“Ahh the Scalene Triangle” is an expression associated with a video in which a voice over narrator seductively repeats the phrase “ahh the scalene triangle.”
On September 9th, 2012, YouTuber CreatureCatsMeow13 uploaded a video titled “Ah, The Scalene Triangle”, in which a man repeats the phrase “Ah, the scalene triangle” with increasingly sexual overtones.
Apple Inc. is an American consumer electronics company[1] known for pioneering the Macintosh personal computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as the portable MP3 player in the early 2000s. It is perhaps best known for its “iProducts,” such as the iPod and iPhone, which have become so ubiquitous within the Western culture that the company has developed an enormous following referred to as the Cult of Mac by some observers.[3] With the commercial success of iProducts, the company quickly grew into the largest publicly-traded corporation in the world and the largest technology company in the world, both by profit and revenue[2]. Despite this, the corporation has been criticized for unethical labor, business, legal, and environmental practices.[2]
Apple was established on April 1st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit and the company was formally incorporated on January 3rd, 1977. In the following years, Apple released its second and third generation of the personal computer, although they were met by lukewarm reception. Beginning in the early 1980s, Apple’s personal computer line was succeeded by Lisa and the Macintosh products.
On August 15th, 1998, Apple charted a new era in the company’s history with the release of iMac, a new line of personal computers. Apple declared the “i” in iMac to stand for “Internet” and also representative of the product’s focus as a personal device (‘i’ for “individual”). In the following years, Apple purchased a number of software companies to build its consumer-oriented digital production applications, including iMovie, Final Cut Pro and iPhoto among others. On October 23rd, 2001, Apple unveiled the portable digital audio player known as iPod, which became the company’s most commercially successful product with over 100 million units sold within six years.
Throughout the 2000s, Apple engaged in a series of highly successful marketing campaigns for their new lines of iMac personal computers and iPod MP3 players. That, plus the widespread popularity of the products, provided Apple with a devoted consumer base who jump at the opportunity to buy the next in the line of products. Over the years, this following has become extremely widespread, and the fans have become increasingly virulent in their quest for the latest Apple products. This has resulted in very long lines at Apple stores during product launches, as well as general hype and hysteria surrounding the company’s announcements of new products. The following has been likened to a religion or a cult by outside observers. BBC journalist Alex Riley, reporting on the opening of a new Apple Store in Covent Garden, London wrote the following:
"The scenes I witnessed at the opening of the new Apple store […] were more like an evangelical prayer meeting than a chance to buy a phone or a laptop.
[…]
“And what did those customers – some who’d travelled from as far away as the US and China and slept on the pavement for the privilege – find when they finally got inside?
“Well, all the same stuff as in the Apple store half a mile away on Regent Street. No special offers, no free gifts (a few t-shirts were handed out), no exclusive products. Now that’s devotion.” [4]
Apple’s method of announcing and presenting their new products to the general public through keynote speeches has been instrumental in the development of its following. The presentations were characterized by the charisma of the late CEO Steve Jobs, along with Apple’s aggressive marketing, and were extremely successful about building hype for the next new product. This has been termed a “reality distortion field,”[5] referring to how, during the presentation, the Jobs’ charisma was so forceful that the audience was essentially mesmerized, and would follow his every word. Thus, Jobs became the idol of the ‘cult’[6]. This term has since been applied to other charismatic speakers, such as Bill Clinton.[5]
A frequent debate amongst internet users, some of whom may align themselves with the Apple fandom, is which is the better platform: Mac or PC/Windows. Arguments often get heated, and Linux proponents are often excluded entirely. PC proponents point to the limited customizability of both Apple’s software and hardware, and the lack of major gaming platforms (although this is beginning to change), while Mac proponents point out frequent unreliability of PCs, as well as their proclivity for attracting computer viruses.
Apple / Mac Switch Spoofs are a series of spoof images and videos surrounding an advertising campaign by Apple (then Apple Computer) in 2002. The campaign showed ‘real people’ who had decided to switch from using a Windows-based computer to a Macintosh-based computer, listing their reasons. This was picked up upon by sites such as YTMND, and gained such popularity that some well-known actors such as Will Ferrell created their own spoof videos.
iPod Ad Spoofs / Parodies refers to a series of parody images created about Apple’s distinctive marketing campaign for the iPod, showing black silhouettes with white iPods superimposed over colored backgrounds. The style of the ad is highly exploitable, and many examples have been posted across the internet.
Mac vs. PC is the name of another marketing campaign by Apple, begun in 2006. It compared a stereotypical, middle-aged, straight-edge businessman – the “average PC user” – with a young, hip, artist-type – the “average Mac user”. The ads detailed the supposed shortcomings of PCs, and why consumers should purchase Macs instead. The ad campaign further fuelled the heated Mac vs. PC debate, ever-present with contemporary youth. It has been parodied many times, usually with videos titled “X vs. Y” taking a similar format to the ads.
Many of the internet memes related to the Apple products are centered around the iPhone and iPad.
iPad Spoofing refers to the public reaction to the announcement of Apple’s first tablet, the iPad, in 2010. The reaction was particularly disdainful on 4chan’s /v/ board. Many focused on how the product appeared to be nothing more than a larger version of the already-released iPhone, except without the functionality of a telephone. Others focused on the name iPad itself (see above), in relating it to a feminine hygiene product. In fact, the comedy TV show MAD TV created a parody commercial for the ‘iPad’ feminine hygiene product three years before the tablet’s release[7].
The iPhone Whale is the name given to an ad-hoc emoticon found within the iPhone’s iChat app. A screenshot of the whale was spread around Tumblr and Reddit, and has spawned many derivatives. It has become so widespread that a Chinese company is producing iPhone Whale pillows.
The iPhone 4 Death Grip refers to a design fault within the iPhone 4, by which the phone’s antenna was blocked from receiving a signal as users held the phone in their hands. It was seen as a catastrophic mistake by tech experts, but it did not dampen the product’s explosive popularity. It has been the subject of many creative photoshoppings.
Shit That Siri Says is an expression that humorously refers to unusual responses made by Apple’s voice-activated command program, Siri, which was introduced with the iPhone 4S. Sometimes the responses can be due to glitches within the program, but more often or not, they are due to the fact that Siri was programmed to have an attitude.
While the release of iPhone 5 in September 2012 has been regarded as a commercial success (with more than two million units pre-ordered within the first 24 hours), the phone garnered mixed reviews from the tech news blogosphere, many of whom described the fifth generation model of the smartphone device as “boring.” Meanwhile, others on 4chan, Tumblr and Twitter began commentating on the slightly longer dimension of the device, who dubbed iPhone 5 with the nickname “LongPhone” through photoshopped images and single topic blogs.
The Steve Jobs / Bill Gates Comic is an exploitable comic series that depicts a conversation between Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates. The comics often depict the somewhat acrimonious relationship between the two and their companies, much in the same vein as the Mac vs. PC parodies (see above).
[2] Wikipedia – Apple Inc..
[3] Wikipedia – The Cult of Mac
[4]BBC News – Superbrands’ success fuelled by sex, religion and gossip
[5] Wikipedia – Reality distortion field
[6] Wikipedia – Criticism of Apple Inc..
[7] YouTube – Mad Tv – iPad
[8] MacRumors – longphone 5???
[9] Imgur – LongPhone Parodies
[10] HyperVocal – The Best of the ‘Longphone’ Meme
Arthur Comic Creator is a website of which children are able to create their own comic based upon the popular TV/book series Arthur on This website
On 4chan in early 2012, an anonymous user asked to start an Arthur comic thread on /b/. It got disgraced at first, but was soon realized to be quite humorous, and was soon graciously accepted. The trend soon spread along towards other websites such as Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, Youchew and numerous miscellaneous humor-related sites
Kickstarter is an online crowd-funding platform that facilitates grassroots fund-raising campaigns for a wide variety of creative projects, ranging from indie films, music and print publications to journalism, video games and food-related projects.
The Kickstarter website launched on April 28th, 2009 as a collaborative project by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler, with Andy Baio serving on the board of directors as its Chief Technology Officer until November 2010. Upon the site’s launch, numerous crowd-funding projects quickly emerged as success stories on the site, which ranges from building a temporary wedding chapel in Manhattan and converting an old bus into a mobile Thai restaurant to sailing around the world and shooting photographs from all 50 states.
By August 2009, Kickstarter was covered in an article published by the New York Times, which described the start-up project as "the people’s NEA (National Educational Association). In 2010, TIME Magazine named the site one of the “Best Inventions of 2010” and in the following year, it was listed in the magazine’s “Best Websites of 2011.”
[1] Kickstarter – Fund & Follow Creativity
[2] Waxy – Kickstarter Launches
[3] New York Times – A Few Dollars at a Time, Patrons Support Artists on the Web
[4]TIME – The 50 Best Inventions of 2010
[5]TIME – The 50 Best Websites of 2011
[6] New York Times – The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter
[7] Kickstarter – Frequently Asked Questions
On July 2nd, 2012, YouTuber SamBacile uploaded two 13-minute video clips titled “The Real Life of Muhammad” and “Muhammad Movie Trailer,” which showed excerpts from a full-length feature film titled Innocence of Muslims, produced and directed by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian immigrant from Egypt living in Cerritos, California.
The film remained largely obscure until early September 2012, when duplicate videos dubbed in the Arabic language were uploaded onto YouTube and picked up by Egyptian bloggers and news publications, triggering a series of anti-American protests in the wake of the videos that have been characterized as “anti-Islamic.”
The original trailer clips titled “The Real Life of Muhammad” and “Muhammad Movie Trailer” were uploaded onto YouTube by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula on July 1st and 2nd, 2012. However, the two video clips did not receive massive exposure until months later in September, when an Arabic-dubbed version of the original film was re-uploaded onto YouTube. On September 8th, the video was subsequently picked up and broadcast by the Egyptian TV station Al-Nas, which triggered large scale anti-American protests outside the U.S. Embassy buildings in Egypt as well as Libya.
On September 11th, 2012, YouTuber Sam Bacile posted a comment in Egyptian Arabic confirming the origin of the film in another YouTube video uploaded two days earlier by Al-Nahar TV.
“Idiots, this is an American film 100%.”
[researching]
Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (shortened CAPTCHA) is a short challenge-response test used in various websites to ensure, that the response was submitted by a person before posting or accessing, when not being sure, if a website is having unwanted spam-bots. CAPTCHAs are mostly appearing on 4chan, YouTube, Facebook etc.
Four members of the private research university Carnegie Mellon University named “Luis von Ahn”, “Manuel Blum”, “Nicholas J. Hopper” and “John Langford” coined this term in 2000.
Inglip is an Internet folklore and the nickname of a hooded rage comic character who can communicate with mythical acolytes known as Gropagas through the medium of reCAPTCHA images.
CAPTCHArt is a word-image association game that involves drawing comics using a combination of two words randomly generated by reCAPTCHA, an automated challenge-response test used by websites to prevent spambots from creating posts or registering as a user.
CAPTCHA comics involve taking a CAPTCHA-generated word combination and somehow fitting it into a comic to tell a story.
“Niggas In Paris” is the name of a song performed by Kanye West and JAY-Z, that inspired images with lyrics of the song and its snowclone versions. The most popular catchphrases it spawned were “Ball so hard”, “Motherfucker wanna find me” and “That shit Cray”.
The song was released in September 13, 2011 and appeared in their collaboration album “Watch the throne”. The song has since peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
[Researching]
iOS 6 Maps is an application packaged with Apple’s iOS 6 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 or creating parodies of it, criticizing the way locations are displayed.
Rumors of an in-house designed Maps application to replace Google Maps in Apple’s iPhone operating system first appeared on the Mac-related news site 9 to 5 Mac[3] on May 11th, 2012. The new Maps application was officially announced in June 2012 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where it was also revealed that the app would be powered by the navigation data service TomTom.[4] Shortly after the conference, YouTuber MyJailbreakMovies provided an early look at the new application with a video titled “iOS 6: Maps.”
iOS 6 was released to the public on September 19th, 2012, following the release of iPhone 5. That same day, Twitter users began complaining about the lack of public transportation integration and visible distortion of well-known landmarks in the application with the hashtag #ios6pocalypse.[5]
Really enjoying the Statue of Liberty in new iOS 6 maps. #ios6pocalypse twitter.com/davidgustav/st…
— David Gustav (@davidgustav) September 19, 2012
On the day of the release, Gizmodo[6], the Huffington Post[7] and Read Write Web[8] all posted about the dismal reception of the map. That evening, the parody account @iOS6maps[9] was created on Twitter to interact with people’s complaints and the single topic Tumblr blog The Amazing iOS 6 Maps[10] was launched to showcase screenshots of the contorted maps found across the web.
Over the next two days, coverage of the application’s poor reception appeared on many news media outlets and technology blogs including The Verge[11], Yahoo! News[12], Fox News[13], CNET[14], Forbes[15], PC Mag[16] and CNN.[17] A lengthy discussion on the comparison of iOS 6 Maps and Google Maps appeared on the /r/Android subreddit.[19] Additionally, a handful of small Facebook fan pages[20] were created to criticize the Maps application. Between September 19th and 20th, there were nearly 104,000 mentions of “iOS 6 maps” on Twitter.[21]
On September 21st, Apple spokesperson Trudy Miller released a statement calling the app “a work in progress.” She also noted that the company is working on integrating transit directions into the app, but did not address the complaints regarding the distorted 3D imageries of landmarks. The statement was picked up by PC Mag[1], the Huffington Post[2] and Techcrunch[18] later that same day.
[1] PC Mag – Apple Defends iOS 6 Maps as Work in Progress
[2] Huffington Post – Apple On iOS 6 Maps Flubs: This Is Hard, Okay?
[3] 9 to 5 Mac – iOS 6: Apple drops Google Maps, debuts in-house ‘Maps’ with incredible 3D mode
[4] Engadget – Apple selects TomTom as primary iOS 6 maps provider (update: confirmed)
[5] Twitter – Search results for #ios6pocalypse
[6] Gizmodo – Apple’s New 3D Maps Are an Apocalyptic Horror Show
[7] Huffington Post – iOS 6 Maps Comes Without Transit Directions, A Wrong Turn For Apple And iPhone Users
[8] Read Write Web – Apple’s iOS 6 Maps App Falls Short In Early Reviews
[10] Tumblr – The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
[11] The Verge – Wrong turn: Apple’s buggy iOS 6 maps lead to widespread complaints
[12] Yahoo! News – Apple’s iOS 6 Maps app is awful, and now the world knows it
[13] Fox News – Apple flops with new maps update
[14]CNET – Apple Maps in iOS 6: What you need to know (FAQ)iOS 6 Maps Adds Another Hit to Apple’s Reputation
[16] PC Mag – Twitterverse Irked by Apple iOS 6 Maps, More
[17]CNN – Users: Apple iOS 6 maps are a mess
[18] Techcrunch – Apple: iOS 6 Maps Is A First Attempt, We’re “Just Getting Started”
[19] Reddit – I don’t think Google Maps got enough credit until now…iOS 6 Maps is horrible.
[20] Facebook – Search results for “ios 6 maps”
[21] Twitter – Mentions of “iOS 6 maps”
“And Then I Said” is an image macro series featuring stock photographs of groups of people laughing and the caption “And then I said” or “And then we said” followed by an empty promise or implausible proposition. The format of the series bears many similarities with the “X They Said” image image macros in juxtaposing the contrast of what was promised and the actual outcome.
On July 25th, 2011, Redditor raks1991 submitted a post titled “We told them..” to the /r/pics[10] subreddit, featuring a photo of several politicians, including Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., and the caption “We told them wealth/ would ‘trickle down’!” (shown below, left). Prior to being archived, the post received over 7,475 up votes and 220 comments. The original photo was taken by Time[11] magazine photographer Diana Walker after Walter Cronkite interviewed President Ronald Reagan at the Oval Office on March 3rd, 1981 (shown below, right).
“After Walter Cronkite’s last interview with the President as the anchor of the CBS Evening News, there was a little celebration in the room off the Oval Office,” recounts photographer Diana Walker. “White House staffers, including Vice President Bush, enjoyed a good laugh over a joke that has never become public.”
The phrase “And then I said” has been also used as a framing device in TV shows in which characters recount an event or a story from the past in the succinct form of punchlines; a list of significant examples of this practice can be found on the TV Tropes page.[5]
On September 16th, 2011, a stock photo from the Girls Laughing series accompanied by the caption “And then I told him… / Size doesn’t matter” (shown below, left) was submitted to the image macro website Meme Generator.[6] Months later in February 2012, an informal variation of the phrase “And I was like” was featured in the Story Time Jesus image macro series (shown below, right).
On March 12th, 2012, Redditor trevs231 submitted a post titled “And then I said” to the /r/AdviceAnimals[2] subreddit, which included an image macro of laughing politicians and the caption "And then I said… / “The tests will look just like what we’ve covered in lecture!” (shown below, left). On the following day, Redditor TommyGetYourShineBox submitted an image macro to the /r/funny[3] subreddit of two white business men laughing with the caption "And then I said… / “Pay taxes? What am I… poor?” (shown below, middle). On July 3rd, Redditor GodlyGiBBson submitted an image macro to the /r/AdviceAnimals[1] subreddit featuring several hospital employees laughing with the caption “And then I said, / It’s perfectly normal to ejaculate during a prostate exam” (shown below, right).
As of October 4th, 2012, several related Quickmeme[9] pages have been created, including the “And then I said”[7] page with over 160 submissions and “Rich Old Men”[8] with over 970 submissions. Additional examples can be found on the microblogging site Tumblr under the tag “#and then I said.”
[1] Reddit – And then I said
[2] Reddit – And then I said
[3] Reddit – And then I said
[4] Daily Dawdle – Hilarious – Best of And THen I Said Meme
[5] TV Tropes – And Then I Said
[6] Meme Generator – Laughing Girls
[7] Quickmeme – And then I said
[8] Quickmeme – Rich Old Men
[9] Quickmeme – keyword – and then I said
[10] Reddit – We told them
[11] Time – Front-Row Seat at the Reagan White House
[12] Tumblr – #and then i said
My Drunk Kitchen is a comedic cooking show on YouTube created by the Los Angeles-based comedian Hannah Hart in March 2011. Each episode usually begins with Hart drinking large amounts of alcohol before she proceeds to cook or bake a specific recipe. The recipes and drinks both vary, but will sometimes correspond with one another.
The pilot episode of My Drunk Kitchen was uploaded via YouTube on March 16th, 2011 (shown below). Titled “Butter Yo Shit,” the episode features Hart attempting to cook a grilled cheese sandwich after she drinks a bottle of wine apparently found in her sister’s kitchen. When it comes time to put the cheese on the bread, she realizes she does not have any. The video went on to gain more than 2.1 million views within a year and a half and it remains the most popular episode of the series to date.
The day after the first episode was launched, Hart established an official Tumblr blog[4] for the series. Initially, it served as another space to share her videos but by May 2011, she began blogging photos and news clips about her show as well. The series saw a large jump in subscribers in January 2012[12] after YouTuber Jenna Marbles uploaded a tribute video in which she drinks wine and an energy drink while trying to make a cheesecake (shown below).
My Drunk Kitchen has also had several notable YouTubers appear as guest stars including Jenna Marbles (shown below, left), Grace Helbig and Shane Dawson. In September 2011, Hart worked with Music to Wear Pants To artist Andrew Huang[3], to produce a music video titled “Show Me Where Your Noms At” (shown below, right).
As of October 2012, My Drunk Kitchen’s channel has 340,535 subscribers, 32,524,431 views and receives an average of 57,261 views per day. There are currently 26 episodes spanning across two seasons and nine specials, including six holiday-themed episodes. The official Facebook fan page[2] for the show has 120,000 likes. As of October 2012, there are two single-topic Tumblr blogs[26][27] dedicated to the show and a third[28] that curates image macros based on photos of Hart with “Hey girl”-style captions.
Urlesque[13] and Neatorama[14] were the first to feature My Drunk Kitchen videos on March 21st, 2011. By May 24th, the show had 16,000 subscribers and Hart officially became a YouTube Partner.[15] Over the next year, episodes of My Drunk Kitchen were featured on Laughing Squid[16], the Huffington Post[17], AfterEllen[18], TIME[19], LA Weekly[20], the Daily News[21], BoingBoing[22], CBS News[23] and NBC Bay Area.[24] In May 2012, Hart appeared at ROFLCon on a panel with Brian Manowitz, also known as the Vegan Black Metal Chef[25], and Jon Chonko, the creatorScanwiches in which they made a vegan sandwich and scanned it.
Hannah Hart was born in San Francisco in the 1980s. As of October 2012, she is living in Los Angeles writing and producing online content. She collects all of her work on her homepage, HartoAndCo.com.[8] Outside of My Drunk Kitchen, she makes advice videos[9], music videos[10] and personal vlogs on her second YouTube account YourHarto.[11] Her personal Facebook fan page[5] has more than 30,000 likes. She also maintains Instagram[6] and Twitter[7] accounts.
[1] YouTube – MyHarto’s channel
[2] Facebook – My Drunk Kitchen
[3] YouTube – Songs to Wear Pants To’s channel
[4] Tumblr – My Drunk Kitchen
[5] Facebook – Hannah “Harto” Hart
[9] YouTube Playlist – MyHarto’s Advice from the Hart
[10] YouTube Playlist – MyHarto’s HARTSONG
[11] YouTube – YourHarto’s channel
[12] SocialBlade – Stats for MyHarto
[13] Urlesque – My Drunk Kitchen’ Teaches You How to Make Grilled Cheese
[14] Neatorama – Great Idea for a Cooking Show: My Drunk Kitchen
[15] Social Times – How Hannah Hart Turned Drunk Cooking Into A YouTube Partnership [Interview]
[16] Laughing Squid – My Drunk Kitchen
[17] the Huffington Post – Hannah Hart’s ‘My Drunk Kitchen’ Is Going To Make You A Domestic Goddess… Sort Of
[18] AfterEllen – Hannah Hart talks “My Drunk Kitchen,” coming out and her nefarious plan to steal Santana from Brittany on “Glee”
[19]TIME – The Pleasures of Cooking While Drunk with Hannah Hart
[20] LA Weekly – My Drunk Kitchen’s “Advice From The Hart”: What to Save From a Kitchen Fire + Best Utensil for a Zombie Apocalypse
[21] Daily News – ‘My Drunk Kitchen’ star and YouTube sensation Hannah Hart dishes on what to cook while inebriated
[22] BoingBoing – My Drunk Kitchen
[23]CBS News – FeedForward: My drunk interview
[24]NBC Bay Area – “My Drunk Kitchen,” Hollywood Gold, Is Bay Area-Bred
[25] YouTube – Vegan Black Metal Chef
[26] Tumblr – We The Hartosexuals
[27] Tumblr – Hannah stole our Harto
[28] Tumblr – Hey Girl, It’s Hannah Hart
France Is Bacon is an image macro and catchphrase that originated on Reddit in late 2010. The catchphrase is often used as an inside joke or an indicator that somebody didn’t understand something.
In the /r/AskReddit subreddit, a thread was creating asking users to post quotes they misunderstood in their childhood. Redditor Lard_Baron replied stating that he had misunderstood a famous Francis Bacon quote, “Knowledge is power,” claiming that he had misinterpreted Bacon’s name to be part of the quote itself. The post has since received almost 4,000 upvotes, and the thread has received 6,000 comments.
Several image macros have been created based upon the story, as well as the image featured above having achieved viral status.
T-shirts featuring the catchphrase and image are sold online.
Perfect Splits refers to a Chinese photo fad that involves photographing oneself while performing a split, sometimes while multi-tasking other mundane activities such as talking on the phone or eating.
In early September 2012, a photograph of a young female performing a 45 degree angle split between two bunk bed ladders began to spread on the Chinese social networking site Weibo. Though her identity is not currently known, she is allegedly a junior art student from Shandong University at Weihai.[18]
The photo quickly spread beyond Weibo and reached Chinese internet humor forums, where many users began praising the form of the mysterious girl’s perfect leg split, or locally referred to as “一字马,” a type of gymnastic technique in which one’s legs are stretched out far in a single line. Throughout the month of September, the original photo continued to spread on the photo sharing site KL688[1], Rum Soaked Fist forum[2], Chinese-American forum mittbbs[3], Mop.com[4], 铁血社区 forums[5] and the xunkoo BBS[6] among others.
Meanwhile, the photo’s popularity on Weibo soon led many other female Internet users to imitate the split and share their iterations online, which were submitted to the CK101 forums[7] and the cnool BBS[8] as early as September 25th, with additional compilations appearing on the Van698 forum[9] and ETtoday[11] the next day. On September 27th, a news article about the “perfect split” fad was posted on the Beijing Sina blog[10] and the first English-language report on the photo fad appeared on Shanghaiist.[12] In early October, the meme was picked up by numerous English language blogs including Tea Leaf Nation[13], China Buzz[14], Wot’s Happening[15], the Huffington Post[16] and Digital Journal.[17]
[1] KL688 – 抗日，要学会苦练内功，不是吗[1P]
[2] Rum Soaked Fists – Re: test no topic
[3] mittbbs – 同主题阅读：两条腿真直啊 (转载)
[5] 铁血社区 – 一张让所有男人侧目，让所有女人自然不如的图
[6] xunkoo – 寝室里的劈腿，寝室里的柔美，各种劈腿各种美
[7] CK101 – [其它趣聞] 對岸女大生時下流行「宿舍一字馬」
[8] cnool – 【惊讶】看着大三学姐这样劈叉，你担心什么了没？
[9] Van698 – 對岸女大生時下流行「宿舍一字馬」(20P+影)
[10] Sina – 宿舍女生一字馬走紅網絡 美女爭相挑戰
[11] ETtoday – 熱褲正妹瘋「宿舍一字馬」 修長美腿劈出完美45度角
[12] Shanghaiist – Photos: “Spread ’em girls” dorm-room splits become latest Chinese meme
[13] Tea Leaf Nation – Spotted on Weibo: Everybody’s Doing the Split
[14] China Buzz – Chinese girl causes Internet sensation for a perfect split
[15] Wot’s Happening – PHOTOS: Chinese girl starts internet trend for a perfect split
[16] Huffington Post – ‘Perfect Split’ Meme: Chinese College Student Becomes Internet Sensation Thanks To Spotless Split (PHOTOS)
[17] Digital Journal – ‘Perfect Split’ meme is the new Chinese Internet craze
[18] Sina – 女生宿舍劈一字马照片走红 网友模仿挑战(图)
Kill Casshern! Devour Casshern!, also known simply as Kill Casshern!, is a common phrase used in the anime Casshen Sins. It is the deranged mantra spoken by bandit robots who are attempting to assassinate Casshern en masse in hopes of eating his body components to assimilate their regenerative powers into their own decaying bodies to avoid ruination. The phrase became popular when the series initially premiered in 2008 and then re-aired on the newly-launched Toonami block on Cartoon Network’s [adultswim], which caused it to rise from obscurity and rapidly spread to 4chan on two separate ocassions. The mantra has been exaggerated due to its narm charm, and has now become blown out of proportion to the point it can be associated with a captioned picture of an iconic robot spouting these bloodthirsty words to indicate any given robotic lifeform in the world or psychopath wants to kill Casshern.
Casshern Sins is a dystopic anime and relaunch of a classic anime series called Casshan. The series premiered in Japan on October 1st, 2008, and debuted in english-dubbed format on FUNimation Channel on December 21, 2010. It is about the titular robot named Casshern who has suddenly awoke from a century-long slumber to find the entire planet of Earth is rotting apart in all forms- humanity, robotkind, and the environment itself are dying out.
Unfortunately, Casshern has no memories of his past, leaving him unwillingly naive to a dark truth- he himself is responsible for this phantasmagorical fate on the world. Long ago, he slew Luna, a female robot known as “The Sun Named Moon.” Shortly after her apparent demise, iron oxide flooded the atmosphere and served as a catalyst that has caused nearly all robots in the world to rust and corrode at a frightening pace until they crumble into dust and cease to function- a plague they refer to as “The Ruin.” Humanity has fared just as worse, facing difficulty trying to reproduce or stay out the clutches of merciless killing machines who would drive them to extinction.
Begrudged and angered at Casshern’s actions, many robots have turned fierce and murderous, slaughtering anything that so much as looks at them wrong, or cannibalizing parts to replace their own dilapidated machinery. Somehow, during this dark time when robots began to lose hope, a rumor came to fruition- Casshern is incapable of ruin. If one were to eat him, his perfect body would fuse with the one who ate his parts and they would never ruin again. Soon after this rumor came to life, it exploded among the desperate and nigh-insane bandits who were hellbent on survival. And thus, whenever the mythical Casshern was in their sights and proven to be the real deal, they began to chant, “KILL CASSHERN! DEVOUR CASSHERN!” to rally all their cohorts to strike down and engorge their one last chance to stay alive. Meanwhile, Casshern struggles to outlast the countless robots pouring in to kill him, and hopefully, stop the ruin and redeem himself before Earth becomes totally lifeless.
When the first episode premiered of the series, the infamous mantra was spoken a few minutes into the airing. The phrase can be heard around the 3:10 mark in the following video:
Although it seemed like a temporary phrase that wouldn’t stick around for very long in the series, it became a recurring chant used by large crowds of robot bandits to rile up everyone to kill and devour Casshern in several more episodes following the first. The thematic element became quite popular on message boards, most notably 4chan.
One of the earliest known instances of the meme can be found on 4chan’s veteran board /a/ – Animu & Mango back in October 2008, when the series was fairly new at the time[1]. One anonymous blogger posted a picture of Dorothy from The Big O captioned, “KILL CASSHERN”, and sparked a hefty chain of comments involving posts with robotic or psychotic characters who also wanted to kill Casshern. A few posts also stated the original, untranslated Japanese phrase of the mantra, “KYASSHAN WO KOROSE”.
After Casshern Sins ended, the popularity of this phrase declined and vanished from boards until Toonami aired the FUNimation dub of the series. It was a lesser-known series to most devotees of anime, having aired on a less-recognized channel. However, the anime was brought back into the spotlight when the Toonami block returned on May 26, 2012, which exposed it to a fresh and denser audience on Cartoon Network, a more mainstream channel, and since Toonami’s return brought in an enormous surge of viewers to [adultswin]. Casshern Sins was billed as one of its new additions for programming alongside Deadman Wonderland to avoid airing purely reruns.
As soon as the first episode aired and the line “Kill Casshern” came up, it triggered a repeat performance of the meme, soon afterward popping up in the [adultswim] forums[2] and Toonami-related posts on Tumblr[3].
The phrase is usually paired alongside a well-recognized robotic or machine-like character that viewers can quickly identify, but the meme can also be captioned to a mentally unstable person instead of a robot. The character will often express intent to Kill Casshern while appearing in a threatening pose, or the line will compliment their own trademark quirks. Occasionally, a reference to berserk or killer household appliances with electronic controls pops up, including the Doomba meme.
Alongside the popular mantra, fandom[4] and image boards soon started to recognize the name “Casshern” was easy to confuse with the word “cashew”, and a trend arose to wrongfully caption images to cashews or post cashew-related pictures in mockery of it.
Search interest initially shot up in October 2008 when Casshern Sins first aired, then tapered off when the show disappeared from watchful eyes. However, its time on the Toonami block has caused a slight increase in popularity once more.
[1] Archive.fools.us – Kill Casshern
[2] [adultswim] – KILL CASSHERN! DEVOUR CASSHERN!
[4] Kingdom Hearts Insider – Toonami – Eureka 7/Samurai 7 On Lineup
IKEA Catalogue Photoshop Controversy refers to an incident involving the Swedish home products company IKEA’s 2013 product catalogue for its Saudi Arabian branches, in which several female models were edited out of the original photographs. The discrepancy was first exposed in an article published in the Swedish edition of free daily newspaper Metro in October 2012 and the story quickly led to criticisms on social media platforms regarding the company’s localized marketing strategies and the broader issue of gender inequality in the Middle East.
On October 1st, 2012, Sweden’s free daily newspaper Metro[1] published an article titled “Women Cannot be Retouched Away” criticizing the odd removal of several female models from IKEA’s 2013 product catalogue for the Saudi Arabian edition. In the following days, both the story and its before-and-after comparison images were picked up by a wide range of news outlets around the world.
In Sweden, the news story instantly sparked an outcry over the company’s local marketing tactics and approach to gender inequality, including Birgitta Ohlsson, Sweden’s minister to the European Union, who linked to the article on Twitter and described IKEA’s move as “medieval.” Throughout the day, thousands of tweets relating to the topic were posted on Twitter, according to The New York Times.[5]
Medeltida mossigt! expressen.se/nyheter/ikea-r…
— Birgitta Ohlsson (@birgittaohlsson) October 1, 2012
Shortly after the Metro article ran, IKEA’s spokesman issued an apology, noting that the company is in the process of reevaluating the work process and the decision to edit the women out of the images was not made by the local franchise owner in Saudi Arabia.
The mistake happened during the work process occurring before presenting the draft catalogue for IKEA Saudi Arabia. We, Inter IKEA Systems B.V., have the ultimate responsibility and take full responsibility for the mistakes made.
On the following day, a single topic blog cleverly titled “I(KEA) got 99 problems but a bitch aint one!”[2] was launched on Tumblr to curate several dozens of photoshopped images in which female subjects are replaced with various furniture items and household products seen in the IKEA catalogue.
[1] Metro – Women Cannot be Retouched Away
[2] Tumblr – I(KEA) got 99 problems but a bitch aint one!
[3] DeviantART – We’re not in Saudi Arabia Anymore
[4] Gizmodo – Ikea Photoshops Women Out of Saudi Arabia Catalog
[5] New York Times – Ikea Apologizes for Removing Women From Saudi Catalog
[6] The Guardian – Ikea under fire for airbrushing women out of Saudi catalogue
[7] Gawker – Ikea Caught Photoshopping Women Out of Its Saudi Arabian Catalog
Please, if you find some mistakes, correct them.
Dangerous kid (rus. Опасный поцык) – character of popular video and russian internet-meme, often usable in remixes and YouTube Poops. Grade school age boy, looking like gopnik and smoking, dialogues with someone behind the scenes and demonstrates mastery of Russian obscenities.
Хули тут так мало?! Это наша точка, блять!
Ты выёбывался -- я тебе пизды дал!
Ты на пенёк сел -- должен был косарь отдать!
А тут хули так мало, урод, бля, ты!?
Ммм?! Уёба?
Иди нахуй, пидор, бля! Как уебу, сука!
Where the fuck is the rest of money? This is our spot!
You were fucking around so I kicked your motherfucking ass.
You sat on that tree stump and now you owe me one ground for that!
So where the fuck is the rest of money, you shitstick?
Uh? Arsehole?
Get the fuck lost, you fag! I’ll break your face, bitch!
Video and catchphrases became very popular in a few years, and face and catchphrases begins to use in Russian YouTube poops and remixes. Anyway, soon the boy claimed that he is who appeared in this video, was found. He claimed that the video is a fake and was filmed for fun. His name is Denis Pantileev.
This video is one of the most popular Russian internet-memes.
Introspective Pug is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a pug dog looking out a window in the back seat of a car. The captions typically portray the dog as having a brooding, curious or philosophical internal monologue, often beginning with the phrase “I don’t know man, I just…”
Redditor damuss submitted a post titled “Sometimes I feel like my friend’s dog has gone pretty deep”[7] on October 4th, 2012, which featured a photograph of a pug dog staring out a rain-covered window in the back seat of a car (shown below, left). Within five days, the post received over 13,187 up votes and 175 comments. The same day, Redditor PrinceWilliam13 submitted a post titled “Introspective Pug” to the /r/AdviceAnimals[1]subreddit, which featured the same photograph with the caption “I don’t know man, I just- / What if he really did throw the tennis ball, you know?” (shown below, right). Within four days, the post received over 21,500 up votes and 200 comments.
The photograph of the pug peering out the rain-covered window bears many stylistic similarities with the photographs used in the Over-Educated Problems image macro series, the “Cats Looking Out The Window in the Rain” Tumblr[8] blog (shown below, middle) and an example from the Sad Frog series (shown below, right).
Also on October 5th, an image macro compilation of Introspective Pug was posted on the Internet humor blog Tastefully Offensive via Tumblr[10], where it gained more than 5,600 likes and reblogs in the following days. On October 6th, Redditor PrinceWilliam13’s image macro was featured on the Internet humor stie I Can Has Cheezburger[6] and a compilation of notable examples was published on the viral content site BuzzFeed.[3] The same day, 9gag user grayfront[4] submitted an image macro with the caption “I don’t know man, I just… / I can’t get the smell of her asshole out of my head." Within three days, the post received over 9,300 Facebook shares and 24,400 up votes. Also on that day, the same image macro was submitted to FunnyJunk[5]by user Gamedudebt. As of October 9th, 2012, the “Introspective Pug” Quickmeme[9] page has received over 550 submissions.
[1] Reddit – Introspective Pug
[2] Reddit – Introspective Pug
[3] BuzzFeed – Introspective Pug Is Introspective About Being A Pug
[4] 9gag – Introspective Pug
[5] FunnyJunk – Introspective Pug
[6] Cheezburger – Introspective Pug is Introspective
[7] Reddit – Sometimes I feel like my friend’s dog has gone pretty deep.
[8] Tumblr – Cats Looking Out the Window in the Rain
[9] Quickmeme – Introspective Pug
[10] Tumblr – Tatefully Offensive
Ángel David Revilla, better known as Dross Rotzank is a famous writer, videoblogger and humorist. He is known for his videogames critics, “Let´s Play” videos, creepypastas and shocking sites reviews, all of then combined with real life references and black humor.
He started his online carrer being a videogame critic in Meristation.com and Vandal.net, where he got banned for “trolling” other users.
After that, he created his own website, El Diario de Dross [1], where he continued doing game reviews. Then, he created his Youtube account [2], where he started doing other things instead of only game reviews.
His webpage is updated every month with a video, an article and sometimes some things despicting trolling. According to Alexa.com [3], Diario De Dross is the 175,530th most visited page in the world.
His Youtube Account, DrossRotzank have 293,174 suscriptions and 49,344,872 total video views as on October, 2012. His channel is the most visited one in Argentina.
He also have A DeviantArt account [4], DiarioDeDross, that features FanArt. It has 1,395 members and 228,460 page views as on October, 2012. He sometimes features this art in videos or in his website.
His Twitter account [5], @eldiariodedross, have 116,111 followers as on October, 2012.
His official Facebook fan page [6] has 205,138 likes as on October, 2012.
The Troll is Dross enemy (wich actually is characterized by the same person) he is always characterized wearing sun glasses (Just like Dross) and a blanket wrapped all over his body except his face.
The Fatty is a female character, wich still unknown if she is actually a real person. She is Dross girlfriend, he describes her as a food and sex addict.
The Pepsi Girl is a real person, she works in Mexico’s Pepsi Producer customer service. Her first appearance was in the episode when Dross plays Pepsiman. He calls to Pepsi’s customer service asking for Pepsiman like if he was a real person. Months later, he calls back to interview her, asking things like if she secretly drinks Coca-Cola.
In May 15th, 2012, DeviantArt user ~shukei20 created and image macro featuring Dross with a sad expression, accompanied with captions featuring unhappy situations for him, similar to Bad Luck Brian.
Ángel David Revilla born in July 16, 1982, in Caracas, Venezuela.
[2] Youtube-DrossRotzank´s channel
[3] Alexa- Search analysis
[4] DeviantArt-DiarioDeDross
[5] Twitter- @eldiariodedross
[6] Facebook-El Diario De Dross
Kokoro Odoru (Japanese: ココロオドル, lit. Heart is Dancing) is the third single of a Japanese hip-hop music group nobodyknows+.[1]
This song is one of the popular resources for MAD videos on the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND).
The single was released on May 26th, 2004 by Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and on June 2004, it is included to nobodyknows+’s first album “Do You Know?”.
The song was used as the second ending theme of the TV anime series Superior Defender Gundam Force[2] in 2004 and was also implied to the Nintendo DS game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan in 2005.[3]
MAD editors on NND began introducing this song into their works around early 2008. And several videos in this series became getting attentions around the beginning of 2009, which featured popular visual resources such as Shuzo Matsuoka and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
In those early instances, the actual trigger that led to a substantial increase in popularity of the series was a nostalgic TV commercial movie for an energy drink in early 90s, which featured an American professional wrestler Reggie Bennett.[4] It was posted by a user めがー on January 16th, 2009.[5]
However, almost all early instances were deleted from NND in the first half of 2009 because SME is very strict to copyright infringements against their publications and since before, they have removed videos reusing original songs they own.
NND users have tried solving this problem by using the transcribed version of this song which was made by a user LIGT9 on September 3rd, 2009.[6] That’s because they are allowed to post music transcriber/playing cover videos by the umbrella agreement between Niwango, the running company of NND, and music publishers including SME.
Fortunately, subsequent videos using that version have succeeded to avoid SME’s deletion. And in September 2012, The amount of videos in this series on NND had increased to near 400.[7]
For more videos, check out the videos section in this entry.
Saki_[8] (+1 million views on NND)
Company Sound Logos[9]
_Steins;Gate[10]
It's Salmon!!![11]
Shuzo Matsuoka[12]
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya[13]
Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.
[1] Wikipedia – Nobodyknows (band)
[2] Wikipedia – Superior Defender Gundam Force
[3] Wikipedia – Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
[4] Wikipedia – Reggie Bennett
[5] Nico Nico Douga – ダダンボヨル / Posted on 01-16-2009
[6] Nico Nico Douga – ココロオドル(耳コピ) / Posted on 09-03-2009
[7] Nico Nico Douga – Seach results for ココロオドル
[8] Nico Nico Douga – 【音MAD】サキガツモル【咲-Saki-×ココロオドル】 / Posted on 02-04-2010
[9] Nico Nico Douga – サウンドロゴル 【ココロオドル】 / Posted on 11-01-2011
[10] Nico Nico Douga – ココロオカリン【Steins;Gate】 / Posted on 08-18-2011
[11] Nico Nico Douga – シャケガアタル / Posted on 04-20-2011
[12] Nico Nico Douga – シジミトゥルル / Posted on 12-23-2008 (deleted)
[13] Nico Nico Douga – ハルヒオドル / Posted on 01-12-2009 (deleted)
Lu Hao, or Fat Asian Kid[1] is an image macro series that focuses on an obese child from southern China. The captions tend to include: Asian stereotypes, such as the inability to differentiate /r/ and /l/; making fun of the child’s weight; or other funny poses the child finds himself in.
News sources in China reported a young Chinese boy from the Shunde district of the City of Foshan, in Guangdong province, who weighs over 118lb (53kg) as a three year old. The child’s name is Lu Hao, and states that he has three bowls of rice with each meal. His father also mentions that his son gets tired after walking a few steps[2]. Later stories state that Hao has been placed on a diet, and wishes to grow up tall like Yao Ming[3].
The story was later reported by media in the UK, which brought it to the attention of western audiences[4][5].
The first dated entry appears on weknowmemes on November 11, 2011[1]. A common variation of the image macro series is young Lu Hao making a phone call with the template shown below
[1] weknowmemes Fat Asian Kid Posted on 11-11-2011
[2] s1979.com 一餐三碗饭 三岁小孩重百斤！ / Posted on 6-23-2010
[3] chinanews.com 三岁男童体重120斤 将来或能长到姚明那么高 Posted on 7-3-2010
[4] The Sun (UK) Tragic toddler weighs nine stone Posted on 3-23-2011
[5] Daily Mail (UK) ‘We just don’t know why our son is so big’ Posted on 3-31-2011
Researching…
Fedora Shaming refers to the practice of mocking people who wear the fedora felt hat as a fashion accessory. Since its return to popularity as a vintage fashion trend in the late 2000s, several single topic blogs deriding photos of people wearing the hat have been created on the microblogging site Tumblr.
Urban Dictionary[4] user Donottouchthis submitted an entry for “fedora” on January 26th, 2008, which identified those who wore the hat as a “loser who is desperately seeking for a style to call their own.” As of October 8th, 2012, the definition has received 109 up votes and 119 down votes.
The hat was named after the play Fédora written by the French author Victorien Sardou. In the play, the character Princess Fédora Romanoff (played by Sarah Bernhardt) wore the signature felt hat, which subsequently became a popular women’s fashion accessory. By the turn of the century, the hat had evolved into a predominately male fashion item closely associated with prohibition-era gangsters in the 1920s..
On February 17th, 2009, the men’s lifestyle blog Details[7] published an article titled “Cool or Tool?: The Fedora,” which urged readers to carefully consider incorporating a fedora into their outfits. On July 20th, Urban Dictionary[5] user Ricky Torro submitted an entry for the word “fedorka,” defining the term as a pejorative for a person attempting to be hip or trendy by wearing the fashion accessory. On March 5th, 2010, Facepunch Forums[9] member Parakon submitted a thread titled “People who wear fedoras and other such hats,” remarking that wearing a fedora seemed to be a pretentious ploy to appear interesting to others. On March 24th, the North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club Forums[10] member CoiloverKid submitted a thread titled “Fedora Lounge! aka Stop Wearing Fedoras K,” who mocked several photographs of young men wearing fedoras (shown below).
On April 14th, 2011, a Facebook[1] page titled “Take that Fedora off, you look like a tool” was created, followed by the creation of the “Stop Wearing Fedoras”[6] page two weeks later. On April 27th, the Tumblr[11] blog “Lonely Nerds in Fedoras” was created, featuring photographs of young men and women wearing the felt hat. On March 21st, Redditor MrBradd submitted a post to the /r/pics[2] subreddit titled “The Truth Hurts,” which featured a What You Think You Look Like image featuring the 1940s actor Humphrey Bogart wearing a suit and fedora juxtaposed with a photograph of a young man wearing the hat with a pull over sweater (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received over 9,300 up votes and 1,300 comments.
On March 29th, 2012, the single topic blog “Forever Alone Fedoras” was launched on Tumblr,[12] followed by the creation of the “You Shouldn’t Wear That Fedora” Tumblr[13] blog on April 17th. On May 22nd, the viral content site BuzzFeed[8] published a post titled “Fedoras and the Internet: A Torrid Love Affair,” which featured several fedora-related images including a flowchart mocking the hat (shown below).
On July 24th, the Tumblr[14] blog “Fedoras of OKC” was launched, featuring profile pictures of men wearing fedoras on the dating website OKCupid. On October 2nd, the Internet news blog BoingBoing[3] published an article titled “Why the Fedora Grosses Out Geekdom,” which identified men who wear fedoras as “forever alone” males desperately trying to escape the “friend zone”.
[1] Facebook – Take that Fedora off you look like a tool
[2] Reddit – The Truth Hurts
[3] BoingBoing – Why the Fedora Grosses Out Geekdom
[5] Urban Dictionary – fedorka
[6] Facebook – Stop Wearing Fedoras
[7] Details – Cool or Tool? The Fedora
[8] BuzzFeed – Fedoras and the Internet – A Torrid Love Affair
[9] Facepunch – People who wear fedoras and other such hats
[10]NASIOC – Fedora Lounge! aka STOP WEARING FEDORAS K
[11] Tumblr – Lonely Nerds in Fedoras
[12] Tumblr – Forever Alone Fedoras
[13] Tumblr – You Shouldnt Wear That Fedora
[14] Tumblr – Fedoras of OKC
