About

Darec was a 14 year old boy (15, last seen) before his disappearance. He was last seen in Orlando, Florida in 2003. He was brutally injured by his close friends and was left to die in an abandoned home that was rumored to once been owned by a demonic entity named Abigor. He woke up with no memory of his past and only the memory of the ones that had killed him.

Origin

Backstory

On March 2, 2004, he manifested what was titled as “The List” and went on a mass murder spree to hunt down and kill his ‘dear old friends’. His first friend, the one that had ripped out his eyes, was seen with his eyes ripped out of the sockets and enlodged into his mouth where he had then choked to death. He had died on March 2, 2004.

The second friend, the one that had cut off his fingers, was found 2 days later crying behind an abandoned store. When the police had question him he’d say, “Darec is alive. Darec is inside us. Darec is watching.”. He is the only known person to survive his attack. When the police had asked him what he looked like, the person had responded as him being able to stretch his fingers and tongue to incredible sizes, white glowing eyes, and having a face appearing inside his mouth. He had been found by Darec on March 2, 2005.

The third friend, the one that had beaten him up the most, had been severely killed the harshest out the the group. This was his closest friend. It is told that he arms were chopped off with a machete that was found lying next to him, his entire upper body was destroyed by a bucket of acid that was forcefully placed inside his stomach, lower body and legs were chewed off by what has been assumed as a huge animal, and was later found inside his bedroom under his bed covers. He was found by Darec on March 2, 2006.

It has been feared that he may have been possessed by Abigor or has been given his abilities. The police had studied his murdering dates and have come to realize that he kills anyone that had once known him and were close to him every year on his birthday. Within the course of time he has additionally ‘found’ his parents, sister, girlfriend, and one additional friend, and a teacher. Even though there is no way of truly knowing, it is possible that he was last seen on March 2, 2012 where he killed his English teacher. The school was put on lock down as security officers and police searched for the person responsible for her death. They we’re met with a piece of paper that read ‘She has been found’. After testing out the slip of paper in a lab they’d found no traces of finger prints.

He only appears to kill when it’s dark outside or around 7pm-4am. The only phrases he’ll say to his victims are “You’ve been found.” or “There you are!”

Before the start of the New York Knicks, Portland Trailblazers game Chris Webber and Kevin Harlan were trying to pick a winner. But the person who actually did pick the winner was the guy sitting between and behind the two announcers. This is the most epic nosepick in the history of western civilization. It was later discovered that the object which was picked had the word Trailblazer written on it. The Portland Trailblazers went on to win the game 105-90, and so a winner was picked. After the game the man said “I don’t always pick my nose, but when I do, I do it on national television.”

Note:This is sub-entry for Shock Site

About

1 Guy 1 Jar is very disturbing shock site video. It is featuring a naked Russian guy named Alex a.k.a Jar Man where he inserts jar right to his anal rectum which caused the jar to break inside. The rest of video shows shows his attempts toward to remove all glass shards from rectum while blood coming from that. Along with 2 Girls 1 Cup, Kids in a Sandbox, Lemon Party, 3 Guys 1 Hammer etc. this shock site became very popular due to reaction videos toward to end of 2008.

Derivates

Reactions

Parodies and spoofs

This meme represent a joke for people who dont take work out seriously
The main phrase is “I’m praying for you…”

A catch phrase of two youtubers by the names of “TheBajanCanadian” and “JeromeASF”. The two often reference the catch phrase from time to time, and the saying has even gotten a few t-shirts.

About

What Happened to These Girls is a before & after picture set of girls with healthy bodies at first and then girls with overweight bodies years later.

Origin

Not much is known about the origin except it is mostly a common thread on 4chan’s /b/.

Spread

(W.I.P.)

External References

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This meme has its origins in an anecdote from Moshe Kasher on the You Had to Be There podcast. When trying to get to the podcast recording, which is held in the MTV offices of podcast hosts for their TV show Nikki and Sara Live, he had difficulty explaining to a security guard where he was trying to go. This is because MTV is both a channel and the parent company of all its associated channels. So every attempt to explain that he wanted to go to MTV was greeted with a frustrated “It’s all MTV”.

http://youhadtobethere.libsyn.com/episode-101-moshe-kasher

Background

On March 16th, 2013, Redditor dont_stop_me_smee^[1] submitted five images of a large-sized safe vault (shown below) to the r/pics subreddit,^[2] claiming it was found in a friend’s new house in New Zealand that had previously served as a drug house, which naturally led to to extensive speculation as to what could be inside the safe.

Within the first 48 hours, the post garnered more than 41,000 upvotes, 3,100 points overall and 5,500 comments, while the Imgur gallery^[3] was viewed more than 1.6 million times. While many commenters in the thread seemed excited by the story still in development, some expressed skepticism towards its significance and speculated that the opening of this safe may not live up to its hype, even drawing a comparison to the live opening of Al Capone’s vault^[7] in 1986.

Notable Developments

Within four minutes of the original post, Redditor MrSweatpantsJackson requested^[8] that the OP post results once the safe was open, to which Redditor dont_stop_me_smee responded with a verbal promise to deliver the finding. By the end of the evening, Redditor Tof1911^[10] had possibly identified the lock as a Sargent and Greenleaf model 6630^[11] and suggested the OP get a special stethoscope to try to crack the combination. Throughout the rest of the comments, the OP claimed that he contacted a safe expert^[15] to pay a visit and inspect it.

Image Macros

Between March 16th and 18th, dozens of questions about the safe were submitted to /r/AskReddit. Additionally, more than 100 safe-related image macros were submitted to the AdviceAnimals subreddit.^[16] Many of these posts contained very similar jokes, as illustrated in a March 16th post by Redditor ChrisTobin^[17] who compiled 14 unique instances of the advice animal character Confused Gandalf portrayed as someone who had missed the original post but become aware of its popularity on the site.

/r/WhatsInThisThing

About an hour after the images were first posted on March 16th, Redditor red321red321 brought up similar stories^[9] about mysterious safe vaults that were posted on the site but never went resolved. The OP then replied with a link to the newly launched /r/WhatsInThisThing^[4] subreddit as a gesture of firm commitment to unraveling the mystery. Within the first 48 hours of launch, the subreddit accrued more than 62,000 subscribers. Redditors began sharing theories^[12] as to the content of the safe, while others divulged into their own stories about discovering locked objects, including those who had successfully opened them^[13] as well as people seeking help^[14] in getting their items unlocked.

Media Coverage

On March 18th, The Daily Dot^[5] and Business Insider^[6] both provided coverage on the subreddit and dont_stop_me_smee’s story.

Search Interest

Though there have been previous queries for the phrase “Reddit safe,” there is a large spike in mid-March 2013, corresponding with the original Reddit post.

External References

About

Carlos is a fictional character from the animated children’s television show The Magic School Bus best known for his many, often bad, pun jokes during the episodes. On the internet, he has become a common character to combine with pun jokes or use as a reaction towards them.

Origin

The Magic School Bus^[1] originally ran from September 1994 to December 1997. In the show, a third grade elementary school class is brought along various field trips by their teacher Ms. Frizzle on her magic school bus, teaching the viewers about science along the way. The class contains a wide diversion of nationalities and personalities, one of them being the Mexican-American class clown Carlos Ramon. Carlos was best known for his constant pun jokes about the situation the class is in, always resulting in the other kids groaning “CARLOS!” in unison.

Spread

On September 13th, 2010, a FunnyJunk post^[2] containing a screen capture of a 4chan thread featuring the kids and Ms. Frizzle in an abortion of one of the kids managed to gain nearly 1,200 upvotes combined (shown below, left) as of March 19th, 2013. A computer reaction image posted on December 5th, 2012, representing Funnyjunk’s common reaction towards Carlos comments,^[3] managed to gain more than 1,000 upvotes as of the same date (shown below, right).

A post made by Tumblr user Boltong on May 8th, 2012, about her in-game experience with the videogame Fallout: New Vegas,^[4] quickly turned into a series of back and forth pun jokes between Tumblr users Thegoodoneisbad^[5] and Diarrheaworldstarhiphop^[6] the next day (shown below, left). A night blogging style post from the Tumblr user Judaara^[7] on September 20th, 2012, was replied by a Carlos image macro from Tumblr user Serenitywarrior^[8] 2 months later on November 24th in reply to a pun joke about Judaara’s post (shown below, right). As of march 18th, 2013, both post have received respectively more than 11,000 and 131,000 notes.

Additional examples can be found through the Tumblr tag “#carlos-ramon”,^[9] searching Funnyjunk for “carlos pun”^[10] and searching the 4chan archive, Foolz, for “carlos”.^[11]

Search Interest

External References

Blood Raining Night is a pretty infamous fanfiction, its not as well known as the infamous Hary Potter fanfiction, “My Inmortal” but it got famous due to sites like Tumblr reviewing the fanfiction (mostly in a negative way) or Fanime Reviews and Dramatic Readings on YouTube (e.g. BoringTrousers), due to all the attention it gets thanks to its mary sue-ish protagonist, BRN might just as well become a meme in the making.

The story is basically an anime crossover, which contains random anime characters making, mostly unnecesary and out of character, cameos, like for example: Inuyasha, Lucy (Elfen Lied) or Alucard (Hellsing) or even american cartoons like the Legend of Korra (although the author claims it to be an anime).

But the story mainly focuses on the OC and protagonist of the fanfiction, Reicheru Ketsuekineko-Oni (literally meaning/or just rough google translation, knowing the author: Rachel Blood Cat demon in Japanese), and as you might have guessed, Reicheru is the character that you would idenfy as a “Mary Sue”, many people have put Reicheru through a mary sue test, and according to Fanime Reviews on Blogspot, “0 was the lowest score she could get, 50 was the highest. Reicheru actually received a 165”. The character is, hence her surname, a Cat Demon Vampire who just so happens to be a Yakuza member (even if she is still in high school) who is only 17, she is haunted by the memory of her father (this is because apparently, her “demon form” killed her mother when she was little, causing her father to hate her and beat Reicheru up, Reicheru kills her father but he later on is ressurected) and is on a mission to kill him again.

The confusing plot of the story and fanime, badly written sex scenes and gore, Reicheru’s mary sue characteristics (all guys fall for her, girls are envious of her, large breast size, crying out blood and overly-powerful strength etc.), use of broken Japanese in the fanfiction, demonization/out of characterization of canon characters and sugar coated controversial subjects (like teenage pregnancy, abortion, racism and pedophilia) is what made the fanfic stand out in a negative light and has about gotten many negative reviews and consecutive criticsm (and even large amounts of dislikes on the fanime, except for episode 8 apparently), of course, the author cant see what she went wrong in the story and even says that the people giving the criticsm are either “mean” or “assholes”, however, the series does get quite a lot of fanart, from both haters and fans even.

However, it’s most likely that the author could be a very good troll (like Amanda Bieber for instance), but we might not know that just yet.

Resources from Author ( WARNING: these may not be safe for work and could even be offensive, view at your own risk)
The Fanfiction:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8174397/1/Blood-Raining-Night
The Fanime: http://www.youtube.com/user/ReicheruKetsuekineko/videos
The “Fansite”: http://reicheruskittypowers.webs.com/

Resources from Reviewers, Blogs, Parodies etc:

BRN Review, Blogspot: http://fanimereviews.blogspot.nl/2012/10/blood-raining-night.html
Blood Raining Night, Divines help us! http://bloodrainingnight.tumblr.com/
Blood Raining Night tags on Tumblr http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/blood%20raining%20night
Blood Raining Night fanime reviews:
BoringTrousers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc9RCk3Uot4
darknessfanimereviews (this review, however, is quite positive) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImebZU3f-tU
Fanime Family Fun Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9g3YInqPWs

About

Oreo Separator Machines are devices that are designed to split Oreo cookies into two pieces and remove the cream filling, many of which were produced by Wieden + Kennedy as part of the “Cookie vs. Creme” ad campaign for the snack food company Nabisco. Sine the launch of the campaign during the Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013, the adverts have inspired numerous YouTube videos showcasing custom-designed prototypes of cookie separators.

Origin

On February 26th, 2013, The official Oreo YouTube channel uploaded the first commercial of the series featuring a Rube Goldberg-style Oreo cookie separator machine purportedly built by physicist David Neevel. Within the next three weeks, the video received over 4.03 million views and 4,000 comments.

The video was soon revealed to be part of the “Cookie vs. Creme”^[4] marketing campaign by Wieden + Kennedy,^[1] Portland-based advertising agency that is best known for producing several successful Old Spice advertisements.

Spread

The same day Neevel’s separator machine was uploaded to YouTube, Redditor PenName submitted the video to the /r/videos subreddit,^[2] where it gained upwards of 13,000 up votes and 1,200 comments in the following 20 days. On February 27th, the advertising news blog Ad Week^[3] published an article about the video, reporting that Neevel was employed by Wieden + Kennedy.

On March 1st, Oreo uploaded a second video featuring a separator machine built by Minnesota toy scientists Bill Fienup and Barry Kudrowitz, which knocks off the top of an Oreo before heating and spraying the cream off (shown below, left). Within 18 days, the video garnered over 400,000 views and 100 comments. On March 11th, CNN aired a segment about the separator machines, featuring interviews with Fienup and Kudrowitz (shown below, right).

On March 17th, 2013, YouTuber JoergSprave uploaded a video titled “Oreo Separation Pump Gun,” featuring a pump action crossbow using Oreo cookies as ammunition (shown below). The same day, the video was submitted to the /r/videos subreddit,^[5] receiving more than 2,900 up votes on Reddit and 250,000 views on YouTube in the next 48 hours.

Notable Examples

Oreo released two more separator machine videos during the month of March (shown below, top) and other YouTubers have since uploaded videos of other Oreo splitting machines (shown below, bottom).

Search Interest

External References

About

Bitcoin^[1] is a virtual crypto-currency regulated by a peer-to-peer network that creates a time-stamped register yielding chains of valid transactions. Unlike other digital currency systems or credit payments, Bitcoins are treated like cash and transactions cannot be reversed.

History

The need for a digital currency based in cryptography^[2] was discussed in two separate academic papers published in 1993 by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University^[6] and the University of Southern California.^[7] Five years later, the idea was introduced to the the Cypherpunks^[3] mailing list^[4] by cryptography advocate Wei Dai, who suggested a system in which the currency would be both regulated and created through crowdsourced cryptography, thus eliminating the risk of double-spending altogether.

Proposition

On November 1st, 2008, a person or group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto^[8] distributed a paper^[9]solidifying this idea into a proposal for something called “Bitcoin” via the Cryptography Mailing List.^[10] The first blockchain was generated on or before January 3rd, 2009, as its Genesis Block^[11], or first block, references the title of an article^[12] published that day in the UK newspaper The Times about a physical bank bailout. The announcement of the system and its open source client was posted on the Cryptography Mailing List^[13] on January 9th. This post also stated that the total circulation would consist of 21 million coins, made available in increments over the course of 16 years.

Exchange Market

On July 18th, 2010, the exchange market Mt. Gox^[19] launched, allowing people to buy and sell Bitcoins as well as providing software for merchants to accept Bitcoins as payment on their online storefronts. The site also offers a live ticker of Bitcoin exchange rates (shown below). They claim to facilitate more than 80% of all Bitcoin trading as of March 2013.^[20]

Mining

Bitcoins are generated through a process known as “mining,”^[22][26] which adds transaction records to Bitcoin’s public register known as a block chain.^[23] The chain exists as a record of Bitcoins spent in actual monetary value and to bar attempts from double-spending, or spending previously used coins. The process is meant be challenging, requiring a piece of data known as a proof of work^[24] that has an ever-changing very low probability^[25] for getting the hash for each transaction correct on the first try. The actual act of mining can be completed by dozens of different programs^[27] for multiple operating systems, including Android. A ledger of the most recent blocks is provided by BlockExplorer.^[25] A handful of miners have shared their mining hardware setups made from both desktops (shown below, left) and mobile phones (shown below, right) on YouTube.

Regulation

On March 18th, 2013, the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a clarification^[28] to the regulation regarding virtual currencies. Though the statement does not explicitly address Bitcoin, it stipulates that businesses that exchange American dollars for digital currencies qualify as Money Services Businesses (MSBs) and should thus be subject to federal regulations and must comply with money laundering laws.^[29] However, users of the currency, or people who mine the currency for themselves, do not qualify as an MSB.

Reception

As of March 2013, Bitcoin users and miners congregate on Reddit^[14] and the Bitcoin Talk Forums^[15], among numerous other smaller groups. There is also a Wiki^[21] and the online publication Bitcoin Magazine^[18] that gathers information about the currency and keeps track of its exchange rates. Since 2011, Bitcoin conferences have been held annually^[16] throughout Europe, with the first US conference scheduled for May 2013.^[18]

Thefts

Since Bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed, if Bitcoins are stolen from a user’s digital wallet, they cannot be replaced. One of the earliest Bitcoin robberies occurred in June 2011, when a user known as Allinvain reported^[30]25,000 Bitcoins (approximately $467,000 at the time) stolen from his account. It was later believed to have been caused by a Trojan virus^[31] that would hack into unencrypted wallets and forcefully carry out the transfers. between 2012^[32] and 2013,^[33] there have been several reports of large sums of Bitcoins stolen from exchange sites, leading some enthusiasts to suggest offline storage of Bitcoin codes, either on encrypted hard drives that are not connected to the Internet or by physically writing them down. Bitcoin owner Charlie Shrem^[41] has a ring with an engraving of his codes (shown below, left) to protect his investment and entreprenuer Mike Caldwell^[35] has minted more than $2.5 billion in physical Bitcoins (shown below, right).

Usage

As of March 2013, a number of online businesses and non-profit organizations^[43] accept Bitcoins, most notably Wordpress,^[44]4chan,^[44]Wikileaks,^[38]Reddit^[39] and OkCupid.^[40] Additionally, the Internet Archive has offered their employees an option to receive a portion of their paychecks in Bitcoins.^[41] There are also a handful of Bitcoin casinos^[42] where players will bet anywhere from ฿66,000 to ฿1,787,470 per hand, depending on the site.

Silk Road

Bitcoins are the only currency accepted on Silk Road, an online black market that can only be accessed via The Onion Router (TOR). Though the site launched in February 2011, the site did not recieve mainstream attention until Gawker^[37] published an expose on it in June of that year. Silk Road allows people to buy a number of items including drugs, apparel, books, digital goods, drug paraphernalia, erotica and forgeries. In July 2012, it was estimated^[36] that more than 1.2 million dollars US in sales were being generated monthly by the site.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

“George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People” was a controversial quote uttered by rapper Kanye West during his appearance on the Concert for Hurricane Relief, a celebrity-driven benefit for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, in which he accused the then-President George W. Bush of lacking sympathy for the African American communities affected by the disaster in New Orleans.

Background

On September 2nd, 2005, rapper Kanye West appeared on live television during a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief on NBC. During the segment, West spoke alongside actor Mike Myers about the devastation in New Orleans and deviated from the script by criticizing the government’s response to the Hurricane, concluding with the statement “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Notable Developments

News Media Coverage

In the days following the incident, West’s comments were reported on by various news sites, including The Washington Post,^[1]BBC,^[2] Fox News^[3] and the New York Times.^[4] The following week, NPR^[5] aired a special segment on President Bush’s relations with African Americans, noting how West’s statement caused a political uproar regarding the federal government’s response to the hurricane.

Online Reaction

Immediately following the televised benefit, YTMND user matlock45 created a page titled “Bush doesn’t care about black people (fixed)”, featuring a screen capture of West and Myers accompanied by an audio clip of West repeating the statement. Within eight years, the page received over 61,000 views and more than 65 other YTMND pages referencing the incident were created.^[6] On October 9th, 2005, Urban Dictionary^[7] user ganstanaut submitted an entry for the phrase “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” defining the expression as “Kanye’s words of wisdom.” On November 15th, YouTuber stimulator uploaded a music video for the protest song “George Bush Don’t Like Black People” by The Legendary K.O. (shown below), which gained upwards of 120,000 views and 1,200 comments in the next eight years. On April 16th, 2006, YouTuber Shockroc1 reuploaded the video clip of West and Myers, which received over 5.8 million views in the next seven years.

On November 29th, Assata Shakur Forums^[9] member Young_African_Queen submitted a poll asking “Do [sic] Bush Like Black People?”, to which more than 45% responded “Naw…..And Never Will” and over 35% responded “Fuck Bush!” (shown below). On April 16th, 2006, YouTuber Shockroc1 reuploaded the video clip of West and Myers, which received upwards of 5.8 million views in the next seven years.

Kanye West’s Response

On September 24th, 2007, West was interviewed on the ABC late-night news program Nightline, in which he amended his statement by saying he had “a hard time believing that George Bush cares about anyone” (shown below).

George Bush’s Response

On November 9th, 2010, NBC aired an hour-long special program featuring Bush’s interview with journalist Matt Lauer, in which Bush recounted West’s statements as being "one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency” (shown below).

Notable Videos

Search Interest

External References

About

Sloths are a type of tree-dwelling mammal typically found in jungle areas of Central and South America. They are typically associated with laziness, although recent research^[1] suggests they are more active than people assume. Since October 2012, online interest in sloths has been on the rise, with many internet users sharing photos and videos of the animal as well as creating single topic blogs dedicated to them.

Online History

One of the first sites dedicated to sloths (shown below) was created as early as October 2002, as a parody of the fictitious Ninja fansite Real Ultimate Power. In January 2005, a Tripod site claiming to be the “Unofficial Sloth Fanclub”^[8] was created, though it did not specify whether or not the fan club celebrated the mammal or a fictional character named Sloth. In October of that year, the blog Sloth Love^[9] was launched with a collection of photos and facts about the mammals, but went on hiatus in less than a month. In May 2006, a Last.fm group titled Sloth Appreciation Society^[6] was established with playlists based on the listening habits of people who are fans of sloths.

In April 2010, YouTuber Mermaid5651^[26] uploaded a video (shown below, left) of a sloth trying to cross a road in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica very slowly. As it reaches the pavement, a man on a motorcycle pulls over and picks up the sloth, quickly running it across the street as the sloth outstretched his arms. More than a year later, on May 14th, 2011, YouTuber Chema Leon remixed this video, adding a clip from R. Kelly’s 1996 hit “I Believe I Can Fly” (shown below, right), giving it the additional title “Sloth’s Perspective.” Six days later, her video was reuploaded by YouTuber timah99^[27], whose version has been watched more than 7 million times as of March 2013.

Fandom

Fans of the mammals can be found on Twitter^[2], where they have been tweeted about more than 34,000 times.^[3] Additionally, there are dozens of Sloth fan pages on Facebook, with the largest two^[4][5] having nearly 100,000 likes between them. As of March 2013, there are more than 330,000 search results for “sloth” on YouTube.^[14] Dozens of single topic Tumblr blogs have been created for sloth fans since June 2010, including Sloth Love^[19], The Sloth Sabbath^[20], Slothville^[21], Your Daily Baby Sloth^[22], Sloth It Like It’s Hot^[23], That Sloth Blog^[24] and SlothPls.^[25]

Related Memes

Socially Lazy Sloth

On August 21st, 2010, the single topic blog Fuck Yeah Socially Lazy Sloth^[15] (shown below, top row) launched, curating dozens of image macros featuring a sloth’s head superimposed on to a blue and green background with captions that generally depict acts of apathy and passivity in social situations. On September 1st, 2010, a Facebook fan page^[16] was also established for the advice animal series, gaining almost 500 likes in two and a half years. As of March 2013, there are more than a thousand submissions on the Socially Lazy Sloth Memegenerator page.^[18]

Just Lazy Sloth

The series inspired a similar character named Just Lazy Sloth^[17] (shown below, bottom row), featuring a similar sloth photo on a red and green background with captions about general malaise, however its corresponding Tumblr blog ceased updating in April 2011.

Kristen Bell’s Sloth Meltdown

In January 2012, Veronica Mars actress Kristen Bell appeared on the daytime talk show Ellen and retold a story (shown below, left) about how her fiancé and actor Dax Shepard brought a sloth to her 31st birthday party. A video clip of her overemotional response to the sloth’s visit before she even saw the animal caused the video to go viral, earning more than 15 million views in slightly more than a year. In January 2013, Bell appeared on Ellen a second time (shown below, right), during which Ellen surprised her by bringing a sloth on stage. Bell was able to feed the animal, named Lola, a banana while Ellen presented her with a basket of sloth-themed presents for her baby.

Astronaut Sloth

Astronaut Sloth refers to a photoshopped image created by digital artist Pedro Dionísio in January 2012 that gained notoriety on sites like Tumblr and Reddit after users began pranking people in real life by replacing framed photos or desktop wallpapers with it. One of the first instances of this was posted to Tumblr on October 29th, 2012, when the user alpacalypse^[10] claimed she had been changing all of her father’s virtual backgrounds and wallpapers to the Astronaut Sloth photo, culminating in her leaving a framed photo of the sloth (shown below, left) on his desk. Days later, a Redditor^[11] claimed he made a similar move when he switched out his boss’ family photos with the sloth (shown below, right).

Rape Sloth

Rape Sloth is an advice animal image macro series that utilizes a picture of a sloth that appears to be whispering in a woman’s ear. Though the base photo was first uploaded to the web in 2009 in an advertisment for the 2010 Pirelli Calendar, the image macro series did not appear until February 22nd, 2012, when BodyBuilding Forums member VitaCrave started a thread^[12] with four captioned images with creepy sexual innuendo and pick up lines. As of March 2013, the Rape Sloth Quickmeme^[13] page has more than 330 submissions.

Search Interest

External References

About

Guccifer is the online pseudonym of a hacker who is known for compromising the security of several high-profile political targets, including members of the Bush family, former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

History

Bush Family Hacks

On February 7th, 2013, The Smoking Gun^[1] reported that a hacker calling himself “Guccifer” posted photos and email exchanges taken from the email accounts of several family members of former President George W. Bush. Among the photographs were self-portraits of Bush taking a bath and shower (shown below).^[2]

Guccifer reportedly told the Smoking Gun that the federal government had been investigating him for some time and that he was not worried about being caught, adding “i have an old game with the fucking bastards inside, this is just another chapter in the game.”

Colin Powell Hacks

On March 11th, 2013, The Smoking Gun^[6] reported that Guccifer hacked the Facebook account of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, where he proceeded to post several status updates insulting George W. Bush (shown below). The same day, Powell posted a status update^[4] that the hacking problem had been fixed after working with Facebook.

On March 13th, The Smoking Gun^[5] published an article revealing that Powell’s AOL e-mail account had been compromised by Guccifer as well, who was able to access Powell’s personal financial documents and communications with several former government officials.

Sidney Blumenthal Hacks

On March 15th, The Smoking Gun^[7] reported that Guccifer had managed to break into the AOL email account of Sidney Blumenthal, a senior White House adviser to former President Bill Clinton. In the account, Guccifer obtained many emails between Blumenthal and Hilary Clinton, among other correspondences with Washington insiders. The article also mentioned that Guccifer left a message regarding the purported secret society known as the “Illuminati”.

“the evil is leading this fucked up world!!!!!! i tell you this the world of tomorrow will be a world free of illuminati or will be no more,”

On March 18th, The Smoking Gun^[8] published a follow-up article about several confidential memos Guccifer discovered in Blumenthal’s email account, which he disseminated to hundreds of recipients. The memos referenced several incidents in Libya, including an attack on a U.S. mission in Benghazi on September 11th, 2012 (shown below). To distribute the messages, Guccifer pasted them into a new document using the Comic Sans font. The article also reported that two IP addresses connected with the hacker had been traced to Russia and several emails containing the Blumenthal memos were distributed to Russian reporters.

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About

George W. Bush is an American politician who served as the Governor of Texas and the 43rd President of the United States. The Bush presidency is widely remembered by the tragedy of 9/11 terrorist attacks and its consequent American military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the controversial counter-terrorism measures ranging from the PATRIOT Act and the Terrorist Surveillance Program to enhanced interrogation techniques and detainment of foreign citizens.

History

Early Career

Following the path of his father George H. Bush who served as the 41st President of the United States, George W. Bush ran for a seat in the House of Representatives from Texas’s 19th congressional district in 1978, albeit unsuccessfully. After nearly a decade of serving as an executive in the oil business, Bush moved to Washington D.C. in 1988 to work on his father’s Republican presidential campaign as a campaign adviser. He ran for the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election and won with 53.5% of total votes against Democrat incumbent Ann Richards’ 45.9%. In 1998, Bush became the first governor in Texas history to be elected to two consecutive four-year terms.

U.S. Presidential Campaign

In June 1999, Bush announced his candidacy for President of the United States while serving as the incumbent governor of Texas. Throughout his primary campaign, Bush portrayed himself as a compassionate conservative with a centrist-Republican platform and by 2000, the race had centered on Bush and Arizona’s Republican senator John McCain. After being formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention, Bush continued to campaign across the country and eventually won the general election in 29 states, including Florida, against the incumbent Democrat vice president Al Gore. [incomplete] [researching]

Highlights

Mission Accomplished

Mission Accomplished is a catchphrase that stems from the infamous banner sign displayed in the background during former President George W. Bush’s 2003 speech onboard USS Abraham Lincoln, where he announced the end of major military combats in Iraq. Already facing global anti-war protests and unstopping insurgency, photographs of President Bush delivering his speech in front of the banner soon became a target of online parodies and symbol of public skepticism towards the Bush administration’s handling of the war.

Internets

Internets is the erroneous pluralization of the word “Internet” popularized by Bush during his 2004 election campaign. While the word internet may be pluralized in rare occasions in the context of joining together many smaller intranets, it became the target of many jokes and parodies on the web, similar to the former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens series of tubes gaffe. The term can be also used intentionally to signify that the speaker has limited knowledge about computers and technology.

You Forgot Poland

“You forgot Poland” is a popular catchphrase adopted by George W. Bush’s detractors to poke fun at his tactless rebuttal during the first debate of US Presidential elections in 2004. Since the rise of Bushism and related jokes in the mid-2000s, “You forgot Poland” has become one of the most recognizable quotes uttered by the former US president. See also: Polandball.

One Finger Victory Salute

One Finger Victory Salute is a video clip of Bush playfully flipping off the camera while getting ready for a local television appearance. The never-aired footage was uploaded to YouTube on March 5th, 2006.

Iraqi Shoe Toss

Iraqi Shoe Toss is an exploitableGIF of Iraqi Journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throwing shoes at then-President Bush during his surprise visit to Iraq on December 14th, 2008. The image itself is usually altered by changing the object thrown or cutting to another scene entirely for comedic effect.

Miss Me Yet?

In February 2010, a mysterious billboard of Bush smirking and waving along with the caption “miss me yet?” appeared along route I-35 near Wyoming, Minnesota. Perceived by many as an expression of dissatisfaction concerning the performance of incumbent president Barack Obama, both the image and the phrase inspired many parodies online.

Reputation

“George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People”

“George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People” was a controversial quote uttered by rapper Kanye West during his appearance on the Concert for Hurricane Relief, a celebrity-driven benefit for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, in which he accused the then-President George W. Bush of lacking sympathy for the African American communities affected by the disaster in New Orleans.

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About

Thumbs and Ammo is a single topic blog featuring photoshopped movie stills in which firearms have been replaced with a thumbs-up hand gesture.

Origin

On March 7th, 2013, Thumbs and Ammo^[2] was launched on the blogging platform Blogspot, with its first post^[1] featuring Brad Pitt from the 1995 thriller film Seven edited to have his gun replaced with a hand making a thumbs-up signal (shown below). According to the tech news blog Mashable,^[6] the blog started as a Photoshop competition between the site’s co-creators and was not intended to convey an anti-gun message.

Spread

On the same day, the @ThumbsandAmmo Twitter^[15] feed was created, which linked to individual posts on the Thumbs and Ammo blog. Within two weeks, the profile received over 1,100 followers. On March 13th, the German pop culture blog Nerdcore^[10] published a post about the site, which featured an image gallery highlighting several notable examples. That week, various Internet news blogs reblogged highlights from Thumbs and Ammo, including Laughing Squid,^[11] BuzzFeed,^[13] UpRoxx,^[14] Hyper Vocal^[12] and Gawker.^[9] On March 19th, the blog was reported on by several other news sites, including The Huffington Post,^[3] E Online^[4] and the AV Club,^[5] many of which framed the blog as part of the national debate on gun control. In the following days, notable examples from the series were featured on Mashable,^[6] Funny or Die^[7] and ABC News.^[8]

Notable Examples

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About

Gritty Reboot refers to a subgenre of movie trailer remix and alternate universe fanart that involves recutting an existing movie trailer or creating a completely new live-action piece featuring characters from a movie, comic series or video game franchise to depict them as hard-hitting, grimdark or film noir.

Origin

The phrase “gritty reboot” was used on Cracked^[1] as early as July 2009 to describe a comic by Mike Jacobsen^[2] depicting a dark version of The Wizard of Oz in which the Tin Man and the Scarecrow are shown removing Dorothy’s brain and heart.

Spread

“Gritty reboot” was used again by Cracked in October 2009^[3] in a piece detailing five superheros that were ruined by adaptations, citing Spider-Man’s future as told through the 2006 limited series Reign^[4] as a “gritty faux pas.” One of the earliest video remixes was uploaded to YouTube by silverlightsaber on March 17th, 2010, utilizing footage from six movies to make a darker version of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (shown below). As of March 2013, the video has more than 2.1 million views.

Throughout 2010, fan requests of gritty reboots appeared on the Escapist discussion forums^[6], while parody images and videos in the style of Alternate Universe and Ruined Childhood appeared on College Humor^[7], Dorkly^[8] and Cracked.^[9][10] In July, the term was also first defined on Urban Dictionary^[16] and in September, YouTuber megasteakman uploaded a Pokemon reboot video (shown below, left) depicting a war between Pokemon trainers, leading Ash down a grimdark path. As of March 2013, this video has accrued more than 10.8 million views. Throughout 2011 and 2012, fan-made gritty reboot videos and images were featured on Cracked^[11], The FW^[12], Funny or Die^[13] and Crunchyroll.^[14] In March 2013, a YouTube channel dedicated solely to making gritty reboot videos launched^[15] with a darker version of the video Harvest Moon (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

As of March 2013, there are more than 13,000 search results for “gritty reboot”^[5] on YouTube.

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This page is a work in progress.

About

Electric Boogaloo (snowclone: “X 2: Electric Boogaloo”) is a term used in unwanted or bad sequels of something. It was first used as the subtitle for the 1984 dance film Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,^[3][4] a sequel to the break-dancing film Breakin’. An Electric Boogaloo is a kind of dance that arose in the 1970s, arising out of funk, hip hop, and popping.^[2]

Origin

WIP

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo is the sequel of Breakin’.

Spread

Since the film was released, the phrase “electric boogaloo” has broken from its initial context and has been used both on and offline to refer unseriously to any kind of sequel.^[5][6] The pattern has even come under the scrutiny of professional linguists. For example, Ben Zimmer, an editor at Oxford University Press, has commented on the phenomenon on his blog:^[1]

Readers grounded in the last few decades of American pop culture might recognize that it’s a less-than-subtle reference to the breakdancing films of the mid-’80s: Breakin’ and its sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. If you do a Google search on the pattern “___ 2: Electric Boogaloo” (excluding the word Breakin’), you’ll find thousands of web pages that use this template to create a jocular name for a sequel or followup of some sort -- with everything from “Mac Update” to “The 9/11/ Commission” filling the slot once held by Breakin’.

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