((Work in Progress))

About

Apology Cakes are cakes people exchange as a way of apologizing to another person, often for something humorous or trivial. Online, Tumblr users often will digitally edit cake photos to have an apology written on them in Comic Sans font with an apology for the content of their blog.

Origin

Photos of apology cakes have appeared online as early as June 2008 when Cake Wrecks^[1] posted an apology cake in which someone was apologizing for being stupid.

Spread

In 2009, Cake Wrecks continued to post apology cakes^[2] and in 2010, a viral image of a cake with the text “Sorry I got semen in your eye” began circulating the web, appearing on image sharing site FunFoll^[3], FoodBeast^[4] and FunnyJunk^[5] that year. In 2011, Buzzfeed^[6] featured 20 photos of apology cakes from across the web, a handful of which reappeared on FunnyJunk^[7] and Pop Hangover.^[8] In 2011 and 2012, additional apology cakes appeared on the Examiner^[9], Dorkly^[10], Cake Wrecks^[11] and College Humor.^[12]

On Tumblr

Search Interest

External References

Some time before June 22, 2007 Anthony Perez also known by his YouTube username anthonypproductions made two response videos to Chad Warden’s video “Why the PS3 is better than the Wii and 360”




Later the YouTube user thefairfaxian made a response video to one of Anthony’s videos.


Anthony reacts by making a video solely pointed to thefairfaxian and a couple other YouTube users

Anthony also lashed out and made two video towards the user godofdragonballz
godofdragonballz allegedly got Anthony’s YouTube channel banned for a while, and in that mean time Anthony made a shout out to chad warden and two rap songs dissing godofdragonballz.




After making the rap song the YouTube user buckykattwswfr remixed it and created a diss rap song towards Anthony himself with his own song.


To this date (Feb 18,2013) Anthony Perez has changed his youtube page to android videos and hasn’t made any videos or responses in over a year. One of his last comments being on a racecar drivers video also named Anthony Perez saying “This aint balling”

^[1]YouTube – Meme Mashup Remix

About

Anaface is a web-based photo analysis application that evaluates user-submitted profile images and provides a “facial beauty” score, which is determined by geometric calculations based on several points distributed across the face.

History

Anaface.com was launched in May 2009 by the St. Louis-based consulting service company Atama Group.^[5]

Features

Upon uploading a photo to the site, the web application generates a beauty score using 17 data points run through a series of geometric calculations. The score is based on bilateral symmetry and a variety of other facial-structural ratios, including the width of the nose and length of the ears in comparison to that of the entire face.

Online Presence

On July 29th, 2009, BodyBuilding Forums^[7] member colinmarcus submitted a thread to the “teen bodybuilding” subforum, challenging other members to beat his beauty score. Colinmarcus’ post continued to be bumped over the next three years, accumulating over 65 replies. The post continued to be bumped over the next three years, accumulating over 65 replies. On October 4th, 2010, Ebaumsworld Forums^[9] member Dodge submitted a thread recommending the site for those who want to know “if they are good looking or not.” On June 21st, 2011, Redditor monotonyrenegade submitted a post to the /r/conspiracy^[11] subreddit, which suggested that Anaface may be archiving individual’s unique facial patterns for an unknown institution. On October 21st, 2012, Newgrounds Forums^[8] member Skaren submitted a thread asking others to share their photo scores, which received more than 20 replies in the next four months.

Controversy

On July 1st, 2009 Forbes^[3] published an article about the newly launched site, noting the service’s conditions of use which practically grant the company a license to reappropriate the user-submitted content for commercial purposes.

a. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with FaceFigure (“IP License”). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account (except to the extent your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it).

Highlights

Many users have uploaded pictures of famous celebrities, fictional characters and Internet memes to be analyzed on the site, sometimes producing surprising results. On September 24th, 2010, YouTuber mattormeg submitted a slideshow of horror movie characters that had been run through the Anaface site (shown below).

On July 21st, 2011, Redditor lizgraace submitted a post^[10] in which several Redditors replied with screenshots of Internet memes uploaded to Anaface. Prior to being archived, the post received over 3,200 up votes and 500 comments. Additional examples can be found on Memebase^[2] and Tumblr^[6] under the tag “#anaface.”

Traffic

As of February 2013, Anaface has an Alexa^[12] global ranking of 492,205 and a United States ranking of 98,815.

Search Interest

External References

About

Small Dads is a photoshop meme in which a family photo is edited to have the father shrunk to half his original size.

Origin

Redditor afdlips submitted a post^[1] on February 7th, 2013, declaring that his newest hobby involved shrinking the fathers in various family photos and provided an Imgur album featuring several examples (shown below). Within 12 days, the post received over 26,500 up votes and 880 comments.

Spread

On the same day, Redditor afdlips submitted a new post^[3] with small dad images that had been requested by other Redditors, receiving over 9,400 up votes and 230 comments within 12 days. Also on February 7th, the /r/smalldads subreddit^[4] was created and the viral content site BuzzFeed^[6] highlighted several example images calling it “the hottest new Internet trend.” On February 8th, the Internet humor blog Sad and Useless^[5] highlighted several notable photoshops and Gawker^[2] chronicled the series of Reddit posts in which the meme originated. Also on February 8th, examples from the series were reblogged by both Laughing Squid^[7] and The Huffington Post.^[8]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

Work in progress. Feel free to request editorship

About

It Would Be a Shame If… it’s a three-pane image macro, which consist in a image of something or someone talking about something in the first pane, saying “it would be a shame if…” in the second one and saying something that damages the mentioned in the first pane in the last pane.

Search Insights

As usual, work in progress. Images will be embedded in a second, after I get them put in the gallery.

About

Dwarf Fortress is an indie computer game in development by Bay12 Games, comprised of the brothers Tarn “ToadyOne” and Zach “ThreeToe” Adams. It is a sandbox city-building/roguelike game set in a procedurally generated fantasy world, which draws heavy inspiration from ancient mythology and other Tolkein-style settings^[1].

The game is notable for its high level of complexity and depth of gameplay, in addition to being the inspiration for several other popular sandbox games, such as the widely successful indie game Minecraft.

The game is completely free to play, and has versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (i386). Development is supported by donations from the fanbase.

History

Dwarf Fortress started development in 2002, as a side project/sequel to the game Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, making Dwarf Fortress’s full title Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress. As time went on, the brothers began to focus more of their time on Dwarf Fortress, and in 2004 work on Armok ceased entirely. The first public version of Dwarf Fortress was 0.21.93.19a, released in 2006. The game has been in perpetual development since then, with new features being added constantly^[2].

With the veritable mountain of features planned, Tarn has stated that development will probably take upwards of 20 years, and will continue even after this “completed version” is released.

Gameplay

A game of Dwarf Fortress starts with the creation of a world^[3], which is randomly generated based upon certain general specifications the player chooses (such as world size, mineral occurrence, and length of pre-generated history). Each world has a set of civilizations, each with their own population, and the world generates years worth of historic background preceding the ‘present’ time that the user will play their session in. The default world specifications will generate a few civilizations for each major race (Dwarves, Humans, Elves, and Goblins), as well as 250 years of history, in a world large enough to house several thousand average-sized player fortresses without overlap.

Every bit of data in Dwarf Fortress is tracked, down to a nearly microscopic level. The only time anything is specifically spawned by the game is during world generation at year zero. Afterwards, every individual living creature is remembered and followed through its entire life (though with varying levels of detail based upon historic importance), tracking regional movement, injuries, reproduction and death. For sentient creatures such as Dwarves, their appearance, thoughts, and preferences are all calculated.

Dwarf Fortress has two main game types: Fortress Mode and Adventure Mode. In Fortress Mode^[4], the player takes command of a group of Dwarves as they attempt to survive countless dangers in order to mine out the wealth of their chosen point of embark. The game progresses in real-time, with the ability to pause in order to make commands. Characteristics of Dwarven life include ubiquitous alcohol dependency, and a high predisposition towards manic depression.

Adventure Mode^[5] plays like a very open-world Roguelike game, where the player is given control of a single character and can travel through the world, completing quests and exploring places such as fortresses they’ve previously built during past games in that same world.

Graphical Style

Everything in Dwarf Fortress is represented by a variation of ASCII^[6] characters, called “code page 437”^[7], and this fact has contributed heavily to the game’s steep learning curve. The player views the game from above, looking at a flat slice of the world at a certain elevation.

Similar to texture packs in Minecraft, Tilesets work to make the game look more modern, by replacing the ascii characters with more recognizable sprites.

Community

Due in part to the steep learning curve, and also because of the long but steady development cycle, Dwarf Fortress has gained a dedicated and enthusiastic fanbase of players, who generate quite a sizable amount of fan content. An official forum, founded in 2008, has about 50,000 members as of 2013.

Of particular note is Dwarf Fortress’s unique form of Let’s Play, most often called a Succession or Bloodline game. In these games, a group of players each take charge of a single fortress for a certain amount of time (usually a single in-game year), then pass the save onto the next person in line^[8]. It is traditional during these games to write updates (often role-playing as a Dwarf living in the fort) based upon the player’s experiences during that year. In late 2006, a group of DF players on the Something Awful forums began Boatmurdered^[9], which would later become the most well-known Succession game ever played, and put Dwarf Fortress on the map. References to the LP are still commonly seen within the community.

Fan Content

Interestingly enough, the Dwarf Fortress community produces a sizable amount of fanart for a game that has close to no actual visuals. This is most likely because, due to the highly minimalistic nature of the game’s graphics, players often exercise a high level of imagination to interpret the world. Sharing such concept art is, therefor, a popular pastime.

Notable Sub-Memes

Losing is Fun!

The game, and community’s, adopted motto^[10]. As the saying goes, there is no final ending to the game, no way to “win” in the traditional sense. Thus, every fortress and adventurer will, eventually, die. Whether by Dwarf-eating river carp (which have been nerfed in recent versions, but used to be very dangerous and are still frequently referenced), Goblin invasions, or digging too deep and unleashing [spoiler redacted], every fortress ends in catastrophe.

Dwarf Fortress’s difficulty has become one of the most well-known aspects of the game, and the players have embraced this through their seeking of new and exciting ways to put Dwarves through any hardship imaginable. If it doesn’t involve gratuitous amounts of magma and complicated death traps, it isn’t “dwarven” enough.

FOR !!SCIENCE!!

Dwarf Fortress is a game of extreme complexity, with enough features to keep many players occupied for years. Thus, quite a lot of the possibilities the game’s deep physics engine provides are as of yet unknown or untested, even by the creators themselves. As a result, DF players take it upon themselves to perform all manner of ridiculous tricks and feats of engineering in the name of testing boundaries, or simply because it’s “the Dwarven way”^[11].

Notable examples:

1.) Dwarven Daycare: A user by the name “Girlinhat” developed a system to trap infant dwarves (who are capable of feeding themselves) in an overcrowded room full of angry dogs, with Masterwork tier engravings and furniture. The dogs would attack the dwarf because of crowding, turning the child into a nihilistic killing machine over time. Players who still have a shred of morals in them tend to wonder if Goblin child-snatchers aren’t doing the kids a favor.

2.) Planepacked: By accidentally abusing a bug involving “burrows” (a method of restricting dwarves to certain areas), a dwarf in a “strange mood” created Planepacked, a limestone statue adorned with a ridiculous amount of items, seemingly in all . It is believed to have the entire history of the world engraved onto it. The feat remained a complete mystery for several months, until it was finally replicated and its cause documented, resulting in such artifacts as “Broiledprinces”.

3.) Project: F**k the World: A famous construction from the aforementioned Boatmurdered Succession game. Project: F**k the World was a cannon that, when activated, would flood the entire outside of the fortress in lava. It was used to kill monster elephants. And Goblins. And Elves. And a few humans, too.

4.) Dwarfputation: In early 2010, a forum user by the name of Jong successfully created the first entirely programmable digital computer within the game-space, proving that Dwarf Fortress is indeed Turing Complete. Since then, further experimentation and the minecart update have drastically improved on the capabilities of such devices.

LMAO 2CAT!!1

Within the Dwarf Fortress universe, cats can be used for pets, food, and clothing among other uses. They are also known for being incredibly virile, often reproducing massively if they find a home in your fort, often overrunning fortresses that do not keep their populations in check. The phrase is repeated by Dwarf Fortress fans, often mixed in as a caption to images, as a mocking representation of how a Dwarf Fortress fanatic would respond to the sight of a breeding pair^[15].

Cacame Awemedinade the Immortal Onslaught

Cacame Awemedinade is an Elven NPC randomly generated by the game, who has achieved legendary status in the Dwarf Fortress fandom due to his position as an Elf so powerful that he became King of the Dwarves, and for slaying a dragon by wrestling it to death.
See Main Entry for more details.

See Also

• Bay12 Games – Main Page
• TV Tropes – Dwarf Fortress

Search Interest

External References

ABOUT
Satan’s Lair is a comic strip created to string a series of animated .gifs together. All the animated .gifs portray someone or something falling through the floor usually in a comical or unexpected way.

Origin
The first time all the images were uploaded in one post was January 23rd, 2013 onto the Tumblr blog http://dave-stridlediddle.tumblr.com/post/41334468026
The main cannon involves a girl falling off a swing into a deep puddle. The puddle sends her into Satan’s lair, where he is reading a book.
Not long after that a man falls through a trap door into the lair on the other side of satan. Satan complains about getting a leak fixed and then a skateboarder gets stuck in the ceiling.

(As a comment) A horse climbs into a car which sinks into the ground and lands on Satan. Followed by Hawkeye and Thor (who gets stuck in the ceiling). Finally a person caked in mud faceplants a mudpuddle and falls into the lair.

It is at this point that the story spurs off into different directions and there are a few different narratives. Including one with an ice skater: http://shane-ss.tumblr.com/post/43514084597/rangerkimmy-theskadudeguy

and one with an anime character caled Beryl: http://s0lus.tumblr.com/post/43556201458

Spread

The humor made the post popular and bloggers started adding their own animated .gifs in response asking for a continuation of the comic strip. Some times the new cells would be drawn by the user adding the .gif and other times they would be added by other Tumblr users.

(work in progress, help will be greatly appriciated)
about

“beep boop” is a very common and a rather popular catchphrase that depicts noises and expressions of various mechanical beings, mainly, robots.

origin
(work in progress)
The catchphrase seems to used for a very long time, it is possible that it first became widly used in pop-culture after the Cinematic – StarWars: A New Hope. in which one of the secondary character was R2-D2:
an egg shaped three legged droid that, although was intelligent, could only issue beeping sounds that could only be understood by other robots. the character was very well loved and appricated especially for his signature beepings.

Recently, the phrase recieved an increase in popularity thanks to Valve adding a new robot costume to their multiplayer FPS– Team fortress 2, the character wearin the costume – The Soldier would often utter “beep boop” in an intetionally overacted manner.
example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHvt0VBWol0

usage
The phrase is commonly used with image macros that has robots and mechanical intruments in them, as well as in images of ordinary objects, humorously depicting them as robots.
It is also used to give an impression of a robot or to playfully pretend that one is a robotic entetity

example images:

[Work in progress]

Origin

Cacame’s origin can be traced back to a 50+ page thread in the Bay12 Forums. ^[1] Bay12 Forums, primarily based around Dwarf Fortress but also covered a few other games, is a central hub of the Dwarf Fortress fandom. The user who posted Cacame’s story was called Holy Mittens. ^[2]

About

Cacame Awemedinade, also known as Cacame Apebalded the Immortal Onslaught, is a character within Dwarf Fortress. He is legendary among the Dwarf Fortress fandom due to his epic generated backstory, despite their typical disdain for elves. (To be called an Elvish player is an insult on the Bay 12 Forums)

The Story of Cacame

Cacame’s character was born an Elven civilization at war with the Dwarfs. When he was 7 years old, the Elves were defeated, and a Dwarfen governor installed in his city. 5 years later, at the age of 12, Cacame became a guard. ^[1]
Two years later, an Elven attack on the city resulted in Cacame’s wife, Nemo, being killed and eaten by an Elf warrior. Later, his king died in battle. Through processes not quite understood, Cacame became an Elf king of Dwarfs.
At some point in his life, Cacame kills a dragon with a simple hammer. ^[3]

Spread

Cacame, as previously stated, is a legendary figure among Dwarf Fortress players. He has spawned numerous lengthy threads and inspired the creation of a large assortment of fan art, fanfiction, mods and commemorative in-game megaprojects.

Tributes to Cacame

The Collosus of Cacame

Holy Mittens latter built a gigantic statue, called the Collosus of Cacame, to commemorate the character. ^[4] The statue featured a solid gold cape and eyes glowing with the elf-hating fury of the Dwarf King. The monument was constructed so that anyone entering the fort would have to walk in between Cacame’s legs as a form of psychological warfare.^[4]

External References

^[1]Bay12 Forums – Dwarven King is an Elf

^[2]Bay12 Forums – Holy Mittens

^[3]Dwarf Fortress Wiki – Cacame Awemedinade

^[4]Bay12 Forums – The Collosus of Cacame

About

“Bitches Be Like” is an expression used to mock cliché behaviors or catchphrases associated with women. The phrase is often used as the top caption in image macros parodying the descriptions used in self-photographs shared by women on various social networks online.

Origin

One of the earliest known uses of the phrase “bitches be like” comes from the rap song “I’ll Bee Dat” by Redman (shown below), released on December 8th, 1998.

“My first name must be he ain’t shit
‘Cause every time I’m in a car bitches be like he ain’t shit
I’ll bee dat, I’ll bee dat, I’ll bee dat, I’ll bee dat”

The earliest known image macro using the phrase was submitted to the Asian Town Forums^[6] on April 15th, 2012, which featured a photo of the rear end of an uncooked turkey with the caption “Bitches be like / I’m still a virgin thoe (sic)” (shown below). Within the next 10 months, the thread received over 900 responses.

Spread

On October 7th, 2012, the @BitchesBeLike Twitter feed was created, tweeting notable image macros featuring the “bitches be like” caption. Within four months, the feed gained more than 5,100 followers.

BITCHES BE LIKE… twitter.com/BitchesBeLike/…

— Bitches Be Like… (@BitchesBeLike) October 7, 2012

Also in October 2012, the “Niggas/Bitches Be Like” Facebook^[5] page was launched, which garnered more than 196,000 likes in the next four months. On November 2nd, YouTuber recklessmike uploaded a video titled “Bitches be like,” which parodied stereotypical behaviors associated with women (shown below). Within the next three months, the video received upwards of 89,000 views and 340 comments.

On November 20th, the single topic blog Bitches Be Like^[4] was created, reblogging notable image macros from the series. On January 21st, 2013, Redditor bromando500 submitted an image macro featuring the character Luigi from the video game series Super Mario standing in front of a mirror with the caption “Bitches on Facebook be like” (shown below). Within one month, the post received over 8,700 up votes and 150 comments.

Notable Examples

Image macros featuring the caption “bitches be like” often mock the descriptions and hash tags paired with photos shared on various social networking sites. Additional examples can be found on Pinterest^[3] and Tumblr under the tag “#bitches be like.”^[2]

Twitter Feed

Search Interest

External References

nevermind

About

Speed Painting Videos are recorded footage of artists using graphics painting software to create an illustration which is sped up to create a time-lapse of the painting process.

Origin

The earliest known speed painting video was uploaded by YouTuber macpulenta on February 9th, 2007, featuring a real-time drawing of Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke illustrated by artist Nico Di Mattia within four hours (shown below). Within the next six years, the video accumulated more than 1.67 million views and 3,100 comments.

Spread

On May 2nd, 2007, YouTuber macpulenta uploaded a speed paint video of Spider-Man illustrated by Nico Di Mattia in Photoshop (shown below, left), which garnered upwards of 22.1 million views and 11,400 comments in six years. On May 5th, YouTuber mint301 uploaded a video in which he mockingly draws a poor version of a pixel art Super Mario (shown below, right). Within the next six years, the video received over 200,000 views and 1,200 comments.

On November 3rd, 2008, YouTuber shukei01 uploaded a time-lapse video in which a Gundam character is drawn within the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program (shown below, left), garnering upwards of 1.9 million views and 1,600 comments in the next five years. On January 18th, 2010, the digital art blog Digital Arts Secrets^[1] published a post providing instructions on how to create a speed painting video. On November 29th, YouTuber shadowmuttzr0 uploaded footage of a speed paint featuring the characters Ino and Hinata from the Japanese manga series Naruto (shown below, right), gaining more than 1.89 million views in the following three years.

On January 18th, 2011, YouTuber DrawingNowTutorials uploaded a video featuring a speed paint of the character Lightning Mcqueen from the animated film Cars (shown below, left). The video accumulated over three million views in the next two years. On January 30th, 2012, YouTuber tsitra260 submitted footage of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic speed paint, receiving upwards of 630,000 views and 2,600 comments within the next year.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“That’s The Evilest Thing I Can Imagine” is an expression used to ironically highlight juvenile pranks or trolling schemes, in a similar vein to the phrase “Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn.” In image macros, the phrase is usually accompanied by a screen capture of cartoon characters HIM and Mojo Jojo from the animated television series Powerpuff Girls.

Origin

In Season Six Episode Two of the Powerpuff Girls,^[1] originally aired on July 16th, 2004, the villain characters Him and Mojo Jojo compete to win the respect of the Rowdyruff Boys by demonstrating evil deeds. As HIM and Mojo Jojo fight with each other over who is the most evil, the Rowdyruff Boy Brick declares that he only cares about destroying the Powerpuff Girls, to which Mojo Jojo replies “Why, that’s the evilest thing I can imagine!”

Brick: "SHUT UP! We don’t care which one of you is more eviller, or more stupider or whateverer! There’s only one evil thing we care about! And that’s destroying the Powerpuff Girls!
Mojo Jojo: “Why, that’s the evilest thing I can imagine!”

An animated GIF of the scene (shown below) was posted by Tumblr^[4] user nodularity on September 14th, 2011, followed by color version by Tumblr^[5] user thegoddessbunny on January 8th, 2012.

Spread

On February 12th, 2013, 9gag^[3] user vladimirvamp12 uploaded an image showing onions disguised as caramel apples followed by the Mojo Jojo image macro (shown below, left). Within nine days, the post gained more than 36,000 up votes, 11,000 Facebook shares and 35 comments. On February 20th, Redditor gh7gpx submitted an image macro featuring instructions on tricking others into smelling flatulence, followed by the reaction image of Him and Mojo Jojo (shown below, right). Within 24 hours, the post received over 4,200 up votes and 40 comments.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

(work in progress)

About

PlayStation is a series of video game consoles produced by Sony beginning in 1994. Online, fans of the console have fiercely defended it versus competitors like the Xbox as well as Nintendo’s releases.

History

The first PlayStation console^[1] was released on December 3rd, 1994 in Japan and September 9th, 1995 in the United States. It is considered a fifth-generation^[2] console, with its major competitors of the time period being the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64.

Reception

Impact

Fandom

Search Interest

External References

About

Google Maps is a mapping website and mobile application created by the American multinational internet and software corporation Google.

History

Google Maps was initially designed as a C++ application by the Australian brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen and later acquired by Google in October 2004, culminating to its official launch on February 8th, 2005. Google introduced the first mobile application for Google Maps in 2006.

Google Maps’ design evolution between 2009 (top) and 2011 (bottom)

On June 29th, 2007, the first iPhone by Apple was released, which included a mobile Google Maps application. On October 22nd, 2008, the first phone to run Google’s Android operating system was released, which came with a Google Maps application installed.

Features

Satellite View

Google Maps allows the user to view a high-resolution aerial or satellite image over certain areas across the world. Many of the images are taken by aircraft flying at 800-1500 feet from the ground and are approximately one to three years old according to the Google Earth support page.^[13]

Google Transit

Google Transit is a public transport route planner integrated into Google Maps, which calculates route, transit time and cost between locations in hundreds of cities worldwide.

Google Places

Google Places is a local business service integrated into Google Maps, which allows business owners to claim a listing to add photos and additional information for their location. The service also allows users to provide reviews for the business, accompanied by a one to five star rating.

On April 30th, 2010, the digital marketing blog Econsultancy^[16] published an article describing techniques that could be used to increase a ranking on Google Place’s listings, including using fake addresses, spamming the company name and hiring people to write fake reviews. Following the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed on May 1st, 2011, Google Maps users began posting spoof reviews for the bin Laden compound and labelled the site an “amusement park.”^[14][15] On March 15th, 2012, the search optimization blog Search Influence^[18] published a post about fake Google Places listings, which included a Google Satellite image with a place labelled “Penis Pool” (shown below, right).

Street View

Google Street View is a feature which allows users to zoom in to a 360° panoramic photo taken on the road at a specific location. The photographs are shot by a fleet of Google Street View cars, which include panoramic cameras mounted on the hood (shown below).

From 2009 to 2011, compilations of notable Google Street View photos were published on a variety of Internet humor and tech news blogs, including Holy Taco,^[6] The Huffington Post,^[7] BuzzFeed,^[8] The Next Web,^[9] Funny or Die^[10] and Mashable.^[11]

On January 11th, 2012, Redditor squidesquide submitted a post titled “Click the woman,”^[3] which linked to a Google Street View page in Brazil showing a woman fall as the car drove by (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received over 35,800 up votes and 1,800 comments.

On December 18th, the website Google Street View World^[1] was launched, which highlights notable photos taken by Google Street View cars. On January 14th, 2013, Redditor FreddyPenner submitted a link to a Google Street View page in Botswana, Africa,^[4] which showed a donkey that appeared to have fallen over after being passed by the Street View car (shown below). Within one month, the post gained more than 3,300 up votes and 400 comments. Two days later, Google Maps group project manager Kei Kawai explained on the official Google Maps blog^[5] that the donkey had been lying down and rose when the car approached.

Communities

Several online communities have launched centering around the Google Earth platform. The official one, Google Earth Community^[26], allows its users to publish their information to a community layer inside the program. It is broken down into several sub-forums, including boards dedicated to living things, landmarks, weather and sports, among others. Additionally, there is a Fun and Games board^[27], where users are encouraged to create riddles and leave hidden messages for each other in the program. Several of these threads often show a location with an instruction on another perspective at which the image should be viewed to see something unique or an error in the data. There is also a separate group called Google Earth for Educators^[28], which acts as a hub site for teachers to discuss how they use the program as well as provides resources and tutorials to help teachers incorporate the program in to their curricula.

Highlights

Map Crunch

MapCrunch is a website which allows users to be virtually transported to a randomly selected street view location in Google Maps. The website has inspired a participatory online game in which the player must find their way to the nearest airport from a spawned location. Due to the fact that the initial location is chosen at random, the game has proven to be notoriously frustrating and time consuming. The game saw a rise in popularity from Tumblr in February of 2012, when players began writing about their experiences and uploading pictures from their searches.

Hidden Mickeys

Hidden Mickeys, or subtle three-circle representations of Mickey Mouse that have been placed indiscriminately around the Disney theme parks and other Disney media, have been documented online for years^[19], with more than 1000 found to date.^[20] Since as early as 2006, Disney enthusiasts have shared coordinates of possible Hidden Mickeys with each other, beginning with a post on the WDWMagic forums^[21] in February of that year. Over the years, other fans have shared their Hidden Mickey finds on Talk Disney^[22], The Disney Blog^[23], WDisneySecrets^[24] and DISUnplugged.^[25]

Single Topic Blogs

In 2005, a single topic blog called Google Sightseeing^[29] launched, highlighting selections in numerous categories including sculptures, landmarks, abandoned sites, crop circles and large crowds. That same year, the blog Google Maps Mania^[30] (shown below) was established in effort to track projects utilizing either Google Earth or Google Maps. With contributors from 10 countries, the blog continues to update almost daily as of February 2013.

In 2006, Virtual Globetrotting^[31] launched, offering people virtual adventures in a similar vein to Google Sightseeing. In 2013, British window and door company Safe Style UK launched The Secret Door^[32], randomly transports users to indoor views found on Google Maps.

Controversies

iOS 6 Maps Controversy

iOS 6 Maps is an application which replaced Google Maps in Apple’s iOS 6 operating system, publicly released on September 19th, 2012. Due to the amount of errors in the app, many iPhone users began posting screenshots of the faulty application and criticizing the way locations were displayed. On December 13th, 2012, a version of Google Maps was made available in the Apple App Store^[12] for those who wanted an alternative to iOS 6 Maps.

Privacy Issues

Shortly after its release in 2007, Street View was criticized for violating pedestrian privacy by publishing clear photographs of people out in public. In May of 2008, Google began using facial recognition technology to blur the faces of individuals photographed by Street View cameras. In April of 2010, Google admitted that Street View cars had been collecting data from Wi-Fi networks, including MAC addresses and SSIDs. In March of that year, United Kingdom politician Paul Keetch and anonymous military officers criticized the inclusion of Street View photographs showing the outside of the Special Air Service base in Herefordshire, England.^[17]

Internet Meme References

• In September 2011, Google Maps launched an annually updated Pirate Day party locator.

• In December 2011, Google Maps implemented a reminder that one cannot simply walk into Mordor on their walking directions from a Wisconson address masked as the Shire to an address located in Mordor, Illinois.

• In June 2010, Google Maps decorated its street view pegman with the South African stadium horn Vuvuzela.

• In April 2012, Google Maps unveiled a special layer that presented everything in low-resolution 8-bit pixel art.

Search Interest

External References

Mr. Creepypasta is the user name of an adolescent male (Judging by his voice) who posts videos to YouTube typically displaying of a still image (Sometimes being slowly distorted to make the viewer feel as if they’re losing their mind) well he reads Creepypastas. Although he mostly reads more frightening stories like Slenderman or BENDROWNED he has read some more (For lack if a better world) humorous stories, like THEDAY OF ALLTHEBLOOD.

About

HowToBasic is a tutorial YouTube channel featuring instructional videos on how to complete basic tasks. Although a handful of these videos actually complete a task, most of them are parodies of standard tutorial videos featuring over-the-top actions that often will involve smashing ingredients, especially eggs, creating large messes.

Online History

The first HowToBasic video was uploaded on December 8th, 2011, with instructions on how to pick up an umbrella (shown below, left). The 4-second clip shows a hand reaching out and picking up a white umbrella that is standing upright. As of February 2013, this video has more than 146,000 views. That day, two other videos were uploaded, each 17 seconds or less, depicting how to shut a door and save power. In January 2012, a Facebook fan page^[2] for the channel was launched, but it was not actively used until later that year. The channel lay dormant until March 26th, 2012, when a video instructing viewers on how to open a water bottle (shown below, left) was uploaded. On that day, the channel uploaded 93 other instructional clips, all under 43 seconds.

Of the 94 videos uploaded on March 26th, some of the instructions began to become more bizarre, with one video featuring soup recipe (shown below, left) using three different soaps and bread and another instructing viewers that the proper way to eat a cupcake (shown below, right) is to take bites and then spit them out on the counter.

On April 14th, the channel began regularly updating instead of uploading a large amount of videos in one batch. The videos also began to utilize special thumbnail images of delicious looking food the YouTuber would attempt to recreate (shown below), despite the recipes not actually creating the food. The videos also began to regularly incorporate smashed raw eggs and spilled liquids, emphasizing creating a mess rather than something edible.

By the end of April, the Facebook fan page^[2] for the channel had become active, accruing more than 48,000 likes as of February 2013. A Twitter account^[3] for the channel was also established that month, gaining more than 5700 followers in less than a year. On April 24th, 2012, a HowToBasic video was first shared on FunnyJunk.^[4] Hours later, the channel was linked on MetaFilter^[5], receiving more than 50 comments. The following day, Guyism^[6] posted a slideshow of the 10 best videos from the channel, resulting in coverage on Uproxx^[7], The Daily Dot^[8] and movie blog The Substream^[9] on April 26th. Over the next several months, the channel was also discussed on gaming forum NeoGAF^[10], HTML Giant^[11] and College Humor.^[12] In December 2012, HowToBasic released an iPhone app^[16] compiling the channel’s videos that earned a five-star rating within two months.

As of February 2013, HowToBasic’s YouTube channel has more than 489,000 subscribers and nearly 75 million video views, averaging approximately 170,000 views per day.

Notable Videos

Personal Life

Not much is known about the vlogger behind HowToBasic except that he is located in Australia. There have been four AMA (Ask Me Anything) requests for him to do an interview on Reddit^[13], but he has yet to respond. In addition to Twitter and Facebook, the owner of the channel maintains an Instagram^[14] account posting both personal photos as well as highlights from his videos. He also has two other YouTube account: HowToBasic2^[15] features bloopers and personal tutuorials featuring merchandise for the series (shown below, left) and The Fruit Smasher^[16] features less than 10-second clips of a hand smashing fruit (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Day X is an image macro series in which a person, animal or inanimate object is portrayed as an undercover agent unsuccessfully attempting to blend in with a different group. The images are typically accompanied by a caption written in the style of a spy mission log, based on the snowclone template “Day X: They still don’t know I’m a Y.”

Origin

On May 29th, 2012, Redditor FTWindsor submitted an image macro featuring several World War II-era German soldiers accompanied by a man in a bear suit and the caption “Day 45: I have earned the Germans’ trust / They still do not realize I am bear” (shown below).^[1] Within the next eight months, the post received upwards of 13,300 up votes and 240 comments.

Precursor

Prior to the use of the “Day X” caption, other image macros using similar base images were created. On November 22nd, 2008, an image macro featuring a fox surrounded by several hunting dogs was submitted to the website I Can Has Cheezburger?^[7], featuring the caption “They suspect / Nothing!” (shown below, left). The You Came to the Wrong Neighborhood image macro series has comparable base images as well, featuring a homogeneous group of people or animals staring at the viewer in an intimidating manner (shown below, right). The earliest known example was submitted to FunnyJunk on June 11th, 2009.

Spread

On September 3rd, 2012, Redditor 15calderm posted an image macro of an Old English Sheepdog surrounded by sheep with the caption “Day 33 / they still suspect nothing” (shown below, left) to the /r/funny subreddit.^[4] In the following five months, the post garnered more than 14,000 up votes and 110 comments. On November 27th, 9gag^[6] user peterwee submitted a photo of a box of cookies next to several containers of Pringles potato chips (shown below, right), which gained over 19,000 up votes and 5,000 Facebook shares within three months.

On January 31st, 2013, the Internet humor blog Smosh^[2] highlighted a compilation of notable image macros from the series. On February 6th, Redditor seearc1 submitted a post titled “Day 201, they suspect nothing” to the /r/pics^[3] subreddit, featuring a photograph of a package of Coca-Cola bottles with one Pepsi bottle (shown below). Within the next 15 days, the post accumulated upwards of 4,300 up votes and 60 comments.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Rape Sloth is an image macro series featuring a photograph of a sloth that appears to be whispering in a woman’s ear. The captions often contain creepy sexual innuendo, pick up lines and disturbing threats.

Origin

[Researching]

Spread

On August 31st, 2012, Redditor happyman91 submitted an image macro with the caption “You know what rhymes with sloth? / Rape” (shown below). On the following day, the post was linked in the subreddit /r/ShitRedditSays,^[5] which criticized the post for joking about rape. On September 25th, the @RapeSloth Twitter feed was created, which tweeted captions from the image macro series.

She put me in the friend-zone… so I put her in the rape-zone.

— Rape Sloth (@RapeSloth) December 28, 2012

Notable Examples

As of February 2013, the “Rape Sloth” Quickmeme^[1] page has received over 100 submissions and the Meme Generator^[2] page has accumulated over 140 items. Additional examples can be found on the microblogging site Tumblr under the tag “#rape sloth.”^[3]

Search Interest

External References

About

Lucky Star is a slice of life manga and anime series, detailing the daily lives of 4 Japanese high school girls. The series has garnered a large fanbase in both Japan and in the West, due to it’s comedic style and references to other anime.

History

The original four-panel comic strip manga version of Lucky Star was first created by manga author Kagami Yoshimizu^[1] in January 2004, followed by the first volume of the manga that was published on January 8, 2005.As of December 26, 2011, nine volumes have been released. The manga was licensed by Bandai Entertainment^[2] for release in English in North America,with the first volume being released in June 2009. A Lucky Star anime was produced by Kyoto Animation^[3], and aired between April 8, 2007, and September 16, 2007, consisting of 24 episodes. The anime was then licensed and dubbed in English by Bandai Entertainment again.

Reception

Soon after it’s creation the Lucky Star series gained a large fan following, due to the different references to the Otaku culture and the moe animation style used. Many people also speculate that the success of Lucky Star is due to the previous success of Kyoto Animation’s fellow anime series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya^[4]. The show has a large presence on sites like Tumblr^[5], DeviantART^[6] and 4chan’s /a/ Anime and Manga board^[7]. Lucky Star also has it’s own fansites, such as Lucky Star Shrine^[8] and Lucky Star Fan Club^[9], as well as it’s own wiki^[10].

Related memes

Motteke! Sailor Fuku

Motteke! Sailor Fuku (meaning “Take It! Sailor Uniform”) Is the opening song to the anime. The opening dance routine became a popular dance trend, especially in MADs, similar to Hare Hare Yukai from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

No! Yes

No! Yes is a Youtube poop meme originating from a scene in which the 4 girls attempt to open a door, but due to getting electric shocks, only Konata succeeds.

Timotei

Timotei is a meme based on a short clip from episode 6 of the anime in which Konata recreates an advert^[11] in a public bath by stroking her hair while saying, “Timotei”. Numerous remixes and MAD’s were spawned using the sound clip on sites such as Nico Nico Douga.

Tsukasa Plays the Recorder

Tsukasa Plays the Recorder is a scene from episode 8 of the anime, in which Tsukasa in attempts to play a recorder, but plays it poorly. The scene was subject to a number of Youtube Poop parodies, in which the scene is paired up to a number of different songs.

Search Interest

External References