About

#NationalSendYourMenNudesDay is a Twitter hashtag encouraging people to send nude photographs of themselves to their significant others annually on April 22nd.

Origin

Spread

On April 22nd, the social media news blog SocialNewsDaily^[1] published an article about the trending Twitter hashtag, which highlighted several notable tweets. According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[2] there were over 180,000 tweets containing the hashtag "NationalSendYourManNudesDay between April 21st and April 22nd.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Pervert Dave is the nickname of the deceased Florida resident David W. Cummings, whose obituary circulated online following his death due to complications with liver cancer in April 2014.

Origin

On April 16th, 2014, the Tampa Bay Times newspaper published an obituary for David W. Cummings, which included his nickname “Pervert Dave.” The following day, a photo of the obituary was tweeted by the @SlowSlownes Twitter feed, receiving over 140 retweets and 90 favorites in the first week.

Let's see who's in the obituaries today. pic.twitter.com/mMjADPtmWQ

— Slow News Day (@SlowSlownews) April 17, 2014

Spread

The same day, the men’s interest blog Bro Bible^[3] highlighted the obituary photograph. On April 18th, 2014, Democrat & Chronicle^[2] published an interview with Cummings’ longtime friend Karen Baker, who claimed the origin of the nickname “Pervert Dave” was a mystery.

“He was always, ‘Pervert.’ He’s had the nickname for 40 years or better. I’ve known him for over 40 years myself and he’s always been my big brother and everybody just knew him as ‘Pervert.’”

In the coming days, several news site published articles about the obituary, including The Daily Dot,^[4] Guyism,^[5] Death and Taxes,^[6] UpRoxx^[7] and Gawker.^[8]

Extended Obituary

On April 21st, the Tampa Bay Times^[1] published an article outlining Cummings’ life history. The article revealed that he had been an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force, was honorably discharged in 1970 for a character disorder and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. During the 1980s, Cummings shot and killed his roommate Wheelchair Skip over an argument about money and crashed a car while driving under the influence resulting in the death of a woman riding with him. After being prosecuted, Cummings served two years for the murder of his roommate and one year for DUI manslaughter.

Search Interest

External References

About

Pizza is an oven-baked flat bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings. Although already a widely popular food type worldwide due to its diversity, online pizza has managed to gain a cult following similar to Bacon.

History

Foods similar to pizza have been made since the neolithic age. Although the word “pizza” was first documented in the Southern Italian town of Gaeta in 997 AD, the origins of the term are uncertain and the history of the dish has not been very well documented. The innovation that led to flat bread pizza was the use of tomato as a topping, after tomatoes were brought into Europe from the Americas in the 16th century. By the late 18th century, the dish gained popularity in the Italian town of Napels, soon becoming a tourist attraction for Napels.^[1][2]

Online Presence

As of April 2014, the Facebook page^[5] for pizza has over 33.4 million likes. The official page for Pizza Hut^[6] has over 11.3 million likes and the official page for Dominos^[7] has over 9.1 million likes. Many pizza chains allow costumers to order their pizza online such as Dominoes^[8], Papa Johns^[9] and Pizza Hut.^[10]

Fandom

As of April 2014, there are over 120,000 fan art submissions for pizza on DeviantArt^[3] and over 2,000 fan fiction submissions on Fanfiction.net.^[4] Fan sites for pizza include the Fanpop^[11] page for pizza. Viral content site Buzzfeed has created several posts dedicated to the pizza fandom including “What It’s Like to Be Romantically Attracted to Pizza”^[12] and “How Extreme Is Your Devotion to Pizza?”^[13] Various types of handmade and vintage items related to pizza are also offered on the online shopping website Etsy.^[14]

Related Memes

Special Delivery Instructions

Special Delivery Instructions are photos of unusual pizza delivery requests which typically include pizza box illustrations or pizzas cut into a variety of shapes.

Pizza is a Vegetable

“Pizza is a Vegetable” is a satirical expression inspired by a spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress in November 2011, which bars the Department of Agriculture from changing the nutritional guidelines for public school lunches, such as raising the minimum amount of tomato paste on pizza to be counted as a serving of vegetables. The proposed bill became a target for mockery on the internet due to its bizarre nature, resulting in various parody images to be created in relation to it.

Random Acts of Pizza

Random Acts of Pizza is a sub-community on the social news website Reddit where users can ask to receive free pizza or volunteer to donate pizza to others in need under the slogan of “Restoring Faith in Humanity, One Slice at a Time.” Since its creation in late 2010, the subreddit has been lauded as an example of Reddit’s potential to encourage and foster altruism and generosity, and gained notable attention following the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings when hundreds of users donated over 1,500 pizzas to the emergency centers and hospitals in the area.

Gimme Pizza

Gimme Pizza is the title of a rhyming singalong song featured in the 1995 film You’re Invited to Mary Kate and Ashley’s Sleepover Party (shown below, left), which features five little girls trying to create their ideal pizza by adding ridiculous toppings. The video experienced a resurgence in popularity in 2010 after a slowed down version was uploaded to Youtube by youtuber philipmserious (shown below, right), which resulted in other youtubers remixing the video as well.

P1ZZ4 GUY

P1ZZ4 GUY is an exploitable series based on a scene from the 2004 film Spider Man II during which a clueless passerby catches Peter Parker changing into his Spider-Man costume to make a pizza delivery in time, but confuses the sight as Spider-Man stealing a pizza alongside the phrase “Whoa! He stole that guy’s pizza!” The short but memorable soundbite spawned over 300 derivative sites on YTMND as well as YTP movies on YouTube.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Holy Crap, A Meteor!” is a YTMND fad that involves creating an illusion of an approaching object by utilizing 3D text over a background image. Most variants on the fad are accompanied with music from the 1995 video game Chrono Trigger, which contains a leitmotif that is associated with the threat of an approaching meteor.^[1]

Origin

On April 26th, 2006, YTMND user cdawg82191 uploaded a YTMND entitled “Holy Crap, A Meteor!” featuring a period punctuation mark that resembled a meteor that would imminently impact into Columbia, South Carolina.^[2] The site was originally made as a joke^[3], but it was met to a degree of acclaim from users, allowing the site to accumulate over 7,200 votes (with a site average of 4.40/5.00), over 290 favorites, over 1,700 comments, over 131,000 views, and a $0.01 sponsorship from another user.^[4]

Spread

The first variant on the site would be user WhisperXBA’s follow-up YTMND, “OMGMOREMETEORS”, which featured a meteor shower instead of a single meteor.^[5] However, this site was not nearly as successful as the original, only scoring 1.63/5.00. The first variant to reach a level of success comparable to the original was binturong’s “Meteor Command”, which attained a score of 3.62/5.00.^[6]

The fad was met with some criticism from within YTMND, as made evident by Father-McKenzie’s own page, “Meteor Fad – R. Lee Ermey’s Comments”.^[7] The only successor to include the meteor and earn a higher score than the original was AskAak’s “TaunTaun Trouble”, where the meteor has a cameo appearance.^[8] The search terms “holy crap” and “meteor” warrant hundreds of results on the website.^[9][10]

External References

About

Break-up Texting refers to the ending a romantic relationship via short messaging service (SMS). Due to the social stigma surrounding this practice, screenshots of break-up texts have been frequently shared online and ridiculed in the blogosphere.

Origin

One of the earliest mentions of breakup texts was in a video created by comedian Liam Kyle Sullivan in 2006 titled “Text Message Breakup,” which features a song about a girl’s anger at being broken up with via text. After being posted to his website, the video was uploaded to YouTube by xxxEminemcrazedxxx^[1] on December 26th, 2006. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 93,000 views.

Spread

The first Urban Dictionary^[8] entry for text message breakup was submitted by user Gtron on December 27th, 2006, defining it as:

“to break up with someone via a text message. Highly looked down upon in the dating world.”

On February 13th, 2007, The Washington Post^[6] published a piece about the phenomena of breaking up through text and other forms of technology titled “Hey, You’re Breaking Up on Me!,” and on May 28th, 2007, Alloy, a teen site, published a post titled “Sound Off: Is It OK To Break Up With Your BF in a Text Message?” On February 12th, 2010, GeekSugar^[9] published a piece titled “Is It Ever OK to Dump Someone Via Text Message?,” which featured a readers poll which showed over 70% of readers were against text breakups.

In 2012, round-ups of screenshots of funny or particularly harsh text breakups became popular, with such lists featured on Glamour^[10], tech humor site Smartphowned^[11] and Buzzfeed.^[12]

On May 14th, 2012, Gawker^[13] reported that a woman received a long text from a man she had rejected after one date that seemed to criticize her. He followed it up with an apology and an explanation that it wasn’t about her or meant for her to see.

On September 25th, 2013, Gawker^[14] reported on an instance of breakup text revenge. When Quin Woodward Pu, a 26-year-old woman from Washington, DC received a break-up text from a man she had been seeing for a few weeks, she decided to get back at him by forwarding their sexts he had sent from his company Blackberry to his boss.

Though she recieved negetive feedback when the story was reported on, in an interview with DC site In the Capital^[16] Pu maintained she had been right to react with revenge after the breakup texting, saying:

" I am a writer. This is what writing--and journalism--should do. It should incense. It should evoke, if not provoke. The reason this story has caught so much attention is because it is relatable, on both sides of the gender line. To be fair, the man has both my books; he also knew what he was getting himself into."

In 2013 roundups of screenshots of funny text breakups were published by many sites including The Huffington Post^[17] and Smosh.^[18]

Instagram Break-up

On April 22nd, 2014, Instagram user cjkarl1^[1] posted a picture of himself with his girlfriend next to the same picture with his girlfriend cropped out. He used the hashtag #TransformationTuesday to tag the picture, which is normally used to show off weight lose or some other kind og makeover. His girlfriend commented on the photo asking, “is this your way of breaking up with me.” As of April 24th, the Instagram account has over 14,000 followers but has removed all photos, including the breakup image. The breakup Instagram was covered by UpRoxx^[3], Gawker^[4] and Elite Daily.^[5]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Me Vs. You is an image macro series that compares the original poster (OP) with the viewer, typically presenting the OP in a positive light or superior position.

Origin

The earliest known “Me vs. You” image macro was posted by Tumblr^[1] user fuckeverylastoneofyou on June 11th, 2012, which identified a girl falling off a broken swing as “you” and her swinging partner as “me” (shown below).

Spread

On August 17th, 2012, Tumblr user cythereans posted a GIF of Lady Gaga walking past a group of men in a scuffle with “Me” and “You” captions (shown below, left). On June 27th, 2013, Tumblr user queen-neyde highlighted an animated GIF with “Me” captioned by Britney Spears gesturing dismissively at another woman captioned with “You” (shown below, right).

On January 28th, 2014, the Internet humor blog Mandatory^[2] highlighted several notable examples of “Me vs. You” images and animated GIFs (shown below).

On March 31st, Tumblr^[4] user levi-corps posted two screen captured images of Pokeballs from the animated television show Pokemon (shown below, left). In the first month, the post gained over 4,900 notes. On April 23rd, the MTV blog Buzzworthy^[3] published an article about Me Vs. You image macros in the context of a photograph featuring pop star Justin Bieber interacting with a group of fans (shown below, right).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Batman & Robin is a superhero film based on the Batman franchise. It is considered by many to be the worst superhero movie ever made, and is widely mocked on the internet.

History

The film was originally greenlit after the financial success of the previous film in the series, Batman Forever– and Joel Schumacher, the director of said film, was immediately signed back on to work on the sequel. Both of Schumacher’s films were significant departures from their immediate predecessors (Batman and Batman Returns), both of which were directed by Tim Burton. While Burton’s films were largely dark and serious, the tone of Schumacher’s films were comparatively lighthearted and campy. The film was released in theaters on June 20th, 1997.

While Batman And Robin was a financial success, the film was immediately panned upon its release, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting that only 12% of critics and 16% of audiences enjoyed the film.^[1] Film critic Roger Ebert claimed that the film had “nothing authentic at its core” and gave the film two stars.^[2] Plans for a sequel featuring Nicolas Cage were scrapped due to the reception of the film,^[3] and Joel Schumacher eventually apologized to the fans of the Batman series for the way the film turned out.^[4]

Impact

Even years after the film’s release, vocal dislike for the film is still apparent. Empire Magazine held a poll of the worst films ever made according to its userbase, and Batman And Robin was ranked as the worst movie ever made.^[5]

The film has since become a goldmine for online reviewers to rip into. On November 12th, 2002, Dr. Winston O’Boogie wrote an extensive recap for The Agony Booth, going into each and every detail that he hated about the movie.^[6] On May 23rd, 2008, the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the film (shown below, left). He expressed intense dislike for the film, particularly showing disgust toward the Bat Credit Card that appears as a throwaway gag. Cinema Sins produced a video containing everything wrong with the film, clocking in at over 19 minutes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

(Actual Noise It Made) is a closed caption featured in an episode of JonTron in which the host Jon Jafari reacts to a screeching noise made by a cassette tape player after unsuccessfully trying to run the 1988 Commodore 64 video game Hercules: Slayer Of The Damned in a regular cassette tape player. Since the release of the original episode in September 2013, many fans have uploaded their own remixes of Jon’s reaction video set to a variety of alternate sound effects, dialogue, or music.

Origin

The closed caption was originally featured in JonTron’s retrospective on a variety of video games that are based on the legends of Hercules in Greek Mythology, which was uploaded to YouTube on September 24th, 2013.^[1] At one point, Jon reviews Hercules: Slayer Of The Damned for the Commodore 64 and notes that he finds it odd that a video game would be distributed in the format of a cassette tape. When he inserts the tape into a audio cassette player instead of a Commodore 64 console, a loud, screeching static noise can be heard emanating from the cassette player, prompting Jon to stare blankly at the camera with a frightened look. The caption“(ACTUALNOISE IT MADE)” appears below Jon’s confused face, emphasizing that he did not alter the sound in post-production.

Spread

The first variant was uploaded on September 26th, 2013 by user OliverReacts (shown below, left). The video was entitled “The ACTUAL Noise JonTron’s Hercules Cassette Game Made”, and featured audio from JonTron’s review of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.^[2] The video gained over 13,000 views and over 370 likes. User mardfet created a compilation video of various noises coming from the console on January 23rd, 2014 (shown below, right). This video gained over 2,500 views and over 90 likes.

Notable Examples

External References

About

The Last Airbender is a fantasy adventure film based on the First Season of Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise. It is considered by many to be the worst fantasy adventure movie ever made that this film was not been based on the True Story.

History

Impact

On 03 September 2013, the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the film that this film is not been base on the Cartoon that M. Night Shyamalan ruin it.

Search Interest

External References

W.I.P.

Overview

Cliven Bundy Ranch Standoff is a long-standing legal dispute between cattle rancher Cliven Bundy and the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Nevada over unpaid grazing fees dating back to 1993. During a highly publicized armed standoff against the BLM in April 2014, Bundy came under much scrutiny in the news and online for his controversial statements regarding African Americans and the history of slavery in the United States.

Background

In 1993, grazing rules were altered on in Nevada, which ordered Bundy to pay to allow his cattle to graze on BLM-administered lands. After refusing to pay the new bills, an order was issued in 1998 prohibiting Bundy from grazing his cattle on federally administered land in an area of Gold Butte, Nevada.

Notable Developments

Battle of Bunkerville

In early April 2014, the BLM began a cattle roundup in the area Bundy was trespassing, gathering nearly 400 cattle from April 5th to the 9th. After sending out letters to various groups across the country, Bundy was joined by a number of protesters and armed militia members. On April 10th, a confrontation occurred by a convoy in which federal officials claim protesters assaulted officers and kicked a police dog, while several Bundy family alleged that they were shocked with a Taser weapon and thrown to the ground.^[3]

On April 12th, armed protesters blocked a local interstate causing traffic backups. In addition, an hour-long standoff occurred in the area where the cattle were being corralled. The situation was defused after the BLM ended the cattle gathering citing safety concerns for the public. The standoff has since been referred to as the “Battle of Bunkerville.”

Comments on Slavery

On April 23rd, 2014, the New York Times^[1] published an interview with Bundy in which he made several statements regarding African Americans and their history in the United States, speculating that they were “better off as slaves”:

“They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

On the following day, Redditor antisoshal submitted an article about the comments to /r/politics,^[2] where it received more than 1,200 upvotes and 960 comments. In the United States, “Cliven Bundy” became the top trending search term on Google for April 24th, 2014.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Happy” is a 2013 pop song written and produced by American sing-songwriter Pharrell Williams for the soundtrack of the 2013 computer-animated children’s film Despicable Me 2.

Origin

The song was initially released on June 18th, 2013 as part of the soundtrack for Despicable Me 2 on and later re-introduced as the lead single for his sophomore album GIRL released on March 3rd, 2014. The music video for “Happy,” which features cameo appearances of the minions from the film, was first released via the official PharrellVEVO YouTube Channel^[1] on June 18th, 2013, followed by its debut on the artist’s non-label YouTube channel iamOTHER^[2] on November 21st.

As of April 2014, the video has gained over 202.5 million views. The song remains at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart^[3] where it has been for four months.

Spread

On November 22nd, 2013, iamOTHER uploaded a one-hour music video that featured “Happy,” playing on a loop titled “Pharrell Williams – Happy (12AM),” as the first installment in what they dubbed “The World’s First 24-Hour Music Video.” The remaining hour long videos for 1AM to 11PM were uploaded to the YouTube channel between November 23rd and December 15th.

On March 17th, Pentatonix uploaded a cover of “Happy,” to their YouTube channel.^[8] As of April 2014, the video has gained more than 6.4 million views.

In celebrating the International Happiness Day^[7] on March 20th, Williams asked fans to upload videos of themselves being happy with the hashtag #HAPPYDAY and submit it to his site 24hoursofhappiness^[9], which features a button that takes visitors directly to a donation page for the United Nations’^[10] Central Emergency Relief Fund. On March 20th, iamOTHER uploaded a compilation of the best user submissions. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 800,000 views.

On April 8th, 2014, Buzzfeed posted an image titled “How Sick You Are Of Pharrell’s “Happy” Summed Up Perfectly In One Graph,” which represented the backlash against how overplayed the song seemed.

Notable Examples

Parodies

On January 28th, 2014, Pharrell’s YouTube channel iamOTHER uploaded a video titled “Hatty,” (below, left) which features a clip from “Happy,” with a picture of his much mocked Grammy’s hat photoshopped over half of his body. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 440,000 views. On February 18th, YouTube channel Terabrite^[4] uploaded a video titled “Flappy,” (below, right) which featured a song about the mobile game Flappy Bird, set to the tune of “Happy.” As of April 2014, the video has gained over 300,000 views.

On March 18th, 2014, YouTube channel The Pet Collective^[6] uploaded a video titled, “Pharrell – Happy (Puppy & Doggy Version),” (below, left) which featured a video of happy dogs playing to a song about dogs sung to the tune of “Happy.” As of April 2014, the video has gained over 700,000 views. On March 25th, YouTube channel House of Halo^[5] uploaded a video which featured the music video for “Happy” (below, right) with the music removed so the people featured appeared to be dancing in silence. As of April 2014, the video has over 1.5 million views.

Covers

Search Interest

External References

Overview

“List of Every Video Game Ever Made” is a comprehensive catalog of every title that has been released since 1971 as indexed by 4chan user Data_baser.

Background

On April 16th, 2014, Data_baser created a Pastebin^[1] page titled “List of Every Video Game Ever,” containing over 44,000 video game titles listed with each developer, publisher, release year, compatible platforms, collector’s editions and downloadable content packages.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

The same day, Data_baser posted the Pastebin to the /vr/ (retro games) board on 4chan, where he enlisted other 4chan users to assist in completing the catalog. On April 18th, Data_baser created a second Pastebin^[8] page titled “Alternate List of Every Videogame Ever,” which gathered more than 91,000 entries in the next week. On April 19th, Redditor Faynton submitted the original Pastebin page to the /r/gaming^[2] subreddit, where it gained over 12,000 upvotes and 1,400 comments in the first six days. That same day, Redditor Slash-E posted a screenshot of the list to the /r/pcmasterrace^[7] subreddit. On April 21st, Xbox Achievements Forums^[6] member lid posted a thread about the list.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several video game news sites published article about the Pastebin catalog, including Kill Screen,^[3] Kotaku,^[5] Destructoid,^[9] Polygon^[10] and Geek.^[11]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

“It’s Gonna Be May” refers to a misheard lyric featured in the 2000 pop song “It’s Gonna Be Me” performed by American boy band ’N Sync. Since 2012 stills and GIFs of the video with the misheard caption circulate on the web towards the end of April.

Origin

“It’s Gonna Be Me,” was released on June 13th, 2000, the second single off ‘N Sync’s second album No Strings Attached. The video was first uploaded to the official NSYNCVEVO YouTube Channel^[1] on October 24th, 2009. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 20.3 million views.

On January 29th, 2012, Tumblr user amyricha^[5] posted a picture of ‘N Sync band member Justin Timberlake with the caption "It’s gonna be May," which pokes fun at the fact when Timberlake sings “Me,” in the song it sounds like “May.”

Spread

On March 16th, 2012, Buzzfeed^[3] posted a picture of a calendar turned to April with a picture Timberlake with the caption “It’s gonna be May,” taped to the final day. The picture was taken from the since deleted Tumblr blog Seapeas.^[4]

On April 29th, 2012, YouTuber Aaron Ochoco^[2] uploaded a video which featured a clip from “It’s Gonna Be Me,” of Timberlake singing the title. The video was titled “It’s Gonna Be May.”

On April 26th, 2013, YouTubers PassionateFriendTime^[5] uploaded a video titled “It’s Gonna Be May,” which parodies the ’N Sync song and focuses on the coming month of May. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 14,000 views.

Related Memes

April 25th

In the 2000 comedy film Miss Congeniality , a contestant is asked what her perfect date would be, and she replys, “April 25th.” GIF sets featuring this exchange are often reblogged on Tumblr on this date every year.

October 3rd

In the 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls the protagonist Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is asked what day it is, and she reply, “It’s October 3rd.” GIF sets featuring this exchange are often reblogged on Tumblr on this date every year.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Fleshlight is a brand of male masturbatory devices produced by the company Life Forms, which is named after its flesh-like material and flashlight-style housing.

History

According to an interview with Fleshlight creator Brian Shubin, he came up with the idea for the fleshlight in the mid 1990’s when “women were just becoming OK with talking about using vibrators.”^[2] The original model was referred to as the “pink lady,” and featured a rubber labia-shaped mold on top of a flashlight-style plastic housing (shown below).

On June 21st, 2011, the design blog Good^[2] published an interview with Shubin, in which he claimed over four million Fleshlight devices had been sold that year.

Social Media Feeds

On March 4th, 2012, a Facebook^[5] page titled “Fleshlight” was launched. On March 18th, 2014, the Fleshlight Vine^[6] feed was created. As of April 2014, the @Fleshlight^[4] Twitter account has over 35,000 followers. Fleshlight maintains a website^[7] with an online store and discussion forum.

Online Presence

On August 11th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[8] user Bah submitted an entry for “fleshlight,” defining it as a male masturbatory device shaped like a flashlight. On December 4th, 2008, the /r/fleshlight^[1] subreddit was launched for discussions related to the masturbatory device. On September 11th, 2010, YouTuber Da DANKS uploaded a video demonstrating how to make a DIY fleshlight (shown below). In the first four years, the video gathered over 5.07 million views and 3,700 comments.

On January 6th, 2012, Redditor Dat-Throwaway submitted a post to the /r/AskReddit^[3] subreddit, questioning an assumed double standard between men and women in regards to sex toy usage. Prior to being archived, the post garnered more than 7,400 upvotes and 4,400 comments. On March 14th, the Fleshlight Reviews Tumblr^[10] blog was launched. On June 12th, YouTuber WonderWanker uploaded a video demonstrating how to make a DIY Fleshlight with a powerful vacuum (shown below, left). On June 19th, YouTuber Jeremy Ko uploaded a Chinese news report in which a Fleshlight-style masturbatory aid is confused for an unidentified mushroom (shown below, right). In the following two years, the videos accumulated upwards of 1.3 million and 4.2 million views respectively.

Highlights

Autoblow 2 Indiegogo Campaign

On April 9th, 2014, an Indiegogo^[11] campaign for the Autoblow 2 “oral sex simulator” was launched, which works as as robotic Fleshlight-style device.Within two weeks, the campaign had reached over $44,000 of its $45,000 goal.

Search Interest

External References

(MAJORWIP. HALPNEEDED.)

About

Shiggy Diggy or Shiggy Diggy Doo is an expression used on sites such as 4chan,Reddit,Funnyjunk, and Tumblr to express disdain at a comment, quote, or action, In the same manner as Costanza.jpg.

Origin

The earliest usage of “shiggy diggy” on 4chan comes from an anonymous post made on December 24th, 2011 on /tv/ expressing his Dislike for Die Hard. ^[1]

According to 4chandata, ^[2] the phrase comes from an onomatopoeic mispronunciation of ISHYGDDT, an acronym for “I Sure Hope Hoy Guys Don’t Do This”, used on the site.

Spread

As of April 2014, there are countless 4chan posts with the phrase archived on Foolz.us, ^[3] as well as on Tumblr. ^[4]

On June 26th 2012, YouTube User MrCalhoun posted a video called “Shiggy Diggy – The 2012 Sitcom” which was a fake trailer for a 4chan-based Seinfeld Parody.

On November 20th, 2012, a definition for “Shiggy Diggy Doo” ^[5] was submitted to Urban Dictionary:

Originally starting as the acronym ISHYGDDT (I sure hope you guys don’t do this) on 4chan, the acronym was later extended to ‘Shiggy Diggy Doo’. When the term first came into use, many newfags thought it was also an acronym, so it was often said as ‘I SHIGGYDIGGY’, which was implied as an acronym for ‘I sure hope I go get young dogs in good gay yelps’, which was a reference to the massive amount of furry pornography that flooded the site during that time. Even today, the phrase is in use on many mainstream internet sites such as 4chan, reddit, tumblr, digg, funnyjunk, and facepunch.

Guy 1: Hey dude, I just bought myself a pack of ciggs. Want one?

Guy 2:
>Any year
>Not smoking weed instead of pleb-tier cigarettes
>Shiggy diggy doo

Search Interest

External References

About

Baneposting, also known as “For You”, is an image macro and quote meme that refers to a scene from the 2012 superhero film The Dark Knight Rises. The meme originated on 4chan and received mainstream media attention after users from the site flooded a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” interview with Tom Hardy with references to the meme.

Origin

The Dark Knight Rises was released in July 2012. Although the film received positive critical reception, some felt that certain scenes featured unnatural or “clunky” dialogue. Users of 4chan focused on the opening scene of the movie, in which a group of hooded men are captured by a CIA agent (Aidan Gillen). The agent takes the men aboard a plane and interrogates them by threatening to throw them out the window if they do not divulge information about the mysterious mercenary Bane (Tom Hardy). One of the hooded men is revealed as Bane himself, and after an exchange of threats, Bane’s team attacks the plane and rescues him.

4chan users took issue with various lines of dialogue in the scene; in particular, the following:

CIA agent:“If I pull that [mask] off, will you die?”
Bane:“It would be extremely painful…”
CIA agent:“You’re a big guy.”
Bane:“…for you.”

The editing of the scene and Hardy’s delivery of the dialogue makes it unclear whether his meaning is “I’m a big guy, compared to you” or “if you pull my mask off, it will be extremely painful, for you.” Although the issue was hotly debated among members of 4chan’s /tv/ (Television and film) board during the summer of 2012, the debate eventually died down.^[3]

Spread

The controversy was revisited on April 23, 2014 when it was announced that Tom Hardy would be hosting an “Ask Me Anything” interview session on Reddit, in which users can ask him questions. 4chan decided to “raid” the interview and ask Hardy questions pertaining to the now-infamous scene from The Dark Knight Rises. Users were encouraged to downvote legitimate questions about the subject of the interview (Hardy’s new film Locke) and only upvote questions featuring references to the opening scene of TDKR. Hundreds of 4chan users descended on the AMA session, asking a variety of questions that contained various references to the scene, such as the phrases “big guy” and “for you” and variations of the question “Tell me about Bane, why does he wear the mask?”^[1]

Hardy initially responded to some of the questions, but Reddit’s moderators eventually intervened when they realized what was happening and shut down the thread. Of particular note, one user asked Hardy what Bane meant by “for you,” and Hardy replied that "It was written meaning it would be painful for you, but I intoned it meaning “I’m a big guy for you.”"^[2] Many users on 4chan, and even some media sources, joked that they had “crashed the thread, with no survivors,” as a reference to Bane’s threat in the scene.^[3]

In the wake of the Hardy AMA, “Baneposting” rapidly spread throughout 4chan’s /tv/ board. By April 26, a huge number of submissions involved some reference to the meme. Many of the lines from the movie’s opening scene are referenced as part of the meme:

• “Dr. Pavel, I’m CIA.” Aidan Gillen’s otherwise unnamed CIA agent introduces himself in this manner, leading to 4chan users simply calling him “CIA,” as if this were his name.
• “The masked man.” One of Bane’s undercover henchmen says “masked” with an accent, causing some users to suggest he is saying “mask-eta” or “mosquito” and subsequently refer to Bane as “the mosquito man.”
• “Bane?” The CIA agent’s response to the above line. Gillan delivers the line in an odd manner that makes him sound accusatory or angry rather than inquisitive.
• “If I pull that off, will you die?” “It would be extremely painful.” “You’re a big guy.” “For you.” Described above. In many cases, a user will respond with “for you” in a context where it does not make sense.
• “Was getting caught part of your plan?” and “What’s the next step of your master plan?” From the CIA agent’s interrogation of Bane.
• “Crashing this plane…with no survivors!” Bane’s response to the above line. This line received particular criticism, as Hardy initially delivered it in a more menacing tone in the December 2011 IMAX preview of the scene. For unclear reasons, all of Hardy’s dialogue was redubbed for the final film, giving him a different accent and tone.
• “Somebody get this hothead outta here!” A line from a different character in an unrelated scene, that is typically used as a response to someone criticizing the Baneposting meme. The line was also used repeatedly during the Reddit AMA when moderators tried to retake control of the thread.

Additionally, on April 20, Aidan Gillen’s Game of Thrones character, Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, returned to the series after a lengthy absence. This coincidental timing led to many /tv/ users crossing over the Baneposting meme with Game of Thrones. The Baneposting meme, like many rapidly growing memes on 4chan, has been criticized by users who feel it is detracting from discussion on /tv/ and other boards.

Notable Examples

External References

^[1]Reddit – Tom Hardy “Ask Me Anything” session / 4-23-2014

^[2]Yahoo Movies Canda – The 7 Bane-iest responses from Tom Hardy’s Reddit AMA / 4-24-2014

^[3]The Daily Dot – 4chan hilariously derailed Tom Hardy’s AMA, and here’s why / 4-24-2014

About

Lose/Lose is a game created by Zach
Gage in 2009 that involves a player in a ship going towards a swarm of alien ships, and your claimed objective is to kill said aliens. They do not shoot at you, though they do come close to you and try to smash into your ship. If they touch you they die, along with you (similar to a kamikaze).

History

What makes this game different than most is that the game is known to be malware. Anyone who downloads the game is specifically warned not to download the game, for the alien ships represent random files on the player’s computer. For every alien killed, one file selected at random is deleted from the computer. The types of files that can be prone to deletion by playing this game can range from html, jpg, mov, avi, users themselves, zip nef, txt, and other types of files of the sort.

The warning on the website clearly states that playing the game is harmful to your computer. The message is:
KILLINGALIENS IN LOSE/LOSEWILLDELETEFILES ON YOURHARDDRIVEPERMANANTLY

Losing in the game will delete the application itself, as it is a download onto your computer.
This is the safest option if tempted to play the game, for no files (other than the Lose/Lose download itself) will be deleted from the computer.

Over 200 players have had files deleted from their computer by the game, most notable on the site itself is arvernus with 412 aliens slaughtered, with the highest score in one game.

An interview with Zach Gage and Intego explained that Gage actually made the game as part as an Australian digital art Clearly shows that United-States born Zach Gage is, in fact, a part of this), and Lose/Lose is meant to be taken as a philosophical manner.

Interview

“I would even argue that Lose/Lose does good and not harm, as it’s part of a project bringing this kind of matter to our attention. Part of it is about examining this flaw in our reasoning. We are so afraid of technology that we can become enraged just at the idea of a dangerous piece of software, even when that software is no more dangerous than dragging your files to the trash and deleting them yourself. In a world where so much of our lives are online, shouldn’t we have passed this fear by now? If we haven’t perhaps theres a greater danger to continuing to move forward into this technological future than we’ve come to terms with. When files on your computer are more important physical possessions, the rules of the game change. Imagine if someone could remotely delete furniture from your house, food from your fridge, or work from your desk? Wouldn’t you want to know even the basics of how that system worked before you integrated it so heavily into your life?”

Warning

The game is malware (as identified by http://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/loselose-is-it-a-game-is-it-malware-its-both/) , and WILL harm your computer. The files deleted can even delete Internet Files, the Help File (In case you ever need any help), games and applications that were previously paid for, and the Recycle Bin as well. So if any one of those important files are gone, you can be at risk for having previously paid for games needed to be repaid if desired to be played again, no help from your computer with issues small enough to be solved with the help document, the inability to delete anything, the inability to navigate the Internet, two of the above, three of the above, or all of the above. It is specifically warned by anyone who cannot read or does not have English as their native language to avoid at all costs.

Articles

Articles for this game consist of:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94917-Lose-Lose-The-Game-That-Deletes-Your-Files
http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/26/loselose-the-scariest-game-youll-play-for-3-seconds/
http://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/loselose-is-it-a-game-is-it-malware-its-both/
http://www.creativeapplications.net/games/loselose-mac-games-openframeworks/
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/30/lose-lose-game-deletes-files-as-you-play/

Search Interest

About

The YouTuber “katiethesinger123” was a channel created by a 12-year old girl in 2010. It was created due to the fact that apparently “some idiot” had hacked and vandalized her account. She uploaded several videos of her covering quite popular songs. Due to the fact she was recording with a webcam whilst lying on a bed with her laptop on her belly, she has been hated, called fat and ugly by many internet trolls and commenters.

Origin

As explained above, she had her previous account “katiethesinger1223” hacked along with “katiethesingr” and “katiethesinger12231”. Yet, she never learned and created a new. Due to the fact this wasn’t hacked or taken down very quickly, it gained the most infamy out of the others. Her videos were criticized and she was called “talentless”, “overweight” and “ugly” by many. Also, remixes were created shortly after her new videos’ releases.

WIP

Spread

MAJORWIP

Examples

EXTREMELYMAJORWIP

Overview

The Donald Sterling Racism Controversy was a controversy in which Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling made a racist remark to his girlfriend that said he didn’t want blacks in his game, which was eventually recorded by someone and leaked to the celebrity news site TMZ

Background

Earlier this month, Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling had a conversation with his girlfriend about her Instagram feed, which had photos of her with African-Americans, including the well known NBA great Earvin “Magic” Johnson, probably out of frustration and embarrassment, Sterling told his girlfriend to not bring any blacks to his game, which someone was recording and sent to TMZ

however, in a longer recording, it was reported that he tells her he cannot change his cultural beliefs

Notable Developments

Twitter reacted greatly to the controversy, making tweets against Sterling

Jordan: "In a league where the majority of players are African-American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level.”

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 27, 2014

RT TVMoJoe</a> Obama: &quot;We have to be clear and steady in denouncing it [racism] and teaching our children differently&quot;. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23DonaldSterling&amp;src=hash">#DonaldSterling</a></p>&mdash; Diamond Leung (diamond83) April 27, 2014

Fans bring great signs to Warriors-Clippers Game. Fans=Best #DonaldSterling=worst #BoycottClippers Lulz pic.twitter.com/Jzqivsr2Gj

— Anonymous (@occupythemob) April 27, 2014

Earvin Magic Johnson soon reacted to the controversy himself on twitter, saying that he will never go to a Clippers game as long as Sterling is the owner

.cjbycookie</a> and I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner.</p>&mdash; Earvin Magic Johnson (MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014

Eventually, he tweeted again about Sterling, saying that his racist comments were a black eye for the NBA

LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling's comments about African Americans are a black eye for the NBA.

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014

W.I.P

Overview

The Atari Video Game Burial Excavation refers to the excavation of a mass burial site of unsold video game cartridges and other products in April 2014, originally undertaken by American video game and home computer company Atari.^[11] The excavation itself gained wide attention due to the recovery of thousands of copies of the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game,^[1] a game released a year prior to the burial which is often regarded as one of the worst videogames in existance.

Background

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial^[1] is a 1982 adventure video game based on the film of the same name and developed for the Atari 2600 video game console. The development of the game began in July 1982 and was completed before the end of the year, following the commercial success of the film in June 1982.

Anticipation for E.T. was high in 1982 and the game eventually sold 1.5 million units, becoming one of the best-selling Atari 2600 titles. However, between 2.5 and 3.5 million cartridges went unsold and about 3.5 million of the 4 million produced were sent back to Atari as unsold inventory or customer returns, the latter which went alongside the large amount of negative reception for the game which would later evolve into the game being regarded as one of the worst games in existance.

Atari Video Game Burial

The Atari video game burial^[2] was a mass burial of unsold video game cartridges and other products in a New Mexico landfill site, undertaken by American video game and home computer company Atari in 1983, following the company’s financial difficulty and several problem titles it released. The burial has long been regarded as an urban legend by a minority and the event has become a cultural icon and a reminder of the North American video game crash of 1983.^[12]

Notable Developments

Excavation

On May 28, 2013, Fuel Industries was granted six months of access to the landfill to film a documentary about the burial and to excavate the dump site. Though the excavation was momentarily stalled, they eventually managed to get started on April 26th, 2014. Fuel Industries, Microsoft, and others worked with the New Mexico government to excavate the site to validate the contents of the landfill as a public event.

The same day when the excavation started, the results revealed the existence of the discarded games and some hardware, affirming the original speculation on the landfill’s contents. Following the discovery of the cardridges, James Heller, the former Atari manager in charge of the original burial, revealed to the Associated Press that there were only 728,000 cartridges buried at the site.^[3] Bystanders were also given the chance to play the game at the site. Many news sites and video games websites also quickly followed with articles about the discovery, such as The Guardian,^[4] The Star,^[5] Fox News,^[6] Mashable,^[7]IGN,^[8] Polygon^[9] and The Daily Mail.^[10]

Search Interest

External References