About

MyIdol, also known by its Chinese name 小偶 – 我的3D萌偶, is a mobile application that allows users to upload a selfie which will then be transposed on to one of a variety of personalized avatars. Users can then choose from a variety of different environments and song styles for the avatar to perform. The app also allows the user to share the performances on a variety of social media platforms.

History

Version 1 of the current version of the app was uploaded to the iOS App Store on August 6th, 2014. Despite the app only having Chinese language support, it began trending as an App Store download in America in late April, 2015.

Online Presence

The origin of the app’s American presence is unknown. However, between April 21st and April 22nd, 2015 it skyrocketed in popularity among users of social media networks. On April 22, technology blog Kotaku called myIdol “the Internet’s Funniest New Obsession,”^[1] and gave users detailed instructions on its use so that users who couldn’t figure out the Chinese instructions could upload their avatars. Celebrities, including Miley Cyrus and Lena Dunham, created their own avatars as well, tweeting them out to their social media followings and further spreading the app.

Between April 22nd and April 24th, the app was trending on Vine, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. ^[3][4][5][6]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Kotaku – My Idol is the Internet’s Funniest New Obsession

^[2]Faceli.com – Guide to My Idol for non-Chinese Speakers

^[3]Twitter – Search: myIdol

^[4]Tumblr – Search: myIdol

^[5]Vine – Search: myIdol

^[6]Instagram – Search: myIdol

About

Jared Leto’s Joker refers to the image reveal of the Joker, as portrayed by Jared Leto^[1], in the upcoming live-action DC^[2] movie Suicide Squad^[3].

Origin

The original image was uploaded to Suicide Squad director David Ayer’s Twitter account on April 24, 2015 which garnered over 30,000 retweets and favorites.

Online Presence

Coverage

Over the next few days several news media sites would publish articles based around the image, such as Screen Rant^[4], Rolling Stone^[5], and The Washington Post^[6].The same day an anonymous user created a thread about the image on “4chan’s”: /tv/ board^[7]. The following day, Reddit user, mr_stevetighe posted a thread^[8] on the r/movies subreddit to discuss the Joker image. Within a day the post gained over 7,000 comments of people discussing the image.

Parody Images

Following the reveal of the image many used the image in an exploitable fashion, as well as parodying the image in a more traditional sense

References

About

Maximilian Christiansen , also known as Maximilian dood, is a Fighting game content producer on YouTube, popularly known for his Online Warrior , Assist Me! , and Boss Rage video series. He also produces content for twitch.tv and Yo! Video Games, Max’s YouTube Let’s Play channel.

Online History

Early Career

Max began his YouTube career in 2007, posting casual and tournament gameplay videos of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Street Fighter 4, along with gameplay and commentaries of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, and Black Ops .

The Online Warrior

in 2011, Max uploaded ‘Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Maximilian’s ‘The Online Warrior’ Episode 1 Pt-1’, which marked the start of the series of matchmaking commentary videos in which he analyzes gameplay mechanics, characters specialties, play styles, and highlights in his session of matches. This series also has many different iterations since it’s conception, including “Hype & Rage” Compilations, “Week Of…” episodes, and the “Max & Co. Vs. The World” miniseries.

Assist Me

On April 12, 2011, Max started the Assist Me! series, uploading the first video ‘Assist Me! Dr, Doom Tutorial pt. 1’ on Youtube, in this series, max goes in-depth on individual characters, explaining core elements, tactical specialties, and demonstrations on how to properly execute strategies in which the character plays a pivotal role. along with the tutorial, Assist Me! also features sketch comedy shorts having Max interact with various members of the Marvel 3 cast, with reoccurring appearances by Dr. Doom and Albert Wesker (Played by Matt Simmons and Mike Young respectively).

Boss Rage

Boss Rage! is a montage series in which Max and the Yo! Videogames crew challenges and defeats infamously difficult fighting game game bosses on their hardest possible difficulty setting. The series began on December 21, 2013, in which he takes on the final boss Eyedol of Killer Instinct . Since then he has successfully defeated bosses many other games, including Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , Capcom vs. SNK 2 , Bio F.R.E.A.K.S , Mortal Kombat 9 , and more.

Reputation

Max is commonly known for being a prominent figure in the Fighting Game Community, as well as a premier Fighting Game exclusive channel on YouTube, having over 300,000 subscribers and over 11 million overall views. His twitch.tv channel has also seen great success, with over 140,000 followers and 5 million unique views. his Assist Me! video series has gained recognition and praise from Capcom, which prompted him to release Ultimate Assist Me! and Retro Assist Me. Max is also currently prospected by Iron Galaxy to create promotional material for Killer Instinct Season 2 in which he works freelance. Max’s channel has also been quoted to be a favorite of the Super Best Friends Play crew, in which his videos and exploits are mentioned or is the subject matter of their recent videos. He’s also to be featured as a guest character in the upcoming indie fighting game Beasts Fury , in which he provided advisory feedback for.

Search Interest

About

Isabelle Cannot Be Harmed is a meme originating from within Mario Kart 8’s second DLC Pack, in which Isabelle, the secretary from the Animal Crossing series, is put into danger while racing, only for at the last second to not be harmed or to not fall off of the track by means of another characters intervention or otherwise.

Origin

Because of the polite and kind character that Isabelle is depicted as in Animal Crossing, fans have always taken Isabelles side in defending her from harm and general insults about her personality. As such, it’s not uncommon for Animal Crossing fans to display affection and a need to protect Isabelle online.

The meme itself originated from user Goomygoo on Tumblr, when they posted a video of Isabelle being chased down by a Red Shell right before the finish line. The video then goes onto show that, instead of Isabelle being hit, Baby Luigi lands on the Red Shell, for it to explode immediately after. As a consequence, Isabelle is not harmed, and wins the race. (right click, then press play to play videos below!)

A second instance of the meme was uploaded to Tumblr by user lustfuldemoness , with Isabelle, once again, being chased by a Red Shell, only this time on Mario Kart 8’s remake of SNES Rainbow Road. As a last ditch attempt to rid herself of the Red Shell, she falls off of the track, perhaps intentionally. The video further depicts her somehow bouncing off the Red Shell to safety, as if the track itself didn’t want Isabelle to be harmed.

Spread

Due to Tumblr’s simple Reblog and Like nature, the video’s has so far gained a combined total of 66,830 notes, and have spawned multiple pieces of Fan Art, depicting Isabelle in similar situations, such as letting Villager win, instead of her, in order to “help out” the villager, as she does in her secretary position in Animal Crossing.

About

Nilihst Arby’s is a novelty Twitter account featuring bleak, pessimistic tweets about the meaninglessness of life and inevitability of death with unenthusiastic recommendations for the fast food restaurant chain Arby’s.

Origin

On January 14th, 2015, the @nihilist_arbys^[1] Twitter feed was launched, which posted several bleak tweets recommending Arby’s as a fast food destination (shown below). In the first three months, the feed gained over 50,000 followers.

Spread

On January 29th, Twitter user @warlick^[2] posted a mock Arby’s promotional ad using copy from a Nihilist Arby’s tweet (shown below).

On the following day, the pop culture blog AV Club^[6] published an article titled “Gaze into the Beef ’n Cheddar abyss with the Nihilist Arby’s Twitter account.” On February 3rd, Redditor coffee_guy submitted the Twitter account to the /r/nightvale^[3] subreddit. On February 8th, the food blog What’s Nick Eating^[8] reported that the account had been suspended. On February 10th, @nihilist_arbys resumed tweeting (shown below).^[9]

On February 13th, Ad Week^[4] reported that @nihilist_arbys had a follower “engagement rate” of 113 percent, compared to 4.3 percent for the official Arby’s feed. On February 19th, the Nihilist Arby’s Facebook^[7] page was launched. On March 30th, Redditor tazman886 submitted a link to the Twitter account to the /r/nihilism^[10] subreddit. On April 25th, Jezebel^[5] published an article about the Twitter feed.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Gnome (Гном) is a 3D model of a gnome that grew popular online in Russia for its low render quality and shocked expression.

Origin

On October 31, 2004, user “Asci” of the Russian game development site GameDev.ru posted a topic to the site’s forums named “Зацените Гнома.” (Check out the gnome). In the thread, Asci posted images of a low-polygon gnome model that he made.^[1] Soon after posting, the Gnome became a running joke for the users of the website, who found its low-quality shocked facial expression hilarious.

Spread

Over the next decade, the original Gnome thread grew to over 500 pages of responses, with occasional activity spanning into 2015.^[2] A page for Gnome was created on the Russian version of the Lurkmore Wiki in 2009.^[3] A website for Gnome was created, which contains articles and images based off Gnome; most of it, however, has become unavailable.^[4] Gnome has also been referenced in several Russian print publications, such as Gameland, as seen below.

Example Images

Search Interest

References

Overview

2015 Baltimore Riots refers to the ongoing civil unrest that erupted in Baltimore, Maryland following the death of the 25-year-old African American man Freddie Gray under police custody in April 2015.

Background

On the morning of April 12th, 2015, Baltimore resident Freddie Gray was arrested and taken into custody by the Baltimore Police Department for possession of a switchblade knife. The scene of his arrest was captured on video footage by two bystanders, which shows Gray being carried into the van by multiple officers. According to the police report, within 30 minutes the arrest, Gray suddenly fell into a coma while being transported, prompting the attention of paramedics before he was taken to the University of Maryland’s R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where it was discovered that he had sustained severe injuries to his spinal cords and larynx. In the following week, Gray remained unconscious and underwent extensive surgery; on April 19th, a week after his arrest, Gray was ultimately pronounced dead.

Local Reactions

In the days following Gray’s death, hundreds of local residents began assembling in downtown Baltimore to march down the streets adjacent to the scene of Gray’s arrest and stage a demonstration outside the city’s Western District police headquarters. According to Reuters and local news media outlets, the protest was peaceful.

Official Statements

On April 21st, Baltimore Police Department suspended six officers involved in the arrest due to an internal investigation of Gray’s death, in addition to the launch of a federal investigation by the United States Justice Department. The next day, Gene Ryan, the president of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, released a statement expressing sympathy for the Gray family, while condemning the anti-police rhetorics of protests by likening the local reaction to a “lynch mob.” Ryan’s remark was met with heavy backlash from the family’s attorney, as well as the national news media outlets, most notably in a New York Times op-ed column titled “‘Lynch Mob’: Misuse of Language.”

Notable Developments

April 25th: Protests

On April 25th, 2015, thousands of Baltimore residents participated in a massive rally by marching from the Baltimorean city hall to Inner Harbor, during which a small contingent of unruly protesters began throwing rocks at police officers and damaging vehicles. As a result, at least 34 people were arrested and 15 police officers were injured, while two photojournalists were forcefully subdued and briefly taken into custody while attempting to photograph the scenes of the escalating violence. Upon release, a video clip of J.M. Giordano, a photographer for Baltimore City Paper, getting swarmed and beaten by two police officers, was published on the online edition of the publication.

Memorial Service

On April 27th, the memorial service for Freddie Gray was held at the New Shiloh Baptist Church, which was joined by civil rights leaders, families of other people killed by police, and politicians including Congressman Elijah Cummings, Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, White House adviser Heather Foster, and Elias Alcantara of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Escalation of Violence

However, by early afternoon that same day, the Baltimore Police Department had reportedly issued a warning of “potentially violent activities on the rise” across the city. Around 3 p.m., a confrontation erupted between the police in riot gear and a group of about 100 youthful protesters who began throwing bricks and bottles at the officers. In response to the unrest, a handful of schools, universities and major businesses closed early and several professional sporting events were postponed to a later date. Meanwhile, several police vehicles were destroyed and set on fire and a CVS pharmacy store in downtown Baltimore was looted and set ablaze.

Online Reactions

As violence continued to escalate, hundreds of photographs and videos from the day-long protests began to emerge online, with several videos instantly going viral on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets. On April 28th, the hashtag #BaltimoreUprising was the top trending term in the American Northeast, with over 22,000 mentions.

A photograph of the April 25 rioters standing on a Baltimore police car was superimposed with the text “All HighSchools Monday @3 We Are Going To Purge From Mondawmin To The Ave, Back To Downtown #Fdl”^[12] and distributed on social media^[13] and as flyers.^[14]

Camden Yards Purse Snatching Controversy

During the riots on April 25th, 2015, in front of Camden Yards Ballpark in Baltimore, a photograph was taken of a scuffle where a redheaded woman and a man were engaged in a fight over a purse. A rumor quickly spread through social media that the woman was drunkenly attacking the man, who was holding the purse.

On April 27th, Imgur user CumInMyMeowth posted a detailed investigation of the origin of the rumor, attributing it to two reporters from Baltimore’s CityPaper. As of April 28th, 2015 the post had received more than 120,000 views and 273 points. In an article posted the next day by one of the reporters named, Brandon Soderbergh, he claimed even though he was there he was not really sure of what was happening.

Later that day, user throwawayspot8 posted to subreddit /r/baltimore, claiming to be the woman in question. She explained that she had not been drunk, and that the man had actually been attempting to steal her purse. The post received 323 points (88% upvoted).

External References

About

Million Dollar Extreme is a Youtube^[1] comedy group. Its catalogue is divided between abrasive, strategically offensive acts of (sometimes public) provocation and anti-sketches.

Online History

Notable Videos

Reputation

Some videos borrow Wonder Showzen’s toolkit, wielding subliminal blips and eye-straining text in service of subversive ends. Some make use of the Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! aesthetic, and some are surprisingly slick, with excellent, eardrum-shredding music courtesy of talented mystery-men like Orangy and Vaervaf.^[2]

MDE is infamous for a type of comedy terrorism and seems to take special joy making fun of groups that most people would deem off limits, taking more of a scorched earth approach to humor and considering that nothing and nobody can be considered sacred. They also rarely offer a comforting wink to the audience when satirical elements get uncomfortable or a character says something particularly monstrous. It doesn’t feel safe and, in a world of politically correct labels and trigger warnings, people really like to feel safe. When asked about what Million Dollar Extreme’s response might be to the YouTube ban they experienced in 2014, Sam Hyde, one of the creator said, “I’m planning something big, loud, and ‘legal’ outside the YouTube headquarters. Let’s just say I’m gonna be on national television.”^[3]

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Youtube – Million Dollar Extreme Channel
fn2. You Monsters are People – Youtube banned something I liked
fn3. Million Dollar Extreme

Overview

Protein World’s “Beach Body Ready” Ad refers to a London Underground weight loss product advertisement featuring a bikini-clad women with the message “Are you beach body ready?”, which was accused of “body shaming” and promoting “unrealistic body images” by activists in April 2015.

Background

On April 12th, 2015, Twitter user Hannah Atkinson posted a photograph of a Protein World advertisement taken in a London Underground station in London, England, adding that the ad “sums up everything that I despise about how we treat and value women’s bodies” (shown below). In the first three weeks, the tweet garnered more than 460 retweets and 400 favorites. On April 15th, Atkinson’s tweet was highlighted in a listicle on BuzzFeed^[5] titled “Can You Guess What These Sexist Adverts Are Trying To Sell?”

Notable Developments

Change.org Petition

On April 17th, 2015, United Kingdom resident Charlotte Baring created a petition on Change.org^[4] titled “Remove ‘Are You Beach Body Ready’ Advertisements” (shown below). In the first two weeks, the petition gathered upwards of 53,500 signatures of its 75,000 goal.

Protests

On April 22nd, 2015, feminist activists Tara Castello and Fiona Longmuir staged a protest in front of a Protein World ad in a London Underground train station while wearing bikinis. That day, Longmuir published a blog post^[12] about the protest and highlighted a photograph of herself and Castello standing in front of the ad (shown below, left). On April 25th, Castello created a Facebook^[3] event page for a protest titled “Taking Back the Beach,” encouraging users to join a demonstration against the Protein World ad at Hyde Park in London, England on May 2nd (shown below, right).

Ad Vandalism

On April 22nd, 2015, the @VagendaMagazine^[13] Twitter feed posted a photograph of a Protein World ad defaced with the message “Your body is not a commodity” (shown below, left). In the coming days, several other Twitter users tweeted more photographs of vandalized ads to the @VagendaMagazine.

Protein World’s Response

On April 23rd, the @ProteinWorld Twitter feed responded to Twitter user @JulietteBurton, asking her “why make your insecurities our problem ;)” (shown below, left). On April 25th, @ProteinWorld responded to Twitter users @laurenlaverne and @LarenKancashire, claiming that sales for the company had tripled since the controversy began (shown below, right). That day, Redditor alanitoo submitted screenshots of @ProteinWorld’s tweets to the /r/fatlogic^[14] subreddit, where it accumulated more than 2,400 votes (94% upvoted) and 240 comments in the next 72 hours.

On April 27th, Redditor cloudno7 submitted a screenshot of an email from Protein World’s Head of Global Marketing Richard Staveley, claiming that the company received over £1,000,000 in revenue over the last four days (shown below).^[1]

On 4chan

On April 25th, a thread with the message “Where were you when Protein World literally raped this poor woman?” was created on the /pol/ (politics) board on 4chan.^[4] In the coming days, several other threads were created on /pol and /fit/ (fitness).^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

#EveryBodysReady

Critics of the advertisement launched the hashtag #EveryBodysReady^[2] on Twitter to promote body acceptance. The hashtag was subsequently hijacked by those who defended Protein World’s ad.

News Media Coverage

In the comings days, several news sites published articles about the controversy, including The Independent,^[15] Time,^[16] Mashable,^[17] The Guardian,^[18] Today,^[19] Metro,^[20] Breitbart,^[21] The Drum^[22] and The Spectator.^[23]

Search Interest

External References

About

Jake from State Farm refers to the insurance agent featured in a commercial of the “Get to a better State” campaign commercials for the American insurance company State Farm. The commercial features a husband being misunderstood to be cheating while making a phone call to the insurance agent Jake. Upon its airing in June 2011, the commercial became a parody typically used to convey individuals who are caught in misunderstandings, as well as quoted in online conversations.

Origin

The insurance company State Farm released a commercial from their campaign titled “State of Unrest,” in which a husband is caught by his wife making a suspicious phone call at 3 a.m. to an unknown receiver. The husband insists on it being a State Farm insurance agent named “Jake”. Skeptical, she grabs the phone and asks what “Jake” is wearing. The scene cuts to a call center where Jake answers sheepishly, “Uh, khakis.” (shown below).

Spread

The commercial spawned an official twitter handle for Jake from State Farm ^[1] since February 2013, which has an approximate total of 33,400 followers.

On August 11, 2014, American rapper DJ Mustard released his album titled 10 Summers, which included the song “4 Digits” on the track list. The song uses the phrase in the lyrics, the verse sung by American rapper Fabolous ^[2] (shown below).

[Verse 3: Fabolous]
“You know I be on the phone talkin’ real late to ‘em
She be walkin’ real late on me, getting straight to ‘em
I be like “okay baby stay calm, it’s just Jake from State Farm”

The video has also spawned parodies in social media websites, notably on Vine^[3] and YouTube^[4].

Identity

On September 07, 2011 WMBD- TV news station interviewed the actor who played the insurance agent. ^[5] He was identified as Jake Stone from Normal, Illinois, working as an actual agent in the State Farm call center in Bloomington.

Also on September 1, 2011, Jake Stone was interviewed by the Pantagrapgh newspaper addressing his spiraling fame since his debut in the commercial. ^[6] Jake Stone has since then been working two jobs, from the call center and the Pub he was working at named Pub II, also in Normal, Illinois.

Pantagraph reported on Jake Stone once more in April 20, 2014, reporting on the khakis which hang on the wall at Pub II.^[7]

External References

^[1]Twitter – @JakeStateFarm

^[2]Rap Genuis- 4 Digits

^[3]Vine – #ItsJakeFromStateFarm

^[4]YouTube – Jake from state farm

^[5]CIProud – State Farm Employee Featured in National Ad

^[6]The Pantagrapgh – A budding TV ‘star’ and his khakis too!

^[7]The Pantagrapgh – Jake’s not just at State Farm anymore

Overview

Police Brutality Controversies refer to incidents in which police officers are accused of using excessive force, often involving allegations of racial bias as a motivating factor.

Background

Beating of Rodney King

On March 3rd, 1991, taxi driver Rodney King III^[1] attempted to escape officers while driving on the Foothill Freeway in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California with two passengers in his vehicle. After eight miles of high-speed pursuit, King’s vehicle was cornered by police officers. After leaving his vehicle, officers claim King was acting strange by patting the ground and waving to a police helicopter. Police Officer Melanie Singer claims that she assumed King was reaching for a weapon when he grabbed his buttocks, leading her to draw her pistol and order King to lay on the ground. LAPD Sergeant Stacey Koon subsequently ordered officers to holster their weapons and handcuff King. After King resisted, officers beat King with batons, which was videotaped by local witness George Holliday (shown below). The footage was broadcast by the local news station KTLA, subsequently igniting outrage across the United States with many claiming the incident was racially motivated. On April 29th, 1992, a jury acquitted three of the officers of any wrong doing. Following the acquittal, riots erupted across Los Angeles, resulting in widespread looting, arson, assault and murder.^[2]

Shooting of Amadou Diallo

On February 4th, 1999, 22-year-old Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, was shot and killed by New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers while outside his apparent in The Bronx. The four plain clothes officers claimed they approached Diallo because he fit the description of an armed serial rapist. After Diallo took his wallet out of his jacket pocket, the officers mistook the object for a gun, shooting him 19 times. Following the incident, Diallo’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of New York for negligence, wrongful death and racial profiling. In March 2004, the family accepted a settlement for $3 million.

Notable Developments

Tasing of Andrew Meyer

On September 17th, 2007, Senator John Kerry gave a speech at the University of Florida as part of the Constitution Day forum organized by the school’s student government.^[1] Nearing the end of the event, undergraduate student Andrew Meyer^[2] walked up to the microphone stand and criticized Kerry for evading his questions. Meyer pushed his argument to the point in which school officials shut off his microphone. Meyer was eventually forced away from the area by police and tasered repeatedly while he screamed, “"Don’t tase me, bro!”":http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dont-tase-me-bro

UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident

On November 18th, 2011, a group of students at the University of California Davis gathered on campus for an Occupy protest, during which they formed a human chain by linking their arms together. When they refused to comply with the police request to leave, UC Davis Police officer Lieutenant John Pike and another officer walked across the the group, administering orange pepper spray straight down the line of unmoving students.^[17] After a video of the incident was leaked online, Pike was subsequently referred to as “Pepper Spray Cop”.

Hawthorne Dog Police Shooting

On June 30th, 2013, a 2-year-old Rottweiler dog was shot by police officers during the roadside arrest of owner Leon Rosby in Hawthorne, California. A video of the incident was subsequently leaked online, sparking widespread outrage for the death of the animal.

Shooting of Michael Brown

On August 9th, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown^[1] was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was unarmed at the time of the shooting. On August 10th, Jon Belmar, the police chief for St. Louis County, stated that Brown was shot after assaulting a police officer and attempting to gain control of officer’s gun. Belmar also announced the launch of an internal investigation about the shooting per request from Ferguson’s police chief. On November 24th, 2014, county officials revealed that a grand jury had decided not to indict Wilson, which subsequently ignited a wave of protests and riots across Ferguson.

Death of Eric Garner

On July 17th, 2014, Eric Garner^[1], a New York City father of six children^[8] and a 400 pound asthmatic man, was put into a choke-hold after apparently breaking up a fight outside a local storefront in Staten Island. Five NYPD officers surrounded the father and then forced him onto the ground, while the man continually shouted “I can’t breathe.”^[2] Eric Garner died shortly thereafter. On the following day, a video clip of the police action at the scene taken by Taisha Allen was uploaded to YouTube.

Shooting of Akai Gurley

On November 20th, 2014, 28-year-old Akai Gurley was shot and killed by a stray bullet accidentally fired by NYPD officer Peter Liang. Due to the incident’s occurrence near the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, it was widely covered by news media. On February 10th, 2015, Liang was indicted by a grand jury for the shooting and was suspended from duty without pay. If convicted of manslaughter, Liang faces a sentence of up to 15 years imprisonment.

Shooting of Tamir Rice

On November 22nd, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot in Cleveland, Ohio by police officers who mistook his Airsoft replica gun as a dangerous firearm.

Shooting of Walter Scott

On April 4th, 2015, Walter L. Scott, a 50-year-old Coast Guard veteran and father of four children, was stopped by North Charleston Police Department Officer Michael T. Slager for having a broken taillight on his vehicle. According to the police reports, Scott fled from the routine stop, prompting the officer to chase him into a lot where he first attempted to subdue him with his electronic stun gun, which proved to be unsuccessful, then resorted to fire his weapon eight times, five of which struck Scott. Meanwhile, the shooting was captured on video by a bystander and provided to The Post and Courier and the New York Times for publication on April 7th.

Death of Freddie Gray

On the morning of April 12th, 2015, Baltimore resident Freddie Gray was arrested and taken into custody by the Baltimore Police Department for possession of a switchblade knife. The scene of his arrest was captured on video footage by two bystanders, which shows Gray being carried into the van by multiple officers. According to the police report, within 30 minutes the arrest, Gray suddenly fell into a coma while being transported, prompting the attention of paramedics before he was taken to the University of Maryland’s R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where it was discovered that he had sustained severe injuries to his spinal cords and larynx. In the following week, Gray remained unconscious and underwent extensive surgery; on April 19th, a week after his arrest, Gray was ultimately pronounced dead. On April 25th, thousands of Baltimore residents participated in a protest march, during which a small contingent of demonstrators began throwing rocks at police officers and damaging vehicles. Over the next week, the situation escalated with widespread rioting across the city.

Related Memes

Fuck the Police

“Fuck The Police” (sometimes spelled Fuck Tha Police) is a catchphrase commonly used in times of contempt for authority figures and/or general disregard for public opinion in similar vein to the expression Haters Gonna Hate.

Hands Up, Don’t Shoot

“Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” is a slogan closely associated with the ongoing anti-police protests in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s Death in Ferguson, Missouri.^[1] The phrase is meant to illustrate the circumstances of Brown’s death as initially reported in the news media and later in the grand jury testimony, during which Brown declared that he was unarmed and told Darren Wilson, the police officer involved in the shooting, to “stop shooting” with his hands raised.

Walking While Black

“Walking While Black” is an expression referring to the racial profiling of black pedestrians using a play on words derived from the United States criminal offense of driving while intoxicated. Variations of the phrase include “driving while black,” “learning while black,” “shopping while black” and “eating while black.”

Criming While White

#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.

Search Interest

External References

About

Anime Tiddies is an intentionally misspelled term associated with the high frequency of gratifying elements surrounding the breasts of female characters in anime. In late 2014, the term gained popular usage in anime and otaku culture similarly as “I Watch It For The Plot.”

Origin

Oppai^[1] (おっぱい) is the Japanese slang word for breasts, generally used to refer to the larger variety. Various anime series have gained a reputation for focusing on fan service and placing less emphasis on the story. In this context, female breasts in anime have gained both a famous and infamous reputation due to their often excessive size even amongst younger characters. Manga and anime featuring oppai are often popular for their fanservice.

Gainaxing

Gainaxing,^[2] also known as the Gainax Bounce Effect, is the act of drawing a female character with unusually large breasts and which move around gratuitously and often seemingly without a bra. The effect was coined some time before 1993 in reference to the anime production Studio Gainax, many of whose earlier releases made use of this particular variety of fanservice.

Spread

On October 7th, 2014, Tumblr user Cyberjock^[3] posted a “pick two”-type triangle featuring the choices for an anime with a combination of good story, good art, or big titties. At a later date, Tumblr user Gookgod reblogged this with the comment "*chooses big titties twice*" (shown below, left), although he later deleted this.^[4] In the following half year, the post managed to gather over 70,000 notes, with many reblogs featuring gookgod’s addition.

On March 9th, 2015, Tumblr user Closetanimegirl posted a edited manga panel in which a character searches the internet for “anime tiddies” (shown below, right).^[5] In the following month and a half, the post managed to gather over 52,000 notes.

Search Interest

External References

About

Ben Garrison is a libertarian political cartoon artist known for creating illustrations commenting on United States political corruption, who has been the subject of a troll campaign by users of 4chan’s /pol/ (politics) board who have attempted to frame him as a radical anti-semite.

Online History

Cartoon Defacement

On August 22nd, 2010 Garrison released a cartoon titled “The March of Tyranny” on his personal blog,^[2] featuring a walking Illuminati pyramid with a Democrat left leg and a Republican right leg (shown below).

“My cartoon […] shows how the banking and corporate masters (crony capitalist fascists) control both major parties behind the scenes. They keep us distracted with left vs. right while giving us the illusion that voting for one of the other parties will solve things. It won’t.”

An edited variation of the comic began circulating on 4chan featuring the antisemitic Happy Merchant illustration superimposed over the pyramid (shown below).

On May 22nd, 2011, Garrison published a blog post titled “GRRR-ALERT!”,^[1] claiming that an “unknown cretin” was defacing his web cartoons with depictions of “offensive Jewish stereotypes.”

Fox 10 Prank

On April 28th, 2015, YouTuber MisterMetokur uploaded a recording of a Fox News affiliate’s live coverage of the Baltimore riots, in which the news anchors read several message from 4chan’s /po/ board referencing Ben Garrison, Baneposting, ""jet fuel can’t melt steel beams"": and other Internet memes (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

“Shit’s on fire yo” is an image of a young man pointing to a blaze far out into the distance with the caption “shit’s on fire yo” depicting that the young man is stating the obvious in a similar fashion as to Captain Obvious. The image is usually used in conjunction to a picture with a catastrope or accident shown in the background, which sets something ablaze.

Origin

The original painting is known as “Portrait Of A Young Man”. It was painted by Italian artist Alessandro Allori in 1561.

But the earliest known captioned photo was posted in Imgur by the user jnsbwm. The image recieved 1299 points, as well as many positive feedback.

Spread

Once the picture reached Reddit, then it started to gain popularity. The Reddit users liked the image so much that a two part comment series has been based around it. They are known as shit’s on fire yo, and Shit’s on fire, yo: Part Duex

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[WIP]

About

Gr8 B8 M8 is a copypasta involving changing words with the -ate ending with the number 8. It originally appeared on 4chan’s/b/ board in the middle of 2013.

Origin

Although appearing on /b/, an archiveless board, it is clear the origin appeared sometime through the middle to late of 2013. In the middle of 2013, a user by the name of TrovaTravita^[1] asked what “gr8 b8 m8 check my 8” means, explaining that he is not English and does not get the term. The earliest screenshot of the phrase is from December 25th, 2013.

>

Spread

The copypasta is usually used around the /b/ board in 4chan, as well as other boards including /v/. On June 16th, Reddit user WillyTheWackyWizard posted a screenshot of a post on a thread on /b/ using the copypasta to the subreddit “U Wot M8”, receiving 225 upvotes, and 18 comments.

m8

m8 is a slang word has been used ironically for the term “mate”. Originally deriving from the copypasta, the slang has a heavy affiliation with montage parodies and the related montage speak.

Trends

External References

Originally posted on 4chan in 2007, and then posted by /u/Cannondale1986 on Reddit. Taken in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hopeful Bernie is a series of images depicting 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders seemingly calling for support. They feature a lo-fi aesthetic with psychedelic imagery.

About

Proper Anatomy refers to images of animals labeled in a scientific manner, but given humorous labels. It is also referred to a Proper Goat Anatomy due to the original instance of the meme involving a goat

Origin

The first known version of this meme was a picture of a goat, labeling pointing to parts of it’s anatomy like a normal scientific anatomy diagram would. However, the image used silly terms, such as calling it’s eyes “little blinkers” the back legs “Jump sticks” and it’s ears “wiggly listeners”

The oldest surving copy of this image was posted by the Tumblr blog of Tastefully Offensive ^[1] on March 11th, 2013 and gained 5,000 notes in 2 years. Another tumbler blog, “princessofworms” later posted the image two months later on May 29th 2013 ^[2] with the text below the post saying “im a scientist and very important to know goat part”. Although this blog has since been taken down, surviving reblogs of this post indicate that it gained 100,000 notes within 2 years.

While this version of of the image has been around at least since 2013, prior to it the same image appeared on the internet with the caption “Look at this baby goat he doesn’t get in fights over the internet. Be the goat” at least since 2010^[4]

Spread

On Reddit there are multiple copies of the image ^[6], with the most popular one gaining 2,763 votes, with 90% positive ^[5]. The most popular post on Cheezburger was on the Memebase sub-site Graphjam gained 2,793 votes ^[7].

While Proper Goat Anatomy remains the most popular version, several other versions with different animals have been made. On September 7th, 2013 Tumblr user “cptmalhammer” posted a collection of 4 different proper anatomy examples, including the original Proper Goat Anatomy one in a single post. Within a year and a half this post gained over 266,000 notes.^[8] On November 16th, 2013 Tumblr user “weeaboo-chan” uploaded their own drawing of a rabbit titled “Anatomy of the Bun”. Within a year and a half this post gained over 152,000 notes^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

The phrase “character:” started out on 4/30/2015 on the /b/ (Random) board of 4chan. One user would post “character:” in a seemingly random, popular thread, and then another user would right after post “This should be a meme. character:”. This leads to several posts of variations of the word character followed by a colon being posted as replies to this thread, and then being spammed until the thread died.

Someone then proceeded to say “>character: its the way of lafe” which ended up as a motto among the shitposters.

The source was from two samefags on the board who would bump the post with replies such as ‘charactor:’ instead of ‘character:’ because of it being a duplicate reply. This would then gain momentum and derail the thread, much like the spiderman meme.

Almost always would the original poster reply saying in some manor that they found the meme in some other thread and then name a random thread that is already dead. This quickly escalated overnight, being dropped in several different threads, making the owners to make this knowyourmeme, to ensure the story gets told correctly.

character: in action:
http://imgur.com/vPhy0eP

Editor’s Note: This entry may be offensive to some users. View it with your own discretion.

Work in progress

About

Ooga Booga Where Da White Women At is a phrase typically used to caption images of black men, arising from the stereotype that African-American males are naturally inclined to desire sexual relations with Caucasian females.

Origin

The origin of the term “Ooga Booga” is uncertain. Entries on Urban Dictionary^[1] offer several interpretations of its meaning, with the most popular definition suggesting that it is slang for Ebonics, a term referring to a variant of the English language unique to the African-American community.

The term also has tribal connotations, as demonstrated by one of its first uses in modern popular culture as a sound clip in Crash Bandicoot (shown below).^[2]

The term “where the white women at?” comes from 1974 Western comedy film Blazing Saddles

Spread

WIP

Notable Examples

WIP

Search Interest

External References