Overview

#BlackStormtrooper is a hashtag associated with online backlash surrounding British actor John Boyega’s appearance as a Stormtrooper soldier in the teaser trailer for the upcoming 2015 science fiction film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Background

On November 28th, 2014, a teaser trailer for the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on the Movieclips Trailers YouTube channel (shown below). The trailer opens with a shot of the fictional desert planet Tatooine, where a Stormtrooper (played by Boyega) suddenly pops into frame from below.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

That day, Twitter users began commenting on Boyega’s appearance with the hashtag #BlackStormtrooper,^[1] some of which joked about his race or questioned it’s canonical validity in the Star Wars universe (shown below).

Also on November 28th, Redditor MatthewWilkes submitted a screen captured image of Boyega from the trailer titled “We ain’t found shit!”, in reference to a scene featuring an African American stormtrooper in the 1987 comedy film Spaceballs. In less than a week, the post gathered more than 4,200 votes (84% upvoted) on the /r/funny^[4] subreddit. Meanwhile, in a comment thread about the trailer on the /r/videos^[5] subreddit, Redditors discussed Boyega’s appearance in the film. On the following day, IGN Forums^[3] member Virus_698 submitted a thread titled “So why is there a black stormtrooper in the new Star Wars movie?”

Boyega’s Response

On November 29th, Boyega posted a message on Instagram^[2] giving thanks to his fans, along with a statement for certain readers to “Get used to it” (shown below). Within one week, the post gained over 4,700 likes and 690 comments.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the Internet response to Boyega, including The Daily Dot,^[6] The Christian Science Monitor,^[7] The Atlantic,^[8]CNN^[9] and the New York Daily News.^[10]

Search Interest

External References

This meme is the intellectual chimp, it is used to question current events and make statements.

[Work in progress]

About

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress known for her roles in the Nickelodeon television shows Sam & Cat and Victorious.

Career

In 2008,

Online History

Nude Photo Leak

During a massive leak of celebrity nude photographs known as “The Fappening”, several pictures began circulating that many speculated were of Grande. A spokesperson for Grande responded to the rumors claiming they were “completely fake.”

Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Performance

In December 2014, Ariana was hit in the back by a runway model wearing a pair of costume angel wings during her performance at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Random Acts of Pasta is a charitable project launched by Utah resident Matt Tribe to provide free meals for his friends and later, strangers and homeless people, through exploiting American restaurant chain Olive Garden’s “Never Ending Pasta Pass,” a promotional discount program that offers its members unlimited meals for seven weeks for a one-time payment of $100.

Background

On September 8th, 2014, Matt Tribe of Salt Lake City, Utah signed up for Olive Garden’s limited-quantity “Never Ending Pasta Pass” program, which allows its cardholders unlimited pasta for seven weeks for a one-time payment of $100, after reading about the deal in a USA Today news article.

On the day of the launch of the promotion, Tribe discovered a loophole that allows the participants to place take-out orders, so he began gifting his friends free meals from the restaurant in what he dubbed “Random Acts of Pasta.” Soon, Tribe began offering free meals to strangers and homeless people around the city.

Notable Developments

On November 13th, 2014, Tribe launched a website to document his experiment at RandomActsofPasta.com.

On November 26th, Tribe uploaded a YouTube video of himself telling the story behind the project and delivering food to the homeless, which garnered more than 564,000 views within the first week. On November 28th, Redditor impressive_specimen submitted Tribe’s video to /r/video, which gave a significant boost in exposure to the project.

News Media Coverage

On November 30th, Business Insider picked up on the Random Acts of Pasta project in an article titled “This Man Used His Unlimited Olive Garden Pasta Pass To Feed The Homeless.” In the following days, Tribes’ one-man charitable campaign was covered by several major news blogs and mainstream outlets, including Death and Taxes, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, ABC News and USA Today.

Viral Marketing Hoax Suspicion

Meanwhile on Reddit, Tribe’s project immediately came under scrutiny from many commenters who raised suspicions that Tribe’s goodwill campaign may have been a marketing hoax devised by the American restaurant retail chain. On November 29th, Olive Garden issued responses denying any direct involvement in Random Acts of Pasta via company’s official Twitter account.

Search Interest

[not yet available]

External References

this entry sucks, i know :/.

About

The Prehistoric Dinosaur was a fad in YTMND started by prairiedogeric10. with the AT&T Mike TTS voices saying hateful thing about longnecks. and saying “roar roar roar” in the final.

Origin

The original site was made by prairiedogeric10 on November 19th, 2008, Prehistoric Dinosaur introduces himself
prairiedogeric10 liked the concept of the moon man fad, he took a gif from the famous website pogo from the dinosaur, know as a zoppa from the club pogo and poppa zoppa and used a tts voice. AT&T Mike TTS. The Prehistoric Dinosaur Really hates longnecks and saying that will murder him.

Spread

the Prehistoric Dinosaur Fad Was never caught on until late July of 2009. much of YTMND users were aware that he existed, just prairiedogeric10 creates sites about him, a YTMND User lickitwellhiem created a few and DarthWang tried to counter the Prehistoric Dinosaur Fad, creating mr.meteor, but this never caught on. Then prairiedogeric10 created the site
Prehistoric Dinosaur receives a rude awakening. falcon176 started making Prehistoric Dinosaur sites.

Moon Man Fad

The Moon Man fad was created on May 31st, 2007 by YTMND user farkle. The original Moon Man site featured an animated GIF of former McDonald’s mascot Mac Tonight, playing the piano along to the popular fad song “Macarron Chacarron” by El Chombo. While the fad originally started out with Moon Man jamming out to YTMND fad music on his piano, the majority of Moon Man sites feature him talking using AT&T Labs Text To Speech (the official Moon Man voice is AT&T Mike) and often features a long chanting of “KKK!”

Notable Examples

on YTMND , these are the prehistoric dinosaur made by ytmnd users
Prehistoric Dinosaur fills you in on reality (by RonaldRayGun)
Prehistoric Dinosaur plays monopoly (by falcon176)
Prehistoric Dinosaur enjoys the weekend with his new friend (by Famery-Gai)
Prehistoric Dinosaur sings his song (by Rellikmit)
Prehistoric Dinosaur takes your longneck grandmother to the ice cream social (by Raamrod)
Prehistoric Dinosaur causes an ice age (by DarthWang)"
Prehistoric Dinosaur says no to the existence of long neck dinosaurs (by FuckOffLongNecks)
Prehistoric Dinosaur Applies For A Credit Card (by kujo62)
Prehistoric Dinosaur Trips on Mushrooms (by ficklefackle)
Holiday Prehistoric Dinosaur Sings Us A Song PS. His Hat Is Dancing To The Music (by MoonDinosaurPreMan)
prehistoric dinosaur make a shout out to his homies (by dudeguy17654)
Prehistoric Dinosaur rapes Topsy Hornington III’s ear canal (by Incentive)
Prehistoric Dinosaur is being introduced to whole new levels of carnage (by Krangar18)

External References

^[1]YTMND wiki – Prehistoric Dinosaur

^[2]YTMND– Prehistoric Dinosaur

^[3]YTMND– Search Prehistoric Dinosaur

^[4]YTMND– Prairiedogeric10

^[5]Pogo – Pogo

^[6]Club Pogo – Club Pogo

^[7]PoppaZoppa – PoppaZoppa

WORK IN PROGRESS
If you are knowledgeable regarding Linux, its history, or the culture surrounding it, please apply for editorship.

About

Linux is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based around the Linux kernel. Often depicted as a more complex alternative to mainstream operating systems Windows and Mac, it is notable for prioritizing utility over aesthetic appeal. Its primary market is on servers and embedded devices, but desktop use has increased in recent years.

History

The first version of Linux was released on October 5th, 1991 by Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds.^[2] The creation of Linux was heavily inspired by MINIX, another operating system created by professor Andrew S. Tanenbaum as a teaching tool.

The Linux Kernel

Distributions

Android

Online Presence

Tux

Tux is the official mascot of Linux. Although most commonly depicted as a sitting penguin, different distributions of Linux often feature their own unique stylistic versions.^[1]

Related Memes

Install Gentoo

On 4chan’s /g/ board and elsewhere, Install Gentoo is a sarcastic phrase used to mock inexperienced users into replacing their current operating system with Gentoo Linux, a distribution known for being newbie-unfriendly. The meme frequently includes a crudely-drawn portrait of Richard Stallman, and can be seen as analogous in usage to Alt+F4 and Delete System32.

Sudo Apt Get

Search Interest

External References

About

Nimh is a well known player in the Second Life community. Known for his fierce temper, he gained notoriety after he was recorded losing it at other players in-game. He is often the target of trolling, as many players enjoy what he has to say. He has been recorded yelling racist, sexist, and many other slurs at others, and often argues about political and world events. A video was uploaded to Youtube October 26 2011 of nimh that gave him his notoriety.

However, some believe Nimh is a troll, which has yet to be confirmed. On occasion, he is seen with his girlfriend who often joins him in some of his arguments.

Spread

As more and more videos of him were uploaded, many players who could recognize his voice would record his conversations with other players. It is unknown whether or not he has any knowledge of his status.

Notable Videos

About

Make Me Choose is a series of online questionnaires found on Tumblr in which the poller asks his or her followers to provide two choices of answers within the same category to choose from, bearing many similarities to the conversational party game "would you rather…”^[5]

Origin

On August 15th, 2012, YouTubers Alex Day and Charlie McDonnell published a post on Tumblr^[4] inviting followers to select different “shows,” “characters,” “pairings” and anything else for them to “choose between.” In the following three years, the post received upwards of 250,000 notes.

Spread

On November 30th, 2012, the Ask-Memes Tumblr^[1] blog published a post asking followers to submit two different “characters,” “ships” and “fandoms” for the blog to choose between (shown below). In the first two years, the post gained over 59,900 notes.

On July 3rd, 2013, the Question-Meme Tumblr^[2] blog published a post urging followers to submit two blank options for the blog to pick between, gathering more than 310,000 notes in the next two years.

On October 17th, 2014, Tumblr user rosewolfy posted a response to an anonymous “make me choose” question, selecting the Harry Potter character Hermione Granger over the character Ginny Weasly (shown below). In two months, the post gained over 11,100 notes. On December 2nd, “Make Me Choose” was listed as the 7th “most reblogged meme” by the official Tumblr^[3]“Year in Review” blog.

Search Interest

External References

About

Creepy Marshstomp (キモ過ぎる) is a photoshop meme based on a screen-captured image of the blank-eyed Pokémon Marshtomp (an evolved form of the Mudkip) from Nintendo’s Generation VI Pokemon RPG titles that began circulating among Japanese Twitter users in November 2014.

Origin

On November 22nd, 2014, the day after the official release of Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, Twitter user @kuroarivega^[4] tweeted an illustration of a Mudkip juxtaposed next to the in-game avatar of Marshstomp as portrayed in the game, while noting that the evolved form of the Pokémon had the “eyes of a killer” (shown below). In the first two weeks, the tweet gained over 100 retweets and 60 favorites.

Spread

On November 25th, Twitter user @Zenmai_AbsoL^[5] tweeted another screenshot of Marshstomp from the game with a list of several possible scenarios that may have caused Marshstomp’s blank-eyed facial expression, such as failing an exam, losing a video game collection and general feeling of apathy (shown below, left). On November 27th, Twitter user Seo_t^[3]posted a photoshopped image of several Marshstomps on the Splash Mountain log-flume ride at Walt Disney World (shown below, right). In the first week, the tweet gained over 21,200 retweets and 19,700 favorites.

Marshstomp photoshopped into a scene from the ending sequence of the Japanese role-playing game and animated TV series Yo-Kai Watch, which garnered upwards of 4,600 retweets and 3,900 favorites that week (shown below). On November 28th, Redditor Taehoonger posted an Imgur gallery featuring notable instances of photoshopped images to the /r/pokemon^[6]subreddit, which received more than 780 votes (96% upvoted) in less than a week. In the coming days, the Japanese culture news sites RocketNews^[1] and Kotaku^[2] reported on the latest Pokemon photoshop meme trending on Twitter Japan.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

“Trying to Get My Grades Up” or phrases in a similar vein are often used to add humor to gifs and images that look hopeless/futile. The meme is targeted at people who are having difficulties in school.

Origin

[researching]

Spread

The meme is highly popular on Twitter, and has spread to tumblr posts^[2]. Meme generating websites like Meme.com^[1] have entries tagged with the phrase “trying to get my grades up like.”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[W.I.P.]

External References

About

Robots are automated mechanical entities often created to either resemble an organic organism, or to perform a specific function that would normally be carried out by an organic organism. An artificial intelligence is any software that exhibits intelligence derived from computer processing power. It is distinguished from natural intelligence due to the fact that it is stimulated by man-made machines.

History

Unintelligent robots, named “automatons”, were the subject of speculation and attempts at construction throughout ancient history. Examples included fire engines^[2] and rudimentary analog computers.^[3]

Popular Culture and Related Memes

Cleverbot

Cleverbot is one of the most popular real-time chatbot programs in service at present. Notably, high-powered specialized versions of its software have won artificial intelligence competitions, such as the 2010 BCS Machine Intelligence Competition.^[1] Screenshots of humorous conversations between users and Cleverbot have become popular online due to the unpredictable nature of Cleverbot’s responses.

Portal 2 Space Personality Core

The Space Personality Core, originating from the 2011 Valve Corporation video game Portal 2, became memetic on the internet due to its comical obsession with space and its catchphrase “Spaaaaaaacce”. It has been the subject of a large number of fan creations.

Transformers

Transformers are a toyline created by Hasbro in 1984 featuring a group of sentient machines who possesses the ability to change forms such as vehicles.

Search Interest

External References

About

#CrimingWhileWhite is a Twitter hashtag associated with alleged confessions of White Americans who have been excused from arrest after breaking the law. The anecdotes are meant to illustrate the widely perceived racial bias in police culture, especially the stark contrast between how the blacks and whites are treated by the law enforcement.

Origin

The hashtag was coined by Jason Ross^[1], a writer for Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, on the night of December 3rd, shortly after the grand jury decision in the case of Eric Garner’s death cleared the NYPD officer of any criminal charges.

Walking While Black

The phrase “criming while white” stems from another well-known expression “walking while black”, which pokes fun at the racial profiling against the black community using a wordplay on “driving while intoxicated.” Variations of the phrase include “driving while black,” “learning while black,” “shopping while black” and “eating while black.”

Spread

#CrimingWhileWhite^[2] saw an explosive growth in volume of tweets overnight, yielding more than 300,000 mentions within the first 24 hours of Ross’ original tweet, according to Topsy.^[3] The stories told many confessions of easily being let off the hook after committing various crimes, including shoplifting, dining and dashing, burglary and smoking cannabis in front of a cop.

News Media Coverage

On December 3rd, the hashtag was reported on by dozens of major news outlets and blogs in the United States and overseas, including NPR^[4], Washington Post^[6], CNN^[8], ABC News^[15], BBC News^[16], TIME^[9], New York Times^[11] and Huffington Post^[10], among many others.

Notable Examples

#AliveWhileBlack

In response to the hashtag, Jamilah Lemieux, the editor of Ebony.com, launched #AliveWhileBlack for black people to share stories of their hostile interactions with the cops without any perceivably reasonable grounds.

Search Interest

[not yet available]

External References

About

“Dank Memes” is an ironic expression used to mock online viral media and in-jokes that have exhausted their comedic value to the point of being trite or cliché. In this context, the word “dank,” originally coined as a term for high quality marijuana, is satirically used as a synonym for “cool.”

Origin

The exact origin of the phrase “dank memes” is unknown. Many have speculated that it was coined on the /s4s/ (shit 4chan says) board on 4chan, /r/2007scape on Reddit or within the montage parody community on YouTube.^[1]

Spread

On May 26th, 2013, YouTuber fennthulhu uploaded a parody video titled “How 2 make dank memes!”, in which he demonstrates how to create an “edgy” Success Kid image macro on the website Quickmeme (shown below, left). On December 20th, YouTuber Ethan Holey uploaded a video in which he recommends using “dank memes” as a replacement for the terms “awesome,” “cool” or “bodacious” (shown below, right).

On September 23rd, 2014, which featured a gnome child seated at a computer with the caption “born just in time to browse dank memes” (shown below, left). On September 30th, Redditor 369DAMNyoFINE posted an image macro of a young child dressed as a police officer writing a ticket for posting a meme that “wasn’t dank enough” to the /r/4ChanMeta^[3] subreddit (shown below, right).

On October 24th, 2014, YouTuber Juston Bibero posted a montage parody video titled “9gagger can’t handle the dank memes,” which gathered upwards of 52,000 views and 150 comments in the first two months (shown below). On December 4th, Redditor Thejacobplumb submitted a post titled “What are ‘dank memes’?” to the /rOutOfTheLoop^[1] subreddit.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Big Red is the nickname of Toronto resident Chanty Binx,^[3] who gained notoriety online after appearing in a video in which she aggressively promotes feminism while arguing against men’s rights activists at an event in Toronto, Canada.

History

On January 21st, 2011, Binx launched the Tumblr^[3] blog “STFU Everything.” On April 5th, 2013, YouTuber 18upper uploaded a video titled “MRAs and Feminists Arguing at U of T MRA Event,” featuring footage of Binx loudly reading feminist arguments off a sheet of paper outside of an event at the University of Toronto (shown below). In the first two years, the video gained over 750,000 views and 23,400 comments. The same day, Redditor Kamen935 submitted the video to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, which received more than 2,600 votes (74% upvoted) prior to being archived.

Reputation

Threats

On April 15th, the feminist news blog Manboobz^[2] (now called “We Hunted the Mammoth”), published an article reporting that Binx had been doxxed by online critics and was receiving death threats from anonymous sources.

Criticism and Remixes

On April 17th, 2013, YouTuber bane666au uploaded a video titled “Meet Chany Binx (Big Red) Reminist and hypocrite,” which featured 2012 footage of Binx yelling at a street preacher in downtown Toronto (shown below, left). On August 20th, an entry for “Big Red” was created on the Internet culture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica.^[5] On April 25th, YouTuber spector969 uploaded a electronic dance music remix featuring samples of Binx (shown below, right).

On September 21st, 2014, Redditor tt12345x submitted a photograph of Binx to the /r/punchablefaces^[4] subreddit, where it gained over 2,200 votes (96% upvoted) in the first two months (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

The Diva Kid is the nickname of Brendan Jordan, a teenager who rose to fame online after a video featuring his Lady Gaga-inspired dance moves in the background of a live news broadcast began circulating on YouTube in October 2014.

Origin

On October 11th, 2014, YouTuber xbatusai uploaded a video titled “Kid goes full diva on live tv,” featuring footage of a young boy performing various Lady Gaga-inspired dance moves in the background of a live CBS news broadcast from the Downtown Summerlin shopping center in Las Vegas, Nevada (shown below). In the first three months, the video gained over 4.1 million views and 2,000 comments.

Spread

The same day, YouTuber Justine David uploaded a video titled “Brendan Jordan the dancing diva at Downtown Summerlin grand opening,” featuring additional footage of Jordan dancing in the background of a news broadcast (shown below).

On October 28th, the Crush Las Vegas video uploaded an interview with Jordan, who explained how to perform his “stank face” (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Jaws Poster Parodies refers to parodistic imitations of the iconic poster of the 1975 thriller film Jaws. It typically consists of replacing the swimmer and/or the shark with a well-known character, and often includes a name pun on the word “Jaws”.

Origin

The original Jaws movie poster was created in 1975 by artist Roger Kastel to advertise the release of the film.^[1] Featuring an image of a shark surging upwards through the water towards an oblivious swimming woman with the word Jaws printed above in bold red letters, it has become an iconic example of advertising.

Spread

The earliest known example of the poster being parodied was in the music video of the Cartoon Network Groovies song Jabberjaw by the band Pain.^[2][4] On August 3rd, 2011, Acid Cow published a compilation article.^[3]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Work in progress

About

The Road to El Dorado is an animated musical adventure comedy film directed by Eric “Bibo” Bergeron and Don Paul, produced by DreamWorks Studios, and released on March 31, 2000.

History

Reception

The film was met with lukewarm reception upon release. It was a box office bomb, earning only $76 million on a $95 million budget.^[2] It currently holds a rating of 48% of Rotten Tomatoes,^[3] indicating mixed reviews, and a score of 6.8 on IMDb.^[4]

Fandom

The Facebook page^[1] for the movie has more than 75,000 likes as of December 2014.

Related Memes

Miguel’s Banjo

Both is Good

Search Interest

External References

Overview

2014 Midwest Furfest Poison Gas Leak was a chlorine gas attack that took place at the Hyatt hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, where the 15th annual furry fan convention was being held for the weekend. The attack sent 19 people to the hospital and made headlines the following day.

Background

At around 12:40 a.m. on December 7th, 2014, the Hyatt hotel in the suburban town of Rosemont, Illinois, was evacuated after a high level of chlorine gas was detected on the ninth floor of the building. According to the Rosemont Police Department, the nature of the incident seemed to be an “intentional act,” as the source of the gas was subsequently identified as a pile of powdered chlorine placed in a stairwell on the ninth floor (shown below).

As a result of the incident, 19 guests who were staying at the hotel, including at least a dozen of Furfest attendees, were transported to hospitals nearby for treatment of toxic gas inhalation, and the rest of the occupants were allowed back into the building around 4:20 a.m. after the decontamination was completed.

Notable Developments

At 1:29 a.m. (ET), less than an hour after the evacuation procedures began, the organizers of the Midwest Furfest tweeted a brief statement on the developing situation via its official Twitter account.^[13]

Later that afternoon, the organizers released an official statement via its website^[17], assuring its attendees that the convention events for the day would be running on a full, normal programming schedule.

Excerpt from furfest.org:

As we wake up today we want to continue to provide the best possible convention that we can, despite the trying circumstances. The convention will be running on a full normal programming schedule today. We ask you to continue to be patient, and remember that the volunteers who make Midwest FurFest happen intend to give 110% to make sure that the fun, friendship, and good times of Midwest FurFest 2014 overshadow last night’s unfortunate incident. To dispel rumors: Because this was an unforeseen possibly criminal act, Midwest FurFest will not be offering refunds, nor will the Hyatt Regency O’Hare be comping any rooms.

News Media Coverage

By 10:00 a.m. (ET) on December 7th, the gas leak evacuation at the Hyatt hotel was reported on by several local TV news affiliates and newspapers, including ABC7Chicago^[14], NBC Chicago^[1] and the Chicago Tribune^[6], followed by a number of online news sites and internet culture blogs, such as The Daily Mail^[16], Gawker^[4], The Escapist^[9] and Kotaku Australia.^[10] Throughout the day, the story continued to circulate among the furry communities on the web, along with several news photographs of people standing by outside of the hotel while still dressed in furry costumes.

Online furry fandom resource site Wiki Fur^[5] updated its Midwest Furfest 2014 article with several details of the gas leak incident and convention attendees posted snapshots via Twitter live from the event.

Search Interest

External References

About

“If lost please return to X” is a phrase often found on t-shirts to indicate to onlookers that the person with the said shirt should be directed to another person (denoted by ‘X’,) if ever they are found to be missing. Often times, the shirt in question is coupled with another shirt that says “I am X,” which is a popular couple shirt to be drawn by artists in fandoms as a tribute to their ships. The latter phrase of the whole catchphrase is often worn by the ‘man of the relationship.’

Origin

The earliest known instance of the meme is in a post titled “If Lost Return to Rita” posted on October 12, 2012 on the website weknowmemes.com^[1]. The post depicts an elderly couple wearing the couple shirt, where the old man is wearing the first line of the catchphrase whilst Rita, the elderly woman, is wearing the second line.

Spread

The same image was posted on FaadoIndia.com^[2] titled “If Lost, Please Return,” on March 1, 2013. As of December 8, 2014, the post has garnered 211k Facebook likes and has been shared 96 times. The meme has then gained popularity on Tumblr^[3] and Deviantart^[4] as popular ships have been given shirts to wear.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Keyhole Turtleneck (Japanese: 胸開きタートルネック), also called “That Turtleneck” (例のタートルネック) or “That Sweater” (例のセーター) in the same manner of That Pool, is a sexy turtleneck sweater which chest is open. Triggered by a female cosplayer’s tweet on Twitter, the sweater suddenly became a new fetish item in the Japanese Otaku culture on December 2014.

Origin

On December 4th, 2014, a Japanese cosplayr Myako (みゃこ)^[1] tweeted photos of a keyhole turtleneck sweater and herself wearing it (shown below).^[2] This turtleneck is listed in a catalog under number CNT-124 and was released by Japanese fashion brand COMFILAX with the price of 5,500 yen without tax. The tweet by the famous sexy cosplayer was immediately shared on the social web, and managed to earn over 40,000 retweets and 30,000 favorites within the first 5 days after posting.

今ってこんなタートルネック売ってあるんだね…！ pic.twitter.com/yfgolr7GLd

— みゃこ (@myakkomyako) December 4, 2014

Fetishisms of “Breasts Sack” and “Ribbed Sweaters”

Prior to the craze of the keyhole turtleneck, there were 2 pre-existing otaku fetishes or Moe trends that raised in the Japanese otaku culture in the past few years: “Chichi Bukuro” (乳袋, lit. “Breasts Sack”) and “Tate-Seta” (たてセタ or 縦セタ), an abbreviation for “Tatesen Sētā” (縦線セーター, lit. “Vertical-Lined Sweaters”). The former, Breasts Sack, refers to an illustration style which depicts clothes line along with the shape of underboob. This came to be often featured in otaku illustrations after 2009. The latter, “TateSeta”, refers to a fetishism of ribbed sweaters which fits to big boob’s sexy lines and its vertical-lined textures emphasize it. The allure of ribbed sweaters, especially turtlenecks, became well-known by this term circa late 2011, and it has been a very popular item in the Breasts Sack fetishism. Nowadays, there are tons of illustrations for these fetishes on online illustrators communities such as pixiv^[3] and Nico Nico Seiga.^[4]

Examples of Breasts Sack by Ribbed Sweater
Left: Rinko Iori from Gundam Build Fighters | Right: Azusa Miura from THE iDOLM@STER

Therefore, the online storm of this keyhole turtleneck was not a completely new one, but partly derived from the ribbed sweater fetishism, and was boosted by people’s surprise to the fact that such item actually exists in real life.

Spread

Inspired by this sexy keyhole turtleneck, amateur, and even professional, illustrators began creating their own illustrations featuring or parodying it on Twitter^[5], pixiv^[6] and Nico Nico Seiga.^[7] The amount of those illustrations had reached over 1 thousand within its first week. Additionally, some of coplayers bought and took selfies with it.

This online storm by the sexy turtleneck was covered by Japanese online gossip news media ITmedia^[8][9] as well as English news blog RocketNews.^[10]

Various Examples

Twitter Feed

Editor’s note: This Twitter Feed may include mature contents.

Images

Search Interest

External References

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