled “In response to the Crazy Praying Mantis Girlfriend Meme… I give you Jackass Boyfriend” on March 12th, 2011, and featured a picture of a donkey with overlaid text associated with obnoxious male behavior.[7]



Blank Template



Search Interest

Search queries started picking up in early March around a month after the first Reddit thread was posted. As of June 2011 they have fallen back down to insignificant levels.



External References

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