The Daily Barak is an Israeli meme which developed through Twitter. User @amit13 tweeted a photo of Ehud Barak, a former Israeli Prime Minister, walking in the street with a bodyguard, and the photo went viral. User @itamars was the first to incorporate Barak into a variety of pictures, and now the image appears in artworks from the middle ages, modern paintings, Tarzan book covers and film scenes.

About

Villanova Crying Piccolo Player, also known as the Villanova Crying Flute Player and March Sadness is a Photoshop meme based on stills from a video of a member of the Villanova marching band crying on the Jumbotron.

Origin

After Villanova University’s loss to North Carolina State in the annual March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, Roxanne (last name unknown) began to cry. She then looked up at the Jumbotron and saw herself featured on the screen crying. “I’m a senior in the band, so I knew that was my very last game. It’s just so easy to get emotional especially being a senior, that just changed the game for me, knowing it was my last game,” Roxanne said to the Angelo Cataldi of CBS Philadelphia^[1].

Spread

After the moment was broadcast, it was posted to YouTube by user Vic on March 21st 2105, and by two days later the video had received 48,588 views.

In addition, several sports publications posted widely retweeted screenshots. One such screenshot, by sports publication Bleacher Report, was retweeted 2,658 times and favorited 3,798 times by Monday, March 23rd.

VIDEO: The crying Villanova fan playing the piccolo is the saddest thing you’ll see all week http://t.co/cVPyDACP0ypic.twitter.com/mbJIWku42u

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 22, 2015

User @NumbersMuncher then photoshopped Inappropriate Joe Biden into the screenshot with Roxanne on March 21st 2015. The tweet received 5,113 retweets an d 5,328 favorites.

"That's right… you just keep on playing. Biden's here." #MarchMadnesspic.twitter.com/FGNJNMNjHf

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) March 22, 2015

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]CBS Philly – Villanova Crying Piccolo Girl On 94WIP: ‘I Think It’s Funny’

^[2]Geeks and Cleets – Here Are The Best Villanova Crying Flute Girl Memes!

WORK IN PROGRESS. FEELFREE TO REQUESTEDITORSHIP

About

Catgirls, also known as Neko or Nekomimi, is the name given to any female character with cat traits, normally defined by having cat ears, tails, and sometimes even cat paws. There are several differences between a catgirl and cat furry, being the main one that a “cat furry” looks more like human with an actual head and fur of a cat, while catgirls focus more on the human aspect then the cat. Catgirls have become a popular trope on anime.

History

The earliest instance of the female-cat hybrid is Bastet, the Egyptian goddess of cats, protection, joy, dance, music, and love.^[1] The first modern story which introduced a cat ear’d character is The 4th of Narcissus Month (水仙月の四日) by Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa on 1924.^[2]

Related media

Nekopara

Nekoparais a hentai visual novel by Doujin Artist Sayori. The game features the fictional protagonist Minaduki Kashou, with the other main characters being Chocola and Vanilla.

Related memes

Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls

Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls is a series of fan made animation in the style of Japanese anime, featuring catgirls as the main characters.. The series is well known for its poor overall quality in art, voice acting, and audio.

Every Dollar Spent on X is a Dollar not Spent on Genetically Engineered Catgirls

Every Dollar Spent on Church is a Dollar not Spent on Genetically Engineered Catgirls is a phrase used when a person desires the creation of real-life catgirls via genetically engineering. It is often used in conjunction with Shut up and take my money.

Search Interest

External References

(EDITOR’S NOTE: NEEDSOMESERIOUSHELP ON THISONE, SO ANYEXTRAEDITORSWOULD BE WELCOMED)

About

Mecha (メカ) is a science fiction^[1] genre based around the use of giant robots as machines to be piloted by humans, usually to stop an evil force from harming the Earth, or individual nations within it. The robots themselves are known as mechs by fans of the genre.

Origin

While the earliest depictions of piloted machines stretch back to H.G. Wells’^[2]The War of the Worlds^[3], the modern mecha genre did not enter into its current state until the manga series Tetsujin 28-go^[4] which depicted a giant robot being remotely controlled, and Mazinger Z^[5] where the mechs are being controlled via a pilot in a cockpit.

History

Since the popularization of mecha in the 1960s, the genre has spawned a number of successful anime and manga franchises such as Gundam, Space Runaway Ideon^[6], Evangelion, and Gurren Lagann. Along with these several video game franchises focused on mecha have also spawned, such as MechWarrior^[7], Shogo^[8], and Zone of the Enders^[9].

Fandom

[wip]

Notable Subcultures

Gundam

Gundam is a space opera mecha anime series produced by animation studio Sunrise^[10]. The series has spawned a very successful franchise, and has helped influence a large number of mecha anime.

Evangelion

Evangelion is multi-media franchise spanning a television series, a manga series as well as several spin-offs, a series of movies, and several games.

Gurren Lagann

Gurren Lagann (also known as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) is a 2007 mecha anime series produced by studio Gainax^[11]. The series has spawned a subsequent manga series as well as two compilation movies.

External Refernces

About

“Where is Charles Lee?” is a memorable quote from the Action video game Assassin’s Creed 3, frequently said by the main character Connor Kenway in his hunt to find Charles Lee. Due to the obsessive nature and delivery of the quote, it has since become an injoke among fans of the series.

Origin

In Assassin’s Creed 3, main character Connor goes on a hunt for revenge against the templars, primarily Charles Lee, who he believes caused the burning of his village and subsequently the death of his mother. Connor will constantly search for Lee by asking his whereabouts towards several figures throughout the story.

Spread

On November 30th, 2012, youtuber “XenomorphQueen” uploaded a video titled “WHERE IS CHARLESLEE?!”, featuring a montage of all the scenes in which Connor yells out the quote or similar with Yakety Sax for the background music. As of March 24th, 2015, the video has gained over 98,000 views. On April 3rd, 2014, redditor KayRay1994 submitted a video called “Where is Charles Lee” on /r/assassinscreed, which gained 206 upvotes as March 24th, 2015.^[1]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Bhutanese Passport refers to an audio recording featuring a spoken word version of the “Bhutanese Passport” Wikipedia article. In January 2015, the recording generated controversy on the wiki site after it began circulating online, with some interpreting it as a racist joke while others defended it as an authentic reading by a Bhutanese speaker.

Origin

On May 31st, 2013, Wikipedia^[1] user KuchenZimjah created an article titled “Bhutanese Passport.” On June 10th, the user uploaded a spoken word version of the article to Wikimedia Commons^[2] (shown below). On KuchenZimjah’s Wikipedia page,^[6] he claims to be a native of Thimphu, Bhutan who learned English while studying in New Zealand.

Spread

On September 24th, 2013, the Spoken Wikipedia YouTube channel uploaded the audio version of the Wikipedia article (shown below). In the first six months, the video gained over 299,000 views and 190 comments.

In January 2015, several Wikipedia users posted comments to the “Bhutanese Passport” talk page accusing the recording of being a racist joke, while others argued that the recording was made by a native Bhutanese speaker with an accent.^[5] On January 20th, Imgur^[4] user HenryKissinger uploaded a screenshot of the Bhutanese Passport article titled “You won’t regret it,” highlighting the “Listen to this article” section of the page. Within two months, the image gathered upwards of 142,000 views and 280 comments. On the following day, the pop culture blog Fusion^[3] published an article about spoken Wikipedia articles, which listed “Bhutanese Passport” as a notable example. On March 23rd, the file was nominated for deletion on Wikimedia Commons.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Twizzler Challenge (hashtag: #TwizzlerChallenge) is a social media dare game in which two participants must share a single stick of the licorice candy from the opposite ends and meet in the middle for a kiss. Launched in late March 2015, the challenge aims to benefit New York Collaborates for Autism NYCA), a non-profit organization devoted to addressing and fulfilling the special needs of people with autism, following the path of the Ice Bucket Challenge that raised millions of dollars in donation for the ALS foundation in 2014.

Origin

On March 9th, 2015, during the live broadcast of Comedy Central’s charity special program Night of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together for Autism Programs, a viewer called in and requested Willie Geist, the host of NBC’s morning news program Today, and Uzo Abuda, a cast member of Orange is the New Black, to take on the challenge (shown below) for the benefit of medical research on Autism.

The challenge can be seen as a tribute to the famous “spaghetti kissing” scene from the 1955 Disney animated romantic musical comedy film Lady and the Tramp (shown below).

Spread

In the following week, numerous TV personalities and celebrities shared their videos of participating in Twizzler Challenge, beginning with Willie Geist and Meredith Vieira, the host of NBC’s Meredith Vieira Show on March 12th (shown below), followed by Regis Philbin and Hoda Kotb on March 23rd.

On March 18th, Instagram user Allison Williams shared a video that shows her and Lena Dunham taking the Twizzler Challenge with the official hashtag #NYC4A, which has garnered more than 8,500 likes in less than a week.

News Media Coverage

On March 18th, Jezebel^[7] reported on the emerging trend in an article titled “The Twizzler Challenge: Because the Ice Bucket Challenge Wasn’t Enough,” followed by mainstream news outlets like Fox News^[3], TIME^[6], PBS^[5] and NBC Today^[9], as well as internet culture blogs and news sites, including Cheezburger^[2], The Huffington Post^[10] and Uproxx^[4], among many others.

Search Interest

External References

About

Ted Cruz is a Republican Senator from Texas known for being the first Hispanic American to serve as a senator from the state. In March 2015, the senator announced his bid to run for the Republican Party nomination in the 2016 United States Presidential election.

Political Career

In 1999, Cruz served as a policy advisor for the George W. Bush presidential campaign. From 2003 to 2008, Cruz held the office of Solicitor General of Texas. In 2012, Cruz was elected as the first Hispanic and Cuban American to serve as a senator from Texas in the United States Congress.

Online History

2013 Government Shutdown

On September 24th, 2013, Cruz began a filibuster in protest of the Affordable Care Act to prevent a resolution designed to prevent a government shutdown, promising he would speak until he was “no longer able to stand.” During the marathon speech, Cruz read from the Dr. Seuss children’s book Green Eggs and Ham (shown below).

Position on Net Neutrality

On November 10th, 2014, Cruz posted a tweet^[3] comparing net neutrality to Obamacare, gathering more than 3,400 retweets and 1,600 favorites in the next four months (shown below).

That day, The Oatmeal^[4] posted an open letter to Cruz to address his perceived misconceptions about the way net neutrality works (shown below). On November 14th, the Texas Tribune^[1] livestreamed an event where Cruz gave remarks on his opposition to Internet regulations and the net neutrality digital rights movement.

TedCruz.com

In 2008, Arizona attorney Ted Cruz registered the site TedCruz.com.^[5][6] In December 2014, the site began displaying the message “Support President Obama. Immigration reform now!” (shown below).

Presidential Campaign

On March 23rd, 2015, Cruz declared his bid for the Republican Party nomination in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. That day, The Onion^[2] published an article titled “Who is Ted Cruz,” featuring several satirical “facts” about the Republican senator.

Search Interest

External References

About

Le Reddit Armie is a nickname given to the users and contributors of the r/RedditArmie sub-reddit. The sub-reddit gained attention following large strings of parody comments posted on Youtube in the style infamous reddit stereotypes.

History

R/RedditArmie^[1] was first created on June 10th, 2014, and since then had managed to reach nearly 6,000 subscribers over the following 9 months. Its contributing users are mostly a collection of meta-ironic parody accounts who post and act in the style of several infamous reddit stereotypes, such as being self-proclaimed nice guys, atheists, fedora enthusiasts and meme connoisseurs who think highly of reddit. The sub-reddit also serves as a hub for its contributors to share the Youtube comment sections where they posted, most which originate from featured videos on the r/videos^[2] sub-reddit.

Highlights

In reaction to the string of comments from the r/RedditArmie members, one particular account that sprung into attention was Berta Lovejoy,^[3] which was created on September 3rd, 2014. Unlike most accounts posting as redditors, Berta Lovejoy posts from the perspective of an extreme feminist. Both Le Reddit Armie and Berta Lovejoy were also featured together in articles on Digg^[4] and The Daily Dot^[5] in the following months. A definition for “Le reddit army” was first submitted to Urban Dictionary on October 11th of that same year.^[8]

On November 12th, 2014, redditor drumdiary made a browser extention,^[6] called “Hide Fedora,” that allows its users to hide Youtube comments made by Le Reddit Armie. The extention was also featured in an article on The Daily Dot^[7] a few months later. As of March 25th, 2015, the extention has over 67,000 users on Google Chrome and 7,600 users on Mozilla Firefox.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

#rapalbumsthatcausedslavery is a satirical hashtag focusing on changing the names of hip-hop and rap albums to become related to slavery and racism toward African-Americans. The hashtag was sparked by a discussion of the University of Oklahoma Racism Incident, which came to the conclusion that rap music was to blame for the incident.

Origin

On March 11, 2015, the news network MSNBC aired an episode of talk show Morning Joe , in which the members of the program discussed the University of Oklahoma Racism Incident. Commentators Bill Kristol and Mika Brzezinski in particular asserted that the incident was triggered by rap music, claiming that the perpetrators of the incident had picked up on the language from listening to the genre.^[1]

Spread

Later that day, the hashtag was created as a reaction to the incident. Several tweets which used it were retweetedby hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, which helped spread the hashtag.^[2] Its spread was noted by several news outlets.

Examples

OH MY GOD "@rodimusprime: Three Fifths Mafia #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery"

— chi (@craetures) March 24, 2015

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted – Ice Cube #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery

— JULIAN.xxx.Taylor (@BuggishRuggish) March 22, 2015

LOL!! PRICELESS!: "Boyz N The Hoodz – Eazy E #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlaverypic.twitter.com/ZQnsByuXFh” @28Stinni

— A. Adar Ayira (@AdarAyiraViews) March 16, 2015

Distant Relatives: Massa My Daddy Too #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery

— Tayzus (@TayAurelia) March 16, 2015

“@BullhammerPT: LL Cool J "Massa said knock you out" #rapalbumsthatcausedslavery”

— THOTMESSIAH™ † (@jujuofficial) March 15, 2015

Straight out of cotton #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery

— Coco (@cocoxocherie) March 14, 2015

Who "Bought" Ya – Notorious B.I.G. #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery

— Renee Fletcher (@RThomFletch) March 14, 2015

Trends

References

(Note : Editors needed! I’m gonna need all the help i can get here.)

About

Inside Gaming is a brand by the company Machinima. Originally a Halo exclusive show under the name Inside Halo and later video game news show on the machinima main youtube channel, it later branch out into its own multimedia channel that covers gameplays, live action skits, Q&As, podcasts, reviews and previews. On January 27th, 2015, the inside gaming crew announced that they are leaving machinima to later officially join Rooster Teeth under the new name Funhaus.

History

Inside Halo

On October 10th, 2007, Inside Halo was launched on the machinima website and later on the machinima youtube channel. Hosted by sodagod (Mike Rouse) and thedeadpixel (Adam Kovic), the show covered halo related news such updates and tournaments being held while adding skits in between segments. The show ran for 30 episode using the format of a halo machinima. On February 9th, 2009, Aam Kovic announced the renaming of the show into Inside Gaming to cover news from video games in general.

Inside Gaming

On February 22nd, 2009, the first episode of inside gaming was released. Using the same format as Inside Halo, the show retains the halo machinima format and skits while informing the latest news in the video game industry. The show is primarily hosted by Adam Kovic. Later episodes would abandon the machinima and skit format to favor a live action and direct comedy approach.

Youtube Channel

Though originally created on June 2008, the Inside Gaming youtube channel began uploading content on March 24th, 2013 previewing the 2013 PAX East event. From there, the channel began uploading daily content which are primarily gameplay videos, live action skits, Podcasts, and reviews. As of january 2015, the channel has garnered more than 700.000 subscribers.

Departure from Machinima and Forming Funhaus

On January 27th, 2015, The Inside Gaming crew announced that they are leaving machinima on their daily news program. The news was later covered by several gaming sites. The last episode of the daily was aired on January 30th as their farewell to the company.

On February 5th, 2015, The crew announced that they are joining roosterteeth as part of the new los angeles branch under the new name Funhaus.

Search Interest

About

One-Hour Drawing Game, also called “Midnight 60-Minute Serious Drawing Game” (Japanese: 深夜の真剣お絵描き60分一本勝負) or “One-Draw” / “1Draw” (ワンドロ, Wandoro) for short, refers to an online game of drawing an illustration in 60 minutes with a theme offered on Twitter. Since the middle of 2013, it has been a very popular practice among Japanese amateur illustrators.

Origin

This drawing game was started as an in-group game for training of a Twitter user @kuroneko262^[1] and a few of his friends. The first game was started at 8:30 PM on May 14, 2013 with his two friends and the themes were their favorite Touhou Project characters: Koishi Komeiji, Nazrin or Kasen Ibaraki.

dream_detector</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/yoihebi">yoihebi各々準備が整った報告を受けてから10分後に始めましょう、今日はこいしちゃんぐの日なのでこいしちゃんか火曜日なのでナズーリンか華が関係あるキャラです それぞれなに描くか申告しようね！

— 黒いもにょもけ・猫型 (@kuroneko262) May 14, 2013

Results for the first session

Then, a hashtag“#Midnight60MinuteSeriousDrawingGame” (#深夜の真剣お絵描き60分一本勝負) has been used for this game since announcements for the 3rd session on May 15th.^[2]

Spread

By the advent of the hashtag, this One-Hour Drawing game became to be known widely, and the sessions organized by @kuroneko262 almost everyday quickly increased its participants. And its themes were mostly chosen from Touhou Project characters because of the taste of the originator and his surroundings. A support web page 1draw^[3] which automatically collects illustrations uploaded with this hashtag was also launched in July of that year.

On the other hand, rapid increase of participants brought difficulty of the game management. Particularly in the early days, co-existing of Kantai Collection (KanColle) characters in this game which began by Touhou Project characters elicited many objections from both of titles’ hardcore fans. In this context, the originator retired from the organizer in 2 months. And according to a wiki page which archives events and troubles in the KanColle fandom, the subsequent organizers were also heavily criticized their KanColle-centric management which aimed to occupy the support page by KanColle illustrations. Additionally, their inconsiderate acts at that time became to remote cause of an another incident which this game for KanColle got collapsed temporally by trolls from 2channel’s /livejupiter/ board in March 2015.^[4]

Against this background, today One-Hour Drawing Game is practiced every night for each anime, manga, video game titles separately by utilizing its own hashtags and Twitter accounts for theme announcements, which are managed by many voluntary organizers. Those hashtags are usually named by the phrasal template“Midnight60MinuteSeriousDrawingGameXXEdition” (XX版深夜の真剣お絵描き60分一本勝負). And the first hashtag is used only for the game for Touhou Project. The participants works are often reuploaded to their pixiv pages under tags which are same as the Twitter hashtags (eg. Touhou Project^[5], KanColle^[6]) or the tag 1draw (ワンドロ)^[7]. And many of them are reblogged to Tumblr as well.^[8]

Various Examples

Twitter Feeds

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

Touhou Project (Since May 2013)^[9]

Kantai Collection (Since July 2013)^[10]

Love Live! (Since December 2013)^[11]

Pokémon (Since December 2013)^[12][13]

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Since April 2014)^[14]

Search Interest

A large spike for the word “1draw” in March 2015 was caused by trolls invasion to the hashtag for KanColle One-Hour Drawing Game.

External References

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

About

So Sad Today (@sosadtoday) is a novelty Twitter account run by an anonymous Los Angeles-based writer known only as Melissa^[2]. Since launch in July 2012, the account has gained a large following online for its comically depressing tweets.

Origin

@sosadtoday tweeted for the first time on July 5th, 2012. The first tweet displays the unique style of the account: short sentences, written all lowercase.

Spread

Since 2012, @sosadtoday has tweeted on a regular basis usually on a schedule of 10-15 tweets per day. As of March 25th, 2015, @sosadtoday has over 193,000 followers and draws around 500 retweets per post on average. In addition, the account’s popularity has been further boosted through retweets by celebrities like Miley Cyrus.

Her most popular tweet to date, posted February 3rd, 2014, received 4,984 retweets and 6,056 favorites.

Since December 15th, 2014, @sosadtoday has written an advice column for Vice Magazine.^[3]

On March 19th, 2015, the parody account So NYPD Today^[5] (@sonypdtoday) was created. The account tweets about police issues including brutality and community-relations, but in the lowercase, sarcastic style of @sosadtoday.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Note: A song by artist July Skies named “So Sad Today” was released in early 2010 and gained popularity in that year, pre-dating the Twitter account.

External References

^[1]Tumblr – http://sosad-today.tumblr.com/

^[2]Rolling Stone – @SoSadToday: Twitter’s Secret Superstar Speaks for the FirstTime

^[3]Vice – Author Page: @SoSadToday

^[4]Favstar – @sosadtoday’s Most Popular Tweets

^[5]Twitter – @SoNYPDToday

About

Alpha as Fuck is an expression describing people and behaviors that are considered overtly dominant, masculine or aggressive. The phrase is often used ironically in green text stories or in reference to awkward, submissive or overly confident men.

Origin

While the exact origin of “alpha is fuck” is unknown, the phrase appears to have been popularized in pickup artist discussion forums. On June 3rd, 2008, PUA Forums^[1] member mrmtzyztplktehtrd replied to a thread about films and television series with assertive male protagonists by referring to the character Lt. Winters in the 2001 war drama miniseries Band of Brothers as “alpha as fuck” (shown below).

Precursor: “As Fuck”

The phrasal template“X as fuck” has historically been used to describe a person who displays a high level of a given personality trait or characteristic.

Spread

On September 11th, 2009, Attraction Forums^[7] member kyle990546 submitted a thread titled “Standing out among alpha as fuck standoutters.” On August 13th, 2011, YouTuber HappyCabbie uploaded a video titled “Alpha as Fuck,” in which he simulates sex with his computer desk chair (shown below).

On November 22nd, an anonymous 4chan user posted a spaghetti story about a failed first date ending with the phrase “alpha as fuck” (shown below).

On December 2nd, Urban Dictionary^[3] user the weasel of change submitted an entry for “alpha as fuck,” defining it as an expression used to describe rude behaviors. On September 1st, 2012, Redditor OMIbro posted a screenshot of a green text story about a weight lifter wearing Pikachu onesie pajamas ending with the phrase “alpha as fuck” to /r/4chan^[5] (shown below). Before the post was archived, it gained over 3,800 votes (95% upvoted) and 130 comments.

On December 24th, Redditor djnewton123 submitted a green text story titled “Anon alpha as fuck” to the /r/4chan^[4] subreddit, where it garnered more than 2,400 votes (93% upvoted) and 35 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On March 13th, 2013, a Facebook^[2] page titled “Alpha as Fuck” was launched. On May 12th, 2014, Redditor The_Horse_Yeller posted a screenshot of a green text story in which God refers to himself as “alpha as fuck” and “omega as fuck” to /r/4chan,^[6] where it accumulated upwards of 5,300 votes (96% upvoted) and 270 comments prior to being archived.

Search Interest

External References

About

Over X Hours in Ms Paint, sometimes shortened as Over X Hours In Paint, is a catchphrase and snowclone describing, often hyperbolically, the effort and time put into the creation of something, usually a picture made using popular tool Ms Paint. It has then become a typical summarizing sentence in titles and or/descriptions for an image creation.

Origin

While commenting on the time put into any creation is a recurring habit among people both outside of internet, one of the earliest online mentions of anyone genuinely describing the time they took in making a picture using Ms Paint was TRMK forum user Gororules, posting a thread on November 15th 2004 about sprites he made^[1]. Then, its first online mention as an hyperbole can be found in a July 2005 thread made on the official Winamp website in which user commented that the image creation of a desktop by another user “[…] must have takenat (sic) least 500 hours in MS Paint”^[2].

Spread

On September 4th 2005, “Newgrounds”: user MidnyteRayne sarcastically replied “5,000,000 hours in MS paint.” to a post asking what progams were used to make Canadian tv show ReBoot^[3]. As early as 2011, the Lurkmore website began mentioning the usage of the snowclone “x hours in MS Paint” as being commonplace on 4chan’s/b/ (random) board as well as being often mixed with the Over 9000 slang^[4]. These common occurances were also reported on TvTropes, naming it “9001 hours in MS Paint” as an example of memetic mutation from 4chan related to the MS Paint software^[5].

[WIP]

External References

^[1]TRMK forums – My sprite edit Stryker / 11/15/2004

^[2]Winamp forums – July 2005 Desktops / 7/4/2005

^[3]Newgrounds forums – Program used to make ReBoot

^[4]Lurkmore WIki – MS Paint

^[5]TVTropes – Useful Notes: MS Paint

[wip]

About

Wake Me Up Inside (Can’t Wake Up) are lyrics from the song Bring Me To Life by Evanescence. They are often associated with images of skeleton appearing to be screaming.

Origin

The song from which the lyrics originate is called Bring Me To Life, performed by an American group Evanescence. The song was recorded in 2002 and released on April 22, 2003.

The image, which the lyrics had become associated with the most, belongs to a wooden carved rocking chair made to look like a skeleton^[1](pictured below, left). On May 13th, 2013, a Tumblr user maohshounen posted an image, edited to have a superimposed head of the skeleton with a red filter and glowing eyes, (pictured below, right) with a comment “ah yes my throne”^[2].

<

Spread

The earliest example of the association between the image and the lyrics date back to February 11th, 2014^[5]. On February 27th, 2014, an anonymous 4chan user posted a cropped screenshot of two files^[4], both of them being the crops of the edited skeleton rocking chair image above. The filenames of those two files were WAKE ME UP INSIDE.PNG and (CAN’T WAKE UP).PNG respectively.

[wip]

Various Examples

[wip]

Search Interest

External References

About

InfoSec Taylor Swift (@SwiftOnSecurity) is a novelty Twitter account that offers humorous commentaries and advice on information security and cyber warfare in the voice of the American pop star Taylor Swift.

Origin

@SwiftOnSecurity tweeted for the first time on April 9th, 2014, about The HeartBleed Bug.

Spread

@SwiftonSecurity garnered followers early organically, and in August 2014 began to be retweeted by other popular Twitter accounts, including the well-known author William Gibson.

Early popular tweets included photographs of the pop star performing on stage with notable cyber-security aphorisms photoshopped on to them; these are now mostly propagated on the user’s Tumblr^[1], while @SwiftOnSecurity focuses on text-only jokes and information. Many of @SwiftOnSecurity’s most popular tweets, including the two below, are about Linux and its users.

On September 1st, the Tumblr blog SwiftOnSecurity^[1] was launched as an accompaniment to the Twitter account. In the following months, in the wake of the Fappening/Celebgate, @SwiftOnSecurity was written about by several notable publications including Grantland^[2], Boing Boing^[3] and The Vine.^[4]

@SwiftOnSecurity has been lauded by cyber security professionals for its “real, accurate, and helpful”^[5] information and mainstream presentation.^[6]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Tumblr – Swift On Security

^[2]Grantland – Taylor Swift’s Timely Technoparanoia

^[3]BoingBoing – Infosec Taylor Swift’s cyber-philosophical musings

^[4]The Vine – New Faves: Taylor Swift is an expert on internet security

^[5]Security Intelligence – What Does Taylor Swift Know About Data Security?

^[6]SpiceWorks – Is Taylor Swift the best InfoSec voice on twitter?

About

“Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted” is a memorable quote from the action video game series Assassin’s Creed, in which it is presented as the maxim of an ancient group of assassins known as The Assassin Order.

Origin

The quote is derived from the 1938 novel Alamut by Vladimir Bartol, which tells a fictional account of Hassan-i Sabba, the leader of the Ismailis branch of Shia Islam and founder of the Hashashin order. In the novel, the maxim of the assassin group is written as “Nothing is an absolute reality, all is permitted.” On November 13th, 2007, Assassin’s Creed was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles by the video game publisher Ubisoft, in which the maxim of an ancient order of assassins is introduced as “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”

Spread

On January 22nd, 2011, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Al Muslimo submitted an entry for the quote, which cited the Assassin’s Creed games as the origin. On February 15th, 2013, Redditor a photoshopped image of a student sleeping in a classroom with the caption “Student’s Creed / Everything is Due, Nothing is Submitted” was submitted to the /r/funny^[6] subreddit, where it gained over 2,200 votes and 60 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On October 24th, Redditor MrQuicksilver posted an illustration with a quote about the maxim from the game Assassin’s Creed II to /r/gaming^[5] (shown below). Before the post was archived, it received more than 1,400 votes (92% upvoted) and 65 comments.

On May 1st, 2014, a Facebook^[4] page titled “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” was launched. On July 2nd, Redditor EscoBlades submitted a post calling for a discussion about the meaning of the maxim to the /r/assassinscreed^[5] subreddit. On March 20th, 2015, Ubisoft^[3] tweeted a photograph of an Assassin’s Creed fan illustration along with the quote, gathering upwards of 1,800 favorites and 1,100 retweets in the first week (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Pepe the Frog is one of the main characters of the comic series Boy’s Club, created by Matt Furie. The character spawned various reaction faces.

Origin

Boy’s Club is a comic series created by Matt Furie on late 2005 and published by the defunct distributor Buenaventure Press since 2006.^[1] The series stars four monsters: Pepe, Brett, Andy, and Landwolf, featuring situations where the main characters expell bodily fluids and use popular 90’s catchphrases like “Got Milk?” and “As if!”.^[2]

On early 2008, one page from the comic where Pepe pulls his pants down to urinate became viral on 4chan’s /b/, being related with the catchphrase ‘Feels good man’, the one Pepe recites on the original page. His face also became a exploitable (shown bellow, right)

Spread

On August 17th, 2009, a modified image of Pepe face was posted on Body Building Forums, featuring a sad version of it, which later was related with the catchphrase ‘Feels Bad Man’ (shown bellow, left). This version also derived on a smug version on 2011 (shown bellow, center) and a angry version on 2014 (shown bellow, right).

More derivates appeared.

Nu Pepe

Nu Pepe is a Pepe variation. One of the first uses of it can be found on the Finnish imageboard Ylautia on December 9th, 2014, featuring a edited edition that resembles Javert from Les Misérables (shown bellow, left).^[6] On January 24th, 2015, a message on the Russian imageboard Два.ч featured a Bane edit (shown bellow, center).^[5] On March 1st, 2015 a thread on 4chan’s question and anwser board contained an unedited version of the image, calling it “nu pepe” and nominating it as “the official meme of /qa/” (shown bellow, right).^[4] The next day, the shitposting board [s4s] stickied a nu pepe thread.^[3]

Poo Poo Pee Pee

Poo Poo Pee Pee is the name given to a series of images and comics that feature Smug Frog committing various unethical acts, often towards Wojak, usually involving urine and/or feces. Most commonly used in 4chan’s /r9k/ board, the comics were created as a reaction towards the usage of Pepe’s likeness in various mainstream social media sites like Twitter. The first instance of the comics can be found on a /r9k/ thread posted on November 16th, 2014, featuring an image of a obese Smug Pepe with the message “Poo poo. Pee pee. Now mommy has to change me.”.^[7] On November 28th, 2014, another thread on the same board featured a comic stared by Smug Pepe and Wojak, where Pepe excretes over Wojak.^[8] The thread also featured other user-created comics. On December 24th, 2014, a dedicated Tumblr blog was created.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

Poi (っぽい) is a Japanese word roughly translated to “supposedly,” which has become associated with the Kantai Collection character Yuudachi. Additionally, because of Kancolle’s focus on warships, the word has also become a commonly spammed word in the chat for the similarly-themed game World of Warships.

Origin

Kantai Collection was released in 2013.^[1] In the game, the character Yuudachi was noted to use the word “poi” as a vocal tic many times, probably as a reference to the uncertain fate of the World War II warship the character was based on.^[2]

Spread

On October 31, 2013, Nico Nico Douga user 零～ゼロ～ uploaded a “PONPONPON” parody based around Yuudachi and poi, which has gained over 700,000 views.^[3] Upon the airing of the Kancolle anime in January of 2015, several supercuts of the many uses of poi in the show were made.

World of Warships Trolling

In March of 2015, users of the game World of Warships, reported instances of the game’s chat becoming spammed with poi, due to the game’s thematic connection to Kantai Collection.^[4] This was later reported by websites such as Kotaku.^[5]

Search Interest

References