About

The use of “-gate” as a suffix can refer to any number of political, entertainment, journalistic, or sports related scandals since 1972^[1].

History

On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested in the Watergate Hotel^[2]. The FBI was able to connect the five to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President^[3], an organization that was responsible for fundraisers for the Nixon Administration^[4]. Nixon denied allegations of having any knowledge of the break in at Watergate. Later it was revealed through recorded tapes that Nixon did in fact have knowledge of the plot^[5]. In order to avoid facing the embarrassment of impeachment^[6], Nixon resigned his presidency^[7]. Since then “-gate” has become synonymous with political scandals in the United States, and, more recently, online in several entertainment and journalistic fields.

Notable Uses of “-gate” Online

Doritosgate

Doritosgate refers to the controversy surrounding Geoff Keighley’s^[8] interview with Levelsave.com’s^[9] Xbox 360 Editor, Austin Griffith^[10], in which he appears surrounded by bags of Doritos^[11] and Mountain Dew^[12]. The controversy later expanded to include talks about the apparent lack of ethics of video game journalism as a whole.

Elevatorgate

Elevatorgate refers to the scandal involving American feminist and atheist blogger Rebecca Watson^[13] and her shaming of a man who asked her to join him for coffee in his hotel room while they shared an elevator ride together at the World Atheist Convention in June 2011. The scandal resulted in the formation of a new type of atheism known as Atheism+^[14].

iPhone 6 Bendgate

Bendgate refers to the rumors surrounding the durability of the iPhone 6^[15], most notably the rumor that the device would bend slightly when placed in one’s jeans.

Gamergate

Gamergate refers to the ongoing allegations of both an alleged lack of ethics video game journalism, much like Doritosgate, as well as alleged sexism and misogyny within video games and the people who play them. Since the term #gamergate was first used by actor Adam Baldwin^[16][17] the hashtag has been used over 1.8 million times^[18].

Celebgate

Celebgate, better known as The Fappening, refers to the controversy surrounding the hacking and subsequent release of hundreds of nude celebrity photos on the internet. It was purportedly carried about by users of 4chan, who managed to hack into the database of Apple’s iCloud^[19] service.

Weinergate

Weinergate refers to the media scrutiny and controversy resulting from a tweet by New York representative Anthony Weiner^[20] which included a photo showing what appeared to be an erection under a pair of boxer briefs.

External Links

ORIGINS

The ‘Starcraft and it’s lack of ___’ Meme was created due entirely to accident, at 2014, at exactly 11:00 PM on a monday in november. Starting with the thread ‘Starcraft and it’s lack of feminism’, the content of which was “So I was reading another post and was wondering why there are no female units besides the queen in multiplayer. I think some female units should be added to make this game less gender biased” several dozens of posters drew out the original poster’s lack of information, as there were several female units in the game already. A few other threads originated from this, such as ‘starcraft and it’s lack of asians,’ ‘starcraft and it’s lack of homosexuals,’ ‘starcraft and it’s lack of furries,’ and so on. Eventually, dozens on the threads were floating around, including ‘starcraft and it’s lack of balance,’ ‘starcraft and it’s lack of warhounds (A previously introduced unit that was removed due to overlapping with a preexisting one)’ and ‘starcraft and it’s lack of dogs.’ Within hours, the forum page was filled and rife with the threads, ranging from ‘starcraft and it’s lack of avilos’ to ‘starcraft and it’s lack of hylians’.

USAGEANDAPPLICABILITY

The ‘Starcraft and it’s lack of ___’ can theoretically be applied to any title. Starcraft could be substituted for, say, Minecraft, and the blank could be filled in with spheres. Boom. Then all you must do is fill in the blank with some semi-outraged and political ‘crap’, and you’re done.

Example:
Team Fortress 2 and it’s lack of Dodecahedrons.
I am truly appalled by the stunning lack of dodecahedrons in team fortress 2. Many dodecahedrons feel they are being cast out from society due to unfair representation in popular culture, and this doesn’t help one bit. Valve really needs to step it up a notch and include some more dodecahedrons in it’s games.

LINKS:

The Original Thread: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/15142315079?page=1
The General Discussion Forum, where many of the threads can be found: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/40568/
A few of the threads:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/15141045017
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/15141095110
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/15141045012
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/15141095118
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/15141725021

About

Abandoned Clown Train refers to a photograph depicting a rusty and derelict amusement park ride amid overgrowth, usually captioned with phrases such as “Abandoned Clown Train remembers you” or “Abandoned Clown Train it’s freaky as shit”.

Origin

On August 16, 2006, YTMND user Zeratul86 created a site containing the image and attributed it to a thread he found on 4chan^[1].

Spread

On February 14, 2007, Above Top Secret user Kacen posted a link to the picture on the now defunct file sharing site FileXoom^[2]. On September 20, 2007 AutoGeekOnline forums user P1et started a thread about the abandoned clown train with the image now bearing the caption “Abandoned Clown Train Remembers You”^[3].

In January 2009 the blog Dark Roasted Blend posted the image in a series of photographs entitled “Abandoned Amusement Parks of Asia” depicting deserted amusement parks asking where it was from. Various commenters stated that it was either in Pripyat, Ukraine or Fairyland Park in Kansas City, Missouri^[4]. On March 21, 2009, BlogSpot user Robert Langton made a blog post asking his followers where the clown train was located, with all five possibilities being dismissed as either “unconfirmed” or “incorrect”. On January 29, 2011 Youtube user rdcolles uploaded a 32 second video clip entitled “Big Rock Amusements Jolly Caterpillar” showing the operation of the ride, with one user in the comments stating the ride used to be called the “Happy Worm” and that it was the same ride as the abandoned clown train^[5]. As of November 10, 2014 the video had 2,048 views.

On July 17, 2013 Livejournal blogger amandawinters87 made a blog post detailing her research into the location of the clown train and postulated, with the help of posts in the comment section, that the clown train (or at least one from the same manufacturer) was located in Pemba, Tanzania^[6].

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]ytmnd – you’re the man now dog!

^[2]Creepy Pictures Thread, page 1 – Above Top Secret

^[3]Auto Geek Online Auto Detailing Forum – Off-Topic – RSS Feed

^[4]Dark Roasted Blend: Abandoned Amusement Parks in Asia

^[5]Big Rock Amusements Jolly Caterpillar – Youtube

^[6]Abandoned Places – Abandoned Clown Train

About

Adult Swim is an American cable television network which runs on the same channel as Cartoon Network every evening from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. (ET/PT). The network is shown for broadcasting television shows with bizarre, sexual, violent and surreal content.

History

Adult Swim was launched on the Cartoon Network by head programmer Mike Lazzo on September 2nd, 2001. Cowboy Bebop was the first anime show aired during Adult Swim, where it continued to be broadcast for the next four years. In 2003, Adult Swim began airing reruns of the Fox animated television series Family Guy. In March 2005, Turner Broadcasting System separated Adult Swim as its own channel apart from the Cartoon Network for ratings purposes.

Adult Swim Bumpers

Initially, Adult Swim used bumpers in between shows which featured elderly people performing various activities. In 2002, the bumps contained clips from various Adult Swim anime programs. In 2003, the bumps were changed to animated safety manuals with Adult Swim television show characters. On May 25th, 2003, the bumps were changed to black intertitle cards which displayed text in white Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold type. The website Bumpworthy^[2] contains an archive of every Adult Swim bump displayed since 2001.

Tim & Eric

Adult Swim has broadcast several television series created by the American comedy duo Tim & Eric, inlcuding Tom Goes to the Mayor (2004), “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2007), Check it Out! with ”http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dr-steve-brule">Dr. Steve Brule (2010) and Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories (2014).

Robot Chicken

Robot Chicken is a stop motion animation TV series best known for its parodies of popular culture and internet memes using toys, action figures and clay sculptures. The series premiered on Adult Swim on February 20th, 2005.

The Boondocks

The Boondocks animated series premiered on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim late night programming block on November 6th, 2005, which depicts the adventures of an African American family, the Freemans, who move from the south side of Chicago to the suburban community of Woodcrest. The series finale aired on June 23rd, 2014, after four seasons and 55 episodes.

Metalocalypse

Metalocalypse is an animated tv series created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha, which premiered on Adult Swim on August 6th, 2006. The show centers around the death metal band Dethklok, often containing morbid, dark and macabre content, including violence, death, murder, suicide and black humor.

Robot Unicorn Attack

Robot Unicorn Attack is a side-scrolling game in which the player controls the movement of a robotic unicorn to maneuver across a series of obstacles and platforms. The game was released on the Adult Swim website on February 4th, 2010.

Toonami

Toonami was a programming block on the Cartoon Network, which showcased American and Japanese anime cartoons from March 17th, 1997, to September 20th, 2008. On April 1st, 2012, several weeks after Toonami’s 15th anniversary, Adult Swim began its annual airing of The Room, which was suddenly interrupted by T.O.M. aboard the Absolution. T.O.M. revealed that he was an April Fools joke before introducing an episode of the show “Bleach”:. On May 26th, 2012, Adult Swim brought back the late-night animated programming block, primarily consisting of American cartoons and Japanese anime.

Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty is an animated television series created by Community executive producer Dan Harmon and writer Justin Roiland and broadcast weekly on Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block Adult Swim. The series is mainly centered around an alcoholic scientist-and-inventor named “Rick” and his long lost grandson “Morty” as they embark on dangerous and bizarre adventures together throughout space and time. On November 27th, 2013, the pilot episode of Rick and Morty was leaked via YouTube several days prior to its scheduled broadcast on Adult Swim, which premiered at 10 p.m. (ET) on December 2nd.

Infomercials

The Adult Swim “Informercials”^[1] programming block gained much notoriety online when the bizarre sitcom parody “Too Many Cooks” premiered at 4 a.m. (EST) on October 31st, 2014. One week later, the clip was uploaded to YouTube, where it quickly began circulating on various sites across the Internet.

Related Memes

Tonight, You

Tonight, You is a memorable quote from an episode in the Adult Swim animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Dexter’s Rude Removal

“Dexter’s Rude Removal” is an unaired episode from the animated television series Dexter’s Laboratory, which remained shrouded in mystery until it was released online by the television network Adult Swim via YouTube in January of 2013.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Eyebrows on Fleek” is a memorable quote uttered by Viner Peaches Monroe in a selfie video to show off her stylishly groomed eyebrows.

Origin

On June 21st, 2014, Viner Peaches Monroee uploaded a video in which she speaks to the camera while sitting in a car and announces that her eyebrows are “on fleek” (shown below). In the first five months, the video gained over 20 million plays, 492,000 likes and 411,000 revines.

“We in this bitch. Finna get crunk. Eyebrows on fleek. Da fuq.”

Etymology

The earliest known definition of the term “fleek” was submitted by Urban Dictionary user Dan Blue on October 2nd, 2003, defining the term as “smooth, nice, sweet.” On December 1st, 2009, Urban Dictionary^[7] user Alycyn submitted another entry for “fleek,” defining it as a synonym for “awesome.”

Spread

The following day, Peaches Monroee uploaded a new Vine in which she yells “My eyebrows on fleek bitch!” (shown below).

On July 29th, YouTuber^[1] Kevin Gadsden Jr. reuploaded the original “eyebrows on fleek” video, which received upwards of 1.1 million views and 1,000 comments in the next four months. On August 17th, 2014, Viner Ariana Slays uploaded a clip of singer Ariana Grande with a musical rendition of Peaches Monroee’s video dubbed over the original audio (shown below). In one month, the video gathered more than 83,000 likes and 49,000 revines.

On September 9th, the Ariana Slays Vine was listed as one of the “25 Best Vines of Summer 2014” by Complex.^[2] On October 21st, the International House of Pancakes Twitter^[4] feed tweeted the phrase “Pancakes on fleek,” which accumulated over 27,300 retweets and 18,500 favorites in the next three weeks (shown below).

On November 4th, model Kim Kardashian posted a photograph of herself with bleached eyebrows on Instagram^[5] with the hashtag “#EyebrowsOnFleek” (shown below). On November 5th, the shopping blog Racked^[3] published an article about the spread of the “eyebrows on fleek” meme.

Search Interest

External References

About

Kim Kardashian’s Paper Magazine Cover refers to a photograph of the American reality TV star posing naked for the 2014 winter issue of New York-based indie fashion magazine Paper. Upon its publication, Kardashian’s racy cover photo instantly became a trending topic and prompted a slew of photoshopped parodies on Twitter, Instagram and elsewhere online.

Origin

On November 11th, 2014, Paper Magazine’s Twitter account shared a link to a brief article showcasing two studio photographs of Kim Kardashian, the 34-year-old TV personality and wife of Kanye West, for the cover image of its latest issue, both captioned with the subtitle “Break the Internet / Kim Kardashian” (shown below). In less than 24 hours, the tweet racked up more than 3,200 retweets and 2,500 favorites.

Within the hour, Kim Kardashian also shared one of the cover photos via Instagram, in which she is shown popping a bottle of champagne, with its geyser drawing a perfect arc over her head and being poured into a glass positioned on her buttocks (shown below). Kardashian’s Instagram photo garnered more than 462,000 likes and nearly 15,000 comments.

The cover photographs were commissioned by renowned French graphic designer and photographer Jean-Paul Goude, who sought to recreate his iconic portrait photograph Carolina Beaumont, New York, 1976 originally featured in his 1982 book Jungle Fever (shown below).

Spread

Kanye West’s Response

Later that evening, Kardashian’s husband and celebrity rapper Kanye West retweeted the cover photo in approval using the hashtag #ALLDAY (shown below). In just over 20 hours, West’s tweet accumulated over 60,000 retweets and 68,000 favorites.

Online Reaction

On November 12th, discussions about Kardashian’s racy magazine cover photo flooded Twitter and other social media outlets, soon giving rise to the trending hashtags #BreakTheInternet and #ThingsThatLookLikeKimKardashiansBum, which were mentioned over 42,000 times and 2,500 times, respectively, within the 24-hour period. Meanwhile, dozens of photoshopped parodies based on the cover photograph began to surface on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and Tumblr.

News Media Coverage

Shortly after Paper Magazine’s unveiling of the cover photo, the story was picked up by virtually all celebrity gossip and entertainment news sites, including Gawker^[3], BuzzFeed,^[11] Perez Hilton^[2], E! Online^[5], Daily Mail^[4], TMZ^[6], MTV^[8] and Vanity Fair^[7], as well as a number of major U.S. news outlets like TIME Magazine^[9][11], The Washington Post^[10] and CNN.^[13]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Arizona Outbreak Scare refers to a hoax stemming from a creepypasta story about a deadly outbreak in Mammoth, Arizona that originally appeared on Reddit’s /r/NoSleep community. Upon its submission in November 2014, the short horror fiction was misinterpreted as a developing news story, prompting people across the United States to flood the Mammoth Police Department and local businesses with phone inquiries about the non-existent outbreak. The event was subsequently compared to the 1938 radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds,” which some claim to have caused widespread panic.

Background

On November 10th, 2014, Redditor throwfarfarawayaz submitted a story titled “WTF is going on in Pinal county, Arizona??” to the /r/nosleep^[4] subreddit, which described a horrific disease that killed a number of children in Mammoth, Arizona and hinted at a possible zombie outbreak. In the first 28 hours, the post gained over 3,500 votes (91% upvoted).

Notable Developments

On November 11th, 2014, SoundCloud user roeyhazot uploaded audio of a phone call with a Circle K convenience store employee in Mammoth, Arizona, revealing that the store had received calls from around the country asking about “dead people” in the town (shown below).

News Media Coverage

On November 12th, several news sites reported that the Mammoth Police Department and other local businesses had been inundated with phone calls about the story, including Vocativ,^[1]USA Today,^[2] Ktar^[3] and AZ Central.^[5]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Patreon is an online crowdfunding platform that allows creatives to receive regular payments from users to fund their work.

History

Patreon^[1] was launched in May 2013, by musician Jack Conte as a means to receive regular payments from fans of his YouTube videos. By February 2014, nearly half of Patreon artists were YouTube video creators. In June 2014, Patreon raised $15 million in Series A funding from investors Alexis Ohanian, Sam Altman, David Marcus, Joshua Reeves and other tech entrepreneurs.^[6]

GamerGate Controversy

As interest grew in the GamerGate controversy, it was discovered that several games journalists were actively contributing money to indie game developer Zoe Quinn’sPatreon account, including Polygon editor Ben Kuchera. On August 26th, Kotaku^[3] editor Stephen Totilo posted a statement regarding the gaming news site’s code of ethics, announcing that Kotaku^[3] journalists would not be allowed to contribute to the Patreon accounts of game developers. The same day, Polygon^[4] followed up with a similar statement announcing that all writers must disclose any contributions they have made to developer’s Patreon accounts. Readers later released a statement condemning Polygon’s new ethics policy for being unsatisfactory.^[9] On September 5th, Totilo revised his statement regarding Patreon support, noting that Kotaku could support Patreon pages in order to gain access to developer’s work.^[7]

Sarkeesian Effect

On August 23rd, vloggers Davis Aurini and Jordan Owen launched a Patreon^[5] page for a documentary called “The Sarkeesian Effect,” which aimed to investigate GamerGate and “give a voice to those who have been victimized by the social justice moral authority” (shown below).

On September 30th, Twitter user Dave Doyle tweeted at Conte asking him to remove The Sarkeesian Effect page for being “sexist.” Jack Conte responded that an open discussion about the page would be held on Patreon. It was subsequently determined that the page did not violate Patreon’s terms of service.

Traffic

As of November 2014, Patreon.com has a global rank of 5,371 and a United States rank of 2,147 on the traffic analytics site Alexa.^[2]

Search Interest

External References

About

Over the Garden Wall is a television show created by Patrick McHale, notable for his contributions to the television shows The Misadventures of Flapjack and Adventure Time. The show ran for 10 mini-“chapters”, each running for approx. 11 minutes.

Intro

Plot

The show centers around two young brothers, Wirt and Greg (voiced by Elijah Wood and Collin Dean), who traverse lost through a mysterious wilderness referred to as the Unknown. Throughout their travels, they meet several notable figures, including the Woodsman, a wise old man who grinds up Edelwood trees to fuel his odd lantern, Beatrice, a talking bluebird who follows them and hopes to undo a curse that has befallen her whole family, and the malicious Beast, a monstrous creature who wishes only to keep wanderers lost forever

History

While the show premiered on Cartoon Network on November 3rd and ran on consecutive nights until November 7th, the show was initially proposed by McHale in 2005 to the network. Initially envisioned in 2004 by McHale was scarier and more “adventure-based”. McHale was noted as initially hoping for the show to be regarded as a annual Halloween special, something many have clamoured for since the show’s airing. The show began production in March of 2014.

Reception

Over the Garden Wall’s premier was viewed by 4,277,000 viewers ages 2+. In addition, average delivery of the five episode premiers ranked highest among age groups 2-11, 6-11, and 9-14. Overall, the show averaged 1.3 million viewers aged 2+. Reviews of the show were relatively positive: Richard Lloyd of the L.A. Times noted that while it was “a little too folksy and fairy story” at times, its “contemporary strangeness wins out”, and “it is throughout something to behold”. Bryan Moylan of the Guardian wrote that it had “a certain darkness to it that is both mellow and twee at the same time, with a fair amount of anxiety creeping around the edges”, and that its visuals were “absolutely stunning”. Additionally, several social media sites invoked significant praise to the mini-series, including sites such as Tumblr, noting its ability at merging humor and dark undertones. Many discussed the prominent “feels”, or emotional depth found in many of the episodes.

Fandom

Despite being a relatively young T.V. show, Over the Garden Wall has already begun growing a large fan-base, with fan-art sites such as Devianart constantly releasing new show-inspired images. In addition, several blogs from assorted sites, including Tumblr, have begun popping up, showcasing the latest in fan-arts and theories. Fan-made theories have become especially popular concerning the show, thanks to its large amount of symbols, metaphors, and themes featured throughout. In fact, several sites have begun publishing pseudo-scholarly articles concerning some of the many possible symbols featured.

Search Interest

External Resources

T.V. By the Numbers

Over the Garden Wall Wiki

Official OtGW Tumblr Page

About

Ai Tenogoal (Japanese: アイ・テノゴール, Ai Tenogōru) is a moegijinka character for an American Toy Battle Dome (バトルドーム). In similar vein to Hakata-san, this disgraceful girl is the mascot of the MAD video fad for the toy in the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

In the end of 2008, the 90’s Japanese TVCMs for Battle Dome became to a popular visual resource for MAD videos on NND, and Nico Nico Pedia’s article for the toy was made in November of that year.^[1] The gijinka character for the toy was suddenly born in the comment board for the article which has Oekaki^[2] applet. The first illustration was posted to there by an anonymous user on May 3rd, 2009.^[3]

Spread

Under the influence of the catch copy uttered in the Japanese TVCMs for the toy “Ultra Excitin’!” (超! エキサイティン!!), this blond-haired American girl with no name became to be often characterize as an almost-naked, disgraceful, and exciting girl. Then, the summer issue of quarterly battle dome MAD video ranking video asked the fan community for her official name in July of that year^[4], and Ai Tenogoal, a pun for “Aite no Goal” (lit. “Opponent’s Goal”), was chosen from the nominations and announced in the autumn issue published on October 1st.^[5] Since then, her likeness has spawn fan-art on the art-sharing sites pixiv^[6], Nico Nico Seiga^[7] and the Oekaki board^[8] in her Nico Nico Pedia’s article^[9], and has also been promptly featured in many MAD videos.^[10]

Various Examples

Videos

Niconico 超！ウサティン！！Niconico バトルドームの消失 exciting end【修正版】
Left: Touhou Project Song Remix "Usatei" | Right: Vocaloid song “Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu DEADEND”
Niconico ぽっぴっぽー【バトルドーム支店】Niconico アイ・テノゴールがカラオケで超！エキサイティン！！【バトルドーム】
Left: "PoPiPo" | Right: "Hello Soybeans Song"

Illustrations

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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

About

When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Hitler is an anti-Nazi propaganda poster created and widely distributed by the United States government during World War II to encourage carpooling among American citizens to conserve gasoline for the war. The image has inspired various propaganda parodies online, mocking its use of hyperbole and Godwin’s Law.

Origin

Illustrated by American painter Weimer Pursell, the original poster was commissioned and distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office for the Office of Price Administration in 1943 as part of domestic efforts to encourage rationing and conservation of resources. The image depicts a suited man driving a car with a phantom-like silhouette of Adolf Hitler in the passenger seat, captioned with “When you ride alone you ride with Hitler! / Join a car-sharing club today!” (shown below).

Spread

In October 2002, American political commentator and comedian Bill Maher published the non-fiction book When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden, featuring a parody of the original poster with Osama bin Laden substituted for Hitler as the cover illustration (shown below, left).^[3] On June 3rd, 2010, FunnyJunk^[7] user MrShake submitted a poster parody of a woman sleeping with an outline of Hitler and the caption “When you cuddle alone / you cuddle with Hitler!” (shown below, right).

On July 19th, 2012, the original Pursell poster was submitted in a post titled “Wow, it’s that serious?” to the /r/WTF^[5] subreddit. On October 22nd, Redditor Danteros posted a mock propaganda poster featuring a young man seated at a computer neat to a communist devil with the caption “When you pirate MP3s, you’re downloading communism” (shown below, left). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 1,400 votes (87% upvoted). On August 8th, 2013, Redditor mitigateaccomp submitted an edited version of the original Pursell poster with a caption urging readers to ride bicycles to the /r/bicycling^[6] subreddit, which received more than 2,000 votes (87% upvoted) before it was archived (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Literally” is an English adverb indicating words should be interpreted in their basic meanings without metaphor or allegory. The word is often used for emphasis in place of its antonym “figuratively,” which has led to an ongoing semantic debate online.

Origin

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary,^[1] the word “literally” was first used as “in a literal sense” in the 1530s. According to National Geographic,^[2]“literally” was first substituted for “figuratively” in the 1769 novel The History of Emily Montague by author Frances Brooke:

“He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies.”

In 1903, the Oxford English Dictionary^[3] added a corollary definition of the word in its colloquial meaning:

Literally (adj. colloq.): Used to indicate that some (freq. conventional) metaphorical or hyperbolical expression is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense: ‘virtually, as good as’; (also) ‘completely, utterly, absolutely’.

The earliest known work of parody to poke fun at the indiscriminate use of “literally” in everyday conversations can be attributed to a MADtv sketch series starring comedians Michael McDonald and Nicole Sullivan as Clyde and Judith, a married couple from L.A. who frequently use the word “literally” while insulting, annoying, and angering the people around them. The pilot sketch of the “Literally” series was originally aired as part of MADtv’s Season 5, Episode 12 on January 8th, 2000 (shown below).

Spread

On November 17th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[10] user Built2Spill submitted an entry for “literally,” noting that it is often confused with “figuratively.” On April 9th, 2010, the webcomic Xkcd^[6] published a comic titled “Literally,” in which a stalker shames a man for using the word after watching him for nearly two decades (shown below).

On September 21st, the webcomic The Oatmeal^[4] posted a comic mocking those who used the word “literally” as “figuratively” (shown below).

On August 12th, 2013, Redditor pikagrue submitted a post titled “We did it guys, we finally killed English,” featuring a screenshot of Google’s secondary definition for “literally” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gathered upwards of 2,700 votes (93% upvoted) on the /r/funny^[9] subreddit.

In April 2014, developer Mike Walker released a Google Chrome^[7] browser extension that replaces the word “literally” with “figuratively.” On November 5th, Redditor kabukistar challenged the use of “literally” as “figuratively” in a post on the /r/changemyview^[8] subreddit, where it gained over 862 votes (86% upvoted) in the first week. On November 12th, Time Magazine^[5] included “literally” in a poll to determine “which word should be banned in 2015.”

Notable Examples

Parodies

In addition to the MADtv sketch series, the overuse of the word “literally” has been a popular subject of numerous web comedy sketches on YouTube, which began with the premiere of BYUtv’s web series Captain Literally in April 2013 (shown below, left) and continued with vlogger Mikey Bolts’ satirical commentary on the phenomenon in April 2014 (shown below, right).

In August 2014, Jack Douglass released a short comedy sketch titled “Literally” (shown below, left) and College Humor also released a fairytale-style parody video titled “The Boy Who Cried Literally” (shown below, right)

“Literally Hitler”

“Literally Hitler” is a hyperbolic expression that can be used to denounce an individual or group as being worse than the German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. On Reddit, the phrase is also used to mock circle jerk discussions that ultimately manifest into examples of Godwin’s Law.

“Literally, I Can’t Even”

“Literally, I Can’t Even” is an Internet slang expression used to indicate that the speaker is in a state of speechlessness, either as a result of feeling overjoyed or exasperated, depending on the context in which it is said. Due to its incomplete sentence structure, the adverb “even” in the expression can be interpreted as a substitute verb for “manage.” On Tumblr, the phrase is often used to caption reaction images in which the subject collapses in frustration or bewilderment.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Drunk Girl in Public is a YouTube video in which a seemingly inebriated woman gets repeatedly approached by bypassing men who try to coax her into leaving with them. The clip was initially uploaded to YouTube under the guise of a social experiment, but it was subsequently revealed to be a hoax staged by a viral marketing company after many of the actors who participated in the production came forward to express discomfort with how they were portrayed.

Background

On November 8th, 2014, the Video Productions YouTube channel uploaded a hidden-camera style video titled “Drunk Girl in Public (Social Experiment)”, which shows a woman getting approached by several men while looking heavily intoxicated on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles (shown below). In the first week, the video gained over 9.19 million views.

Notable Developments

News Media Coverage

Initially, the video was highlighted on several websites as an authentic social experiment. On November 10th, the men’s interest blog Total Frat Move^[6] posted the video, adding that the men behaved predictably. On the following day, the news blog Salon^[2] highlighted the video in an article titled “Woman pretends to be drunk and asks for help, is approached by gross men being gross.” In the coming days, additional news sites reblogged the video, including The Daily Mail,^[3] New York Mag^[4] and Jezebel.^[5]

Hoax Revealed

On November 12th, the news blog The Smoking Gun^[1] published an article titled “‘Drunk Girl’ Video is Latest Viral Hoax,” which reported that the video was produced by Stephen Zhang and Seth Leach, the CEO and business associate of LA-based online marketing firm Hygo Inc., who cast 24-year-old actress Jennifer Box and several men to appear in the video under the false premise of creating a funny skit for a student film. The article also linked to a screenshot of a Facebook message from Leach, the co-creator of the video, urging one of the male actors to “just go with it" and reassuring that his team would “take care” of him.

Search Interest

External References

About

Serial is an episodic non-fiction crime drama podcast created as a spin-off of the public radio program This American Life. This first season of the show explores a mysterious murder that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland in 1999.

History

According to an interview with Mother Jones,^[1]Serial creators Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder came up with the idea for the show while working together as producers on This American Life. On October 3rd, 2014, the first episode of Serial was released, which was followed by additional episodes released weekly on the Serial Podcast website.^[4] The first season investigates the 1999 murder of Baltimore resident Hae Min Lee and the possible wrongful conviction of her boyfriend Adnan Syed.

Online Presence

On January 28th, 2014, a Facebook^[3] page titled “Serial Podcast” was created, gathering upwards of 46,900 likes in the next 10 months. On July 2nd, the @serial Twitter^[8] feed was launched, garnering more than 44,500 followers in five months. On October 5th, the /r/serialpodcast^[2] subreddit was created for discussions about the podcast, which gained over 10,800 subscribers in the next six weeks. On November 14th, the entertainment news blog A.V. Club^[9] announced the launch of their new podcast about Serial titled “The Serial Serial.”

Parodies

On November 3rd, 2014, YouTuber Paul Laudiero uploaded a parody of Serial in which Koenig interviews a Best Buy employee (shown below). Over the next two weeks, Laudiero uploaded four additional Serial parodies.

MailChimp Ad

Each Serial episode begins with a advertisement for the email marketing service provider MailChimp, in which a young girl can be heard struggling to pronounce the company’s name (shown below).

Fans of the show began referencing MailChimp as an in-joke on Twitter, often mocking the young girl’s pronunciation as “MailKimp.”^[6] On November 12th, 2014, the tech news blog Mashable^[7] published an article about the “‘MailKimp’ meme.”

#FreeAdnan

During the first season of Serial, fans who believed Syed had been wrongly convicted began tweeting the hashtag “#FreeAdnan.”^[10]

Search Interest

External References

About

#Shirtstorm is an hashtag reaction to a peculiar shirt worn by British scientist Dr Matt Taylor during a public conference about the landing of spacecraft Philae on a comet.

Background

On November 12th 2014, European Space Agency spacecraft Philae achieved the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet in human history^[1]. A first press conference was held on the day of the achievement. Another took place the following day, featuring Dr Matt Taylor wearing a strange colorful shirt, breaking with the commonly expected scientist labcoat or formal shirt (shown below).

Twitter Reaction

Tech writer, producer and The Atlantic journalist Rose Eleveth was the first to react on Twitter about the shirt, deeming it as sexist and unwelcoming of women in the tech industry (shown below).

Many twitter users gathered to discuss the shirt and its sexist implication in the science community, spawning the hashtags #shirtstorm^[2] and #shirtgate^[3].

Examples

Spread

The debacle was reported on several news websites such as CNN^[4], The Telegraph^[5] or Talking Points Memo^[6]. Other more “feminism”: oriented websites such as The Verge^[7] and Stem Feminish^[8] blamed Taylor for his choice of attire and pointing out rampant sexism associated with it.

Public Apology from Matt Taylor

On November 14th, Taylor released a public apology on television, breaking down in tears. The event was covered by news websites as well, including Daily Mail^[9] and The Guardian^[10].

Backslash

[WIP]

External References

Editor note: Obviously major work in progress. PM for editorship or as an entry mod.

About

Cartoon Network In an american cable/ satellite television channel which is a part of the Turner Broadcasting System^[1]. It and much of it’s early programming is often considered one of the hallmarks of 90s Nostalgia

Related Subcultures

Toonami

Toonami is a programming block that ran on Cartoon Network from 1997 to 2008, then again from 2012 to present. During both runs, it aired over 90 different shows, primarily consisting of English Anime but also including some western animation, including some programming that was initially on the main Cartoon Network Channel. Various shows that aired on Toonami include Attack on Titan,Bleach,Cowboy Bebop,Dragonball,Fullmetal Alchemist,Gundam Wing,Gurren Lagann,He-Man,Naruto,One Piece,Sailor Moon,Soul Eater,
Space☆Dandy, and Sword Art Online

Adventure Time

Adventure Time

Steven Universe

Steven Universe

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Regular Show

Regular Show

Adult Swim

Adult Swim another cable/ satellite television channel sharing the same channel space as cartoon network, and began airing in 2001. It’s programming is known to be much more risqué than that of cartoon network, including shows such as Robot ChickenRick and MortyThe BoondocksMetalocalypse They are also know to post many flash games available from their site, such as Robot Unicorn Attack

External References

Overview

The Rosetta Mission is an ongoing study of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko through a robotic orbiter with the same name and a lander module named Philae, which were both built and launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2004. Upon the probe’s entrance into the orbit of the comet in early August 2014, the mission began to draw international attention and its interest peaked as Philae successfully landed on the surface of the comet in November 2014.

Background

The planning phase of developing a robotic space probe to study the outer surface and internal composition of a comet began as a collaborative project between the NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) during the mid-to-late 1980s. However, in 1992, the NASA cancelled the development due to budgetary limits, while the ESA continued on to develop a comet probe on its own. By 1993, the final flight plan for the mission had been finalized by the agency and the construction of the probe commenced shortly thereafter. The itinerary of Rosetta was designed to rendezvous with the comet, perform flybys of two additional asteroids and ultimately land on the surface of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for further studies. After a series of postponements due to technical difficulties, the Rosetta mission officially commenced on March 2nd, 2004 with the successful launch of the probe on an Ariane 5 rocket.

Notable Developments

Rosetta performed a fly-by of Mars in 2007, followed by its planned fly-bys of two asteroids 2867 Šteins in September 2008 and 21 Lutetia in July 2010. Following a 31-month period of hibernation, Rosetta was triggered awake from its sleep and resumed its mission towards the rendezvous point with the comet on January 20th, 2014. According to Google Trends, the news of the probe’s re-activation prompted the first spike in search queries of the term “Rosetta.”

Social Media Presence

Since the launch of the Rosetta probe, the European Space Agency^[1] has maintained active presence in the social media to continuously inform and educate the public on its latest progress and milestones. The official blog^[5] and a Facebook page^[7] for the mission were created on March 2nd, 2004, the same day as the launch of the probe, while the personified Twitter accounts of the Philae module lander^[8] and the Rosetta orbiter^[9] were created on October 2010 and February 2011, respectively. As of November 2014, the official Facebook page has garnered nearly 87,000 likes and the Twitter accounts for Rosetta and Philae have over 373,000 and 270,000

Orbit Entrance

On August 6th, 2014, Rosetta began closing the distance with the comet at the speed of 3.3 ft/s (1 m/s) and by September 10th, it became the first man-made object to enter orbit around a comet. According to Google Trends, the news of the probe’s rendezvous with the comet marked the second spike in search queries for Rosetta. In the following months, the probe began transmitting scientific data and high-definition images gathered from its ALICE instrument to the ESA.

Philae Landing

At 4:08 p.m. (GMT) on November 12th, Rosetta’s module lander successfully made its controlled landing on the surface of 67P. Meanwhile back on Earth, the activities at the mission control centers were livestreamed via ESA’s website (shown below) and the hashtags #Rosetta and #CometLanding rose to worldwide trending topics on Twitter.

However, further analysis of the data subsequently revealed that the lander had strayed away from its designated touchdown location by as much as a kilometer as the harpoons and thrusters failed to deploy properly. Due to Philae’s skewed position on the comet’s surface, its solar panels, which were designed to power the probe after the drainage of its internal battery power, became partially blocked from exposure to sunlight. On November 14th, ESA officials announced that the Philae lander has run out of its battery power and entered the idle mode as it is unable to harness sufficient sunlight to power itself in its current location.

#Shirtstorm

During Nature Newsteam’s livestream coverage of the spacecraft landing on November 12th, Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor was interviewed in a colorful bowling shirt featuring patterns of scantily clothed female cartoon characters. That day, Brooklyn-based journalist Rose Eveleth tweeted a photograph of Taylor with a sarcastic remark citing his shirt as an example of the male-biased work culture within the scientific community (shown below). In the following 48 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 760 favorites, while the hashtags #shirtstorm and #shirtgate were mentioned more than 23,000 times and 19,000 times, respectively.

On November 13th, The Verge^[14] published an article titled “I don’t care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing,” which accussed Taylor of “the sort of casual misogyny that stops women from entering certain scientific fields.” Later that same day, Taylor’s friend Elly Prizeman tweeted she made the shirt for Taylor’s birthday, accompanied by the hashtags “#shirtgate” and “#shirtstorm.”

On November 14th, Taylor made a tearful apology for wearing the shirt during an ESA Google+ Hangout session (shown below).

“I made a big mistake and I offended many people and I am very sorry about this."

Search Interest

External References

This article is a W.I.P.

About

e621 is a website designed to archive and redistribute furry and anthropomorphic content. It is known for the abundant collection of yiff related materials in its gallery.

History

After the shutdown of sidechan in 2007, e621 was created with the intention of hosting sidechan content. All personnel and assets were moved to the e621 web domain.

Mascot

In early 2010, the admins of the site held a contest to determine the mascot used to represent the site. After a failed rigging of the election,^[3] the administrators then took the top voted submissions and revealed a robotic like cat named Hexerade to be the chosen mascot.

Features

Image Board

Of the three features on the site, the image board is the main focus and function. The site uses the “booru” style archival format for hosting image, flash, and video content.

Forums

Researching

Wiki

Researching

Highlights

e961

Researching

e926

In july 2009, e926 was launched with the intention of being a safe for work counterpart to e621.
However back in november 2009, the website got aliased to the original site, due to in part of the popularity of e621.
Users seeking safe for work content, can use the “rating:safe” tag to block mature, and sexual themed content.
Researching

Traffic

As of November 2014, e621.net is currently ranked 10,421th globally (below left) and 2,719th in the US by Alexa^[1] with an estimated 100,000 page views per month (below right) by Quantcast^[2] who gives it a rank of 18,063th.

Search Interest

External References

About

No God, Please No! is a phrase yelled out by Steve Carell in “The Office” playing Michael Scott. He yells this after finding out Paul Lieberstein, acting as Toby Flenderson, returns to the show and is Scott’s hatred. The phrase is used often as an image macro series mostly to express disapproval of something/someone or to vulgarly dislike something/someone.

Origin

In Season 5, Episode 9 of The Office, first aired on November 20, 2008, Michael Scott is shown minding his own business as he walks through a room. Toby Flenderson, who had recently returned from Costa Rica in the show, then walks in behind Michael, and after Michael turns around to see Toby standing there, he is driven insane and yells.

Spread

A video of the phrase was uploaded to YouTube on December 27, 2008 by a user named Peter Pro, which is a 17-second clip of Steve Carell yelling “No God, Please No!”, excluding the show’s introduction near the end of the video. As of November 15, 2014, it has 9,986,482 views and counting and has gained over 62,000+ likes.

In 2010, a user under the name phoenixflames featured a GIF of Michael Scott yelling “No God, Please No!” on the MemeCenter website. As of 2014, it has over 10,770 results for memes related to the quote. In 2012, MemeGenerator introduced a photo of Michael Scott yelling, and as of 2014, 147 images have been created and put in the category titled “michael scott yelling NO”. Since Season 5, Episode 9 of The Office, the quote has gained a huge reputation and is often used on a regular basis by Internet users. As of November 2014, there have been over 10,000 posts on tumblr tagged “no god please no”. In between late 2013 and early 2014, a Reddit staff member recreated a GIF of the reaction image and gained 203 upvotes.

Notable Examples

There are many notable examples for reaction images and GIFs featuring the phrase. A few of them are shown here.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]NBC– The Office – Official Website
^[2] YouTube – NO GOD! PLEASE NO! NOOOOOOOOOO 12-27-2009
^[3] Twitter – @SteveCarell on Twitter
^[4] Tumblr – Tumblr posts tagged ‘no god please no’
^[5] Reddit – GIF Remake – NO GODPLEASE NO! Late 2013-Early 2014

About

Gardevoir (サーナイト Sirknight in the Japanese version) is a Psychic / Fairy type Pokemon from Generation III of Pokemon. First appeared as a Psychic type in Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire and later the type changed to Psychic / Fairy in Pokemon X / Y. Because of Gardevoir’s appearance of a female humanoid, Gardevoir gain a huge fanbase, mostly from 4chan’s /vp/ and /v/.

Related Gardevoir Memes

Gardevoir Use Flash

Gardevoir Use Flash is a mixed of image macros and fanart that involves Gardevoir using the HM skill Flash. The results always shows Gardevoir sexually flashing her breasts or even her full body with a caption saying “It’s super effective!”.

Gardevoir Used Attract

Gardevoir Used Attract is another of a mixed of image macros and fanart that involves Gardevoir using the skill Attract. It’s mostly about Gardevoir being lusty with a caption that says “It’s super effective!”.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Bulbapedia – Gardevoir

^[2]Google Image Search – gardevoir used attract=_

^[3]Google Image Search – gardevoir use flash