About

Ai Tenogoal (Japanese: アイ・テノゴール, Ai Tenogōru) is a moegijinka character for an American Toy Battle Dome (バトルドーム). In similar vein to Hakata-san, this disgraceful girl is the mascot of the MAD video fad for the toy in the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

In the end of 2008, the 90’s Japanese TVCMs for Battle Dome became to a popular visual resource for MAD videos on NND, and Nico Nico Pedia’s article for the toy was made in November of that year.^[1] The gijinka character for the toy was suddenly born in the comment board for the article which has Oekaki^[2] applet. The first illustration was posted to there by an anonymous user on May 3rd, 2009.^[3]

Spread

Under the influence of the catch copy uttered in the Japanese TVCMs for the toy “Ultra Excitin’!” (超! エキサイティン!!), this blond-haired American girl with no name became to be often characterize as an almost-naked, disgraceful, and exciting girl. Then, the summer issue of quarterly battle dome MAD video ranking video asked the fan community for her official name in July of that year^[4], and Ai Tenogoal, a pun for “Aite no Goal” (lit. “Opponent’s Goal”), was chosen from the nominations and announced in the autumn issue published on October 1st.^[5] Since then, her likeness has spawn fan-art on the art-sharing sites pixiv^[6], Nico Nico Seiga^[7] and the Oekaki board^[8] in her Nico Nico Pedia’s article^[9], and has also been promptly featured in many MAD videos.^[10]

Various Examples

Videos

Niconico 超！ウサティン！！Niconico バトルドームの消失 exciting end【修正版】
Left: Touhou Project Song Remix "Usatei" | Right: Vocaloid song “Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu DEADEND”
Niconico ぽっぴっぽー【バトルドーム支店】Niconico アイ・テノゴールがカラオケで超！エキサイティン！！【バトルドーム】
Left: "PoPiPo" | Right: "Hello Soybeans Song"

Illustrations

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos/illustrations listed in this section.

About

When You Ride Alone refers to a series of parody images and illustrations based off a well-known propaganda poster that was created and widely distributed during World War II, notable for its use of extreme hyperbole.

Origin

As part of domestic efforts to encourage rationing and conservation of resources, the United States government^[1] published the original propaganda image in 1943, with Weimer Pursell as the illustrator.^[2] The image, which was distributed in poster form during the war, depicts a suited man driving a car with the outline of Hitler in the passenger seat, captioned “When you ride alone you ride with Hitler! Join a car-sharing club today!”

Spread

In October 2002, American political commentator and comedian Bill Maher published the non-fiction book When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden, featuring a parody of the original image as its cover illustration.^[3]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

On the release of his 1st album in 13 years Garth Brooks sheds his technophobia and joins social media.
This blitz includes a facebook intro video.

About

“Literally” is an English adverb indicating words should be interpreted in their basic meanings without metaphor or allegory. The word is often used for emphasis in place of its antonym “figuratively,” which has led to an ongoing semantic debate online.

Origin

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary,^[1] the word “literally” was first used as “in a literal sense” in the 1530s. According to National Geographic,^[2]“literally” was first substituted for “figuratively” in the 1769 novel The History of Emily Montague by author Frances Brooke:

“He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies.”

In 1903, the Oxford English Dictionary^[3] added a corollary definition of the word in its colloquial meaning:

Literally (adj. colloq.): Used to indicate that some (freq. conventional) metaphorical or hyperbolical expression is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense: ‘virtually, as good as’; (also) ‘completely, utterly, absolutely’.

The earliest known work of parody to poke fun at the indiscriminate use of “literally” in everyday conversations can be attributed to a MADtv sketch series starring comedians Michael McDonald and Nicole Sullivan as Clyde and Judith, a married couple from L.A. who frequently use the word “literally” while insulting, annoying, and angering the people around them. The pilot sketch of the “Literally” series was originally aired as part of MADtv’s Season 5, Episode 12 on January 8th, 2000 (shown below).

Spread

On November 17th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[10] user Built2Spill submitted an entry for “literally,” noting that it is often confused with “figuratively.” On April 9th, 2010, the webcomic Xkcd^[6] published a comic titled “Literally,” in which a stalker shames a man for using the word after watching him for nearly two decades (shown below).

On September 21st, the webcomic The Oatmeal^[4] posted a comic mocking those who used the word “literally” as “figuratively” (shown below).

On August 12th, 2013, Redditor pikagrue submitted a post titled “We did it guys, we finally killed English,” featuring a screenshot of Google’s secondary definition for “literally” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gathered upwards of 2,700 votes (93% upvoted) on the /r/funny^[9] subreddit.

In April 2014, developer Mike Walker released a Google Chrome^[7] browser extension that replaces the word “literally” with “figuratively.” On November 5th, Redditor kabukistar challenged the use of “literally” as “figuratively” in a post on the /r/changemyview^[8] subreddit, where it gained over 862 votes (86% upvoted) in the first week. On November 12th, Time Magazine^[5] included “literally” in a poll to determine “which word should be banned in 2015.”

Notable Examples

Parodies

In addition to the MADtv sketch series, the overuse of the word “literally” has been a popular subject of numerous web comedy sketches on YouTube, which began with the premiere of BYUtv’s web series Captain Literally in April 2013 (shown below, left) and continued with vlogger Mikey Bolts’ satirical commentary on the phenomenon in April 2014 (shown below, right).

In August 2014, Jack Douglass released a short comedy sketch titled “Literally” (shown below, left) and College Humor also released a fairytale-style parody video titled “The Boy Who Cried Literally” (shown below, right)

“Literally Hitler”

“Literally Hitler” is a hyperbolic expression that can be used to denounce an individual or group as being worse than the German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. On Reddit, the phrase is also used to mock circle jerk discussions that ultimately manifest into examples of Godwin’s Law.

“Literally, I Can’t Even”

“Literally, I Can’t Even” is an Internet slang expression used to indicate that the speaker is in a state of speechlessness, either as a result of feeling overjoyed or exasperated, depending on the context in which it is said. Due to its incomplete sentence structure, the adverb “even” in the expression can be interpreted as a substitute verb for “manage.” On Tumblr, the phrase is often used to caption reaction images in which the subject collapses in frustration or bewilderment.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Drunk Girl in Public is a hoax video which was presented as a social experiment by creators Stephen Zhang and Seth Leach.

Background

On November 8th, 2014, the Video Productions YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Drunk Girl in Public (Social Experiment)”, in which a woman acting intoxicated is approached by several men who attempt to take her to their homes (shown below). In the first week, the video gained over 9.19 million views.

Notable Developments

News Media Coverage

Initially, the video was highlighted on several websites as an authentic social experiment. On November 10th, the men’s interest blog Total Frat Move posted the video, adding that the men’s behavior in the video was predictable. On the following day, the news blog Salon^[2] highlighted the video in an article titled “Woman pretends to be drunk and asks for help, is approached by gross men being gross.” In the coming days, additional news sites reblogged the video, including The Daily Mail,^[3] New York Mag^[4] and Jezebel.^[5]

Hoax Revealed

On November 12th, the news blog The Smoking Gun^[1] published an article “‘Drunk Girl’ Video is Latest Viral Hoax,” which reported Video Productions hired 24-year-old actress Jennifer Box and several men to appear in the video, telling them it was a “student film” and a “funny skit.” The article also linked to a screenshot of a Facebook message from Leach, who urged one of the male actors to “just go with it,” reassuring that his team would “take care” of him.

Search Interest

External References

About

Serial is an episodic non-fiction crime drama podcast created as a spin-off of the public radio program This American Life. This first season of the show explores a mysterious murder that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland in 1999.

History

According to an interview with Mother Jones,^[1]Serial creators Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder came up with the idea for the show while working together as producers on This American Life. On October 3rd, 2014, the first episode of Serial was released, which was followed by additional episodes released weekly on the Serial Podcast website.^[4] The first season investigates the 1999 murder of Baltimore resident Hae Min Lee and the possible wrongful conviction of her boyfriend Adnan Syed.

Online Presence

On January 28th, 2014, a Facebook^[3] page titled “Serial Podcast” was created, gathering upwards of 46,900 likes in the next 10 months. On July 2nd, the @serial Twitter^[8] feed was launched, garnering more than 44,500 followers in five months. On October 5th, the /r/serialpodcast^[2] subreddit was created for discussions about the podcast, which gained over 10,800 subscribers in the next six weeks. On November 14th, the entertainment news blog A.V. Club^[9] announced the launch of their new podcast about Serial titled “The Serial Serial.”

Parodies

On November 3rd, 2014, YouTuber Paul Laudiero uploaded a parody of Serial in which Koenig interviews a Best Buy employee (shown below). Over the next two weeks, Laudiero uploaded four additional Serial parodies.

MailChimp Ad

Each Serial episode begins with a advertisement for the email marketing service provider MailChimp, in which a young girl can be heard struggling to pronounce the company’s name (shown below).

Fans of the show began referencing MailChimp as an in-joke on Twitter, often mocking the young girl’s pronunciation as “MailKimp.”^[6] On November 12th, 2014, the tech news blog Mashable^[7] published an article about the “‘MailKimp’ meme.”

#FreeAdnan

During the first season of Serial, fans who believed Syed had been wrongly convicted began tweeting the hashtag “#FreeAdnan.”^[10]

Search Interest

External References

About

#Shirtstorm is an hashtag reaction to a peculiar shirt worn by British scientist Dr Matt Taylor during a public conference about the landing of spacecraft Philae on a comet.

Background

On November 12th 2014, European Space Agency spacecraft Philae achieved the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet in human history^[1]. A first press conference was held on the day of the achievement. Another took place the following day, featuring Dr Matt Taylor wearing a strange colorful shirt, breaking with the commonly expected scientist labcoat or formal shirt (shown below).

Twitter Reaction

Tech writer, producer and The Atlantic journalist Rose Eleveth was the first to react on Twitter about the shirt, deeming it as sexist and unwelcoming of women in the tech industry (shown below).

Many twitter users gathered to discuss the shirt and its sexist implication in the science community, spawning the hashtags #shirtstorm^[2] and #shirtgate^[3].

Examples

Spread

The debacle was reported on several news websites such as CNN^[4], The Telegraph^[5] or Talking Points Memo^[6]. Other more feminism oriented websites such as The Verge^[7] and Stem Women^[8] blamed Taylor for his choice of attire, pointing out rampant sexism associated with it.

Public Apology from Matt Taylor

On November 14th, Taylor released a public apology on television, breaking down in tears. The event was covered by news websites as well, including Daily Mail^[9] and The Guardian^[10].

Backslash

[WIP]

External References

Editor note: Obviously major work in progress. PM for editorship or as an entry mod.

About

Cartoon Network In an american cable/ satellite television channel which is a part of the Turner Broadcasting System^[1]. It and much of it’s early programming is often considered one of the hallmarks of 90s Nostalgia

Related Subcultures

Toonami

Toonami is a programming block that ran on Cartoon Network from 1997 to 2008, then again from 2012 to present. During both runs, it aired over 90 different shows, primarily consisting of English Anime but also including some western animation, including some programming that was initially on the main Cartoon Network Channel. Various shows that aired on Toonami include Attack on Titan,Bleach,Cowboy Bebop,Dragonball,Fullmetal Alchemist,Gundam Wing,Gurren Lagann,He-Man,Naruto,One Piece,Sailor Moon,Soul Eater,
Space☆Dandy, and Sword Art Online

Adventure Time

Adventure Time

Steven Universe

Steven Universe

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Regular Show

Regular Show

Adult Swim

Adult Swim another cable/ satellite television channel sharing the same channel space as cartoon network, and began airing in 2001. It’s programming is known to be much more risqué than that of cartoon network, including shows such as Robot Chicken,Rick and Morty,The Boondocks, and Metalocalypse They are also know to post many flash games available from their site, such as Robot Unicorn Attack

External References

Overview

The Rosetta Mission is an ongoing study of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko through a robotic orbiter with the same name and a lander module named Philae, which were both built and launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2004. Upon the probe’s entrance into the orbit of the comet in early August 2014, the mission began to draw international attention and its interest peaked as Philae successfully landed on the surface of the comet in November 2014.

Background

The planning phase of developing a robotic space probe to study the outer surface and internal composition of a comet began as a collaborative project between the NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) during the mid-to-late 1980s. However, in 1992, the NASA cancelled the development due to budgetary limits, while the ESA continued on to develop a comet probe on its own. By 1993, the final flight plan for the mission had been finalized by the agency and the construction of the probe commenced shortly thereafter. The itinerary of Rosetta was designed to rendezvous with the comet, perform flybys of two additional asteroids and ultimately land on the surface of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for further studies. After a series of postponements due to technical difficulties, the Rosetta mission officially commenced on March 2nd, 2004 with the successful launch of the probe on an Ariane 5 rocket.

Notable Developments

Rosetta performed a fly-by of Mars in 2007, followed by its planned fly-bys of two asteroids 2867 Šteins in September 2008 and 21 Lutetia in July 2010. Following a 31-month period of hibernation, Rosetta was triggered awake from its sleep and resumed its mission towards the rendezvous point with the comet on January 20th, 2014. According to Google Trends, the news of the probe’s re-activation prompted the first spike in search queries of the term “Rosetta.”

Social Media Presence

Since the launch of the Rosetta probe, the European Space Agency^[1] has maintained active presence in the social media to continuously inform and educate the public on its latest progress and milestones. The official blog^[5] and a Facebook page^[7] for the mission were created on March 2nd, 2004, the same day as the launch of the probe, while the personified Twitter accounts of the Philae module lander^[8] and the Rosetta orbiter^[9] were created on October 2010 and February 2011, respectively. As of November 2014, the official Facebook page has garnered nearly 87,000 likes and the Twitter accounts for Rosetta and Philae have over 373,000 and 270,000

Orbit Entrance

On August 6th, 2014, Rosetta began closing the distance with the comet at the speed of 3.3 ft/s (1 m/s) and by September 10th, it became the first man-made object to enter orbit around a comet. According to Google Trends, the news of the probe’s rendezvous with the comet marked the second spike in search queries for Rosetta. In the following months, the probe began transmitting scientific data and high-definition images gathered from its ALICE instrument to the ESA.

Philae Landing

At 4:08 p.m. (GMT) on November 12th, Rosetta’s module lander successfully made its controlled landing on the surface of 67P. Meanwhile back on Earth, the activities at the mission control centers were livestreamed via ESA’s website (shown below) and the hashtags #Rosetta and #CometLanding rose to worldwide trending topics on Twitter.

However, further analysis of the data subsequently revealed that the lander had strayed away from its designated touchdown location by as much as a kilometer as the harpoons and thrusters failed to deploy properly. Due to Philae’s skewed position on the comet’s surface, its solar panels, which were designed to power the probe after the drainage of its internal battery power, became partially blocked from exposure to sunlight. On November 14th, ESA officials announced that the Philae lander has run out of its battery power and entered the idle mode as it is unable to harness sufficient sunlight to power itself in its current location.

#Shirtstorm

During Nature Newsteam’s livestream coverage of the spacecraft landing on November 12th, Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor was interviewed in a colorful bowling shirt featuring patterns of scantily clothed female cartoon characters. That day, Brooklyn-based journalist Rose Eveleth tweeted a photograph of Taylor with a sarcastic remark citing his shirt as an example of the male-biased work culture within the scientific community (shown below). In the following 48 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 760 favorites, while the hashtags #shirtstorm and #shirtgate were mentioned more than 23,000 times and 19,000 times, respectively.

On November 13th, The Verge^[14] published an article titled “I don’t care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing,” which accussed Taylor of “the sort of casual misogyny that stops women from entering certain scientific fields.” Later that same day, Taylor’s friend Elly Prizeman tweeted she made the shirt for Taylor’s birthday, accompanied by the hashtags “#shirtgate” and “#shirtstorm.”

On November 14th, Taylor made a tearful apology for wearing the shirt during an ESA Google+ Hangout session (shown below).

“I made a big mistake and I offended many people and I am very sorry about this."

Search Interest

External References

This article is a W.I.P.

About

e621 is a website designed to archive and redistribute furry and anthropomorphic content. It is known for the abundant collection of yiff related materials in its gallery.

History

After the shutdown of sidechan in 2007, e621 was created with the intention of hosting sidechan content. All personnel and assets were moved to the e621 web domain.

Mascot

In early 2010, the admins of the site held a contest to determine the mascot used to represent the site. After a failed rigging of the election,^[3] the administrators then took the top voted submissions and revealed a robotic like cat named Hexerade to be the chosen mascot.

Features

Image Board

Of the three features on the site, the image board is the main focus and function. The site uses the “booru” style archival format for hosting image, flash, and video content.

Forums

Researching

Wiki

Researching

Highlights

e961

Researching

e926

In july 2009, e926 was launched with the intention of being a safe for work counterpart to e621.
However back in november 2009, the website got aliased to the original site, due to in part of the popularity of e621.
Users seeking safe for work content, can use the “rating:safe” tag to block mature, and sexual themed content.
Researching

Traffic

As of November 2014, e621.net is currently ranked 10,421th globally (below left) and 2,719th in the US by Alexa^[1] with an estimated 100,000 page views per month (below right) by Quantcast^[2] who gives it a rank of 18,063th.

Search Interest

External References

About

No God, Please No! is a phrase yelled out by Steve Carell in “The Office” playing Michael Scott. He yells this after finding out Paul Lieberstein, acting as Toby Flenderson, returns to the show and is Scott’s hatred. The phrase is used often as an image macro series mostly to express disapproval of something/someone or to vulgarly dislike something/someone.

Origin

In Season 5, Episode 9 of The Office, first aired on November 20, 2008, Michael Scott is shown minding his own business as he walks through a room. Toby Flenderson, who had recently returned from Costa Rica in the show, then walks in behind Michael, and after Michael turns around to see Toby standing there, he is driven insane and yells.

Spread

A video of the phrase was uploaded to YouTube on December 27, 2008 by a user named Peter Pro, which is a 17-second clip of Steve Carell yelling “No God, Please No!”, excluding the show’s introduction near the end of the video. As of November 15, 2014, it has 9,986,482 views and counting and has gained over 62,000+ likes.

In 2010, a user under the name phoenixflames featured a GIF of Michael Scott yelling “No God, Please No!” on the MemeCenter website. As of 2014, it has over 10,770 results for memes related to the quote. In 2012, MemeGenerator introduced a photo of Michael Scott yelling, and as of 2014, 147 images have been created and put in the category titled “michael scott yelling NO”. Since Season 5, Episode 9 of The Office, the quote has gained a huge reputation and is often used on a regular basis by Internet users. As of November 2014, there have been over 10,000 posts on tumblr tagged “no god please no”. In between late 2013 and early 2014, a Reddit staff member recreated a GIF of the reaction image and gained 203 upvotes.

Notable Examples

There are many notable examples for reaction images and GIFs featuring the phrase. A few of them are shown here.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]NBC– The Office – Official Website
^[2] YouTube – NO GOD! PLEASE NO! NOOOOOOOOOO 12-27-2009
^[3] Twitter – @SteveCarell on Twitter
^[4] Tumblr – Tumblr posts tagged ‘no god please no’
^[5] Reddit – GIF Remake – NO GODPLEASE NO! Late 2013-Early 2014

About

Gardevoir (サーナイト Sirknight in the Japanese version) is a Psychic / Fairy type Pokemon from Generation III of Pokemon. First appeared as a Psychic type in Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire and later the type changed to Psychic / Fairy in Pokemon X / Y. Because of Gardevoir’s appearance of a female humanoid, Gardevoir gain a huge fanbase, mostly from 4chan’s /vp/ and /v/.

Related Gardevoir Memes

Gardevoir Use Flash

Gardevoir Use Flash is a mixed of image macros and fanart that involves Gardevoir using the HM skill Flash. The results always shows Gardevoir sexually flashing her breasts or even her full body with a caption saying “It’s super effective!”.

Gardevoir Used Attract

Gardevoir Used Attract is another of a mixed of image macros and fanart that involves Gardevoir using the skill Attract. It’s mostly about Gardevoir being lusty with a caption that says “It’s super effective!”.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Bulbapedia – Gardevoir

^[2]Google Image Search – gardevoir used attract=_

^[3]Google Image Search – gardevoir use flash

About

Feel Old Yet? refers to a series of two-paneled parody images. The first half of the image is generally a well-known celebrity or character, while the second half is typically either a person who is similar in appearance but otherwise unrelated, or a name pun.

Origin

The meme was originally inspired by the popular media phenomenon where before and after pictures of a celebrity are presented, labelled with the phrase “feel old yet?”, with the goal of reminding the viewer of the passage of time. Examples of such pictures can be found in articles such as Buzzfeed’s 48 Things That Will Make You Feel Old,^[1] and Smosh’s 5 Former Nickelodeon Guys Who Got “Hot”.^[2]

Spread

On October 29th, 2014, Smosh published an article documenting the sudden proliferation of the meme, documenting a few of the most popular examples.^[3] On October 30th, NoWayGirl released a compilation.^[4]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

(This article is a W.I.P.)

About

Nickelodeon is an American cable and satellite network owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom. It’s known for it’s television programming (both animated and live-action), movies and several other things. ^[1]

History

Nickelodeon first began in 1977 under the name Pinwheel. 2 years later, it would relaunch under it’s current name. It’s main programming were aimed for children, giving it the nickname “The First Kids’ Network”. It would however take until the 90s when Nickelodeon would begin producing their own content rather than licensing from other networks. ^[2]

Impact

Nickelodeon basically started a trend of channels that are mainly aimed at children.

Fandom

Nickelodeon has over 26,470,000 likes on Facebook. ^[3] And over 3,680,000 followers on Twitter. ^[4]

Related Memes

Doug

Doug was Nickelodeon’s first Nicktoon.

The Ren and Stimpy Show

Spongebob Squarepants

Spongebob Squarepants is currently Nickelodeon’s most popular and well-known Nicktoon.

Dora the Explorer

Dora the Explorer is Nickelodeon’s most popular Nicktoon in the Nick Jr. line up.

The Fairly Oddparents

The Fairly Oddparents is another popular and well-known Nicktoon.

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was Nickelodeon’s first CG Nicktoon.

Drake and Josh

Drake and Josh was a popular program that aired in the TeenNick block.

Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra

Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are 2 popular Nicktoons that take place in the same universe.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a franchise that Viacom acquired in 2011, Nickelodeon would later launch a new series in 2012.

External Links

MAJORWORK IS BEINGDONE. HELPWILL BE MUCHAPPRECIATED.

About

Escapist Magazine is a website created by Defy Media in 2005. It covers every thing in geek culture, such as video games, tabletop games, and TV and movies.

History (under construction.

Shows

Zero Punctuation

Zero Punctuation is a show by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw. It show covers games in a heavily satirical manner.

Jimquisition

Jimquisition is a show by Jim Sterling. It cover video game press. He was/is also an editor at Destuctoid.

Censorship from indie developers

Similar to Total Biscuit, Jim has been attacked by numerous independent developers, the latest being for a game called The Slaughtering Grounds, a game that is poorly coded and constantly uses assets from Google Images. After posting a review on his independent game play channel, the developer ImminentUprising made a new show called “review the reviewer”, which is Jim’s video, but with bitter remarks in text from the developer. Sterling in turn, posted a video laughing over ImminentUprising’s video of him. The publisher Digital Homicide Studios LLC, has taken a copyright claim, and making his video unviewable.

h4.

EDITOR’S NOTE: event currently developing. This article will be updated as new information becomes available.

Overview

#OpKKK refers to an online hacktivist campaign and a series of social media protests launched by Anonymous in retaliation to threats of violence made by the Ku Klux Klan against protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.

Background

In November 2014, it was reported that the Traditionalist Knights of the Ku Klux Klan based in Park Hills, Missouri was distributing fliers in and around Ferguson. The fliers warned that “lethal force” would be used against “violent protesters”.^[1] In the midst of the ensuing controversy, the KKK and Anonymous reportedly exchanged several rounds of threats.^[4] On November 14th, 2014, the Youtube account Anonymous Australia published a video titled “ANONYMOUS #OpKKK”, in which it declared the launch of a campaign against the KKK.

UPDATE: as of November 17th, the video has been removed by Youtube.

We are not attacking you because of what you believe in as we fight for freedom of speech…
We are attacking you because of what you did to our brothers and sisters at the Ferguson protest on the 12th of November.

Notable Developments

Soon after the video was released, Anonymous hackers doxxed members of the KKK near the St. Louis area, releasing details such as photos, personal information, and addresses.^[5]

On November 15th, 2014, the KKK-affiliated Twitter account @KuKluxKlanUSA retweeted a direct message from Anonymous Australia, in which Anonymous announced that it would take direct action against the KKK.^[2] Over the course of the next ten hours, the Twitter account taunted Anonymous repeatedly, declaring it “a bunch of wannabees” and claiming that it “won’t take any action”.^[3]

At 9:11 p.m. (GMT) on the same day, approximately two hours after it made its final tweet taunting Anonymous, @KuKluxKlanUSA was hacked. The account’s profile avatar was immediately changed to the symbol of Anonymous and a post was made celebrating the success of #OpKKK.

On November 17th, the Anonymous-affiliated Twitter account @YourAnonNews declared that the website traditionalistamericanknights.com, belonging to the group that had distributed the fliers, had been taken offline.

Search Interest

Search data is currently not available due to #OpKKK being a very recent event.

External References

About

#LifetimeBeLike and #LifetimeBiopics are hashtags launched by Twitter users as a mocking response to the casting of Lifetime’s 2014 cable TV biopic film Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, which chronicles the life of the deceased American R&B singer Aaliyah Dana Haughton and her rise to teenage stardom during the 1990s.

Origin

On November 15th, 2014, the American cable channel Lifetime premiered Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, a direct-to-TV film detailing the R&B singer’s rise to fame and her ill-fated life, starring actress Alexandra Shipp as the titular recording artist.

That evening, Twitter^[13] user Akata Gunde tweeted a photograph of rapper Iggy Azalea with the caption “#LifetimeBeLike Just casted Mariah Carey” (shown below).

Spread

Also on November 15th, 2014, Twitter user @PhilthyPhilly6^[4] tweeted a photograph of actor Dwayne Johnson wearing a turtle neck and fanny pack with the caption “#LifetimeBioPics the Queen Latifah story” (shown below).

On November 16th, comedian Orlando Jones tweeted a photograph of himself with the caption “Lifetime be like / Pretty Fly for a White Guy: The Jeff Goldblum Story” (shown below).^[2] The same day, Twitter^[3] user Kristie Lowe posted a photograph of comedian Whoopi Goldberg juxtaposed with a picture of rapper Lil Wayne with the hashtags “#LifetimeBeLike,” “LifetimeBiopics” and “#AaliyahMovie” (shown below, right).

Also on November 16th, Storify^[12] user Luvvie created a compilation of notable “#LiftimeBiopics” and “#LifetimeBeLike” examples. According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[1] the hashtags^[14][15] received a combined total of over 190,000 mentions in the first 48 hours (shown below). In the coming days, several viral media news sites reported on the trending hashtags, including UpRoxx,^[7] AwesomelyLuvvie,^[8] Vulture^[10] and Crushable,^[11] as well as a number of hip hop culture magazines like Vibe,^[9] Hip Hop Wired^[16] and Complex^[17], some of which attributed Black Twitter as the core participatory demographic behind the meme.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

The 1st Battleship of the Kongō-Class from Jamaica (Japanese: ジャマイカからやってきた金剛型1番艦, Jamaica Kara Yattekita Kongō-gata Ichibankan), also called as “Jamai-Kan” (ジャマイ艦) and “Jan-Gou” (ジャンゴウ or ジャン剛), refers to a fanmade fleet “guy” inspired by Kongou^[1], a fleet girl from Japanese online card game Kantai Collection. This funky Jamaican has played a conspicuous part in the KanColle fandom since October, 2013.

Origin

This character was born from an illustration posted to pixiv by user Jugem-T^[2] on October 5th, 2013.^[3] According to the descriptions of the post, his illustration titled “The 1st Battleship of the Kongō-Class from Jamaica” was inspired by a description in a popular Kancolle doujin book “Haruna^[4] has so white skin”. He construed that it means the rest of the Kongō-class sisters are not fair skin, but are dark skin. And he had a flash of inspiration of this dark-skinned Kongō-class fleet “guy”.

Additionally, the creator also explained his characteristics in the descriptions:

• Calls the admiral as “Brother” or “Bro”.
• Sorties arming with a sound system instead of weapons and carrying a huge boombox on his shoulder
• Plays Reggae music during battles.
• Calls battles as “Sound Clash”
• Smokes marijuana at the dock, but never allows it to other fleet girls.
• Perhaps gets along well with Tenryuu.^[5]

Spread

Inspired by that Jugem-T’s startling idea, a bot account of The 1st Battleship of the Kongō-Class from Jamaica was launched on Twitter on October 12th, 2013.^[6] His funky Jamaican-English tweets based on the creator’s settings succeeded to earn over 12,000 followers in its first year, and led to substantial increase in illustrations in pixiv^[7] and Nico Nico Seiga^[8] and Miku Miku Dance^[9] in Nico Nico Douga.^[10]

In addition, cosplay costumes for The 1st Battleship of the Kongō-Class from Jamaica has been already released for both males and females in the following month^[11], and cosplayers wearing it are often found on Comiket and doujin conventions dedicated to Kantai Collection.

Appeal from the Creator

The 1st Battleship of the Kongō-Class from Jamaica is sometimes received nonsensical criticisms from people who misunderstand him as a parody of Kongou or the Jamaican version of her. The twitter account has constantly tweet an appeal from the creator not to mix him up with the fleet girl.^[12]

Translation:

Yah-man. I’m not Kongou. I AM THE 1ST BATTLESHIP OF THE KONGŌ-ClASS FROMJAMAICA. OK? DO NOTMIX UP, BRO.

Various Examples

Videos

Niconico 【MMD艦これ】金剛三姉妹でEVERYBODYNiconico [MMD]　金剛型5兄妹？で「Kiss me 愛してる」
Left: Moymoy Palaboy’s “Everbody” | Right: Cute – "Kiss Me Aishiteru"

Illustrations

Cosplays

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos/illustrations listed in this section.

About

Pompalmoose a musical duo consisting of members Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, who gained much notoriety on YouTube for their unique style of music videos. The band’s name is derived from the French word pamplemousse (“grapefruit”).

History

The PomplamooseMusic YouTube^[1] channel was launched on June 27th, 2008. On July 5th, the first music video titled “Hail Mary” was uploaded to the channel, featuring footage of Conte and Nataly playing different musical instruments (shown below, left). The video was subsequently featured on the front page of YouTube.^[2] On July 22nd, the duo released a similar music video for their cover of the 1959 show tune "My Favorite Things (shown below, right). In the next seven years, the videos gained over 1.6 million and 3.8 million views respectively.

On September 17th, 2009, Pomplamoose released a music video for their cover of the 2008 pop song “Single Ladies” by Beyonce (shown below, left). In six years, the video received more than 10.4 million views and 23,800 comments. On March 15th, 2010, they uploaded a cover of the 2010 pop song “Telephone” by Lady Gaga, garnering upwards of nine million views and 14,800 comments in five years (shown below, right).

On May 10th, 2011, the duo released the music video for a cover of the theme song from the mobile video game Angry Birds (shown below, left). In four years, the video gained over five million views and 6,500 comments. On July 16th, 2012, Pomplamoose released the music video for a mashup of the 2011 pop songs “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye and “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen (shown below, right).

On November 5th, 2013, the pair released a music video mashup of the 2013 pop song “Royals” by Lorde and the 1993 alternative rock song “Loser” by Beck (shown below, left). On February 18th, 2014, Pomplamoose uploaded a music video for their cover of the 2013 pop song “Happy” by Pharrell (shown below, right). In one year, the videos gathered more than 900,000 and 1.7 million views respectively.

Patreon

In May 2013, Conte collaborated with developer Sam Yam to launch the crowdfunding platform Patreon as a means to help artists obtain receive regular payments from fans to fund their work.

Search Interest

External References

(This article is a W.I.P.)

About

Inanimate Insanity (also known as II) is an animated competition series on YouTube, created by Adam Katz. It premiered on April 1st, 2011, however, due to hacking situations, Episodes 1 to 5.5 appear with September 14th as their release date, though this is incorrect^[1]. The show is about 16 anthropomorphic objects that compete for 1 Million Dollars. The show is a spinoff of YouTube show Battle For Dream Island, the 2007 Cartoon Network series, Total Drama and reality show Survivor.

History

After inspired by Battle For Dream Island, Adam Katz, a 14 year old New York resident, decided to create an animation using Anime Studio with characters similar to those from BFDI.

The video for the show was labeled, “The Stupid Trailer”, where Adam Katz (known as DuncanEpic on YouTube), noted in the description that “This series does not have any storyline yet, so don’t ask me when it’s coming out, I have a lot of work to do. I’m thinking a gameshow like BFDI and TDI, or maybe just a stupid comedy skit show.”^[2] Eventually, Katz used this animation to make the spinoff, and the first episode premiered on April 1st, 2011.

The first episode of Inanimate Insanity was labeled, “The Crappy Cliff”, and had contestants following a similar task to Total Drama Island’s first episode, jumping off a cliff. The episode also featured Christian Potenza, the voice of Chris McClean, the host of Total Drama, as the voice of MePhone4, the host of Inanimate Insanity. Potenza, however, was replaced with Mark Katz, Adam Katz’s father, after he never sent in lines for the second episode. Katz proceeded to make several more episodes of Inanimate Insanity, each of them coming out usually on the first of each month. Adam Katz was progressively joined by his friends, Taylor Grodin, Brian Koch and Justin Chapman, who helped him create future episodes. The series continued on with 18 episodes, progressively becoming better in terms of animation and voice acting. The 18th and final episode released on December 7th, 2012.

Reception

The small fan-base that followed Battle For Dream Island had mixed reactions to Inanimate Insanity initially. While many praised Adam Katz in making his own object show, others scorned him for copying BFDI. Regardless of the negative reactions, Katz continued to make Inanimate Insanity, which gradually improved in each episode. The

Characters

The characters are all inanimate objects, though anthropomorphized (excluding one). The objects range from a baseball, a lightbulb, and a glass of orange juice, to a microphone, a suitcase and a toilet. Their names are simply what object they are, for instance, Paper is a piece of paper, and Knife is a knife. Each character has their own signature personality, most of the time that reflects what object they are. For example, Test Tube is a science fanatic, Soap is a neat freak and Tissues is always sick.

In every episode, there is a competition in which the contestants will have to compete in with their teams. The losing team will face the consequences and have to eliminate a teammate. After some time, the teams will be broken up and every contestant fights for themselves.

Inanimate Insanity II

The show’s second season, Inanimate Insanity II, was released on April 2, 2013, which was the same month Inanimate Insanity, the predecessor, began. Just like last season, the show is an animated competition series on YouTube. The season began with 19 anthropomorphic objects, and later 20 competing for yet another 1 million dollars.

External References