About

“~uguu” is a line uttered a large amount by the character Ayu Tsukimiya originally in the Japanese Erotic Romance game “Kanon”, released in 1999 for the Windows PC, also released for the Playstation, Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable. “Uguu” has gained a large bit of fame in the weeaboo community, and is used frequently.

Origin

Kanon was originally an adult visual romance novel released in 1999, following the exploits of a man named Yuichi Aizawa as he struggles with a form of amnesia. By meeting several woman, he slowly regains his memory. Since it’s release, Kanon has sold over 300,000 units worldwide.

An anime by the same name was released in 2006 by Kyoto Animation.

Beginning as a term

Uguu was originally said in the anime by the same name as the novel released in 2006, however it is unknown when it began to gain fame on the internet. Uguu is a term to describe moaning or whining (from urban dictionary, “like eeeehh, but more original.”) Uguu has gained popularity in the Japanese community since.

Related Character: Tsukimiya Ayu

In the anime and the novel, Ayu Tsukimiya is one of the love interests for Yuichi Aizawa. She is defined by high voice and extreme shyness in general. Tsukimiya is the main heroine of Kanon, and therefore is very popular. Tsukimiya has received merchandise and other adaptations, such as fanart, including backpacks and lunchboxes.

Related Term: “Am I Kawaii? Uguu…”

“Am I Kawaii? Uguu…” comes originally from a character in the “What’s with all the racket up here, son?” meme comic, after the man’s father walks in on him watching anime. The character on the screen asks “am I kawaii, uguu…”, followed by a face of disgust from the man’s father. This term has gained popularity for it’s poking fun at weeaboos.

Notable Video: Uguu Compilation

Popularity

Overview

The No Pants Subway Ride is an annual flash mob event in which transit passengers ride trains without wearing pants in January. Organized by New York City-based comedy troupe Improv Everywhere since January 2002, the event has grown into an international holiday observed in over 60 cities around the world, as of January 2014.

Background

The inaugural event began as a small prank by a group of early members of Improv Everywhere on New York City subway train on January 5th, 2002. In this prank, each participant entered the same car without pants for seven consecutive stops on an uptown-bound 6 train, intriguing dozens of other passengers in the same car and even managing to upset a few. The hidden camera footage of the stunt was subsequently uploaded to YouTube.

Precursor

According to the Austin Chronicles, the earliest known “No Pants” holiday has been hosted by the Knighthood of Buh, a collegiate club at the University of Texas in Austin, and observed across the campus on the first Friday of May as an end-of-semester prank since the late 1990s.

Highlights

More information on the history of the annual event can be found on the official Improv Everywhere website.^[1]

2003

The second event was staged by approximately 30 participants on a New York City subway train, with several people assuming characters for the first time. According to the report, the conductor eventually took notice of the prank and warned over the PA that “this train is not a playground.”

2004

The third annual event was staged by 40 participants and filmed by ABC News 20/20’s camera crew for a segment on Improv Everywhere, however, the footage was never aired.

2005

The fourth event was staged by around 50 people and filmed by Showtime’s This American Life for a segment on the group.

2006

The fifth event drew around 150 participants and took place on a New York City subway train on January 22nd, 2006. The event was highlighted in the news after it was abruptly halted by a police officer, leading to the arrest of eight participants on the 6 Train’s 59th Street platform. The charges were subsequently dropped in the court.

2007

The sixth event was staged by 300 participants on The event proceeded in a peaceful manner, with three police officers monitoring the assembly, and according to the group, it was the first year that “No Pants really started becoming diverse, with people of all colors, shapes, sizes, and ages participating.”

2008

The seventh annual event drew over 900 participants in New York and took place on three separate train lines. For the first time in its history, the event was observed elsewhere in nine cities, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Toronto, Washington DC and Adelaide in Australia.

2009

The eighth annual ride drew 1,200 participants in New York and thousands of more in 21 other cities around the world. The event is noted for being the first No Pants day to take place during a winter storm in New York City.

2010

The ninth event was staged by 3,000 participants across six meeting points and ten subway lines in New York alone, while thousands of others took off their pants in 44 cities around the world.

2011

The 10th event drew more than 3,500 participants in New York and thousands more in 48 cities across the globe.

2012

The 11th annual event took place with nearly 4,000 participants in New York and tens of thousands more in 59 cities across 27 countries around the world. Several riders were reportedly arrested in Istanbul, Turkey.

2013

For the 12th annual No Pants Subway Ride, more than 4,000 people participated in New York and tens of thousands more in 60 cities, including debut rides in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

2014

The 13th annual No Pants Subway Ride took place with more than 4,000 participants starting from various meeting points over the city and converging on Union Square. Similar events were observed in 60 cities across 25 countries.

Search Interest

External References

After an attack on the policestation Davidwache the Police of Hamburg declared wide parts of Hamburg as a Danger Zone (Gefahrengebiet). They soon had to admit that the attack was made up but the Danger Zone was installed and kept up running.

In the Danger Zone basic human rights are ignored. Without naming a reason cops are allowed to stop you, search you, identify you and detain you to a police station. As a kind of Protest people started walking through the Danger Zone equipped with a multitude of unnecessary things in there bags and pockets. One of the searches were filmed by the ARD (German Broadcast Network) and presented to the public.

In this Video a young male had a toilet brush in his pants which was confiscated. This video spread through all channels (Twitter, Facebook, News, …). From this night on the toilet brush was the main symbol of resistance in the danger zone. Shops started to put them in the windows as a sign of support, all the people protesting against the Danger Zone had at least one toilet brush with them – from one day to another the streets were filled with toilet brushes.

This phenomenon was soon recognized by the media. They filled their reports of the danger zone with pictures and videos of toilet brushes use as a sign of protest. Soon a deluge of streetart-pictures and various created pictures containing toilet brushes occured.

More Informations / engl. Sources:

• Hamburg protesters breach ‘danger zones’
• Germany’s ‘toilet brush revolution’
• Toilet brush becomes city protest symbol

Magic and Sparkle, full title Believe in Magic and Sparkle, was an advertising campaign launched by British retailer Marks & Spencers in November 2013.

With a commercial starring Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, David Gandy and Helena Bonham Carter, it became widely liked on YouTube (although its initial appearances were on ITV1 and Channel 4).

The words Believe in Magic and Sparkle were written in a specific font designed for the company; https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/02/00/00/18/78/25/12/1878251222.jpg

Their print advertisements which appeared in a few British newspapers were widely liked due to the pretty but unnamed female model who appeared in them (it was not, contrary to popular belief, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley; she was only in the television adverts).

Both went viral over a couple of weeks; adverts uploaded onto YouTube, the press adverts scanned and posted on female celebrity picture/showbiz photo sites.

#MagicandSparkle was the Twitter hashtag widely used; there was an urban legend that Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift posted these, but it remains that.

The advert was widely commented on over social media during Christmas 2013 and remains popular even past the Christmas season.

Fans have been campaigning for more of the Magic and Sparkle, and see it as a brand name, although speculation remains as to whether there will be more adverts of this nature.

About

“Hack 127.0.0.1” is an online expression used to taunt a self-proclaimed hacker in a mocking manner. The phrase originates from an IRC chat log in which a user named “bitchchecker” is tricked into attacking 127.0.0.1, an IP address that is typically designated for accessing the computer’s own network services, otherwise known as the localhost.

Origin

On April 6th, 2005, the German hip hop music site StopHipHop^[12] posted a chat log from the #stophiphop IRC channel in which a user named “bitchchecker” enters the channel and threatens to hack another user named “Elch” for booting him, to which the latter responds by inviting him to attack the localhost^[2] loopback IP address 127.0.0.1. Unaware of its consequences, Bitchchecker then ends up repeatedly crashing his own computer.

Transcript

On April 9th, Total Illusions Forums^[1] member Cochrane posted an English translation of the German chat transcript:

<bitchchecker> tell me your network number man then you’re dead
<Elch> Eh, it’s 129.0.0.1
<Elch> or maybe 127.0.0.1
<Elch> yes exactly that’s it: 127.0.0.1 I’m waiting for you great attack
<bitchchecker> in five minutes your hard drive is deleted
<Elch> Now I’m frightened
<bitchchecker> shut up you’ll be gone
<bitchchecker> i have a program where i enter your ip and you’re dead
<bitchchecker> say goodbye
<Elch> to whom?
<bitchchecker> to you man
<bitchchecker> buy buy
<Elch> I’m shivering thinking about such great Hack0rs like you

• bitchchecker (~java@euirc-61a2169c.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)
  

Precursor

On May 23rd, 2001, a comic was published on the webcomic archive User Friendly,^[6] featuring a woman sitting at a computer who tricks a hacker into attacking his own IP address (shown below).

Spread

On April 27th, 2005, Slashdot^[4] user RawGutts submitted a link to the original forum thread in a post titled “The Planet’s Most Moronic Hacker.”^[4] On the following day, Museum of Hoaxes^[5] user Alex created a page titled “Tale of a Clueless Hacker," in which the author questioned the authenticity of the chat log. On June 10th, Urban Dictionary^[7] user thetron defined “127.0.0.1” as a practical joke that can be played on networking n00bs. On January 23rd, 2009, the tech news blog Slopjong^[8] posted an article about the bitchchecker chat log. On June 11th, 2008, Ubuntu Forums^[10] member Vivaldi Gloria posted the bitchchecker log. On July 28th, a profile article for bitchchecker was created on the Italian Language version of the wiki Uncyclopedia.^[9] On November 14th, 2009, Toribash Forums^[11] member hAsbroken posted a thread about the IRC chat log. On May 27th, 2011, the computer networking blog Network World^[3] published an article titled “Worst Hackers Ever?”, which included the IRC log among several other hacking FAIL stories.

Search Interest

External References

About

E! Fun Facts are a series of photoshopped parodies that poke fun at E!‘s controversial pop-up trivia highlighting Michael J. Fox’s 1991 diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease as a “fun fact” during its online coverage of the Golden Globes red carpet ceremony in January 2014.

Origin

On January 12th, 2014, the American cable television channel E! livestreamed their red carpet coverage at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California. During the webcast, several popup-style “fun facts” were displayed in the bottom-left corner of the screen, including two particularly off-color factoids about the actors Michael J. Fox and Robert Redford (shown below).

Spread

Immediately after it was displayed, the Daily Mail social media editor Amanda Lucci tweeted a screenshot of the Michael J. Fox “Fun Fact”:

this is in no way a FUN fact pic.twitter.com/uJ9zSVuEwy

— Amanda Lucci (@alucci) January 12, 2014

Several minutes later, The Daily Show writer Dan Amira tweeted a photoshopped version of the screenshot edited with a fake “fact” that 37 cats had died while filming the 2013 comedy-drama film Inside Llewyn Davis.

These Golden Globes "fun facts" are getting darker and darker pic.twitter.com/SD1E38Pg9o

— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) January 12, 2014

Other Twitter users began posting other satirical “fun facts,” many of which contained comically tragic or disturbing statements. Also on January 12th, 2014, compilations of notable parody tweets were posted by several news sites, including Mediate,^[3] The Huffington Post,^[4]BuzzFeed^[2] and Vulture.^[5] Later that evening, E! issued a public apology for the incident in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter.^[1]

“We regret the insensitive classification of Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s diagnosis during our Eonline [sic] live stream. We understand the serious nature of the disease and sincerely apologize.”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Saint Young Men is a Japanese anime about Jesus and Buddha living together as roommates in present day Tokyo. The movie was based a manga by Hikaru Nakamura.

Release

Saint Young Men was released in Japan on May 10th, 2013.^[2] The DVD was released in October 2013.

Reception

The film currently holds a rating of 7.5 on IMDB.com. A Facebook fan^[3] page for the film has received over 9,000 likes as of January 2014. The DVD was the 7th highest selling DVD in Japan the week of its release.^[7]

Fandom

Many fans of the anime share GIFs and fan art on Tumblr. Popular tags include #SaintYoungMen and #saint-oniisan (the Japanese title). The film also has an active fan base on DeviantArt^[4] which hosts over 600 Saint Young Men submissions as well as a club, Saint Oniisan, devoted to the fandom.^[5] On January 12th, 2013 actor Orlando Jones, who is very active in the fandom community (within and outside his own show, Sleepy Hallow) tweeted,

I think I found my new fandom BTW– http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/saint-young-men-jesus-buddha-roommates-anime/ … #SaintYoungMen “What is God’s policy on transformative works, anyway?”

Jones mentioned a Daily Dot article that examined the fandom, which attributed its increase in popularity on Tumblr to an increased use and awareness of Christmas GIFs from the film during the 2013 holiday season.^[1]

Shipping Controversy

Because the main characters of the film are holy figures in two major religions (Christianity and Buddhism), fandom interpretations are controversial, especially shipping Buddha and Jesus. Some Tumblr users have condemned people who ship these two characters on the site. ^[6] Still others on Tumblr are quick to defend the show against those condemning it for religious reasons, user Lifeofachocoholic joked,

“The Christian fandom shipped Adam and Eve so hard that they still do to this day. Some groups of the Christian fandom even split off and made AUs and tons of Headcanons.”^[8]

Fan Art

Search Interest

External References

About

Neopets is a website that features virtual pets users can adopt and care for. The site was founded by Adam Powell and Donna Williams in 1999. Pet owners can open up virtual shops, play games, earn and spend money within the world of the game.

History

After two years of prep work by founders and college students Adam Powell and Donna Williams, Neopets.com was launched on November 15th, 1999.^[4] The site expanded its languages to include German, Dutch, and Chinese, among others in 2004. In June 2005 Viacom bought Neopets for $160,000,000.^[5] The site design, as well as the appearance of many of the pets were redone in 2007.^[6] The site has the victim of a major identify theft scam in July 2009, when young users were convinced to leave the site to visit another that downloaded malware onto their computers.^[7]

Reception

In August 2001 Neopets was the fourth most popular site on the web, ranked an entire eight spots above Google.^[10] It was dubbed a “sticky” site because users tended to stay on the site for long periods of time.

Traffic

Neopets receives over 50,000 visitors a month from the United States alone as of Novemeber 2013.^[8] 57% of their traffic comes from the United States, with 8.5% coming from Canada, 4.7% from Germany, and 4% from the UK.^[9]

Types of Neopets

There are fifty-four species of Neopets including Poogle, Uni and Bruce. Thirty-one are trademarked.^[1] Like Pokemon some types resemble animals (Bruce, for example, appears to be a penguin wearing a bow tie) while others, like Gnorbu aren’t similar to any animal. Each species has its own biography that explains its traits and what kind of environment it lives in. Neopet users may choose the animals color and name once it’s adopted.

:https://blog.compete.com/2007/10/01/top-ranked-web-sites-popularity-2001/

I need help with this – Marty McFly

Also, to the OP, you shouldn’t really write a “How To” on Unicode

About

Unicode is the modern standard for working with text on computers. Unicode is a very large set of standards

Super combined characters

Unicode includes characters that instead of acting like characters of their own add marks to other characters. This is intended for representing characters such as the Spanish ñ (even if the most common ones have dedicated values). However, some users have found that it is possible to stack lots of combining characters on top of a single base character.

Control codes

Unicode, like other character sets, include some control codes. They perform a special task instead of printing a character. The most basic example is the newline, but many others exist.

RTL/LTR overrides

Unicode allows the text to override the text direction, allowing for easy inclusion of text in the wrong direction. This can be used for griefing if the text direction is not correctly managed and included in a larger system such as a chat.

Nospace joiner and friends

Some of the control codes do absolutely nothing except technically counting as a character. They don’t print anything and they don’t consume any space visually. This can be abused to fool word filters and similar.

Upside down text

Unicode includes so many characters that people have been able to find characters that look similar enough to upside down versions of basic Latin characters.

Dingbats

Unicode includes many characters that are pictographical, they use a picture to represent a concept. Advanced emoticons take advantage of the rich character set.

Precursors

Special symbol fonts such as Wingdings and Marlett has previously been used to show text as symbols.

Visually identical characters

Unicode includes many characters that can easily be confused with each other, some even looking exactly identical in many fonts. This can be abused to cause confusion.^[2]

^[1]Unicode Consortium
fn2. Unicode Security Issues

<!-- Be sure to send a formal request for the logo if accepted: http://www.unicode.org/consortium/logo.html -->

About

Twelve days of Christmas is a classical Christmas song. Many people have written variations on it.

C program with the lyrics

Due to the highly repetitive lyrics structure, people have written programs to output the lyrics.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char argv[]) {

	int i;

	for(i=0;i

Exploitable

<insert MIDI file here>

About

A universal statement used to explain or excuse any incident or situation. To be most effective, phrase must be uttered matter-of-factly, with one’s eyes half-closed to signify as much smugness and mystique as possible. (Urban Dictionary)

Origin

Charles Bartholomew “Chuck” Bass is a fictional character in the Gossip Girl series of novels and the television series of the same name, in which he is portrayed by English actor Ed Westwick. Although he is a secondary, antagonistic character in the original book series, in the television series Chuck is portrayed as an anti-heroic character and is one of the main characters. The television series character is noted for his financial ambition, hedonistic lifestyle, and personal style. (Wiki)
In the beginning of the series when Chuck is asked why he should be chosen to be an usher at an Ivy Week School Mixer he responds with “Why should I be chosen to be an usher?…. I’m Chuck Bass”. As the series progresses this becomes his catchphrase and even other characters mention “He’s Chuck Bass” as an explanation for his behavior (usually promiscuous).

Spread

As of today there are 65 posts about Ed Westwick and 22 posts about Chuck Bass in reddit’s /r/LadyBoners section
‘Three words every woman wants to hear… "I’m Chuck Bass."’ received 134 upvotes

Notable Examples

Google Trends

About

Most Internet forums allows the poster to attach a signature to their post. The signature typically contains an image. What some people have realized is that there is no rule saying that the image must be static.

Instead some crafty people have written programs that dynamically generate an image on the fly each time someone views the signature.

The classical viewer info sign

The most typical type is an image that states information about the viewer, such as their IP address, their ISP and their webbrowser.

Exploitable php code

This code writes out the viewer IP address on a white background.

<php

$img=imagecreate(200,100);

$white=imagecolorallocate($img,255,255,255);

$black=imagecolorallocate($img,0,0,0);

imagestring($img,0,0,0,$SERVER[’REMOTEADDR’],$black);


header(‘Content-Type: image/png’);

imagepng($img);

Random image

Some signatures just use a random image out of a premade set.

Exploitable php code

This code redirects to a random image file

<php

$nr=rand(1,5);

header(‘Location: img’.$nr.‘.png’,false,303);

View counter

The most advanced type remembers each time it has been viewed and does something with that. The most obvious use is to just count each time the signature has been viewed.

Special statistics

It is rather simple to create an image that lists special statistics about an user, such as their performance in a game or what media they are viewing.

About

High School Musical is a trilogy of musical films about teenage basketball star Troy Bolton, brainy Gabriella Montez, and classmates friends as they navigate high school.

History

High School Musical first aired on the Disney Channel on January 20th, 2006 . The film stared Zac Efron as Troy Bolton and Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez. It also stared Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, and Monique Coleman. The film follows new girl Gabriella as she enters East High School mid-year. She had met the school’s star basketball player, Troy, at a New Year’s Eve party when the pair sang a karaoke duet. When they accidentally try out for the school musical other students begin sharing their secret, out of character hobbies. Troy and Gabriella’s friends try to sabotage their relationship so they can focus on their primary after school activities (basketball and academic decathlon) but eventually they come clean and encourage them to attend a call back. They win their games and get the staring roles. On August 17th, 2007 the sequel, High School Musical 2 premiered on the Disney Channel. The movie followed the students of East High as they work summer jobs at a country club and prepare for the club’s talent show. The third and final film in the trilogy, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, was released in theaters on October 24th, 2008 and follows the students as they finish their final semester of high school and consider their futures after graduation.

Reception

The films have been overall, commercial but not critical successes. The first film’s premiere had over 7,000,000 views but scored a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes^[7] and High School Musical 2 scored 57% on Rotten Tomatoes^[8] while its premiere had over 17,000 million viewers. High School Musical 3: Senior Year, the only film to be released in theaters, earned a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes^[9] and grossed over $90,500,000.^[10] It’s popularity inspired many similarly themed movies such as Sunday School Musical[11} as well as a resurgence of musical movies aimed at kids and teens like Hairspray (2007), Fame(2009), and Camp Rock (2008).

Fandom

As the fanbase for High School musical ages the fandom has become nostalgic towards the films, able to mock it affectionately. Popular Tumblr blogs devoted to the films include alwaysawildcat^[4], hsm-4ever^[5], and highschoolmusicalconfessions.^[6] and Common hashtags used by the fandom include #hsm and #wildcats. As of January 2014 Facebook’s Highschool Musical topics page^[1] has gained over 5,200,000 likes, the High School Musical wikia^[2] has over 200 pages, and Fanfic.net^[3] has over 14,000 High School Musical submissions.

Related Memes

Troy Sings the Pokemon Theme Song

On October 13th, 2007 Youtuber JAelliottCK uploaded a musical number from High School Musical (“Bet On It”) with the audio replaced with the Pokemon theme song. As of January 2014 the video has received 23,000 views, though a video with the same concept uploaded on May 27th, 2008 by Youtuber HSMusical05 has received over 500,000 views.

On March 25th, 2008, Youtuber choirnerd uploaded the same scene from High School Musical 2 this time replacing the audio with “It’s Raining Men.” As of January 2014 the video has received over 80,000 views.

Conflicted Troy and “Bet On It”

Two stills taken from High School Musical 2’s musical number “Bet On It” that appear to show Efron desperately grasping at something can be captioned with two activities a user can’t decide between like “sleep or another episode” or “take a shower or eat breakfast.”

Stills and GIFs taken from “Bet On It” are popular because of Efron’s dramatic dance moves and facial expressions.

What team

“What team?” has become a catch phrase for fans of High School Musical to use to see if the person they’re talking to is also a High School Musical fan. If they are they would reply “Wildcats,” the mascot of the basketball team in the film. Fans use this test when texting, in Tumblr comments, and even in "Chatroulette"http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/chatroulette.

Search Interest

External References

About

Small Fact Frog is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a blue Uluguru forest tree frog and accompanied by captions highlighting a wide range of little-known factoids, in similar vein to Did You Know trivia posts.

Origin

On April 30th, 2013, photographer Daan de Vos uploaded a picture of a blue-colored tree frog (Leptopelis ulugurensis) to the photo-sharing site 500px^[1] (shown below, left). On the same day, the photo was posted to the /r/aww^[2] subreddit, where it gained over 4,300 up votes and 50 comments prior to being archived. On August 4th, Redditor grizzlyunicorn submitted the first image macro based on the photograph with a caption containing a frog-related pun to /r/AdviceAnimals^[7] (shown below, right).

On November 6th, Redditor Vacuitymechanica submitted another image macro to to /r/AdviceAnimals,^[8] this time, with a caption claiming that the now-extinct mammoth animals were still alive when the pyramids in Egypt were built (shown below).

Precursors

Photographs of cute animals and general trivia had been previously paired through Reddit’s /r/Awwducational,^[10] which was launched on November 8th, 2012. In the first two years, the subreddit accumulated more than 43,000 subscribers. On April 13th, 2013, Redditor lbrockma submitted an image macro based on a photograph of a wild red fox with a caption referring to the density of a cubic mile of fog (shown below) in an /r/AdviceAnimals^[11] post titled “Introducing Fun Fact Fox.”

Spread

Also on November 6th, 2013, Redditor CFS5300 submitted an image macro claiming that squirrels are responsible for the planting of new trees (shown below, left) to /r/AdviceAnimals,^[9] dubbing the series “Small Fact Frog." Prior to being archived, the post received upwards of 13,800 up votes and 290 comments. The series saw little activity on Reddit until January 8th, 2014, when Redditor VoiceOverDan submitted an image macro identifying the name of the dot over a lowercase “i” in an /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] post titled “Small Fact Frog With a Tiny Fact” (shown below, right). In the first week, the post gathered more than 14,900 up votes and 350 comments.

On January 12th, Redditor hammmy_sammmy submitted an instance claiming that cows become stressed when separated from their friends (shown below, left) to /r/AdviceAnimals,^[4] where the post garnered upwards of 16,800 up votes and 460 comments in the following 48 hours. On the following day, Redditor IncorrigiblePorridge posted an instance informing readers how male honey bees die immediately after copulation (shown below, right) to the same subreddit.^[5]

The same day, Redditor MangoLemon submitted an instance to /r/AdviceAnimals^[6] about the sleep habits of dolphins (shown below, left). Within the first 24 hours, the posts accumulated over 13,600 and 9,600 up votes respectively. On January 14th, Redditor notgayinathreeway posted an instance to /r/AdviceAnimals^[12] incorrectly identifying the frog as a green tree frog lacking yellow pigment (shown below, right). In the comments section of the post, several users claimed that the frog was actually a member of the genus Leptopelis, a type of tree frog native to East Africa.

Notable Examples

Foul Fact Frog

On November 6th, 2013, a variation of the series photoshopped with a red background was posted in the comment section of a Small Fact Frog post on /r/AdviceAnimals,^[9] which contained captions with disturbing or sinister factoids (shown below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Coachella Lineup Poster Parodies are satirical photoshopped variations of the lineup promotional posters for the Coachella music festival held annually in Indio, California.

Origin

On May 2th, 2008, Coachella Forums^[1] member Xenocide submitted a thread titled “Coachella ’09 Lineup Announced!”, which highlighted a photoshopped lineup poster with the disbanded groups Led Zepplelin and The Doors headlining (shown below).

Spread

On January 19th, 2011, writer Ned Hepburn posted a parody Coachella poster (shown below) on his Tumblr blog.^[2]

On the following day, the Internet news blog Urlesque^[4] published a compilation of notable fake Coachella posters, which included an Internet meme variation (shown below, left). On April 17th, 2012, Redditor mtthwhdl submitted a parody poster filled with deceased artists and disbanded groups (shown below) to the /r/Music^[3] subreddit. Prior to being archived, the post gained over 2,800 up votes and 280 comments.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Not A Martyr” (hashtag: #NotAMartyr) is a social media campaign started by young men and women in Lebanon to voice their opposition to the ongoing violence in the region and euphemistic use of the term “martyr” by politicians to describe the innocent victims of terrorism.

Origin

On December 27th, 2013, a car bomb exploded in the busy central district of Beirut in Lebanon, killing six people and injuring at least 50 people. Among the victims of the attack were former Lebanese prime minister and opposition figure Mohamad Chatah, as well as a 16-year-old boy named Mohammad al-Chaar, who happened to be hanging with his friends near the site moments before the bomb went off. Shortly after al-Chaar was pronounced dead later that same day, a group selfie of al-Chaar and his friends taken right before the explosion and another picture of the bloodied aftermath began circulating on Twitter under the hashtag #RIPMohammadChaar (shown below).

Spread

The photographs quickly prompted thousands of tweets expressing condolences and outrage, while a Facebook page and a Twitter account were set up to call on other Lebanese youths to share selfies of themselves with personal messages against political martyrization of terrorist victims. As of January 2014, @notamartyrs Twitter feed^[5] has over 400 followers, while the hashtag #notamartyr has appeared on Twitter over 4,000 times.^[6] As of January 2014, the official Facebook page^[7] has gained over 8,000 likes. The Facebook banner explains:
“We refuse to become martyrs. We refuse to remain victims. We refuse to die a collateral death.”

“We refuse to become martyrs. We refuse to remain victims. We refuse to die a collateral death.”

News Media Coverage

On January 6th, BBC News^[4] covered the trending hashtag #notamartyr. On January 7th, The Huffington Post^[3] wrote about the bombing and the subsequent launch of Twitter and Facebook campaigns. On January 8th, New York Daily News^[2] covered the social media campaign.

Notable Examples

External References

About

LeBroning is a Vine photo fad in which the participant stages an exaggerated dive after intentionally bumping into an unsuspecting passerby. It is named after the American pro-basketball player Lebron James, who has earned a reputation for frequently resorting to flop, or the act of intentional falling upon slightest contact with an opposing player in order to draw a personal foul call.

Origin

The neologistic gerund “Lebroning” has been used as a catchall term to mock Lebron James’ style of play since as early as 2010, with the highest rated Urban Dictionary^[1] entry defining the term as a synonym for the sports idiom “choking under pressure.”

In the following years, James gained notoriety for flopping on many occasions during play, ultimately prompting the National Basketball Association to fine him $5,000 for violating the league’s anti-flopping policy in May 2013. The player’s flopping has been documented in a supercut compiled by The Roosevelts and uploaded on May 29th that same year.

The earliest known recorded instance of “Lebroning” was uploaded by Vine user Ronnie^[2] on May 30th, 2013. In the video, Ronnie is seen falling to the floor after brushing elbow with a friend walking in the opposite direction in a school hallway.

Spread

Ronnie’s Vine upload largely remained in obscurity until January 7th, 2014, when a slew of parody videos began to surface on Vine and Instagram under the hashtag “#Lebroning.” On January 12th, BuzzFeed^[3] picked up on the Vine breakout in an article titled “The Amazing New Meme Mocking LeBron James,” and from there, the hashtag was reported on by numerous sports blogs, NBA fan sites and news media outlets, such as Deadspin^[4], Bleacher Report^[5], Uproxx^[6], The Huffington Post^[7], NBCSports^[8] and FoxSports^[9], among many others.

Notable Examples

Nearly all instances of “Lebroning” appears to have taken place so far in school hallways, though with some exceptions, such as Jordan Liggins’ Vine of Lebroning at a shopping mall.

Search Interest

Not yet available.

External References

About

Nice Guys™ (also referred to as the Nice Guy Syndrome) is a pejorative term referring to a social stereotype commonly associated with young adult males who view themselves as prototypical “nice guys,” while in reality their claims are hypocrite and their only motivation for acting nice is expecting a relationship or sexual favors in return. On the internet, Nice Guys™ are common targets of mock and are often characterized as past victims of the friend zone. The term is intentionally written with a trademark symbol to distinguish them from regular nice people.

Origin

In early 2002, the website Heartless Bitches International published several pieces on the concept of the Nice Guy.^[1] The sections delved into the common character traits of Nice Guys, what makes them undesirable to women, and tips on how they can make themselves more desirable. The sections were particularly critical towards self-professed Nice Guys whose “nice” behavior they saw as hypocrisy, emphasizing on stating that the Nice Guys themselves are the problem.

Nice Guy Phenomenon

Various studies^[15] have shown that women associate different qualities with the “nice guy” and “jerk” labels, showing that women at times have a more positive look towards the “jerk” label than “nice guys” and may prefer the prior option for a relationship. Similarly, many dating advice columns and pickup artists argue that being too meek or “nice” is a common reason for why guys get in the friend zone.

Spread

Definitions and explanations for Nice Guys™ can be found on various websites and feminist blogs. The Geek Feminism Wikia covers a large list about Nice Guys™,^[2] explaining their personality and criticising their way of thinking. An article about Nice Guys™ also reaches the top post position on the feminist Wordpress Matingselfishness.^[4] On TvTropes, Nice Guys™ are explained through an article titled “Entitled To Have You.”^[7] On Urban Dictionary, over 80 definitions exist for “nice guy”,^[5] with the earliest definition,^[3] defining it as “always finishes last,”^[18] dating back to August 3rd, 2003. Most of these definitions are written from the perspective of a Nice Guy™, using common excuses by Nice Guys™ for not getting a girlfriend in the definition, such as the claim that “women always go for jerks.”

The whole ‘nice guy’ phenomenon really supports the idea that people primarily care about physical appearances and that shrewdness, selfishness and narcissism will always triumph over compassion, rapport and “inner beauty.”^[6]

On May 31st, 2011, Youtube celebrity Nigahiga released a music video titled “Nice Guys”, based on the commonly used cynical phrase “nice guys finish last.”^[18] The video features two males who decide to act rude and antisocial towards females on advice in an attempt to get closer to them, only to eventually discover it’s better to show affectionate behavior to avoid being hated. As of January 2014, the video has gained over 51 million views and upwards of 476,000 likes.

On October 2nd, 2011, the Facebook page TheKillerTruth^[16] posted an image (shown below) showing a text message towards women from a self-professed “Good Guy” stating that women are oblivious towards the good guys in their close surroundings and instead date others. As of January 2014, the post received over 38,000 likes and upwards of 8,500 shares. The image was criticised by the feminist blog Feministing^[17] a week later, stating it matches the image of a fake nice guy and not a genuine nice guy.

On December 16th, 2012, the “‘Nice Guys’ of OKCupid” Tumblr^[8] was launched, exposing the hypocrisy behind some of the self-professed “nice guys” of the free dating website OKCupid by juxtaposing their profile photos with contradictory and sometimes even misogynistic statements found in their self-descriptions (shown below). From December 19th to December 21st of the same year, the blog was featured on the women’s interest blog Jezebel,^[9] feminist blogs Feministing^[10] and NY Mag,^[11] The Huff Post For Women subsection of The Huffington Post,^[14] internet humor site BuzzFeed^[12] and relationship website The Frisky.^[13]

Related Term: White Knight

White Knight (also known as Internet White Knight) is a pejorative term used to describe men who defend women on the internet with the assumption that they are looking for a romantic reward in return. The term is derived from the knight-errant stock character, a medieval figure in romance literature that would perform various acts to prove his chivalry. They are often criticised in similar ways as Nice Guys™.

Search Interest

External References

About

Kantai Collection (Japanese: 艦隊これくしょん Kantai Korekushon) abbreviated as KanColle (艦これ KanKore) is a Japanese Free-to-play social online card game created by Kadokawa Games for DMM.com. It was launched on April 23, 2013. The game was widely accepted and became popular, creating a large fanbase.

Development

Kantai Collection launched at April 23, 2013 by Kadokawa Games for DMM.com. Prior to the launch of Kantai Collection, DMM.com were R-18+ adult games site. Trying to attract wider audience, DMM.com starts a partnership with Kadokawa Games to create a niche game catering mostly to the military otaku population with a modest budget and minimal advertisement, its popularity experienced an extreme surge after the players spread the word on Twitter and/or Pixiv.

Gameplay

Reception

The game is extremely popular in Japan. With 1.5 Million users as of January 2014. The common theory why the game is popular is because the player is not forced to spend money to play like other Japanese Social Online Games; the free-to-play nature of Kantai Collection makes in-game purchases optional, and not a necessity.
On 12 December 2013, Twitter officially released the top hashtags of 2013; #艦これ was the most used hashtag among Japanese Twitter users. The game was also the eighth most searched term within Japan on Google in 2013. On 30 December 2013, GameSpark named Kantai Collection as the online game category title for its game of the year awards of 2013, ahead of runners-up League of Legends, World of Tanks and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
Speaking at a symposium held by Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute on 27 September 2013, the chairman of the board of directors of Kadokawa Group Holdings, Yoshihiko Kadokawa, stated that despite the game’s popularity, Kantai Collection is nearly unprofitable for the company, in part due to the game being funded by various company partnerships. Kadokawa’s stock price rose by 1000 yen within June 2013, following the initial rise of the game. It is expected that Kadokawa will need to rely on sales of intellectual property media works such as books and manga in order to raise profits. Kadokawa Games president Yoshimi Yasuda affirms that the free-to-play business model of the game will not change despite reports of a lack of revenue gain.
The Anime adaptation is confirmed to air in 2014, the anime is produced by Diomedea.

Impact
Interest in Kantai Collection has significantly risen over the months following its release, to the point where it has often been compared with the fandom of Touhou Project as an emerging viral fandom. There has been a large increase in online activity and fan-created material relating to the game, such as fan-made artworks, doujinshi and other derivative content. As of September 2013, there are over 30,000 artworks on Pixiv tagged with “KanColle”, and by October 2013, KanColle-related videos on Niconico were watched 36 million times. During Comiket 85, there were 1,136 dōjin circles producing works for Kantai Collection, placing third behind Touhou Project (2,272 circles) and Kuroko’s Basketball (1,462 circles), and ahead of The Idolmaster and Vocaloid; this is a significant increase over the previous Comiket 84 event, which only had just over 100 circles with Kantai Collection works.

About

Tyler Oakley is a popular vlogger on Youtube and a LGBT activist. He was also a member of the Youtube channel Five Awesome Gays^[1] that ran from 2008 to 2011.

Youtube Channel

Oakley created his Youtube channel^[2] on September 18th, 2007. He became a Youtube partner in 2008.^[12] As of January 2014 his channel has over 3,400,000 subscibers. He runs several mini series on his channel such as his “how to” series and “challenge” series. His videos range from the traditional vlogging stlye of speaking directly to the camera for the duration of the video to video reporting on events like annual Youtube conference Vidcon. He’s had many popular Youtubers such as Shane Dawson^[3], Troye Sivan^[4], and Mamrie Hart^[5] guest in his videos. His most popular video, “Twin Twinks Learn Gay Slang,” was uploaded on September 21st, 2012 and has received over 5,100,000 views. His video titled “HOW TO: Be A Bad Bitch” is his most well known video outside Youtube and has received over 2,200,000 views. Featuring Oakley lip syncing to Nicki Minaj’s"Itty Biggy Piggy" the video is popular in its original form and GIF form on Tumblr.

Beyond his own channel he has co-hosted Top That, a Youtube show covering pop culture on Popsugar^[14] since March 29th, 2013.

Career

Social Media

As of January 2014 Oakley has over 1,800,000 followers on Twitter^[6] , over 1,300,000 followers on Instagram^[8] and over 860,000 likes on his Facebook page.^[7] Oakley is credited with starting the Chocolate Bird meme when he posted a photo set of a bird walking into a chocolate fountain on his Tumblr blog.^[12]

LGBT Activism

Oakley is a vocal supporter of The Trevor Project^[9], an organization that works to prevent LGBT youth from committing suicide, where he worked as an intern. For his 24th birthday in March 2013 he asked his friends, family, and fans to donate money to the organization instead of buying him birthday presents.^[10] He raised over $28,000.^[11] Oakley also hosted a livestream from the red carpet during the 2011 Trevor Live benefit.^[13]

Personal Life

Oakley was born on March 22nd, 1989. He graduated from Michigan State University in 2011.

Search Interest

External References