Overview

2014 World Cup: Brazil vs. Germany was the first of the two semifinal matches in the international football tournament that ended in a 7 – 1 landslide victory for Germany. During the game, several relevant hashtags, including #BrazilvsGermany, #BRA (Brazil) and #GERM (Germany), were mentioned in 35.6 tweets, setting a new record for the most discussed single sports game ever on Twitter.

Background

On July 8th, 2014, the host team and five-time champions Brazil went against Germany in the first of the two semifinal matches at the 2014 World Cup. Hopes were high for both teams, as Brazil and Germany have each won multiple tournaments in the past and led up to the semifinal with an undefeated record, though Brazil had two of its key players missing in the lineup due to foul accumulation and injury, Thiago Silva and Neymar respectively.

The Match

After an exchange of offense plays from both sides, Germany’s Thomas Müller scored the first goal by volleying a corner kick into the net in the 11th minute. In the following 30 minutes, Germany gained four additional goals in an impressive display of offense, ending the first half at 5 – 0. Brazil started the second half with a strong pressure, but their attempts were halted by remarkable saves from Germany’s goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Brazil gave up two more goals to Germany’s substitute André Schürrle and nearly an eighth towards the end of the game. In the 90th minute, Oscar scored the only goal for Brazil, with the only consolation of having avoided the team’s worst ever loss in World Cup history.

Notable Developments

The result shocked the football world and was subsequently referred to by the press as the Mineirazo, evoking the spirit of the Maracanazo in which Brazil unexpectedly lost the 1950 FIFA World Cup on home soil to Uruguay.

External References

About

Kidmograph is the pseudonym used by computer animation artist Gustavo Torres, who has gained a following on Tumblr for his visually stunning animated GIFs that combine the aesthetics of retro-futurism, psychedelic art and recursive motion graphics.

History

According to an interview with the animated GIF site Giphy, Torres first started making animated GIFs in 2001. On October 8th, 2010, Torres uploaded his first animation to his Kidmograph Vimeo^[3] channel (shown below).

On March 28th, 2012, Torres launched the Kidmograph Tumblr^[5] blog. In May, Torres began posting images of 3D models created with Cinema 4D software (shown below, left). In July, Torres published the first animated GIFs to the blog (shown below, right).

On November 10th, Torres posted an animated GIF titled “----bridges----”, featuring a looping series of glowing, multi-colored lines (shown below, left). In one year, the post gained over 400 notes. The following month, Torres began highlighting animated GIFs on a regular basis, many of which were created using datamoshing techniques (shown below, right).

On May 19th, 2013, Redditor Nit0 submitted Torres’ Tumblr blog to the /r/glitch_art^[4] subreddit. On June 26th, Torres was interviewed by the animated GIF blog Giphy^[1] and listed Tumblr users traceloops, mrdiv, weird5cience, carivanderyacht and badblueprints his favorite GIF artists. On April 25th, 2014, The Creators Project^[2] highlighted several of Torres’ animated GIFs.

Notable GIFs

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

30 Rock is a television comedy series which aired on NBC from 2006-2013. The series follows Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), the head writer for the fictional late-night sketch comedy show TGS as she’s mentored by GE executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). The series became popular on the web through its many memorable lines and catch phrases.

History

30 Rock was created by Tina Fey based on her experience as the head writer of Saturday Night Live from 1999-2006. The show premiered on NBC on October 11th, 2006, and aired its finale on January 31st, 2013, after seven seasons and 138 episodes. The show stars Fey as Liz Lemon, the head writer of TGS, Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy, Liz’s mentor and GE executive, Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney, the starring actress on TGS and Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan, the leading actor on TGS.

Premise

Liz Lemon is the head writer for the sketch comedy show TGS trying to balance her professional life and her personal life, often unsuccessfully. She often seeks advice from Jack Donaghy, her self-appointed mentor when trying to control, Jenna, a narcissistic actress prone to dramatics, and Tracy, a former movie star prone to eccentric behavior. Other key characters include Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) the naive but enthusiastic page and Pete Hornberger (Scot Adsit) the show’s producer.

Reception

The show was a critical success, earning a score of 8.3 on IMDB^[10] and a rating of 67 on Metacritic.^[11] The show won 6 Golden Globes including four Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series for Alec Baldwin, Best Television Series (Comedy or Musical) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Tina Fey). It also won 16 Primetime Emmy Awards including three for outstanding comedy series.

Online Presence

As of July 2014, 30 Rock’s official Twitter account^[1] has over 100,000 followers and its Facebook page^[2] has over 2.4 million likes. All season are available to Netflix subscribers. Fans can also access episode guides and character sketches at the 30 Rock Wikia.^[3]

Fandom

There are numerous fan-run Tumblr blogs dedicated to the 30 Rock fandom including 30rockquotes^[4], everything30rock^[5] and fuckyeahlizlemon.^[6] Fans also gather to discuss the show on the subreddit /r/30rock^[7], which has over 15,000 subscribers as of July 2014. As of July 2014, there are over 12,000 fan art submissions for the show on DeviantArt^[8] and over 300 fan fiction submissions on Fanfiction.net.^[9]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Jada’s Sexual Assault Case refers to the recorded sexual assault of a 16-year-old Texas resident in June 2014. After footage of the assault began circulating via social media, the disturbing photo fad “#jadapose” was launched in which participants mimicked pictures of the victim’s unconscious body.

Background

On July 8th, 2014, a 16-year-old identifying herself as Jada came forward to the Houston news station KHOU^[4] after discovering images of herself naked and unconscious being shared by her peers via social media. Jada claimed the attack occurred at a party she attended one month prior and that she believed she had been drugged as she had no recollection of the events.

Notable Developments

Alleged Rapist’s Response

The same day, Jada’s accused rapist Innel Yahia posted several tweets defending himself and mocking his accuser (shown below). As of July 10th, 2014, the Twitter account has been removed.

#Jadapose

After images of her assault began circulating via social media, Twitter users began posting disturbing photos of themselves mimicking Jada’s photographed position with the hashtag #jadapose^[2] (shown below).

On July 10th, feminist activist and YouTuber Laci Green posted a graphic on her Facebook^[1] page condemning those who were mocking the alleged assault. In the first two hours, the post gained over 20,200 likes and 450 comments (shown below).

Meanwhile, other Twitter users began posting tweets in support of Jada with the hashtag “#jadacounterpose,” some of which included photographs of people holding signs with messages speaking out against rape culture (shown below).

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites reported on the assault and subsequent online reaction, including Slate,^[5] The Washington Post,^[6] The Huffington Post,^[7] Think Progress,^[8] The Daily Mail,^[9] The Blaze^[10] and The Root.^[11]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

for the pepole that think they are funny
or they are just weird WE ARENOT A MEME

About

Greenpeace is an International environmental organization founded in 1971 and based in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. The group believes in nonviolent protest and education to exact change and protect natural resources.

Online History

Mr Splashy Pants

Mr. Splashy Pants is the name given to a humpback whale that was tracked via satellite by Greenpeace in December of 2007. The name was chosen after it won an online poll conducted by Greenpeace that garnered attention from several websites including Reddit and BoingBoing.

“Let’s Go! Arctic!”

Let’s Go! Arctic is a mock advertising campaign created by Greenpeace and The Yes Men in June of 2012. The hoax consisted of an elaborately staged gaffe at a fake event arranged on behalf of Shell Oil Company, a mock website purported to be the company’s and a fake press release alleging that Shell’s lawyers were considering legal actions against the involved parties.

Everything Is Not Awesome

On July 8th, 2014, Greenpeace’s YouTube channel^[1] uploaded a video titled “LEGO: Everything is NOT awesome” which featured a model of the arctic built with LEGOs. As oil, which came from Shell oil company, began to cover the model the Lego Movie song “Everything Is Awesome” played in a minor, and thus somber key. The video called for those watching to encourage LEGO to end its partnership with Shell. The video was covered by many websites including The Guardian^[2] and Forbes.^[3] In less than a week the video gained over 3.1 million views.

Viral Videos

On August 20th, 2007, Greenpeace uploaded a video (below, left) to their YouTube channel titled “Hundreds strip naked on glacier in global warming protest” which featured footage of a nude protest on the Swiss Alps. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 1.8 million views. On April 21st, 2008, Greenpeace uploaded a video (below, right) titled “Dove Onslaught(er)” which illustrated the destruction of Indonesian forests caused by the need for palm oil, which Dove features in its product and called for viewers to ask Dove to forgo palm oil. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 1.8 million views.

On June 6th, 2011, Greenpeace uploaded a video (below, left) titled “Barbie’s rainforest destruction habit REVEALED!” which featured a mock interview with an animated Ken doll who learned Barbie packaging causes rainforest deforestation and calls for viewers to ask Barbie manufacturer Mattel to stop using rainforest packaging materials. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 1.7 million views. On October 24th, 2013, Greenpeace uploaded a video (below, right) titled “Detox: How People Power is Cleaning Up Fashion” which covered the movement within the fashion industry to use less toxic chemicals and become more responsible about the disposal of their industrial waste. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 1 million views.

Social Media Presence

As of July 2014, Greenpeace’s Facebook page^[4] has gained over 270,000 likes and its Twitter account^[5] has gained over 100,000 followers. Its YouTube channel has over 83,000 subscribers and Pinterest account^[6] has over 2,000 followers.

Search Interest

External References

About

Sad Brazilian Fan is the nickname given to Clovis Acosta Fernandes, an elderly Brazilian soccer team fan whose teary-eyed reaction to their landslide defeat against Germany at the 2014 World Cup semifinal went viral in July 2014. The picture was initially spread to represent the sadness of Brazilian fans, but was later joined by an uplifting post-game photograph of him passing on the statue to a German fan.

Origin

On July 8th, 2014, the World Cup held a game between Brazil and Germany, which ended with Brazil losing 7-1. Television coverage of the game panned to the crowd and focused on a Brazilian fan sadly clutching a replica of the World Cup.

The same day YouTuber JoeBell^[1] uploaded a video titled “Sound of Silence (Original)” which featured the clip of the sad Brazilian while the Simon and Garfunkel song “The Sound of Silence” played. In less than a week the video gained over 3.4 million views.

Spread

Also on July 8th, Buzzfeed^[2] posted the picture with the title “The One Photo That Captures The Pathos Of Brazil’s World Cup Collapse.” The still was featured the same day on WeKnowMemes^[3].

On July 9th, Redditor gabyxo posted a thread titled "This sad Brazilian fan was shown crying. But no ones published this beautiful picture of him handing the trophy to a German fan. He was quoted as saying “Take it to the final! As you can see, it is not easy, but you deserve it, congratulations” to the subreddit /r/worldcup.^[4] Within three days the thread gained over 3,000 points. The thread included a video, uploaded to the official FIFA YouTube channel^[5] on April 3rd, 2014, which identified the sad Brazilian fan as Clovis Fernandes who has gone to every World Cup game since 1990.

The same day The Bleacher Report^[6] published a post titled “Sad Brazilian Fan Reportedly Gave His Trophy to a Germany Fan” which featured a photo of Fernandes giving the trophy to a woman dressed in Germany’s colors. The same day the story was reported on by many sites including E! Online^[7] and The Daily Dot.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

LeBron Raymone James is a professional basketball player and forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers. James is considered a highly influential athlete and has accumulated a substantial amount of wealth through endorsement deals.

Basketball Career

In 2003 NBA Draft, James was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers and was named “Rookie of the Year” during his first season. During the 2004 – 2005 season, James became the youngest player in history to record a triple-double. In 2006, James became the youngest winner of the All-Star Game MVP Award. In the following season, James won the award for a second time. In the 2008 – 2009 season, James was awarded second place for the Defensive Player of the Year award. In 2010, James became a free agent and was signed by the Miami Heat.

Online History

In March 2009, LeBron launched the @KingJames^[1] Twitter feed. On April 3rd, his official Facebook page was launched. In the next five years, the Twitter feed gained over 13.6 million followers and the Facebook^[2] page received more than 20 million likes.

LeBron Opts Out

In June 2014, LeBron announced he would be opting out of the final year of his contract with the Miami Heat in order to become a free agent. Following the revelation, many Internet users reacted by posting image macros joking about the news (shown below).

LeBron’s Decision

Amid rumors that LeBron would be signing back with the Cleveland Cavaliers on July 10th, the @SportsNation^[3] Twitter feed launched the hashtag “#BeforeLeBronDecides” for fans to tweet jokes about unlikely events that would occur prior to LeBron’s decision.

The same day, the International Business Times^[4] published an article highlighting several notable tweet examples (shown below). According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[5] the hashtag was tweeted upwards of 100,000 times in the first 24 hours. On July 11th, LeBron announced he would indeed be returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Related Memes

Lelbron

Lelbron is a photoshop meme featuring a picture of James wearing pair of black-rimmed glasses and a smile that involves superimposing a cutout of LeBron’s face into other base images of various contexts.

LeBroning

LeBroning is a photo fad in which the participant stages an exaggerated dive after intentionally bumping into an unsuspecting passerby and shares the recorded footage on Vine. The fad was named after James, who has earned a reputation for frequently resorting to “flop,” or the act of intentional falling upon slightest contact with an opposing player in order to draw a personal foul call.

Lance Stephenson Blowing in LeBron James’ Ear

Lance Stephenson Blowing in LeBron James’ Ear is a photoshop meme based on a close-up footage of the Indiana Pacers shooting guard trying to taunt the Miami Heat forward by breathing into his ear during the fifth game of the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

“LeBron Travelled”

“LeBron Traveled” is an expression often used in YouTube comments among basketball enthusiasts to mock James for performing the basketball violation known as “traveling.”

Search Interest

External References

Brawl In The Family (BitF for short) is a Nintendo webcomic series focused on the fighting game series, Super Smash Brothers. The comic features characters such as Mario, Link, Kirby, and Ness. Brawl In The Family started back in 2008, which means that Super Smash Brothers. Brawl was released that year.

Origin

Brawl In The Family was created by Matthew Taranto on June 13, 2008, the first comic in the series was entitled The Showdown, it featured the characters King Dedede and Kirby, all from the Kirby series.

By Comic 12, More Nintendo characters appeared on the website, Like Mario, Meta Knight, and more.

Spread

By Comic 50, BitF got more popular, More characters were added while the comics got more into plot,

Videos about Brawl In The Family can be found on YouTube, Brawl In The Family even had a YouTube channel. Images of their comics can be seen on Google Images.

Brawl In The Family also held fan-art contests during each month, they also held podcasts when Nintendo announced something new.

Waluigi Time

In April 2009, BitF made an April Fools joke with their comic, which featured Waluigi, a Nintendo character.

Waluigi Presents a Color Comic was one of the comics in the joke, where Waluigi says “Expecting a color comic, TOOBAD, WALUIGITIME”

This line has became very popular and has been used as a reaction face when somebody shows something or says what “time” it is.

Eario

Eario is a fanon original character made by BitF. He first appeared in Comic 271 – Janitor of the Mushroom Kingdom (Part 1). Eario fan-art can be found at DeviantArt. He is well known on Brawl In The Family and known as one of the funniest BitF characters,

.

About

Chibi is an art style used in Animes and Mangas which is about drawing small and cute characters, given that the term ‘Chibi’ (ちび or チビ) means ‘small person’ or ‘small child’ in Japanese slang. However, while it can be used as translation to ‘little’, the correct term for THAT word is chiisana [小さな]. In english speaking anime and manga fandom, it also conflates with ‘super deformed’ style.

Origin

The term went viral with english anime and manga fans because of the character Chibiusa, a pet name for the daughter of Sailor Moon formed from Chibi Usagi “Little Rabbit”. (pictured here):
An even tinier character in the same anime was named Chibi Chibi (approximately 3 years old). (pictured here): These characters from Salior Moon sparked the popularity of the term.

Search interest

[Work in progress]

About

Axelle Despiegelaere is a Belgian teenager who rose to fame online after being photographed in the crowd at a soccer game during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. After she was offered a modeling contract by the makeup company L’Oreal, the offer was rescinded when a photograph surfaced showing her standing over the corpse of a gazelle.

Online History

During the World Cup’s group stages in July 2014, photographs of 17-year-old Belgian fan Axelle Despiegelaere began circulating via social media (shown below).

On July 8th, Despiegelaere announced in a Facebook post that she had signed a modeling contract with L’Oreal (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

Entry Editor Note: This Entry is Work in Process

About

Who Put You On The Planet? is a memorable quote and reaction face was from the episode of SpongeBob SquarePants by Nickelodeon. The quote was founded in I ♥ Dancing that was been released on July 19, 2009. When SpongeBob doing his slow Dance and then Squidward say to SpongeBob “That is the stupidest dance move I’ve ever seen!” and then Spongebob stop’s dance he huffs and makes a face and replied to Him “Who Put You On The Planet? Rueegh!”.

Online History

[Work in Process]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

(Needs work/editing; This is a very recent event.)

About

Dashcon 2014 is a tumblr-based convention held in Chicago, Illinois in July of 2014. After news of the convention’s general lack of quality or planning surfaced on tumblr, the event became a source of ridicule by tumblr’s userbase on the Dashcon tag.

Welcome To Night Vale Controversy

One of the events scheduled by Dashcon was an appearance by the staff members of popular podcast series Welcome to Night Vale. However, because Dashcon could not adequately provide the funds for the staff’s appearance, the attraction was eventually cancelled from the convention.

Ball Pit Jokes/Another Hour in the Ball Pit

Dashcon attendees were reporting that one of the most memorable attractions of the convention was a colorful children’s ball pit in an otherwise mostly empty room. When it was announced that the Welcome to Night Vale staff would not make an appearance at the convention, rumors spread of convention staff wagering that guests receive “another hour in the ball pit” as compensation. Soon, the prominent position of the ball pit led to mockery from both the tumblr userbase as well as the actual attendees of the convention.

Notable Examples

About

Jared Leto Hugging Things is a photoshop meme in which people take a photo the actor posted to his Instagram account featuring him hugging a tree and photoshop it so it appears Leto is hugging other things.

Origin

On July 6th, 2014, actor Jared Leto posted a photo to his Instagram account^[1] which featured him hugging a tree with his arms and legs. Within two weeks the photo gained over 190,000 likes and over 4,000 notes.

On July 10th, Leto posted the same photo photoshopped so he was hugging every tree visible captioned with the hashtag #HuggyJ. In less than a week the photo gained over 210,000 likes and more than 7,000 notes.

Spread

Within four days, the hashtag #HuggyJ^[2] was tweeted out more than 12,000 times. Also on July 10th, the hashtag #JaredHugginLeto^[3] was introduced by Twitter user TheHive,^[5] who also introduced a template so users could easily create examples of the meme. Within four days the hashtag was tweeted out over 18,000 times.

Also on that day E! Online^[6] published a post on Leto’s original photo and photoshop titled “Can This Photo of Jared Leto Hugging Everything Be the Next Amazing Internet Meme (Please)?!” The following day examples of the memes were included in round-ups published by Refinery29^[7] and InStyle.^[8]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Jasper Cillessen Sits on Things is a photoshop meme featuring a cutout image of Dutch professional soccer player Jasper Cillessen squatting against a goalpost during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil games, which is superimposed on to other base images of various contexts.

Origin

During the third place play-off against Brazil at the 2014 World Cup on July 12th, 2014, Holland goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen was photographed crouching against the goal post midway through the game (shown below, left). That day, the @KICKTV^[2] Twitter feed posted a transparent cutout of Cillessen squatting, inviting other Twitter users to photoshop the goalie sitting on things (shown below,right).

Spread

Minutes later, Twitter user @CGriffo55^[10] tweeted a picture of Cillessen seated next to singer Miley Cyrus in a screenshot from the “Wrecking Ball” music video with the hashtag “#cillessensitsonthings”^[1] (shown below, left). In the first 48 hours, the tweet gained over 330 reweets and 175 favorites. Also on July 12th, Twitter user @Bamshackle^[11] posted a photoshopped image of Cillessen sitting on a toilet in space (shown below, right).

According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[12] the hashtag “#cillessensitsonthings” was tweeted more than 370 times in the next 48 hours. In the coming days, several news sites published articles highlighting notable examples of the photoshop meme, including.The Daily Mail,^[3] Caught Off Side,^[4] Metro,^[5] The Independent,^[6] Mirror,^[7] 101 Great Goals^[8] and Bleacher Report.^[9]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Hot Car Challenge refers to a collection of YouTube videos which feature people sitting in their car without air conditioning with the windows rolled up on hot summer days. The videos were created to raise awareness about the danger of leaving small children and pets in the car on hot days.

Origin

On June 20th, 2014, Terry Williams, whose YouTube username is tbartley269^[1], uploaded a video titled “Don’t leave ur kids in car.” The video features Williams in his car on a hot summer day in Raleigh, North Carolina with the air off and the windows rolled up to see what it would feel like for children left in the car during the summer heat. During the video Williams urges parents to never leave their children in the car, highlighting how quickly it becomes dangerously hot even for a grown man. The video was inspired by recent reports of children dying of hyperthermia when left in a hot car, including the death of Georgia toddler Cooper Harris. In less than a month, the video gained over 1.2 million views.

Spread

On July 7th, 2014, Williams posted a call for others to make their own hot car challenge videos on his Facebook page^[7], saying:

“I challenge everybody in every state. … to make a video so it can be heard….. love it. If u make a video tag me please”

Beneath the call to action he posted another example of a hot car challenge done by a man in Greensboro, North Carolina. On July 8th, HLNTV^[2] published an article titled “A dad’s hot car experiment goes viral.” The video was featured on several websites in the following days including MetroNews^[4] and the Daily Mail.^[3] On July 9th, 2014, YouTuber Shank ula^[5] uploaded a challenge video (below, left) titled “Inspired by Terry Williams ’what’s it like in a hot car’ challenge on Facebook..” In less than a week the video gained over 2,000 views. The same day YouTuber Jessica Cantrell^[6] uploaded a video (below, right) titled “Terry Williams Hot car challenge.” In less than a week the video has gained over 2,000 views.

Notable Examples

External References

Overview

Conor Oberst Rape Accusation were false claims of sexual assault of a minor made by North Carolina woman Joanie Faircloth against the singer-songwriter of American indie rock band Bright Eyes. The scandal first broke out in December 2013, when she publicly accused the singer of raping her at age of 16 in the comments section of an article published on the women’s interest site XoJane.

Background

On December 17th, 2013, XoJane^[1] published an article titled “It Happened to Me: I Dated a Famous Rock Star & All I Got Was Punched in the Face” about a woman who was abused by her boyfriend. In the comments section of the post, an anonymous user left several messages accusing Conor Oberst, known for founding the indie rock band Bright Eyes, of raping her 10 years ago when she was 16-years-old.

“I was raped by a “rock star” myself. I was 16 years old, he was in his 20s. No one believed me (he wasn’t even that famous then). No one believed me because I had been his biggest fan for several years at that point, his pictures covered my locker, etc. I guess when I made the accusation, everyone thought it was some sick & twisted way to get… I don’t know, closer to him? My own mother didn’t believe me until recently and it’s 10 years later now. This guy is the poster boy for what was known as “emo” back in the day, everyone thinks he’s so sweet and sensitive and sad, that he could never be the vicious monster he was that night. It makes me sick. I want to out him so bad. Every time I hear his name, I want to tell people what he did. I think people deserve to know. But due to how shit went down with my own friends&family at the time of the assault, the backlash terrifies me. It hurts to constantly see the way people fawn over him as if he’s a God. It’s really hard dealing with your attacker being famous or popular when you know the truth about them but feel no one will listen.
Anyway, I am so sorry that this happened to you but so glad you finally got out.”

Notable Developments

Oberst’s Denial

The comments were subsequently deleted on XoJane but were widely reposted across the web. On January 6th, Oberst’s publicist released a statement to the music news blog AbsolutePunk,^[2] which vehemently denied the accusations and revealed that Oberst was consulting an attorney about the matter.

Catfish Accusation

On January 7th, Tumblr^[5] user justiceforconoroberst published a blog post claiming that Oberst’s accuser had posed as a boy named “Zac” in Yahoo chatrooms many years prior:

The Frisky Article

On January 8th, the women’s interest blog The Frisky^[4] published an article titled “Why I Believe Conor Oberst’s Anonymous Rape Accuser,” in which the author S.W. Kiley revealed that she believed the allegations based on her teenage experience with the unwanted sexual advances of an older man.

Libel Lawsuit

On February 19th, TMZ^[27] reported that Oberst filed a libel lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court against North Carolina resident Joanie Faircloth, claiming she was the anonymous commenter who had falsely accused him of rape. On February 26th, the connyxoberst Tumblr^[6] blog posted an update that Faircloth was denying she made the comments on XoJane.

Retraction

On July 14th, 2014, Faircloth issued a notarized statement retracting all accusations she made against Oberst.

“The statements I made and repeated online and elsewhere over the past six months accusing Conor Oberst of raping me are 100% false. I made up those lies about him to get attention while I was going through a difficult period in my life and trying to cope with my son’s illness. I publicly retract my statements about Conor Oberst, and sincerely apologize to him, his family, and his fans for writing such awful things about him. I realize that my actions were wrong and could undermine the claims of actual sexual assault victims and for that I also apologize. I’m truly sorry for all the pain that I caused.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Ballpit Challenge is a video fad in which participants climb up and fall into inflatable ball cages found in supermarkets. Footage of the challenge is typically uploaded to Vine and Instagram with the hashtag #ballpit.

Origin

On March 31st, 2013, YouTuber BakkGround Records uploaded a video of a teenage girl climbing to the top of a ballpit at Walmart and intentionally dropping herself into the balls below (shown below). In the first two years, the video gained over 330,000 views and 700 comments.

Spread

On the same day, Redditor LBJ19 submitted the video to the /r/cringe^[2] subreddit, where it received a total of 2,300 votes (73% upvoted) prior to being archived. On August 4th, 2013, the “Ballpit Challenge” Tumblr^[1] blog was launched, which highlights notable videos of people performing the challenge. The first post contained an Instagram video by user catlynsadie17 crawling inside of a supermarket ballpit (shown below).

On August 6th, BuzzFeed^[3] highlighted several ballpit challenge videos posted on Vine under the tag “#ballpit.” On the following day, Business Insider^[5] reported on the Vine trend, noting that the “dare looks somewhat dangerous.” On August 8th, UpRoxx^[4] published an article about the video fad, referring to it as “infuriating.”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Alfred Matthew Yankovic (a.k.a. “Weird Al” Yankovic) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, author and producer. Yankovic gained much fame and notoriety for his comedic parody versions of popular songs and their accompanying music videos.

Early Career

In 1976, Yankovic gave radio host Barret Hansen (a.k.a. Dr. Demento) a homemade audio tape containing parody songs performed with an accordion. A song from the tape titled “Belvedere Cruisin” was subsequently played on the Dr. Demento radio show. During his sophomore year of college, Yankovic was given the nickname “Weird Al” by other students and used it as his on-air persona while DJing at the university’s radio station. In 1979, Yankovic recorded the song “My Bologna” as a parody of that year’s hit rock song “My Sharona” by the Knack (shown below, left). In 1980, Yankovic released the song “Another One Rides the Bus” as a parody of the song “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen (shown below, right).

Music Videos

In 1983, Yankovic released the music video for the song “I Love Rocky Road,” a parody of the song “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Arrows (shown below, left). In 1984, Yankovic released the music video for his parody of Michael Jackson’s“Beat It” titled “Eat It” (shown below, right).

In 1985, Yankovic’s “Like a Surgeon” parody of the pop song “Like a Virgin” by Madonna was released (shown below, left). In 1988, Yankovic released the music video for “Fat,” a parody of the song “Bad” by Michael Jackson (shown below, right).

In 1992, Yankovic released “Smells Like Nirvana” as a parody of the grunge rock song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana (shown below, left). In 1996, Yankovic’s Amish-themed parody of the rap song “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio was released (shown below, right), which Coolio later claimed he had not Yankovic permission to parody.

In 1999, Yankovic released a music video for the computer hardware-themed song “All About the Pentiums,” a parody of the rock remix of the song “It’s All About the Benjamins” by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs (shown below, left). In 2003, Yankovic was prepared to produce a music video for the song “Couch Potato” off his eleventh studio album Poodle Hat when Eminem refused to give permission to shoot it out of concerns that it may hurt his public image. This marked the first album Yankovic had released without an accompanying music video. In 2006, Yankovic released a video for his song “White & Nerdy,” a parody of the hip hop song “Ridin’” by Chamillionaire (shown below, right).

#8videos8days

On June 29th, 2014, Yankovic tweeted^[7] that he would be releasing a new music video each day for eight consecutive days starting on July 14th to promote his new album Mandatory Fun (shown below).

On July 14th, Yankovic released the music video “Tacky” as a parody of the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams (shown below, left). On the following day, Yankovic released the music video for his grammer Nazi song “Word Crimes” as a parody of the song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke (shown below, right). The video features references to the Doge meme and the /r/hamstergifs^[8] subreddit.

Online History

The AlyankovicVEVO YouTube channel was launched on September 2nd, 2009, which gathered upwards of 245 million video views and 372,000 subscribers in the next five years.. In March, the @alyankovic^[5] Twitter feed and the “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic” Facebook^[6] page were launched, gaining more than 3.28 million followers and 1.3 million likes in four years.

Know Your Meme Episode

In 2009, Weird Al made a guest appearance for the Know Your Meme episode on auto-tune, in which he assists Internet scientist Jamie Dubs in analyzing the pitch-correction software’s rise in popularity.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

In February 2014, Yankovic guest starred as the voice of the pony Cheese Sandwich in Season 4 Episode 12 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic titled “Pinkie Pride” (shown below).

Epic Rap Battles of History

In June 2014, Yankovic played the role of scientist Sir Isaac Newton in the web series Epic Rap Battles of History (shown below).

AMA Post

On July 15th, 2014, Yankovic participated in an “ask me anything” (AMA) post on the /r/IAmA^[9] subreddit to promote his new album Mandatory Fun. Within one hour, the post gained upwards of 3,297 votes (95% upvoted).

Personal Life

Yankovic was born on October 23rd, 1959 in Downey California as the only child of parents Nick and Mary Yankovic. In 1992, Yankovic became a vegan after reading the book Diet for a New America. In 2001, Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski with whom he had a daughter Nina in 2003.

External References

About

The Hairy Legs Club refers to an online community, especially active on Tumblr which encourages women to feel comfortable making the choice not to shave their legs by posting pictures of their unshaved legs.

Origin

On May 2nd, 2010, the Tumblr blog HairyLegsClub^[1] was created. The blog features photos of womens’ unshaved legs, gathered through user submissions. The blog features a disclaimer which reads:

“This is a POSITIVE space. This means that any negative messages or images will not be posted, and the users submitting them will be blocked. If you seriously have nothing better to do than insult people who are confident enough in their bodies to post images of them on the internet, then you need to find a productive hobby. Seriously. Nobody made you come to this page and look at the pictures. Get a life.”

Spread

On May 3rd, 2012, the Tumblr blog VeryHairyLegs^[2], which also posts photos of women with unshaved legs, was created. On July 4th, 2014, Jezebel^[3] published an article titled “University Professor Gives Extra Credit to Women Who Don’t Shave,” which reported that Breanne Fahs, a professor at the University of Arizona, was giving extra credit to female students who refrained from shaving their arm pits or legs for ten weeks and recorded their experience. The article sparked a renewed interest in the hairy legs Tumblr blogs by the online media. On July 15th, 2014, several websites, including Bustle^[4], The Telegraph^[5] and YahooLifestyle^[6] reported on the movement and the two Tumblr blogs. As of July 2014, the Facebook group WANG (Women Against Non-essential Grooming)^[7] has gained over 7,000 members.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References