About

Flappy Bird is a mobile game in which the player controls a flying bird by touching the screen to flap its wings and navigate between a series of pipes without any contact.

Origin

Flappy Bird was created by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen^[5] and released by dotGears Studios on Apple’s iOS app store^[1] on May 24th, 2013. In the game, the player assumes the role of a pixelated flying bird and must guide it safely through a series of obstacles while keeping it afloat by pressing on the touch screen.

Spread

On November 17th, 2013, Redditor Bronxsta included Flappy Bird in a list of “masochistic” iOS games submitted to the /r/iosgaming^[2] subreddit. On January 17th, 2014, Redditor Transizzleator submitted a post urging viewers to “help Flappy Bird take off” to the /r/gaming^[3] subreddit. On January 27th, YouTuber PewDiePie uploaded a video in which he plays Flappy Bird (shown below), which gathered more than 5.4 million views and 45,000 comments in the next week.

On January 30th, the game was released on the Google Play^[10] store. By the following day, the game had reached the top downloaded spot on both Google Play and the Apple App Stores.^[4] Also on January 31st, the iPhone app company Chocolate Lab Apps^[7] published an interview with Nguyen about Flappy Bird’s success, who claimed he did not promote the game at all. Meanwhile, the tech blog Bluecloud Solutions^[6] published an article speculating that Flappy Bird used bots to artificially augment its App Store rank, pointing out the strange sudden rise in popularity of Nguyen’s apps and several similarly-worded reviews left on the Flappy Bird store page (shown below).

On February 1st, the tech news blog Tech Crunch^[8] published an article about Flappy Bird, noting that his other games “Super Ball Juggling” and “Shuriken Block” had reached the App Store’s #2 and #6 spots respectively. On February 2nd, Redditor ducksizedhorses submitted a post comparing Flappy Bird to the flash game titled “Helicopter Game” to the /r/gaming^[9] subreddit, where it accumulated upwards of 14,600 up votes and 770 comments in the first 24 hours. The same day, Redditor H00PSHER posted a screenshot of a Flappy Bird game with edited Nyan Cat-themed textures to the /r/teenagers^[12] subreddit (shown below, left). On February 3rd, Redditor VirtualWhopper posted a Flappy Bird image macro with the caption “You don’t win / You just eventually delete the app” to the /r/gaming^[13] subreddit (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

Overview

The 2014 Winter Olympics (XXII Olympic Winter Games) is a major international multi-sport event scheduled to be held in Sochi, Russia from February 7th to February 23rd, 2014. The 2014 Winter Paralympics, a similar competitive event for athletes with physical disabilities, will begin on March 7th and continue to March 16, 2014.

Background

Sochi was elected as the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics on July 4th, 2007, beating out other competing cities like Salzburg in Austria and PyeongChang in South Korea.^[14] The venues for the games will divided into two main sections-the Coastal Cluster and the Mountain Cluster. With a total budget of $51 billion, the 2014 Sochi games is expected to be the most expensive Olympics event ever organized and it will be the first time Russia hosts the game since the Soviet Union was dissolved. Over the course of sixteen days, more than 2,500 athletes from 88 nations will participate in 98^[15] events over 15 disciplines in seven winter sports: skating, skiing, bobsleigh, biathlon, curling, ice hockey and luge.

FCKH8 Coloring Book Campaign

On October 30th, 2013, FCKH8 announced a new campaign on its official Tumblr blog^[2] pledging to deliver 10,000 copies of pro-gay coloring books to Russian children via mail during the Olympics, if the post receives more than 100,000 likes. In the press release, the group explained the direct mail campaign as a way to protest against the Russian government’s enforcement of its controversial anti-gay propaganda laws, and secondly, to inform kids in Russia that being gay is okay.

Jamacian Bobsleed Team Fundrasier

On January 19th, 2014, an Indiegogo^[1] page was created by members of the Jamaican Bobsled Team to fund their trip to Sochi. On the same day, a fundraiser was launched by the Dogecoin Foundation^[2] for the bobsled team, which gathered $35,000 in donations in the first 24 hours.^[3]

Twin Toilets

On January 20th, 2014, BBC reporter Steve Rosenberg tweeted a picture of two toilets he found in one stall in a bathroom in Sochi’s cross-country skiing and biathlon center with the caption “Seeing double in the Gentlemen’s Loo at the Olympic Biathlon Centre #Sochi .”^[9][10]

Russians on social media were quick to point out the double toilet wasn’t common but not unheard of in Russia, and on January 21st, Rosenberg tweeted a picture BBC photographer Max Lomakin took in 2013 of four toilets in one stall-less room at Russian Kazan University. On February 1st, the Associated Press took a picture of a second double toilet in Sochi, this pair found in a women’s rest room in the Main Media Center.^[11]

McDonald’s #CheersToSochi

On January 21st, 2014, fast food restaurant chain McDonalds launched a Twitter hashtag #CheersToSochi, encouraging their followers to send well wishes to the athletes competing in the Olympic games.^[7] The campaign was met with a lot of criticism because of Russia’s anti-LGBT policies and sentiment at the games, and the Twitter hashtag was taken over by people who wanted McDonalds to know they were against their corporate sponsorship of the Olympics.^[12] On January 24th McDonalds responded to the backlash by tweeting:

#CheersToSochi is about sending Olympians messages of good luck. We support human rights & all athletes. Learn more: http://mcd.md/sVoy7

— McDonalds Corps.@McDonaldsCorps) January 24, 2014

As of February 4th, McDonalds was still tweeting encouraging followers to send their cheers to Sochi, though they have abandoned the hashtag.^[13]

Travis Gerrits’ Vine

On January 27th, 2014, Canadian skier Travis Gerrits posted a Vine shot in Sochi that featured Australia skier Lydia Lassila.^[4] Through forced perspective, it was created to appear as if Gerrits was eating Lassila after a ski jump. Gerrits’ Vine was tweeted more than 6,100 times in just over a week and reported on by The Huffington Post^[5] and Yahoo Sports.^[6]

External References

About

Rick and Morty is an animated television series created by Community executive producer Dan Harmon and writer Justin Roiland and broadcast weekly on Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block Adult Swim. The series is mainly centered around an alcoholic scientist-and-inventor named “Rob” and his long lost grandson “Morty” as they embark on dangerous and bizarre adventures together throughout space and time.

History

The show concept for Rick and Morty was first announced during Adult Swim’s Upfront presentation in May 2012, followed by the commencement of the production for 10 half-hour episodes to be aired on Cartoon Network (not including the pilot) in October that year. On November 27th, 2013, the pilot episode of Rick and Morty was leaked via YouTube several days prior to its scheduled broadcast on Adult Swim, which premiered at 10 p.m. (ET) on December 2nd. In the episode, Rick takes his grandson Morty into another dimension to research “mega trees.”

Fandom

On May 19th, 2012, a few days after the announcement by Adult Swim, a subreddit community titled /r/rickandmorty^[2] was launched, which gained over 16,900 subscribers in the following two years. On November 27th, 2013, Redditor theroboticdan submitted the leaked pilot episode to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 2,100 up votes and 220 comments in the first two months. As the series progressed over the next several months, subsequent episodes reached the front page of Reddit as well. Also on November 27th, a page for the show was created on the trope database website TV Tropes.^[8] On December 10th, a Rick and Morty wiki^[7] was created. On January 21st, 2014, /r/rickandmorty ranked in as the fastest growing non-default subreddit.^[3] As of February 2014, Rick and Morty’s official Facebook page has accumulated more than 10,000 likes.

Fan Art

On Deviant Art^[10][12] and Tumblr,^[11][13][14] fans of the series have featured original artwork inspired by the series.

Reception

On January 28th, the entertainment news blog Vulture^[4] reported that Rick and Morty had beaten NBC’s late night comedy programs in ratings. On the following day, Rick and Morty was renewed for a second season on Adult Swim.^[5]

Search Interest

External References

About

Felicia Day is an American actress and vlogger. She is best known for her roles on fantasy TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, in addition to writing, producing and starring in her own web comedy series The Guild and co-creating the premium YouTube channel Geek & Sundry.

Acting Career

Day made her acting debut in the 2001 film Strings, acting in TV movies and series throughout the 2000s including an eight episode arch in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.^[1] From 2007 to 2013, Day created, produced and starred in the original web comedy series The Guild. In 2008 she co-starred in the popular musical webseries Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog. In 2012 she guest stared on Supernatural, and has been brought back for four episodes over three seasons. Furthermore, Day has also ventured into voice acting for video games, including Rock of the Dead, Fallout: New Vegas, Dragon Age II and Guild Wars 2.

Online History

As of February 2014 Day’s Twitter account^[2] has over 2.21 million followers, and her Facebook Page^[3] has over 903,000 followers.

The Guild

The Guild, a web series created by Day, follows six people who play a fictional online video game similar to World of Warcraft. The series premiered in 2007 and ran for six seasons, concluding in 2013.^[6] It was nominated for two PGA awards in 2012 and 2013 for Outstanding Web Series and Outstanding Digital Series, respectively, and in 2009 Rolling Stone named it one of “The Net’s Best Serial Shows.”^[7] Day starred in all 63 episodes as Codex, a gamer and violinist.

Personal YouTube Channel

Day created her personal YouTube channel on March 11th, 2008 and as of February 2014 the channel has more than 130,000 subscribers. The channel features videos chronicling Day’s foreign travels, behind the scenes footage from The Guild, and recorded Google Hangouts for her paranormal romance book club Vaginal Fantasy.^[5]

Her most viewed video titled “I open a BOX! It’s Guild Wars II hehehehehe” which features her opening an advanced issue collectors edition of the video game Guild Wars 11 was uploaded on August 7th, 2012. As of February 2014 it has over 520,000 views.

Geek and Sundry

Day created the YouTube channel Geek & Sundry on August 5th, 2011.^[4] As of February 2014 the channel has over 850, 000 subscribers. The channel features a schedule of shows including “Co-Optitude,” hosted by Day and her brother Ryon Day that covers retro video games, “Taking Comics” hosted by Amy Dallen that covers comic books, and “TableTop,” hosted by actor Wil Wheaton that covers board games. Its Vlog channel^[8] was created on April 24th, 2013, and has over 72,000 subscribers. It features one vlog every week day with two shows featured on Monday. The vlogs cover various geeky topics including cosplay, gaming, literature, and DIY with vloggers from the US and the UK.

Personal Life

Felicia Day was born on June 28th, 1979, in Huntsville, Alabama. She attended the University of Texas at Austin where she majored in mathematics and violin performance.

External References

“I Summon Penguins,” is a phrase used by Italian Spiderman. It is known for it’s stupid yet comical nature.

ORIGIN

The phrase started in Italian Spiderman, Episode 6. In the episode Italian Spiderman is attacked on a surfboard by henchwomen and then yells in English, “I Summon Penguins!” Penguin toys are then thrown at the henchwomen. Comments kept the conversations going of how silly it was.

SPREAD

The video got 1,115,948 views of Feb. 2014. A edit was made just showing the scene. Comments say it was one of the most funny things they have ever seen. It was then carried into Runescape, with a pet penguin which you can summon!

Overview

Coca-Cola’s “America is Beautiful” Ad Controversy refers to the xenophobic backlash against a multilingual rendition of “America the Beautiful” that was broadcast as part of Coca-Cola’s commercial during the Super Bowl XLVIII in early February 2014.

Background

On February 2nd, 2014, Coca-Cola unveiled its Super Bowl advertisement featuring the 1895 American patriotic song “America the Beautiful,” as sung by people of various ethnicities in several different languages (shown below).

Notable Developments

Following the commercial’s broadcast, many Twitter users began criticizing the commercial for including non-English variations of the patriotic song in tweets with the hashtag “#BoycottCoke.”

#boycottcoke because regardless of liberal ignorance we have a national language & it's ENGLISHhttp://t.co/Po6P0SdhyW

— The Rōnin™ (@LCMtapout24) February 3, 2014

After singing America The Beautiful in languages other then English, my boycott of coke starts today #pepsi#communists#fuckyoucoke

— Craig Nowlen (@thebetternowlen) February 3, 2014

America is beautiful in plain English #boycottcoke is the # 1 boycott hashtag. Long live Pepsi. I will never order a coke again!

— Domain Names (@NameOrder) February 3, 2014

The same day, Fox News host Todd Starnes tweeted that Coca-Cola is a soft drink for illegal aliens.

Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border. #americaisbeautiful

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 3, 2014

On February 3rd, artist Ainee Fatima tweeted that bigots who wished to boycott Coke should know that Pepsi is led by a Hindu woman and a Muslim man. In the next 24 hours, the tweet accumulated over 650 retweets and 450 favorites.

All the white people threatening to boycott Coca Cola should know that Pepsi is lead by a Hindu Women & Muslim man :) pic.twitter.com/xBMpgijRZj

— Ainee Fatima (@Faineemae) February 3, 2014

On the same day, conservative pundit Glenn Beck claimed that the Coca-Cola ad was made to divide Americans during a segment on his podcast. Also on February 3rd, news anchor Brenda Wood defended the commercial and criticized those who called for a boycott of Coca-Cola (shown below). On the following day, Redditor FlowersOfSodom posted Wood’s clip to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it received more than 11,900 up votes and 2,200 comments in the first 13 hours.

On February 4th, Redditor blukirbi submitted an image macro mocking the Coke backlash to the /r/funny^[2] subreddit, where it received more than 10,300 up votes and 600 comments in the first 11 hours (shown below, left). On the same day, Redditor Spodormon submitted a “Fuck Me, Right?” image macro regarding the controversy to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] subreddit, gaining upwards of 8,300 up votes and 320 comments in the following eight hours.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the online backlash to the ad, including NY Daily News,^[4]USA Today,^[5] Mediaite,^[6] Time,^[7] Salon,^[8] UpRoxx^[9] and the Huffington Post.^[10]

Search Interest

External References

On Feburary 3rd, 2014, Google+ user Joe Lancaster posted a screenshot from his Instagram feed of a user who posted a selfie body shot with the caption, “Phone accidentally took a photo. Soooo not planned #awkward not really a #lornajane #model”.

A few hours later, fellow Google+ user, Lillian Trease, thought it would be funny to mimic the shot and caption and post it to her Google+ stream. Joe Lancaster and fellow early adapter and Google+ user, Pavel G, thought it would be great to turn it into a thing, and so promptly also mimicked the shot and caption, tagging other users to kick off the trend and tagging it #imnotamodeling.

Within hours the trend had taken over Google+ as a trending topic, and was fast spreading to other social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

This is an outright democracy from any viewpoint that exists as a fundamental economy. Representative of the entire internet database, Manoe=mcsquared has published a fresh out of the blue, completely new meme. People don’t respect this as an official meme as it has not blossomed from the social network it originated from, Facebook, instead, they do however, find it to be of amusement. As it follows a men in tights supporting random people. The origin of the meme was when Super Smash Bros game developer Masahiro Sakurai, released the picture which shows this particular character and an existing one in the game roster. Sakurai explained that the purpose for this man’s existence as a human being was to replace any paradoxal loopholes as a background character inhabiting the said stage was giving Toon Link the willies. Then conspiracies erupted as fans were suggesting the idea of this character (Alfonzo) could potentially be a replacement for all living things. It started with Palutena being a statue, Ridley being a stage hazard and many more.

Overview

Woody Allen Child Molestation Controversy refers to a series of sexual abuse allegations made against the iconic American screenwriter-director by his former partner and fashion model Mia Farrow, who has long accused Woody Allen of sexually molesting their then-seven-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, in 1980.

Background

On January 12th, 2014, shortly after American film director Woody Allen was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes ceremony, Ronan Farrow, Allen’s estranged adopted son, posed a rhetorical question via Twitter reminding people of the molestation allegations made against the filmmaker in the past. Ronan’s tweet was instantly picked up by more than thousands of Twitter users tracking the Golden Globes coverage.

Missed the Woody Allen tribute – did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?

— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) January 13, 2014

History

The allegations of child molestation made by Mia Farrow against Woody Allen were first brought to light by Vanity Fair^[11] in November 1992, at the height of their scandalous fall-out and custody battle following Farrow’s discovery of Allen’s affair with her then-20-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. After a lengthy examination process in the custody battle, the Conneticut State supreme court awarded the children’s custody to Farrow. Meanwhile, an investigation by a team of court-appointed medical scientists concluded that there aren’t enough evidence to support a case and no criminal charges were ever filed against Allen.^[1][2][5]

Notable Developments

Dylan Farrow’s Open Letter

On February 1st, 2014, New York Times’ On The Ground blog^[4] ran an open letter from Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, which, for the first time, detailed a personal account of what had happened between her and Allen on an afternoon in August 1992, from the alleged victim herself.

What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.

In concluding the letter, Farrow urges several celebrity actors and actresses who have worked on Allen’s films to reconsider their impressions of the 78-year-old director.

What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?

Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.

Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?

Woody Allen’s Statement

The next day, Woody Allen’s spokeswoman released a press statement addressing Farrow’s open letter.

“Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful,” Allen’s spokeswoman, Leslee Dart, said in an email Sunday. “He will be responding very soon.”

Search Interest

External References

About

A Monkey! is a Quote from a Movie called: Super Mario Brothers was released in May 28, 1993 that was base on the Video Game of the Same Name. Due in this Movie it have some Bad ratings but the Line in this Movie is become a Popular Quote in the movie.

Origin

When King Koopa and Mario was Teleport in Brooklyn that King Koopa was Shot at the Anthony Scapelli to turn him into a Monkey that King Koopa say “Monkey”.

Spread

In Nostalgia Critic Review of Super Mario Bros that Line is a Famous Line that when Every Monkey is made a appearance in Every Movies, Cartoons or Others and then King Koopa say “Monkey!” like 4 Times (ex: The Flintstones, Waterworld, Return of the Nostalgic Commercials and Why Super Mario Comics Don’t Suck).

(W.i.P)

‘b0ss’ is a slang term created by YouTube user ‘Filthy Frank’. It is usually used within his videos to describe himself as ’The Boss"

Origin

The earlist video of b0ss was within the video ‘GAY IS A BADWORD’ where he quotes “hello, b0ss”

Spread

The term b0ss had spread within his FaceBook page and Twitter along with his recent videos after the original video

About

Will Ferrell is an American actor and comedian best known for his sketch comedy performances as a cast member of NBC’s live comedy show Saturday Night Live and his starring roles in dozens of comedy films, such as Old School, Elf and Anchorman among others.

Acting Career

Ferrell joined the cast of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Life in 1995, where he stayed until 2002.^[1] He made his film debut in the 1997 comedy Men Seeking Women, acting in a string of comedies in the late ’90s including two based on SNL sketches, Superstar(1999) and A Night at the Roxbury(1998). In 2003, after his departure from SNL he stared in the holiday film Elf, following that with Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) which became a cult classic. He stared in several more comedies throughout the 2000s, and most recently stared in the sequel to Anchorman, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues(2013).

Online History

As of February 2014 Ferrell’s Facebook page^[2] has over eight million likes. Though Ferrell has never launched a Twitter account there are many impostors on Twitter with large followings including @WillFerreI^[13] who has over 330,000 followers and @LegitWillFerrel^[14] who has over 440,000 followers.

h4. Ron Burgundy in Anchorman

Anchorman is a 2004 comedy film staring Ferrell. The film developed a cult following and quotes from the movie quickly gained popularity online in the form of GIFs and memes.

On December 1st, 2011, a Meme Generator^[8] page titled “Anchorman” was created, featuring a screen capture of Ron Burgundy with captions written from the fictional character’s perspective. On the following day, Funny or Die^[12] highlighted several notable animated GIFs featuring scenes from the film (shown below). In the first two years, the post received over 530,000 views and 6,500 Facebook shares.

As of June, 2013, over 30 pages related to the film have been created on the image macro website Quickmeme,^[8] including “Anchorman I dont know what were yelling about,”^[9]“Anchorman Milk”^[10] and “Anchorman”^[11] (shown below).

Funny or Die

Funny or Die is a comedy website founded by Ferrell and comedian Adam McKay in January of 2007 that features both original and user-generated content in the form of videos, images and podcasts. Its first sketch video titled “The Landlord,” in which Ferrell is harassed by his two-year-old landlord played by McKay’s daughter Pearl (shown below). The video has received over 81 million views as of February 2014.

Popular series on the site include Drunk History, which acts out famous scenes from history as a drunk person would tell them, and Between Two Ferns a satirical talk show hosted by Zach Galifianakis.

Reddit AMA

On February Ferrell hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything to benefit Cancer For College, a nonprofit that gives college scholarships to students who have battled cancer.^[4] He covered topics from the very simple (his favorite color) to the more serious (the Cancer for College charity). When asked about what his favorite SNL sketch was and who was his favorite cast member to work with he explained:

“I will say that off the top of my head, the two favorite sketches that I was a part of had to have been the Harry Caray space show with Jeff Goldblum and, of course the cowbell sketch with Christopher Walken.
My favorite cast member to work with was Julia Louis-Dreyfus.”

Several sites praised his AMA as funny and entertaining including Buzzfeed^[5], Jezebel^[6], and SplitSider.^[7]

Related Memes

What is Love

What is Love is a 1993 dance pop song by the Trinidanian eurodance artist Haddaway,^[1] which saw a resurgence in popularity when it was featured in the “Roxbury Guys”^[2] sketches on TV show Saturday Night Live in 1996 (shown below).

On June 2nd, 2005, YTMND user ligamentx submitted a page titled What is love, featuring a GIF of the car scene (shown below) accompanied by a looped audio clip of “What is Love.” Within the next seven years, the page accumulated over 1.7 million views, 900 favorites and 800 comments.

Needs More Cowbell

Needs More Cowbell is a catchphrase originally quoted in a SNL sketch featuring Ferrell and Christopher Walken which aired on April 8th, 2000. This expression is typically used to indicate something needs more emphasis--or literally, when it needs more cowbell. The sketch parodied VH1’s music documentary series Behind the Music fictionalizing the studio recording of the 1976 song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult.

The video sparked many online homages and parodies including “Cowbell Hero” (below, left) and “More Cowbell” (below, right).

“I Feel Like I’m Taking Crazy Pills”

I Feel Like I’m Taking Crazy Pills is a line Ferrell’s character, Jacobim Mugatu, says in the 2001 comedy Zoolander. Since the film’s release, the phrase has been used online to describe vexation when the common consensus appears to go against common sense or when an expected straight-forward situation is greeted by a surprise outcome.

You Sit On a Throne of Lies

You Sit On A Throne Of Lies is a memorable quote uttered by Buddy The Elf (played by Ferrell), the protagonist of the 2003 holiday family-comedy film Elf. On the web, the phrase is typically used to expose a lie or otherwise misleading statement told by someone else.

Personal Life

Will Ferrell was born on July 16th, 1967, in Irvine, California. He attended the University of Southern California, ultimately graduating with a Sports Information degree.^[3] He and his wife Viveca Paulin have three sons.

Search Interest

External References

About

CM Punk is the stage name of American professional wrestler Phillip Jack Brooks who is known for his outspoken and sharp-tongued in-ring personality and having won nearly a dozen of World Championship titles since his career debut in 2006.

History

Wrestling Career

Brooks first became interested in wrestling after forming a backyard league called “Lunatic Wrestling Federation” with his friends and brother Mike Brooks sometime in the mid 1990s, during which he adopted the ring name CM Punk to represent his tag team Chick Magnets (CM) he had founded with partner CM Venom.

In 2000, Brooks joined the Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South and quickly rose to the top of the roster, thus establishing himself as an up-and-coming pro wrestler. In September 2005, Brooks joined the WWE development territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he subsequently won the championship title on November 9th. In June 2006, Brooks performed in his first ECW match and became champion in September of 2007.

In June 2008, Brooks was drafted WWE’s Raw in the 2008 WWE Draft. On November 20th, 2011, Brooks was crowned as the WWE Champion, the title which he held for 434 days until his defeat by The Rock on January 27th, 2013 (shown below). Brooks’ reign eventually earned him the title of “the longest-reigning WWE Champion of the modern era.”

Resignation from the WWE

On January 29th, 2014, TMZ^[1] reported that Brooks had abruptly left the WWE due to conflicts over the script for an upcoming WrestleMania match. On the same day, Fox Sports^[2] published an interview with Brazilian Jiu Jistu (BJJ) expert Rener Gracie, who claimed that Brooks had expressed interest in competing in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) instead and that he had a natural talent for BJJ. On February 5th, 2014, following the wrestler’s resignation from the WWE, Jason David Frank, an actor and MMA fighter known for his portrayal of the Green Power Ranger Tommy Oliver in the American sci-fi television franchise Power Rangers, posted a status update challenging CM Punk to an MMA fight in response to the wrestler’s resignation from the WWE.

In the coming days, several news sites reported on the public challenge, including UpRoxx,^[3] Cage Side Seats,^[4]MMA Fighting^[5] and Bloody Elbow.^[6]

Social Media Presence

As of February 2014, the official CM Punk WWE Facebook^[7] page has received over 3.6 million likes and the @CMPunk Twitter^[8] feed has accumulated upwards of 2.14 million followers.

Related Memes

CM Punk is Not Impressed

CM Punk is Not Impressed is a photoshop meme featuring a cutout image of Brooks wearing a scowling expression. The original screen captured image comes from the August 1st, 2011 episode of WWE Raw.

Personal Life

Phillip Brooks was born on October 27th, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. He has stated that he is an atheist and lives a “straight edge” lifestyle free from drugs and alcohol. Brooks has purportedly had romantic relationships with professional wrestlers Shannon Spruill, Tracy Brookshaw, Maria Kanellis, Amy Dumas and AJ Lee.

Search Interest

External References

Editors note: No proof of 4chan’s involvement can be found since the 4chan thread has already expired. Any screenshots would be appreciated.

About

Sir Fedora is a Youtube user whose videos have become viral within a matter of hours after being posted to Reddit’s /r/videos by user /u/dragonboltz on February 5th, 2014. The video features Sir Fedora being extremely enthusiastic about his first like on his Youtube channel. As the video reached 700 likes, 4chan joined in, rallying it’s users to propagate the video.

Origin

On January 31st, 2014, C. Jackson posted his first vlog on his new channel, Sir Fedora. He said that he was going to post iOS app reviews as well as some game reviews. In his description he set a goal of “1 like people”. On February 4th, he posted another vlog on his channel. He seemed extremely excited about meeting the goal of 1 like on his first video. The video started with his now-famous catchphrase “Oh hey there Youtube, I didn’t see you there… Oh wait, I did!” and continued by saying “Hey there Youtube, it is Jackson here, and today I’d like to tell you we did it. We hit the one like. And I know you guys are going to be like, ‘dude, it’s just one like’, but it’s still awesome!”

Reddit user /u/dragonboltz noticed the video while searching for obscure videos on the internet, and decided to post it to the subreddit /r/videos. The post quickly reached the front page, recieving more than a thousand upvotes in less than two hours. People said they were intrigued by his good speaking style and obvious enthusiasm.

Spread

Less then half an hour after the reddit post, user /u/SET_UP_US_THE_BOMB created the /r/SirFedora subreddit. It gained over 1000 subscribers within half a day of its creation. Here, the users satirically referred to SirFedora as “the chosen one”, and posted all his videos. In the meantime, the quest to shower SirFedora with upvotes was extended to 4chan, where the OP remarked “this is what I imagine most /b/tards were like”. As the day progressed, SirFedora noticed his follower count jumping up, and in response, made a video called " Woooo 45 twitter followers", and 5 hours after that made a video titled " THANKSSOOOOOMUCH", remarking on his massive like count, and hoping for 100 likes on his new video (a goal that was reached in minutes).

BebopVox retweet

6 hours after his 45 twitter followers video, BebopVox, a famous Youtube gamer/vlogger with over 100,000 subscribers, tweeted SirFedora’s video and mentioned his twitter account. After that SirFedora’s twitter account ended up with 10 thousand followers.

About

Grindr is a mobile dating and social networking application that serves as a matchmaker for gay and bisexual users within close proximity. The GPS allows users to see how close other users are and begin chatting. It is available for iOS, Android, and Black Berry.

History

Grindr was founded by Joel Simkhai and launched on March 26th, 2009.^[1][5] Simkhai came up with the idea for the location based app when he became frustrated that dating sites couldn’t tell you when a match is in your immediate proximity.^[7] Grindr has received many awards including Best Dating App from About.com’s 2012 Reader’s Choice Award^[8] and Techcrunchies’ 2012 awards in Best Mobile Dating App, Best Location Application, and Best New Technology.^[9] On September 13th, 2013, Grindr released Grindr Xtra, which gives users access to the app with no banner ads and unlimited blocking.^[14]

Online Presence

As of February 2014 Grindr’s official Twitter account^[10] has over 44,200 followers and its Facebook page^[11] has over 77,000 likes.
The site has sparked many YouTube parodies and pranks. On April 12th, 2012 popular gay vlogger Davey Wavey uploaded a video to his YouTube channel titled “Real Life Grindr!” that outlined a few of the “types” you often see on Grindr. As of February 2014 the video has over 1.1 million views.

On April 9th, 2013 YouTube prank channel Break^[12] uploaded its first “Grinder Prank” video, which featured girls on spring break gaining basic information about straight men on the beach, then a Break man approaching them and using the information to convince those around them that they had been talking on Grindr. As of February 2014 the video has over 2 million views, and a second “Grinder Prank” video was uploaded on April 16th.

Tumblr Blogs

In August 2011, the Tumblr blog grindrlulz^[2], which posts screen shots of gross or weird conversations on Grindr, launched. A similar Grindr screenshot Tumblr, grindrstories^[3], was launched in June 2012.

In July 2011, Douchebagsofgrindr^[4], similar to Nice Guys of OkCupid, launched. The blog uploads screenshots of Grindr profiles that make the users come off as jerks.

Traffic

As of March 2013 Grindr had more than 5 million users.^[6] Their user base is spread over 192 countries and the app receives around 10,000 new downloads every day.^[13]

Search Interest

External References

About

Facebook Look Back Videos are personalized video montages highlighting each Facebook user’s life events and milestones, as well as most liked photos and status updates, in chronological order. The feature was released in early February 2014 to coincide with the social network’s 10th anniversary.

Origin

On February 4th, 2014, Facebook unveiled a special feature called “Look Back,”^[3] which provides every user with a personalized slideshow reflecting on his or her life events and notable status updates, in celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary. Users can view their Look Back Videos and share them publicly by posting them to their timelines.

Each video, about 62-seconds long in duration and accompanied by a subtle instrumental soundtrack, opens with the year the user joined the site and covers a selection of his/her first milestones on the site, most liked statuses and pictures. According to Facebook, the feature will be available for a month, though videos shared on timelines will not disappear.^[5]

Spread

On February 5th, The Huffington Post^[4] published a piece titled “Nobody Wants To See Your Facebook Look Back Video,” suggesting there was already some frustration and fatigue over the sudden influx of the videos in users’ feeds a day after their release. Also on February 5th, SFGate^[6] published a post titled “11 Facebook look-back videos flooding your feed” which outlined different types of Look Back videos you might see in your feed. Later that same day, Facebook reported that “hundreds of millions of users” had watched their Look Back videos.

Also on the 5th, John Berlin uploaded a video to his YouTube channel^[1] explaining that his son had died in 2012 and he would love to see his Look Back video, but he could not access his son’s Facebook account. Later that day, Berlin was contacted by a Facebook representative and assured that he would get a Look Back video for his son’s account within a few days.^[2] Within 24 hours, the video had gained over 900,000 views.

Notable Examples

Several parodies of Facebook Look Back videos have been uploaded to YouTube, including ones for Kanye West, Rob Ford (shown top, right), Justin Bieber (bottom, left), and Bruce Jenner (bottom, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Free Bleeding refers to the practice of abstaining from using feminine hygiene products during menstruation. In February 2014, free bleeding was promoted by members of 4chan as a prank to convince women that feminine hygiene products were a form of patriarchal oppression.

Origin

The concept of free bleeding has been discussed online since the early 2000s, with the earliest known article on the topic posted by the women’s reproductive health blog All About My Vagina^[5] on March 31st, 2004.

Spread

On January 6th, 2011, the political blog Red Light Politics^[1] shared a link to the article on All About My Vagina, praising the controversial idea as “a nice and necessary departure from the usual discourse surrounding menstruation, blood and the female body.” On August 27th, the feminist blog Feministing^[4] published an article titled “Letting Ourselves Bleed,” which encouraged readers to let themselves bleed for once. On October 27th, Funny or Die^[7] posted a comedy sketch video satirically promoting the practice of free bleeding (shown below).

On November 3rd, 2013, women’s interest blogger Kendra Smith mentioned free bleeding in an article about “period shaming.”^[3]

Operation Freebleeding

On January 31st, 2014, a thread was created on 4chan to propose the launch of “Operation Freebleeding,” a false flag campaign in which 4chan users would rally around “free bleeding” under the pretense of promoting feminism and self-empowerment, thereby hoping to provoke angry responses from the feminist blogosphere.

The same day, several fake Twitter feeds were launched with tweets ostensibly promoting the act of free bleeding in protest against “male-dominated companies” behind the feminine hygiene products.

I am not ashamed of natural bodily functions. No longer giving my hard earned money to male dominated companies. Free Women #freebleeding

— Sweet Cooze (@CozyCooze) January 31, 2014

The Tampon is a MALE invention designed to OPPRESS women into RAPING themselves and spending their hard-earned money.

— Roaring_Womyn (@Roaring_Womyn) January 31, 2014

I'm a woman and I'm proud to be a #feminist! Have you all heard of #freebleeding yet? Down with oppression! pic.twitter.com/hsOyM6qnBy

— Jessica Marquez (@dontjudgeme3333) January 31, 2014

On February 1st, The Daily Dot^[6] published an article about the Twitter trend, which traced its origin to a prank orchestrated by a group of 4chan users. On the same day, the novelty Twitter account AdolfJoeBiden tweeted the hashtag “#FreeBleeding.”

Lesbian Tom Petty singing She's a good girl, loves Obama Hates Jesus and America too #FreeBleeding

— AdolfJoeBiden™ (@Bidenshairplugs) February 1, 2014

On February 2nd, the satirical news blog Modern Women Digest^[8] published an article calling free bleeding a “disturbing new feminist trend.” According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[2] there were over 600 tweets containing the keywords “free bleeding” on February 4th. On February 6th, the Internet news blog UpRoxx^[9] published an article about the 4chan prank.

Search Interest

External References

About

#ThisCouldBeUsButYouPlayin is a hashtag used on Twitter and Tumblr. The hashtag accompanies a photo of a couple, normally awkward or unappealing, and sometimes NSFW.

Origin

The phrase most likely originated from the 2012 Manio song “This Could Be Us,” as the chorus repeats the phrase “that could be us.”^[5] The hashtag was first used on Twitter by @blackgalaxshe^[2] on January 18th, 2014. It’s been mentioned on Twitter over 1.9 million times as of February 2014.^[3]

Spread

On January 26th the Twitter account @ButWhyYouPlayin^[5] was created, its tweets focus on #ThisCouldBeUsButYouPlayin. On January 29th, Bossip^[4] collected the best photos paired with the hashtag, and on February 6th, The Daily Dot^[1] published a post titled “#ThisCouldBeUsButYouPlayin is the greatest hashtag” which included a collection of the akward photos used to accompany the hashtag and highlighted the existence of the trend of NSFW photos accompanying the hashtag.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Space Dandy is a dandy in space! This dreamy adventurer with a to-die-for pompadour travels across the galaxy in search of aliens no one has ever laid eyes on. Each new species he discovers earns him a hefty reward, but this dandy has to be quick on his feet because it’s first come, first served! Accompanied by his sidekicks, a rundown robot named QT and Meow the cat-looking space alien, Dandy bravely explores unknown worlds inhabited by a variety of aliens. Join the best dressed alien hunter in all of space and time as he embarks on an adventure that ends at the edge of the universe!

The anime is directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and produced by Bones.The anime began airing on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block in North America on January 4, 2014,one day before its Japanese premiere on Tokyo MX on January 5. The anime has been licensed by Funimation in North America, Madman Entertainment in Australia and by Anime Limited in the United Kingdom. The series’ opening theme is “Viva Namida” (ビバナミダ Biba Namida?) performed by Yasuyuki Okamura and the ending theme is “X-Jigen e Yōkoso” (X次元へようこそ Ekkusu Jigen e Yōkoso?, “Welcome to the Xth Dimension”) performed by Etsuko Yakushimaru. The English version is produced by Funimation in Fort Worth, Texas using its local acting talent pool. The series’ ADR directors include Zach Bolton and Joel McDonald.The series is also simulcasted at the same time as Japan by Animax Asia in South East Asia with both Japanese and English audio.

About

#SochiProblems is a hashtag used to mock the unpleasant conditions experienced by visitors at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

Origin

On February 3rd, 2014, Chicago Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair tweeted a photograph of brown water taken from the sink faucet at her hotel is Sochi, Russia. In the next four days, the tweet gathered upwards of 3,600 retweets and 1,200 favorites.

Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi#unfilteredpic.twitter.com/sQWM0vYtyz

— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014

On February 4th, the Twitter account @SochiProblems^[1] was launched, which began tweeting photographs and complaints of various mishaps observed in Sochi, Russia during the 2014 Olympic games. Within the first 72 hours, the Twitter feed gained over 255,000 followers.

You get all inclusive! #SochiProblemspic.twitter.com/HVhSJ7e2jz

— Sochi Problems (@SochiProblems) February 4, 2014

Spread

The same day on February 4th, 2014, senior international correspondent for The Globe and Mail Mark MacKinnon tweeted about his check in experience at his hotel in Sochi. Within 72 hours, the tweet received more than 1,000 retweets and 660 favorites.

For those of you asking, when there's no lobby in your hotel, you go to the owner's bedroom to check in. #Sochi2014

— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) February 4, 2014

On February 5th, another Twitter feed @SochiFails was created with the same premise, highlighting a photograph of a twin-seat toilet first sighted and tweeted by BBC reporter Steve Rosenberg in a bathroom at Sochi’s cross-country skiing and biathlon center in January 20th. In the next 48 hours, @SochiFails accumulated upwards of 16,900 followers.

Seems like they have team bonding figured out #sochi#sochifailspic.twitter.com/wTeEJAIuhE

— Sochi Fails (@SochiFails) February 5, 2014

On February 6th, news anchor David Nelson tweeted that over 26,000 tweets using the hashtag #SochiProblems had been posted in the past 24 hours.

In 24 hours alone, 26,000 tweets have been sent using the hashtag #SochiProblemshttp://t.co/KIlAnDWCaw

— David Nelson (@DavidNelsonNews) February 6, 2014

According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[11] there were over 80,000 tweets containing the hashtag #sochiproblems that day (shown below).

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the #SochiProblems hashtag, including UpRoxx,^[2] BuzzFeed,^[3] Bloomberg,^[4] The Huffington Post,^[5] Mashable,^[6]CNET,^[7] The Washington Post,^[8]NBC News^[9] and The Guardian.^[10]

Fake Claims

On February 6th, 2014, Gizmodo published an article highlighting several fake FAIL photographs falsely attributed to Sochi, including bizarre bathroom arrangements, a poorly-translated menu and brown water in a sink (shown below). The article exposed many of the images for being taken months to years prior to the Sochi Olympics and from completely different regions around the world.

Search Interest

External References