On February 26, 2013, Melissa King resigned her crown when confronted a midst speculation about an online sex video that claims to star her. Hailey Lawler, the runner-up, will replace her.

The Barney Bunch originated from Newsgrounds,originally known as “The Barney Crew”. The Barney Bunch at some point moved there way up to YouTube. The videos use Speakonia and portray the Barney Bunch as homosexuals. The barney bunch has there own wiki too! The wiki is called “Barney Bunch Swellest”

‘MeeM’ has originated from YouTube, it includes a wooden medic target that is used in the Team Fortress 2 training.
The sound clip is from if you call for a medic to heal you (Medic!) and then reversed in the middle of the speech.
The wooden medic target has an ability to turn other characters into wooden targets. It has currently appeared
on many TF2 videos, mainly made with Garry’s Mod.

Examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2f2iDlTRS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swRuMAXUG6I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2q7zhKruqI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esi3h-phccc

About

Baman Piderman is a web-animated cartoon about the cartoon-rendered adaptations of Batman and Spiderman, and their “adventures.” The original first episode was created by Alex Butera, and then joined with Lindsay Small, the show was featured on Mondo Media (creator of Happy Tree Friends and Dick Figures).

Background

The first episode was a school project done by Alex Butera back in 2009.^[1] After two more episodes, Lindsay Small-Butera joined Alex in the making of episodes, which subsequently led to the joining with Mondo Media.

List of Characters

(listed in order of appearance)

Baman

A cartoon-based rendition of Batman. A friend of Piderman, he always comes over to Piderman’s house in the beginning of each episode. His movements often are inexplicable and is seen growing more arms and legs.

Piderman

A cartoon-based rendition of Spiderman. A friend of Baman, Piderman is often requesting some form of help from him. Like Spiderman, Piderman can shoot webs from his hands, but often instead moves around in a rag doll-like manner.

Pumkin

A pumpkin introduced in Episode 2 (Hab Da Pumkin). Originally just a Pumpkin, later on Pumkin get’s carved and begins to rot throughout the next episodes. When Baman and Piderman “make him all better”, he gains legs and arms and moves around like a normal human, despite still having a pumpkin for a head.

Tuba

Literally a tuba introduced in Episode 3 (Make Da Band). Although a regular tuba is inanimate and genderless, Tuba can slide around and interact with other characters, mostly her boyfriend, Baman.

Those Guys

Color-opposite clones of Baman and Piderman introduced in Episode 7 (Guess Da Number). First seen carving Pumkin, they are often seen as side-characters throughout the series. While living in Piderman’s basement, they have an odd fascination with Baman and Piderman, whereas at one point trying to take their spot in the title sequence.

Baman’s Boss

A giant quadruped first seen in Episode 8 (Hab Da Sleepover). He is oddly similar to Jake from Adventure Time While it was Baman’s boss, Baman’s job is eventually taken and instead employs Squib.

Pizza

An odd pizza with a face that was created by Those Guys. While first seen in Episode 9 (Tell Da Joke), Pizza’s importance wasn’t revealed until the next episode, where it’s shown can be placed on a wall or floor to create a passage to The Trees.

Squib

A giant mass of green tentacles first seen in Episode 10 Part 2 (Happy Winter Friends). After “hatching” from a tree in, it chases Baman and Piderman through The Trees and eventually comes to live around Piderman’s House. After taking Baman’s job, it’s often hanging with Pumkin, implying a genderless romance.

Tuba’s Dad

A sousaphone who lives in a house in The Trees first seen in Episodee 10 Part 2 (Happy Winter Friends). As his name implies, he is Tuba’s dad, and is often showing great concern for his daughter, which often makes Baman uncomfortable.

Bug

A.K.A. Buzzkill Bug, Bug is first seen in Episode 11 (Frow Da Party), but was actually seen in comics prior to the release of the episode. Whenever someone is stared at by him, they often become nervous and uncomfortable. While often seen doing taxes with a small typewriter, he later employs Baman as a music critic.

Red Squib

A giant mass of red tentacles first seen in Episode 13 Part 2 (Revealations). After first “hatching” in The Trees, he is seen as a more hostile version of Baman & Piderman’s Squib. It’s seen later on either harassing Baman & Piderman or hanging with with Those Guys.

Ghost

Ghost, officially named Wanda, is a blue ghostly figure first seen in Episode 14 (Play Da Song). While originally the embodiment of Baman’s Happy Winter Friend wish that was used to save Pumkin, the wand was snapped in Episode 14, causing her Ghost form to haunt Piderman’s house. Her humanoid form is first seen in Episode 16 (Weirdy Feeling), but is fully seen in the Episode 19 special (Ghost Night). She has a liking towards Piderman.

Locations

Main Area

The Main Area is the location of Baman’s House and Piderman’s House, where most episodes are featured. It’s a barren white landscape with hills.

Piderman’s House

Piderman’s House is a large multiple-story house where Piderman, Pumkin, Squib, Those Guys, Pizza, Red Squib, and Wanda live. It has an entry room, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a basement, a stairwell to Pumkin’s room, as well as a trapdoor in Pumkin’s room that leads to a room with a giant portrait that hides a long hallway with yellow wallpaper.

Baman’s House

Baman’s house is a small one-story room where Baman and Tuba live. While it’s size is very small, it has a steering wheel in it that Baman can use to “drive” it.

The Trees

The Trees is a large forest that Tuba’s Dad lives in. It can be accessed when Pizza makes a portal to it. Similar to the Main Area, the trees are white, with most of the landscape being covered in snow. A river flows through the forest. The trees in the forest are apparently “eggs” that squibs can “hatch” from.

Weather

Snow

Snow in the Baman Piderman universe is quite deadly. Instead of small flakes, snow is giant snowflakes raining down that can penetrate the ground and smash into houses. The sky turns blue when it snows.

Rain

Rain is actually giant teardrop-shaped pieces of glass that rain down on the area. They shatter when they hit the ground or something else.

Night

“The Nighttimes” is a time of the day that begins at 7:00 PM. Exactly at 7:00 PM, the world turns a pitch-black darkness that no one can see in. Piderman is revealed to be terrified of the dark.

Fan Art

Along with the shows numerous viewers, many pieces of fan art can be seen on DeviantArt, Tumblr, etc.

[images in progress]

Derivatives

[videos in progress]

Cancellation

In December of 2012, rumors began to circulate that Mondo Media would be pulling funds from Baman Piderman to fund a new show. When it was made official by Lindsay Small^[2], people began to respond with negative comments toward other Mondo Media shows, like Happy Tree Friends and 4th Period Lunch.

External References

^[1] Find Da Sandwich– Baman Piderman Wiki
^[2] Baman Piderman Creators Talk about New Show; it Goesn’t Go Well– Mondo Media

[Work in progress]

About

Donald Trump is an American entrepreneur, television personality and author known for hosting the NBC reality show The Apprentice and being an outspoken political conservative.

Online History

Birther Movement

While billionaire Donald Trump was attempting to make a bid for the republican nomination for president in March 2011, he began looking into the validity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate^[2], stating that the “Certification of Live Birth” the White House released did not bear a signature of authenticity.^[5] He also claimed that the release of Obama’s birth certificate was because of his involvement in the process.^[4] He continued to question Obama’s birth certificate throughout 2012, tweeting^[3] on August 6th, 2012 that the produced certificate was a fraud.

An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that <a href="https://twitter.com/barackobama">barackobama</a>'s birth certificate is a fraud.</p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012

On October 22nd, 2012, Trump asserted he would be making a “very big” revelation about the president within two days.^[6] On the 24th, Trump released a video (shown below, left) stating he would donate $5 million dollars to the charity of the President’s choice if he provided his college applications and records as well as his passport records by October 31st to the billionaire’s satisfaction. Many news sources including CBS News^[7], Business Insider^[8] and the Huffington Post^[9] claimed the announcement fell flat of his Twitter hype. In response, satirical news host Stephen Colbert made a counter offer to Trump, saying he would donate $1 million to the charity of his choice if he would allow Colbert to “dip his balls his in mouth.”^[10] The same night, Obama responded on The Tonight Show^[11], joking that his feud with Trump dated back to when they were growing up together in Kenya (shown below, right).

2012 Presidential Election Reaction

Following the 2012 United States Presidential Election, Trump published several angry tweets about Barack Obama’s election for a second term as President of the United States.

Twitter Chain

On February 25th, 2013, Trump published a tweet promoting his reality television show The Apprentice. Immediately after, Twitter user Mark Gurman tweeted a link to Trump’s promotion with the word “Wow.” After Arizona student Erik Schmidt tweeted a link to Gurman’s tweet with the word “Wow,” a trend was created in which other Twitter users began tweeting links to tweets prefaced with “Wow.” On February 28th, the Twitter worm was traced back by the tech news blog The Verge.^[1]

Shark Tank is a dead Friday night filler compared to the Apprentice which has been number one show for week in the T. V. ratings!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2013

Search Interest

External References

(this is a work in progress)

About

Jennifer Lawrence is an award-winning American actress best known for her starring role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Online, her awkward interviews and seemingly down-to-earth personality have earned her a large fanbase on the social networking site Tumblr.

Online History

[Researching]

Reputation

[Researching]

Oscar Fall

Personal Life

[Researching]

Search Interest

External References

The image is an angry, and serious looking face that is found in The Punisher. Frank Castle’s face, otherwise known as frank-face, is a popular face-swap image macro that gained its popularity on 4chan’s /co/ board, when people realized that Frank had the same exploitable expression on his face through the series. The series that these macro’s were derived from were written by Garth Ennis, and drawn by Steve Dillon.

Templates

About

Kill Me or Please Kill Me is a range image macros depicting people, animals or objects in various painful or uncomfortable situations. The images are often accompanied with the caption “KILL ME”, suggesting the subject’s desire to escape.

Origin

The first instance may or may not have been from a scene in the science fiction horror film trilogy “Alien”, released through 1979-2012 by 20th Century Fox^[1].

Spread

Possibly, the second instance of Kill Me was “Kill Me Dog”, uploaded to weknowmemes.com in October 2011. This may have started the trend of the image macro.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

THIS IS BIRTHDAYCAKEFOR A NICEGIRL

Origin
“Home Taping Is Killing Music” was the slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright infringement campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder popularity, the BPI feared that people being able to record music from the radio onto cassettes would cause a decline in record sales. The logo, consisting of a Jolly Roger formed from the silhouette of a Compact Cassette, also included the words And It’s Illegal.

Parodies
The slogan was often parodied, one example being the addendum and it’s about time too!, used by Dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex. Some fanzines changed the words to Home taping is killing the music industry and added the words …so be sure to do your part! below the logo. Another example was the early 1980s counter-slogan Home Taping is Skill in Music, referring to early mixtapes, a precursor to sampling and remixes. The cassette & crossbones image was displayed briefly as a backdrop in the “Time Out For Fun” video by the band Devo from their 1982 album, “Oh, No! It’s Devo”. Venom’s 1982 album Black Metal used the logo with the words Home Taping Is Killing Music; So Are Venom. The phrase Home-Taping Is Making Music appears on the back cover of Peter Principle’s self-produced 1988 album Tone Poems. The San Diego punk band Rocket from the Crypt sold T-shirts with the tape and bones and the words “Home Taping Is Killing the Music Industry: Killing Ain’t Wrong.” Sonic Youth has t-shirts with the cassette and sonic youth written under it.^[2] The cover of Billy Bragg’s album Workers Playtime featured a notice reading “Capitalism is killing music – pay no more than £4.99 for this record”.^[3] Mitch Benn also comments “Home taping isn’t killing music, music’s dying of natural causes” in the song “Steal This Song” on the album Radioface. In Poland (in mid 80’s), some of official (PRONIT label) vinyl pressings had parody stamp “Home taping… is much fun”.

The tape version of the Dead Kennedys e.p. “In God We Trust Inc.” had one blank side. The blank side was printed with the message, “Home taping is killing record industry profits! We left this side blank so you can help.” (This was on the Alternative Tentacles release; the Faulty Products-released version differed.)

More recently, the pro-p2p file sharing group Downhill Battle has used the slogan “Home Taping Is Killing the Music Industry, and It’s Fun” on T-shirts, and the BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay uses the logo of a pirate ship whose sails bear the “tape and bones.” Additionally the Pirate Party UK has a version of the tape and bones with the logo “copyright is killing music – and it’s legal” and the Swedish Piratbyrån is using the same tape and bones as their logo.

Similar rhetoric has continued; in 1982 Jack Valenti famously compared the VCR and its anticipated effect on the movie industry to the Boston Strangler, and in 2005 Mitch Bainwol of the RIAA claimed that CD burning is hurting music sales.

In March 2010, TalkTalk, as part of its campaign against the UK Government’s filesharing proposals, created a spoof video entitled “Home Taping is Killing Music”. The song was written and performed by singer/songwriter Dan Bull and featured lookalikes of Madonna, George Michael and Adam Ant lip-synching to the song.

About

Virgins is a collective term commonly associated with people who maintain activities that appear highly time-consuming or may be deemed unattractive by the opposite sex, resulting in the assumption that those individuals have no sexual experience. Although the term is at times used as a form of self-parody, its main usage lies with mocking specific groups of people for their looks or hobbies.

Background

During the course of the 20th century, specific activities like playing video games, reading comic books or being active on the internet were most commonly associated in a negative fashion with the nerd stereotype. Maintainers of these hobbies were commonly depicted and generalized as being rather unattractive due to their looks, clothing and body type. This in turn generated the general assumption that they were not deemed attractive by the opposite sex, resulting in the assumption of them having no significant other and still being a virgin even at a higher age.

Spread

[Researching]

Related Memes

Involuntary Abstinence

Involuntary Abstinence is a concept of Internet humor typically iterated in image macros poking fun at male-oriented hobbies and activities that may be deemed unattractive by the other sex. The captions in these image macros commonly imply that the males shown maintain those hobbies for the sole sake of staying a virgin and protecting it.

30-Year-Old Virgin Wizard

The 30-Year-Old Virgin Wizard is an internet myth saying that if a person manages to still be a virgin at the milestone of age 30, he will attain magical powers on the level of a highly skilled wizard. Various requirements have been made up surrounding the myth. The phrase was first coined on Futaba Channel.

Search Interest

Note: Search interest has been reduced to just the category “Online Communities” to avoid search results unrelated to the focus of the article.

External References

Overview

Jedi Mind Meld is a term used by the U.S. President Barack Obama to describe the difficulties of convincing the Republican House to avert the crisis of budget sequestration during a press conference at the White House on March 1st, 2013. Due to its conflated origin in popular sci-fi franchises Star Wars (“Jedi Mind Trick”) and Star Trek (“Mindmelding”), President Obama’s use of the term drew heavy commentaries from people trying to correct the mistake on Twitter and elsewhere.

Background

On March 1st, 2013, President Obama appeared before the White House press corps to answer questions regarding the government’s failure to prevent automatic budget cuts from going into effect. When asked whether he was exercising his leadership to the fullest capacity, Obama responded defensively by saying that he cannot forcefully change the minds of congressional leaders as he is “not a dictator,” even drawing a pop culture reference to the popular sci-fi franchises Star Wars and Star Trek.

“I’m presenting a fair deal. The fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a ‘Jedi mind-meld’ with these folks and convince them to do what’s right,” he said, while offering no new ideas for resolving the bitter dispute.

Notable Developments

#JediMindMeld Tweets

Within the first hour after the press conference, President Obama’s conflated use of “Jedi Mind Meld,” which is thought to be a combination of “mind trick” as used by Jedi fighters in Star Wars and “Vulcan mind meld” as used by telepathic Vulcans in Star Trek, quickly went viral and became a trending topic on Twitter, leading to a flurry of commentaries hashtaged #jedimindmeld^[11] that eagerly pointed out the blunder.

News Media Coverage

Throughout the afternoon, the Twitter reaction to President Obama’s “Jedi mind meld” comment was picked up by numerous major news outlets, including NBC News^[5], CBS News^[9], CNN^[8], The Washington Post^[7], Reuters^[3] and Mediate.^[2]

The White House Response

Later that same day, the White House responded to the online chatters with an image macro featuring a still shot of President Obama and an anti-sequester slogan written in signature Star Wars and Star Trek font styles, as well as a shortlink URL (wh.gov/jedimindmeld) that redirects to “The President’s Plan on The Sequester” page.

Search Interest

External References

About

The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race is a facetious label used to attribute superiority to those who play video games on a personal computer (PC). It is commonly used as a retort in online debates where console gamers are referred to as “dirty console peasants.”

Origin

On January 23rd, 2008, online video game magazine The Escapist^[2] published a review episode of the PC game The Witcher^[1] as part of their review series “Zero Punctuation.”^[3] In the video, the narrator quips how The Witcher’s complex structure makes the gaming experience optimized for PC users so that “those dirty console playing peasants don’t ruin it for the glorious PC gaming master race.” Within six years, the episode gathered over 400 comments and 650 Facebook likes on the Escapist website.

Spread

On February 23rd, 2010, a Facebook page^[4] titled “Glorious PC Gaming Master Race” was created, which received more than 3,900 likes in the next three years. On April 30th, 2011, the r/pcmasterrace subreddit^[5] was launched, in which Redditors submit posts related to the superiority of PC gaming. On July 21st, The Zero Punctuation review of The Witcher was uploaded to YouTube, receiving upwards of 200,000 views and 680 comments in the next two years. On June 14th, 2012, the video game blog VG 24/7^[6] published an article about PC game modding, which referenced the glorious PC gaming master race. On November 25th, the gaming blog Kotaku^[7] highlighted an artwork depicting the PC master race created by digital illustrator Saenji Oh (shown below), which accumulated over 60,000 views and 800 comments on Kotaku and nearly 1 million views on Imgur^[8] in the next four months.

Additionally, threads discussing the glorious PC gaming master race have been submitted to Newgrounds,^[9]IGN,^[10] Rooster Teeth^[11] and the Bodybuilding Forums.^[12]

Notable Examples

Additional examples can also be found on Tumblr under the tags “#pc-gaming-master-race”^[13] and “#master-race”.^[14]

Search Interest

External References.

Origin

Hell valley sky tree is a super Mario creepypasta originating in the game Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Nintendo console Wii. The Creepypasta itself can be found on the level (which in the game are referred to as galaxies) Shiverburn Galaxy. Whenever the player goes to first-person mode, the player can see three figures on the fringes of the map’s edge looking down at Mario.

Speculation on the Internet

Across the forums in the Internet, there has been much speculation over what these figures are, since Nintendo has yet to say anything at all about these shadowy figures. Among the speculators, the largest collection of them can be found on the Creepypasta Wiki.

“BEYONDHELLVALLEY”

Eventually, it was determined what, at least, the name of the creatures were. By hacking the game and accessing the code. One can see that the texture of the map was called “Beyond Hell Valley” (NOTE: this is translated from Japanese, due to the creation of the game by Nintendo, a Japanese company.) and they themselves were called “Hell Valley Sky Tree(s)” though they look nothing like trees. No character in the game mentions their existence. Even when the game is hacked, Mario c ant reach them, as if they’re supposed to be a fixed distance from him. But when the player goes to first person view the figures are always there, as if they were following Mario.

[still researching help is greatly appreciated]

About

“Before You Say I Am Stoling This Art, Let Me Explain You A Thing” is an expression derived from a description on the art sharing site deviantART by a user who had reuploaded an older artwork to a new account. The strange sentence structure, combined with the misspelling of “stealing”, led to several reposts of the phrase on the blogging site Tumblr, where it evolved in to the snowclone, “Before You Say I Am Stoling This X, Let Me Explain You a Thing.”

Origin

On November 16th, 2012, deviantART user Gamer98^[1] uploaded a piece of The Lion King fan art in submission for a contest run by deviantART user Rinjapine. At the top of the image description, Gamer98 added a disclaimer: “Before you say that i am stoling [sic] this art: I want to explain you a thing,my old acount [sic] was [thelionofdeserts] and i’m reposting this art of TLK here in my new account, [Gamer98]” in effort to deter other deviantART users from claiming that he had stolen the artwork. The user’s old account, thelionofdeserts, has been deleted as of March 2013.

Spread

Also on November 16th, the novelty Twitter account @TextDeviantart^[2] tweeted the phrase with the usernames and links removed. As of March 2013, it has been retweeted more than 330 times and favorited more than 150 times.

Before you say that i am stoling this art I want to explain you a thing

— Text-only DeviantART (@TextDeviantart) November 16, 2012

Also on the 16th, Tumblr user wtfstuck^[3] shared a screenshot of @TextDeviantart’s tweet on the microblogging network, accruing more than 25,000 notes by March 2013. The phrase did not appear again until February 25th when Tumblr user yoshika420^[4] made a text post using the phrase in an imagined scenario (shown below) where it was used as a response to paintings being stolen from the French art museum the Louvre, gaining more than 10,000 notes within a week. Three days after this post, the phrase was used on the World of Warcraft forums^[7] in a thread about fan art to explain how people tend to respond to accusations of art theft. As of March 2013, additional image macros using a snowclone version of the phrase are posted on Tumblr with the tags “stoling”^[5] and “let me explain you a thing.”^[6]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Whose Line is an image macro series featuring a screen capture of Drew Carey hosting the improvisational comedy television show Whose Line is it Anyway? The captions often contain a variation of the snowclone template “Welcome to X / Where Y’s made up and the Z doesn’t matter.”

Origin

In the American version of Whose Line is it Anyway?, which premiered on August 5th, 1998, the show would begin with the host Drew Carey saying, “Welcome to Whose Line is it Anyway, the show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter” (shown below).

On July 29th, 2011, a Quickmeme^[1] page titled “Whose Line” was created, which featured image macros using a screen capture of Carey reading from a piece of paper. The first submission^[3] on the page included the caption “Welcome to the USA / the government where the money’s made up and the debt doesn’t matter” (shown below). In the next two years, the submission received over 1,300 up votes and 400 Facebook likes.

Spread

On August 7th, 2011, Redditor turboscerbo submitted an image macro to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[6] subreddit, which joked about the usefulness of a college degree (shown below, left). The post received only 280 up votes and 10 comments prior to being archived. On December 16th, Redditor Insuevi submitted an image macro criticizing the American voting system and erosion of civil liberties to the /r/AdviceAnimals subreddit (shown below, right),^[7] receiving over 6,700 up votes and 130 comments prior to being archived.

On August 2nd, 2012, Redditor pbh184 submitted an image macro to the /r/AdviceAnimals subreddit,^[2] mocking the concerns of the United States electorate (shown below, left). Prior to being archived, the post accumulated more than 11,200 up votes and 190 comments. On February 27th, 2013, Redditor Velociraptor11 submitted an image macro joking about lifestyles associated with people in their 30s to the /r/AdviceAnimal subreddit (shown below, right),^[8] garnering upwards of 11,700 up votes and 550 comments within five days.

Notable Examples

As of March 2013, the Quickmeme page for “Whose Line” has received upwards of 2,700 submissions.

Search Interest

External References

(Work in Progress)

Unfortunate Domain Names are websites that choose hilariously and intentionally chosen website names.

1. www.WhorePresents.com – Website for Who Represents
2. www.ExpertSexChange.com – Website for Experts Exchange
3. www.PenIsland.com – Website for Pen Island
4. www.TheRapistFinder.com – Website for Therapist Finder
5. www.PowerGenitalia.com – Website for Power-Gen Italia (Italian Power Generation company)
6. www.MolestationNursery.com – Website for Mole Station Nursery
7. www.IPAnywhere.com – Website for IP anywhere
8. www.CummingFirst.com – Website for the First Cumming Methodist Church
9. www.SpeedoFart.com – Website for the “Speed of art” orgainization
10. www.GotAHoe.com – Website for a holiday in Lake Tahoe
11. www.Nice-Tits.org – Website for the bird-watching society
12. www.DicksOnWeb.com – Website for Dickson musical instruments
13. www.ChoosesPain.com – Website for the holiday company, Choose Spain
14. www.ViagraFix.com – Website for the CAD company, ViaGrafix
15. www.TeacherStalk.com – Website for Teachers Talk
16. www.WinterSexPress.com – Website for Winters Express
17. www.AuctionShit.com – Website for Auctions Hit
18. www.MammothErection.com – Website for Mammoth Erection (scaffolding erecting and dismatling service)
19. www.NYCanal.com – New York Canal website
20. www.ButtHatsNotAll.co.nz – Website for But That’s Not All!
21. www.ChildrenSwear.co.uk – Website for Childrens Wear
22. www.IHaveGas.com – Website for IHA Vegas
23. www.MachoMe.com – Website for Mac Home
24. www.OddSexTractor.com – Website for Odds Extractor
25. www.BiGalsOnline.com – Website for Big Al’s Online
26. www.ScatIssue.com – Website for SCA Tissue
27. www.CumStore.co.uk – Website for Cumbria Storage Systems
28. www.AltersCrap.com – Website for Alter Scrap Processing
29. www.WeBone.com – Website for Web One
30. www.budget.Co.ck – Website for Budget

This meme is based off of the song “Ain’t that a kick in the head”. The song says “As the fella once said, ain’t that a kick in the head!”, & “As the sailor said quote, ain’t that a hole in the boat!”. The idea of this meme is to make a parody. This song is used in the video game Fallout: New Vegas. The point of this meme is to make a parody of these quotes. Most users like to use people & things they do from the game.

Some characters used are: Aaron Kimball, The Courier, Benny, Caeser, Legion

The first comment is not really known.

Many of these comments are found on a Fallout New Vegas soundtrack videos.

Please help me. If you know any more info, please edit this article.

About

The Knife Game, sometimes known as Five Finger Fillet, is a challenge that involves placing one’s palm face down on a flat surface and attempting to stab a blade between the fingers without hitting them. In 2011, YouTube musician Rusty Cage wrote a song to go with the game, which eventually led to the birth of a participatory video fad similar to Lulu and the Lampshades Cup Covers in March 2013.

Origin

Though its first appearance remains unknown, the Knife Game became popularized as early as 1986 with its inclusion in the science fiction film Aliens. In the scene (shown below, left), an android named Bishop (played by Lance Henriksen) holds down the human marine William Hudson (played by Bill Paxton) and performs the knife trick on him. One of the earliest parodies of this game was uploaded to YouTube on July 27th, 2006. (shown below, right)

Spread

In 2001, GameSpyArcade launched a Flash-based virtual game titled Five Finger Fillet.^[2] The next year, the game was discussed on the Straight Dope message board^[3] and the Counterglow Forums.^[4] In 2006, Knife Game was added to Wikipedia^[6] as Five Finger Fillet. Two years later, in 2008, the game was defined on Urban Dictionary with the name “stabscotch.”^[5] Also that year, instructions for the game as “5-Finger Fillet” were shared on Instructables^[7] and another video of the game was featured on eBaum’s World.^[8]

Notable Examples

The Knife Song

On August 31st, 2011, Florida-based musician Rusty Cage^[10] uploaded a video of himself (shown below, left) completing the game while singing an original song about the process. On February 28th, 2013, the video was posted to the WTF subreddit^[14] and though it only accrued 18 points, the same day, a handful of YouTubers reuploaded Cage’s video^[11][12], including a version that was ten minutes long.^[13] The following day, the video was submitted to both /r/Videos^[15] and /r/YouTubeHaiku^[16], gaining 641 points between them. At this point, other YouTubers began uploading their own versions of the song, but it did not take off until March 2nd, 2013, when Norwegian YouTuber Hanna Fylling Ellingseter^[9] uploaded a video of herself singing the song (shown below, right).

In the following days, Ellingseter’s video was featured on a number of news sites and internet culture blogs, including Reddit^[17], Sourcefed^[18], Beatbeat^[19], BuzzFeed^[20], Blame It on the Voices^[21], The Huffington Post^[22], Gawker^[23], New Media Rockstars^[24] and Business Insider.^[25] However, by March 5th, Ellingseter’s original video had been removed for a violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service. Additional “Knife Song” videos have been directly uploaded to Tumblr.^[28]

Search Interest

External References

[WIP]

About

Memetic Communication, or the use of memes as a form of communication, is central to the concept of memetics. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a meme as:^[1]

A cultural element or behavioural trait whose transmission and consequent persistence in a population, although occurring by non-genetic means (esp. imitation), is considered as analogous to the inheritance of a gene.

From Richard Dawkins’ book The Selfish Gene, in which he coined the term ‘meme’:^[2]

We need a name for the new replicator, a noun which conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.

Thus, memes exist as a ‘unit’ of cultural expression, that are transmitted from person to person, and even between cultures. As such, for memes to exist and spread, they must be communicable. The exponential rise of social media has spurred the creation and transmission of countless internet memes, to the point where it can be said that internet memes constitute a unique form of communication, with nearly as much subtlety and diversity as a proper language.

History

The term ‘meme’ was coined in 1976^[2], long before the days of the internet. Its original usage described units of cultural expression, such as popular pottery styles, architectural features, or even stereotypes. These memes were (and are) communicated largely through trade, theatre, and other traditional media.

An example of this sort of meme is the use of curved edges on consumer electronics. The first real example of this was the iMac G3, manufactured by Apple from 1998 to 2003.^[3] The computers had a very distinctive shape, and were sold with a variety of brightly-colored plastic casings; this set a very stark contrast from the beige, square towers that dominated the market at the time. Combined with their aggressive marketing campaign, Apple’s design ethos became extremely popular, and set the standard for consumer electronics design, to the point where Apple and Samsung are locked in multiple patent battles. Square or boxy computers now look very dated.

Thus, rounded edges as a design feature can be said to be memetic, in that they are a specific design feature that quickly caught on, and was subsequently imitated by nearly all other consumer electronics companies. As far as communication, possession of consumer electronics with rounded edges, especially when it was a new phenomenon, indicates a certain level of fashionability and socioeconomic status; thus, the meme of curved edges can communicate ideas to others.

Comparison with Tropes

A similar concept, often used in parallel context, is the trope. Tropes are frequently used in communication alongside memes, but there is an important difference. Memes are units of cultural expression, whereas tropes generally refer to literary devices or clichés^[4] In that way, tropes tend to be much more general ideas than memes; tropes may form the style of a language, while memes are the objects of language. When communicating, a person may draw upon or refer to tropes, while incorporating specific memes.

On the Internet

The recontextualization of memes within the internet has allowed for the huge expansion of memes and memetic communication, along with the dramatic increase in social media use. Online communication has allowed for memes to nearly become a language in their own right. Memes begin to spread on sites such as 4chan and reddit, and are picked up on by other sites such as FunnyJunk, Cuánto Cabrón, and 9gag, with new instances and derivatives being created all along. Sites such as Cheezburger and Meme Generator were created with the express purpose of creating instances of memes, and thus a memetic lexicon of sorts is created and spread around social media.

Memes become so recognizable to experienced net users that they can be used to express sentiments or ideas, without the need for explanatory text. This may not always be the case in more popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, although they are still widely-recognized and find similar usage.

Reaction Faces and Videos

The most common form of memetic communication is the use of reaction faces and reaction videos. There are hundreds of examples of both, sometimes associated with text, or just ideas. Below are some of the more commonly-used examples.

Costanza.JPG / >ISHYGDDT

A common reaction image (seen below) is an image of the Seinfeld character George Costanza bearing a look of contempt. The meme is usually called Costanza.jpg or Contempt Costanza, and its usage is fairly specific. It is generally used to express disapproval, contempt, or disbelief towards an action or argument. It can be combined with greentext (see below), as well as the phrase “I seriously hope you guys don’t do that” (ISHYGDDT). It is also frequently used along with “‘>Implying’”:/memes/implying-implying-implications/ and “‘>2012’ or ‘>2013’”:/memes/2011-2012/ (see below). An example might be:

>2013
>not knowing that memes are used for communication
>costanza.jpg

Xzibit / Yo Dawg

Another very common reaction image is an image of the rapper Xzibit laughing (below, left). The image is almost always associated with the phrase “Yo dawg…”, which is a reference to the original recursive humor represented by the meme. The image might be used to respond to a story or another image which features such recursive humor, such as a photo of a pizza topped with mini-pizzas. Thus, it communicates a very distinct message, by pointing out and making fun of recursiveness, especially if it’s unintentional.

Two related images of Xzibit are also used (below, center and right). These have somewhat different connotations; they are generally used to follow up on the use of the ‘smiling Xzibit’, when the recursiveness is taken to new levels. The center image is generally used to express amazement or wonder, while the right image is used to express confusion, or to say “this has gone too far”.

Rage Comics as Reaction Faces

The use of individual rage faces as reaction faces is extremely widespread, and remain one of the most widely-recognized forms of memetic communication on the internet. Due to the diverse nature of rage comics, there are tons of possible examples with a variety of meanings. Rage faces are generally used to conclude or to react to stories or images, and rage comics, compilations of rage faces, are used to illustrate stories with well-recognized images. A list of common examples can be found here.

You Tried

The phrase You Tried, accompanied with a gold star, is commonly used to contemptuously make fun of the failures of others. The image originated on tumblr, and is now used across the internet. Along with its derivatives, it communicates a very clear and precise response message – feigning sympathy while really feeling contempt or vindication towards the failure in question.

Nope.AVI

Nope.AVI is a very widely-used reaction video (see below). It is frequently used as a humorous response to a story or photo, although its direct meaning can vary. It may be used to simply express a negative response (i.e. no). Another common use is to express fear or disgust at a story or picture; the usage of “nope” in this context has expanded beyond nope.AVI, and is frequently used as a response.

Internet Slang

Another important facet of memetic communication is the widespread use of internet slang expressions, such as YOLO, derp, LOL, spam, and dafuq. There are a large number of neologisms and idioms that are said to have originated on the internet, and thanks to social media, they have found their way into everyday use online. Slang terms are frequently used along with other forms of memetic communication, including reaction images (mentioned above). Internet users have even developed a unique writing system, 1337speak, that frequently accompanies the internet lexicon.

Internet slang is so prevalent that it finds usage in everyday speech away from the internet, and thus is widely-recognizable in all forms of media. While many of the phrases’ meanings may be misinterpreted down the line, the spread and usage of memetic language is omnipresent in today’s society. A list of common terms can be found here.

-fag Suffix

An interesting case of memetic internet slang is the use of the word ‘fag’ as a suffix. In the traditional sense, ‘fag’ is short for faggot, a pejorative term used against homosexuals. On 4chan, the term was originally used as a suffix in a similar context, to insult users who had unusual interests. For example, an alternate (and much more derogatory) term for a furry is ‘furfag’.

However, as the popularity of the -fag suffix grew on 4chan, it began to be applied more and more humorously, creating terms such as oldfag (for users who had been using the site for a long period of time), eurofag (for European users or users interested in European culture), or drawfag (for users who enjoy drawing), none of which are particularly insulting. In fact, the -fag suffix grew to be used to indicate a sense of camaraderie between users.

The -fag suffix has since found usage far beyond 4chan, and although its traditional pejorative connotations still cause confusion and misunderstanding, those who are more versed in memetic language recognize it for the meaning it has attained through its memetic spread across the internet.

Emoji / Emoticons

Another case of memetic language is the widespread use of emoticons or emoji to convey emotions. These are typographical characters or figures that usually incorporate some type of facial features to express an emotion. The archetypical example is the smiley face: :-). There are a wide variety of examples of such emoticons used to express simple emotions or sentiments, like happiness, sadness, boredom, anger, etc., and they are frequently used in text-based communication, such as tweets or text messages. There are also a number of more subtle or complex emoticons that are widely used, such as:

• ಠ_ಠ, also known as the Look of Disapproval
• (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻, also known as Flipping Tables
• >:3, sometimes paired with the phrase “Jesus Christ, It’s a Lion, Get in the Car!”
• ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), an emoticon sometimes referred to as Le Lenny Face, whose only use is to spam forums

Since emoticons are so widely used, they constitute a fundamental form of memetic communication.

The Use of ‘>’: Greentext and Implying

Internet users have created a unique mode of memetic communication that prefaces statements with ‘>’. This habit began on 4chan, where lines of text that begin with ‘>’ are automatically colored green. This gave rise to what are referred to as greentext stories, in which a narrative is related using a series of sentence fragments, each beginning with ‘>’, and often accompanied by an image to convey the author’s emotions:

Greentext stories are almost always personal narratives, truthful or otherwise. In many cases, they have gag endings, where the author will entirely distort the context of the narrative to make it much more humorous. Although greentext stories are most prevalent on 4chan, they can also be found in many other forum-based sites, as well as in IRC chats.

A related use of > to preface a statement is “‘>Implying’”:/memes/implying-implying-implications/, or ‘>Implying that X’. This is almost always used mockingly, to point out unsound logic upon which conclusions are drawn or opinions are formed. As with greentext stories, the use of ‘>Implying’ originated on 4chan. It, along with its variants “‘>2012’ or ‘>2013’”:/memes/2011-2012/, are frequently combined with the Costanza.jpg reaction face (see above) to express contempt at someone else’s logic or arguments.

External References