About

/r/Pyongyang is a satirical subreddit community that purports itself as an official news bulletin for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Known for its strict ban policy against anyone critical of North Korea and its leaders, the subreddit has become a running joke among Redditors who would often reply to those speaking negatively about the DPRK with “you have been banned from /r/pyongyang,” and conversely, those speaking in favor of North Korea with “you have become a moderator of /r/pyongyang.”

Origin

Named after the capital city of North Korea, /r/pyongyang^[1] was launched by Redditor Kim_Il-sung on December 21st, 2011, billing itself as a community run by “the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of the DPRK to disperse propaganda about its totalitarian regime.” Within the community, users often upvote posts and comments praising the DPRK and its leader Kim Jong-Un while moderators have become in famous for removing any user comments that may be deemed critical of North Korean leadership.

Spread

On December 24th, 2011, Redditor PaperBlake submitted a screenshot of a comment praising DPRK leader Kim Jong-Un titled “How to comment in /r/pyongyang without getting deleted” to the /r/funny^[4] subreddit (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gathered upwards of 1,300 up votes and 60 comments.

On March 18th, 2012, /r/pyangyong^[7] was created as a “sister subreddit” to /r/pyongyang. On April 13th, the /r/pyongyangbannedme^[5] subreddit was launched for discussions about being banned from /r/pyongyang. On April 19th, the tech news blog Beta Beat^[2] published an article about the satirical subreddit. On January 2nd, 2013, the tech news blog Mashable^[3] mentioned /r/pyongyang in a list of notable “bizarre subreddits.” On March 7th, Redditor uWouldReadThis submitted a post titled “North Korea to South Korea: ‘You are now banned from /r/pyongyang’” to /r/circlejerk,^[9] where it received more than 3,000 up votes and 75 comments before it was archived. On March 15th, Redditor remjob61 submitted an image macro mocking DPRK leader Kim Jong-Un titled “This got me banned from /r/pyongyang” to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[8] subreddit, where it gained over 14,600 up votes and 230 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On March 18th, Redditor ciberaj submitted a post asking if /r/pyongyang was a “circlejerk subreddit” to the /r/explainlikeimfive^[6] subreddit. In the comments section of the post, Redditor MathisRowan responded to Redditor darsehole that he had “been made moderator of /r/Pyongyang.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Masahiro Sakurai (桜井 政博 Sakurai Masahiro) is a Japanese video game developer and director, who is known for creating the Kirby and Super Smash Bros series. On the internet, he has gained a reputation for being a troll and has spawned several memes within the Smash Bros. community.

Biography

Masahiro Sakurai was born August 3 1970. Early in his career, he joined HAL Laboratory and at age 19, he created the Kirby series and directed his first titel, Kirby’s Dream Land. Later in his career, he was the director for Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 and returned for the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee. Sakurai continued to work at HAL Laboratory until he left the company on August 3 2003. He stated that his reason for leaving was because he wanted more freedom but that the biggest reason for his departured was, that he had grown tired of the sequelization from HAL. After he left HAL, he worked with Q Entertainment on a game called Meteos.

In 2005, Sakurai founded his own video game company; Sora Ltd. He was later contacted by Satoru Iwata, and was asked to the director of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. Sakurai accepted and began work in October 2005. During development, Sakurai weekly updated the official Super Smash Bros. Brawl website, known as Smash bros. Dojo!! Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released on January 31 2008 in Japan and recived critical acclaim. After finishing the game, Sakurai next directed Kid Icarus: Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS, ending the franchise’s 21 years long hiatus. After Kid Icarus: Uprising had been released, Sakurai began working on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U & 3DS which is to be released in 2014.

Online Presence

Online, Masahiro Sakurai has developed a fan following due to the gameplay of his games and his work on the Super Smash Bros. Series. He has a page on TVtropes and he also has his own Twitter account with over 78 thousand followers.

Reputation as a troll

Among the Super Smash Bros. fanbase, Sakurai has gotten a reputation as a troll due to his tendency to often tease the Smash Bros. Community, such as hinting that characters, that is very requested to be playable by the Smash Bros. community, will appear in another form or flat out stating that a character won’t be playable, only to reveal right afterwards that the character is playable. He is listed as a trolling creator on TVtropes.

Sakurai: (Laughs)

“Sakurai: (Laughs)” is a phrase made popular by Smash fans. It originated from Iwata Asks: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the interview, Sakurai would often laugh, which would be written down as (Laughs). It is often used when something Sakurai thinks very little of is mentioned or if a person is making a ridiculously newcomer request for the Super Smash Bros. games.

Search history

About

Shooter’s Sandwich is a smushed, layered sandwich filled with a variety of ingredients, most commonly including cooked steaks, mushrooms and onions. Photographs of home-cooked variations of the sandwich are often shared on the /r/food subreddit.

Origin

According to The Guardian,^[2] the shooter sandwich was originally made during the Edwardian era as a portable beef Wellington that could be prepared a day in advance. On November 13th, 1996, the cooking show Two Fat Ladies demonstrated how to prepare a shooter’s sandwich in Season 1 Episode 6 titled “Food in the Wild.” On April 7th, 2010, The Guardian^[2] published an article on how to prepare a shooter’s sandwich, referring to it as “the best sandwich ever.”

Spread

The same day on April 7th, 2010, Redditor stootam submitted the article to the /r/food^[3] subreddit, where it gained over 450 upvotes and 120 comments prior to being archived. Three days later, Flickr^[5] user ManiacalV uploaded a gallery of images featuring the “unboxing” of a shooter’s sandwich (shown below), which cited the Reddit post as the inspiration for the idea (shown below).

On March 19th, 2011, The Guardian’s slideshow was reposted by Redditor lyth to /r/reddit.com,^[4] where he referred to the creation as “the most revolutionary sandwich that has ever existed.” Before it was archived, the post gathered more than 2,200 up votes and 380 comments before being archived. On January 21st, 2012, Redditor Gammachan submitted a gallery photographs documenting his shooter’s sandwich creation to /r/food,^[6] where it accumulated upwards of 1,600 upvotes and 190 comments prior to being archived.

On April 27th, the food blog All Serious Eats^[7] published an article about a shooter’s sandwich made with 16 burgers from the restaurant In-N-Out. On August 15th, 2013, Business Insider^[9] published an article highlighting several customized versions of the shooter’s sandwich, including a chicken parm shooter and fajita shooter. On December 6th, YouTuber Food Wishes uploaded a video demonstrating how to make a shooter’s sandwich (shown below). As of April 2014, over 150 posts containing the keywords “shooter sandwich” have been submitted to the /r/food^[8] subreddit.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

#MYNYPD is a hashtag campaign launched by the New York Police Department as a community outreach program on Twitter. While intended as a feel-good social media event to boost the image of the NYPD, the hashtag stream quickly became flooed with photographs of its uniformed officers resorting to violence.

Background

At 1:55 p.m. (ET) on April 22nd, 2014, @NYPDNews^[1] tweeted a message calling on its followers to share their photographs with NYPD police officers using the hashtag #MyNYPD.

Do you have a photo w/ a member of the NYPD? Tweet us & tag it #myNYPD. It may be featured on our Facebook. pic.twitter.com/mE2c3oSmm6

— NYPDNEWS (@NYPDnews) April 22, 2014

Notable Developments

The NYPD’s community outreach hashtag was initially met with genuine responses from its followers on Twitter, but it soon turned into an all-day exhibition of images depicting police brutality and racial profiling, including many photographs that went viral during the height of Occupy Wall Street protests. According to Topsy^[2], the hashtag #MyNYPD was mentioned more than 180,000 times on April 22nd.

News Media Coverage

That afternoon, the hijacking of #MyNYPD on Twitter was reported on by The Daily Dot^[3], Gawker^[4], VICE^[5], The Verge^[6], Mediate^[7], Mashable^[8] and The Huffington Post^[10], as well as a number of local and national news outlets.^[9][12][13]

External References

This Entry is Work in Process and feel free for Request Editorships

About

The Disney Adult Jokes is when the Animators and writers at Walt Disney Company have often cited that the movies they make are for adults, just as much as they are for kids. As such, a certain amount of adult humor slips into their projects that kids won’t get.

History

In the Don Bluth Film called The Rescuers. The image in question is a blurry image of a topless woman that appears in two out of the film’s more than 110,000 frames. The image appears twice in non-consecutive frames during the scene in which Miss Bianca and Bernard are flying on Orville’s back through New York City. The two images could not be seen in ordinary viewing because the film runs too fast -- at 30 frames per second on video.

In 1999, two days after the recall was announced, the London press site The Independent reported:

• A Disney spokeswoman said that the images in The Rescuers were placed in the film during production, but she declined to say what they were or who placed them… The company said the aim of the recall was to keep its promise to families that they can trust and rely on the Disney brand to provide the best in family entertainment.

The Rescuers video was reissued March 23, 1999 with the offending image edited out.

Notable Examples

About

Evan Roth is an American artist and hacker known for his web based artistic projects.

Online History

After seeing a piece of art created by Banksy, Roth decieded^[2] to persue a graduate degree at

His Twitter account^[1] was launched on September 28th, 2008, as of April 2014, he has gained over 4,000 followers.

Graffiti Research Lab

The Graffiti Research Lab was created by Roth

Google Driverless Car Prank

Google Driverless Car Punks NYC from Becky Stern on Vimeo.

F.A.T. Lab

The F.A.T. Lab consists of 21 hackers and artists^[3]

Websites

Highlights

Internet Art

• When-We-Were-Kings.com is a

• Banners-and-Skyscrapers.com is a website that features a full page of web banners and ad slowly criss-crossing each other.

• Kamasutra-on-Dimgray.com is a website that features an animated GIF of a man and woman having sex which multiplies until there are hundreds of the same GIF forming a pulsing doughnut shape.

• Lightswitch-on-Ivory.com is website that features a full page of vertical lines of animated lightswitch GIFs which slowly switch on an off and alternate from ivory to grey.

• Rockingchair-on-Honeydew.com is website that features a full page of vertical lines of animated rockingchair GIFs slowly rocking back and forth on a light green (honeydew) background.

• Rockingchair-on-Honeydew.com is website that features a full page of vertical lines of animated rockingchair GIFs slowly rocking back and forth on a light green (honeydew) background.

Badass Motherfucker

In 2005, Roth made sure his site^[5] would be the number one search result^[4] on Google.

Search Interest

External References

About

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Shift-JIS arts, known as “JoJo Ascii Arts” (Japanese: ジョジョAA) on the Japanese web, is a series of Shift-JIS arts inspired by the Japanese manga Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (JJBA). Those Shif-JIS arts have been well-used fixed phrases or reaction faces in the Japanese text board community 2channel since around 2005.

Origin

Threads for talking about topics by JJBA’s unique wording style had been occasionally posted to 2channel’s each boards since early 2000s. And Shift-JIS arts of characters or panels became to be put together with users’ posts in late 2004 or early 2005 by the technical progress of 2channel Shift-JIS arts. In this background, there is the huge demand for Shift-JIS arts which have been playing the role of exploitables or reaction faces in that pure text board community which isn’t able to upload images.

Many famous scenes/characters in the manga were given its Shift-JIS art version in those days. Among them, what has been leading the popularity of the JJBA Shift-JIS arts since quite early days is the Shift-JIS art for Jean Pierre Polnareff^[1], one of the main characters in the 3rd & 5th arc of JJBA. It’s also known as “Polnareff Shift-JIS Art” (ポルナレフAA) or called by its most famous line “Let me tell you what happened!” (ありのまま起こった事を話すぜ!, Arinomama Okottakoto wo Hanasuze!). This Shift-JIS art is consisting of citing 2 panels in the 249th chapter titled “Dio’s World Pt. 3” where Polnareff is trying to explain Dio’s stand power that he experienced. This episode is included in the 27th volume of JJBA comic book series released in 1992.

This is the most well-used Shift-JIS art among those JJBA Shift-JIS arts because his wording in this scene is quite easy to fit to explain various situations, or to ridicule other silly users in the threads.

Spread

By getting characters’ iconic Shift-JIS arts, threads for talking by JJBA’s wording style became much popular amongst many boards in 2channel. As a reflection of its popularity, a series of threads specializing for collecting the derivatives of JJBA Shift-JIS arts, mainly Polnareff’s Shift-JIS art, started in 2channel’s /gline/ (guideline) board in September 2005.^[2] As of April 2014, this series has still continued for more than 8 years while spending over 240 threads. Many user-made archive pages for those creations were launched in late 2005 or 2006.^[3][4][5][6] These are hosting many hundreds of JJBA Shift-JIS arts in each.

Notable Examples

But I Refuse / Rohan Kishibe

Rohan Kishibe^[7], known as the character representing the creator’s philosophy, has one of the most famous catchphrases in the JJBA series: “But I Refuse” (だが断る, Daga Kotowaru). The spread of this phrase on the Japanese web was largely helped by the Shift-JIS art reproducing this scene in “Highway Star Pt.3”, the 386th chapter included in the 41st volume released in 1995.

Instead, Think That… / George Joestar I

A remark of George Joestar I^[8] who appeared on a flashback of his son Jonathan Joestar, “Instead, Think That…” (逆に考えるんだ, Gyaku ni Kangaerunda) is often used for replying. The original scene appears in “The Hero of the 77 Rings”, the 28th chapter included in the 4th volume of the comic book released in 1988.

I Dare Say That… ! / Noriaki Kakyoin

A panel of Noriaki Kakyoin^[9] which is taken from “Dio’s the World Pt.4”, the 250th chapter included in the 27th volume of the comic book is utilized simply to yell something. But its wording, “I dare say that…”, refers to his remark in other episode.

Exactly / Telence T. D’Arby

An icily-polite English utterance by Telence T. D’Arby^[10], “Exactly”, is often used for responses for agreement. The original scene apears in “D’arby the Gamer Pt.3”, the 229th chapter included in the 25th volume of the comic book series released in 1992.

The subtitle text in the parentheses (そのとおりでございます, Sonotoori de Gozaimasu) is also a subject for parody.

Search Interest

External References

About

Pervert Dave is the nickname of the deceased Florida resident David W. Cummings, whose obituary circulated online following his death due to complications with liver cancer in April 2014.

Origin

On April 16th, 2014, the Tampa Bay Times newspaper published an obituary for David W. Cummings, which included his nickname “Pervert Dave.” The following day, a photo of the obituary was tweeted by the @SlowSlownes Twitter feed, receiving over 140 retweets and 90 favorites in the first week.

Let's see who's in the obituaries today. pic.twitter.com/mMjADPtmWQ

— Slow News Day (@SlowSlownews) April 17, 2014

Spread

The same day, the men’s interest blog Bro Bible^[3] highlighted the obituary photograph. On April 18th, 2014, Democrat & Chronicle^[2] published an interview with Cummings’ longtime friend Karen Baker, who claimed the origin of the nickname “Pervert Dave” was a mystery.

“He was always, ‘Pervert.’ He’s had the nickname for 40 years or better. I’ve known him for over 40 years myself and he’s always been my big brother and everybody just knew him as ‘Pervert.’”

In the coming days, several news site published articles about the obituary, including The Daily Dot,^[4] Guyism,^[5] Death and Taxes,^[6] UpRoxx^[7] and Gawker.^[8]

Extended Obituary

On April 21st, the Tampa Bay Times^[1] published an article outlining Cummings’ life history. The article revealed that he had been an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force, was honorably discharged in 1970 for a character disorder and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. During the 1980s, Cummings shot and killed his roommate Wheelchair Skip over an argument about money and crashed a car while driving under the influence resulting in the death of a woman riding with him. After being prosecuted, Cummings served two years for the murder of his roommate and one year for DUI manslaughter.

Search Interest

External References

About

Pizza is an oven-baked flat bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings. Although already a widely popular food type worldwide due to its diversity, online pizza has managed to gain a cult following similar to Bacon.

History

Foods similar to pizza have been made since the neolithic age. Although the word “pizza” was first documented in the Southern Italian town of Gaeta in 997 AD, the origins of the term are uncertain and the history of the dish has not been very well documented. The innovation that led to flat bread pizza was the use of tomato as a topping, after tomatoes were brought into Europe from the Americas in the 16th century. By the late 18th century, the dish gained popularity in the Italian town of Napels, soon becoming a tourist attraction for Napels.^[1][2]

Online Presence

As of April 2014, the Facebook page^[5] for pizza has over 33.4 million likes. The official page for Pizza Hut^[6] has over 11.3 million likes and the official page for Dominos^[7] has over 9.1 million likes. Many pizza chains allow costumers to order their pizza online such as Dominoes^[8], Papa Johns^[9] and Pizza Hut.^[10]

Fandom

As of April 2014, there are over 120,000 fan art submissions for pizza on DeviantArt^[3] and over 2,000 fan fiction submissions on Fanfiction.net.^[4] Fan sites for pizza include the Fanpop^[11] page for pizza. Viral content site Buzzfeed has created several posts dedicated to the pizza fandom including “What It’s Like to Be Romantically Attracted to Pizza”^[12] and “How Extreme Is Your Devotion to Pizza?”^[13] Various types of handmade and vintage items related to pizza are also offered on the online shopping website Etsy.^[14]

Related Memes

Special Delivery Instructions

Special Delivery Instructions are photos of unusual pizza delivery requests which typically include pizza box illustrations or pizzas cut into a variety of shapes.

Pizza is a Vegetable

“Pizza is a Vegetable” is a satirical expression inspired by a spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress in November 2011, which bars the Department of Agriculture from changing the nutritional guidelines for public school lunches, such as raising the minimum amount of tomato paste on pizza to be counted as a serving of vegetables. The proposed bill became a target for mockery on the internet due to its bizarre nature, resulting in various parody images to be created in relation to it.

Random Acts of Pizza

Random Acts of Pizza is a sub-community on the social news website Reddit where users can ask to receive free pizza or volunteer to donate pizza to others in need under the slogan of “Restoring Faith in Humanity, One Slice at a Time.” Since its creation in late 2010, the subreddit has been lauded as an example of Reddit’s potential to encourage and foster altruism and generosity, and gained notable attention following the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings when hundreds of users donated over 1,500 pizzas to the emergency centers and hospitals in the area.

Gimme Pizza

Gimme Pizza is the title of a rhyming singalong song featured in the 1995 film You’re Invited to Mary Kate and Ashley’s Sleepover Party (shown below, left), which features five little girls trying to create their ideal pizza by adding ridiculous toppings. The video experienced a resurgence in popularity in 2010 after a slowed down version was uploaded to Youtube by youtuber philipmserious (shown below, right), which resulted in other youtubers remixing the video as well.

P1ZZ4 GUY

P1ZZ4 GUY is an exploitable series based on a scene from the 2004 film Spider Man II during which a clueless passerby catches Peter Parker changing into his Spider-Man costume to make a pizza delivery in time, but confuses the sight as Spider-Man stealing a pizza alongside the phrase “Whoa! He stole that guy’s pizza!” The short but memorable soundbite spawned over 300 derivative sites on YTMND as well as YTP movies on YouTube.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Holy Crap, A Meteor!” is a YTMND fad that involves creating an illusion of an approaching object by utilizing 3D text over a background image. Most variants on the fad are accompanied with music from the 1995 video game Chrono Trigger, which contains a leitmotif that is associated with the threat of an approaching meteor.^[1]

Origin

On April 26th, 2006, YTMND user cdawg82191 uploaded a YTMND entitled “Holy Crap, A Meteor!” featuring a period punctuation mark that resembled a meteor that would imminently impact into Columbia, South Carolina.^[2] The site was originally made as a joke^[3], but it was met to a degree of acclaim from users, allowing the site to accumulate over 7,200 votes (with a site average of 4.40/5.00), over 290 favorites, over 1,700 comments, over 131,000 views, and a $0.01 sponsorship from another user.^[4]

Spread

The first variant on the site would be user WhisperXBA’s follow-up YTMND, “OMGMOREMETEORS”, which featured a meteor shower instead of a single meteor.^[5] However, this site was not nearly as successful as the original, only scoring 1.63/5.00. The first variant to reach a level of success comparable to the original was binturong’s “Meteor Command”, which attained a score of 3.62/5.00.^[6]

The fad was met with some criticism from within YTMND, as made evident by Father-McKenzie’s own page, “Meteor Fad – R. Lee Ermey’s Comments”.^[7] The only successor to include the meteor and earn a higher score than the original was AskAak’s “TaunTaun Trouble”, where the meteor has a cameo appearance.^[8] The search terms “holy crap” and “meteor” warrant hundreds of results on the website.^[9][10]

External References

About

Break-up Texting refers to the ending a romantic relationship via short messaging service (SMS). Due to the social stigma surrounding this practice, screenshots of break-up texts have been frequently shared online and ridiculed in the blogosphere.

Origin

One of the earliest mentions of breakup texts was in a video created by comedian Liam Kyle Sullivan in 2006 titled “Text Message Breakup,” which features a song about a girl’s anger at being broken up with via text. After being posted to his website, the video was uploaded to YouTube by xxxEminemcrazedxxx^[1] on December 26th, 2006. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 93,000 views.

Spread

The first Urban Dictionary^[8] entry for text message breakup was submitted by user Gtron on December 27th, 2006, defining it as:

“to break up with someone via a text message. Highly looked down upon in the dating world.”

On February 13th, 2007, The Washington Post^[6] published a piece about the phenomena of breaking up through text and other forms of technology titled “Hey, You’re Breaking Up on Me!,” and on May 28th, 2007, Alloy, a teen site, published a post titled “Sound Off: Is It OK To Break Up With Your BF in a Text Message?” On February 12th, 2010, GeekSugar^[9] published a piece titled “Is It Ever OK to Dump Someone Via Text Message?,” which featured a readers poll which showed over 70% of readers were against text breakups.

In 2012, round-ups of screenshots of funny or particularly harsh text breakups became popular, with such lists featured on Glamour^[10], tech humor site Smartphowned^[11] and Buzzfeed.^[12]

On May 14th, 2012, Gawker^[13] reported that a woman received a long text from a man she had rejected after one date that seemed to criticize her. He followed it up with an apology and an explanation that it wasn’t about her or meant for her to see.

On September 25th, 2013, Gawker^[14] reported on an instance of breakup text revenge. When Quin Woodward Pu, a 26-year-old woman from Washington, DC received a break-up text from a man she had been seeing for a few weeks, she decided to get back at him by forwarding their sexts he had sent from his company Blackberry to his boss.

Though she recieved negetive feedback when the story was reported on, in an interview with DC site In the Capital^[16] Pu maintained she had been right to react with revenge after the breakup texting, saying:

" I am a writer. This is what writing--and journalism--should do. It should incense. It should evoke, if not provoke. The reason this story has caught so much attention is because it is relatable, on both sides of the gender line. To be fair, the man has both my books; he also knew what he was getting himself into."

In 2013 roundups of screenshots of funny text breakups were published by many sites including The Huffington Post^[17] and Smosh.^[18]

Instagram Break-up

On April 22nd, 2014, Instagram user cjkarl1^[1] posted a picture of himself with his girlfriend next to the same picture with his girlfriend cropped out. He used the hashtag #TransformationTuesday to tag the picture, which is normally used to show off weight lose or some other kind og makeover. His girlfriend commented on the photo asking, “is this your way of breaking up with me.” As of April 24th, the Instagram account has over 14,000 followers but has removed all photos, including the breakup image. The breakup Instagram was covered by UpRoxx^[3], Gawker^[4] and Elite Daily.^[5]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Me Vs. You is an image macro series that compares the original poster (OP) with the viewer, typically presenting the OP in a positive light or superior position.

Origin

The earliest known “Me vs. You” image macro was posted by Tumblr^[1] user fuckeverylastoneofyou on June 11th, 2012, which identified a girl falling off a broken swing as “you” and her swinging partner as “me” (shown below).

Spread

On August 17th, 2012, Tumblr user cythereans posted a GIF of Lady Gaga walking past a group of men in a scuffle with “Me” and “You” captions (shown below, left). On June 27th, 2013, Tumblr user queen-neyde highlighted an animated GIF with “Me” captioned by Britney Spears gesturing dismissively at another woman captioned with “You” (shown below, right).

On January 28th, 2014, the Internet humor blog Mandatory^[2] highlighted several notable examples of “Me vs. You” images and animated GIFs (shown below).

On March 31st, Tumblr^[4] user levi-corps posted two screen captured images of Pokeballs from the animated television show Pokemon (shown below, left). In the first month, the post gained over 4,900 notes. On April 23rd, the MTV blog Buzzworthy^[3] published an article about Me Vs. You image macros in the context of a photograph featuring pop star Justin Bieber interacting with a group of fans (shown below, right).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Batman & Robin is a superhero film based on the Batman franchise. It is considered by many to be the worst superhero movie ever made, and is widely mocked on the internet.

History

The film was originally greenlit after the financial success of the previous film in the series, Batman Forever– and Joel Schumacher, the director of said film, was immediately signed back on to work on the sequel. Both of Schumacher’s films were significant departures from their immediate predecessors (Batman and Batman Returns), both of which were directed by Tim Burton. While Burton’s films were largely dark and serious, the tone of Schumacher’s films were comparatively lighthearted and campy. The film was released in theaters on June 20th, 1997.

While Batman And Robin was a financial success, the film was immediately panned upon its release, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting that only 12% of critics and 16% of audiences enjoyed the film.^[1] Film critic Roger Ebert claimed that the film had “nothing authentic at its core” and gave the film two stars.^[2] Plans for a sequel featuring Nicolas Cage were scrapped due to the reception of the film,^[3] and Joel Schumacher eventually apologized to the fans of the Batman series for the way the film turned out.^[4]

Impact

Even years after the film’s release, vocal dislike for the film is still apparent. Empire Magazine held a poll of the worst films ever made according to its userbase, and Batman And Robin was ranked as the worst movie ever made.^[5]

The film has since become a goldmine for online reviewers to rip into. On November 12th, 2002, Dr. Winston O’Boogie wrote an extensive recap for The Agony Booth, going into each and every detail that he hated about the movie.^[6] On May 23rd, 2008, the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the film (shown below, left). He expressed intense dislike for the film, particularly showing disgust toward the Bat Credit Card that appears as a throwaway gag. Cinema Sins produced a video containing everything wrong with the film, clocking in at over 19 minutes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

(Actual Noise It Made) is a closed caption featured in an episode of JonTron in which the host Jon Jafari reacts to a screeching noise made by a cassette tape player after unsuccessfully trying to run the 1988 Commodore 64 video game Hercules: Slayer Of The Damned in a regular cassette tape player. Since the release of the original episode in September 2013, many fans have uploaded their own remixes of Jon’s reaction video set to a variety of alternate sound effects, dialogue, or music.

Origin

The closed caption was originally featured in JonTron’s retrospective on a variety of video games that are based on the legends of Hercules in Greek Mythology, which was uploaded to YouTube on September 24th, 2013.^[1] At one point, Jon reviews Hercules: Slayer Of The Damned for the Commodore 64 and notes that he finds it odd that a video game would be distributed in the format of a cassette tape. When he inserts the tape into a audio cassette player instead of a Commodore 64 console, a loud, screeching static noise can be heard emanating from the cassette player, prompting Jon to stare blankly at the camera with a frightened look. The caption“(ACTUALNOISE IT MADE)” appears below Jon’s confused face, emphasizing that he did not alter the sound in post-production.

Spread

The first variant was uploaded on September 26th, 2013 by user OliverReacts (shown below, left). The video was entitled “The ACTUAL Noise JonTron’s Hercules Cassette Game Made”, and featured audio from JonTron’s review of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.^[2] The video gained over 13,000 views and over 370 likes. User mardfet created a compilation video of various noises coming from the console on January 23rd, 2014 (shown below, right). This video gained over 2,500 views and over 90 likes.

Notable Examples

External References

About

The Last Airbender is a fantasy adventure film based on the First Season of Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise. It is considered by many to be the worst fantasy adventure movie ever made that this film was not been based on the True Story.

History

Impact

On 03 September 2013, the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the film that this film is not been base on the Cartoon that M. Night Shyamalan ruin it.

Search Interest

External References

W.I.P.

Overview

Cliven Bundy Ranch Standoff is a long-standing legal dispute between cattle rancher Cliven Bundy and the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Nevada over unpaid grazing fees dating back to 1993. During a highly publicized armed standoff against the BLM in April 2014, Bundy came under much scrutiny in the news and online for his controversial statements regarding African Americans and the history of slavery in the United States.

Background

In 1993, grazing rules were altered on in Nevada, which ordered Bundy to pay to allow his cattle to graze on BLM-administered lands. After refusing to pay the new bills, an order was issued in 1998 prohibiting Bundy from grazing his cattle on federally administered land in an area of Gold Butte, Nevada.

Notable Developments

Battle of Bunkerville

In early April 2014, the BLM began a cattle roundup in the area Bundy was trespassing, gathering nearly 400 cattle from April 5th to the 9th. After sending out letters to various groups across the country, Bundy was joined by a number of protesters and armed militia members. On April 10th, a confrontation occurred by a convoy in which federal officials claim protesters assaulted officers and kicked a police dog, while several Bundy family alleged that they were shocked with a Taser weapon and thrown to the ground.^[3]

On April 12th, armed protesters blocked a local interstate causing traffic backups. In addition, an hour-long standoff occurred in the area where the cattle were being corralled. The situation was defused after the BLM ended the cattle gathering citing safety concerns for the public. The standoff has since been referred to as the “Battle of Bunkerville.”

Comments on Slavery

On April 23rd, 2014, the New York Times^[1] published an interview with Bundy in which he made several statements regarding African Americans and their history in the United States, speculating that they were “better off as slaves”:

“They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

On the following day, Redditor antisoshal submitted an article about the comments to /r/politics,^[2] where it received more than 1,200 upvotes and 960 comments. In the United States, “Cliven Bundy” became the top trending search term on Google for April 24th, 2014.

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About

“Happy” is a 2013 pop song written and produced by American sing-songwriter Pharrell Williams for the soundtrack of the 2013 computer-animated children’s film Despicable Me 2.

Origin

The song was initially released on June 18th, 2013 as part of the soundtrack for Despicable Me 2 on and later re-introduced as the lead single for his sophomore album GIRL released on March 3rd, 2014. The music video for “Happy,” which features cameo appearances of the minions from the film, was first released via the official PharrellVEVO YouTube Channel^[1] on June 18th, 2013, followed by its debut on the artist’s non-label YouTube channel iamOTHER^[2] on November 21st.

As of April 2014, the video has gained over 202.5 million views. The song remains at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart^[3] where it has been for four months.

Spread

On November 22nd, 2013, iamOTHER uploaded a one-hour music video that featured “Happy,” playing on a loop titled “Pharrell Williams – Happy (12AM),” as the first installment in what they dubbed “The World’s First 24-Hour Music Video.” The remaining hour long videos for 1AM to 11PM were uploaded to the YouTube channel between November 23rd and December 15th.

On March 17th, Pentatonix uploaded a cover of “Happy,” to their YouTube channel.^[8] As of April 2014, the video has gained more than 6.4 million views.

In celebrating the International Happiness Day^[7] on March 20th, Williams asked fans to upload videos of themselves being happy with the hashtag #HAPPYDAY and submit it to his site 24hoursofhappiness^[9], which features a button that takes visitors directly to a donation page for the United Nations’^[10] Central Emergency Relief Fund. On March 20th, iamOTHER uploaded a compilation of the best user submissions. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 800,000 views.

On April 8th, 2014, Buzzfeed posted an image titled “How Sick You Are Of Pharrell’s “Happy” Summed Up Perfectly In One Graph,” which represented the backlash against how overplayed the song seemed.

Notable Examples

Parodies

On January 28th, 2014, Pharrell’s YouTube channel iamOTHER uploaded a video titled “Hatty,” (below, left) which features a clip from “Happy,” with a picture of his much mocked Grammy’s hat photoshopped over half of his body. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 440,000 views. On February 18th, YouTube channel Terabrite^[4] uploaded a video titled “Flappy,” (below, right) which featured a song about the mobile game Flappy Bird, set to the tune of “Happy.” As of April 2014, the video has gained over 300,000 views.

On March 18th, 2014, YouTube channel The Pet Collective^[6] uploaded a video titled, “Pharrell – Happy (Puppy & Doggy Version),” (below, left) which featured a video of happy dogs playing to a song about dogs sung to the tune of “Happy.” As of April 2014, the video has gained over 700,000 views. On March 25th, YouTube channel House of Halo^[5] uploaded a video which featured the music video for “Happy” (below, right) with the music removed so the people featured appeared to be dancing in silence. As of April 2014, the video has over 1.5 million views.

Covers

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External References

Overview

“List of Every Video Game Ever Made” is a comprehensive catalog of every title that has been released since 1971 as indexed by 4chan user Data_baser.

Background

On April 16th, 2014, Data_baser created a Pastebin^[1] page titled “List of Every Video Game Ever,” containing over 44,000 video game titles listed with each developer, publisher, release year, compatible platforms, collector’s editions and downloadable content packages.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

The same day, Data_baser posted the Pastebin to the /vr/ (retro games) board on 4chan, where he enlisted other 4chan users to assist in completing the catalog. On April 18th, Data_baser created a second Pastebin^[8] page titled “Alternate List of Every Videogame Ever,” which gathered more than 91,000 entries in the next week. On April 19th, Redditor Faynton submitted the original Pastebin page to the /r/gaming^[2] subreddit, where it gained over 12,000 upvotes and 1,400 comments in the first six days. That same day, Redditor Slash-E posted a screenshot of the list to the /r/pcmasterrace^[7] subreddit. On April 21st, Xbox Achievements Forums^[6] member lid posted a thread about the list.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several video game news sites published article about the Pastebin catalog, including Kill Screen,^[3] Kotaku,^[5] Destructoid,^[9] Polygon^[10] and Geek.^[11]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

“It’s Gonna Be May” refers to a misheard lyric featured in the 2000 pop song “It’s Gonna Be Me” performed by American boy band ’N Sync. Since 2012 stills and GIFs of the video with the misheard caption circulate on the web towards the end of April.

Origin

“It’s Gonna Be Me,” was released on June 13th, 2000, the second single off ‘N Sync’s second album No Strings Attached. The video was first uploaded to the official NSYNCVEVO YouTube Channel^[1] on October 24th, 2009. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 20.3 million views.

On January 29th, 2012, Tumblr user amyricha^[5] posted a picture of ‘N Sync band member Justin Timberlake with the caption "It’s gonna be May," which pokes fun at the fact when Timberlake sings “Me,” in the song it sounds like “May.”

Spread

On March 16th, 2012, Buzzfeed^[3] posted a picture of a calendar turned to April with a picture Timberlake with the caption “It’s gonna be May,” taped to the final day. The picture was taken from the since deleted Tumblr blog Seapeas.^[4]

On April 29th, 2012, YouTuber Aaron Ochoco^[2] uploaded a video which featured a clip from “It’s Gonna Be Me,” of Timberlake singing the title. The video was titled “It’s Gonna Be May.”

On April 26th, 2013, YouTubers PassionateFriendTime^[5] uploaded a video titled “It’s Gonna Be May,” which parodies the ’N Sync song and focuses on the coming month of May. As of April 2014, the video has gained over 14,000 views.

Related Memes

April 25th

In the 2000 comedy film Miss Congeniality , a contestant is asked what her perfect date would be, and she replys, “April 25th.” GIF sets featuring this exchange are often reblogged on Tumblr on this date every year.

October 3rd

In the 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls the protagonist Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is asked what day it is, and she reply, “It’s October 3rd.” GIF sets featuring this exchange are often reblogged on Tumblr on this date every year.

Notable Examples

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External References

About

Fleshlight is a brand of male masturbatory devices produced by the company Life Forms, which is named after its flesh-like material and flashlight-style housing.

History

According to an interview with Fleshlight creator Brian Shubin, he came up with the idea for the fleshlight in the mid 1990’s when “women were just becoming OK with talking about using vibrators.”^[2] The original model was referred to as the “pink lady,” and featured a rubber labia-shaped mold on top of a flashlight-style plastic housing (shown below).

On June 21st, 2011, the design blog Good^[2] published an interview with Shubin, in which he claimed over four million Fleshlight devices had been sold that year.

Social Media Feeds

On March 4th, 2012, a Facebook^[5] page titled “Fleshlight” was launched. On March 18th, 2014, the Fleshlight Vine^[6] feed was created. As of April 2014, the @Fleshlight^[4] Twitter account has over 35,000 followers. Fleshlight maintains a website^[7] with an online store and discussion forum.

Online Presence

On August 11th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[8] user Bah submitted an entry for “fleshlight,” defining it as a male masturbatory device shaped like a flashlight. On December 4th, 2008, the /r/fleshlight^[1] subreddit was launched for discussions related to the masturbatory device. On September 11th, 2010, YouTuber Da DANKS uploaded a video demonstrating how to make a DIY fleshlight (shown below). In the first four years, the video gathered over 5.07 million views and 3,700 comments.

On January 6th, 2012, Redditor Dat-Throwaway submitted a post to the /r/AskReddit^[3] subreddit, questioning an assumed double standard between men and women in regards to sex toy usage. Prior to being archived, the post garnered more than 7,400 upvotes and 4,400 comments. On March 14th, the Fleshlight Reviews Tumblr^[10] blog was launched. On June 12th, YouTuber WonderWanker uploaded a video demonstrating how to make a DIY Fleshlight with a powerful vacuum (shown below, left). On June 19th, YouTuber Jeremy Ko uploaded a Chinese news report in which a Fleshlight-style masturbatory aid is confused for an unidentified mushroom (shown below, right). In the following two years, the videos accumulated upwards of 1.3 million and 4.2 million views respectively.

Highlights

Autoblow 2 Indiegogo Campaign

On April 9th, 2014, an Indiegogo^[11] campaign for the Autoblow 2 “oral sex simulator” was launched, which works as as robotic Fleshlight-style device.Within two weeks, the campaign had reached over $44,000 of its $45,000 goal.

Search Interest

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