THISARTICLEUNDERCONSTRUCTION

About

The Amen Break is a sample from the 1969 song “Amen, Brother” by the funk/soul group The Winstons. Though the song was a B-side release and was not as popular as other songs by the group, in the 1980s the 6-second drum break became famous throughout the breakbeat and jungle genres and has been passed around greatly due to its lack of copyright control and ease of usage.

Origin

The track that the sample comes from, entitled “Amen, Brother”, was a B-side to the more popular “Color Him Father”, which was awarded Golden Record status on July 24, 1969 for selling 1 million copies. The famous drum beat occurs at 1:26 in the song, and is seperated from all other instruments, making it incredibly easy to sample from the song and separate into individual drum beats.

Rise to Popularity

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the development of new genres of electronic music, brought on by the invention of the sampler, allowed for DJs to take parts of songs and CD recordings and mix them with other songs, or loop them and play them back over other instrument samples. The editor of the popular Ultimate Breaks and Beats series of music CDs used by DJs, Louis Flores, placed “Amen, Brother” on one of the discs, but significantly slowed down the now-famous break, so that DJs could more easily loop it across two turntables. Eventually, when samplers became more prevalent in music production, the signature break was ripped from the disc, though a later high-quality rerelease of the original song would later take over.^[1]

Soon, the rapidly growing electronic dance movement created entirely new, seperate genres dedicated to songs created mainly by sampling, such as Breakbeat Hardcore, Jungle, Ragga, and Industrial Hardcore. As the usage of sampling grew, as did the usage and copying of the Amen Break. Through a process known as “chopping”, the individual beats of the break were divided into their own samples, and could be freely permuted into completely different drum rhythms, even to the point of being completely undanceable. Today, the Amen Break, due to its incredibly loose legal protection, is even used in advertisements. The website WhoSampled has over 1400 songs containing the Amen Break.

The popularity of the Amen Break prompted two case studies of its history and rise to fame. The first, by Landon Proctor, was printed onto a vinyl record in 2004 and uploaded to Youtube in 2006. As of 2/9/2015, it has gained over 4,850,000 views (below, left).^[2] The second was an hour-long special on the BBC 1XTRA radio station, recorded on March 6, 2011. Since being placed on Youtube, it has gained over 50,000 views (below, right).^[3]

Notable Usage Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Wikipedia – Amen Break

^[2]Youtube – Video explains the world’s most important 6-sec drum loop

^[3]Youtube – History Of The Amen Break

About

“Hitler Did Nothing Wrong” is a statement used for trolling purposes to deny that the acts Adolf Hitler was responsible for during his reign were morally wrong. Over time the phrase become widely used as a snowclone “X did nothing wrong”.

Origin

Certain archives show that, on 4chan, earliest posts saying that Hitler “did nothing wrong” can be dated back to June 29th, 2011^[2]. The full phrase though had been used since at least January 30st, 2012^[1], when the No.377777777 GET post had contained the phrase.

Spread

On August 13th, 2012, an anonymous 4chan user submitted a post calling for others to participate in the Dub the Dew contest and vote the name “Hitler did nothing wrong” among several others to the top of the contest page.

The phrase had later spawned a snowclone “X did nothing wrong”, which became popular in discussions on imageboards about characters in various forms of media, where it’s discussed about the morality of the actions made by them.

Notable Examples

[Work In Progress]

Search Interest

External References

The entry is researching and in progress.

About

“Is this a pigeon?” is a reaction image, used on Tumblr to express confusion. The shot features a young man, improperly specyfying a butterfly as a pigeon. It is being often incorrectly identified as a fail transcription.

Origin

The picture originates from a Japanese anime television show The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird (太陽の勇者ファイバード), or simply Fighbird ^[1], Season 1 Episode 3 All Members In! Space Police! (Seizoroi uchû keibitai)", originally 勢ぞろい宇宙警備隊, first aired in Japan on February 16, 1991. The concrete image is taken from the clip, when Yutaro Katori, a humanoidal android created by professor Hiroshi Amano, meets Inspector Satsuda and tells him that he’s “studying”. Afterwards, he confuses a Lepidoptera with a Columbidae and Rosaceae with Violaceae, setting Inspector embarassed.

Spread

It first leaked to the Internet on December 6, 2011 by Indizi dell’avvenuta catastrofe on Tumblr accompanied by a #anime subtitles are the new zen tag ^[2]. It gained 111 000 notes overall ^[3].

Later the same day, screenshot was uploaded to meme database – Know Your Meme, in the LOLfansubs/Failsubs entry ^[4], which has received 30+ upvotes, 4 favorites and 4 comments ^[5]. On December 11, picture was posted on animeultima.tv website, Funny Pics thread ^[6]. On Buzzfeed, a entertainment journalism website, image was submitted to 27 Subtitles That Have Gone Awesomely Wrong ranking as 11th position, being inappropriately credited as wrong. The article has got 40+ Facebook comments and 250+ contributions ^[7].
On November 23, 2012, the picture got included in Smosh’s 22 Hysterical Anime Screencaps as 2nd place ^[8]. On a wiki, TV Tropes, section Memes: Tumblr, “Is this a pigeon?” is noted as ‘Photo reply to any picture showing a butterfly’ ^[9]. The screencap is commonly exploided on Tumblr with #is this a pigeon hashtag ^[10].

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared 3

The popular musical film series directed by Becky Sloan & Joseph Pelling, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, episode 3 referenced “Is this a pigeon?” fad in form of The Yellow Guy mistaking a butterfly Shrignold for ‘A little baby pigeon’. It begun a new collection of editions and variantions on Tumblr ^[11].

Notable Examples



Search Interest

External References

WIP. Feel free to request editorship

About

USA Covers’ Kirby, also known as Angry Kirby, is a phenomenon where all Kirby‘s game covers on occident change Kirby’s smile or naive appearence for an angry expression. This has often been subject of parodies.

Origin

WIP

Spread

WIP

Notable examples

WIP

Search Interest

External Links

Work In Progress

About

Faceplant is a term wich used to describe the act of falling and striking the face face to the ground. It is also used as the top text of Demotivational Posters .

Orgin

Researching

According to Wikitionary^[1], the term originated as a skateboarding and snowboarding slang.

Spread

On may 20, 2003. The first Urban Dictionary entry for “face plant” was made by the user Klepto. (Shown bellow)

Search Interest

External Links

^[1]Wikitionary – Faceplant
Uncyclopedia – HowTo Faceplant

About

Rihanna’s Grammy Dress refers to a pink, puffy gown worn by the American pop singer Rihanna during the red carpet ceremony at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards on February 8th, 2015. The wardrobe quickly became widely mocked online and spawned a series of photoshopped parodies on Twitter.

Origin

On February 8th, 2015, Rihanna entered the red carpet ceremony at the Grammy Awards in a pink haute couture dress designed by Italian fashion couturier Giambattista Valli. That evening, Twitter user @CalandCo^[1] tweeted a picture of the pop star posing on the red carpet juxtaposed next to a photograph of a pink loofah sponge (shown below).

Spread

Several minutes later, the Latina Magazine Twitter feed^[2] posted a tweet comparing Rihanna’s dress to a Dominican cake topper (shown below). In 48 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 680 favorites. On February 9th, Redditor stdfreeithink submitted a screenshot of the tweet to the /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[10] subreddit, where it gathered more than 940 votes (95% upvoted) within 24 hours.

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The same day, Redditor dazzlingboy submitted a photograph of Rihanna wearing the dress to the /r/photoshopbattles^[9] subreddit, where several users responded with photoshopped variations of the image (shown below). In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the online reaction to the dress, including BuzzFeed,^[3] Cosmopolitan,^[4] Cambio,^[5]MTV,^[6] Hollywood Life^[7] and CNN.^[8]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Your Favorite Anime Is Shit” and “Your Waifu Is Shit!” are common phrases most frequently used to insult or made a snide remark towards either subjects. The phrase and it’s variants are frequently paired with Saber from the Fate/Stay series. As image edits became more frequent, it went on to inspire the snowclone template “Your X Is Shit” and other methods of insulting someone’s anime or waifu.

Origin

The earliest archived instance of the phrase “your favorite anime is shit” dates back to a 4chan thread on the /a/ (Anime & Manga) board.^[3] However, discussions about one’s favorite anime have resulted in snide remarks already before that, making it impossible to date the actual start of the phrase. The original panel comes from the Fate/Zero Doujinshi: Fubin Sugiru Zero Saber ga Ijikeru^[1] (Translation: A Very Pitiful Zero Saber Grows Timid) by Hiroyuki,^[2] which was first published in October 2012.

Spread

Image edits of the origina doujin page started first appearing on forums and imageboards in October 2012; such as Youchew, SpazioGames, and Foolz’ /foolz/^[4][5] board; less than a month after its release, although initial edits weren’t used to insult anime in general yet. Likewise a panel edit from a page of the third volume of the Corpse Party: Blood Covered horror manga^[6] began being used in similar ways (shown below, right).

On September 9th, 2013, several posters on 4chan’s /a/ (Anime & Manga) board started a ‘Shitty waifu chart’^[11] to describe what made numerous waifus bad. The chart updated several times in that month,^[12] but paused until January of the next year, with the last update being from January 17th (shown below, left).^[12] In December 2013, a Facebook page titled Your Waifu is Shit was created,^[9] which managed to gain more than 20,000 likes as of February 2015. On September 20th, 2014, Youtuber LilyRaichu uploaded a voice-over of an animated GIF of the Strike the Blood anime (shown below, right),^[10] which managed to gain nearly 200,000 views and 4,000 likes over the next 5 months.

Various Examples

Related: Don’t Talk Shit About My Waifu

“Don’t Talk Shit About My Waifu” is a catchphrase often used as a reply by the targeted party following a “your waifu is shit” and similar demeaning remarks.

Search Interest

External References

About

i cri evrytiem (also spelled as “i cri evry tiem” and “i cri evrytim”) is a catchphrase to express sadness in a ironic and sarcastic way. liek dis if u cri evrytiem is a derivate catchphrase, normally used on comments in a similar fashion.

Origin

The oldest and most popular use of “i cri evrytiem” was the YouTube video by Stuff by David, called “The Poptart Tragedy.”

Spread

i cri evrytiem has been used by the popular Jacksfilms in his series"Your Grammar Sucks." It was use the most in the 50th episode, where he used animations similar to Stuff by David. On July 10th of 2014, YouTuber KSI uploaded a video called “I CRIEVERYTIEM.” The video has gotten over 2 million views

Notable Examples

Videos

Comments / Posts

W.I.P

Related Memes

5ever

5ever (sometimes spelled 5eva or 5evur) is a slang term meaning “more than forever" and the superlative form of its SMS shorthand “4ever.” Believed to have originated from a copypasta story that began circulating in early 2011, the term is used ironically to mimic the non-standard grammar or syntax often found in online conversations. ^[1]

Sad Violin

“Sad Violin” is the fan-given title of “Sad Romance,” an instrumental song from the soundtrack for the 2003 Korean TV drama series Over the Green Fields, that has been featured in a wide range of videos on YouTube, including original sketches, parodies
and remix videos. ^[2]

Search Interest

External Links

^[1]KYM– 5ever

^[1]KYM– Sad Violin

About

Chris (Simpsons Artist) is an illustrator known for his bizarre, naïve art-style^[8] depictions of characters from various cartoons, live-action television series and films, including The Simpsons and Winnie the Pooh.

Online History

On April 16th, 2011, Chris launched the Facebook^[1] page “Simpsons pictures that I gone and done,” which gained over 484,000 likes over the next four years. In May, Christ created the @getbentsaggy^[2] Twitter feed.

As early as June 7th, Chris began selling merchandise and prints featuring his illustrations on his art website Pictures That I Gone and Done.^[6][7] On February 21st, 2012, the pop culture news blog One and Other^[9] published an interview with Chris. In May, the IG:LU art gallery in Inverness, Scotland placed several of Chris’ works on display.^[10] On April 16th, 2012, the arts and culture blog Crack in the Road^[12] published an interview with Chris. On July 4th, 2014, Chris posted an illustration of the cartoon character Winnie the Pooh taking a jar of “bee syrup” from the cartoon character piglet on Facebook^[11] (shown below). In six months, the image garnered upwards of 28,000 likes, 6,800 comments and 5,700 shares.

Reception

On March 19th, 2012, Redditor alltheaids submitted a screenshot of a Facebook post in which Chris replies to a fan with a lengthy, bizarre comment (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post accumulated more than 540 votes (92% upvoted) and 20 comments on the /r/facepalm^[13] subreddit.

On November 24th, 2014, Redditor MrBlueish submitted a photograph of a picture frame inspired by Chris’ Winnie the Pooh illustration (shown below). In the first two months, the post gained over 4,600 votes (94% upvoted) and 340 comments on the /r/WTF^[14] subreddit. On Tumblr, the fan sites Chris (Simpsons Artists) xox^[3] and SimpsonArtistFan^[4] highlight artwork by Chris.

Notable Works

Search Interest

External References

“Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams”, also known as “Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams debra” or more simply “Steel beams” is a meme making fun of 9/11 conspiracy theorists who claim that the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers was really the government covering something up (similair to to moon landing conspiracies) and their “proof” being that the jet fuel couldn’t burn down these steel buildings, or, more simply, jet fuel can’t melt steel beams. This was quickly picked up by FunnyJunk and Reddit, but Twitter joined in on a bit of fun as well.
This meme still lives small, and is usually only posted in the comments on websites rather than on a “meme collection”, per se.

About

Big Hero 6 is a computer animated superhero film by Disney based on Marvel’s series of comics of the same name. The movie takes place in the fictional city of San Fransokyo and revolves around the life of child prodigy Hiro Hamada, personal companion Baymax, and friends, who sought to defeat the mysterious masked man that may have answers to the tragic fire that took the life of Hiro’s brother.

History

While the idea for the movie was pitched on 2011, the animated film was released on October 23, 2014 in the Tokyo International Film Festival and on November 7, 2014 in the US. The concept of Disney’s Big Hero 6 was taken from Marvel, which Disney acquired in 2009, making Big Hero 6 the first animated Disney movie to feature Marvel characters^[1].

The first issue of the comics themselves were published by 1998, created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau.^[2]

Reception

The film is received well critically and commercially worldwide. It currently has a review score of 8.0 on IMDB^[3] and an average score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes^[4]. Reviewers agree that the film is brilliantly animated and humorous. The film was nominated for various awards such as the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, and Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film^[1].

Impact

The film was immediately received by the other fandoms that fall under the Disney spectrum. Crossover fan art appeared immediately, even amongst fandoms that have no relations with Disney.

Fandom

The tag Big Hero 6 currently yields 14,154 results at Deviantart^[5] and #big+hero+6 is highly active in tumblr^[6].

Related Memes

Baymax

Baymax is the deuteragonist of Big Hero 6. A naive personal healthcare robot, he follows Hiro Hamada around to ensure his safety. Online, the Baymax Fist Bump and the robot’s various catchphrases such as “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?” and “Are you satisfied with your care” have been parodied and deviated upon by the online community.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Patient Bear is the nickname given to a black bear seated at a wooden table appearing as if it is waiting for someone. Originally sighted and photographed by an Ontario, Canada resident in 2008, the two photographs of the bear have been since adopted into demotivational posters and reaction images that are often used in comments and replies to convey a sense of growing impatience in a similar manner to Waiting For Op images.

Origin

On May 11th, 2008, Ontario, Canada resident Dorothys Hays took two photographs and a video of a black bear trespassing on her property in Kakeda Falls (shown below). On December 2nd, 2009, the Get Bear Smart YouTube channel uploaded Hays’ video in which the bear is shown seated at a wooden table in her backyard.

On August 15th, 2008, the Demotivational Posters website Motifake^[1] highlighted an image of the bear with the caption “Picnics. This bear likes them” (shown below).

Spread

Throughout the rest of 2008, photographs of the bear circulated via nature-themed blogs like Treehugger^[2] and Internet humor sites like My Confined Space^[3] and Thread Bombing.^[4] In November, the bear was posted in a 4chan thread on the /tg/^[7] (traditional games) board in reference to the Druid class in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft. That month, a demotivational referring to the bear as “Patient Bear” was submitted to the Internet humor site HumorHound^[9] (shown below, left). On June 29th, 2011, another “Patient Bear” demotivational was posted in a Shroomery Forums^[10] thread by member Muufokfok (shown below, right).

On January 1st, 2012, an Advice Animal creation page for Patient Bear^[8] was launched on Meme Generator. As of February 2015, the page is ranked #4,062 on the site and has generated over 1,400 submissions.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Stop Liking What I Don’t Like!” is an expression typically used to mock people who seem to assert that something is bad, often in when said remarks are in discussions where this person’s sentiment is in the minority. This image is frequently paired with images of upset children or babies.

Origin

The oldest known usage of the term dates back to 2009^[1] in a thread about the anime Clanned. A user posted in the thread “Maybe you faggots wouldn’t have to baaww if you realized that it’s all forced drama with horribly generic character design and stopped watching this utter shit.” to which another responded “STOPLIKINGWHAT I DON’T LIKEGODDAMN IT.”

Spread

On September 16th 2011, a video was uploaded to Youtube by user Mushrooms ^[2] titled “STOPLIKINGTHINGS I DON’T LIKE”. In it a man is about to eat a sandwich, when another man slaps the sandwich out of his hand, saying “I don’t like sandwiches”

On November 24th, 2011 an image titled “angry baby” ^[3] was uplodeed to memegenrtor with the caption “Stop liking things don’t like!!!!!!!!”. On December 27th 2011 Memecenter user serkan uploaded a picture of two kids playing chess, with he caption of “Stop liking what I don’t like”^[4] This version is one of the most commonly used variants.

Various Examples

External References

About

OTP is an acronym for “one true pairing,” a term used to describe a favorite couple consisting of characters from various fandoms as part of a practice known as “shipping”.

Origin

According to the Fanlore Wiki,^[7] the earliest known use of the term “one true pairing” was featured in a 1984 summary of the zine Alternaties #2, which discussed various Star Trek pairings.

“This zine has something for everybody…The stories are mostly Spock-centric, so if you love a certain Vulcan, this one’s for you!…And boy, does he get around -- we have Kirk/Spock, Spock/McCoy, Spock/Chapel, Spock/and various others, including T’Pring…And of course, more Kirk/Spock, because we all know that’s our one true pairing!!!…Variety is the spice of life -- and this zine is extremely spicy.”

Spread

On October 14th, 2002, the acronym was used in a LiveJournal post discussing the concept of “pairings.”^[2] On September 27th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[1] user Erin submitted an entry for OTP, defining it a romantic pairing of characters that have been shipped. On September 29th, 2008, a page for “One True Pairing” was created on the Fanlore Wiki.^[7] On December 29th, 2012, YouTuber Troye Sivan uploaded a music video titled “We’re My OTP” about the practice of shipping and writing fanfiction on the Internet (shown below). Within three years, the video gained over 2.3 million views and 20,700 comments.

On May 5th, 2013, the Tumblr^[6] blog OTP Prompts was launched. On July 5th, a page for “One True Pairing” was created on TV Tropes.^[3] On April 29th, 2014, YouTuber Tyler Oakley uploaded a video titled “Who is My OTP,” in which he revealed that two Twitter users engaging in an argument were his OTP (shown below).

Related Terms

One True Threesome

“One true threesome” or “3TP” is a label used in reference to a person’s favorite trio group in a fandom.^[4]

BrOTP

“BrOTP,” a portmanteau of “Bro” and “OTP,” is a term used to label a person’s favorite non-romantic fandom pairing.^[5]

Search Interest

External References

(This entry is under W.I.P.)

About

BALEETED is a catchphrase word for Deleted that Homestar Runner said in Strong Bad Email #50: 50 emails when trying to delete one of Strong Bad’s emails while Strong Bad is on the phone.

Origin

The 50th episode of Strong Bad Email in Homestar Runner titled ‘50 emails’ was posted on Monday, November 11, 2002. In this episode, Strong Bad answers 50 emails in celebration of his 50th sbemail until he gets interrupted with a important phone call at Email #3. Homestar Runner walks in with Strong Bad’s fondue pot and then reads his emails. When Homestar Runner gets to Email #4 about a common question of Strong Bad typing with his boxing gloves on, he knows what to do and types BALEETED as he is spelling ‘Deleted’ wrong. The list goes on that rhymes with BALEETED until he hits a Fragrant System Error.

Spread

In Encyclopedia Dramatica, this catchphrase has been commonly used when deleting unwanted images, articles, and links.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Homestar Runner Wiki – 50 emails

^[2]Homestar Runner – 50 emails

^[3]Encyclopedia Dramatica – Baleeted

About

“Intimidation Games” is an episode of the television cop drama Law and Order: Special Victims Unit which was based on the movement GamerGate movement. Following its airing, the episode was quickly met with mostly negative reactions due to its writing and perceived lack of knowledge.

Episode Information

“Intimidation Games” first aired on February 11, 2015. The episode features a female gamer who is kidnapped and abused by a group of gamers (named Killed or Be Slaughtered) for being a woman as a nod to Quinnspiracy. The episode features references to 4chan and Reddit, as well as Anita Sarkeesian.

Online Reactions

The episode was poorly received by those both for and against GamerGate in part for its bad writing and cringeworthy delivery. Gaming news site Kotaku^[1] wrote a review of the episode, in which it was criticized for “turning complicated conversations over misogyny in gaming into a cartoon caricature of good vs. evil.” The episode was also criticized for demonizing gamers and a perceived lack of knowledge of the gaming subculture.

PoV Pistol

One of the exploitables features a member of the group KOBS pointing a gun to a police officer in a similar fashion to a first-person shooter game. The image is often photoshopped with different items and HUD’s from classic FPS games.

KOBS Uniform

This exploitable consists of changing certain characters to fit the pattern of the gamer terrorist group featured in the episode.

Search Interest

Not Currently Available

External References

^[1]Kotaku – So That Was Law & Order’s GamerGate Episode

Note: This entry is a Work In Progress, or as we like to say in the biz, WIP.

About

Angry Pepe is a reaction image which uses the Pepe the Frog character to express anger, frustration, or rage. The image is often accompanied by long yells expressed by strings of the letter “A”, as well as a statement on the necessity of finding a girlfriend.

Origin

The oldest retrievable use of the image on 4chan was on July 1, 2014 in the topic of a thread on the /r9k/ board.^[1]

References

About

“Don’t Believe His Lies” is an exploitable from the the movie Memento. If is often photo shopped with fictional characters who are known for lying, or with companies/ company representatives that many believe make questionable decisions

Origin

In the 2000 movie Memento there is a scene which the movie’s protagonist Leonard Shelby holds a photograph of another character called Teddy. Leonard then writes on the back of the photo the phrase “Don’t believe his lies.”

Spread

[WiP]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Valentine’s Day is a holiday observed annually on February 14th in many countries around the world, which is centered around the celebration of romantic love.

Background

The holiday was initially created in honor of one or more Christian saints named Valentinus. In the High Middle Ages, the holiday became associated with romance with the rise of the medieval European literary conception of courtly love. By the 18th-century, lovers celebrated Valentine’s Day by exchanging gifts, including flowers, confections and cards.^[1]

Notable Developments

Singles Awareness Day

As early as 2002, the annual holiday Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D.) was celebrated for people who are not involved in romantic relationships as an alternative to Valentine’s Day. Those participating in the event are encouraged to wear the colors green or black to show contrast to the color red associated with Valentine’s Day.

Galentine’s Day

On February 11th, 2010, NBC aired the Parks and Recreation episode “Galentine’s Day,” in which the show’s protagonist Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) throws a party for her female friends named “Galentine’s Day” on the evening prior to Valentine’s Day. The episode subsequently inspired female fans to celebrate the event each year by spending time with their same-sex friends.^[2]

Otaku Dates

Starting in 2006, the annual Otaku Dates event was launched in Japan as the otakus’ alternative to Christmas eve. The event has since been held on Valentine’s Day as well.

Black Day

As early as 2008, South Korean residents have engaged in the informal tradition known as “Black Day”, in which single people congregate and eat Jajangmyeon (white noodles with black bean sauce) on April 14th, following the observance of Valentine’s Day and White Day on March 14th.

On YouTube

On May 1st, 2008, YouTuber Lucas Cruikshank uploaded a video titled “Fred on Valentine’s Day,” in which he describes his plans for the holiday while performing the hyper-active character Fred Figglehorn (shown below, left). In the first seven years, the video gathered more than 10 million views and 26,000 comments. On January 22nd, 2009, the MondoMedia YouTube channel uploaded a Valentine’s Day-themed episode of the animated web series Happy Tree Friends, accumulating upwards of nine million views and 4,700 comments in six years (shown below, right).

On February 15th, 2011, the PrankvsPrank YouTube channel posted a prank video titled “Worst Valentine Present Ever,” in which a woman applies a numbing agent to her boyfriend’s back instead of massage oil (shown below, left). Within four years, the video received more than five million views and 5,200 comments. On February 14th, 2012, YouTuber PewDiePie uploaded a Valentine’s Day special video in which he plays the horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent with his girlfriend YouTuber CutiePieMarzia (shown below, right).

On February 15th, 2013, YouTube prankster VitalyzdTv uploaded a video titled “How to Pick Up Girls on Valentine’s Day,” in which he delivers pickup artist lines to women on a sidewalk during Valentine’s Day (shown below, left). Within two years, the video gained over 17 million views and 11,300 comments. On February 3rd, 2014, the Simon’s Cat YouTube channel uploaded a Valentine’s Day special animation, garnering upwards of nine million views and 4,100 comments over the following year (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Go Die! Valentine’s Day

Go Die! Valentine’s Day (Japanese: 死ね！バレンタイン・デー, Shine! Valentine Day) is an anti-Valentine’s Day song by Japanese folk band Fujioka Fujimaki. On the Japanese web, the song has gained a cult status with single men, as well as a series of fan-made animated music videos starring characters from popular anime or manga franchises.

Forever Alone

Forever Alone is an exploitable rage comic character that is used to express loneliness and disappointment with life. The face has also been used as an advice animal and inspired the creation of the snowclone template “Forever an X.”

Valentine’s Day E-Cards

Valentine’s Day E-cards are digital media greeting cards created for the annual holiday Valentine’s Day for the purpose of sharing online.

Rejected Candy Hearts

Rejected Candy Hearts are a series of images parodying Sweethearts, a type of small heart-shaped candies sold around Valentine’s Day, with custom generated messages that are unromantic, off-putting or suggestive in nature.

Roses Are Red

Roses are Red refers to a series of short poems featuring rhyme verses that begin with the lines “Roses are red, violets are blue.” While the original poem was used to convey messages of love, many of its derivative versions nullify its sentimental value through subversion, parody and anti-humor.

Search Interest

External References

About

Online Dating is the practice of using web-based services or mobile applications to discover and interact with potential romantic partners, and in most cases, to the end of arranging a date in real life. In addition, many online dating sites and apps offer algorithm-based matchmaking services for users to easily find compatible individuals based on a wide range of criteria, including age, gender, geographical location and personal interests.

Origin

In 1993, the first Internet dating site Match.com^[1] was founded by entrepreneurs Gary Kremen and Peng T. Ong, who aimed to create a proof-of-concept for electronic classified advertising systems. In 1995, the site was launched as a free beta service, serving as a matchmaker for users who created a profile on the site containing pictures and personal information about themselves.

Spread

OKCupid

On March 4th, 2004, the founders of the literary website TheSpark launched the dating site OKCupid, which pairs registered members based on their compatibility score determined through a series of survey questions. On August 29th, 2011, an article published in August of 2011 to the tech news blog Gizmodo, which featured an expose by intern Alyssa Bereznak about an OkCupid date with the world champion Magic: The Gathering player Jon Finkel. In the article, Bereznak insulted Finkel for playing the card game and revealed that she would not have dated him if she were aware of the hobby beforehand. After the story was submitted to Reddit, Bereznak was inundated with attacks from various Redditors and Finkel participated in an “ask me anything” thread on the social news website.

In 2012, the papapaka OKCupid gained online notoriety as “Squart Guy” for his explicit sexual fantasy descriptions, combined with numerous spelling and grammatical errors (shown below, left). On July 24th, the Tumblr blog “Fedoras of OKCupid” was launched, which quickly gained traction for openly shaming men who wear fedoras in their dating site profile pictures (shown below, right).

Grindr

On March 26th, 2009, the mobile dating and social networking application Grindr was launched, which serves as a matchmaker for gay and bisexual users within close proximity to one another.

Dating Site Murderer

On March 21st, 2011, Redditor spawn02000 posted a picture of himself to the /r/WTF subreddit, titled “I uploaded my picture to a dating site… So far no hits… :(” The photo was subsequently used by other Redditors to create the Dating Site Murderer advice animal series, which features a top caption implying a murderous intent, followed by an innocuous or sweet bottom line.

Miss Travel

On April 10th, 2012, the dating website Miss Travel was created by founder and CEO Brandon Wade, which pairs wealthy men with attractive women who wish to travel for free. The website subsequently sparked many online discussions over its legality and appropriateness.

Tinder

In September 2012, the Tinder mobile dating application was launched on Apple iOS devices for students at the University of Southern California, the University of California at Los Angeles and select colleges in Texas and Boston. The app serves as a matchmaker for users within close proximity based on their preferences and has since rolled out for worldwide use.

Creepy White Guys

On February 2nd, 2013, the anonymous blog Creepy White Guys was created on Tumblr, which features politically incorrect, racially insensitive or otherwise off-putting pick up lines sent from Caucasian men to Asian women on online dating and social networking sites.

Bye Felipe

On October 14th, 2014, the “Bye Felipe” Instagram feed was launched by Los Angeles resident Alexandra Tweten to highlight screenshots of abusive or hostile responses to rejection sent by men on various online dating sites.

Search Interest

External References