Editor note: Major WIP

About

Origin

Appeared in the XLIX Superbowl half time show with Katy Perry during the performance of her song “Teenage Dream”

Spread

After halftime, famous rapper Snoop Dogg made a tweet claiming that he was one of the sharks danging next to Katy Perry.^[1] Within 8 hours this tweet gained almost 100,000 retweets.

If you were wondering that was me in tha Shark costume !!

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) February 2, 2015

At 9:08 EST Febuary 1st, Buzzfeed posted a test asking Which Katy Perry Halftime Show Shark Are You?^[2]

Various Examples

External Links

^[1]Twitter – @SnoopDogg

^[1]Buzzfeed – Which Katy Perry Halftime Show Shark Are You?

About

Rotten.com^[1] is a shock site dedicated to showcasing photographs depicting uncensored graphic medias such as extreme gore, violence, autopsies, physical deformities, and absurd sex acts. It was created by Thomas E. Dell of Soylent Communications, a website hosting company.^[2]

History

Rotten.com was registered on July 23, 1996^[3] after Dell wrote a program that listed all available domain names. He selected the domain from about 12 that showed up and launched the website in 1997 as, as he put it, a “what should I do with this domain now that I blew a hundred bucks on it” exercise.^[4]

Features

The main page contains links to the latest images as as well as to ancillary sites (some of which are now defunct), for example Mugshots.org,^[5] a website that contains mugshots of famous criminals and celebrities, and the Notable Names Database,^[6] a website that provides information on various notable individuals such as politicians, celebrities, criminals, and athletes.

Search Interest

External References

About

A Filter Bubble is a Internet phenomenon caused by web service algorithms that personalize search results and news feeds tailored to what the viewer would like to see, which is typically based off the user’s web history, geolocation and other personal information. Filter bubbles have been criticized for preventing Internet users from being exposed to opposing viewpoints, creating online echo chambers and political extremism.

Origin

In June, 2010, the former president of the liberal non-profit organization MoveOn.org Eli Pariser gave a presentation at the conference PdF 2010 titled “Filter Bubble, or How Personalization is Changing the Web” (shown below). In the talk, Pariser warned that personalized algorithms were “sublty destroying the notion of common public space.”

Spread

In March 2011, Pariser gave a TED talk titled “Beware online ‘filter bubbles’,” which gained over 3.1 million views in the next four years.^[1] On May 12th, Pariser released the book The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You.^[3]

On June 6th, 2011, the website DontBubble.us was launched, featuring an inforgraphic about filter bubbles. On September 10th, the science news site Nature published an article on Pariser’s book, which was subsequently submitted to the /r/technology^[4] subreddit, Prior to being archived the post gathered more than 1,300 votes (90% upvoted). On November 29th, 2013, the tech news site Technology Review^[5] published an article titled “How to Burst the ‘Filter Bubble’ that Protects Us from Opposing Views,” reporting that computer scientists were working on ways to use recommendation engines to expose people to alternative viewpoints. In August 2014, the app Random^[2] was released on the iOS store, which aimed to combat filter bubbles by adapting to users to show them unexpected content.

Search Interest

External References

The Big Boss salute is an reaction image used to express a sadness or sorrow for something. It comes from the ending of Metal Gear Solid when the protagonist salutes the grave of his former mentor.

About

Kid Icarus is a action-platforming game with role playing elements released in December 19th, 1986, for the Nintendo Famicom. The game takes the role of Pit, a young angel who is given a bow and arrow from the goddess of light, Lady Palutena, who ruled the Earth as the goddess of light, alongside the goddess of darkness, Medusa. When Palutena saw that Medusa was turning the human’s crops into stone she was furious and banished her to the underworld, in which out of revenge, Medusa conspired with the monsters of the underworld to take over Palutena’s rule at the Sky Temple. Palutena was then defeated and imprisoned inside the Sky Temple. Throughout the story of the game, Pit finds the Three Sacred Treasures and equips himself with them in order to stop Medusa and rescue Palutena. The game later went on to sell close to two million copies, and gained a large fan base, the game firmly planted itself as an iconic Nintendo IP.

History

The original Kid Icarus was released back in December 19th, 1986, for the Nintendo Famicom, and later released in July, 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, the game’s design, story, and characters take inspiration from Greek mythology, with the title of the game being based of the Greek myth, Icarus. The game was well praised for it’s challenging difficulty and it’s mixed gameplay elements from different genres and became a cult classic on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game later received a sequel in November, 1991, for the Nintendo Game Boy titled Kid Icarus: of Myths and Monsters which was mostly the same game with not that many notable differences. In 2010, Nintendo announced at E3 2010 that there was going to be a new Kid Icarus game for the Nintendo 3ds titled Kid Icarus: Uprising, the game was run and gun/rail shooter, being developed by Super Smash Brothers series creator, Masahiro Sakurai. The game was delayed multiple times until it finally released in March 22nd, 2012. The game went on the become a major success, being called by many players one of the best 3ds games. After Pit’s appearance as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros.: Brawl and after the huge success that was Kid Icarus: Uprising, Kid Icarus went on to become an iconic Nintendo franchise.

Online Presence

Kid Icarus was rarely seen on the internet due to there only being two games in the series that where released nearly twenty years ago, and the fact that they where old NES and Game Boy games, they where not very well known outside of hardcore Nintendo fans. Kid Icarus did not start tending on the internet until Pit appeared in the Super Smash Bros.: Brawl E3 2006 trailer, where he was showcased as a newcomer alongside Meta Knight, Zero Suit Samus, Wario, and Solid Snake. Pit was seen as an annoying character to fight in Super Smash Bros.: Brawl due to his side B attack being a multi-hit, damage racking attack, that when activated, causes Pit to yell in a loud voice which irritated many players. He was also considered annoying due to his amazing recovery and his spammed arrows. Pit was also popularized by appearing in Brawl in The Family and Awkward Zombie. Kid Icarus also became popular due to Kid Icarus: Uprising, where the game’s characters such as Dark Pit, Viridi, Hades, and Palutena where seen as quotable characters due to their lines, and they where mainly used as Reaction Images, and Expand Dong.

Related Memes

Floor Ice Cream

“Floor ice cream gives you health” is a quote from Pit in the game Kid Icarus: Uprising, in a conversation with Palutena. The quote was liked by fans due to it’s sheer randomness and it’s message.

Palutena’s Revolting Dinner

Palutena’s Revolting Dinner is an animated short, animated by Shaft. Inc. It was the last episode in a short series of a Kid Icarus anime. The video was praised due to it’s high quality animation and it’s overall silliness.

Dark Pit.

Dark Pit, also known as Pitto is an important character in Kid Icarus: Uprising, he is a flawed clone of Pit created by the Mirror of Truth. Dark Pit is a rival to Pit with a portrayal of an anti-hero type of personality. Dark Pit later caused allot of controversy in the Super Smash Brothers community when he was featured as playable clone character as Pit in Super Smash Brothers: for Wii U/3ds.

Search Interest

External References

Wikipedia- Kid Icarus Wiki

Kid Icarus Uprising Website – Kid Icarus Uprising: Official Site

Reddit – r/kidicarus

4chan – /v/ Video Games

FanPop – Kid Icarus

About

“We Can Do It!” is an American propaganda poster depicting a female worker flexing her right arm. In modern days, this poster is often associated with feminism and female empowerment.

Origin

[Work In Progress]

Spread

[Work In Progress]

Notable Examples

[Work In Progress]

Search Interest

[Work In Progress]

External References

[Work In Progress]

About

“Hold My Unicorn” is an online slang expression said in jest as an alternative reading of the acronym “hmu” in lieu of its far more commonly accepted meaning, “hit me up.”

Origin

The acronym HMU, which stands for “hit me up,” first entered colloquial usage online sometime in 2009, with the earliest known Urban Dictionary entry for the term submitted on April 19th.

HMU: AIM acronym for “hit me up.”
I’m bored. someone HMU.

On September 17th, 2010, Urban Dictionary user UnicornLover238 submitted an entry for “HMU,” defining it as an acronym for “Hold my unicorn.” Within five years, the submission became the top-voted definition for the abbreviation with over 13,500 up votes.

HMU: Hold my unicorn.
Hey, what’s up? Can you hmu? I need to tie my shoe.

Spread

In December 2010, Facebook identified the acronym as the top globally trending keyword in status updates of the year, which further boosted the subversive effort to change its meaning.

In early 2009, the acronym HMU was virtually unheard of. Only a few posts a day contained HMU, and half of them were probably typos. By May, however, it started to grow slowly and was averaging about 20 posts a day. The volume roughly doubled every month, and by the end of 2009 it had risen to 1,600 posts a day--too modest of a number to be on our radar for last year’s list. However, HMU continued to grow aggressively throughout 2010, increasing by about 75 percent each month. By the end of summer, HMU reached 80,000 mentions per day.

On May 28th, 2011, Sodahead Forums^[3] member marahtovish responded with “hold my unicorn” to a user asking what the acronym “hmu” stood for. On June 27th, Tumblr user immaculate-minds^[5] posted a list of alternative expansions for the acronym “hmu,” which included the phrase “hide my unicorn” (shown below).

On November 18th, 2012, a Facebook^[4] page titled “Hmu means Hold My Unicorn” was launched. On September 14th, 2013, Wordreference Forums^[2] member Wanda_Brown submitted a thread to the Spanish-English vocabulary board asking “What does hold my unicorn mean?” On January 26th, 2014, electronic producer Inquisitive released an electro house track titled “Hold My Unicorn” on SoundCloud (shown below).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Nationwide Dead Kid refers to the child character featured in the Super Bowl XLIX commercial for the American insurance company Nationwide in which a young boy lists a series of things he will never be able to experience in life before revealing that he was killed in an accident. Upon its airing in early February 2015, the commercial was met by mixed reactions online, with many on Twitter criticizing and mocking its emotionally exploitative premise.

Origin

During Super Bowl XLIX held on February 1st, 2015, the insurance company Nationwide released a commercial titled “Make Safe Happen,” in which a boy laments that he will never “ride a bike,” “get cooties,” “learn to fly,” “travel the world” or “get married” because he “died from an accident” (shown below). Within 72 hours, a YouTube upload of the commercial gained over 4.9 million views and 5,400 comments.

Spread

That evening, Redditor MerMista submitted the commercial in a post titled “Darkest Super Bowl ad ever?” to the /r/videos^[2] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 3,500 votes (79% upvoted) in the first 48 hours. Meanwhile, comedian Patton Oswalt posted several jokes about the commercial on Twitter (shown below).

Also on February 1st, Twitter user Jared Smith tweeted a screen captured image of the boy with the caption “I would have run it with Lynch / but I died,” mocking the Seattle Seahawks for failing to make a final play using the team’s star running back Marshawn Lynch (shown below). Within two days, the tweet gathered more than 20,600 retweets and 15,700 favorites.

Shortly after, other Twitter users posted additional captioned versions of the Nationwide screen capture (shown below).^[6][7][8]

On February 2nd, Redditor Nevek_Green submitted a Scumbag Steve image macro criticizing Nationwide for being dishonest in the commercial to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[4] subreddit (shown below). In less than 24 hours, the post gained over 2,700 votes (88% upvoted). The same day, the news sites Daily Mail^[9] and Bustle^[5] highlighted notable image macros mocking the ad.

Nationwide Press Release

In response to the online backlash for the commercial, Nationwide^[3] issued a press release claiming that the purpose of the commercial was to raise awareness about childhood death due to injuries occurring in the home.

“Preventable injuries around the home are the leading cause of childhood deaths in America. Most people don’t know that. Nationwide ran an ad during the Super Bowl that started a fierce conversation. The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance. We want to build awareness of an issue that is near and dear to all of us--the safety and well being of our children. We knew the ad would spur a variety of reactions. In fact, thousands of people visited MakeSafeHappen.com, a new website to help educate parents and caregivers with information and resources in an effort to make their homes safer and avoid a potential injury or death. Nationwide has been working with experts for more than 60 years to make homes safer. While some did not care for the ad, we hope it served to begin a dialogue to make safe happen for children everywhere.”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies is an exploitable 4-panel webcomic featuring a young girl who wishes that she could speak to a pony, but upon its fulfillment, the talking animal blurts out a blunt or insensitive statement that leaves her disappointed and upset.

Origin

On February 21st, 2014, illustrator Jim Benton^[7] posted an original comic on Reddit in which a young girl is granted the power to speak with ponies by a magical fairy. In the final panel, a pony is shown tormenting the girl by asking her “why are you so ugly all the time” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 2,000 votes (95% upvoted) on the /r/funny^[1] subreddit.

On November 8th, Redditor CloudCollapse posted an Imgur gallery featuring an exploitable template of the comic (shown below) along with several customized examples, purportedly collected from the /b/ (random) board on 4chan. In two months, the post accumulated upwards of 1,600 votes (90% upvoted) and 40 comments on the /4/chan^[4] subreddit.

Spread

The same day, Redditor Sir-SmokesALot submitted a version of the webcomic titled “Things a pony would say,” in which the horse informs the girl that “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” in reference to an argument made by conspiracy theorists who claim that the September 11th, 2001 attacks were orchestrated by the United States government (shown below, left).^[2] On November 16th, Redditor Corruptacy posted a version in which the pony says “Hitler did bring up some pretty valid points” (shown below, right).^[3] In two months, the posts gathered more than 4,400 votes (92% upvoted) and 1,200 votes (82% upvoted) on /r/funny respectively.

On July 27th, Redditor Nodebunny posted another version in an /r/funny^[6] post titled “Be Careful What You Wish For” (shown below, left). On December 13th, IGN Forums^[5] member SkywardNord submitted a comic in which the pony says the Islamic Arabic expression “Allahu Akbar” (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Revenge Porn refers to any sexually explicit content that is shared on the Internet without the consent of the subject pictured within. The practice is typically associated with those who seek to publicly shame ex-partners by leaking their intimate photos for strangers, friends and family members to see.

Origin

In the 1980s, the adult magazine Hustler ran a monthly feature titled “Beaver Hunt,” which featured reader-submitted photographs of nude women, some of whom subsequently sued the magazine for publishing the photos without their consent. In 2000, Italian researcher Sergio Messina coined the term “realcore” for pictures and video of ex-partners that were shared in Usenet groups.^[1]

Spread

In 2008, the pornographic video site XTube claimed it was receiving weekly complaints from people claiming their exes had posted their sexually explicit videos for revenge. In 2010, housepainter Joshua Ashby from New Zealand was sent to prison for logging into his ex-girlfriend’s Facebook account and posting a nude photograph of her that remained online for 12 hours.^[2]

Is Anyone Up?

In August 2010, founder Hunter Moore launched his adult media submission site Is Anyone Up?, featuring photographs and videos of anyone of legal age uploaded to the site, often including musicians and fans of the hardcore music genre. The site came under fire for frequently hosting nude photographs of women along with their full names and Facebook profiles. In April 2012, Is Anyone Up? was taken offline when Moore sold the site to an anti-bullying charity.

End Revenge Porn

In August 2012, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative launched the EndRevengePorn.org^[4] site as part of an effort to criminalize the act of distributing sexually explicit media without the subject’s consent.

U Got Posted

In 2012, San Diego resident Kevin Bollaert launched the revenge porn website UGotPosted, which received over 10,000 anonymous image submissions until the site was shutdown in December 2013 after Bollaert was charged with 31 felony counts. In February 2015, Bollaert was found guilty of identity theft and extortion by a San Diego County Superior Court jury, marking the first conviction of a revenge-porn site operator.^[3]

The Fappening

In August 2014, hackers leaked a large collection of celebrity nude photographs in an event known as “The Fappening”, which has been considered by some to be an example of revenge porn although the leak was orchestrated by hackers instead of jilted ex-partners.

Legal Status

In January 2014, Israel passed a law classifying revenge porn as a sex crime punishable by up to five years in prison. As of February 2015, 13 states in the United States have enacted laws against revenge porn, inlcuding Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Search Interest

External References

About

Bill Clinton Records/Bill Clinton Swag is an exploitable meme using an image template of former U.S. President Bill Clinton with several vinyl albums. The original image was a photoshop taken from an article by The Onion back in 1999.

Origin

The original image was created by the satirical news website The Onion, for an article entitled Clinton Writes Fan Letter to Joan Jett".^[1] The fake article details how then President Bill Clinton wrote a letter to 80’s rockstar Joan Jett, and describes him as a devoted fan. Included in the article was a photoshopped image of Clinton sitting on the floor and holding a vinyl version of the Joan Jett and The Runaways album, “I Love Rock and Roll”, while listening to a record player through a set of and headphones, and surrounded by several other Joan Jett albums.

Spread

The image has been used in 4chan’s /mu/ board as a way of showing a user’s four favorite albums: each album in the image being replaced by the user’s own albums. The earliest known instance of this was in a /mu/ thread from September 26th, 2012.^[2] In May of 2013, the website Bill Clinton Swag was created.^[3] The site allows users to select four albums from a search bar, and generates a new version of the image for them. The site was featured in an article on Buzzfeed,^[4] and has been used in threads on Reddit,^[5] Rap Genius,^[6] Metafilter,^[7] and Vocamania.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

Robert Mugabe Fall is a picture editing trend that started when the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, fell down some stairs at Harare Airport. Photographers claim to have been forced to delete the pictures they took. Mugabe was quickly edited into different situations.

References

About

Viper is the stage name of rapper Lee Carter. He is known for his untraditional style of hip-hop music, as well as for the sheer amount of music he has released, totaling over 300 individual albums.

Early Life

Carter was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, and later moved to Houston, Texas. He began rapping at the age of 9.^[1]

Spread

Although it was not his first album, Viper’s most notable release, You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack, was released on February 19, 2008.^[2][3]

The album, as well as Viper in general, was initially ignored by critics until some time in 2013, though upon its discovery, it was noted for its unorthodox, independent nature, as well as its bizarrely up-front album name and cover art.^[4] In 2014 alone, Viper released 347 albums.

Internet Presence

Viper’s official Twitter account has nearly 45,000 followers.^[5]

You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack has become a meme in and of itself, for the reasons previously mentioned, with various album cover parodies as proof of this. Viper’s other album covers are occasionally used as reaction images, due to their amateur quality, marked mostly by the overuse of clip art images, images of Viper, and poorly-overlaid text, as well as blunt and grammatically incorrect album names.

Notable Examples

Viper Album Covers

You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack Parodies

Search Interest

References

About

Operation Disrespectful Nod was an email campaign organised and executed by supporters of the Gamergate movement in September 2014, sending emails to various companies who advertised on the websites of specific online media companies in an attempt to damage their advertisement income.

Background

On August 28th, several news sites published articles calling for an end to the “gamer” cultural identity, including The Financial Post, Ars Technica, The Daily Beast, The Stranger, Beta Beat, Gamasutra, Polygon and Kotaku (shown below). On September 1st, journalists and independent developers involved in this published a signed open letter to the gaming community, asking gamers to end the harassment towards critics and developers.^[3]

In retaliation to this, in September 2014, GamerGate supporters began spreading instructions amongst themselves to email companies who advertised on specific websites that have somehow wronged the movement; such as Gawker Media, Kotaku, Polygon, Wired and TechCrunch; to protest about the sites’ criticisms of their perceived questionable ethical standards and criticisms of the GamerGate movement, which was later dubbed Operation Disrespectful Nod.^[1][21] The name of the project is a play on *Nods Respectfully Towards You*, a gesture which managed to become a popular subject of parody following its posting in August 2014. The campaign followed a five step plan,^[2] which paraphrased reads as follows:

1. Select a company and one of its advertisors from the compiled list.


2. Choose a complaint of interest related to the company’s ethical standards.


3. Choose an article from the company you’re complaining about.


4. Combine the first three steps into an email using a pre-written form (shown left).


5. If there is no reply, show patience but persistence through follow up e-mails.

Notable Developments

Gamasutra & Intel

On September 10th, 2014, Redditor endertargaryen submitted a post to the /r/KotakuInAction^[5] subreddit, calling for gamers to email sponsors of the video game news blog Gamasutra in protest of an article written by staff writer Leigh Alexander titled “‘Gamers’ don’t have to be your audience. ‘Gamers’ are over.”^[4] On October 1st, 8chan^[6] user In ’N Out Chef submitted a post containing a screenshot of an email reply from an Intel customer support representative, who revealed that the tech company had pulled an ad campaign off Gamasutra after receiving complaints about the Alexander article (shown below). The same day, Redditor primalchaos submitted the email screenshot to the /r/KotakuInAction subreddit.^[7]

Intel’s actions were subsequently covered by various news outlets, such as The Verge,^[8] Tech Times,^[9]NPR^[10] and Ars Technica.^[11] On October 3rd, Intel^[12] also released an official on its decision to discontinue its ad campaign on Gamasutra on their official blog (shown below).

“We take feedback from customers seriously. For the time being, Intel has decided not to continue with our current ad campaign on the gaming site Gamasutra.”

“However, we recognize that our action inadvertently created a perception that we are somehow taking sides in an increasingly bitter debate in the gaming community. That was not our intent, and that is not the case. When it comes to our support of equality and women, we want to be very clear: Intel believes men and women should be treated the same. And, diversity is an integral part of our corporate strategy and vision with commitments to improve the diversity of our workforce. And while we respect the right of individuals to have their personal beliefs and values, Intel does not support any organization or movement that discriminates against women. We apologize and we are deeply sorry if we offended anyone.”

Sam Biddle’s Bullying Tweets

On October 16th, 2014, Gawker writer Sam Biddle posted a series of tongue-in-cheek tweets calling for a return of bullying^[13] and promoting the shaming of nerds (shown below).^[14] Although Biddle apologised for his tweets the next day,^[15] the tweets were met with a large amount of negative replies.

Ultimately #GamerGate is reaffirming what we’ve known to be true for decades: nerds should be constantly shamed and degraded into submission

— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) 16 oktober 2014

On October 17th, Mercedes-Benz took down its advertisements from Gawker after receiving numerous complaints about Biddle’s tweets, according to an official reply to the Washington Post by Mercedes.^[16] Mercedes reinstated its campaign a few days later. Biddle also replied to the events through an article on Gawker^[19] on October 20th. On October 21st, the official Twitter account for Adobe^[17] posted that it had requested Gawker to remove their logo from the site (shown below). A day later, Gawker^[18] released an article in reply to Gamergate’s actions, sharing that they had lost thousands of dollars due to Mercedes’ temporary advertising removal. Alongside, the events were also covered by other news outlets, such as The Verge,^[33] Ars Technica^[34] and re/code.^[35] A week later, on October 28th Adobe released an official reply regarding their tweet,^[20] sharing that they weren’t an advertisor on Gawker and were instead mistakenly listed as one.

theLEOpirate</a> We are not an advertiser w/ Gawker. We asked Gawker to remove our logo. Adobe stands against bullying. <a href="http://t.co/uj3HrHJqi3">http://t.co/uj3HrHJqi3</a></p>&mdash; Adobe (Adobe) 21 oktober 2014

Intel’s Industry Diversity Fund

On January 6th, 2015, Intel released that it would pledge $300 million to improve the diversity of the company’s work force by attracting more women and minorities to the technology field, aiming to be a leading example against Silicon Valley’s diversity issues (shown below).^[26] The pledge was the result of the events between Intel, Gamatsutra and Gamergate in October of the previous year, which resulted in negative publicity for the company, as was explained in a statement saying that its new diversity efforts came after the “recent confluence of events related to women and under-represented minorities.” Intel’s pledge was met with mostly positive feedback and covered by numerous news outlets such as The New York Times,^[27] re/code,^[28] Gamespot,^[29] Time^[30] and Wired.^[31][32]

Left: Google– Right: LinkedIn

Related: Operation UV

in November 2014, Gamergate supporters launched another emailing under the name ‘Operation UV’. This campaign focused around emailing the US Federal Trade Comission (FTC), an independent agency of the United States government aimed at promoting consumer protection, and ask from them to intervene against Gawker Media’s practices.^[22] The FTC addressed specific issues^[23] and following this created a new guideline for advertising,^[25] of which it was later on noted that GamerGate was the driving force behind the change.^[24]

Search Interest

External References

About

Dofus is a massive multiplayer online tactical role playing game edited and developed by French company Ankama and released in 2004. Set in the heroic-fantasy world of Amakna, the game recieved critical acclaim and encountered commercial success, due to the quality of its animation (made with Adobe Flash) and its easily-accessible gameplay.

Wakfu is a sequel franchise to Dofus, set in the same universe, and still produced by Ankama. The franchise spawned a new MMORPG, released in 2012 (development however started in 2008), and an animated TV Series, that aired on the French national channel France 3 between 2008 and 2012. The show quickly became popular online for the quality of its flash-generated animations, and the comedic tone of its plot.

History

Dofus

Dofus (Video Game) is the first installment of the franchise, developed by Ankama Studios and released on September 1st, 2004. The game is a turn-based tactical MMORPG, animated with Adobe Flash and running on both client and navigator. ^[1]

The plot revolves around completing quests in the “Kingdom of the Twelve” located in the fictional heroic-fantasy world of Amakna, and taking part in the conflict between its two main cities. Players have access to sixteen different playable character races, each one forming a specific gameplay class.

Game trailer:


Gameplay footage:

On 2008, the game reached 10 Million players, and gained several international awards since then^[2].

Since the release of the game, several spinoffs works were created:
* Dofus arena (renamed as Arena Confrontation in 2011) a tactical turn-based fighting game set in the same world than Dofus. The game however closed in 2014. ^[3]
* Dofus: the Treasures of Kerubim (Original title: Dofus: aux trésors de Kérubim in French) an animated TV series set 200 years before the events of the main game. The series consists of 52 episodes airing on French national TV channel France 3 since January 5th, 2013.

Wakfu

Wakfu is the sequel franchise to Dofus. The main installment of the franchise is the eponymous MMORPG, designed to replace Dofus. The game uses a similar gameplay system to its predecessor, and is set in the same fantasy universe, several centuries after the events of the first game. The game was announced in 2008 and released on February 29th, 2012. In America, it is published by Square Enix.

Plot and context

The World of Twelve which the players of Dofus had known no longer exists. He was destroyed by a love story who badly ended. An ogre named Ogrest fell in love with Dathura, a woman of an unequalled beauty. To seduce her, Ogrest achieves an impossible quest: : find the six Dofus. The Dofus are eggs of dragon laid at the dawn of times who maintain the balance of the World of Twelve.

The one who possesses them gains a power greater than the gods. But this new power did not change the feelings of the beautiful Dathura who rejected him one more time. Not supporting to be rejected again, Ogrest lost control of himself and killed the poor woman in a fit of anger. Desperate by his action and what he have done, he climbed at the top of the Mount Zinit, to live in exile.

This mountain was considered to be the highest of the world and Ogrest thought he could find the tranquillity that he needed, but the gods did not plan to leave him in possession of a power so big. The Twelve Gods faced Ogrest to take back the six Dofus, but this attempt was a failure. Thus, Ogrest remained alone on his mountain to cry on his fate.



After their defeat, because the Gods knew that they couldn’t win against Ogrest, they used their last strenght to be able to protect certain key places and certain important people to avoid the end of world. This cataclysm was named the Chaos of Ogrest, he left the World of Twelve in ruins and signed the end of the Age of Dofus and the beginning of the era of Wakfu. In this New World, the human being has to choose if he wants to live his life by following the way of Stasis who consist to manipulate the world according to his desires, or by following the way of Wakfu and restore the natural balance of the World of Twelve..



[informations about the game are WIP]

Wakfu: the animated TV series

In parallel to the development of the game, Ankama produced an animated TV series adaptation. It spawned two seasons, three OVAs and two special episodes (one of them being produced in collaboration with Studio Ghibli in Japan) ^[4]. The plot of the show is set a few years after the events of the game.


The main protagonists of the show. from left to right : Evangelyne, Tristepin (Sadlygrove), Yugo, Ruel, Amalia

Plot and characters [may contain spoilers]

The show follows the adventures of Yugo, a 12 year old child, last survivor of the race of the Eliatropes, on his quest to find his true family. As an Eliatrope, he has the magical power of creating “Zaap” portals, in a similar way to Valve’s eponymous videogame. Many friends join him during his quest, including:

* Ruel Stroud, an elderly member of the race of the Enutrofs, and longtime friend of Yugo’s adoptive father. He is also a bounty hunter and former champion of gobbowl, the fictional sport played in Amakna. In the show, he is often described as greedy man, his money fetish being a subject of running gags.

* Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove (original French name : “Sire Tristepin de Percedal”), nicknamed “Percy” or “Grovy” (“Pinpin” in French), a 16 year old warrior of the race of the Iop, brave and fierce fighter and main comic relief of the group. He is also a Shushu guardian, keeper of a demonic sword called Rubilax.

* Amalia Sheran Sharm, princess of the people of Sadida (plant people). 13 years old, she fled her country to escape her royal duties, and decided to help Yugo in his quest after they met.

* Evangelyne, nicknamed “Eva”, a 17 year old archer of the race of the Crâ, and bodyguard of Amalia. She quickly becomes the natural leader of the group due to her intelligence. She often uses her magical bow in fight.

* Adamaï. Introduced during the second half of season 1, he is the draconic twin brother of Yugo.

Spread

The Wakfu animated series initially aired from 2008 to 2012 on France 3 on the kids program “Ludo”.

On January 20th 2014, Ankama started a Kickstarter campaign in order to produce an English dub of the show. On February 19th, 2014, the project gained over 483 000 $, largely surpassing the initial goal of 80 000 $ required to fund the English dub of season 1^[5].


Official promotional video for the Kickstarter campain

On September 2014, the show became available for streaming on Netflix, with both English and French version available^[6].

The rumors of the production of a third season of the show have never been confirmed either by Ankama or France 3.

Popularity

Due to the quality of its animation made in Flash, with a style very close to Japanese animation and due to the mature action /comedic theme of the series, rarely seen on French animated works, the show received overall positive critic feedbacks, most notably on IMDB and Netflix^[7].

The Franchise became also widely discussed online on several sites, including reddit ^[8]

Fan art

The popularity of the franchise spawned a wide range of fan-made works, most notably on sites like Tumblr^[9] and DeviantArt^[10], the latter one gathering 17 986 search results under the tag “Wakfu” and 17 132 results under the tag “Dofus”.

Related Sub-memes

Smug Duck

Smug Duck is the nickname of a black rubber duck with a smirkish grin on his face appearing in episode 14 of the second season of the Wakfu series. In a particular shot, main character Evangelyne is seen jumping in a bathtub fully naked, only to be censored by the duck conveniently drifting on the water in front of her, while adressing a smirkish glare to the audience.

Images of the scene and the duck began to circulate online ^[11], often associated with catchphrases like “Fuck you, Duck!” or “Give her the Duck”

Acknowledging the sudden popularity of the duck, the show staff decided to include it in the Kickstarter campaign, making it an official Kickstarter backer avatar picture, creating a stretch goal to include the Duck as a bonus interactive comic, and calling the fans for their support on social media under the hashtag #wakfusmugduck ^[12]

Search interests

External references

^[1]Wikipedia – Dofus

^[2]Ankama – history of Ankama studios

^[3]Wikipedia – Dofus Arena

^[4]TVTropes – Wakfu animated TV series

^[5]Kickstarter – Wakfu, the animated TV series

^[6]Nextimpact – Wakfu, série animée d’Ankama, va envahir le monde grâce à Netflix

^[7]IMDB– Wakfu

^[8]Reddit – /r/wakfu

^[9]Tumblr – Wakfu tagged posts

^[10]DeviantArt – Wakfu tagged fanarts

^[11]Wakfu forums – season 2 episode 14 thread

^[12]Wakfu.com – “Kickstarter in High Gear”

About

Mais ça, c’était avant is a catchphrase used by Krys, a chain of French opticians, as part of its advertising campaign. This sentence became widely used on the Internet as well as in other media, and inspired many parodies of the original campaign.

Origin

Krys is one of the main networks of opticians and eyeglasses retailers in France. In 2009, the company launched an advertising campaign on TV, in order to change its brand image.

This campaign, created by the advertising company Agence H, is based on the sentence: Avant, j’avais/j’étais X – Mais ça c’était avant (which could be translated as: I used to have/be X – But that was before). It shows random people, who used to have a complex about some of their physical features, but who forget about their lack of self-confidence once they wear glasses. This logic is completed by a second catchphrase: Krys – Vous allez vous aimer (Krys – You are going to like yourself).

(I used to be ugly, but that was before.)

Soon after, the TV campaign was extended by a printed campaign, and, in 2011, by a new TV and print campaign, featuring celebrities.

Spread

On the Internet

In December 2011, a montage showing a dog wearing sunglasses, with a spoof of Krys’s catchphrase, appeared on the pet-themed website Wamiz.com^[1]. Then, in January 2012, Blogger user ArtVintageGallery uploaded, in a blog article about lipsticks, a picture with the Krys logo and the text “My lipstick used to flow – but that was before”^[2].

However, most parodies of the Krys ads didn’t appear until mid-winter 2012. The presidential election in France encouraged the creation of some of the parodies of the Krys ads, mocking Nicolas Sarkozy after his defeat (“I used to be the president – But that was before”)^[3].

A single-purpose Tumblr, named “Avant j’étais chez Krys” (I used to be a Krys customer), was created on January 27th, 2012. It collects, as of January 2015, 18 parodies^[4].

An other single-purpose blog, named “Mais Ça C’était Avant”, was created in February 2012 on the Over-Blog platform. It contains, as of January 2015, 57 parodies created by the blog’s editor^[5].

On YouTube, gospel singer Jerry Tabary uploaded several short video parodies^[6]. On Facebook, pages named “Avant j’étais le président”^[7] and “Avant j’étais blonde”^[8] can be found.

In other media

The French satiric puppet show Les Guignols de l’Info created several parodies of the Krys commercials, targeting the president François Hollande^[9], his government, or Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Also, news outlets like to use the expression “mais ça c’était avant” on sport-themed, politics-themed, or light-hearted articles.

Notable examples

None uploaded yet.

External references

^[1]pub lunettes Wamiz December 17, 2011

^[2]Avant mon RAL filait mais ça c’était avant January 5, 2012

^[3]Sarkozy parody

^[4]avantjetaischezkrys.tumblr.com

^[5]maiscacetaitavant.over-blog.fr

^[6]C’ÉTAIT AVANT on Jerry Tabary’s Youtube channel

^[7]Avant j’étais président, mais ça c’était avant on Facebook

^[8]Avant j’étais blonde. Mais ça, c’était avant on Facebook

^[9]La Crise, vous n’allez pas aimer (Les Guignols de l’Info) on YouTube

About

Somecallmejohnny, or Juan “Johnny” Ortiz, is a Peurto Rican gamer who reviews various games, ranging from Sonic, Mario, and Metroid. His reviews are best known for their impartiality and indifference to the bandwagon. His style is typically that of the dry deadpan genre. As of 2015 he has over 148,000 subscribers.
From time to time he will invite various friends or other reviewers to co-review with him including his younger step-brother Elliot Cancell, or his best friend Matt Metelli. He also has made guest appearances on popular LP channels including “Sonic’s Channel” and “Cobanermani456”.

History

In 2008, the channel originally began as a duo review series, known as SGB Reviews (SGB standing for Super Gaming Brothers), as they were reviewed by both Johnny and his aforementioned brother Elliot.

Videos

Reviews

While most of his videos are isolated reviews, from time to time he’ll do a series of reviews from a given franchise including, these being “Month of Metroid”, “Month of Mario” (of which there have been two), or “Month of Sonic” (of which there have been three of, the latest being dubbed the Sonic Marathon as it did not fit into a month).

Along with these are series reviews for Indie games or donated games by fans.

Brainscratch Commentaries

Johnny is also a member of the LP group known as Brainscratchcomms, along with Nayrman214 (Ryan Malis), SolarisParadox (Lewis Medeiros), and ExandShadow (Ted Weisen). The channel was originally conceived in 2009 by Ryan, who then pitched the idea to Lewis, who then invited John to come along, and much later Ted.

The commentary group as of 2015 has 56K subscribers.

SGBLikesToPlay

Although Elliot no longer participates majorly on the reviews, he still takes full part on John’s personal LP channel, SGBLIkesToPlay. Playthroughs on this channel typically involve co-op LPs or competition games. Johnny’s aforementioned best friend Matt also is prominent on this channel, along with John’s second younger brother Mark.

Animations

Johnny also seldom makes animations featuring Sonic the Hedgehog. ranging from parody interviews or voice overs.

About

Awoo~ and, to a lesser extent, WAN, are phrases associated with the character Momiji Inubarashiri from the Touhou Project series of video games. Unlike many other Touhou Project memes, it is most popular in Western circles as a form of shitposting.

Origin

insert picture here

Momiji first appeared as a boss in the tenth main series Touhou game, Mountain of Faith. ^[1] She is what is a white wolf tengu, a kind of Japanese mythological creature. Despite appearing in few other official Touhou media, Momiji proved to be a very popular character, ranking #21 most favorite Touhou Project character out of 159 in a 2014 popularity contest. ^[2]

WAN

The first known use of associating Momiji with “WAN” comes from a 2010 Flash animation with various canine-based Touhou characters singing “Someone Else”, the opening theme to the anime Working!!. The joke comes from “one” being a homophone for “wan”, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a dog barking. Several years later in 2014, another Flash was created by a (currently unknown) animator, featuring a Gyate Gyate version of Momiji and the song “Wop” by American rapper J. Dash.

The image of Momiji used in the second Flash became a form of shitposting, although not to the extent that awoo~ did.

Awoo~

Although the exact origins are unclear, according to a post in an archived /s4s/ (Shit 4chan Says) thread, Momiji began to be associated with “awoo~” after a poster refered to her as “the awoo one”, in reference to a thread which asked which Touhou characters one would like to play Mario Kart with. ^[3] An image of Momiji howling became associated with the phrase soon after.

Spread

In July of 2014, a subreddit devoted to images of Momiji, /r/awoo, was created. “Awoo~” and its accompanying image feature prominently in the design of the subreddit. ^[4]

Notable Examples

insert pictures here

Search Interest

References

About

“Morning News” s an exploitable generator on PhotoFunia^[1]. The generator utilizes an uploaded image, and text feilds for an article heading and newspaper section to give the appearance that the generated content is in a newspaper. It is frequently used for Local Man Ruins Everything

Origin

The original Photograph was taken by Alexey Ivanov in 2012.

Spread

Various Examples

External References

WIP. Feel free to request editorship

About

Boku no Hero Academia, translated as My Hero Academia, is a manga series created by Kōhei Horikoshi, and published in Shounen Jump. The story is set on a world where people with superpowers (known as “quirks”) are commonplace, following the life of Izuki Midoriya, a boy born without a quirk who wants to become a superhero.

History

Asui Tsuyu / Frog Girl

Asui Tsuyu is a character from the series, who has frog powers. Due her unique appearance, she is often portrayed on fanarts

Search Interest

External Links