About

K is an abbreviation for “okay," an English expression commonly used as an interjection to denote consent, endorsement or acknowledgement. In online conversations and short message communications, the letter “K” can be more specifically interpreted as an indifferent acknowledgement.

Origin

While the origin of the letter “K” as a shorthand for “okay” remains unclear, the term most likely entered widespread usage during the onset of online multiplayer games and mobile texting in the early 2000s. On February 27th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Brian Black submitted an entry for the abbreviation, defining it as a “term of acknowledgement.”

Spread

In 2004, Rice University associate professor Suzanne Kemmer posted a list of Internet slang terms on her Words in English^[1] website, which included “k” as an abbreviation of “okay.” On March 9th, “k” was listed in a collection of “text messaging and online chat abbreviations” on the online reference site Webopedia.^[3] On July 31st, 2006, K was added to the “List of Chat Acronyms & Text Shorthand” on the Internet slang database NetLingo.^[5] On April 6th, 2007, About.com^[6] published an article about online slang term “kk,” defining it as an abbreviation of the phrase “okay, cool.” On February 7th, 2010, a Facebook^[7] page titled "i hate short answers!!!! “k” “ok” “lol” etc" was launched. On August 30th, 2012, a question was submitted to Yahoo Answers^[8] asking “what does k mean in texting?”, to which user Kerryn replied that it meant “okay.” On November 5th, 2013, Redditor jesuspunk submitted a GIF of the character Ari Gold from the television series Entourage throwing his phone against the wall titled “MRW my crush replies to my text with ‘k’” to the /r/reactiongifs^[9] subreddit (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gathered over 800 upvotes and 20 comments.

On December 11th, the /r/K_Gifs^[4] subreddit was launched for reaction GIFs captioned with the abbreviation (shown below). In the first six months, the subreddit accumulated more than 1,900 subscribers.

Search Interest

External References

About

Friends is an American sitcom television series that follows six friends in their twenties and thirties living in New York City. During its decade-long run from 1994 to 2004, the series enjoyed both mainstream success and critical acclaims as one of the most successful sitcoms in television history and its fanbase continued to grow through syndicated airings in the years following its series finale.

Premise

Friends follows six friends in their twenties- Rachel Greene (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) as they move in and out of relationships and jobs. Threads throughout the series include Monica’s culinary aspirations, Joey’s acting career, Ross and Rachel’s on again, off again relationship, and Phobe’s eccentricity. Throughout the series the six characters live, in varying combinations, in two apartments across the hall from each other.

History

Friends^[1] premiered on NBC on September 22nd, 1994. It ran for ten seasons, airing its series finale on May 6th, 2004. Reruns of the series began airing on Nick at Nite in 2011.

Joey Spinoff

Joey, a Friends spinoff which followed Joey (Matt LeBlanc) to LA to pursue acting, premiered on NBC on September 9th, 2004. The series was renewed for a second season, and though the entire season was shot only 14 episodes aired, the last airing on March 7th, 2006.

Reception

Friends earned a rating of 9 on IMDB and a score of 59 on Metacritic^[3]. It was nominated for 10 Golden Globes, winning one in 2003 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Jennifer Aniston). The show also enjoyed a very high viewership. Its series premiere brought in over 21 million viewers^[4], while its series finale brought in over 52 million viewers.^[5]

Online Presence

As of May 2014, the official Friends Facebook Page^[6] has gained over 19 million likes. All 236 episodes are available for $1.99 each on the official Warner Brothers Television YouTube channel.^[7]

Fandom

The oldest Friends fansite predates the show’s official web presence. Friends-TV.org^[16] was created shortly after the show began^[17], the site’s FAQ page explains:

“This site first began on a server at Dartmouth University in Fall of 1994, when the show first aired. The internet boom was just getting underway. Neither Warner Bros. nor NBC had web pages dedicated to Friends when the show first began. There was no other Friends site of any kind.”

Older, now defunct fansites include friendsfan^[18] and friendsfansite^[19]. Still active Friends fansites include the Friends page of FanPop^[9] and the Friends page of Lives in a Box.^[11] There are numerous fan-run Tumblr blogs dedicated to the Friends fandom including fffriends^[10], fuckyeahfriends^[11] and f-r-i-e-n-d-s-confessions.^[13] As of May 2014, there are over 4,000 Friends fanfiction submissions on Fanfiction.net^[8].

Related Memes

Chandler Dances on Things

Chandler Dances on Things is a GIF animation series of one of the main cast members from Friends, Chandler Bing (played by actor Matthew Perry) dancing awkwardly atop a variety of objects or in humorous contexts.

Smelly Cat

“Smelly Cat,” is a song written and performed by Friends character Phobe (Lisa Kudrow). The song first appeared in an episode titled “The One With The Baby On The Bus,”^[14] which first aired on November 2nd, 1995. The music video created for the song appeared in an episode titled “The One Where Eddie Moves In,” which first aired on February 22nd, 1996. On March 16th, 2007, YouTuber lpss^[15] uploaded that music video to YouTube. As of May 2014, the video has gained over 2.4 million views.

External References

Overview

Shovel Fight Video refers to an amateur recording which shows a teenage girl striking another girl in the back of her head with a shovel during a physical brawl. As with previous “fight videos” that have gone viral on the Internet, the footage spawned a number of remix videos after it began circulating on Vine in early May 2014.

Background

On May 4th, 2014, Viner Josh Officer posted a video clip of a girl being hit in the head with a shovel as she retreats from another teenage girl’s porch (shown below). In the next 48 hours, the video garnered upwards of 510,000 tweets, 75,000 revines and 73,0000 likes.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On May 5th, 2014, YouTuber gumbo uploaded an extended version of the video, showing the girls engaging in a fist fight prior to the shovel being thrown (shown below). When one of the girl’s retreats to her home in order to retrieve a “BB gun,” she is pursued to her front porch by her rival. In retaliation, she grabs and shovel and hits her opponent in the head. Within 24 hours, the video gained over 1.05 million views before being removed from the site.

The same day, the video was reposted to Worldstar Hiphop,^[2] where it received upwards of 2.3 million views and 8,200 comments in 24 hours. Also on May 5th, Redditor radrico submitted the video to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it gathered more than 6,200 upvotes and 2,100 comments that day. Additionally, the video was reposted to the /r/amateurfights^[5] and /r/streetfights^[6] subreddits.

Vine Parodies

On May 5th, Viner Zachary Butler posted an edited version of the Vine clip, featuring the 2012 hip hop song “M.A.A.D City” by Kendrick Lamar (shown below, left). In 24 hours, the video gained over 197,000 likes and 181,000 revines. The same day, Viner Music Don’t Match posted a mashup of a yeet dance video combined with the shovel fight (shown below, right).

Identity of Victim

On May 5th, Twitter user Miranda Lynn^[3] tweeted at Worldstar Hip Hop identifying herself as the girl who was hit in the head with the shovel. That day, the sports blog Larry Brown Sports^[4] highlighted several notable tweets from her feed and included a link to her Facebook page. As of May 6th, her Twitter account has been suspended.

Death Hoax

That same day, the hashtag #RIPShovelFightGirl began circulating on Twitter, accompanied with a fake news story reporting that Lynn had died after the fight due to complications from head injuries sustained from the shovel blow.^[11]

Miranda Fugate died of serious head injuries after being hit with a shovel in the head by an old friend of hers named Emily Powers. The whole thing was caught on video and posted all over the internet and generated around 500,000 video views in just 2 days. In the video, the two girls begin fist fighting outside Emily’s house for a few seconds before Emily threatened to go inside her house and bring out an air soft gun which shoots plastic BB’s, when Miranda suddenly charged at Emily, Emily grabbed a nearby shovel and “cracked” Miranda in the dome. If you haven’t seen the video, watch the video below: At first, It only seemed like a minor head injury as Miranda also temporarily lost one ear’s hearing. Suddenly, while watching ‘Mean Girls’ at home that same day, Miranda collapsed and died instantly. Doctors are saying she died of severe head trauma. “She was a good girl” Miranda’s mother cried to reporters, “I mean, she was sort of a bully, but she did not deserve to get molly whooped like that, especially with a shovel right to the head”. Emily will not be charged with second degree murder but instead man-slaughter as she was only protecting herself, and succeeded.

Viner Josh Officer subsequently posted a new Vine video in which Lynn reveals that she is alive and is “doing alright” (shown below).

News Media Coverage

On May 5th, several news sites published articles about the video, including Deadspin,^[7] The Huffington Post,^[8] Larry Brown Sports,^[4] Guyism^[9] and MStarz News.^[10]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

#BringBackOurGirls is a hashtag campaign launched by a group of Nigerians to raise awareness and call others to action after over 300 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped by a terrorist group on April 15th, 2014.

Background

On April 15th, 2014, a group of over 300 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School.^[1] As of May 2014, a little over 50 girls have escaped their kidnappers. A terrorist group called Boko Haram has claimed they are responsible for the kidnapping. Criticism of the Nigerian government’s inaction and Western media’s lack of coverage quickly emerged. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls originated from Twitter users in Nigeria^[8] and was first tweeted out on April 23rd, by lawyer Ibrahim M. Abdullahi^[9].

As of May 4th, more than 40% of the hashtag activity came from the United States. As of May 6th, 2014, the hashtag^[3] has been tweeted out over 1.2 million times.

Notable Developments

Celebrity Tweets

On May 3rd, 2014, education and equality activist Malala tweeted a picture from her foundation’s Twitter account^[3] of herself holding a sign with the hashtag. In less than a week the tweet gained over 4,000 retweets.

Other celebrities^[7] who tweeted out the hashtag include Hillary Clinton^[4], Kerry Washington^[5] and Mary J Blige.^[6]

Media Coverage

On May 4th, Refinery29^[10] published a collection of Instagram images that used the hashtag. On May 5th ABC news published an article titled “Twitter Campaign #BringBackOurGirls Takes Off,” which explored how the hashtag’s popularity grew after celebrities tweeted it out. On May 6th, Buzzfeed^[11] published a post titled “The Nigerian School Girls Are Still Missing And International Outrage Is Rising,” which collected many of the most powerful tweets which used the hashtag.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

#AddAWord is a type of hashtag-based word games in which an extraneous word must be added into the title of a famous book, film or song to make it sound irreverent or humorously out of its original context.

Origin

On October 4th, 2013, Twitter user Joel Watson posted a tweet with the hashtag #AddaWordRuinaMovie, accompanied by the altered film title “Sexual Assault on Precinct 13.”

Sexual Assault on Precinct 13 #AddaWordRuinaMovie

— Joel Watson (@ihatejoelwatson) October 4, 2013

Precursor

Long before the arrival of the hashtag games, there have been numerous internet memes that parody the titles of popular films by either replacing, adding or removing one letter from their original titles, most notably Anagrammed Movie Posters and One Letter Off Movie Posters on Something Awful.

Spread

The same day, Twitter user Colleen Hawkings posted an #AddAWordRuinAMovie tweet for “Finding Nemo Dead,” which gathered more than 145 retweets and 120 favorites.

Finding Nemo Dead #addawordruinamovie

— Colleen Hawkins (@Lady_Colleen) October 4, 2013

On October 5th, 2013, the news site Epoch Times^[1] highlighted notable examples tweets from the series, including several photoshopped movie posters by Twitter user @darth^[2] (shown below).

On October 7th, the hashtag #AddaWordRuinaChristianBook began circulating on Twitter, containing titles of Christian-themed books with an added word to change its original meaning.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Malfunction #addawordruinachristianbook

— Christopher Hudson (@chudson71) October 7, 2013

On March 24th, 2014, the hashtag game #RuinaChildrensBook, which involves adding to the title of a classic children’s book to make it sound unpleasant or distasteful, was launched during the “#HashtagWars” segment of the Comedy Central late night show @midnight (shown below).

On May 5th, @midnight broadcast a new segment of #HashtagWars, in which contestants drafted examples of tweets for the hashtag “#RuinARapTrack” featuring rap lyrics with added phrases meant to ruin the original meaning (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

“Even Speedwagon Is Afraid!” is a memorable quote from the long-running manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The quote is usually used as a source for snowclones.

Origin

The line originally appeared in Chapter 13 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood, “Immortal Monster”.^[1] The chapter featured the revival of Dio Brando, who had been shot dead two chapters prior. Dio, having turned himself into a vampire, drains the blood of several nearby police officers to regain his strength. While lead protagonist Jonathan Joestar is quick to surmise the nature of Dio’s power, supporting character Robert Edward O. Speedwagon is left in awe, which is denoted by a text bubble.

Spread

On February 3rd, 2013, Facebook user Non Sense From Nowhere made a photo album for parodies of the quote.^[2] As an April Fool’s prank for 2014,4Chan founder moot included the phrase as a CAPTCHA code for the website’s Anime message board (shown below).

The quote had also spawned several derivative images, featuring Robert Edward O. Speedwagon or some other character, sometimes from an entirely different franchise, expressing some sort of emotion.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Soviet Bear is an advice animal image macro series featuring a character illustration of a brown bear and various propaganda slogans that either glorify Soviet Russia and communism or denounce the United States and capitalism in general. The character can be seen as an extension of the popular In Soviet Russia… trope.

Origin

On May 6th, 2014 Redditor UKZephyr submitted a photograph of a Soviet Russian-themed election campaign poster for a student council candidate at his school to the /r/funny^[1]. Redditor UKZephyr’s post was quickly met with more than 74,800 up votes and gold rewards, reaching the front page of Reddit within hours.

In the comments section of the post, Redditor Tacoman404 chimed in on the identity of the cartoon bear with a screenshot from DayZ in which the character is featured on a propaganda poster (shown below).

Spread

That same day, Reddtior JufishBong submitted an image macro featuring the original illustration of the bear and the caption reading “capitalist America steals your memes, vote Soviet bear” to /r/AdviceAnimals^[2], where it garnered more than 15,000 upvotes in the first 12 hours.

After Redditor JufishBong provided the blank template, dozens of additional image macro submissions followed suit on /r/AdviceAnimals^[3], including a few counter-propaganda posters bearing the image of the American eagle featured in One Up America. However, the series has been also criticized by many members of /r/AdviceAnimals for employing less than original themes that are largely derived from “In Soviet Russia” jokes.

Notable Examples

External References

About

WorldStarHipHop is an entertainment news and content aggregation site that features a variety of videos relating to hip hop music and urban culture, including freestyle battles, music videos and interviews with celebrity rappers, though it is most well known for hosting a large collection of public fight videos.

History

In 2005, WorldStarHipHop^[5] was launched by Queens, New York resident Lee ‘Q’ O’Denat as a hip hop mixtape distribution site. However, the website was destroyed by hackers shortly after its launch, prompting O’Denat to re-design and re-launch WorldStarHipHop as a shock content aggregation site for uncensored videos of public fights and sexually explicit acts. On November 8th, 2008, the WorldStarHipHopTV YouTube^[8] channel was created, gathering upwards of 21 million video views and 96,000 subscribers in the following six years. On April 23rd, 2010, the WorldStarCandy^[6] adult website was launched to host sexually explicit images and video. On March 31st, 2012, the /r/bestofworldstar^[6] subreddit was launched, which highlights notable videos from the website. On May 7th, 2014, Adult Swim announced they were collaborating with WorldStarHipHop for a new a live-action comedy show.

Parodies

Many YouTubers have filmed parodies mocking WorldStarHipHop public fight videos. On January 21st, 2013, YouTuber RoadToHollywoodTV uploaded a video titled “That Moment You Hear WorldStar,” in which a man subdues his attackers after realizing he is being filmed for a WorldStarHipHop video (shown below, left). On February 12th, YouTuber 4YallEntertainment posted a parody titled “He Sleep” in which a man cradles another man to sleep while the audience chants “WorldStar” (shown below). In the first two years, the videos gained over 320,000 and 980,000 views respectively.

On November 17th, the finale of the comedy television series Eastbound & Down was broadcast, in which the character Stevie Janowski (played by Steve Little) chants “WorldStar” while filming protagonist Kenny Powers (played by Danny McBridge) punch network executive Ronnie Thelman (played by Sacha Baron Cohen).

Highlights

Chopper City Suit

Chopper City Suit refers to a suit worn by aspiring rapper Young Choppa in a video uploaded to WorldStarHipHop on March 9th, 2009, in which he insults rival rapper Elliot Ness whom he competed against in the MTV reality television show Making Da Band.

Scarlett Johansson Leaked Nudes

Scarlett Johansson Leaked Nudes refer to nude photographs of actress Scarlett Johansson that were disseminated on WorldStarHipHop in September 2011.

“WorldStar” Chants

Public fight videos uploaded to WorldStarHipHop often contain references to the website by those filming the incident. The earliest known example was uploaded on November 7th, 2011, which featured a woman saying “WorldStar, baby!” at :49 seconds into a video of a man being beaten by three other men on a subway train in New York City (shown below).

On February 8th, 2012, ABC News^[3] published an article which noted how the website is referenced by those filming many of the fight videos hosted on the website:

“The theme is common in many of the fight videos, where bystanders egg on attackers and yell ‘World Star Hip Hop’ as the incident is ongoing, as if the purpose of the violence were to make it onto the website.”

On March 29th, 2012, CBS Atlanta^[4] published an article about the website titled “CNN Of The Ghetto,” noting how the phrase “WorldStar” is repeated by those filming fight videos for the site.

Chicago Teens Beating Video

Chicago Teens Beating Video is a fight video showing six young men beating an Asian male to the ground outside a school in Chicago, which was initially posted to WorldStarHipHop on January 16th, 2012.

Sharkeisha Fight Video

Sharkeisha Fight Video is a video clip of a young woman referred to as “Sharkeisha” sucker-punching an unsuspecting victim in the face in the middle of a heated argument, which was prominently featured on WorldStarHipHop after initially being uploaded to Instagram in November 2013.

Shovel Fight

Shovel Fight Video refers to an amateur recording which shows a teenage girl striking another girl in the back of her head with a shovel during a physical brawl. A full-length version of the video was posted to WorldStarHipHop in May 2014.

Traffic

As of May 2014, WorldStarHipHop has a global rank of 769 and a United States rank of 210 on the traffic analytics site Alexa.^[7]

Search Interest

External References

About

Emily Letts’ Abortion Video refers to a short documentary film shot by a New Jersey abortion clinic counselor as she underwent an early term abortion in November 2013. Due to the polarized public opinion surrounding this practice, the video, which focuses on the woman’s reaction from the chest up throughout the procedure, inevitably led to an online debate between the pro-choice and pro-life camps in the American political blogosphere.

Background

On March 14th, 2014, Emily Letts uploaded a video titled “Emily’s Abortion Video” to her YouTube channel (shown below).^[1] In the video, she explains her occupational background as a patient advocate at Cherry Hill Women’s Center in New Jersey and how she had made the decision to end her early-stage pregnancy. The video also shows Letts’ reaction from the chest up throughout the course of the procedure.

“I just want to show woman there is such a thing as a positive abortion story.”

In late March 2014 , she won the Abortion Care Network’s^[3] Abortion Stigma Busting Video Competition. As of May 2014, the video has been viewed over 530,000 times.

Notable Developments

News Media Coverage

Though Letts’ video was uploaded in March, it didn’t gain widespread attention online until Cosmopolitan^[2] published her personal essay “Why I Filmed My Abortion,” on May 5th, 2014. In the piece, she explains that she was inspired to record her experience after watching YouTuber Angie AntiTheist’s video^[4] of herself intaking Mifepristone (RU486), at which point she realized there wasn’t a similar video online showing a surgical abortion. On May 5th and 6th, he video was covered by several sites including Think Progress^[7], Buzzfeed^[12] and Salon.^[13] Letts received positive feedback from sites like Autostraddle^[8] which published a piece titled “Emily Letts’ Decision to Film Her Abortion is Brave, Informative, Important,” and Policy Mic’s^[9]“One Woman Destroyed The Biggest Pro-Life Myth By Filming Her Own Abortion,” both published on May 6th.

Backlash

Because of the politics surrounding abortion, Letts video prompted many angry articles on conservative websites and blogs. On May 5th, 2014, Gateway Pundit,^[6] a “right-of-center” news site, published a post titled “HORROR! Far Left Activist FILMS Her Own Abortion!” The same day USA Backlash^[10], which describes itself as a “Backlash Against Government Corruption & Hypocrisy,” published an article titled “Skanky New Jersey Abortion Clinic Councilor Emily Letts Films Murder of Own Baby to Show How ‘Cool’ It Is.” On May 6th, Fox News^[11] published a post titled “Dr. Manny: Video of woman filming her own abortion fails to tell the whole story,” which criticizes the video for not addressing the possible complications of the procedure. On May 7th, The Huffington Post^[5] published a post titled “Emily Letts’ Abortion Video Garners Angry Reaction From Right-Wing Media,” which featured a roundup of the backlash towards the video.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Best. Day. Ever.” is an expression of joy associated with Tenso-style multi-pane image macros of happy looking animals and people, accompanied by a period punctuation after each word for added emphasis. It has the opposite meaning of the expression “Kill Me.”

Origin

In Season 3 Episode 11 of the American science fiction television series Heroes, originally aired on December 1st, 2008, the character Hiro Nakamura says the phrase “Best. Day. Ever.” after teleporting into a comic book shop to recover his memory (shown below).

Precursor

On November 10th, 2006, Season 4 Episode 20 titled “Best Day Ever” of the animated television series Spongebob Squarepants was broadcast, which featured the eponymous song “The Best Day Ever” (shown below).

Spread

On November 24th, 2010, the computer animated musical Tangled was released, in which the character Rapunzel exclaims “Best. Day. Ever!” while playing on a tire swing (shown below).

On July 5th, 2011, a page titled “Its the Best Whatever, Ever” was launched on TV Tropes,^[4] which listed many examples of the phrase “Best. Day. Ever.” used in popular culture. On September 13th, Tumblr^[2] user andersholmvik submitted a post titled “Phrase to Retire: Best. (Blank). Ever.”, which criticized the phrasal template for being unfunny and overused. On October 14th, an entry for “Punctuated! For! Emphasis!” was created on TV Tropes.^[1] On July 6th, 2012, the 5secondfilms YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Best. Day. Ever.”, in which actors John Travolta and Tom Cruise beg actress Kelly Preston to pull a car over to receive free massages (shown below, left). On YouTuber Mr. Arturo Trejo uploaded a video titled “Best. Day. EVER!”, in which he takes his son on a day trip to the Hoover Dam (shown below, right).

On April 27th, 2014, Redditor amazingbrowncow submitted a four-pane image macro of television host Steve Irwin posed with a crocodile with the caption “OMG Steve Irwin / Best / Day / Ever” to the /r/funny^[3] subreddit (shown below). In nine days, the post garnered upwards of 26,300 upvotes and 330 comments.

Search Interest

External References

About

In an MVP Presentation, Kevin Durant won against Lebron James for MVP. Beating him out 1,232 points and being voted number #1 by 199 people. During the speech Kevin Durant talks about his upbringing, struggles, team mates, coach, God, his love of the game, and his mother and how much she went through to help Kevin and his brothers.

Online History

After Durant had his speech media was buzzing and people were impressed and could understand his words.
It’s gaining more and more attention by the minute, soon leading his speech to go viral making it a 2014 NBA hit on YouTube.
It’s relatively new but the stuff surrounding it in a few days is something to marvel coming from how MVP speeches like these don’t come around often and have so much heart.
(More will be added soon)

Reception

Kevin got a LOT of respect from social media sites and NBA players alike. His ability to sound sincere and thank his mother one of the best ways he can with just a few days away from Mothers Day, made his speech that much more impactful.

About

#BadPrequels is a hashtag game which asks Twitter users to create the title of a fictional prequel to a well-known film that sounds far less interesting than its original counterpart. The hashtag was introduced on the Comedy Central show @Midnite in May 2014.

Origin

On May 6th, 2014, the hashtag #BadPrequels was introduced during a segment called Hashtag Wars on the Comedy Central show @Midnite. The idea for the hashtag was sparked by the release of the trailer for the Batman prequel Gotham. Guest comedians Scott Aukerman^[6], @Willieforcrack^[7] and James Adomain^[8] offered their #BadPrequel titles before Twitter users were called to play.

Spread

In less than 48 hours, the hashtag #badprequels^[2] was tweeted out over 100,000 times. On May 7th, 2014, Buzzfeed^[3] published a compilation of movie poster parodies created by Twitter user @BiscuitAhoy^[4] based on popular #badprequel tweets (shown below). On May 8th, Australian site News^[5] published a similar roundup titled “Bad Prequels posters are doing the rounds on Twitter, actually pretty funny.

Notable Examples

Related Memes

#AddAWord

#AddAWord is a type of hashtag-based word games in which an extraneous word must be added into the title of a famous book, film or song to make it sound irreverent or humorously out of its original context.

Finding Nemo Dead #addawordruinamovie

— Colleen Hawkins (@Lady_Colleen) October 4, 2013

#Buttflix

#Buttflix is a hashtag game on Twitter that involves altering movie titles with off-color jokes and toilet humor.

Rear and Loathing in Las VegAss #Buttflixmidnight</a></p>&mdash; Chris Hardwick (nerdist) April 3, 2014

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Diet Coke’s “You’re On” was an advertising campaign for the sugar-free brand of Coca Cola which featured the tagline “Diet Coke. You’re On.” Upon its launch in April 2014, the advertisements quickly became a target of online parodies and ridicule due to the ambiguous placement of the phrase “you’re on” directly above the Diet Coke brand logo, giving rise to the misinterpretation of the tagline as a reference to cocaine use (“you’re on Diet Coke”). The campaign was discontinued in May 2014.

Background

Diet Coke’s “You’re On” campaign was created by agency Droga5 and was introduced in February 2014. The print ad campaign featured a list of challenges that can be met with the help of Diet Coke concluding with the tagline “Diet Coke. You’re On.”

Notable Developments

Drug Reference Controversy

On March 2nd, 2014, Gothamist^[3] published a post titled "Diet Coke’s Latest Ad Strategy: “You’re On Coke” New Yorkers." which features a roundup of tweets questioning the ad campaign and how the tagline can appear to read “You’re on Coke,” as well as copy for parody ads actually about taking cocaine.

On March 3rd, The New York Observer^[2] published an article titled “Badvertising: Doctors Horrified by Coca-Cola’s New Ads Mocking Cocaine Addiction.” The article quotes addiction specialist Dr. Arnold Washton who explained:

““It sounds a little strange to me. To my ears it’s like nails on a chalkboard, because obviously I’ve worked with people dealing with addiction.”

On March 4th, the controversy was covered by The Huffington Post^[4], Ad Week^[5], and Fast Company^[6] the same day. When Ad Week questioned the brand about the campaign they replied:

“This advertising is one part of the new campaign for Diet Coke, which is called ‘You’re On.’ It celebrates ambitious young achievers from all walks of life and reminds them that Diet Coke is there to support them in the moments when they are at their best. Every single day, young people around the world experience ‘You’re On’ moments big and small. It could be a job interview or a national TV interview, a first date or a final exam, a presentation to your boss or a performance in front of thousands. The Diet Coke logo is the centerpiece of the ad campaign. Diet Coke in no way endorses or supports the use of any illegal substance.”

Parody

On March 7th, AnimalNewYork^[7] published a series of Diet Coke parody ads (shown below). The parody was covered by AdWeek^[8].

On March 9th, a group of advertising students from Creative Circus^[11] uploaded a parody (below, right) of the “Diet Coke: You’re On,” commercial featuring Taylor Swift (below, left), to a YouTube channel named for the original ad agency Droga5.^[13] The original commercial was uploaded to Diet Coke’s YouTube channel on April 11th. As of May 2014, the original video has gained over 620,000 views and the parody video has gained over 9,000 views.

Campaign Halted

On May 7th, 2014, Coke announced they would be replacing^[9] the campaign and tagline for one they ran in 1983, “Just for the taste of it.” The same day they uploaded a new commercial for the new campaign to their YouTube channel. The video gained over 1,000 views in less than 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Monica Lewinsky Scandal was a political sex scandal that emerged from an extramarital affair between United States President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The news of the scandal was first reported on by the news aggregation website Drudge Report in January 1998, which marked the first time that an online news publication provided exclusive coverage of breaking news before any other newspaper and the print media.

Background

In 1995, Lewis & Clark College graduate Monica Lewinsky was hired as an intern during Clinton’s first term as President of the United States. During the course of her internship, Lewinsky told friend Linda Tripp in several secretly-recorded telephone conversations that she had been involved in a sexual relationship with Clinton. In January 1998, Tripp gave tapes of the conversations to Independent Counsel investigator Kenneth Starr after consulting literary agent Lucianne Goldberg. On January 17th, 1998, the news site Drudge Report^[1] broke that story in an article titled “Newsweek Kills Story on White House Intern,” reporting that the news magazine Newsweek had refused to run a story about a sexual affair between Clinton and a young White House intern. On January 21st, 1998, The Washington Post^[2] was the first mainstream news media outlet to report on the story.

Notable Developments

Clinton’s Denial

On January 26th, 1998, Clinton famously denied the accusations at the end of a White House press conference (shown below).

“Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.”

On the following day, Clinton’s wife Hillary was interviewed on the Today Show by host Matt Laeuer and claimed that the allegations against her husband were part of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” (shown below).

Clinton’s Admission

After receiving transactional immunity in exchange for grand jury testimony regarding her relationship with Clinton, Lewinsky gave Starr investigators a blue dress stained with Clinton’s semen to provide DNA evidence of their encounter. On August 17th, Clinton admitted to having an “improper physical relationship” with Lewinsky during a taped grand jury testimony. That evening, Clinton admitted to the relationship in a nationally televised address to the American people (shown below).

Starr Report

On September 11th, 1998, Starr’s report^[3] on Clinton was released to the public online, which alleged that Clinton denied several meetings with Lewinsky and a conversation with adviser Vernon Jordan under oath and that Clinton obstructed justice by witness tampering and delaying testimony for seven months. CNN^[4] reported that hits to the website hosting their copy of the report peaked at an estimated 340,000 per minute, America Online saw a 30% increase in overall traffic and the Associated Press website was hit with 20 times as many visitors.

Impeachment

On December 19th, 1998, the United States House of Representatives impeached Clinton on one charge of perjury and one charge of obstruction of justice. On January 7th, 1999, the Senate trial began and concluded on February 12th with both charges defeated.

Impact

On February 1st, 1999, a biography of Lewinsky titled Monica’s Story by writer Andrew Morton was released, for which Lewinsky received $500,000. On March 3rd, Lewinsky was interviewed on the ABC television news program 20/20 by host Barbara Walters (shown below, left). ABC subsequently announced that the interview received 70 million viewers, breaking the show’s previous records. In 2000, Lewinsky began starring in commercials for the weight loss and nutrition company Jenny Craig (shown below, right).

Inappropriate Timing Bill Clinton

Inappropriate Timing Bill Clinton is an image macro series featuring a photograph of an enthusiastic-looking former United States President Bill Clinton walking into the White House Briefing Room to join President Barack Obama. The macros are typically captioned with lewd punchlines in reference to the Lewinsky scandal.

Vanity Fair Essay

On May 6th, 2014, Vanity Fair^[5] magazine published a preview of an essay written by Lewinsky, in which she discusses the scandal and her life afterward. In the piece, Lewinsky mentions how the Internet played a role in her public “humiliation.”

“thanks to the Drudge Report, I was also possibly the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet.”

That day, BuzzFeed^[6] published several photoshopped mockups of modern-day blog headlines reporting on the Lewinsky scandal if it had happened today (shown below).

Also on May 6th, Redditor woodcomedy posted an Inappropriate Timing Clinton image macro to /r/AdviceAnimals,^[14] joking about Lewinsky performing oral sex (shown below).

In the coming days, several news sites reported on the essay, including Salon,^[12] The Daily Beast,^[13]CNN,^[7] Us Weekly,^[8]NPR,^[9] The Washington Post^[10] and NY Mag.^[11] The full essay is set for release on May 8th on Vanity Fair’s

Search Interest

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About

Special Edition Xbox Controller Parodies are photoshopped illustrations of custom button configurations for limited editions of the Microsoft Xbox controller that poke fun at various professional sports teams and athletes. Each visual features a unique set of made-up action commands that reflect the negative characteristic of the team or athlete in question.

Origin

On September 28th, 2012, the Liverpool Position^[4] blog posted several mock-up renderings of Xbox and PlayStation button configurations for the then-upcoming football simulation game FIFA 13 which poked fun at a number of the English Premiere League football clubs and star players.

Spread

On December 26th, 2012, Twitter user @NFL_Memes posted a custom Xbox button configuration chart poking fun at the poor season performance of the NFL football team New York Jets. In the first two years, the tweet gained over 1,180 retweets and 540 favorites.

New York Jets controller released! pic.twitter.com/EBCyGtXk

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) December 27, 2012

On the following day, Redditor KyleKoolaid reposted the New York Jets controller to the /r/gaming^[1] subreddit. On May 19th, 2013, Twitter user SCNotTopTen posted a photoshopped Xbox controller taunting NBA basketball player Carmelo Anthony (shown below). Within one year, the tweet gathered more than 1,600 retweets and 660 favorites.

Brand new Carmelo Anthony XBOX controller! pic.twitter.com/D1zDJOz0Tn

— SC Not Top Ten (@SCNotTopTen) May 19, 2013

On December 10th, a Facebook^[2] page titled “Dallas Cowboys Meme” was created with a profile photo featuring a photoshopped Xbox controller mocking the Dallas Cowboys professional American football team (shown below).

On April 24th, 2014, Redditor iwilding posted an illustration of an Xbox controller made to look like a map to the /r/gaming^[5] subreddit (shown below, left). In the following two weeks, the post gathered upwards of 9,700 upvotes and 220 comments. On May 5th, the ILoveCharts Tumblr^[3] blog posted a “Roy Hibbert Edition Xbox Controller,” mocking the professional basketball player’s ability to sink shots, rebound and box out smaller players (shown below, right). In the first 72 hours, the post gained over 285 notes.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

#redballoonsforryan is a hashtag used to solicit memories of and kind messages for the parents of three-year-old Ryan Saldana, who was hit by a truck and died on May 2nd, 2014.

Background

On May 2nd, 2014, Ryan Saldana was playing in his cousin’s yard in Alta Loma, California^[1] when he ran into the street and was hit and killed by a passing truck. The hashtag #redballoonsforryan was created by Alissa Circle^[3], a friend of Ryan’s mother Jacqui Saldana, who introduced it on a post on her blog Diary of An Addict^[4] published on May 5th. In the post she explains the hashtag can be a way to ensure Ryan will not be forgotten. In less than a week the hashtag^[2] was tweeted out over 6,000 times.

Notable Developments

GoFundMe Page

On May 6th, 2014, Kelly Frances Garrett created a GoFundMe page^[5] for Ryan’s family to, “help alleviate ryan’s family of some of the funeral costs and loss of income during their time of grief.” The goal was set at $25,000, and within 48 hours the page had raised over $50,000.

External References

About

2 Chainz, formerly known as Tity Boi, is an American hip hop recording artist. After receiving commercial succes, 2 Chainz has come to be regarded by many as a rap icon.

Based on a T.R.U. Story.

On August 14th, 2012 2 Chainz released his debut album, Based on a T.R.U. Story. The album included the singles “No Lie”, “Birthday Song”, and “I’m Different.” In many of the songs on the album, 2 Chainz gives his iconic cry of his own name. This cry became so popular that it became used in rap culture and as a meme.

“No Lie”

“No Lie” is the first single on Based on a T.R.U. Story. It rose to 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to the number one spot on both the US Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs and the US Hot Rap Songs. The song has spawned the memes Smoking on that Gas, and 2 Pac Without a Nose Ring among others.

“Birthday Song”

“Birthday Song” is the second single on Based on a T.R.U. Story. This song has gotten the most Internet fame out of all of 2 Chainz’ songs, with the popular memes She Got a Big Booty so I Call Her Big Booty, It’s Your Birthday, Yams Everywhere, When I Die Bury Me Inside the Gucci Store, and Bad Bitch Contest emerging on the Internet.

Search Interest

This entry is not yet completed and will take several days for me to research the Mayro meme and finish the entry.

About

Mayro, being a purposeful misspelling of “Mario”, is a poorly drawn version of Mario. Mayro is the main character of Supra Mayro Bross and Supra Mayro Kratt. Supra Mayro Bross is a poorly drawn flash game with difficult to handle controls and a hard to cope with camera consisting of 3 short levels. Supra Mayro Kratt is a polygonal racing game that introduced 2 new characters, Lugee and Joshy(Mayro renditions of Luigi and Yoshi). Supra Mayro Kratt still has bad controls and poorly made graphics. Many people like to consider Mayro as Mario’s version of “Sanic”.

Origins

On Facepunch.com, a user named eric95 made a post linking to a page with nothing but a flash game called “Supra Mayro Bross Legend Of The Lost Kingdom”.

Spread

On August 27, 2012, YouTuber vinesauce uploaded a video called “[Vinesauce] Vinny – Supra Mayro Kratt”. The video shows footage of VInny playing Supra Mayro Kratt while giving commentary on the game. In nearly 3 years, the video achieved over 393,000 views and 1,100 comments.

About

Virginity Auctioning is the practice of placing one’s claimed virginity up for an online auction under the premise that the winning bidder will be able to engage the auctioneer in sexual intercourse.

Origin

The earliest known virginity auction was reported by the tabloid Weekly World News^[1] on January 4th, 2004, claiming that 24-year-old Cathy Cobblerson was selling her virginity online for $100,000 to pay off debt. The story is considered fictional as no evidence ever came to light.

Precursor

In 1998, the hoax website Our First Time was launched, which featured American actors Ty Taylor and Michelle Parma under the premise that the couple would be losing their virginity together on the site. In July that year, site was revealed to be a hoax by entrepreneur and actor Ken Tipton, who claimed a company planned to charge viewers of the site a $5 “age-verification” fee prior to the fake couple backing out having sex at the last minute.

Spread

January 2004: Rosie Harmen

In January 2004, the British tabloid News of the World reported that Bristol University student and aspiring sex therapist Rosie Harmen had placed her virginity up for an Ebay auction to pay for school, though it was subsequently removed from the site. The website RosieHarmen.com^[5] was subsequently launched to facilitate the auction.

March 2005: Graviela Yataco

In March 2005, Peruvian model Graviela Yataco reportedly placed her virginity up for auction before withdrawing the offer after receiving an offer for $1.5 million from a Canadian man. She was subsequently accused of orchestrating a publicity stunt.

July 2007: Carys Copestake

On July 1st, 2007, the British tabloid When the People^[2] reported that student Carys Copestake had placed her virginity for auction for 10,000 pounds on a sex worker website.

September 2008: Natalie Dylan

On September 9th, 2008, Sacramento State graduate Natalie Dylan announced during a radio broadcast of The Howard Stern Show that she planned to sell her virginity in an auction on the website for the Nevada brothel Moonlite BunnyRanch.^[3] On November 3rd, Dylan appeared on the Tyra Banks Show and discussed her plans to pay for graduate school with the money received from the auction (shown below). On May 17th, 2010, AOL News^[4] published an article about virginity auctions, which contained a statement from Moonlite BunnyRanch owner Dennis Hof who claimed that Dylan made $250,000 out of the deal without having to actually go through with the auction.

September 2008: Raffaella Fico

On September 16th, 2008, Italian model Raffaella Fico announced she would sell her virginity for a total of one million Euros, for which she later revealed was a publicity stunt.^[6]

March 2009: Alina Percea

On March 24th, 2009, The Daily Mail^[7] reported that Romanian teenager Alina Percea placed an add for her virginity on a German-language dating site for £50,000. On May 20th, The Daily Mail^[8] published a follow-up article reporting that Percea had gone through with the auction with a 45-year-old Italian businessman for £8,800, with whom she had unprotected sex after flying out to Venice.

January 2010: Belfast Telegraph Investigation

On January 25th, 2010, the Belfast Telegraph^[9] published an article about an ad discovered on the trading website Gumtree auctioning the virginity of a 16-year-old girl. After a Belfast Telegraph reporter investigated the ad by meeting the girl posed as a wealthy businessman, she claimed the whole auction was “a joke” after he revealed himself as a journalist.

February 2010: Unigirl

On February 3rd, 2010, The Australian^[11] reported that a New Zealand student had successfully auctioned her virginity for more than NZ $45,000. On January 22nd, 2012, The New Zealand Herald^[10] published an follow-up article reporting that the auction may have been an “elaborate and long-running hoax,” after discovering that the Facebook photo used by the contact had been English supermodel Agyness Deyn.

August 2010: Miss Spring

On August 5th, 2010, Metro^[12] reported that a Hungarian teenage girl identifying herself as “Miss Spring” had sold her virginity to a British man for £200,000 after her auction page was removed from eBay. On September 2nd, the Australian Times^[13] reported that she had cancelled the auction after being visited by four men who visited her at her home and beat her.

May 2011: Noelle

On May 5th, 2011, The Daily Mail^[14] reported that Belgian student Noelle had sold her virginity in an online auction for £45,000 on the Yantra Amsterdam-based escort agency website. The winning bidder was later revealed to be Italian actor Paolo Calabresi, who posed as an Italian businessman wearing a wire to determine Noelle’s authenticity. Noelle subsequently backed out of the auction after being intimidated by press coverage.^[15]

October 2012: Catarina Migliorini and Alexander Stepanov

On October 24th, 2012, auctions were concluded for the virginity of Brazilian Catarina Migliorini and Russian Alexander Stepanov for Australian director Justin Sisely’s documentary film Virgins Wanted.^[17] Migliorini’s virginity was sold for $780,000, while Stepanov’s bid at $2,600. On July 9th, 2013, The Huffington Post^[18] reported that Migliorini had backed out of the deal, claiming that Sisely was trying to “defraud” her. On October 25th, The Huffington Post published an article reporting that Sisely had changed the format to a reality show and that the results of Stepanov’s virginity auction would not be revealed until the show aired the following year. On December 16th, a trailer for the show was uploaded to YouTube.^[16]

November 2012: Rebecca Bernardo

In November 2012, Brazilian Rebecca Bernado uploaded a video to YouTube announcing that she would sell her virginity to pay for her mother’s medical bills. The original video has since been deleted. On January 2nd, 2013, The Daily Dot^[23] published an article about the auction, reporting that Bernardo had received a bid of $35,000. On March 21st, 2014, The Huffington Post^[22] reported that it is unknown whether the deal was completed.

October 2013: Shatuniha

On October 30th, 2013, an auction was placed on the Russian trading site 24au.ru for the virginity of a Siberian woman identifying herself as “Shatuniha.” On November 1st, the Siberian Times^[21] reported that the auction was closed at 900,000 roubles (US $27,950) and that the same woman appeared to have attempted to sell her virginity in April that year.

March 2014: Elizabeth Raine

On March 21st, 2014, medical student Elizabeth Raine announced she would be auctioning her virginity starting at $400,000 to the highest bidder, promising to donate 35% to a charity for women’s education in developing countries.^[20] On May 8th, Raine canceled the auction after bidding closed at $801,000.^[19]

Search Interest

External References

About

100 Happy Days (hashtag: #100HappyDays) is a social media experiment which challenges people to take a picture of one thing a day that makes them happy and share it through a social media platform or the project’s website.

Origin

The 100 Happy Days project^[1] was launched on December 30th, 2013^[2] by 27-year-old Zurich resident Dmitry Golubnichy who started the project and the website after realizing he needed to remember what makes him happy. He launched the project and website, which allows you to sign up for the challenge and outlines the ways you can share your 100 happy pictures:

* Share your picture via facebook, twitter or instagram with a public hashtag #100happydays;

* Come up with your own hashtagto share your pictures with to limit publicity. (Don’t forget to tell us how to find your pictures though ;) )

*Simply send your pictures to myhappyday (at) 100happydays.comto avoid any publicity.

As of May 2014, 71% of people who signed up for the challenge have failed, most citing a lack of time.

Precursor

In 2004, American web developer George Taylor McKnight^[9] began taking a photo every day as a personal challenge for himself as well as a way to hone his photography skills. The initiative eventually became known as the Photo-A-Day Project.

Spread

On January 3rd, 2014, Buzzfeed^[4] published a post titled “39 Reasons To Be Happy Every Day For 100 Days,” which featured a roundup of #100happydays Instagram photos and tweets. As of May 2014, it has gained over 130,000 views. While most coverage of the challenge was positive or neutral, there was some backlash against the idea. On January 31st, 2014, LinkedIn^[7] published a post titled “#100happydays: why I stopped at Day 10,” and on March 31st, Thought Calalog^[8] published a post titled “6 Reasons Why I Think #100HappyDays Is A Waste Of Time.” Several celebrities have joined the challenge including actress Emmy Rossum^[5], who started her challenge on March 7th, 2014

On April 10th, 2014, The Huffington Post UK^[6] published an article titled “100 Happy Days Challenge: Empowering or a Waste of Time?,” which focused on the rules, pros and cons of the challenge. As of May 2014, the hashtag #100happydays has been used on Instagram^[3] over 9.2 million times.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

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