About

Through the Fire and Flames is a song performed by the British power metal band Dragonforce. It is considered the most successful and well known song of the band. ^[1]

Origin

Through the fire and Flames was recorded by DragonForce in 2005 and was released on January 9th of following year as part of the album Inhuman Rampage^[1]. The single of Through the Fire and flames was released on August 3rd 2006. A video version of the song, slightly shorter than the original, was uploaded to YouTube on December 26, 2006, and has since gained nearly 70 million views ^[2]

The song gained an increase in popularity after it appeared as a bonus track in the Guitar Hero game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.^[7] The song is unlocked after the player finishes the game at any difficulty level. It is considered to be one of the most difficult songs in the Guitar Hero Games series (and by many to be the most difficult). ^[3][4][5] The song was also later released as a DLC for Rock Band Series.

Spread

Due to the song’s infamous difficulty on Guitar Hero, several Full Combo Videos have gained over a million views.

The most popular video of the song being played on Guitar Hero is of nine year old gaining a 95% completion of the song. This video has gained over 18 Million views since being uploaded on November 7th, 2007.^[8]

The song has also been cover many different times by many different YouTube users on many different instruments and sound remixes.

Search Interest

External References

About

Je suis monté (also written as Je Suis Monté or Je Suis Monte) is a catchphrase originating from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, a more complete and international version of the fourth installment of the Monster Hunter series. The phrase is used to poke fun at French hunters for abusing mounting mechanics in multiplayer gameplay or at French language in general, much like Omelette Du Fromage or Hon Hon Hon.

Origin

Je suis monté is tightly related to a mounting mechanic introduced in Monster Hunter 4, first released in September 2013 in Japan on Nintendo 3DS. With the introduction of new maps featuring more rugged areas, hunters are now able to perform aerial attacks on monsters by using their weapons after jumping off a ledge. Such attacks can stun a monster, allowing the last hunter who successfully dealt such an attack to mount it. While mounting, the hunter can complete a mini-game to topple the creature upon success.

While regular gameplay can also topple a monster, the opening created after mounting it lasts much longer, allowing hunters to efficiently attack the weak point(s) of their giant enemy for massive damage. In multiplayer gameplay, mounting can be cancelled if a member of the party keeps on hitting the monster being mounted to the point of triggering a new stun animation which throws the mounting hunter away. The whole mounting system is illustrated in the video below.

However, Je suis monté actually appeared with a more complete version of Monster Hunter 4, Monster Hunter 4G, which has been initially released in September 2014 in Japan on Nintendo 3DS. The game eventually hit the stores in Northern America and Europe in February 2015 as Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. In multiplayer sessions, to avoid unfortunate outcomes while mounting a monster, the mounting hunter typically sends a message to other players with the game’s own chat to prevent them from interfering. A default message for such a case is available in all versions, the French message being “Je suis monté”.

Spread

The frequent occurrence of the phrase in multiplayer sessions with French players along a tendency to avoid direct combat and abuse aerial attacks (in particular with the insect glaive ^[1], a new weapon which can be used to perform aerial attacks without jumping off a ledge) motivated several topics on boards dedicated to the game, such as Reddit ^[2][3][4].

The phrase eventually became a common joke in the Monster Hunter community, frequently appearing in Monster Hunter threads on /v/, on the Monster Hunter sub-reddit and in Youtube comments of videos related to Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The German equivalent of the phrase, “Ich bin drauf!”, is also mentioned from time to time. Je suis monté also spawned parodic videos and images.

Notable examples

Research Interest

External References

^[1]Monster Hunter Wiki – Insect Glaive

^[2]Reddit – Je suis monté! / 4-20-2015

^[3]Reddit – Je suis monte! / 4-23-2015

^[4]Reddit – Je Suis Monte! / 5-3-2015

About

The Emperor’s New Groove is a 2000 animated buddy movie created by Walt Disney Animation Studios. While not following the classic Disney formula^[1], the movie was a commercial success, grossing overall $89,302,687 at the U.S. box office and an additional $80,025,000 worldwide, being considered one of the best of Disney’s post-Renaissance era and spawning a sequel known as Kronk’s New Groove, released in 2005, as well as an animated television series, The Emperor’s New School, in 2006.

Synopsis

The plot revolved around Kuzco (voiced by David Spade), a self-centered and arrogant teenaged emperor of the Incan empire. One day, he summons Pacha (voiced by John Goodman), the headman of a nearby village, to inform him that he is building his enormous summer home, Kuzcotopia, on the site of Pacha’s house. Pacha attempts to protest, and is dismissed. He also callously fires his ancient, power-hungry advisor Yzma (voiced by Eartha Kitt) for attempting to run the kingdom while he is preoccupied, infuriating her. She, along with her easily-distracted assistant Kronk (voiced by Patrick Warburton) then attempt to poison Kuzco so that she can take full and permanent control of the empire, which eventually lead to the tranformation of the main protagonist into a llama.
The rest of the movie follows the adventures of Kuzco trying to transform back into his former self with the help of the kind and caring Pacha.

Online Presence

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Reaction Gifs

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Fanarts

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External References

^[1]Wikipedia – The Emperor’s New Groove

About

/int/ is the international board on 4chan, which is dedicated to discussions about a wide variety of topics, including foreign languages, world politics and cultural differences.

History

On January 25th, 2010, the /int/^[1] board was launched along with /adv/ (advice), /lit/ (literature), /new/ (news), /sci/ (science & math) and /3/ (3DCG). In February 2012, the board saw a large influx of Russian users following a denial of service attack on the image board 2ch.so. In September 2013, another wave of Russian users came to /int/ following the closure of the Russian imageboard Harach.

In April 2014, 4chan was compromise by an unknown hacker, who posted screenshots of the site’s moderator board along with other information on the /int/ board. A gallery of the screenshots was uploaded to Imgur.

Krautchan’s /int/

Krautchan^[3] is a German language imageboard created on May 1st, 2007,^[3] which has its own active /int/ board. Originally created as /uk/, it was first conceived as a replacement for the British imageboard Britchan in 2009.

Related Memes

Argentina Is White

“Argentina Is White” is a sarcastic statement implying that most of the Argentinian population isn’t Caucasian, which is typically used to provoke South American posters on the /int/ board.

Katya Lischina

Katya Kotoraya Lischina is a Russian Internet personality who gained a large following on /int/.

Maki "Drawgirl’ Badfox

“Drawgirl”’ refers to an illustration of a young girl wearing a sly expression drawn the artist Maki Badfox. It has become a common exploitable image on /int/, inspiring dozens of derivatives featuring themese from various countries.

Polandball

Polandballis a cartoon character drawn in the shape of a ball with the color schemes of the Polish flag (white & red), which often appears in a comic series featuring ball-shaped creatures representing different countries (also known as Countryballs). Due their popularity, Countryballs replaced the flags on Krautchan’s /int/ board.

Sweden Yes

“Sweden Yes”is an expression used to mock Swedish gender equality politics and multiculturalism, which is often associated with the Captain Sweden webcomic character.

Serbia Strong / Remove Kebab

Serbia Strongis a music video made by a group of Serbian musician praising Bosnian President Radovan Karadžić.

Hide X Threads, Ignore X Posts, Do Not Reply To X Posters

Hide X Threads, Ignore X Posts, Do Not Reply To X Postersis a phrasal template associated with a series of reaction images which is rumored to have originated on Krautchan’s /int/ board.

Search Interest

External References

About

Make America Great Again is a slogan used by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign. After a photograph of Trump wearing a hat bearing the slogan was taken on a campaign visit to the Mexican border, the phrase and merchandise bearing it became frequently used in a satirical photo fad and photoshops.

Origin

“Let’s Make America Great Again” was first used as a campaign slogan by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 election campaign. Since then, it has often been used as a GOP refrain, most recently as part of the title of the 2011 book on Tea Party politics by Christine O’Donnell.^[2] Trump has claimed to have authored the phrase, but has not produced any proof.^[3]

Trump adopted the slogan upon announcing his 2016 run for the GOP nomination in June 2015, and launched merchandise featuring it simultaneously.^[1] However, the merchandise went relatively unnoticed until Trump donned a hat during a visit to the Laredo, on the Mexican border in July 2012.

Spread

Soon after photographs of Trump wearing the hat appeared in the mainstream media, users both began photoshopping new text onto the front of the hat, as well as ordering the hat in droves and using it in photographs, either ironically or not. The Washington Post reported on July 28th that the official hat had sold out from the retail location authorized to sell it; many bootleg versions became available online. ^[4][5]

Users on Instagram and Twitter began photographing themselves in the hat, often tagging the photo with the hashtag #MakeAmericaGreatAgain, which had over 7,600 posts as of August 10th, 2015 on Instagram.^[6][7] In addition, Funny or Die published a collection on July 24th, 2015, of other slogans photoshopped onto the hat, which inspired similar photoshops to become popular on Tumblr.^[8][9] On Reddit, user iamclaytonbigsby posted an image of Trump wearing the hat to /r/photoshopbattles, where it received 28 points.^[10]

The trend of people wearing the hat as a photo fad was covered in The Hollywood Reporter, and the Sun Times, while the photoshop editing was written about in E! Online and Bloomberg News.^{[11][12][13][14]} The hat itself has spawned two separate parody Twitter accounts, @trumphat, and @Donaldtrumphat, neither of which have more than a couple hundred followers as of August 10th, 2015.^[15]

Notable Examples

work in progress

People Wearing the Hat

Hat Photoshops

Search Interest

External References

You mean Ireland? Ya, it’s mine!

About

“It’s Just a Prank!” is an expression often uttered in prank videos when victims react violently when harassed. The phrase is often referenced online when mocking prank video creators for being abusive, threatening or unethical.

Origin

On May 14th, 2014, YouTuber DennisCeeTV uploaded a video titled “Selling Marijuana in the Hood Prank,” in which he says “it’s just a prank” when a victim pushes him for soliciting his table (shown below). In the next 15 months, the video gathered upwards of 1.1 million views and 650 comments.

Spread

On June 26th, 2014, the /r/ItsAPrank^[1] subreddit was launched for prank videos featuring violent confrontations. On September 2nd, 2014, YouTuber DennisCeeTV uploaded a video titled “Stepping on Jordans in the Hood Prank,” in which the pranksters yell “it’s just a prank” when victims react violently to having their feet stepped on (shown below, left). In the next year, the video reached over 4.2 million views and 9,400 comments. On September 6th, YouTuber le sticky man uploaded a clip of the 9/11 WTC terrorist attacks with several audio samples of the phrase “It’s just a prank” playing in the background (shown below, right).

On September 24th, YouTuber JusReign uploaded a parody video in which he pranks people by murdering them (shown below, left). On October 11th, YouTuber TheNaturalRants uploaded a parody video entitled “Just A Prank: Sleeping with Friend’s Girlfriend” (shown below, right).

On December 27th, the /r/JustAPrank^[3] subreddit was launched for violent prank video submissions. On January 29th, 2015, YouTuber moekazool uploaded a video compilation titled “It’s Just a Prank Bro,” highlighting clips of violent reactions in prank videos (shown below, left). On April 12th, 2015, an Urban Dictionary entry was created for “It’s just a prank bro!”^[4] On May 15th, the YouTube comedy group Alpacalypse Productions uploaded a parody lampooning prank video creators (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External Links

About

A/S/L is an initialism for age/sex/location used to inquire about someone’s profile information in online chat rooms, often with the intention of engaging in cybersex.

Origin

While the exact origin of the initialism is unknown, the online slang term likely originated with the rise of IRC chat rooms in the 1980s and became widespread through its usage on instant messaging services like AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger in the 1990s. In March 2002, “ASL” was added to the Internet Acronyms Dictionary.^[4]

Spread

On April 3rd, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[2] user TheWiggidy submitted an entry for “asl,” describing the initialism as a means to learn “where you live so they can come to your house with a chainsaw and kill you.” On April 24th, 2006, Urban Dictionary^[1] user PurEvil submitted an entry for “a/s/l”, defining it as "the mating call of the barely post-pubescent teenager (shown below).

During the mid-2000s, conversational usage of “a/s/l” began to wane with the arrival of real-time video chat services, though the term continued to live on through in-game chats in online multiplayer games and anonymous communities like Omegle.

”

On April 12th, 2007, the Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology^[6] was released, which stated that 52% of users in MOO text-based online virtual reality systems included references to age, sex, location or physical appearance. On August 11th, 2009, The Online Slang Dictionary^[3] added an entry for “A/S/L.” On June 14th, 2012, Redditor XtlanZzyzx submitted a screenshot of two Omegle users role-playing as survivors in an A/S/L-themed zombie apocalypse scenario to /r/funny.^[10] The original Imgur post garnered over 1.25 million views in the next three years.

On October 16th, 2014, the /r/GuessTheASL^[8] subreddit was launched, where users submit pictures of personal items as clues for others to guess the age, sex and location. On January 29th, 2015, the novel Age Sex Location by Melissa Pimentel was published by Penguin.^[7] On July 7th, Redditor surprised panda submitted a photograph of a street sign titled “A/S/L?” to /r/funny,^[9] where it gathered uwpards of 3,400 votes (89% upvoted) and 40 comments in the next month (shown below).

14/F/Cali

“14/F/Cali” is a shorthand for identifying oneself as a 14-year-old girl from California, which is used in response to A/S/L. 14/F/Cali is often associated with adult men masquerading as teenage girls in online chatrooms, based off the tongue-in-cheek adage “there are no girls on the Internet”.

Search Interest

Note: The Google Trends graph for the search query “ASL” may be inaccurate due to its alternative usage as the acronym for American Sign Language (ASL).

External References

About

The Flying Kid is a Vine remix series based on a video clip of a child getting carried away off the ground and flown in a circle by a gyrating soft-foam cylindrical beam at an inflatable playground in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Origin

On July 20th, 2015, Indiana University student Keirra Santillan uploaded a Vine video clip of an unsuspecting child getting scooped up and carried away for a few seconds by a gyrating soft-foam beam while playing in an inflatable castle at the Indiana Black Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana. The original Vine clip accrued more than 20 million views within the first three weeks of upload.

Spread

On August 10th, Viner Danny LoPriore Jr.^[2] uploaded a remix based on the original clip featuring the chorus of R. Kelly’s 1996 R&B hit single “I Believe I Can Fly,” which garnered more than 730,000 views and nearly 2,000 comments in less than 24 hours.

Throughout the day, a number of additional remixes featuring uplifting pop songs surfaced on Vine^[3], including Idina Menzel’s Frozen theme song “Let It Go”, Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,” Whitney Houston’s “I’ll Always Love You,” and Enya’s “Only Time,” in a similar vein to the Flying Lawnmower remixes. On August 11th, the emerging Vine remix meme was compiled into articles by Bustle^[4] and BuzzFeed UK.^[5]

Various Examples

External References

This entry refers to an active criminal proceeding, and will be updated when the verdict is decided.

Overview

The 2014 Slender Man Stabbing was a criminal incident that occurred on May 31st, 2014 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. In the incident, two twelve year-old girls led a third girl of the same age into a forest and stabbed her repeatedly, attempting to murder her, with the intention of pleasing the creepypasta character Slender Man. This crime is notorious for both the youth of the perpetrators and the wide and oft-cited influence of the Slender Man meme.

Background

On May 31st, 2014, TMJ4 News in Waukesha, Wisconsin reported that two 12-year-old girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, were arrested on charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide after allegedly trying to kill their mutual friend Payton Leutner by stabbing her 19 times. Later reports detailed that they had been planning the murder for months. The victim survived the attack, recovering in the hospital and returning to school the following fall.^[1][2]

According to the criminal complaint, the victim had spent the night before at a sleepover with Geyser and Weier, who lured her into nearby woods the next morning to “play a game,” before they held her down on the ground and stabbed her 19 times in the arms, legs and torso. She was found by a passing bicyclist and rescued.^[3]

The report also revealed that the crime may have been motivated by the two teenagers’ obsession with the Slender Man mythology, particularly in the idea of becoming a “proxy of Slender” by physically killing someone. The teens believed that Slender Man lived in a mansion in the forest where they brought Leutner, and that he would invite them to live with him there after they killed her.^[4]

Notable Developments

Mental Illness Diagnosis

On June 11th, 2014, the Huffington Post reported that the younger of the two girls, Morgan Geyser, would be evaluated for mental illness, and the following year, the psychiatrist testified at a hearing that she was a schizophrenic, and that her schizophrenia was getting worse. Disturbing drawings and mutilated Barbie dolls were found in Geyser’s bedroom during the initial investigation. The psychiatrist, Kevin Robbins, said that Geyser believed that Slender Man and other fictional characters, like the ones from the Harry Potter stories, were not only real but also her friends, and that she refused to take medication in fears of losing the ability to communicate with them. For the first year of her imprisonment, Geyser received no treatment, and her attorney and the psychiatrist believed that she qualified for the insanity defense.^[5]

Anissa Weier was also evaluated, and was shown as having a very low risk of future criminal activity and a high likelihood of success in treatment for the issues that landed her in the Slender Man stabbing case, experts testified Tuesday. As reported by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, Anthony Jurek, the psychiatrist who evaluated Weier, testified he saw no signs of the personality disorders, as was seen in Geyser. Instead, he said she was more likely struggling with the divorce of her parents and the common issue of teen acceptance, and plotted with Geyser in order to not lose her as a friend, and claimed to no longer believe in Slender Man.^[6]

Adult Court Decision

On August 10th, 2015, the Wisonsin judge tasked with deciding whether or not the girls were fit to stand trial as adults denied a motion to move the trial to juvenile court, assigning them both to be tried as adults. “This was an effort to kill someone, not a mistake by hitting someone too hard,”Judge Michael Bohren told WISN News in Milwaukee. “They’ve committed an offense that was serious. It was frankly vicious. It was a premeditated attempt to kill someone. There has to be assurance that that doesn’t happen again.”^[7]

The girls lawyers had attempted to have the case moved to juvenile court based on the perpetrators’ young ages and mental health status. They also filed a motion to have the law of the state of Wisconsin, which says that every serious crime committed by a person over the age of 10 must be tried in adult course unless a judge decides otherwise, declared unconstitutional. The judge denied that motion, claiming that there could be no perception of “fair and unusual punishment” before the girls had been sentenced in court.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

cicada 3301 is one thing that came from deep web, people went missing blah blah blah last phase in 2015 world ends the end

About

Niekryty Krytyk (previously known as Macfra84) is an alias for Maciej Frączyk, a Polish YouTuber, writer and radio presenter most notably known for reviewing popular videos in a satirist manner. Since joining YouTube, Maciej slowly gained over 1 million subscribers and being the 7th most subscribed channel in Poland^[1].

Online History

Maciej joined YouTube in 9 December 2006 under the alias of Macfra84, not much known is about the channel activity until 2009 but the first video uploaded on the channel was a top 15 list of best horror movies from 2008^[2], uploaded on 12 July 2008, the video now holds over 600,000 views.
His second video was a review of a Polish movie called ‘Akademia pana Kleksa’ (lit: ‘Mr. Klek’s Academy’) from 1984 – the video was split into two parts and was the first episode of ‘Przemyślenia Niekrytego Krytyka’ (‘Niekryty Krytyk’s Thoughts’) which is the main series on the channel. The video gained over 800,000 and 600,000 views, respective to their part.

Spread

Maciej continued making episodes of Przemyślenia Niekrytego Krytyka throughout the years and slowly started branching out onto new forms of videos like reviewing video games and movies without the satire from Przemyślenia Niekrytego Krytyka. Maciej opened his website niekrytykrytyk.com on February 2011.
In October 13, Maciej was a radio presenter in Radio Zet^[4], a popular radio station in Poland for 4 weeks and uploaded the audio footage on to his channel.
In 2012, Maciej published a book titled ‘Zeznania Niekrytego Krytyka’ (‘Niekryty Krytyk’s Testimony’) and later went to publish many other books^[3]. At the time Niekryty Krytyk was one of the best known YouTube celebrities in Poland.

Fandom

As of writing this, Niekryty Krytyk has over 1,200,700 subscribers and 185,900,160 views on his channel. Only 59 results for ‘Niekryty Krytyk’ come up on DeviantArt. Maciej usually features on his videos comments from other videos, mostly ones that insult him and/or have many grammatical errors.
There has been numerous shirts made, based on Niekryty Krytyk; like a shirt based on one of running gags from ‘Niekryty Krytyk ocenia: Telezakupy’ (Niekryty Krytyk reviews: Infomercials)^[5]

Joanna

Joanna, or ‘Dżoana’, is one of Maciej’s characters featured on his channel; Joanna is a stereotypical blonde rich American girl who speaks both Polish and English with a stereotypical American accent and sometimes confuses both languages, she often makes sexual comments (sometimes from confusing the languages). She was first shown in ‘Przemyślenia Niekrytego Krytyka: Zrób to Sam’ (‘Niekryty Krytyk’s thoughts: Do it Yourself’) where she replaced Maciej for the episode.

Search Interest

External References

WIP

About

Johnny Sins^[1] (birth name Steve Wolfe) is a male pornographic actor who is affiliated with Brazzers, Pornhub any many other sites. He has gained an online following with his share of fans as well as being nominated many awards for his work.

Online Relevance

Career

Johnny first began his online pornography career in 2006.

On June 10th, 2015, Pornhub announced the “sexploration” crowdfunding project to make a sex film in space starring Johnny Sins.

Death Hoax

On February 18th, 2013, an alleged tweet from Brazzers claimed that Sins had died in a car accident (shown below). However, the claims were quickly rejected by Sins’ fellow actors Keiran Lee^[2] and Lisa Ann^[3]. The site “Is X Dead?” made a page for Johnny Sins, with more than 500 users saying he had died^[4].

Johnny Sins himself came out himself and made a video clarifying he was alright on March 13th, 2013 (shown below). The original tweet has not been proven to have even been posted by Brazzers or had a definite origin and was most likely an edit attempting to spread false news and spark a viral death hoax.

Personal Life

Steve Wolfe was born on December 31st, 1978, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania^[5].

Search Interest

External Resources

About

Fall Out Boy Fan Protecting Ferguson Police is a photoshop meme based on an exploitable image of a young woman wearing a merchandise t-shirt for the American alternative rock band Fall Out Boy and standing in front of a row of police officers during a protest held on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri. The original photograph was widely mocked online, with many criticizing the woman for her views on police brutality controversies.

Origin

On August 10th, 2015, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted an interview with a 19-year-old student Lexi Kozhevsky, who defended police officers against demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, claiming “I would rather get hit by something than let it hit them” (shown below).

That evening, Lynden Steele, the director of photography at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, tweeted a picture of Kozhevsky standing in front of a row of police officers during the protests (shown below).^[1] In the tweet, Steele noted that Kozhevsky was attempting to protect the officers from objects thrown by demonstrators (shown below). In the first 24 hours, the tweet received upwards of 2,200 retweets and 2,100 favorites.

Spread

During the early morning on August 11th, Twitter user @AshleyLynch^[3] posted a photoshopped screen capture from the 2015 action film Mad Max with Kozhevsky superimposed in the foreground (shown below, left). Meanwhile, Twitter user @MrPooni^[2] tweeted a photoshopped image of Kozhevsky standing in front of the cast of “Dragon Ball”: (shown below, right). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 1,500 retweets and 1,400 favorites.

That same day, The Blaze YouTube channel uploaded a short video of Kozhevsky defending police officers (shown below). Also on August 11th, the music blog Noisey^[4] published an interview with Lexi, who described the Internet response she received as “overwhelming” and expanding on her views regarding police actions in Ferguson. In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the photoshop meme, including The Independent,^[5] Billboard,^[6]NME,^[7] Vice,^[8] Complex^[9] and UpRoxx.^[10]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Joe Rogan is a comedian known for hosting the reality television series Fear Factor, appearing as a commentator in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts competitions and for hosting the regular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

Career

In 1994, Rogan was cast as the character Frank Valente in the Fox comedy television show Hardball. Starting in 1995, Rogan appeared as the electrician Joe Garrelli on the comedy television show NewsRadio (shown below, left). In 1997, Rogan began interviewing fighters in the UFC mixed martial arts competition (shown below, right). Rogan subsequently became a color commentary for the company.

In June 2001, Rogan became the host of the reality game show Fear Factor. In 2003, Rogan and comedian Doug Stanhope became the new co-hosts of Comedy Central television show The Man Show.

The Joe Rogan Experience

In December 2009, Rogan began hosting a podcast now titled The Joe Rogan Experience, which features long-form conversations with a variety of guests, including MMA fighters, actors, musicians, authors, artists and scientists.

Online Presence

On June 15th, 2006, YouTuber smurfnation uploaded a clip from Fear Factor, in which Rogan physically restrains a violent contestant (shown below, left). On September 13th, YouTuber TxJake uploaded an audio recording of Rogan discussing his experience with using the psychedelic compound dimethyltryptamine (shown below, right). Within nine years, the videos gained over 8.8 million views and 3.8 million views respectively. On October 3rd, 2010, the /r/JoeRogan^[4] subreddit was launched for discussions about Rogan and his podcast.

Social Media Presence

As of August 2015, the @joerogan Twitter^[1] feed has over 1.66 million followers, the Joe Rogan Facebook^[3] page upwards of 755,000 likes and the @joerogan Instagram^[2] feed has more than 496,000 followers.

Search Interest

External References

About

Sonic Dreams Collection is an unlicensed collection of Sonic The Hedgehog mini games developed by the indie game studio Arcane Kids. Upon its online release in August 2015, the games quickly gained notoriety and an online following for their gratuitous inclusion of sexually explicit themes and various references to internet paraphilia.

Origin

On August 10th, 2015, Sonic Dreams Collection was released as a free download by the indie game development studio Arcane Kids on the Tumblr blog “Hedgehod Exposed”,^[1] claiming that the games had been leaked by a hacker group who discovered the files inside a Sega Dreamcast developer kit.

Gameplay

The collection comes with four playable game modes to play. In the “Make My Sonic” mode, players can customize a 3D Sonic model to be saved for play on other game modes (shown below, left). In the “Eggman Origin” mode, players load a customized Sonic model with long legs and no arms who feeds worms to a limbless eggman while walking around a white, empty environment (shown below, right). The game ends after Eggman becomes large enough to devour the player.

In “Sonic Movie Maker,” players can interact with objects in a 3D environment to create a six-second video. Later levels in the game feature adult-themed scenarios, including fetishes like vore, birthing, body inflation and male pregnancy (shown below, left). In “My Roommate Sonic” mode, the player takes cues from Eggman via text message to express a romantic interest in Sonic while seated on a couch watching television (shown below, right).

Spread

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the collection, including Kotaku,^[2] PC Gamer,^[3]Polygon,^[4] and Metro.^[5] Additionally, the game has been a subject of discussion on a number of community sites, including 4chan,^[6][10] Reddit,^[7] Neogaf^[8] and Tumblr.^[9] On August 11th, the Game Grumps YouTube channel uploaded a “Steam Train” episode featuring the Sonic Dreams Collection (shown below). In two days, the video gathered over 538.000 views.

On the following day, YouTuber Markiplier uploaded a Sonic Dreams Collection gameplay video, which garnered more than 585,000 views in the first 24 hours (shown below, left). That same day, Vinnysauce posted another gameplay video (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Tom Brady’s Courtroom Sketch is a photoshop meme based on a coarsely drawn portrait of the New England Patriots’ star quarterback in a courtroom sketch produced at the first court appearance of Brady in a settlement lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) for his four-game suspension penalty in the aftermath of Deflategate.

Origin

On August 12th, Tom Brady appeared at a public hearing in a New York City courtroom to discuss a potential settlement with the NFL regarding his involvement in Deflategate and the penalty of a four-game suspension. During the proceedings, several sketches of the both parties were drawn by New York City courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg, one of which featured a moody and self-resigned looking portrait of Tom Brady.

At 10:11 a.m. (EST), Boston-based reporter Jim Armstrong^[16] for CBS-affiliate WBZ tweeted the images of Brady from the courthouse.

Background

On May 11th, 2015, the NFL announced the suspension of Tom Brady for the first four games in the upcoming season after ruling the athlete was involved in the intentional deflation of regulation footballs towards the team’s advantage. The decision was promptly appealed by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) on behalf of Brady, however, on July 28th, it was upheld by the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The next day, Tom Brady and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) filed an injunction against the NFL in federal court in order to prevent the league from enforcing the four-game suspension of the Patriots’ star quarterback.

Spread

By early afternoon, shortly after the adjournment of the public portion of the hearing, football fans and others following the news story began poking fun at the hand-drawn depiction of Brady in one of the courtroom sketches, particularly for his skeletal appearance and saddened facial expression. At 1:36 p.m. (ET), SB Nation^[3] highlighted the courtroom sketch in an article titled “Tom Brady’s face melted at the DeflateGate hearing, according to this courtroom sketch,” which included the original drawing and a couple of photoshopped parodies that emerged on Twitter shortly after its publication. In the following hours, dozens of photoshopped parodies featuring the portrait of Tom Brady continued to surface on the microblogging platform.

News Media Coverage

Several sports news blogs,^{[1][2][7][8][9]} viral news sites^[3][4][5][6] and major U.S. news publications^{[10][11][12][13][15]} covered the courtroom sketch as a side story spun off from the NFL court hearing with many comparisons made to the Botched Ecce Homo painting that went viral in 2012. Later that same day, Vice^[11] and The Boston Globe^[14] interviewed the courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg about her drawing, during which she was quoted as saying:

“Tell Tom Brady, I’m sorry. He’s a very good looking guy and if I didn’t make him look good enough, I’ll try harder next time.”

“I don’t tend to flatter people and make them look beautiful.”

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Work in progress

About

20% Cooler, shortened from It Needs to be About 20% Cooler, is a memorable quote by the character of Rainbow Dash from the Hasbro animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is frequently featured in fan-made images, videos, and animations. It is considered one of the most popular examples of Bronyspeak, and is often used as a snowclone in the form of “20% X”.

Origin

The original phrase is taken from the fourteenth episode of the first season of MLP, “Suited For Success”, in which Rainbow Dash says the phrase in response to her friend Rarity asking for feedback on a dress design.^[1]

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^[1]MLP Wiki – Suited For Success

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About

The Mandela Effect is a theory of parallel universes, based in the idea that because large groups of people have similar alternative memories about past events. Advocates of the theory claim that for these collective experiences to be true, the fabric of reality must have shifted at some point in the past, and that therefore not only do parallel, inhabitable universes exist, but that we are constantly switching between them.

Origin

The Mandela Effect was first described online in 2010, by a blogger named Fiona Broome. Broome described an experience at a convention called Dragon Con, where she discovered that others had a false memory similar to hers, which was that Nelson Mandela had died during his imprisonment in the 1980s.^[1]

See, I thought Nelson Mandela died in prison. I thought I remembered it clearly, complete with news clips of his funeral, the mourning in South Africa, some rioting in cities, and the heartfelt speech by his widow.

Then, I found out he was still alive.

Fiona recounted discovering many widely held alternative memories, including those of Star Trek episodes that had never actually existed, and the death of the Reverend Billy Graham.

In 2012, another blogger named Reece, who wrote on the Blogger site Woodbetweenworlds, expressed a similar idea, but this time about the spelling of a popular children’s book series, The Berenstain Bears. ^[2]

And then I saw the book covers. The ones in the squiggly bubble letters from the childhood. The ones I saw a hundred times a month from the formative ages of 5 to 9. The ones that every 20-something in the world will tell you read “Berenstein Bears”.

Except they don’t read “Berenstein”. They read “Berenstain”.

Reece is a physicist, and he went on to describe a theory of the universe that would account for the Mandela Effect, based on a 4-dimensional universe.

I propose that the universe is a 4-dimensional complex manifold. If you don’t se habla math jargon, that means I propose the 3 space dimensions and the 1 time dimensions are actually in themselves complex, meaning they take values of the form a+ib, part “real” and part “imaginary”. Within this 4D manifold, there are sixteen hexadectants (like quadrants, but 16 of them), corresponding to whether we consider only the real or imaginary part of each of the four dimensions. In our particular hexadectant, the three space dimensions are real, and the time dimension is imaginary.

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Both the original post by Fiona Broome and by Reece have received hundreds of comments, and the Mandela Effect has received a significant amount of media attention, first by Buzzfeed in 2014 and then by many other media outlets in 2015, including Vice, The Onion A.V. Club, Seventeen Magazine, and WGN-TV. The reddit community /r/mandelaeffect was created in December of 2013, and has since grown to 5,163 readers; this area and the comments section of the Mandela Effect blog are where many users go to share their alternate group memories and seek out new ones.

Some of the most popular false group memories include:

In addition, many users have tried to find proof of past information that would have given them the false memories. They claim that the proof either vindicates their memory as the “correct” version, or that it proves the above theory of the universe.

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About

Google Self-Driving Car, also known as the Google Driverless Car, is a technology developed by Google to make autonomous automobiles driven by the company’s Google Chauffeur software.

History

In 2009, Google began developing its self-driving car program^[5] in secret at the company’s Google X facility. In June 2011, Nevada passed a law to permit self-driving vehicles. On March 28th, 2012, the Google YouTube channel posted a video of a Google self-driving car being tested on public roads (shown below). In the first three years, the video gained over seven million views and 16,300 comments.

In April, Florida allowed testing of automonous cars on the state’s public roads, followed by California and Michigan over the next year. In May, the first license was given to an automonous Google-modified Toyota Prius by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. On May 27th, 2014, Google unveiled a new prototype driverless vehicle without a steering wheel or foot pedals (shown below, left). The same day, the Google Self-Driving Car Project YouTube channel uploaded a video explaining the project (shown below, right).

Online Presence

On June 26th, 2012, the /r/SelfDrivingCars^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions about autonomous vehicles, including the Google self-driving car project. On May 13th, 2013, the Free Art and Technology Lab (F.A.T. Lab) posted a video featuring a fake Google self-driving car riding around New York City (shown below, left). On May 24th, 2015, the Rooster Teeth YouTube channel uploaded a parody video featuring a self-driving car by Bing (shown below, right).

On July 17th, Redditor modern-era submitted an animated GIF of a Google self-driving car being rear-ended at an intersection to the /r/gifs^[4] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 5,200 votes (96% upvoted) and 760 comments in the first month (shown below).

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