About

Slide Into Your DMs (permutations are common and may include: Slide Into Her DMs, Slide Into Yo DMs, Slide Into the DMs, often with the word “like” after the phrase) is a catchphrase which refers to the act of direct messaging another person on a social media platform, usually for romantic reasons, in a smooth or cool way. While the phrase can be used literally, it is often parodied by being attached to videos or photographs of people engaging in awkward behavior.

Origin

It’s currently unknown where the term originated. The first online examples, including some GIFS with the tag and a Yahoo answers post, seem to appear in November 2013.^[1] At that point, the only social media platforms that allowed direct messaging were Twitter and Facebook; Instagram introduced direct messaging in December of 2013,^[2] and Vine premiered the feature in April of 2014.^[3]

One of the first popular examples of the term was this hip hop single by M-Boy titled “Slide Into Your DMs,” which was released on January 8th, 2014. The video has over 23,000 views as of July 2015.

Spread

In January of 2014, the term skyrocketed in popularity; however, due to the phrase’s common permutations, exact numbers are difficult to gather. On January 24th 2014, a Meme Generator was created of a boy going down a slide.^[4] The phrase was first defined by Urban Dictionary on March 24rd, 2014, as “When you send a Direct message to someone on twitter confidently and smoothly.”^[5] A reddit /r/outoftheloop post was created on April 27th, 2014; a user responded that Sliding into the DMs meant, “… basically like, being slick and starting a DM conversation with someone (of the opposite sex), and be smooth at the same time.”^[6]

Searches for the phrase on Vine return over 8,000 results as of July 29th, 2015, and the hashtag #SlideIntoYourDMsLike is used on over 500 posts.^[7][8] Collected searches for various permutations of the phrase, used as hashtags, return over 5,000 results on Instagram as of July 29th, 2015.^[9] In addition, the phrase was tweeted over 78,000 times in the 30 days prior to July 29th, 2015, with and without parody.^[10][11]

Notable Examples

Because social media platforms focus on different means of communication, the act of direct messaging someone is different on each. On Twitter, the message can only be text; therefore, sliding into the DMs on Twitter consists of a text conversation which can be screenshot. On Instagram, sliding into the DMs is a photo message with a caption, often expressed as an image macro or a GIF. On Vine, the direct message is a video message; however, the hashtag #SlideIntoYourDMsLike is consistently trending, and therefore these examples refer to that.

Vine

Twitter Conversations

Image Macros and GIFs

Search Interest

External References

About

ThreatKing, also known as Vikingdom, is a black hat hacker who gained much notoriety for taking down the New York Magazine website with a massive distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) in July 2015.

History

On March 31st, 2015, the Indiana state government website was taken down with a DDoS attack. That day, the @YourVikingdom2015 Twitter feed claimed responsibility for the attack, with many speculating the act was motivated by an objection to the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

New York Mag DDoS

On July 26th, 2015, New York Magazine released an article about the recent wave of rape allegations against comedian Bill Cosby. On the following day, the @Vikingdom2016 Twitter account took responsibility for taking down the website NYmag.com (shown below, left). Shortly after, the @NYMag Twitter feed acknowledged the downtime, alerting readers the they were “working on a fix” (shown below, right).

That day, many speculated that ThreatKing had been motivated to take down the website due to the Bill Cosby article. ThreatKing to the rumors by tweeting that he did not like New York (shown below). Additionally, he linked to a Twitter search page^[2] listing various New York news publications as potential targets.

By July 29th, the @Vikingdom2016 Twitter feed had been suspended. In the coming days, several news sites reported on the NY Mag DDoS, including Venture Beat,^[4] The Daily Dot^[5] and Daily Mail.^[6]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Yandere Simulator is a stealth video game developed by YandereDev. In the game, the player controls a Japanese highschool student who falls in love with one of her classmates, and can do a wide range of actions to “eliminate” possible competitors for her senpai love.

Yandere

Yandere refers to a popular female anime character archetype, used to describe someone who is consumed by infatuation for another. Yandere characters will typically appear normal at the beginning of a series, then progressively become more obsessed, sometimes reacting violently to perceived threats. The term is a portmanteau of the Japanese words “yanderu” (“sick” or “mentally ill” in English) and “deredere.” Examples of yandere characters include Kotonoha Kastura from School Days and Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki.

History

The earliest reference to the game can be found on a thread submitted on April 1st, 2014 on 4chan’s video game board /v/, where the original poster proposed a brainstorm for a “yandere simulator”.^[4] During the following days, several threads about the game delevoping were made,^[5][6][7] and on April 4th, 2014 a game development blog was created, along with a post linking to a FAQ section explaining the game.^[1][4] The same day the developer created a YouTube account, gaining over 160,000 as June 29th, 2015.^[14] On April 16th, YandereDev released Yandere Clicker, a Cookie Clicker-styledincremental game where the main character stabs her “senpai”, using the models from Yandere Simulator.^[8]

On April 4th 2014, a video was uploaded by Yandere Dev, the official youtube channel of the game’s developer. The video demonstrates an early prototype build of the game showing simple combat in which Yandere-chan kills another girl. Following this, a second video was uploaded on June 1st demonstrating a visual novel style introduction sequence to the game, where Yandere-chan meets her Senpai for the first time.

Each time an update is released for the game, the developer usually uploads a video to youtube covering all the new content that has been added. These updates have been regular occurrences, being released on the 1st and 15th of each month. On July 1st 2015, Yandere Dev uploaded a video titled “Let’s Examine Natsuiro High School” in which he plays through the game analysing various aspects that may be useful to have in Yandere Simulator. The game also features a small local town which the protagonist can visit in a ‘free-roam’ style. A poll was created by the developer asking viewers if they would like Yandere Simulator to be developed into an open world game featuring a small town, of left as it is. Out of 54,017 total votes, 59% voted that the game should take place in a small town.

On July 15th 2015, the developer uploaded two videos concerning the progress of the game, explaining that as the updates grow, more time will be required to create them. He also expresses his concerns over the amount of redundant feedback he receives stating that it only hinders his progress on the game.
 

Parodies

Yandere Dev has also used the game to make various jokes and parodies during the course of its creation. On April 1st 2015, he uploaded two April fools videos. One video introduces a new game titled “Kuudere Simulator” featuring a hidden kuudere mode in which the character sits in a room doing nothing. The other video is a parody of the trailer for the controversial shooter Hatred.

Online Relevance

The game didn’t started to gain traction until early 2015, when the youtuber AzzMan started uploading a series of videos about the game on January 31st, 2015, having 38 videos dedicated to the game as June 29th, 2015.^[14] On March 30th, 2015, the youtuber PewDiePie posted the first of a series of Let’s play videos, gaining the first of them over 5 milion views under 4 months. On June 1st, 2015, the youtuber Markiplier uploaded the first of a series of Let’s play videos, gaining over 2.2 milion views under two months. On July 24th, 2015, artist Jo-Shu uploaded a fancomic of the game, which was reported on the development blog a day later.^[13]

The game has a following on sites like Tumblr^[10] and 4chan,^[3] as well as having a wikia to gather information about the game.^[12] On April 2nd, 2015, a subreddit dedicated to the game was created, gaining over 700 subscribers in less than 4 months.^[9] Searching on the artist community DeviantART the keywords “yandere simulator” leads to over 1,000 results as July 29th, 2015.^[11]

Along with the game-related fanart and fan made content, there’s also some crossover fanart with some youtubers and let’s players like PewDiePie and Markiplier, as they were the ones who popularized the game in early 2015.

Search Interest

External References

About

Boing Boing is an off-beat news blog featuring stories covering a variety of topics, including science, technology, culture, art and politics.

History

In 1988, journalist Mark Frauenfelder, along with his wife Carla Sinclair, launched the zine bOING bOING. In 1995, the Boing Boing^[1] website was launched. In January 2000, Boing Boing was turned into a blog on the Blogger platform (shown below).

In 2003, Boing Boing removed their user commenting system. In September 2006, Boing Boing premiered the weekly podcasts“Boing Boing Boing” and “Get Illuminated,” featuring news and interviews with a variety of creatives. In August 2007, the site was redesigned and the user comment section was restored.

Social Media Presence

In May 2007, the @BoingBoing^[9] Twitter feed was launched, which received upwards of 213,000 followers in the first eight years. On August 18th, 2008, a Boing Boing Facebook^[5] page was created, gaining over 261,000 likes over the next seven years. On April 29th, 2014, the Boing Bong Tumblr^[4] blog was launched.

2010 Hack

On October 27th, 2010, the front page of Boing Boing was vandalized with a photograph of a man wearing a costume covered in penises, followed by a caption mocking the site’s editor Cory Doctorow. That day, the tech news blog Tech Crunch^[3] reported that the site had been compromised using an SQL injection attack.

Controversies

Censorship Accusations

In July 2008, the site was widely criticized for censoring users and for removing posts by former contributing writer Violet Blue without explanation.^[7] In response to the backlash, Boing Boing^[6] editor Teresa Hayden posted a statement revealing that “Violet behaved in a way that made us reconsider whether we wanted to lend her any credibility or associate with her.” Other users have claimed that moderators deliver bans for minor infractions, including those who express conservative views.^[8]

Traffic

As of July 2015, BoingBoing.net has a score of 1,038 in the United States on the traffic analytics site Alexa.^[10]

Search Interest

External References

About

Bootleg Bart refers to original unauthorized merchandise and/or original or contemporary fan art created with the image of Bart Simpson, often mutated or badly drawn, or sometimes with the character represented as a different ethnicity. While originally created to capitalize on fandom for the original character, the bootleg version now has a clear fan base of its own.

Origin

Bart Simpson was launched along with the rest of The Simpsons family in 1987. In the early 1990s, a fan trend called “Bartmania” took hold; millions of types of merchandise were sold, much of it featuring unauthorized, fan-drawn images of Bart. An Entertainment Weekly article from the time estimates that more than $200 million worth of Bootleg Bart merchandise had already been sold, and the popularity of The Simpsons didn’t peak until seven years later, in 1997.^[1]

Bootleg Bart merchandise has always been sought out by collectors and acknowledged by people involved with the production of The Simpsons, as in a 2009 issue of the comic book “Treehouse of Horror.”^[8] However interest in the phenomenon became popular online with the debut of a single-topic blog devoted to the phenomenon, run by an anonymous person known only as Leo.^[2] The blog began as a Facebook page and expanded into other platforms, eventually spawning its own web site.^[3] In 2014, in an interview with Vice Magazine, Leo explained that he began collecting the shirts in 2003, but that much of what is on the blog comes from the readers who send in images of their own.^[4]

Spread

Bootleg Bart has expanded far beyond the original Facebook and Instagram pages, which have 12,000 followers and 38,800 followers, respectively; for instance, although the official Instagram account has 648 posts as of July 29th, 2015, there are almost 10,000 posts on Instagram tagged with #bootlegbart.^[5] The term is also popular on Tumblr, where the results return modern fan art.^[6]

In a February 2015 episode of the IFC show Portlandia, a main storyline features a t-shirt manufacturing character who believes he has the right to create a shirt featuring an image of Bart Simpson, along with the words “Bart Ska-Mpson.” Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons cameos in the episode in a courtroom scene regarding the shirt.

In Los Angeles on July 25th and July 26th, 2015, a magazine called Be Street sponsored an art show called “Bootleg Bart,” where contemporary artists, selected from a pool of more than 1000 submissions, created new Bootleg Bart art. Groening himself, rumored to be a large collector of Bootleg Bart merchandise, visited the show.^[7]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

The Ku Klux Klan is a former social movement and secret organization that consists of loosely affiliated independent chapters across the United States. Though historically associated with remnants of racial bigotry in the South after the Civil War, the group remains highly notorious for its open advocacy of white supremacy, white nationalism and xenophobia, as well as extremist terrorism. In the U.S., it is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Online History

[researching]

External References

About

“Awaken, My Masters” is a quote from a Japanese manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure uttered by a character named Wamuu during his and his masters’ bombastic awakening.

Origin

The original scene comes from chapter 64 of the manga, released on March 28th, 1988, which was during the events of Part 2, Battle Tendency^[1]. In the scene, the Nazis are guarding the site of sleeping Pillar Men, the Part’s antagonists, and are trying to subdue them. One of them, named Wamuu, awakens from his slumber, kills the Nazis, and after uttering the quote, awakens the rest of Pillar Men, his superiors, Esidisi and Kars^[2].

Spread

For the longest time, the scene has been popular within the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure community, the earliest known archived mentions of it existing on February 21, 2008^[3]. On January 11th, 2013, the scene gained even popularity due to the scene (video below) in the episode 14 of the anime adaptation of Part 2^[4] . The theme that was playing during the awakening scene, named “Awake”^[4], became associated with the Pillar Men and the scene ever since.

On May 15th, 2014, a Tumblr user BotanicSage posted a remix titled “Pillar Men Hype Theme”, which mixed the Pillar Men theme with songs of Lil Jon, like “Turn Down For What”, “Snap Your Fingers”, and “Throw It Up”. The Tumblr post after over a year got over 5,608 notes^[6]. The remix was also uploaded on Youtube where it got over 567,000 views.

Various Examples

Images

Videos

Search Interest

External References

work in progress

Background

On July 21st, 2015, Meek Mill, who has more than 4.92 million followers on Twitter, tweeted that hip hop contemporary Drake did not write his own raps. While ghostwriters and collaborators are common in hip hop, to say that someone does not write their own raps is the equivalent of saying that they are not very good at rapping. The post received over 135,000 retweets and over 107,000 favorites by July 30th, 2015.^[1]

Meek went on to tweet several more allusions to Drake not writing his own songs that night, including a tweet that contained only the name “Quentin Miller,” a man with writing credits on several Drake songs. Drake didn’t respond directly to the tweets, however he was active on Instagram, liking a post by a user who covered a magazine with Meek Mill’s face on it with another magazine that featured Skepta, one of Drake’s friends, and telling another user in a private message that he “signed up for greatness. This comes with it.”^[2]

Notable Developments

Funkmaster Flex Plays Quentin Miller Recording

The following day, the New York City radio station Hot 97 DJ, Funkmaster Flex, played a recording sung by Quentin Miller as a reference track for the Drake song “10 Bands.” The track was clearly the basis for the final song.^[3]

Two days later, Miller responded in a post on Tumblr, saying that he had worked on the track briefly and that he had seen Drake write the songs himself, in front of him. The post received 3,008 notes.^[3]

Drake’s Responses

On July 26th, 2015, Drake responded publicly to the allegations for the first time by releasing a song called “Charged Up” through his label, October’s Very Own, and through his deal with Apple’s Beats One radio service.

As of July 30th, 2015 the song had received more than 1 million plays on Soundcloud, and many more through YouTube uploads and the Beats 1 service. The song featured many specific jabs at Meek Mill, including references to relationships that Meek’s current girlfriend, Nicki Minaj, may or may not have had with Drake before she and Meek began dating.

“Rumor has it, there’s something that only I know/ Rumor has it, I steer this shit with my eyes closed/ Rumor has it, I either f--ked her or I never could/ But rumor has it, hasn’t done you n---as any good.”

On July 29th, 2015, Drake released a second dis track, entitled “Back to Back Freestyle”, featuring an image of Joe Carter of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrating after hitting a game-winning home run in the 1993 World Series against the Philadephia Phillies. This referred to the hometowns of Drake (Toronto) and Meek Mill (Philadelphia), and also how Drake was intending to finish the argument with the track. In addition, the addition of the word “freestyle” onto the end of the track’s title specifically indicated that Drake had not only written these lyrics, but come up with them off of the top of his head.^[4]

This track featured even more insults for Meek Mill, including the lyric “Trigger fingers turn to Twitter fingers,” and a reference to Nicki Minaj’s “Pinkprint” Tour, on which Meek was accompanying Minaj, with “You love her, then you gotta give the world to her/ Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?”

Meek’s Response

Meek Mill was rumored to also be releasing a dis track, including in a tweet that appeared to have a snippet (below) however none ever materialized.^[2]

After Funkmaster Flex spent several hours hyping the track’s arrival on his radio show, and then never played it, a Change.org petition was created to get him fired from the station. As of July 30th, the petition was only 355 signatures away from its goal of 10,000.^[6]

In addition, Meek Mill tweeted several responses to Drake’s raps, some of which have been interpreted as half-apologies.

Online Response

Various aspects of the Drake and Meek Mill feud trended worldwide on almost every social network and gained news coverage from sources as varied as The New York Times and TMZ.^[5][11] Users created images that were spread widely via Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter, especially though the subculture known as Black Twitter. In the subreddit devoted to that subculture, /r/blackpeopletwitter, where the feud was referred to as “Rap Civil War” in flare, over 50 posts related to the feud have thousands of upvotes.^[7] Over 20,000 posts on Instagram are tagged with the hashtags #drakevsmeekmill and #drakevsmeek and another 30,000 posts were made on Twitter with the latter hashtag.^[8][9]

A selection of feud-related reaction images and memes

Toronto City Councillor Norm Kelly’s Reaction

While many different celebrities reacted to the feud, one of the most widely noticed was the reaction of Toronto City Councillor Norm Kelly, who started his own feud with Meek regarding his comments. The morning after Meek Mill made his initial comments regarding Drake, the Councillor tweeted that Meek was no longer welcome in Toronto after dissing the local hero. This initial tweet earned @Norm, as he is known on Twitter, over 133,000 retweets.^[10] The conversation continued:

After his defense of Drake, Norm Kelly began appearing in exploitables, tweets, and Instagram-style memes about the feud. He has continued to support Drake, tweeting about the song releases and other media related to the feud.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Buying GF” is an ironic expression indicating an interest in purchasing a girlfriend within the MMORPGRunescape for in-game currency.

Origin

In many online games, players advertise their willingness to purchase in-game items in trade channels or populated areas. According to a post in the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[1] subreddit, players in the game Runescape often had in-game girlfriends which many speculated were actually men masquerading as women to scam users for gold and items. The “buying gf” expression was subsequently invented as a joke to mock the online relationships.

Spread

On April 24th, 2013, Redditor derione1 submitted a cropped Runescape screenshot featuring an armored avatar with the expression “Buying gf” over his head to the /r/gaming^[4] subreddit, where it received upwards of 2,200 votes (93% upvoted) and 1,300 comments (shown below). On May 21st, the screenshot was reposted on FunnyJunk.^[3]

On August 22nd, 2014, YouTuber Joe Redfurr uploaded a Runescapemontage parody video titled “Buying GF 1M” (shown below, left). On October 24th, Body Building Forums^[5] member 7thbrah reposted the screenshot on the site’s misc board. On May 25th, 2015, YouTuber ToddTalks uploaded a video titled “Buying GF,” featuring footage of himself in public wearing a T-shirt with the expression printed on the front (shown below, right).

On July 28th, Redditor PencilErection posted a photograph of a person cosplaying the armored avatar from the “buying gf” screenshot to the /r/gaming^[2] subreddit (shown below). In the first 48 hours, the post gained over 4,800 votes (88% upvoted) and 510 comments.

Search Interest

External References

About

Dave Grohl is an American musician best known as the former drummer of the grunge band Nirvana and the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Foo Fighters.

History

Scream

At the age of 17 in 1986, Grohl joined the hardcore punk band Scream, with whom he toured with for several years across the United States until 1990.

Nirvana

In 1990, Nirvana band members Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic met Grohl while attending a Scream performance on the West Coast. Several months later, Scream disbanded and Grohl subsequently joined Nirvana as their new drummer. On September 24th, 1991, the band’s second studio album Nevermind was released to critical acclaim, reaching the top position on the Billboard 200 chart. By 2008, the album sold over 30 mllion copies worldwide. In April 1994, Nirvana disbanded following the suicide of Kurt Cobain.

Foo Fighters

After Nirvana disbanded, Grohl formed the band Foo Fighters with guitarist Pat Smear, drummer William Goldsmith and bassist Nate Mendel. In July 1995, the band released their self-titled debut album, which received positive reviews and reached the 23rd spot on the Billboard 200 chart.

Online Presence

On February 21st, 2008, YouTuber scottcobain27 uploaded an interview in which Grohl discusses what life was like immediately following the suicide of Nirvana band mate Kurt Cobain (shown below, left). In the next seven years, the video gained over three million views and 3,600 comments. On July 12th, 2011, YouTuber Dean Mo uploaded a video in which Grohl stops playing mid song to scold a man fighting in the crowd during the Foo Fighters performance at the iTunes Festival (shown below, right). In four years, the video accumulated more than five million views and 9,700 comments.

On October 12th, YouTuber Suka00 uploaded a Grohl tribute video, which gathered upwards of 4.5 million views and 7,400 comments in the next four years (shown below, left). On June 12th, 2015, YouTuber Makkaka Kugelsnibb uploaded footage of Grohl breaking his leg after falling off the stage during a performance in Gothenburg, Sweden (shown below, right). After being treated and put in a cast, he returned to the stage and finished the concert. In the first two months, the video gained over 3.4 million views and 1,300 comments.

1000 Musicians Video

On July 30th, 2015, Trail Me Up CEO Fabio Zaffagnini released a video featuring 1000 musicians playing the 1999 song “Learn to Fly” by Foo Fighters as part of a campaign to lure lead singer Dave Grohl to perform with his band in Cesena, Italy (shown below). In less than 24 hours, the video received upwards of 300,000 views and 2,800 comments.

Related Memes

The Best

The Best is a lyric from the 2005 alternative rock song “Best of You” by the Foo Fighters, which is often spammed in discussion threads and repeated in edited video clips on YouTube.

Fresh Pots

“Fresh Pots” is an expression uttered several times by Grohl in studio footage highlighting his caffeine addiction. The video was originally shot during a recording session with his band Them Crooked Vultures in 2009.^[5]

Personal Life

Grohl was borin on January 14th, 1969 in Warren, Ohio. He and wife Jordyn Blum have three daughters. Grohl identifies as a Democrat and has supported United States President Barack Obama. In 2012, the music blog Stereogum^[3] estimated that Grohl was third wealthiest drummer in the world.

Search Interest

External References

About

Grumpy Puppy is a nickname given to Earl, a puggle (pug-and-beagle hybrid) from Davenport, Iowa who became the subject of online fame for its adorably irritated-looking facial expressions, in a similar vein to those worn by none other than Grumpy Cat.

Origin

On June 8th, 2015, Redditor Do1717 submitted a photograph of Earl to the /r/aww subreddit, where the post garnered more than 5,180 points (96% up votes) and over 500 comments. That same day, a subreddit devoted to Earl was launched at /r/EarlThePuggle.

The Dog

The second generation Puggle, a pug-and-beagle hybrid, was born in February 2015. According to Earl’s 25-years-old caretaker Derek Bloomfield, the dog has always had the same grumpy expression since day one, and despite his irritated appearance due to the underbite, wrinkles and dark complexion, Earl is a “very laid-back pup and loves to cuddle.”

Spread

On June 9th, Redditor submitted an image macro based on the photograph from the previous day in a /r/AdviceAnimals post titled “Earl the Grumpy Puppy” has had enough of your bullshit", garnering over 1,761 points (84% up votes).

On June 15th, Bloomfield created a Facebook fan page for his puppy, followed by a dedicated Instagram account. Over the course of the next month-and-a-half, Earl has amassed more than 18,000 likes on Facebook and over 16,300 followers on Instagram.

News Media Coverage

On July 29th, Earl’s rise to social media stardom was picked up by Discovery’s Animal Planet Blog, Bored Panda, Mashable and BuzzFeed, followed by additional coverage from CNN on the next day, with many likening the angry looking Puggle to Grumpy Cat.

Search Interest

About

Tonkey Bear is the name of a four-months old bear coat Shar Pei breed from Edmonton, Canada who rose to viral fame online after several photographs of the fluffy, bear-like puppy went viral on Instagram and Facebook in late July 2015.

Origin

[researching]

External References

About

Cross-Stitch is a type of simple embroidery where an image or pattern is created by sewing a series of X-shaped stitches in rasterized or pixel-type pattern. Cross-stitching can be done on fabric or plastic, and detailed patterns can be stamped or drawn on the material in order to generate the exact form. Online, users enjoy creating cross stitch fan art, and a community has formed for sharing these online, mostly on Tumblr. Similar fan art is sometimes created by other craft methods, like knitting or crochet.

Origin

Cross-stitching is the oldest form of embroidery in the world, and has often been used to illustrate contemporary events through history.^[1] In modern times, software has become available to assist in creating cross-stitch patterns out of every day images; there are several such programs, some of which are free and open source, like C-Stitch.^[2] With a pattern, cross stitching is extremely simple, which has led to its enduring popularity. In recent years, the Maker and Crafting movements have led to a resurgence in the popularity of cross stitch, especially for funny and unique purposes.^[3]

C-Stitch Demo Image

Spread

Like much other fan art, the main communities for cross stitch are Tumblr, Reddit, and DeviantArt. On Tumblr, there are many blogs devoted to cross stitch fan art, including xstitchnerdism, random-fandoms-xstitch, backstagestitches, and 8bitcrossstitch] Reddit has a cross stitch subreddit; however, it is mostly devoted to the technicalities of the craft.^[5] Many of the most popular cross stitch fan art is either posted in the forum for the subculture it depicts or posted in more popular general forums like /r/funny or /r/pics, where over 50 examples of cross stitch fan art have received more than 1,000 upvotes.^[6] On DeviantArt, there are more than 31,000 examples of cross stitch fan art, both humorous and serious.^[7]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Drawfag is a slang term used to describe users in online communities that post their own art creations, usually in the form of drawings.

Origin

The term is believed to have originated from the image board site 4chan. One of the earliest recorded mentions of the term was on August 22nd, 2007, by DeviantArt user Alseid on his image titled “Snape – Fuck your court”. The user explains that the image was a request made in a “Drawfag” thread on 4chan’s /co/ board.^[1] One of the earliest recorded mentions of the term on 4chan that still exist dates back to December 19th, 2007, on the /tg/ board.^[2]

Spread

On 4chan archiving site archive.moe, typing the keyword “Drawfag” would yield more than 137.000 posts as of July, 2015.^[3] On January 4th, 2010, Urban Dictionary user /y/ Anon submitted an entry regarding the term.^[4] On January 18th, 2011, an entry regarding the term was submitted to 1d4chan.^[5] The /drc/ board in 8chan was launched that focuses on users sharing and discussing their art creations.^[6]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Meme Documentation is a Tumblr blog which explains the meaning behind various memes on the microblogging site and reblogs notable examples for archival purposes. The site focuses on memes that have emerged since the beginning of 2015, and does not cover fandom-specific memes that have not circulated outside of the original community.

History

On January 1st, 2015, the Meme Documentation Tumblr^[1] was launched, which initially highlighted posts celebrating the new year while referencing the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Highlights

The blog has documented the origin and spread of many notable viral phenomenon on Tumblr, while giving succinct explanations of each and archiving notable instances using the site’s reblogging feature.

Breadsticks

Breadsticks is a series of mock dinner date conversations in which a person abruptly leaves the table while stuffing complimentary breadsticks into their purse after hearing their date say something undesirable or offensive. In June 2015, Meme Documentation^[2] published an explanation of the breadstick meme and began reblogging notable examples.^[3]

Sneople

Sneople, a portmanteau of the words “snake” and “people”, refers to a race of reptilian humanoids mentioned in an episode of the animated television series Steven Universe. In April 2015, the term was popularized on Tumblr along with other portmanteaus, including “snurch” (snake + church), sneeple (snail + people) and sneme (snail + meme). On April 22nd, Meme Documentation published a post titled “Explained: sneme,” which described the origins of the “sneople” and “sneeple” portmanteaus (shown below).^[4]

We Get It, You Smoke Weed

We Get It, You Smoke Weed is an expression used to mock those who outwardly identify themselves as stoners by sporting cannabis-patterned clothes and accessories. On Tumblr and Twitter, the phrase is usually prefaced by the remark “I hate people who dress like this…” and accompanied by various images of people or fictional characters dressed in green for ironic humor. On June 16th, Meme Documentation^[6] published an explanation of the meme’s recent popularity on Tumblr and Twitter (shown below).

Yarn Man

Yarn Man is the nickname for Coldwood Interactive creative director Martin Sahlin, who was widely celebrated on Tumblr following his presentation for the game “Unravel”: at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June 2015. On June 15th, Meme Documentation^[5] posted an explanation of Sahlin’s recent popularity on the site (shown below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Vocal Fry is a manner of speaking where the voice is sunk into its lowest possible register, producing a creaky or vibrato tone. This voice pattern has come under fire, especially when used by women, with many claiming that it sounds annoying or makes the speaker sound dumb, similar to Valleyspeak, otherwise known as uptalk.

Origin

Vocal fry was first identified in the 1970s. Some authorities consider it a dysphonia, or vocal defect, if the speaker uses it consistently or can’t speak without it, but it is also used in singing as a legitimate technique for lowering the vocal register.^[1] In the early 2010s, linguists noted that the speech pattern was becoming more common among young English-speaking women, and performed several different studies about the perception of its use. One study claimed that “Relative to a normal speaking voice, young adult female voices exhibiting vocal fry are perceived as less competent, less educated, less trustworthy, less attractive, and less hirable,” but another study found that they were perceived as “educated, urban-oriented, and upwardly mobile.”^[2][3]

In December, 2011, the Daily Mail wrote a widely-read story about the prevalence of vocal fry in speech, attributing its popularity to the pattern’s use by celebrities, including Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian.^[4]

Spread

Discussion about the legitimacy of vocal fry in speech have spread online, often through similar forums as the discussions of feminism. On reddit, several posts debating the legitimacy of the speech pattern have received hundreds of comments and thousands of upvotes.^[5] Several videos debating the trend have gone viral, with millions of views.^[6]

In 2015, criticism has been leveled against people who take a stance against the use of vocal fry, saying that vocal fry was one of just many counterproductive arguments that silence women in media.^[6] A popular tweet by podcaster Kate Mingle presented a fake auto-reply to people who write in to complain about how her voice sounds; the tweet received over 1,393 retweets and 1,455 favorites.^[7]

Between July 1st and July 31st, 2015, vocal fry was a much discussed topic on Twitter, where analytics say the phrase was used over 6,000 times.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

Self-Balancing Scooters are motorized transportation devices which allow riders to stand on the device like a skateboard and lean in the direction they wish to go, using similar technology to Segway personal transportation vehicles.

History

In August 2014, the Chinese company Chic Robotics unveiled its first self-balancing scooter product named the Smart S1. In October, the scooter was featured at the Canton Fair trade show in Guangzhou, China, leading many competitors to make their own variations of the device.

Online Presence

On January 7th, 2015, the CNET YouTube channel uploaded footage of an IO Hawk self-balancing scooter at the CES 2015 trade show (shown below).

On April 30th, fashion model Kendall Jenner posted a video of herself riding a PhunkeeDuck self-balancing scooter around her kitchen to Instagram^[6] (shown below, left). Within three months, the video received upwards of 1.1 million likes and 52,800 comments. On May 14th, Justin Bieber posted a video of himself spinning in a circle on a Hyperwalk scooter to Instagram,^[3] where it gained over 1.1 million likes and 52,800 comments in the next two months (shown below, right).

On the following day, singer-songwriter Chris Brown uploaded a video of himself dancing in a room while riding a self-balancing scooter to Instagram^[5] (shown below, left). On May 20th, actor Jamie Foxx appeared on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he came on stage riding a PhunkeeDuck (shown below, right).

On June 11th, 2015, YouTuber Ben Schmanke posted a review of a self-balancing scooter, garnering more than 1.4 million views and 1,100 comments in the first three weeks (shown below, left). On July 16th, 2015, YouTube based Let’s Play group, The Creatures, uploaded a video entitled “Rollerboard” in which the members of the group react to seeing and operating the scooters for the first time (shown below, right). On June 29th, Wired^[4] published an article about the history of self-balancing scooters, which speculates that Chic Robotics invented the first self-balancing scooter. On July 31st, The Daily Dot^[7] published an article about the Hyperwalk brand scooter, reporting that the transportation device was used frequently by attendees at that year’s VidCon.

Search Interest

External References

(Massive Work In Progress)

About

Craigslist Personals is the name given to the .txt Twitter account @craigslistlove, which showcases various cringeworthy or out-of-context profile descriptions of Craigslist users, usually those attempting to find a love partner on the said website. Tweets made by @craigslistlove are known to be edited into a picture of a fictional character whose personality or presence in the storyline matches the content of the tweet. Most of these images are made by Tumblr users and the characters displayed are usually the ones from Fire Emblem and various anime and manga series.

Origin

The account was made in November 2012, with the description “Wisdom from posts found mostly in the personals section of craigslist.org (As if you could make this shit up).” The account has made over 6,000 tweets as of August 2015, including quotes submitted by other twitter users.

Spread

(WIP)

There are many posts on Tumblr tagged with #craigslist personals that showcase edits of the tweets, as well as several single topic blogs such as attackoncraigslistpersonals, assclasspersonals and westerospersonals.

Notable Examples

About

Cultural Marxism is a term used used to denounce political correctness as an attempt to destroy the west. The term is defined as an ideology which emphasizes culture as a main cause of inequalities.

Origin

Karl Marx believed that a large enough conflict would trigger revolutions because as he believed communism was the next step in a country’s development because at the time Britain was a capitalistic economy, because this never came true “Critical Theory” was invented as a explanation of why his prediction failed to come to fruition.

The idea of Critical Theory originated in Frankfurt School after being founded in 1923 after being funded by donations by Felix Weil. “The Institute was founded, thanks to a donation by Felix Weil in 1923, with the aim of developing Marxist studies in Germany.”^[5] Critical Theory was a criticism of capitalistic societies and mass culture.

Marxist theories as the causes of inequality

“Critical Theorists have long sought to distinguish their aims, methods, theories, and forms of explanation from standard understandings in both the natural and the social sciences. Instead, they have claimed that social inquiry ought to combine rather than separate the poles of philosophy and the social sciences: explanation and understanding, structure and agency, regularity and normativity.”^[6]

“Using Hegelian terminology, Critical Theorists came to regard advanced capitalist societies as a “totality,” in which the tight integration of states and markets threatened to eliminate the space for freedom.”^[6]

“The ‘inevitable’ tendency of liberalism to collapse into fascism ‘can be derived, apart from any economic causes, from the inner contradiction between the subjectivist principle of self-interest and the idea of reason that it is supposed to express’ (Horkheimer 1987, 21)^[6]

“In Legitimation Crisis (1969), for example, Habermas argues not only that the demands of advanced capitalism restrict the scope and significance of democracy, but also that the state is “crisis ridden” and unable to solve structural problems of unemployment, economic growth, and environmental destruction”^[6]

Summary:

Marxists believed that the reason why Karl Marx’s predictions about communist uprisings in Britain and other countries failed is that they believed that culture, media and other reasons were at fault thus they created “Critical Theory”. “Critical Theory” holds that reason for countries failing to have communist revolutions like Karl Marx predicted were cultural.

“Cultural Marxism” bases it’s ideas off of “Critical Theory” in that both believe that a country’s culture creates inequality; “Cultural Marxism” goes one step further and describes culture and mass media as means of removing the cause of what they believe to be the cause of inequality.

Spread

The term is used extensively on far right websites and users. Most notably /pol/, conservapedia, and Metapedia. The word is criticized by many left wingers as being a being something used to describe anything that a conservative doesn’t like or being a snarl word to describe anyone a far Right wing person doesn’t like^[2][3][4]

Search Interest

Additional Resources:

Marxist Internet Resource Frankfurt school

British Library Communist Manifesto

External References

Overview

In the beginning of July 2015 a Dutch Facebook group^[1] called “Klantenservice” (Customer Service) was created. It was not created to help out people but rather to troll them on the messages they leave on Facebook targeted towards companies whom they are dissatisfied with. The victims believe sometimes the Customer Service account is genuine and respond to the trolling. Companies that have fallen victim to the facebook account include Vodafone, IKEA, Burger King, supermarkets and other shops. It is based around the British facebook group Customer Service.^[6]

The motto of the group is “We cannot make it more helpful, only a lot easier”, which is based on the motto from the tax authorities, which is “We cannot make it more pleasant, only a lot easier”.

The facebook group went viral after the media discovered the group, going up from 11K likes in the middle, 77K on the 21st of July^[4] and at the end of July to 136K likes. ^[3]

Company Responses

Responses from the companies that have fallen victim to the troll account have been mostly negative^[5]. It caused Burger King to shut down its page for complaints ^[9], supermarket Albert Heijn deleting its posts and providing a statement afterwards condeming the page ^[9] and Ziggo stating it wants nothing to do with people pretending to be ’’funny’’.

The exceptions come from Specsaver (which sells glasses), Gamma (sells tools and work supplies) and Scapino (sells clothing) who could see the humor in it^[7]. Specsavers even stated that “Fun that it is now our turn to fall ‘victim’ to the customer service”.

Threatened lawsuit

On July the 21st, the theme park Efteling told the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that it is considering a lawsuit against the Facebook group.^[4][5] This was done after a customer under the name Hennie posted a complaint on the Efteling facebook page. He was mad because an employee would have called him a retard while he was waiting to get into a ride. The ‘Customer Service’ then told Hennie that they saw no problem with that. “You act like a retard, so as we see the situation the employee acted correctly.”

The post got more than 20.000 likes and was shared hundreds of times. Hennie did not understand that the actual Efteling wasn’t the sender and acted hostile. “I’m not a retard, where did you get the guts to say that”, after which he tagged his friends in the message and states “Look what they’re saying about me, I am not taking this”.

A spokesperson of the Efteling called the response on Hennie from the ‘’Customer Service’’ an act of trolling,. Ultimately it was decided to remove the complaint because of the swearing used in it. Hennie has received a message that the response was not from the Efteling, but he has not responded to that. The Efteling has stated that if something similar occures where their name is being used, the theme park will take steps against the Customer Service.

External References