About

Share a Coke refers to a photo trend on Tumblr which features Coke bottles and cans from a promotion which features labels which read “share a coke with” before a variety of names. These names are often paired with corresponding television and movie characters that, depending on their popularity, the Tumblr user would or would not want to share a coke with.

Origin

In June of 2014, Coca-Cola^[1] launched a “share a coke” campaign which features the slogan and a variety of 250 different names on Coke, Coke Zero and Diet Coke bottles. The campaign had been running in other countries, however, since 2011. On September 27th, 2011, Tumblr user p-etalss^[3] introduced the tag #shareacokewith with a picture of a Coke bottle which reads Catherine. On October 4th, 2011, Tumblr user blatantnarcisism^[2] introduced the tag #cokenames with a picture of a Coke bottle which reads Emily.

Spread

In 2011, two Tumblr posts tagged #shareacokewith gained over 100 notes included gri-bigbang’s^[13] post on South Korean band Big Bang which gained over 500 notes and desteryismycaptain’s^[14] post which features a bottle with reads “share a coke with your cat” which gained over 16,000 notes.

In 2012, four Tumblr posts tagged #sharedacokewith gained over 100 notes including yvov’s^[10] post on Adventure Time which gained over 200 notes, tron-wolf’s^[11] post featuring a bottled reading Wolfgang which gained over 100 notes and yvov’s^[12] post on New Zealand which gained over 700 notes.

In 2013, three Tumblr posts tagged #shareacokewith gained over 100 notes including winters-ghost-soldier’s^[7] post on Merlin which gained over 300 notes, ipodger’s^[8] post on Tomb Raider which gained over 300 notes and soemthingsparkly’s^[9] post on Homestuck which gained over 400 notes.

As of July 2014, five Tumblr posts tagged #shareacokewith have gained over 100 notes in 2014, including sabriel-otp’s^[4]Supernatural post which gained over 1,000 notes, catie-does-things’s^[5] post which recreates the Nativity with cans which gained over 400 notes and undies-comma-dirty^[6]Frozen post which gained over 800 notes.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Operation Save Gaza is an online vigilant campaign orchestrated by members of Anonymous against Israeli websites in response to the Israeli Defense Forces’ military operations in Gaza in July 2014.

Background

On July 3rd, 2014, the Anonymous faction AnonGhost uploaded a video to YouTube titled “Message to Israhell and all the world #OpSaveGaza,” threatening cyberattacks against Israel for military actions taken during Operation Brother’s Keeper (shown below).

Notable Developments

On July 9th, the Israeli news blog Times of Israel^[3] reported on #OpSaveGaza, including an interview with Israel Internet Association CEO Dina Beer who lauded the country’s network defense technology:

“We have very advanced protection systems that can detect when computers are creating phony traffic just to bring down a site, and we can automatically cut off those IP addresses from connecting. In addition, we can bar whole blocks of IP addresses from connecting to Israeli sites.”

On July 17th, the @YourAnonCentral Twitter feed posted a tweet in support of #OpSaveGaza (shown below). On July 18th, the IBI Times^[6] reported that Anonymous had taken down 1,000 Israeli government and business websites.

On July 19th, the Anonymous Official YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Anonymous – Israel and Palestine: Operation Save Gaza,” which called on viewers to target Israeli websites with cyberattacks in retaliation for Israel’s Operation Protective Edge military operation (shown below).

On July 21st, AnonGhost published a list of over 170 emails and passwords claimed as the login details to the official Israeli government gov.il website.^[5] On July 23rd, The Daily Dot^[4] published an article about #OpSaveGaza titled “Anonymous Goes to War with Israel.” On July 24th, the @AnonymousVideo YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Anonymous in Solidarity with Gaza,” which accused the Israeli government of using experimental weapons on Palestinian civilians (shown below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Intervention was a reality television series in which the friends and families of people with various kinds of addictions would stage interventions to persuade the addict to seek treatment. Dramatic clips from the show have frequently circulated online in the form of videos and animated GIFs.

History

Intervention ran from March 6th, 2005 to July 18th, 2013 and featured a wide variety of addictions, including alcoholism, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, compulsive shopping, compulsive exercise, drug addiction, food addiction, inhalants addiction, gambling addiction, plastic surgery addiction, rage addiction, self-injury, sexual addiction and video game addiction.

Online Presence

On May 18th, 2011, the “Fuck Yes Intervention” Tumblr^[1] blog was launched, which highlights screen captures and animated GIFs from the show (shown below).

On February 6th, 2012, Intervention cameraman Chris Baron did an “ask me anything” post on the /r/IAmA^[3] subreddit about his experiences on the show, which gained over 1,800 votes (91% upvoted) prior to being archived. On May 29th, 2013, the VH1 YouTube channel uploaded a parody of Intervention in which a woman suffers from an addiction to twerking (shown below). In the first year, the video gained over 4.1 million views and 4,300 comments. On June 13th, the pop culture blog Vulture^[2] published an article listing the “5 Most Unforgettable Episodes of Intervention.”

Related Memes

Walking on Sunshine

Walking on Sunshine is a video remix series based on footage from an Intervention episode detailing a young woman’s struggle with inhalant addiction. The videos usually feature the 1983 hit single with the same name by the English-American rock band Katrina and the Waves for comedic effect.

Best Cry Ever

Best Cry Ever is a series of remix videos based on a scene from Intervention, in which former boxer Rocky Lockridge has an emotional breakdown as his son professes his love for him. Due to the unordinary nature of his high pitched cry, the video became a popular source for parodies and remixes on YouTube.

Search Interest

External References

About

@Midnight is a comedy game show which premiered on Comedy Central in 2013, and is hosted by comedian Chris Hardwick. The show has become popular online for its frequent online celebrity guests and for its hashtag games.

History

@Midnight premiered on Comedy Central on October 21st, 2013. On November 15th, 2013, the show was renewed^[7] for a second season. As of July 2014, the show has aired 110 episodes over the course of two seasons. It has been nominated for a 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Program.

Game Play

Each show is played by three celebrity guests and broken down into separate mini games, including regulars such as:

*11:59 and 59 Seconds: When the contestants react to a popular YouTube clip, the contestants are not awarded any points for this section.

*Rapid Refresh: A trivia game which asks the contestant multiple choice questions about trending stories.

*Hashtag Wars: A game which introduces a new hashtag and calls for contestants to make up examples on the spot.

*Live Challenge: Which involves contestants coming up with answers to the game during the commercial break.

*For the Win: Before this final game, the contestant in third place must leave. The contestant’s answers are read blind, and the audience decides which won deserves the win.

There are also recurring games such a:

*Take Back the Nightmare: A game which let’s the contestants re-name creepy children’s shows.

*Juggalok Cupid: A game which asks contests to identify the real quote from a Juggalo’s OkCupid account.

Online Presence

As of July 2014, the @Midnight Twitter account^[2] has gained over 260,000 followers and its Facebook page^[3] has gained over 48,000 likes. Its Instagram account^[5] has gained over 22,000 followers and its Vine account^[6] has gained over 8,000 followers. The show also has an official Tumblr blog atmidnightcc.^[4]

Related Memes

#RuinaChildrensBook

#RuinaChildrensBook is a hashtag game played on Twitter that involves altering or adding to the title of a classic children’s book that would make the book unpleasant or distasteful. The hashtag originated from an episode of @Midnight which aired on March 24th, 2014. Within 24 hours of the episode airing the hashtag #RuinaChildrensBook^[3] was tweeted out over 126,000 times. On March 25th, The Daily Dot^[1] and Bustle^[4] published posts covering the spread of the hashtag.

Charlie and the Chocolate Allergy #RuinAChildrensBook

— Norm Wilner (@wilnervision) March 25, 2014

Harry Potter and the Kidney Stone #RuinAChildrensBook

— Jo Knowles (@JoKnowles) March 25, 2014

James and the Giant Peach-Sized Tumor. #ruinachildrensbook midnight</p>&mdash; James Sims (SimsJames) March 25, 2014

#Buttflix

#Buttflix is a hashtag game which was introduced during a segment on @Midnight that aired on April 2nd, 2014. In the segment, Hardwick held a contest in which guests on the show were awarded points for listing movie titles with jokes about rear ends (shown below).

The Curious Case of Benjamin's Butthole #buttflixmidnight</a></p>&mdash; J.DeL (nthensome) April 3, 2014

he's just not that into poo #buttflix@midnight

— Frank Maloney (@frankxmaloney) April 3, 2014

The Rocky Horror Pinch a Loaf. #buttflix@midnight

— Ryan Lindsay (@THEryanlindsay) April 3, 2014

#BadPrequels

#BadPrequels is a hashtag game which asks Twitter users to create the title of a fictional prequel to a well-known film that sounds far less interesting than its original counterpart. The hashtag was introduced on @Midnight on an episodes which aired on May 6th, 2014. The idea for the hashtag was sparked by the release of the trailer for the Batman prequel Gotham. Guest comedians Scott Aukerman^[6], @Willieforcrack^[7] and James Adomain^[8] offered their #BadPrequel titles before Twitter users were called to play.

Search Interest

External References

About

Nose Mouth is single topic blog which features photoshopped images of celebrities with such disproportionately enlarged noses that entirely cover their mouths, similar to other celebrity face photoshop memes such as Actresses Without Teeth and Celebrities Without Eyebrows.

Origin

Nose Mouth^[1] was created by Tumblr blogger and artist Phil Pastore^[7] on November 10th, 2011, with one picture of President Barack Obama with his nose altered to cover his mouth. The blog was not updated with new photos again until March 31st, 2014. As of July 2014, the Tumblr blog has gained^[5] over 5,000 followers and accepts follower submissions.

Spread

On May 15th, the Tumblr blog created its Twitter account^[3] and as of July 2014, the blog’s Facebook page^[2] has gained over 200 likes. On July 24th, 2014, The Laughing Squid^[4] published an article titled “Nosemouth, Digitally Manipulated Photos of Celebrities That Imagine Them With an Enlarged Nose and No Mouth.” The same day the blog was covered by Mashable^[5], and the following day it was covered by Buzzfeed.^[6]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

San Diego Comic-Con is an annual comic convention held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California in July. The scope of the conference has grown to include fantasy and science fiction television shows and movies, and the conference has become famous for the impressive Cosplay displays.

Background

San Diego Comic Con^[1] was created by a group of Comic enthusiasts, with the first one-day Con taking place on March 21st, 1970, and the first three day convention held from August 1st to 3rd, 1970, at the U.S. Grant Hotel. The convention moved to its current location, San Diego Convention Center, in 1991. In 1974, the con added their first Masquerade ball as an opportunity for cosplayers to show off their costumes.

Notable Developments

Social Media Presence

On September 29th, 2006, San Diego Comic Con created its official YouTube channel^[4], as of July 2014, the channel has gained over 11,000 subscribers. The channel features videos of panels which were held at past cons, interviews with famous con guests and interviews with ordinary attendees. As of July 2014, the most viewed video, which was uploaded on July 28th, 2009, is titled “Peter Jackson Sets the Record Straight on The Hobbit” which featured the Lord of the Rings director discussing the then upcoming Hobbit film. The video has gained over 90,000 views.

San Diego Comic Con’s official Twitter account^[2] was created in October 2008, as of July 2014 it has gained over 500,000 followers, and Its Facebook page^[3] has gained over 780,000 likes.

Media Coverage

One of the first articles by a main stream media site on the convention was published by the New York Times^[5] on August 5th, 2007, titled “We’re All Geeks Here.” On September 17th, 2007, The Laughing Squid^[6] published a post titled “1982 San Diego Comic Con Photos by Alan Light” which featured vintage photographs from a 1980s con.

The con was profiled by the New York Times^[7] again in 2008, and on June 15th, 2009, io9^[8] published an article titled “San Diego Comic Con: Not Really For Girls?” which discussed sexism at the convention. Several sites published guides to the convention in 2010, including Jezebel^[9] and The Huffington Post.^[10] The following year several sites posted photo galleries from the convention including Hollywood Reporter^[12] and Mashable.^[11] In 2012, several websites featured women attending the convention including Entertainment Weekly^[13] and NPR.^[14] In 2013, many websites published recaps of the convention including The Verge^[15] and IGN.^[16]

Search Interest

Search interest for San Diego Comic Con spikes every July when the conference is held.

External References

(w.i.p. WOOOOO my first entry in a while, and on my birthday too! As a birthday gift, don’t complain about the state of the entry until it’s actually done)

About

Code Geass, also known as Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ Kōdo Giasu: Hangyaku no Rurūshu), is a 2006 Mecha anime series produced by Sunrise. Since it originally aired, the show garnered a significant fanbase, especially online, spwaning a number of fan works and derivatives.

History

Code Geass originally started out as a 25 episode anime series created by the studio Sunrise, also known for their work on other mecha anime series such as the Gundam franchise. The show originally ran from October 5, 2006 to July 28, 2007 in Japan, but was also later picked up by Adult Swim and premiered on April 27, 2008. A second season, titled Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 also aired from April 6 to September 28, 2008, and later premiered on Adult Swim on November 2 of the same year. The series also spread to a variety of other media in response to the popularity, spawning a number of manga adaptations, and series of Light Novel adaptations, as well as a video game adaptation for the Playstation Portable and Playstation 2.

Premise

Reception

Online Relevance

Fandom

Related Sub-Memes

United States of Japan-pan

Spinzaku Kick

I Will Now Proceed to Pleasure Myself With This Fish

Search Interest

External References

About

Beavis and Butthead is an MTV original animated series that aired from 1993-1997 with the pilot airing in 1992. It was created by Mike Judge, creator of Office Space, King of the Hill and Idiocracy, who also voiced the titular (heheheh) title characters. Episodes were approximately 15 minutes at most.

Despite receiving criticism for allegedly promoting dangerous behavior in children, it gained a large cult following and has become a staple of 90s culture. The innuendo-heavy and irreverent mannerisms of Beavis and Butthead have been very prevalent in pop culture. Their quotes, laughter and images are often used online in a response to something that contains an innuendo, intentionally or not.

History

Beavis and Butthead first appeared in a 3 minute short film called “Frog Baseball” that was featured in the animation showcase “Liquid Television” in 1992. The short was picked up by MTV and was developed into a full series that began on March 8, 1993. The show ran for 203 episodes before ending on November 28, 1997.

A movie, Beavis and Butthead Do America, was released on December 20, 1996. Aside from the usual cast it also featured Demi Moore, Bruce Willis and even David Letterman.

The series was later revived for a single season on October 27, 2011, although it currently remains in creative limbo with Mike Judge focusing on producing a live action film.

Features

The show is notable for its segments in which the duo provide their own commentary to music videos, mocking it and cracking jokes, unless it is deemed “cool”.

Reception

Critical and audience reception for Beavis and Butthead have been overall positive, although it was notorious for the level of criticism it received from watchdog groups, concerned parents and even Senator Fritz Hollings. Criticisms stemmed from the perceived “glorifying” of reckless and dangerous behavior and being overall terrible role models.

MTV responded by increasing the amount of disclaimers that appeared in the show, although defenders of the show cite the fact that it`s meant to satire the very behavior that it`s allegedly glorifying. Still, censors tightened their grip on the show and previous episodes were edited to meet their demands.

About

Panic Sell Wands, or Panic Sell X, is a repetitious phrase and potential snowclone found among the RuneScape community. The phrase is used to both satirize, and showcase, the unstable economy found within the MMORPG RuneScape.

Origin

On July 3rd, 2013, RuneScape developer Jagex released Vorago: a mountainous boss which proves to be a massive challenge to even the most skilled monster hunter. Those who dare face Vorago aim to receive his rarest riches, the best item of which being the Seismic Wand: the best magic-based weapon within the game. However, due to the rarity of this weapon, and the difficulty of downing Vorago to potentially receive the drop, this has caused the Seismic Wand to not only have a high market price among players, but to also have an unstable market price, with even the slightest buff or nerf to the Magic Skill to cause the price of the Wand to change plus or minus a couple hundred million coins.

About

You merely adopted the X meme is a meme involving a picture of Bane or Somebody wearing a Bane mask being captioned either “You merely adopted the X, I was born in it. Molded by it.” or “You merely adopted the X, I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn’t see the X until I was a grown X and by then it was nothing to me.”

Origin

It is unknown where the meme we know of originated from but it is speculated that it probably started on a meme generator site like Memegenerator.net. The original quote is said to Batman by Bane after Bane punches Batman in the darkness in the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises.

Spread

It spread by multiple pages using it to show their admin name or display it on facebook after seeing it on a meme generator site, this being seen by multiple users let it spread as the users customized it before ending up as a quote on IMDB.

Notable Examples

An example of someone wearing a Bane Mask being captioned
An example of Bane being captioned

An example of someone wearing a Bane mask being captioned

Search Interest

About

Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” Cover Parodies are a series of photoshopped images based on American rapper Nicki Minaj’s cover art for “Anaconda,” one of the lead singles from her upcoming 2014 studio album The Pink Print, in which she is shown squatted down in a pink bikini suit that almost completely reveals the curvature of her butt.

Origin

On July 24th, 2014, Minaj posted an a picture of the album art for her upcoming single “Anaconda” on her Instagram account^[1] with the caption “7/28 #ANACONDA on iTunes.” In less than a week the post gained over 290,000 likes and over 20,000 comments.

The same day Minaj posted a fan made photoshop parody of the cover with put her in the middle of the Google logo so her butt stood in place of the two Os. In less than a week the post gained over 370,000 likes and over 20,000 comments.

Spread

Also on July 24th, #Anaconda became a trending topic^[3] on Twitter in the US. On July 25th, The Hollywood Gossip^[6] published a roundup of the photoshopped image titled “Nicki Minaj Anaconda Cover Inspires Booty-Tastic Memes!” The following day Hollywood Life^[2] published a roundup of the meme. On July 27th, Minaj posted a photo on her Instagram account with a caption announcing the release of “Anaconda” had been pushed back, which read:

“My darlingz, I’ve pushed the release of Anaconda to next week, Monday 8/4. I promise you will understand why before the week is out. Loveeeeeeee uuuuuu”

The same day a roundup of the meme was featured on Hot New Hip Hop.^[5] On July 28th, the meme was covered by MTV^[4].

Notable Examples

Notable Examples

External References

Moms Against Gaming is a twitter account created with the purpose to ban violent video games. This account mainly targets games that are either violent or very safe and accused of being violent. The account encourages moms to take away games from kids and and uses Photoshoped images (Possibly from Google images) to show parents how dangerous said game is.

The account currently has gained tons of hateful comments due to insulting games and the company claiming ‘’they are evil’’ and insulting any kind of gamer and comparing them to the Nazis. Most people question the account, because the owner of the account does not do any research of said game and instead decides to tell parents to ‘delete the game’.

Some people have explained that this is a parody account (also known as a trolling account) and looks for different games to tell parents to remove from kids to make the Fan-Base of the game become offended (Most recently Minecraft). Kotaku explained it was a joke account and people shouldn’t really take it seriously, however, some people have believed the tweets from the account is actually telling the truth.

http://kotaku.com/moms-against-gaming-is-my-new-favorite-twitter-account-1597931312

Minecraft Lead developer Jens Bergensten had also explained saying ‘’Maybe it’s time to remind people not to feed the trolls? Stop tweeting me about “__ against gaming”, thanks!’’

The profile has not confessed it’s a joke account however most people say it’s pretty obvious and some people defending the account are actually trolling as well to bait gamers.

About

#AskJesus is a hashtag that was originally designated by the English Premiere League football club Manchester City for a live Q&A session on Twitter with its star midfielder and Spanish professional soccer player Jesús Navas. Upon its introduction, however, the hashtag became a target of various jokes and humorous questions aimed at Jesus Christ, due to the apparent proximity in the spelling of their names.

Background

On July 28th, 2014, the official Twitter account for the Manchester City Football Club^[1] tweeted out a request for questions for Spanish soccer player Jesus Navas, asking Twitter users to tag their questions with the hashtag #AskJesus.

Within two minutes of the Football Club’s original tweet, Twitter user Prenticee_x^[3] sent out a tweet with the hashtag featuring a biblical reference obviously jokingly posing a question to Jesus Christ, not Jesus Navas.

Notable Developments

Media Coverage

Also on July 28th, The Huffington Post^[4] published a round-up of tweets using the hashtag in an article titled “Manchester City’s #AskJesus Twitter Q&A Descends Into Farce.” That same day, the hashtag was covered by many British and American news sites, including The Independent^[5] and NBC Sports^[6]. In less than 24 hours, the hashtag^[2] was tweeted out over 17,000 times.

Notable Examples

Derivative: #AskLamps

Also on July 28th, approximately four hours after Manchester City launched the hashtag #AskJesus, the official Twitter account for the New York City Football Club^[7] sent out a tweet asking Twitter users for questions for English soccer player Frank Lampard asking them to use the hashtag #AskLamps.

Twitter users quickly used the hashtag to jokingly ask questions of the home accesory rather than the athlete. In less than 24 hours the hashtag^[8] was tweeted out over 2,000 times. The same day the hashtag was covered by Buzzfeed^[9] and Bleacher Report.^[10]

Search Interest

External References

About

Dan Bilzerian is an American venture capitalist and former professional poker player who has become known as “Instagram’s Biggest Playboy" for sharing various photographs of his luxury possessions and lavish lifestyle on the popular image-sharing platform.

Career

Bilzerian began his professional gambling career sometime in the late 2000s after serving four years in the United States Navy and inheriting a large sum of money from his father. As of 2014, Bilzerian claims to have earned over $50 million in cash prizes in various poker tournaments throughout his gambling career. In 2013, Bilzerian had a minor role in the American war film Lone Survivor after investing one million dollars in the film’s production.

Online History

In May 2010, Bilzerian created a Twitter^[4] feed, which garnered more than 757,000 followers in the following five years. On May 1st, 2012, Bilzerian launched his Instagram^[1] account to share glimpses of his glamorous lifestyle, including pictures of himself vacationing in exotic locations, testing firearms and posing with expensive automobiles and groups of attractive-looking women. In the first two years, the feed gained over 3.6 million followers. On January 8th, 2014, Bilzerian created an official Facebook^[3] page for himself, which accumulated upwards of 4.4 million likes in seven months. On March 21st, BuzzFeed^[2] highlighted several of Bilzerian’s Instagram photos (shown below).

On March 28th, the All In Mag YouTube channel uploaded an interview with Bilzerian, gathering more than 1.56 million views and 700 comments in the next four months. On April 17th, the FPSRussia YouTube channel uploaded a video in which Bilzerian and several scantily clad women shoot watermelons with assault rifles (shown below). In three months, the video gained over 2.3 million views and 6,700 comments.

The Rooftop Incident

On April 24th, 2014, a video was uploaded to Instagram showing Bilzerian throwing a nude adult film actress Janice Griffith off of a roof into a pool below. Before being thrown, the woman appears to change her mind and grabs Bilzerian’s shirt, causing her to fall too close to the side of the pool and breaking her foot on the edge. The video was subsequently deleted, but was reuploaded to YouTube several times.

On May 15th, the blog Total Frat Move reported that Griffith was planning to sue Bilzerian and published a letter purportedly sent by Bilzerian’s lawyer in response (shown below).

Howard Stern Interview

On July 22nd, 2014, Bilzerian was interviewed on the Howard Stern radio show, where he told stories about his life growing up, his various sexual escapades, going through Navy SEAL training and being a professional gambler.

Personal Life

Bilzerian was born on December 7th, 1980 in Tampa, Florida. Bilzerian inherited a large sum of money from his father Paul, a Wall Street corporate take-over specialist who was convicted of securities and tax law violations in the late 1980s. By the age of 30, Bilzerian had survived two heart attacks.

Search Interest

External References

About

Captioned Stock Photos, also known as You Don’t Surf, are a series of stock photographs with captions depicting vulgar dialogue between the subjects, bearing many similarities to interior monologue captioning.

Origin

On June 22nd, 2013, Redditor nl13 submitted a stock photo of an old man and a young boy titled “Fun Times with Gramps,” with a caption of the man chastising the boy for wearing a T-shirt with the word “Surf” written on it (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 1,800 votes on the /r/funny^[1] subreddit (86% upvoted).

Spread

On October 31st, 2013, the /r/youdontsurf^[2] subreddit was launched for captioned stock photo submissions, gathering upwards of 63,000 subscribers in 10 months. On February 5th, 2014, Redditor ScTiVCrMnFeCoNiCuZn submitted a captioned stock photo of a family titled “You’re such a fucking professional” to /r/youdontsurf, which received more than 5,900 votes (96% upvoted) in five months (shown below, left). On March 8th, Redditor Lots456 submitted a picture of a young boy using a tin can telephone to tell a little girl to “send the nudes bitch” to the /r/funny^[3] subreddit (shown below, right). In four months, the post accumulated over 2,200 votes (81% upvoted) and 50 comments. On July 28th, BuzzFeed highlighted 25 notable examples from the /r/youdontsurf subreddit.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Wikipediocracy is a website dedicated to the criticism of Wikipedia. Launched in early 2012, it is not the first website of its kind; Wikipedia has attracted critics for years since its inception, and for most of that time an independent forum called Wikipedia Review played host to the cranks’ most fervent complaints. Wikipedia Review was all but persona non grata on Wikipedia, where it was considered the prototypical “WP:BADSITE”.

Yet Wikipediocracy has became much more relevant, thanks to its use of a blog as its front site, spotlighting its best arguments while making it easier for outsiders to follow. This is more insightful, if not always less hostile, critics’ forum, and perhaps this has led more who genuinely like Wikipedia to participate. Whether most Wikipediocracy members think they can make Wikipedia better is questionable, but it seems quite likely that Wikipedia has made Wikipediocracy better.

In just the past calendar year, Wikipediocracy’s distributed network of well-placed, often anonymous, usually pseudonymous observers have played an influential role moving several conflicts into mainstream view. Exposés from Salon about a fiction writer tormenting rivals with malicious edits (the Qworty case) and from Daily Dot about a clever hoax article (the Bicholim Conflict)--to say nothing of some controversies discussed elsewhere in this list--had their roots on Wikipediocracy.

However, Wikipediocracy had inherited the same insanity over the culture and the set of rules as Wikipedia is. They seem to worship these rules to eliminating members so that they can mock them. Posts and threads got deleted, and newbies who have been registered or even site veterans were banned. This was the case for some banned Wikipedia users with unethical methods by administrators, such as the individual who is behind the Bryan Seecrets account and its sock Starkiller88, whom was banned by personal attacks, incivility, defamation, threats and outing. The website itself became controversial, which opens the door to Wikipedia editors and administrators alike being empowered to do anything to block out these critical sites until the point where they were taken down.

History

Wikipediocracy was launched in March 16, 2012 by a group of current and former Wikipedia editors, such as William V. Burns (aka Zoloft and Stanistani).

In March 2013, Wikipediocracy became the subject of a controversy within the Wikipedia community. An article, revealing the editor Russavia’s identity to be Austrailian web merchant Scott Bibby, was published. This led to a controversy within Wikipedia, as its administrators and the Arbitration Committee seek to hide his identity. One arbitrator, Anthony G. Kelly, escalated this situation by unilaterally blacklisting the website.

At the time of Russavia’s indefinite block in June 2013, they discuss about Dennis Brown’s reversion of the ban, and Russavia’s activities until January the following year.

In August 2013, Zoloft banned the newly-registered user with a death threat on behalf of BatteryIncluded and the Wikipedia community due to a ripple effect throughout the site.

Traffic

Wikipediocracy is visited by critics.

Features

The front site is actually a blog, explaining its best arguments while making it easier for outsiders to follow.

There is a discussion forum.

And finally, a wiki.

Highlights

Russavia

Wikipediocracy published an article on Russavia, revealing his identity as Scott Bibby, who is also behind “russiansafetycards”. Charles Ainsworth, an editor of military history articles, was blocked for linking to it, and was briefly unblocked by one administrator, Kevin, who himself was later desysopped and admonished for helping him, but had his administrator tools reinstated. AGK indefinitely blocked another user, MZMcBride, without providing a block summary and added the blacklist with a highly misleading edit summary, but his addition wasn’t logged; this action constitutes his sustained series of unilateral actions taken, which includes declining appeals in less than a day without stating any further reason. Russavia was later unblocked and goes on a similar three-month campaign mirroring to that of the disruptive campaign around Phobos-Grunt and its related articles.

About

Sabina Altynbekova is a Kazakh teenager and volleyball player for Kazakhstan’s U-19 women’s national team who became an internet celebrity for her good looks during her appearance at the Asian Junior Volleyball Championship in Taipei, Taiwan.

History

On July 16th, 2014, the 17th Asian Women’s U-19 Volleyball Championship commenced in Taipei, Taiwan. During the event, Sabina Altynbekova, a 17-year-old teenager for Kazakhstan’s national team, quickly began drawing the Taiwanese local media and online attention for her apparent beauty, though she rarely made appearances in the matches. After losing to India 2-3 in the semi-finals, Kazakhstan finished in the 7th place.

Fandom

On YouTube, interview videos and clips of Sabina Altynbekova at the game were uploaded by the Taiwanese fans. On July 22nd, a YouTube channel for the athlete was launched with a video titled “Beautiful Asian Women Volleyball Player Kazakhstan U19,” which has gained more than 1.15 million views in less than a week.

Several other unofficial fan accounts for Sabina were launched as well, including two Twitter accounts with over 28,000 and 3,000 followers, respectively, and four Facebook pages dedicated to the teenage athlete from Kazakhstan, one of which has gained more than 120,000 likes. According to the Daily Mail, and as suggested by the comments left on these pages, the majority of the fan support for Altynbekova seems to stem from China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, with some even creating anime-style fan art illustrations, similar to the fandomization of the Crimean prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya.

Meanwhile, her official social media accounts on Instagram and VK social network have also seen a boost from her newfound internet fame, with her Instagram followers jumping to more than 41,000 over the span of a week.

News Media Coverage

The Kazakh teenager’s unexpected stardom in Taiwan was instantly picked up by both regional and international news outlets, including The Strait Times, which reported on the unusual spike in public and media interest in the tournament event as a result of Altynbekova’s fame. The story made the international headlines when Nurlan Sadikov, the coach on Kazakhstan’s national team, reportedly complained about the phenomenon surrounding the teenager, quoted as saying:

“It is impossible to work like this. The crowd behaves like there is only one player at the championship.”

In contrast to the international media coverage of the teenage athlete, Kazakh news publications expressed less enthusiasm towards the media obsession surrounding her, with the Kazakh daily newspaper Vesti commenting that ""fans just stare at her and they are not following the championship any more."

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External References

About

Batman London is the Vine handle used by a man living in London, England, who creates short Vine videos while dressed as and acting as Batman in a comedic way, similar to the Vines of BatDad.

Online History

Batman London^[1] posted its first Vine on October 6th, 2013. Titled “Batman on a Sunday” it features a man dressed as Batman dancing in his chair while watching TV, before gruffly ordering a second man out of his room when he notices the dancing. As of July 2014, the Vine has gained over 500 likes, and the Vine account has gained over 6,000 followers and over 1.1 million loops.

As of July 2014, the two Vines which have gained the most likes are “Don’t Give Batman the Wrong Crackers,” uploaded on January 22nd, 2014, which has gained over 2,000 likes and “Batman wants to be famous,” a parody of Viner Rachel Olsen’s “I Want to Be Famous” Vine uploaded on January 31st, 2014, which has gained over 5,000 likes.

Media Coverage

On July 29th, 2014, Buzzfeed^[2] published a post covering the Vine account titled “There’s Someone On Vine Pretending To Be Batman Living In London And He’s Hilarious.” The same day the Vines were covered by several websites including UpRoxx,^[3] Geeks Are Sexy^[4] and PHL17.^[15]

Notable Examples

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About

Woman in Black is a mysterious figure who has been sighted wearing a long flowing black dress and black shroud while walking along highways in parts of the United States. After photos of the woman began circulating online in June 2014, the woman was identified as United States Army veteran Elizabeth Poles.

Origin

On June 1st, 2014, police responded to a report of a suspicious woman wearing a “black shroud and head piece” outside a highway convenience store in Kingsport, Tennessee. The woman told police she was visiting from the Sahara Desert to complete a “bible mission.” After claiming she resided in “the Islamic Nation” and referring to the United States as “the U.S. foreign grounds,” officers contacted the department of Homeland Security who subsequently cleared her of being a threat.^[2]

Spread

On June 3rd, 2014, YouTuber HassHail uploaded a video titled “Mystery Woman in Black,” featuring footage of a woman in a long black dress who had purportedly been seen walking around Wise County in Virginia (shown below). In the first two months, the video gathered more than 170,000 views and 200 comments.

On the same day, the local news station WCYB^[8] identified her as United States Army veteran Elizabeth Poles from Motts, Alabama and featured a Google Maps^[3] layer populated with sightings of the woman (shown below).

On July 18th, 2014, the “Where is the Mysterious Woman in Black?” Facebook^[1] page was launched for reported sightings of Poles. Within two weeks, the page gained over 34,000 likes. On July 24th, Twitter^[4] user @Milso_Sister posted a photograph of Poles walking on the side of a road in Hillsboro, Ohio along with the hashtag #womaninblack.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the social media discussions of the mysterious woman, including USA Today^[5] and NBC News.^[7] A man claiming to be Pole’s brother Raymond told Reuters^[6] that she had been receiving treatment from a Veterans Affairs hospital to cope with the deaths of her husband and father and that she has disappeared for months at a time after shaving her head and refusing to go to church.

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About

Amelia Bedelia is a Maid in Cameroon refers to a Wikipedia hoax started in 2009 by then college student EJ Dickson. Dickson edited the Wikipedia entry for the children’s book character Amelia Bedelia, writing she had been inspired by a maid in Cameroon the author had known.

Origin

In 2009, EJ Dickson, now a web journalist, altered the Wikipedia page for Amelia Bedelia, a children’s book character created by Peggy Parish in 1963 with the release of Amelia Bedelia. Dickson added a paragraph of fictional details about the source of inspiration for the character which read:

“Amelia Bedelia’s character is based on a maid in Cameroon, where the author spent some time during her formative years. Her vast collection of hats, notorious for their extensive plumage, inspired Parish to write an assortment of tales based on her experience in North.”

Spread

On July 27th, 2014, Twitter user JayCaspianKang^[2] tweeted a picture of the entry with Dickson’s incorrect edit in response to a Amelia Bedelia joke made by Twitter user mollylambert.^[3] This alerted Dickson that the edit was still a part of the Wikipedia page. On July 29th, she published a post titled “I accidentally started a Wikipedia hoax” on The Daily Dot^[1], which noted the Wikipedia edit had been cited in a number of other publications, including a blog post on HannyHernandez^[4] published on August 24th, 2012 and a post on Popcultureaddictlifeguide^[5] published on October 3rd, 2012.

The Daily Dot article was tweeted out July 29th by several web journalists^[6] including Mashable editor Matt Silverman^[7] and Buzzfeed reporter Jessica Testa.^[8]

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