About

PenorCut is a parody YouTube account focused on making videos featuring young Indian school children learning and reciting offensive internet phrases. The videos uploaded by PenorCut are made by paying Fiverr user quazihaque, in a similar style to Rog and Tyrone

Origin

PenorCut created their YouTube channel back in August 2014, and uploaded their first video on May 14th, 2015, entitled “OP is a phaggot” (shown below).^[1] In the following 2 months, the video managed to gather over 1.1 million views; being PenorCut’s most popular video as of that date. PenorCut subsequently posted the video in a thread on the Bodybuilding forum which reads:^[2]

This video is brought to you by Penor Cut Enterprises.

I give permission for phaggots to edit this and make it lulzy if they want.

History

Although other accounts across other sites had been made featuring Indian school boys saying and reciting various phrases since September 2014,^[3] the most notable account was Fiverr user quazihaque whom created his account in December 2014, and features himself and his students reading off a personalized message in various different ways.^[4]

Spread.

PenorCut uploaded his second video entitled “I’m not gay, but $20 is $20” on June 3rd, 2015 (shown below). As of July 20th, the video managed to gather over 450,000 views. The video was also subsequently posted to the Bodybuilding forum by PenorCut that same day.^[5]

Several websites have taken notice of PenorCut’s videos and given their thoughts on them, including BuzzFeed,^[6]IBNLIVE,^[7] and indiatimes.^[8] On Reddit, the original video was posted to the r/videos subreddit on May 15th, 2015 where it received over 4,000 upvotes and over 1600 comments in 2 months.^[9] PenorCut’s channel was also linked on the r/india subreddit on July 13th, 2015;^[10] where commenters claimed the videos were “exploitative” and in “poor taste”.

Search Interest

[Currently Not Available]

External References

work in progress. please feel free to request editorship!

About

Ashley Madison is an adult matchmaking website promoted as a place where those who are married and wish to have affairs may find partners. In several different countries, it has created or played a part in media controversies.

History

AshleyMadison.com was created in Canada in 2001 by CEO Noah Biderman, and as of July 2015, the site claims to have over 37 million subscribing members in more than forty different countries.

Features

Anyone may sign up for free for Ashley Madison and search local members. Users may also pay for premium profiles. Unlike other dating sites, users must fill in their weight and body type at the time of signup, and most don’t post photographs on the site, for discretion’s sake. There have been many accusations of Ashley Madison being mostly populated by employees of the company looking to take advantage of men looking for an affair by enticing them with fake profiles to sign up for a premium account.

Highlights

Related Memes

Traffic

As of July 21st, 2015, AshleyMadison.com had a global Alexa rank of 1,120, and a United States rank of 872.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Sandra Bland was a 28 year-old African American university administrator and activist who was arrested during a traffic stop on July 10th, 2015 and was found dead in her prison cell three days later. Initially ruled a suicide, online and offline protests spurred the Texas Rangers of Waller County to begin investigating her death as a murder, echoing the public outcry from other police brutality controversies of 2014 and 2015.

Background

On July 10th, 2015, Sandra Bland was in the process of moving to Texas after taking a job offer from her alma mater university, Prairie View A&M.^[1] A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper named John Encinia pulled Bland over for improperly signaling a lane change and, after she refused to put out a cigarette, the two had an exchange where Bland ended up on the grass next to the road, shouting that her head had been slammed on the ground.^[2] The officer arrested her for “Assault on a Public Servant.” The arrest was filmed by a bystander and uploaded to social media by an unknown user.^[1][4] The dashcam footage was released on July 21st, although, according to NBC News, “At several points in the video of Bland’s arrest, posted Tuesday to the department’s YouTube channel, video of a person walking or a car driving by are cut or repeat themselves as the audio continues uninterrupted,” leading to claims that the dashcam video had been edited.^[13]

On July 13th, after spending the weekend in jail, Bland refused her 7 am breakfast. At 9 am, she was found dead in the cell. Prison authorities say that she had hung herself with a plastic bag.^[2] A video of the hallway outside the cell was released by the department, and officers claimed that since the camera was motion-detecting, they could confirm that no one had been in the hallway for 90 minutes prior.

The official ruling on her death was suicide, but on July 21st, 2015, the District Attorney of Waller County announced that the death would be investigated as if it were a murder investigation after a public outcry, including a Change.org petition that received over 150,000 signatures.^[12] This outcry included the opinions of her family, friends, pastor, and a bailbondsman who spoke to Bland the day before her death, all of whom said that they didn’t think that Bland would kill herself. Family cited no history of depression and the fact that she was excited about her new job to back up their claims, as well as a history of racism in the Waller County Police Department.^[1]

Notable Developments

#WhatHappenedtoSandraBland

On July 14th, 2014, users in the community of Black Twitter began tweeting photographs of Sandra Bland, mostly smiling selfies, with the hashtag “#WhatHappenedtoSandraBland.”^[8] The users also linked back to a post by Isiah Carey, a local Texan Fox News reporter, who had claimed to have spoken to Sandra Bland’s family and said that no one seemed to understand why she would commit suicide, especially her family.^[5] On the following day, after the bystander video of her arrest had been broadcast, the hashtag was 4,000 times, and the hashtag #SandraBland (often paired with the un-hashtagged phrase "Whatever Happened to) had been tweeted 34,000 times.^[6][7] As of July 21st, 2015, both hashtags have been used on Twitter more than 155,000 times. Another hashtag, #JusticeForSandy, was also in circulation during this time.

In addition, many images featuring the hashtag have been circulating on Facebook and Tumblr.^[9]

A selection of hashtagged images.

#IfIDieInPoliceCustody

After a second death in police custody, that of African American teen Kindra Chapman, accused of stealing a cell phone and then also found hung in her jail cell the following day, activists took to Twitter using the hashtage #IfIDieInPoliceCustody, using it to leave messages to their followers about how they would like to be treated or how they would like their deaths fully investigated.^[11] Some tweeters said they would want their families to ask questions of their deaths in the same way that Sandra Bland’s family was pushing the media and Texas police to question hers; in addition, many users Tweeted pictures they would like used or messages they would like to give. The effect of the protest was to make clear that they believed that this type of death could happen to any black person in America. First tweeted on July 15th, 2015, the hashtag was used more than 35,000 times in the six days following, and on Sunday July 19th, activists used it, in tandem with the slogan Black Lives Matter, at a Town Hall Meeting featuring presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.^[10]

Search Interest

External References

About

Pepsiman is a Japanese cartoon superhero mascot for Pepsi’s Japanese division. His main abilities are super-sprints and can form Pepsi cans into people’s hands by flicking his arm and making a “PSHAAA!” sound.

Origin

The history of Pepsi man starts back in the 1990’s, where his design is attributed to the Canadian artist Travis Charest. from 1994 to 1995, Pepsi man was featured in 12 Pepsi commercials. In the commercials, they would show people who were craving for a soda, with Pepsi man appearing to give the people Pepsi. Usually after delivering Pepsi to the people, Pepsi man would be involved in some sort of injury.

Video Games

Pepsi man has appeared in only two games: As a fighter in the Japanese version of the Sega Saturn game Fighting Vipers, and the Japanese exclusive game of the same name, Pepsiman on the Sony PlayStation. In Pepsiman, players are to collect Pepsi cans on the ground, while trying to avoid all the obstacles and reach the end of the stage before the time limit expires.

Petition

In 2015, a man by the name of James Smalley created a petition to bring back Pepsiman and make new commercials for the current generation of Pepsi at Change.org. as of 7/21/15, the petition has yet to reach its goal of 100 supporters.

Spread

After the Pepsiman game was discovered by the west, a few notable people have played the game, and Pepsi man has steadily increased in interest over the years, particularly from Vinny from Vinesauce’s YouTube video. as of 7/21/15, the video has gained over 25,000 views.

Search Interest

About

Triple-Q (also known by his alternate channel “Sexualized Omacho”) is a mashup artist on YouTube and SoundCloud who is known for his Psy mashups and his collaborative album Cut, Paste and Kill. He is also a visual artist and graphic designer.

Online History

His first complation album “Ruined Forever”, which contains 12 mashups from his channel, was released on 2011 and was re-released on October 27, 2012. A day after its re-release, he re-released another compilation album titled “Old Mouldy Miscellaneous Bullshitting Cream”, which contains 23 mashups that weren’t “good enough to be put on any main albums.”^[1] One of the tracks, Revolution No.11, is Triple-Q’s first mashup which was made on 2006, and was uploaded via his other YouTube channel “Sexualized Omacho” on August 16, 2013.^[2]

One of his most known mashups is “Pull Over (That Metal Too Fast)”, a mashup Pull Over by Trina and Metal Sonic (Stardust Speedway) from the Sonic Generations OST. The video features Metal Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and Rikka Takanashi with her finger spin pose, having more than 760,000 views and 9,900 likes. Another known mashup of his is “Scanty & Kneesocks’ Absolute Territory”, a remix of Absolute Territory by Ken Ashcorp, Sexy and I Know It by electro pop duo LMFAO, and Knight of the Wind (the main theme of Sonic and the Black Knight). It has more than 525,000 views and 5,500 likes.

On February 7, 2015, Triple-Q released his birthday compilation album titled “Remember when Triple-Q made good mashups?” via Mega and Google Drive, along with a video of the same name (which also acts as the intro of the album). The video features Triple-Q acting as Skeletor from the Masters of the Universe series, responding to the negative criticism of the overabundance of Psy mashups and videos from the Cut, Paste and Kill album.

Gangnamcore / Psy Mashups

Triple-Q has been known for his numerous Psy mashups and albums. His first Psy-related album is “Psybrid Theory”, a collaborative album with RosalinaSama, is a mashup of Linkin Park’s first album, Hybrid Theory, and Psy’s . It was released on December 28, 2013 for free via Mega, Mediafire, YouTube and Bandcamp. A trailer has been released along with the album.^[3] The most known track is Gangnamcut, a mashup of Gangnam Style and Papercut. It has over 1 million views and 13,600 likes. His second Psy-related mashup album, “Dark Styles: Prepare to Psy”, was released on April 26, 2014 for free via Mediafire. It also has its own trailer with approximately 30,500 views and 600 likes.

Triple-Q’s most known collaborative Psy albums are the Gangnamcore albums, which has the most tracks and collaborators compared to other Triple-Q albums. The first Gangnamcore album was released on July 19, 2014 via Mega and Bandcamp, along with a trailer.^[4] The album has 107 tracks and 40 artists. The intro for the sequel, “GANGNAMCORE 2: NO STOPPING, ONLYOPPING!” was released on June 17, 2015, and submissions were open on the same day until July 14, 2015.^[5]

The first part, “GANGNAMCORE 2, Part I: NO STOPPING!”, was released on July 17, 2015, with 225 tracks and 69 artists. The two parts as a whole is said to have over 400 tracks and 100 artists. The second part, “GANGNAMCORE 2, Part II: ONLYOPPING!”, will be released a week after the release of the first part.^[6]

Cut, Paste and Kill

Cut, Paste and Kill is a collaborative project directed by Triple-Q with 47 tracks and 21 collaborators, in which the goal is to make a mashup of every track in the Kill la Kill soundtrack. On one video, Triple-Q stated that the project started at December 2013.^[5] The first track of the project titled “Losing Me Your Way [Kill la Kill Remix]”, a mashup of Pushing Me Away by Linkin Park and Before my body is dry by Mika Kobayashi was uploaded on January 11, 2014, with over 500,000 views and 6,000 likes. The full album was released on December 30, 2014 for free via Mega, which also includes printable CD jewel cases, covers, and a 56-page artbook with liner notes on every track.^[7]

Reputation

He sells his albums via Bandcamp with a “name-your-own-price” system. Most of the profits go to charity via the Humble Bundle (and some to Bandcamp), and the games will be given away to the supporters via Steam. He also shares the donation amount from his album profits via Tumblr.^[9]

In one video, he claims that mashups is something he does for fun, and that he could stop making them at any time.^[7] Besides his mashups, he is also a visual artist and graphic designer. He makes most of the artworks for his mashups and posts them on DeviantArt and Tumblr, as well as his other artworks.^[10][11] He also posts speed painting videos on his YouTube channel.

Notable Works

Mashups

Artworks

Search Interest

About

Thalassophobia is an extreme fear of the ocean which is often accompanied megalohydrothalassophobia, the fear of large things in the water. Online, thalassophobia is typically associated with illustrated depictions of large sea creatures and photographs illustrating the vastness of the sea.

Origin

Thalassophobia is a portmanteau of “thalass” (“sea” in Greek) and “phobia” (“fear” in Greek). The earliest known use of the term in the context of fan art was in the title of a sea monster illustration by Deviantartist spyroteknik,^[1] originally uploaded to the site on June 25th, 2003 (shown below).

Spread

On January 27th, 2005, Deviantartist Selfishmuse^[2] uploaded an image of a large sea creature floating behind a woman in a boat titled “Thalassophobia” (shown below).

On June 16th, 2010, BuzzFeed^[3] published a listicle of thalassophobia triggering images titled “What Lurks Beneath The Waves,” gathering more than 220,000 views over the next five years (shown below).

On June 3rd, 2013, the /r/thalassophobia^[4] subreddit was created for discussions and media related to the phobia. On May 15th, 2014, BuzzFeed^[5] published a compilation of phobia-triggering images, including a photograph of a sunken boat for thalassophobia (shown below). On May 15th, 2015, the /v/thalassophobia^[6] subverse was created on Voat.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Overly Excited Dog refers to a photoshop meme featuring a dog with an excited expression protecting a kitten on a brown couch. The meme became popular after the photograph of the dog was featured on Reddit.

Origin

On July 18th, 2015, redditor YungDemon created a post in the subreddit /r/aww titled, “Came home to my roommates dog protecting my kitten from the loud thunder and lightning outside” which featured two photographs, below.^[1] In the second photo, taken mid-yawn, the dog’s mouth is wide open and its eyes are popping out of its skull. According to the poster, the dog is a mutt breed from a local shelter. The post received 5,884 points (98% upvoted) in the first three days after it was posted.

Precursor

There are several other photographs of dogs in circulation for photoshop use as “overly excited dog”, including Pun Dog and the pug seen below, who was the subject of a reddit Photoshop Battle in January 2015.^[5]

Spread

After the post’s initial popularity (which contained one photoshopped response as a reply, Bored Panda posted the photograph as an open list photoshop contest on July 19th, 2015, and received 22 submissions and received 183,000 views.^[2] The photos posted in the open list were subsequently picked up and published by other news outlets, including the Daily Mail and Yahoo Buzz.^[3][4]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Currently Not Available]

External References

Overview

Choppergate refers to a political scandal regarding Australian Speaker of the House of Representatives Browyn Bishop’s use of taxpayer-funded travel entitlements for an expensive helicopter ride to a Liberal Party fundraiser. The exposure of Bishop’s travel financials in July 2015 inspired many to mock the politician on Twitter with image macros and photoshops.

Background

On July 15th, 2015, The Guardian^[1] reported that Bishop used tax-payer funds on an $88,000 trip to Europe and a $5,277 helicopter flight to a Liberal Party fundraiser in Melbourne, Australia. That day, Redditor Jakeoffski submitted The Guardian article to the /r/australia^[2] subreddit, where it gained over 900 votes (93% upvoted) and 190 comments in the first week.

Notable Developments

Bishop’s Press Conference

On July 18th, 2015, Bishop held a press conference regarding her travel expenses, in which she revealed she would not be resigning over the controversy and called the helicopter expense an “error of judgement” (shown below).

Online Reaction

In the coming days, many Twitter users mocked Bishop’s travel expenses in tweets using the hashtags “#choppergate”^[8] and “#BishopGate”^[9] (shown below). According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[3] the tags were used more than 2,600 and 34,700 times respectively over the following week.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the online reaction to the scandal, including The New Daily,^[4] Daily Life,^[5] Sydney Morning Herald^[6] and Daily Mail.^[7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Logical Fallacy Ref is an image macro which uses various referees to call out an opponent’s use of a logical fallacy in an argument or debate.

Origin

On July 11th, 2015, a user on imgur uploaded 32 images^[1] using NFL Official Ed Hochuli^[2] signalling with a caption pointing out various logical fallacies. The Imgur description credits Glen Welch for the creation of the macro.

Spread

Various sites have picked up on the image macro, including Reddit^[3] and 9gag.^[4]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Currently not available]

External References

super wip

About

Big Band Trumpet also known as Satchmo Solo Songs refer to songs and music recreated in the fighting game Skullgirls using the character Big Band’s trumpet Free Form or Satchmo Solo blockbuster move.^[1] Due to the complexity at which the songs are made, TAS^[2] tools are often used to complete the songs.

Origin

Big Band was first revealed as apart of the Skullgirls Encore Indiegogo^[3] campaign as a stretch goal $375,000 and was successfully funded shortly after the Kickstarter began. On April 18th, 2014, the PlayStationYoutube channel uploaded Big Band’s trailer and has gained over 130,000 views (shown below). Big Bang was added to the game on April 22nd, 2014. The blockbuster move Satchmo Solo is a reference to Louis Armstrong^[4].

Spread

On March 16th, 2014, Youtuber SKTKST uploaded a U.N. Owen Was Her? Big Band video, gaining over 300,000 views (shown below, left). On March 25th, 2014, SKTKST uploaded a Bugler’s Holidary Big Band parody, gaining over 200,000 views (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

#buildabetterfaketheropod is a hashtag project that encourages users and Paleo artists to create a fictional hybrid dinosaur that is more scientifically accurate and appealing than the Indominus Rex from the 2015 movie Jurassic World.

Origin

On January 15th, 2015, Scoopla Movies reported on leaked images of Indominus Rex, a hybrid dinosaur that acts as the main antagonist in Jurassic World^[1].

In late January, 2015, the Official Jurassic World website released a bio of the dinosaur, complete with a silhouette of the creature^[2]. The creature’s design received criticism for being too generic despite being promoted as a hybrid dinosaur.

On February 2nd, 2015, Paleo Artist Brian Engh launched the hashtag #buildabetterfaketheropod via his twitter account which is followed by his art submission to the project.

Spread

Submissions regarding the hashtag project can be found on Twitter^[3], Deviantart^[4], Tumblr^[5], and Facebook^[6].

Various Examples

Search Interest

Search not availaible.

External References

This taste… is the taste of an incomplete entry!

About

“This is the taste of a liar!” is a memorable quote from the Japanese manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure uttered by the deuteragonist Bruno Buccellati after finding out the protagonist Giorno Giovanna’s lie and licking the sweat off his face.

Origin

The quote originally appeared in the scene from the Chapter 443 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, the fifth part of the manga, originally released in 1996^[1].
In the scene, Bruno Buccellati is questioning Giorno Giovanna if he knows what happened to the Leaky-Eye Luca, who was in critical condition at that time because of a previous encounter with Giorno. Despite denying that he met Luca, and apparently losing Bruno, Giorno realizes he was holding Luca’s right eye the entire time and starts sweating nervously. Bruno then appears behind Giorno, licks the sweat off his cheek, and proclaims that the sweat tastes like that of a liar^[2].

Spread

On November 18, 2007, a Penny Arcade forum user named Wren uploaded a parody image (pictured below, left) featuring Team Fortress 2 characters, Spy and Engineer^[4]. On March 13th, 2008, a user on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Community forums, named Tobunshi posted an edit of the scene (pictured below, right) where Bruno is licking the face of a former Unites States president George W. Bush^[3].

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Mick Fanning Shark Attack is a photoshop meme depicting Australian professional surfer Mick Fanning fighting and dominating sharks in a variety of humorous contexts. The series was launched following Fanning’s close encounter with a shark during the Jeffrey’s Bay Open surfing contest in July 2015.

Origin

On July 19th, 2015, Fanning encountered a shark during the Jeffrey’s Bay Open surf competition. That day, a video of the incident was uploaded by the World Surf League YouTube channel, which gathered upwards of 18 million views and 3,000 comments in the next four days (shown below). After returning to shore, Fanning revealed in an interview that he struck the shark in the back to drive it away.

That day, radio host Charli Robinson tweeted a photoshopped image of Fanning wearing boxing gloves while carrying a shark on the beach (shown below).^[3]

Spread

Also on July 19th, 2015, Redditor da1s1 posted a video of the shark attack to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it gained over 5,500 votes (91% upvoted) and 1,100 comments in four days. Meanwhile, other Twitter users tweeted photoshopped images of Fanning battling and riding sharks (shown below).^[2][4][5]

On the following day, Redditor Bbrowny submitted a photoshopped picture of a great white shark speaking into several microphones about the incident to the /r/funny^[7] subreddit(shown below). Within 72 hours, the post garnered upwards of 2,800 votes (88% upvoted). On July 22nd, the sports blog The Inertia^[6] published an article about the incident, arguing that Fanning was not attacked by the shark. In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the photoshop meme, including The Daily Examiner,^[8] Metro,^[9] The Guardian,^[10] Sydney Morning Herald^[11] and The Daily Mail.^[12]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Zoom and Enhance, also referred to as Let’s Enhance, refers to a film and television trope where a crime-solving character orders a technician to zoom and enhance a pixellated or artefacted video still or surveillance photograph, causing an evidentiary detail in a photograph to become clearer. When this trope began, this technology did not exist, causing these television sequences to be frequently parodied.

Origin

It is unknown what film or television show first featured the ability for computers to zoom and enhance a photograph or video. An early example of improbably blowing up a photo from film negative occurred in the 1948 film Call Northside 777 (below left). Realistic film enhancement situations, where the exposures get blurrier as they are enlarged, have formed the plots of several films, most notably the 1966 thriller Blow-Up. However, one of the earliest known examples of computer involvement, as well as the first to use the term “enhance”, is from the 1982 Ridley Scott science fiction film Blade Runner (below right). In the famous scene, Deckard (Harrison Ford), repeatedly asks a computer to zoom and enhance a photograph.^[1] At the end of the scene, he tells the computer to “give him a hard copy” of the enhanced image. Since this film is supposed to take place in a fictional Los Angeles in the year 2019, in 1982 this usage of the technique was not perceived as immediately ridiculous.

Spread

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, technology-based crime-solving techniques became popular on a variety of television shows, most notably CSI and CSI:Miami, both of which often used zoom and enhance technology on photographs that would actually not have been decipherable by that method, like fuzzy stills from surveillance cameras or pixellated and distant photos. On July 7th, 2009, YouTuber tempura1234 posted a video clip, titled “Why I Don’t Watch CSI,” taken from an episode of CSI:NY where Mac Taylor(Gary Sinise), is able to see a corneal reflection of a murderer by zooming and enhancing a blurry surveillance video still. The video gained 1.2 million views as of July 2015. In December 2009, film editor Duncan Robson gathered enough scenes to create a supercut of zoom and enhance scenes from a variety of television and film sources (below right). The supercut was a popular hit, gaining 2.6 million views as of July 2015. In 2013 the supercut was shown in exhibition at New York City’s Museum of the Moving Image.

After these two videos were posted, parodies spread throughout television and online. Notable TV shows that have parodied zoom and enhance include Futurama, Community, and Red Dwarf.

Corneal Image Extraction

In 2013, scientists Rob Jenkins and Christie Kerr were able to zoom in on the eyes in photographs of subjects taken in high resolution and extract reflective images from the corneas of the subjects. The pair wrote in their paper on the experiment “In a test of spontaneous recognition (Experiment 2), observers could reliably name a familiar face from an eye reflection image. For crimes in which the victims are photographed (e.g., hostage taking, child sex abuse), reflections in the eyes of the photographic subject could help to identify perpetrators.” In essence, they believed that photographic technology has now advanced to the point that some of the techniques ridiculed in “zoom and enhance” were now possible.^[3]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Cup Stacking, also known as Speed Stacking and Sport Stacking, is a competitive sport in which participants stack plastic cups in predetermined sequences

History

In 1981, California resident Wayne Godinet invented speed stacking sport as a recreational activity for his children. He subsequently launched the company Karango Cupstack Co. to manufacture modified plastic cups designed for sport stacking. In November 1990, speed stacking champion Matt Adame appeared with his teammates on The Tonight Show. In 1997, physical education teacher Bob Fox held the first cup stacking tournament in Colorado. In 2001, Fox founded the World Cup Stacking Association (WCSA). In 2005, the WCSA changed their name to the World Sport Stacking Association (WSSA).

Rules

According to the WSSA rule book, there are three types of cup stacking sequences: 3-3-3 using nine cups, 3-6-3 using 12 cups and “cycle” using 12 cups. In each sequences, only one pyramid can be worked on while up-stacking, but two stacks can be touched while down-stacking. If a mistake is made during a sequence, it must be corrected immediately with the exception of a cup falling during a down-stack.

Online Presence

On January 19th, 1999, the website SpeedStacks.com^[1] was launched, featuring news, information, merchandise and videos related to the speed stacking sport. On October 12th, 2008, YouTuber speedstackinggirl uploaded a video in which she enthusiastically celebrates breaking a personal best record in speed stacking (shown below). Within seven years, the video accumulated upwards of 4.9 million views and 27,400 comments.

On August 15th, 2010, YouTuber Luke M uploaded footage of himself performing various stack sequences (shown below, left). In the next five years, the video received more than 4.2 million views and 2,600 comments. On February 7th, 2011, YouTuber Kate Bartels uploaded a dubstep remix of YouTuber speedstackinggirl’s video, garnering over 3.3 million views and 6,500 comments in five years (shown below, right).

On August 18th, TheEllenShow YouTube channel uploaded footage of host Ellen Degeneres attempting sport stacking (shown below, left). On March 13th, 2013, the Barcroft TV YouTube channel posted a video of teenager Lee Nortion, the fastest speed stacker in the United Kingdom (shown below, right).

On May 31st, 2015, the paavideos Instagram feed highlighted a video of cup stacking champion William Orrell breaking a new world record in the sport (shown below). On July 22nd, Redditor ualip submitted the video to the /r/videos^[3] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 5,500 votes (93% upvoted) and 2,600 comments.

Search Interest

External References

Background

On July 21th, 2015, MTV announced the nominations for their annual Video Music Awards. The nominations for Music Video of the Year, a coveted award, were for the following five songs and videos: Beyoncé– “7/11"; Ed Sheeran– “Thinking Out Loud”; Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood”; Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”; and Kendrick Lamar – “Alright.”^[1] These nominations were notably absent of any work by artist Nicki Minaj.

Taylor Swift’s video for “Bad Blood,” when released, earned 20.1 million views in the first 24 hours after its release, breaking a record that was previously held by Nicki Minaj’s video for “Anaconda,” which earned 19.6 million in its first 24 hours.^[9] Both songs were eligible for a VMA in the same year. In addition, in the 2014-2015 span, Minaj also released the first video through artist-run the streaming service Tidal, “Feeling Myself,” with co-owner Beyoncé; Swift had recently signed a public deal to allow her music to be streamed through Apple Music.

Notable Developments

Shortly after the announcement about the nominations, Nicki Minaj posted the following series of tweets:

Thinking that the “women with slim bodies” was a direct reference to her video’s nomination, Taylor Swift responded.

Nicki responded that the tweets were not about her, but rather about a more general issue in American culture.

Swift later apologized for misinterpreting Minaj’s intention with her tweets.

Other Celebrity Tweets

Kim Kardashian tweeted her husband’s famous anti-Taylor Swift line, first used at the VMAs in 2009.

Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars pretended to also have a feud.

Katy Perry also tweeted a cloudy reference to the feud, intimating that Swift was having an ironic reaction, since “Bad Blood” is a song about having a feud with another woman.

News Coverage

The media quickly identified the exchange as a feud, with articles in entertainment magazines like Glamour, the Daily Mail, and Entertainment Weekly (which rescinded its article after receiving criticism over the photographs it used, which portrayed Minaj as “an angry black woman” and Swift normally).^[2][3][4] Many articles claimed that Minaj was being a sore loser, and that Swift was right to defend against her attacks, instead using her Feminist beliefs to try to convince Minaj that the real target should be the male nominees.

However, other Minaj-endorsed articles in outlets like the Guardian,^[6] Marie Claire,^[7] and Time Magazines^[8] discussed the tweets in terms of their relationship to intersectionality, which is an alternate way to view discrimination, which states that social inequality is viewed as an “intersection” of several different types of discrimination.^[5] These articles claimed that there was no actual fight between Minaj and Swift, but instead, they were expressing their different views of the cultural issue of feminism.

Search Interest

not available at this time

External References

Background

At around 7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET), on July 23rd 2015, a soon-to-be-identified gunman shot and killed 1 person, along with injuring 8 more people at The Grand Theatre on Johnston Street in Lafayette, Louisiana during the screening of the movie “Trainwreck”. 2 people were found dead at the scene, however. Police claim the other body to be the gunman^[1] The other eight people were quickly transferred to the hospital. Their status is unavailable at the time.

External References

About

GIF vs. JIF is a long-standing debate of how to pronounce the acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. Both the debate and the reputation surrounding the debate are regarded as running jokes online.

Origin

The GIF was invented in 1987 at Compuserv, and developers there noted early that the pronunciation was “Jif.” Indicating that the debate over its pronunciation has existed since the beginning of the format; In 1990, in the manual for a Compuserv graphics display program called Compushow, the developers wrote^[2]:

The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), pronounced “JIF”, was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June of 1987.

Compushow originally shipped with this GIF of Bob Berry, one of the original programmers. Using the software editor GIF89, which came with Compushow, one could open this image in a way where text was displayed on top of the graphics. This text included the line, "Oh, incidentally, it’s pronounced “JIF”! This message can still be seen if a user opens this image with a text editor and views the original encoding.^[1]

Compuserv developers have also often been attributed with the song parody “Choosy developers choose GIF,” as both a way of promoting the format and informing users of the proper pronunciation. In 2013, when receiving his Webby Award Lifetime Achievement Award, the creator of the GIF, Steve Wilhite, fueled the flames of the debate by reinforcing his original claim that the word was pronounced JIF.

Opposition to the soft G pronunciation usually cites the acronym itself as the reason for using a hard G, i.e., one does not pronounce graphics with a “j” sound.

Spread

Since the debate has spread into many areas of popular online culture. In 2002, Strong Bad Email number 51 made fun of the debate; Strong Bad says that he “heard some nerds arguing about” the pronunciation (below left).^[4] In addition, it was also parodied on The Big Bang Theory. Overall, there are about 7,000 video results on YouTube dealing with the pronunciation of the word GIF.^[5]

There are several single topic blogs devoted to the debate, including the web site Howtoreallypronouncegif.com. There are also at least 15 tumblrs titled with some variation on the theme “It’s Pronounced GIF.”^[6] There are over 150 results for threads containing references to the debate on Reddit,^[7] including 22 separate threads in /r/askreddit.

The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations, adding “Whichever pronunciation you use, it should of course be the same for both the noun and the verb.”^[8] The debate has been heavily covered in the mass media, including on sites like Mashable.com, the Atlantic, and CNN. ^[2][3][9] In 2014, President Barack Obama took a side, saying that he had been educated in the debate and favored the hard G pronunciation style.^[10] On December 3rd, 2013, the debate was the basis for the Final Jeopardy question on long-running American game show Jeopardy, and all three contestants answered correctly.^[11]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Poly Bridge is a 3D physics-based construction simulator game, in which players design bridges for vehicles to traverse over a series of rivers.

History

On June 30th, 2015, Poly Bridge was released for sale on the Steam^[3] software distribution service.

Gameplay

In the game’s campaign mode, players constructing bridges across rivers using a variety of tools, which must be safely traversed by vehicles in order to progress to the next level. Additionally, players can create their own custom levels and share them on the Steam Workshop or freely construct bridges in the game’s sandbox mode.

Online Presence

On July 7th, 2015, Yogscast streamer Sips played Poly Bridge during a broadcast on Twitch (shown below). On July 10th, the /r/PolyBridge^[2] subreddit was launched for discussions about the construction game. On July 13th, a page for Poly Bridge was created on the Yogscast Wiki.^[1]

On July 9th, Redditor tupiniquinium posted a GIF of a Poly Bridge construction that collapses as soon as the vehicle reaches the end of the bridge to /r/gaming,^[5] where it received more than 5,300 votes (95% upvoted) and 730 comments in the first two weeks.

On July 18th, Redditor GryphonCH submitted a Poly Bridge animation titled “When a Civil Engineer plays Poly Bridge,”, featuring a two-level motorized bridge (shown below). Within one week, the post garnered upwards of 5,400 votes (93% upvoted) and 620 comments on /r/gaming.^[4]

On July 21st, the engineering news blog Popular Mechanics^[7] published a listicle featuring nine Poly Bridge puzzle animations. On the following day, Redditor btoxic submitted an animated GIF featuring a monster truck launching across a ravine in Poly Bridge to /r/gaming,^[8] where it gained over 5,600 votes (96% upvoted) and 690 comments in the first 24 hours (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

BAN•ZELDA is a phrase stated mostly from members of the Zelda Social when being successful while playing the Smash bros. for Wii U character, Zelda.

Origin

BAN•ZELDA was first stated by a user who goes by the name “Patch” on Nintendo’s social networking site, Miiverse. It first started after a Smash bros. for Wii U match, which Patch lost to a Zelda while playing online. He then changed his tag to “BAN•ZELDA” in frustration to losing to the character, Zelda, and suggesting she should be banned from online play.

Spread

The image was first used in a thread titled “How often do people ragequit against you?” by user Brinzy, before it was quoted in the Zelda Social where it sparked massive amusement among the userbase and the creation of this post by SBphiloz4.

The phrase has since been used as an in-joke from members of the Zelda Social on the website Smashboards, to spark hilarity with its members whenever they have success with Zelda, as Zelda has been considered to be one of the worst characters in every Smash bros. game she has appeared in.

Occasionally, members of the Zelda Social will make images regarding Zelda and “BAN•ZELDA”, using examples of being triumphant when using her, or showing examples of her status as a lower tiered character in the game using phrases and instances of Zelda falling short behind higher tiered characters, while still sarcastically stating to ban Zelda.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Smashboards – Brinzy’s post. Posted March 29th, 2015

^[2]Smashboards – SBphiloz4’s post. Posted on March 26th, 2015

^[3]Miiverse – Example use of BAN•ZELDA