About

*Emily Gould is an American blogger and novelist best known for her personal blog, Emily Magazine, and her time spent as the editor of Gawker.

Online History

Emily Magazine

On October 13th, 2005, Gould launched her personal blog, Emily Magazine^[6] with entry titled “Dumb as a Post,” which explained her motivation for starting a blog:

“Welcome to my totally private diary on the internerd. Emily Magazine is here to fill a gaping niche: the world wide information superhighway does not have enough first person blah blah blah. And even if it was already glutted, my thoughts would be different and special because they’re mine.”

Gawker

Goulding became an editor at Gawker^[9] on November 1st, 2006, after working as an associate editor at Hyperion Books. She left Gawker^[8] on December 31st, 2007.

Cooking the Books

On August 8th, 2010, Gould launched her web series, Cooking the Books^[7] on the web video platform Blip.TV The series features Gould interview authors while they prepare a dish. The series ran for 25 episodes, and many famous authors including Jennifer Egan and Sam Lipsyte.

Emily Books

On October 4th, 2011, Gould launched^[3] Emilly Books,^[4] the first independent e-bookstore, with Ruth Curry. The e-bookstore also acts as a book subscription service, with visitors able to purchase a subscription so the one book per month they add to their store downloads automatically, or they can purchase the books on a title by title basis. Each month the store also features essays on the selected book. The first book added to their store was the novel No More Nice Girls by Ellen Willis. In September 2013, the store launched an ios7 app^[5] which allows subscribers to read each month’s book along with corresponding essays and interviews.

Social Media Presence

Gould created her personal Tumblr blog^[2] on June 5th, 2009. As of June 2014, Gould’s Twitter account^[1] has gained over 13,000 followers.

Criticism

On May 23rd, 2008, the New York Post^[10] published an article titled “The Dangers of Blogger Love,” written by Joshua David Stein, another Gawker blogger who had dated Gould and felt frustrated they she had blogged about their relationship.

Search Interest

External References

About

Tubgirl is a shock image depicting a naked, masked woman lying in a tub with a fountain of yellowish orange liquid gushing from her raised buttocks onto her face, the apparent result of an orange juice enema.

Origin

Sometime before December 12, 2000, Rotten.com featured the image in an article called “Fecal Japan”, which claimed the material was popular in the country.^[1]

Spread

The domain TubGirl.com was first registered on February 15, 2002.^[2].

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Archive of Rotten.com – “Feco Japanese I Really Think So”

^[2]DomainTools – TubGirl.com

[Entry under construction]

About

Cleganebowl is a theory that states that Sandor Clegane, a character from George RR Martin’s fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire will be chosen as the Faith’s champion in Cersei’s trial by combat, and therefore finally have the opportunity to fight his brother, Gregor Clegane.

Origin

George RR Martin published A Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which the HBO show Game of Thrones is based on, on August 6th, 1996. The first documented mention of the Cleganebowl theory online comes from an archived 4chan thread from March 20, 2013.^[1]

External Links

About

Straight White Boys Texting is a single topic blog featuring screen shots of unsolicited texts and instant messages sent from men that are aggressively sexual even in the face of an obviously uninterested recipient. In June 2014, the popularity of the blog rose dramatically after a series of feminist hashtags on the topic of harassment surfaced on Twitter.

Origin

Straight White Boys Texting^[1] Tumblr blog was created on January 11th, 2014. In the about section, the creator explains the story behind the title of the blog, saying:

“The name of this blog is based off of the phenomenon of the “straight white boy text” aka asking “hey what’s your bra size ;)” in the middle of a conversation, or things like “what would you do if you were here haha lol ;)”. Basically things that even if you want to sext with the person, they basically completely ruin the mood either because they’re not sexy or because (in the case of the second) it pretty much puts all the sexting work on you. The phrase “you sext like a straight white boy” comes from this, so yes it’s based on a generalization but I’ve heard people say that sentence to guys of all races and orientations.”

Since its launch in January, the blog has seen a steady increase in post frequency; the number of total posts rose from 20 posts in April to 50 in May, then increased seven folds to 360 submissions in June. The blog accepts user submissions.

Spread

On May 30th, 2014, The Daily Dot^[3] published an article titled “The worst of straight white boys texting in one beautiful Tumblr,” which featured the blog and attributed the added attention to the blog to be a product of recent online feminist trends like the #YesAllWomen hashtag. The same day it was featured in PaperMag’s^[4]“The Best, Worst and Weirdest of the Week,” round-up as the Most Cringe-Worthy Tumblr of the Week. On June 2nd, the Tumblr blog created a corresponding Twitter account^[2], in less than a month the account gained over 1,000 followers. On June 24th, 2014, Jezebel^[7] published a post titled “For Your Cringing Pleasure: Texts From Straight White Boys.” The following day several sites covered the blog including Buzzfeed^[5] and Huffington Post^[6].

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“I Came Out to Have a Good Time and I’m Honestly Feeling So Attacked Right Now” is an expression used to sarcastically complain about being criticized or challenged. Although the quote originally appeared in a post by Tumblr user chardonnaymami, its source has been falsely attributed to a screenshot of a tweet supposedly posted by singer Nick Jonas of The Jonas Brothers.

Origin

On June 23rd, 2014, Tumblr^[3] user chardonnaymami posted a transcript of a conversation she had with her mother in which she tries to explain her reason after being questioned for wanting to keep a bottle of Mai Tai cocktail syrup (shown below). In the following week, the post received more than 66,000 notes.

Disputed Origin

In Season 6 Episode 9 of the reality television show Ru Paul’s Drag Race, originally aired on April 14th, 2014, contestant Laganja Estranja makes a similar complaint about being attacked while arguing with drag performer Adore Delano (shown below). Many have raised her quote as a possible inspiration for Tumblr user chardonnaymami’s post but this was later denied by chardonnaymami in post about the quote’s origin on June 30th.^[5]

Adore Delano: “I’m not attacking you!”
Laganja Estranja: “I feel very attacked!”

Tumblr user charliekellys^[6] claimed that the meme was actually a paraphrase of a quote from the scene in 22 Jump Street where Jonah Hill is fighting Jillian Bell, and this theory seems to have spread quickly, but so far it remains unsubstantiated. Chardonnaymami vehemently denied^[7] having even seen the film.

Spread

On June 26th, 2014, Tumblr^[4] user Audize posted a transcript of a conversation with a cashier from a MAC Cosmetics retail store in which she responds with the same quote after being told how much her purchases will cost (shown below). Within 72 hours, the post accumulated upwards of 45,500 notes.

On the following day, Tumblr^[1] user twerking-to-hell reblogged a post insulting the Jonas Brothers with the addition of what appeared to be a screenshot of a tweet by Nick Jonas complaining about feeling “attacked” (shown below). In the first 48 hours, the post gained over 84,000 notes. However, the validity of the screenshot has been disputed by some who claim there is no record that Jonas actually posted the tweet.

Also on June 27th, the @CommonGayTweets^[2] Twitter feed posted a tweet referencing the quote (shown below).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

Overview

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby is a United States Supreme Court case between the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and Oklahoma-based arts and crafts store chain Hobby Lobby which examined whether closely held private corporations are required to cover the costs of contraception for female employees as part of the health care coverage mandated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In June 2014, the case became a heated topic of bipartisan debate in the social media after the Supreme Court ruled that family-owned corporations are exempt from such regulations under the protection of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws concerning religious freedom.

Background

On March 25th, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court began to hear arguments^[2] from both sides in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Store and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius , the petitioners of which were later changed to Sylvia Burwell after her appointment as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the two cases, the Christian owners of the craft store and the Mennonite-run cabinet store, respectively, held that they should not be required to provide coverage for their employees’ contraception, including birth control pills, because contraception goes against their religious beliefs.

The Ruling

On June 30th, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the companies,^[3] saying they wouldn’t be forced to cover birth control pills if it went against their religious beliefs, with five judges for the decision (Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito) and four against it (Sotomayor, Kegan, Ginsburg and Breyer).

Implications

Legal experts and supporters of the contraption mandate say the potential consequences of the ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby could extend beyond the issue at hand to the point where companies could object against covering other medical procedures, like vaccination, blood transfusion and stem cell treatments, on religious grounds, not to mention its impact on safety and civil rights laws.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

During the 24 hours leading up to the Supreme Court ruling, the hashtag #SCOTUS^[4] was tweeted out over 94,000 times. On June 30th, after the ruling was given, the official Hobby Lobby Twitter account^[5] sent out a tweet celebrating their victory. In less than 24 hours, the tweet received over 200 favorites and more than 200 retweets.

The same day several websites published articles explaining how readers could protest Hobby Lobby and the Supreme Court decision, including HyperVocal’s^[6]“Life Hack: Make Feminist Art Using Hobby Lobby Products,” which suggests Hobby Lobby employees use their discounts to buy craft supplies to make feminist art to protest the anti-feminist ruling.

@SCOTUSblog

On the day of the ruling, many angry Twitter users mistook the Twitter account SCOTUSblog^[8], a newsfeed run by the political blog with the same name, for an official account affiliated with the U.S. Supreme Court. As Buzzfeed^[7] reported, the Twitter account began tweeting humorous responses to Twitter users who incorrectly directed their anger at the Supreme Court decision at @SCOTUSblog.

Ginsberg Dissent

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg produced a 19-page dissent against the supreme court ruling which was also released on June 30th. Several websites wrote guides and recaps of Ginsburg’s dissent including Gawker^[9] and Mother Jones.^[10] In addition to criticizing the ruling for allowing the religious beliefs of employers to be imposed upon their workers, Ginsberg warned against the legal precedent the ruling could set, saying:

“Would the exemption…extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah’s Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations[?]…Not much help there for the lower courts bound by today’s decision.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Ann Coulter is an American conservative political commentator who is well known for her conservative political opinions and polemical statements as expressed on TV shows and social media, as well as in several books she authored. Due to her perceived attempts to intentionally generate public outrage with controversial remarks, her behavior has often been described as resembling that of an Internet troll.

Career

After graduating law school, Coulter initially served as a law clerk for federal judge Pasco Bowman in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1994, Coulter was hired to work for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee under a Republican-controlled Congress. In 1998, Coulter’s first book High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton was released, which outlined Coulter’s arguments in favor of former United States President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Coulter went on to author nine additional books, including Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (2002), Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (2003), How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) (2004), Godless: The Church of Liberalism (2006), If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans (2007), Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America (2009), Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America (2011), Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama (2012) and Never Trust a Liberal Over 3 (2013).

Online History

In the late 1990s, Coulter wrote a syndicated column featured on several conservative websites, including Human Events Online, WorldNetDaily, TownHall, FrontPageMag and Jewish World Review. In 2001, the National Review Online terminated Coulter’s editorship for accusing the publication of censorship on the political talk show Politically Incorrect. On October 8th, 2007, Coulter revealed she wished Jews would convert to Christianity in order to be “perfected” during an interview on the CNBC talk shot The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch (shown below, left). On October 24th, the Barely Political YouTube channel uploaded a parody music video titled “The Ann Coulter Song,” in which a Jewish woman begs for Coulter to “perfect” her by converting her to Christianity (shown below, right). In the next seven years, the video garnered upwards of 730,000 views and 4,000 comments.

In September 2010, Coulter launched the @AnnCoulter^[8] Twitter feed, gathering more than 523,000 followers over the next four years. On November 11th, 2011, YouTuber Gustavo Lagos uploaded a montage of Coulter clips in which she makes several controversial statements (shown below).

Reddit AMA

On October 21st, 2013, Coulter participated in an “ask me anything” (AMA) post in the /r/IAmA^[3] subreddit. For verification, she posted a tweet^[4] joking that Reddit was performing as poorly as the Obamacare website (shown below).

Prior to being archived, the post received a score of 0 and over 6,800 comments, many of which attacked and criticized her values and politic opinions. That day, several image macros referencing the AMA reached Reddit’s front page (shown below).^[6][7]

#BringBackOurGirls Tweet

On May 11th, 2014, Coulter tweeted^[5] a photo of herself holding a “sign”;http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sign-holding with the hashtag “#BringBackOurCountry” as a parody of the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag campaign raising awareness for kidnapped Nigerian school girls (shown below).

The tweet was widely criticized for being insensitive and making light of a serious issue. In response, Twitter users began photoshopping the sign with various humorous statements. On May 12th, Gawker^[10] published an article highlighting several notable example tweets (shown below).

2014 World Cup Controversy

On June 25th, 2014, Coulter published a column titled “America’s Favorite National Pastime: Hating Soccer”^[1] (paraphrased below), in which she insulted soccer fans for not being real Americans and criticized the sport and the World Cup for encouraging the United States “moral decay.” The following day, Redditor SaintAnarchist submitted the column to the /r/forwardsfromgrandma^[2] subreddit.

Reputation

Coulter has a reputation for saying intentionally controversial or offensive polemic statements to generate an outraged response. On October 24th, 2012, Death and Taxes Mag^[9] published an article written by Ned Hepburn arguing that Coulter had made a career for herself using tactics bearing similarities to the behavior of an Internet troll.

Personal Life

Coulter was born on December 8th, 1961 in New York, New York. She identifies herself as a Christian but has not professed belonging to a specific denomination. Coulter has publicly stated that she is pro-life, opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, opposes same-sex marriage and supports the United States “War on Drugs.”

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Georgia Toddler’s Hot Car Death refers to the ongoing police investigation of the death of two-year-old Cooper Harris who died from hyperthermia after his father, Justin Ross Harris, allegedly forgot to drop him off at daycare and left him in the backseat of the car for eight hours. The case gained much online attention after it became evident that both of the toddler’s parents had conducted online research about hypothermia-related deaths caused by prolonged exposure to heat in automobiles.

Background

On the morning of June 18th, 2014, Justin Ross Harris,^[1] a 33-year-old web designer for Home Depot in Cobb County, Georgia, drove to work with his two-year-old son Cooper in the backseat. According to Harris, he was supposed to drop him off at day care before heading to his office located in the same building, but on this day, he forgot that his son was in the car and went straight to work instead. Harris claims that he didn’t realize he had left his son in the car until he was driving home from work at the end of the day, at which point, he pulled into a shopping square and attempted to perform CPR on the boy. Witnesses say Harris seemed distraught and screamed “what have I done.” The child was pronounced dead at the scene and the father was taken into police custody for questioning.

Notable Developments

On the day after the incident, Harris was charged with felony murder and cruelty to children in the first degree. During the interview with the investigators, the suspect told police that he used the Internet to research child deaths inside vehicles. Harris was not permitted to attend his son’s funeral, which was held on June 28th,^[14] though he did address the attendees via phone.

News Media Coverage

That same day, several major U.S. news sites reported on the arrest of the father on murder, including USA Today^[11], NBC News^[14], CBS News^[12], ABC News^[3] and CNN.^[6][12][13]

Petition

On June 23rd, 2014, YouTuber Ross Harris^[9] uploaded a video titled “Ross Harris Support Video,” which alleges that Vic Reynolds, the district attorney who has been assigned to the case, was pursuing charges against the boy’s father to bolster his own career, and calls for Harris to be allowed bail so he can grieve with his family.

The same day, an anonymous sympathizer of Harris created a Change.org petition^[4] urging District Attorney Vic Reynolds to drop the charges against him. As of June 25th,^[5] the petition has gained over 11,000 signatures. However, the petition was closed on June 28th, after new evidence against Harris emerged. A message on the petition reads:

“This petition is closed due to the new information released in regards to this case.”

As of July 1st, the petition has less than 700 remaining signatures.

Search History Discovery

On June 24th, the Cobb County Police issued a new arrest warrant^[1] for Harris after discovering that he had returned to his vehicle in the parking lot at lunchtime. During the interrogation process, Harris told police that he had recently searched for information on deaths caused by being left in hot cars on his computer. On June 29th, a search and seizure warrant was issued for Harris’ personal possessions, which included:

“a Dell Dimension 9200 Computer Tower, Google Chrome cast, a MacBook Pro Laptop, a Lenovo T530 Think Pad, an Apple MacBook Pro, and iPhone and an iPad.”

Also on June 29th, the police revealed Harris wife and the mother of his son, Leanna Harris, had also searched for information on death’s caused by being left in a hot car.

Search Interest

External Links

Overview

DiGiorno’s Design-A-Pizza Kit is a promotional web application introduced by the DiGiorno brand of frozen pizzas in which users can create a custom arrangement of various toppings on a blank template of a cheese pizza pie. Upon its launch in June 2014, the website was raided by 4chan users with a series of design submissions that are visually evocative of well-known internet memes and pop culture references.

Background

In mid-June 2014, the DiGiorno pizza company launched the “Design a Pizza Kit”^[1] web application for users to create their own virtual pizza images (shown below). The app was designed to promote the company’s frozen pizza product with the same name that comes with individually packed toppings for custom arrangement.

Notable Developments

On June 30th, a 4chan user submitted a link to the app accompanied by a picture of a pizza with toppings placed in the form of a swastika symbol followed by the phrase “fuck jews,” which urged other users to create their own pizza designs (shown below).

A collection of examples was subsequently uploaded to Imgur^[2] later that day and shared on the /r/4chan^[3] subreddit where it gained over 2,800 points and 200 comments in the first 24 hours (shown below).

Also on June 30th, Redditor cofiend submitted a screenshot of a /tv/ (television and film) thread featuring a pizza designed to look to the character Bane from the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises to /r/4chan^[7] (shown below). In the coming days, notable examples were highlights on the Internet news sites The Daily Dot,^[4] UpRoxx^[5] and Fark.^[6]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Data Visualization is a type of descriptive statistics using visual representations of data in various forms.

Online History

On March 25th, 2008, the subreddit /r/visualization^[6] was created for discussions related to information visualization and datasets. On January 5th, 2009, the /r/dataviz^[5] subreddit was launched for “beautiful & informative representations of the abstract.” That month, the data visualization news blog Datavisualization.ch^[7] was created. In July 2010, data journalist David McCandless gave a TED Talk titled “the beauty of data visualization” (shown below).

On February 14th, 2012, the /r/dataisbeautiful^[2] subreddit was launched for data visualization submissions and discussions. In 2014, statistician Tyler Vigen launched a blog^[1] highlighting graphs showing high correlations between random, unrelated statistics (shown below).

On Xkcd

The webcomic Xkcd often incorporates various data visualizations in comics. On September 27th, 2010, the site^[4] published a dot plot depicting the “frequency with which various adjectives are intensified with obscenities” (shown below).

On November 21st, 2011, a data visualization of currency in dollars, thousands, millions and billions was posted on the site (shown below).^[3]

Web Apps

The community platform Visual.ly allows users to create various types of data visualizastions and infographics.

Related Memes

Infographics

Infographics are images conveying information about a specific theme or topic which often contain graphs and other forms of data visualization.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

The Facebook Emotional Contagion Experiment was a psychological study conducted by a group of researchers from Facebook and Cornell University to test whether an emotional bias in the newsfeed content of a Facebook user can affect his/her own emotional state. Upon its publication in June 2014, the paper was criticized for toying with Facebook users’ emotions without their consent and for failing to gain prior approval from the Cornell ethics committee.

Background

On June 17th, 2014, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences^[1] (PNAS) published a paper titled “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks” authored by Adam D. I. Kramer of Facebook’s Core Data Science Team, Jamie E. Guillory of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California and Jeffery T. Hancock from the Departments of Communication and Information Science at Cornell University. As part of the experiment, Facebook data scientists altered random users’ news feed algorithms by skewing the number of positive or negative terms to see if people would respond with increasingly negative or positive status updates of their own. The study found that increased exposure to specific terms resulted in increased expression of that same type.

“when positive expressions were reduced, people produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts; when negative expressions were reduced, the opposite pattern occurred. These results indicate that emotions expressed by others on Facebook influence our own emotions, constituting experimental evidence for massive-scale contagion via social networks.”

Notable Developments

News Media Coverage

On June 26th, the science and technology magazine New Scientist^[4] published an article reporting on the findings of the experiment. In the coming days, other news sites published articles about the experiment and the growing public backlash, including International Business Times,^[9] The Telegraph,^[10] The Guardian,^[11] RT,^[12] The Washington Post,^[13] Business Insider,^[14] Salon,^[15] AV Club,[16 Forbes^[17] and the BBC.^[18]

Online Reaction

On June 27th, OpenNews director of content Erin Kissane posted a tweet^[7] urging her followers to delete their Facebook accounts and for Facebook employees to quit their jobs (shown below).

On June 28th, Redditor hazysummersky submitted a link to an AV Club^[16] article about the experiment to the /r/technology^[3] subreddit, where it gained over 3,500 points and 1,300 comments in the first 72 hours. That same day, CEO of the Department of Better Technology Clay Johnson tweeted^[8] that he found the Facebook experiment “terrifying” (shown below).

Ethics Committee Approval Controversy

On June 28th, 2014, The Atlantic quoted PNAS editor Susan Fiske, who claimed she was concerned about the study but was told that the author’s “local institutional review board had approved it.” On June 29th, Forbes^[6] published an article about the ethics review controversy, which pointed out part of Facebook’s data use policy revealing that the company may use user data for “internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement” (shown below).

On June 30th, Cornell University^[5] published a statement indicating that since the research was conducted independently, the university’s review board had deemed it unnecessary for review.

“Because the research was conducted independently by Facebook and Professor Hancock had access only to results – and not to any individual, identifiable data at any time – Cornell University’s Institutional Review Board concluded that he was not directly engaged in human research and that no review by the Cornell Human Research Protection Program was required.”

Adam Kramer’s Apology

On June 29th, Kramer posted a Facebook^[2] status update explaining the methodology behind the experiment an apologizing for any anxiety caused by the paper. In the first 48 hours, the post gathered more than 750 likes and 140 comments.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

Overview

#AskThicke is a hahstag introduced by VH1 in order to solicit questions for a Q&A they planned to conduct with singer Robin Thicke. The hashtag was quickly overtaken by Twitter users mocking and criticizing Thicke and his most popular song ‘Blurred Lines.’

Background

On June 30th, 2014, VH1 sent out a tweet^[2] asking Twitter users to tweet their question for singer Robin Thicke using the hashtag #AskThicke in preparation for a Q&A which VH1 would hold with the singer on July 1st, at 1:30 PM EST. In less than 24 hours the tweet gained over 200 retweets.

Notable Developments

The Twitter hashtag was soon being used by Twitter users to accuse Thicke of creating misogynistic lyrics and behaving in a creepy maner in his public attempts to win back his estranged wife, Paula Patton. On July 1st, Glamour^[6] published a post titled “Robin Thicke’s Twitter Takeover was a BAD idea,” which pointed out the Twitter hashtag was being used to criticize Thicke and included some examples. Several other sites published roundups of tweets using the hashtag to criticize Thicke that day including Jezebel^[3] and The Huffington Post.^[4] Within 24 hours the hashtag^[5] was tweeted out over 67,000 times.

VH1 Q&A

On July 1st, VH1 held their Q&A with Thicke on Twitter, opening with a question of their own asking:

“There has been a lot of controversy around your song “Blurred Lines” and new album, “Paula,” how do you respond? #AskThicke"

Thicke replied with his first tweet of the Q&A:

Thicke answered questions submitted through the hashtag which did not mock him, or mocked him in a superficial way. When a Twitter user pointed out the Thicke critics using the hashtag he responded, “I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” He answered 12 questions over the course of 30 minutes before signing off.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External Links

About

Rock Simulator 2014 is a third-person action-adventure video game in which the player assumes the role of a rock.

Origin

The game was first proposed by Strange Panthers, an independent game studio located in Tampa, Florida.

For a long time, there has been one game missing from the market, a genuine rock simulator. I am here for you today to introduce you to Rock Simulator 2014. This simulator is a rock enthusiasts dream. You can watch beautiful rocks in any location in the world. From grass plains to salt flats, there are dozens of hand designed BEAUTIFUL environments.

Search Interest

External References

About

Ryutaro Nonomura’s Crying Apology refers to a series of parody images and videos targeted at Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura (Japanese: 野々村竜太郎), after a video showing him breaking down into tears during a press conference was uploaded to YouTube. After the video was uploaded, it quickly went viral, spawning many parodies.

Origin

On July 1st, 2014, Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura held a press conference in which he aimed to apologize for his suspected misuse of 3 million yen. However, during the conference, the 47-year-old provincial politician started to break down in to tears while trying to defend his actions, and began wailing uncontrollably. Within the same day, a YouTube clip depicting his outburst was uploaded (shown, below), and soon garnered over 800,000 views within its first 24 hours.

Spread

Photoshopped images, as well as MAD videos mocking Nonomura were soon uploaded to a variety of sites across the web, most notably Twitter^[1] and Nico Nico Douga (NND).^[2] The story was also quickly covered by a variety of different news sites across the web, most notably Kotaku^[3], NewsAsia^[4], The Japan Times^[5], The Independent^[6] and The Guardian^[7].

Notable Examples

【ニコニコ動画】【ダブステップ】野々村竜太郎議員をリミックスしてみた【ニコニコ動画】兵庫県の県議会議員が全く気付かないうちにエンダアアアアアア
Left: Dubstep Mix | Right: "I Will Always Love You"
【ニコニコ動画】ﾌﾞﾛｯｸﾎﾞｰﾙｩｵｩｳｱ゛ｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱーーーｩｱﾝ！【ニコニコ動画】野々村竜太郎議員が全く気付かないうちにエシディシになる
Left: BGM from Kirby’s Block Ball | Right: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Parody

Photos

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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About

Things Tim Howard Could Save is a photoshop meme based on cutout images of United States soccer team’s goalkeeper Tim Howard making super saves during the round-of-16 match against Belgium at the 2014 World Cup, bearing many similarities to the Guillermo Ochoa Saves photoshop series .

Origin

On July 1st, 2014, the United States competed against Belgium in the round-of-16 match at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Despite their ultimate 2 -1 loss to the Belgian side in extra time, the team’s performance was mostly met with praises, particularly for the goalkeeper who was named the Man of the Match after making the most saves in a World Cup match since 1966.

That evening, Twitter user @SteweyGriffin^[9] posted a photo in which Howard is shown blocking singer Janet Jackson’s nipple during her controversial wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in February 2004 (shown below). In the first 24 hours, the tweet received more than 1,800 retweets and 1,700 favorites.

Spread

On the same day, the @sixpacksportz Twitter feed posted a tweet featuring a photoshopped image of Howard saving the lion character Mufasa from the 1994 animated musical The Lion King, gaining over 780 retweets and 360 favorites in 24 hours (shown below).

Also on July 1st, 2014, Tumblr^[2] user Hankotoast posted a photoshopped comic panel in which Howard’s face is superimposed over a human wall (shown below, left) and Tumblr user rainbowkitteh^[3] highlighted an image macro referring to Howard as “the Great Wall of America” (shown below, right).

On July 2nd, the @MadeByTim Twitter feed posted a photoshopped picture of Howard slapping American football player Blaine Gabbert in the face and @Mercedes AMGF1 tweeted an image of Howard diving in front of a pair of race cars (shown below). Also on July 2nd, several news site highlighted notable examples from the series, including UpRoxx, The Huffington Post,^[5] The Independent,^[6] Time Magazine^[7] and Mashable.^[8]

Notable Examples

Wikipedia Edit

Following the World Cup match, the Wikipedia page for the Secret of Defense of the United States of America was briefly changed from Chuck Hagel to Tim Howard (shown below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

Overview

Kendall Jones’ Hunting Photo Controversy refers to the online backlash against Texas Tech University student Kendall Jones’ souvenir photographs of herself posing with endangered wild animals that she had killed while safari hunting in Africa.

Background

On February 18th, 2014, Kendall Jones, a student and cheerleader at Texas Tech University, created her public Facebook page^[3] after signing a contract^[2] with the Sportsman Channel for a reality TV show about her, slated to air in January 2015. According to her Facebook profile description, she first went to Africa and witnessed her father hunting “the big five” (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros) as a child and first shot a rhino herself in South Africa in 2008, at the age of 13. Jones returned to Africa on May 23rd, 2014, and on June 6th, she posted a photograph of her posing with what appears to be a dead Zebra. In less than a month, the picture gained over 1,000 likes and more than 1,000 comments, the majority of which condemned the teenager for hunting.

Jones continued to post photos of the African animals she had hunted and killed, including a photo of a deceased elephant posted on June 11th, and a white springbok posted on June 19th. As of July 2014, the Facebook page has gained over 160,000 likes.

Notable Developments

Petitions

On June 22nd, AVAAZ^[5] user Neill A. created a petition titled “Facebook (CEO-Mark Zuckerberg): Remove the page of Kendall Jones that promotes animal cruelty!” He went on to explain why he believes Jones page should be taken down, saying:

“For the sake of all animals, especially the animals in the African region… where hunters are going for fun just to kill an animal! Some people have been reporting the pages lately but it seems Facebook is not concerned about what Kendall Jones is promoting in her page.”

In less than two weeks, the petition gained over 120,000 signatures.

On June 25th, Change.org^[6] user Kieron Brown started a petition on titled “Help stop Kendall Jones from hunting in Africa.” He explained the reasons for starting the petition, saying:

“Kendall Jones is an American born hunter who has entered the continent and has been hunting African wildlife under the facade of conservation. She has publicly stated that she hopes to have a television hunting show and she is using endangered and helpless African animals as a stepping to further her popularity on social media platforms.

Within a week, the petition gained over 42,000 signatures.

News Media Coverage

On July 1st, 2014, Buzzfeed^[7] published a post titled “People Are Trying To Get Facebook To Ban A 19-Year-Old Cheerleader Who Hunts Endangered Animals,” which featured coverage of Jones’ Facebook page and the petitions against it. The page and surrounding controversy were covered by many other sites the same day including The Huffington Post^[1] and the Daily Mail.^[8]

Jones’ Explanations

In response to the negative comments her photos were receiving, many of which attacked her for hunting, specifically endangered animals, Jones posted a lengthy explanation of her photos posed with a dead rhino, lion and cheetah on June 25th, saying:

“Ok I’m gonna explain for the 53567544th time. The rhino was a green hunt, meaning it was darted and immobilized in order to draw blood for testing, DNA profiling, microchip ping the horn and treating a massive leg injury most likely caused by lions. People try to say that lions will not attack a hippo, rhino or elephant, quiet the contrary. Lions attack and kill the young of these species. The adults try to fight the lions off and are regularly successful, but do get injuries in the process. As for the lion that I shot with my bow, it was within a 45,000 acre fence with other lions and plains game. It’s in S Africa, so yes it was within a fence, but 45,000 acres is the equivalent to 70 square miles and considered fair chase. Lions that have come in and taken over a pride, not only kick the older lion out, but will also kill all of his cubs so that the lioness will come into heat again. Controlling the male lion population is important within large fenced areas like these in order to make sure the cubs have a high survival rate. Funds from a hunt like this goes partially to the government for permits but also to the farm owner as an incentive to keep and raise lions on their property. If there was no value, the farmers would kill all of the lions to have a higher survival and breeding rate in their plains game populations. Lions take a toll on plains game, thus farmers need money to purchase plains game and change out bloodlines within their lion prides to prevent interbreeding. Now to the leopard, this was a free ranging leopard in Zimbabwe on communal land. The money for the permit goes to the communal council and to their village people. Within this area of approximately 250,000 acres, 107 head of cattle was killed in a single year due to leopard kills. Leopard populations have to be controlled in certain areas. So yes, my efforts do go to conservation efforts and are all fair chase, not canned hunts. In fact these are very mentally and physically challenging hunts, on foot tracking and walking miles and miles a day.

On July 1st, Jones launched a Facebook group for those who support her titled “Support Kendall.”^[4] She explains her reasons for creating the second Facebook page on her original page, saying:

“Lot’s of folks out there trying to get this page shut down and unfortunately Facebook is removing content that promotes the safe and ethical conservation and research of Rhinos. Because of that, we’ve launched a secondary page where supporters can help us stand tall in our freedom to share and promote the 100% legal activities that hunters and conservationists continue to engage in. Let’s #Support Kendall

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Let it Goat is a mobile game in which the player must navigate a goat character through a side-scrolling platform and jump over a series of obstacles by touching the screen at the right time. Its name is a wordplay made in reference to the Frozen song “Let it Go.”=

Origin

“Let It Goat” was created by popular Vine users Jack Gilinsky and Jack Johnson^[1] and released by SkyVu Entertainment on Apple’s iOS app store^[1] on June 29th, 2014. Gilinsky and Johnson created the game during an internship with SkyVu. In the game, the player assumes the role of a pixelated jumping goat and must tap the screen to help the goat navigate a series of roads while avoiding zombies and mountains. The constant need to tap the screen is similar to the popular mobile game Flappy Bird. In less than a week the game gained over 900 reviews with an average rating of five stars.

Spread

On July 1st, 2014, Twitter user BoCai10^[6] introduced the hashtag #LetItGoat. Within 24 hours the hashtag^[5] was tweeted out over 27,000 times.

On July 2nd, Jack Gilinsky sent out a tweet^[3] announcing the release of Let it Goat. In less than 24 hours the tweet gained over 2,000 retweets and over 7,000 favorites. The same day Jack Johnson sent out a tweet^[4] also announcing the game’s release. In less than 24 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and over 7,000 favorites.

The game was profiled by several sites including Silicon Prairie News and Omaha.com.^[7]

Notable Examples

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External References

About

Tucker Max is an American blogger, author and public speaker who gained much notoriety online for his autobiographical accounts of drunken escapades, sexual encounters and other forms of debauchery published through his website in the early 2000s.

History

In 2000, Max launched the blog TuckerMax.com^[1] after betting a friend that he would place an application^[2] for women who wished to date him on the Internet.^[10] He subsequently removed the website prior to securing legal work during that summer. In April 2001, the Writers Club Press published Max’s first dating advice book The Definitive Book of Pick Up Lines. In September 2002, TuckerMax.com was relaunched with a story named “Sushi Pants,”^[3] in which he retells a story about losing his pants after becoming inebriated while experimenting with a portable alcohol breathalyzer at a sushi restaurant in Boca, Raton, Florida. In 2003, he was sued by former girlfriend and the 1999 Miss Vermont Katy Johnson for posting an account of their relationship on his blog. In June that year, Max’s second book Belligerence and Debauchery: The Tucker Max Stories was released.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

In January 2006, Citadel Press published Max’s autobiographical short story book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. That year, the book briefly became the New York Times #1 Bestseller.

On September 25th, 2009, a film adaptation of the book was released, which was poorly received by critics scoring 20% on the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes.^[5] Many protests were staged at screenings of the film by demonstrators who accused Max of promoting rape culture in his stories involving sex with intoxicated women.^[6]

On September 28th, 2010, Simon & Schuster published a sequel to the book titled Assholes Finish First, featuring more of Max’s anecdotes involving sex and alcohol consumption. On October 17th, the hardcover ranked #3 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Planned Parenthood Stunt

In 2012, Max’s publicist Ryan Holiday offered the nonprofit family planning service Planned Parenthood $500,000 to name an abortion clinic in North Texas after his client. On April 3rd, Forbes Magazine^[7] published an article by Holiday in which he revealed the organization refused to take the donation over worries about Max’s reputation as a misogynist.

The Mating Grounds

In April 2014, Max, along with American evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, launched the website The Mating Grounds,^[8] which describes itself as a “resource dedicated to teaching men everything they need to know about sex, dating and women.” In the site description^[9], the pair assert that the pickup artist community as “sociopathic, bullshit scammers” and claim they can provide superior mating strategies for men.

Reputation

Max has a reputation for embellishing and fabricating stories for pageviews, book sales and advancing his career. On June 29th, 2006, YouTuber fckangel uploaded footage of Max telling an anal sex story on the Opie & Anthony radio show, during which the hosts and several callers accused him of fabricating the story (shown below).

Fratire Genre

Both Max and fellow blogger George Ouzounian (a.k.a. Maddox) are often credited with founding the “fratire” literary genre, which was coined by The New York Times^[4] reporter Warren St. John when describing works viewed as the masculine equivalent of “chick lit.”

Personal Life

Max was born on September 27th, 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1998, Max completed a bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Chicago and went on to earn a Juris Doctor at the Duke Law School in 2001.

Search Interest

External References

Note: This entry is being researched and updated in real time. Request editorship now!

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Overview

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (HS) is a free to play digital collectible card game (CCG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Hearthstone were announced at PAX East in March of 2013. Hearthstone entered Closed Beta in August of 2013, Open Beta in January of 2014 and released in March of 2014. Ever since Release, Hearthstone has spawned several memes within the community.

Notable Developments

Card parodies.

Hearthstone’s cards have served as exploitables ever since the announcement of the game. Often used to illustrate ideas for new cards, or to parody current events or other memes.

Lord Jaraxxus/You face Jaraxxus, Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion!

You face Jaraxxus, Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion! is a quote said by the Legendary Hearthstone card, Lord Jaraxxus. It is commmonly used as a battlecry or to warn the upcoming use of the card.

!You face Jaraxxus, Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion!

Well met.

Well met Is a quote said by the Paladin Class when making a greeting command. It is commonly used to taunt players.

(ง ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)ง This is our town SCRUB! (ง ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)ง (ง •̀_•́)ง Yeah, beat it! (ง •̀_•́)ง / (ง ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)ง Squire attend me(ง ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)ง - (ง •̀_•́)ง Ready sir! (ง •̀_•́)ง

A quote said by the card Defias Ringleader and Silver Hand Knight respectively. It is often used as an exploitable copypasta, mostly featuring popular hearthstone streamers.

Search Interest

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About

Goats are a domesticated subspecies of the wild goat (Capra aegagrus) of which there are over 300 distinct breeds.

Online History

On January 25th, 2006, YouTuber jimmywan87 uploaded a video titled “Fainting Goats,” featuring footage of myotonic goats who suffer from a disorder causing their muscles to tense and freeze for several seconds in response to the feeling of panic (shown below). In the first eight years, the video gained over 20 million views and 7,200 comments.

On October 2nd, 2006, YouTuber Curt Briscar uploaded a video in which a goat repeatedly licks an electric fence, receiving more than 7.6 million views and 12,300 comments in the following eight years.

On December 6th, 2010, YouTuber Giggle with the Goats uploaded a video featuring baby goats prancing and playing in an enclosure, gathering upwards of 8.7 million views and 1,300 comments in the next four years (shown below).

Nathan Fielder Video

On September 19th, 2012, comedian Nathan Fielder staged a video titled “Pig rescues baby goat,” in which a domesticated pig is shown pushing a drowning baby goat out of the water. Fielder later revealed the video to be a hoax on his comedy show Nathan For You.

Fandom

Related Memes

Yelling Goat

Yelling Goat is a video recording of a Peruvian goat repeatedly making a loud bleating noise that is reminiscent of a human yelling. Since going viral in August 2008, the video has been the subject of remixes and parodies, most notably music video mash-ups that combine the audio tracks of popular songs and yelling goats.

Goat Tower

The Goat Tower is a famous landmark located in Paarl, South Africa on the Fairview Wine and Cheese Farm.^[6]While there are four other similar towers in the world^[14], the Fairview tower is the most well-known. On 4chan and elsewhere, it is highly regarded as a sign of utopia due to the rarity of the towers and the imagined secrets held within.

Spitting Goat

I Knew You Were Trouble

“I Knew You Were Trouble” is a 2012 hit pop single by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her fourth studio album Red. In February 2013, the chorus part of the song became a popular subject of audio-spliced mash ups and parodies featuring similarly high-pitched notes sampled from a range of viral videos.

Frostie the Goat

Frostie the Snow Goat was a baby goat who rose to internet fame after photographs and video of him walking with the aide of a wheelchair were posted online in May 2014. He passed away a month later at the Australian Edgar Mission Farm Sanctuary.

Gary the Goat

Gary the Goat is the nickname given to a goat owned by Australian comedian James Dezarnaulds (a.k.a. Jimbo Bazoobi), who became internet famous for traveling and performing stand-up comedy tours with the farm animal across Australia.

Goat Simulator

Goat Simulator is a third person perspective video game in which the player roams an open world assuming the role of a goat.

Let It Goat

Let it Goat is a mobile game in which the player must navigate a goat character through a side-scrolling platform and jump over a series of obstacles by touching the screen at the right time. Its name is a wordplay made in reference to the Frozen song “Let it Go.”

Search Interest

External References