Work in Progress

About

Duke Nukem is a first-person shooter video game series created by 3D Realms. The series centers around a character named Duke Nukem as he fights against various enemies for his own personal gain.

History

On July 1st, 1991, the first Duke Nukem video game was released for the MS-DOS (shown below, left). The game follows Duke Nukem in the year 1997 as he tries to stop a mad scientist named Dr. Proton from taking over the world with his army of techbots. On December 3rd, 1993, Duke Nukem II was released for the MS-DOS (shown below, right). The game takes place one year after the events of the first game and once again follows Duke Nukem as he fights against an alien race known as the Rigelatins who are attempting to take over the earth. Unlike later titles in the series, The first 2 games were third-person platformers.

On January 29th, 1996, Duke Nukem 3D was released for the MS-DOS (shown below). The story takes place right after the events of Duke Nukem II as Duke must travel to various locations to stop an alien invasion on earth. Duke Nukem 3D is the first game in the series that replaces the third-person platforming gameplay from previous games in favor towards a first-person shooter.

On June 10th, 2011, Duke Nukem Forever was released for the PS3, Xbox 360. and PC. Originally developed by 3D Realms, the game went into development hell for 14 years before finally being picked up by 2K Games and developed by Gearbox Software and Piranha Games. The story takes place 12 years after the events of Duke Nukem 3D as Duke must once again face off against an invading alien force who have come for revenge against the hero.

Reception

Duke Nukem has been both praised and criticized by critics for its use of themes such as violence, sexuality, drugs, and obscenities. Duke Nukem 3D is highly regarded to be the best in the series, selling over 3.5 million copies and scoring a 89 metascore on metacritic.

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About

Pansexuality, also known as Omnisexuality, is a sexual orientation marked by sexual or emotional attraction to any sex or gender identity. Pansexuality^[1] differs from bisexuality by explicitly including intersex individuals or people who do not wish to define themselves under the gender binary.

Origin

The term “pansexualism” was originally coined by critics of psychologist Sigmund Freud in 1917, using the term as a pejorative for theories that all feelings of desire are manifestations of sexual instincts. The term was later used to describe a fluid sexual orientation not limited to any specific gender. On July 31st, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[2] user saki submitted an entry for “pansexuality,” defining it as “one who can love sexuality in many forms.”

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On November 15th, 2007, a page for “pansexual” was created on the online dictionary Wiktionary.^[4] In 2011, Tumblr user JustJasper launched the Pansexual Flag Tumblr^[8] to unveil a red, yellow and blue pansexual pride flag (shown below).

On August 7th, 2011, the /r/pansexual^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions about the sexual orientation. On October 6th, a page for “pansexual” was added to the Gender Wiki.^[5] On May 27th, the Tumblr^[7] blog “Pansexual Confessions” was launched, which image macros captioned with various anecdotes about the living as a pansexual person. On June 28th, 2012, YouTuber Laci Green uploaded a video saying she identified as pansexual (shown below, left). On September 11th, 2014, YouTuber Jim Chapman uploaded an explanation of the pansexuality (shown below, right).

On March 30th, 2014, YouTuber Morgan Marsh uploaded footage of herself coming out as pansexual to her father (shown below).

Sexually Attracted To Pans

Due to Pansexuality being one of the more unknown types of sexual orientation, pansexuals have often been confused for having a sexual attraction to frying pans. Alongside being identified as a common issue for pansexuals, the confusion eventually lead to a sexual attraction to frying pans becoming a running gag amongst both pansexuals and critics.

Miley Cyrus Announcement

On August 27th, 2015, the women’s fashion magazine Elle^[6] published an interview with “Miley Cyrus”:, in which she announced she was pansexual.

“I’m very open about it – I’m pansexual. But I’m not in a relationship. I’m 22, I’m going on dates, but I change my style every two weeks, let alone who I’m with.”

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About

Topkek is a brand of small Turkish cupcakes produced by the ETi Company. The snack became popular with regulars of the imageboard 4chan’s [s4s] board due to the use of “kek” in its name.

Origin

Topkek was first produced in 1990 by ETi, a Turkish confectionery company.^[1]“Kek” in this instance translates to “cake”, meaning that the name “Topkek” literally means “top cake”. In 2011, the television show Workaholics aired an episode in which the character Adam Demamp wears a hat with the words Top Gun on it, which was later mutated into the phrase Top Lel, using a corruption of the acronym LOL. In May of 2013, an [s4s] user under the name prime minister face created a thread featuring the cake, which received over 6,000 replies before it was archived.^[2] In 2014, the meme aggregator site Top Kek was created, which takes its name from the cake.^[4]

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An Encyclopedia Dramatic entry on Topkek was created around the time of the original thread. Urban Dictionary definition for “topkek” was created in September of 2013.^[3] Sometime in 2013, a Flash video was created which heavily features the cake; a censored version of this Flash was uploaded to YouTube where it has been viewed 90,000 times. In 2014, an edited clip of a Based Tyrone video in which he says “top kek” was uploaded to YouTube, were it has been viewed over 365,000 times.

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About

No Chill is a phrase which denotes that someone is acting irrationally. The phrase is often paired with images to describe humorous or irrational behavior, or used to describe Vines or other video media of people acting strangely.

Origin

The exact origin of No Chill is unknown but the phrase began appearing in this context online in 2013, when it was first defined on Urban Dictionary as “At this particular moment you’re being extremely reckless, as in That negro PJ has no chill the way he was talking about Brian’s girl last night right in front of him.”[sic]. This definition remains the top definition, with 730 upvotes and 231 downvotes between April 15th, 2013 and August 29th, 2015.^[1]

Spread

No Chill is in thorough and widespread use as a hashtag and post title within the community known as Black Twitter. It is applied as a title to hundreds of posts within one of the main forums for this community, /r/blackpeopletwitter, 39 of which have more than 1000 upvotes.^[2] During the month of August 2014, it was used both as a hashtag and as a phrase on Twitter more than 840,000 times and as of August 29th, 2015, the hashtag has been used more than 1.85 million times on Instagram.^[3][4] There are over 92,000 videos using the phrase as either a title or a hashtag on Vine.^[5]

On July 17th, 2015, Skrillex and Vic Mensa premiered a song on the Beats 1 network entitled “No Chill,” where it received 2319 loves and 257 shares.^[6] In addition the song was later posted on YouTube, where it received more than 10,000 plays.

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Editor’s Note: This entry contains plot spoilers for the Bleach manga and anime.

About

Aizen is the main antagonist of the Japanese manga series Bleach written and illustrated by Kubo Tite. Due to Aizen’s various deus ex machina abilities, as well has his almost perfect foresight and manipulation of characters and events, has led him to become both a source of mockery and admiration for both fans and critics of the character.

Origin

Aizen first appeared in chapter 79 of the manga,^[1] and episode 23 of the anime.^[2] Aizen is introduced as a kind and compassionate man who cares for those around him. However it is eventually revealed that Aizen is in fact a villain who has been manipulating events to his own favor. He soon becomes the main antagonist of the series until his defeat at the hands of protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki.

Spread

Due to his powers and abilities, Aizen has become one of the more recognizable shonen anime villains, along with others such as Madara Uchiha from Naruto and Freeza from Dragon Ball. The earliest known video featuring Aizen on YouTube was uploaded on July 8th, 2006, by user Erdbeerenserver (shown below).

A significant amount of AMVs have been made featuring Aizen,^[3] the earliest known of which was uploaded to YouTube on November 20th, 2009 by user Trophious (shown below, left), and the most viewed of which has over 5 million views (shown below, right).

Taco Aizen

Taco Aizen is a mixture of Azien and Taco Bell used to poke fun at Huedo Mundo and the other Spanish based elements within Bleach many of which tie back to Aizen himself. According to Urban Dictionary,^[4] Taco Aizen originated from the Livejournal community CAPSLOCK_BLEACH, specifically user spartydragon. The original Taco Aizen post was in fact created by spartydragon on June 7th, 2007 with an image editing Aizen into a Taco Bell restaurant (shown below).^[5]

Taco Aizen has produced several parody images, as well as videos of Aizen’s English voice actor preforming a fictional commercial for a Taco Aizen restaurant (shown below).

Butterfly Aizen / Fairy Aizen

Butterfly Aizen refers to the backlash towards Aizen’s final forms in which he appears to gain either butterfly or fairy wings and features. On August 18th, 2010, an Urban Dictionary entry was made for “Aizen” which was heavily focused on the fact that Aizen’s new form strongly resembled a butterfly.^[6]

Aizen’s Plan / Since When Were You Under the Impression

Aizen’s plan refers to both the mockery and admiration of Aizen’s ability to nearly perfectly predict the events that will transpire in a similar vein to just as planned. On February 21st, 2011, YouTuber CeroPrimeroInc uploaded a video titled “Aizen’s Flawless Plan” as a side project to their Arrancar Party series (shown below).

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This entry is been work in process, feel free for request editorship

About

Sly Cooper (shorten as Sly) is an platform stealth on the Sony PlayStation 2, this game was been developed by Sucker Punch Productions but passed on to Sanzaru Games in 2013.^[1]

History

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About

“Same Voice Actor” is an expression indicating that two or more fictional characters were voiced by the same person. Online, the phrase is often used to caption juxtaposed images of various video game, television and film characters.

Origin

On January 16th, 2009, the video game news blog GamesRadar^[2] published an article about various video game characters who were performed by the same voice actor.

Spread

On May 3rd, 2010, the men’s interest blog Spike^[5] published a listicle of fictional characters who were voice by the same actor. On October 22nd, 2012, the “Same Voice Actor” Tumblr^[8] blog was launched, which highlights image macros juxtaposing two different anime characters voice by the same actor (shown below).

On November 12th, the Internet humor blog Smosh^[7] published a listicle of notable cartoon characters using the same voice actor. On May 6th, 2013, a page for “Hey It’s That Voice” was created on TV Tropes^[6] for examples of commonly used voice actors in animated works. On February 5th, 2014, the TeddyKGaming YouTube channel uploaded a video about various characters voiced by the same actor (shown below, left). Within two years, the video gained over 1.4 million views and 4,800 comments. On March 9th, TeddyKGaming uploaded a follow-up video with more notable voice actors (shown below, right).

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About

Kimochi is a japanese term that means “feeling.” Online, the term has become associated with Japanese pornography and Hentai quotes as the participants would often utter the phrase “Kimochi ii” which is translated as “It feels good.”

Origin

In Japanese Pornography and Hentai, the term “Kimochi” or “Kimochi ii” is often used by participants during sexual acts to express their enjoyment.

Spread

[WIP]

On June 12th, 2007, Urban Dictionary user syphillis submitted an entry regarding Kimochi.^[1]

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External References

^[1]Urban Dictionary – Kimochi

About

When Your Teacher Thinks You’re Studying is an image macro series featuring photographs of food hidden behind school supplies in order to be covertly consumed during class. The pictures are accompanied by variations of the phrasal template“When your teacher thinks you’re studying but you’re really eating X.”

Origin

On March 3rd, 2014, the @RelatableQuote^[4] Twitter feed posted a photograph of spaghetti noodles and sauce hidden inside a book with the tweet “when the teacher thinks ur studying but really you’re eating spaghetti” (shown below). Over the next two years, the tweet gathered upwards of 5,700 favorites and 4,600 retweets.

Spread

In the coming days, the joke was reposted by other Twitter feeds, including @antijokeapple^[5] and @AntiJokeTyrone.^[6] On March 5th, the spaghetti photograph was reuploaded to Imgur.^[7] On October 22nd, Redditor itsali3 posted the photograph to /r/funny,^[2] where it gathered upwards of 3,200 votes (78% upvoted) and 110 comments prior to being archived. On January 20th, 2015, the @YaBoyDaquan^[8] Twitter feed posted photographs of a student eating chips and salsa hidden behind a notebook with the caption “When your teacher thinks you’re studying but you actually having a fiesta” (shown below).

<br

On March 9th, the Internet humor blog No Way Girl^[3] published a compilation of notable “When your teacher thinks you’re studying” examples. On March 20th, 2015, Viner Jett Beere posted a video of a student eating a sandwich out of a folder in class with the caption “When the teacher thinks you’re studying but you’re really eating a sandwich” (shown below).

On May 4th, the @FactsOfSchool^[9] Twitter feed posted several photographs of a student covertly making miniature waffles at his desk with the caption “When the teacher thinks you’re doing work but you’re actually making pancakes” (shown below). Within three months, the tweet garnered more than 3,200 favorites and 2,700 retweets.

Various Examples

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“Magical Girls Represent!”
- Kyubey

About

Madoka Ante Up (also known as Magi Lyfe) is a fanart and cosplay style combining the anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica with hip-hop culture, originally inspired by a parody hip-hop song used in the Meduka Meguca videos.

Origin

On February 6th, 2011, an anonymous user on 4chan’s /a/ (Anime & Manga) board started the meduka meguca series of threads, which would eventually have 5 episodes.^[1][2] A few months later Youtube user foreverpandering began uploading a series of voiced episodes of the meduka meguca threads. At the end of the 5th and final episode, foreverpandering added a song remixing hip hop due M.O.P.‘s 2000 radio hit Ante Up^[4][5] with his voiced episodes. Although the episodes have since been removed following a takedown notice and foreverpandering’s account has been deleted,^[3] both the episodes (shown below, left) and the Ante Up remix (shown below, right) have been reuploaded to Youtube by others various times.

Spread

In foreverpandering’s original video, during the Ante Up section, the background image consisted of a piece of fanart showing Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s main protagonist Madoka Kaname wearing hip hop accessories (shown below). The fanart can at its earliest can be traced back to a Danbooru upload^[6] by Danbooru user Niconeko on September 28th, 2011, which however cannot be confirmed as the original author. Over the course of the reuploads on Youtube of the Ante Up remix, the piece of fanart remained consistent in most of them. This inspired various elements often present in fanart and cosplay based on Madoka Ante Up, most notably the large shades and the gloves reading “Magi Lyfe”.

On April 21st, 2012, the Facebook account Kill Witches, Get Bitches launched, which managed to gather over 23,000 likes over the following 3.5 years. Since the creation of the account, the phrase “Kill Witches, Get Bitches” became often associated with Madoka Ante Up fanart and cosplay, most commonly featured in pieces showing Madoka Kaname surrounded by the rest of the main cast. Another nickname often used is Madoka Swagica.

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About

Photoshopped Little Mac is a sarcastic remark used by members of the Super Smash Bros. community in response to any supposed leaks surrounding the game. It is often used to deride any leak, regardless of its credibility and/or actual similarity to the character Little Mac.

Origin

Before the fighting game Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS was released, wild speculation about the game’s cast of playable characters was very common. On August 20th, 2014, YouTube user EverythingSmash uploaded a video in which he supposedly leaked the entire roster.

This video immediately came under scrutiny from the gaming community, with many users doubting its credibility. Several days later, YouTube user RelaxAlax analyzed the video in detail, explaining which parts he believed to be fake and why. One of the claims made in the video was that a render of the character Shulk, who had not been confirmed, greatly resembled an already confirmed character, Little Mac, leading Alax to assume the Shulk image was simply created in Photoshop. The comparison can be seen in the video below, beginning at 13:11.

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While Alax’s video racked up a significant number of views, and the community began to doubt the validity of the Shulk leak, the game’s release in Japan ultimately proved the entire leak as true, causing many to deride Alax’s supposed comparison. Even after the game’s release, supposed ‘leaked’ DLC such as Rayman, Roy, and Ryu (the latter of which turned out to be true) was sarcastically referred to as being a "photoshopped Little Mac’ in reference to Alax’s comparison, often with a photo of Little Mac jokingly superimposed over the character.

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About

Nuketown is a multiplayer map that was first introduced in the Call of Duty title Black Ops. The mass popularity of the map lead to further iterations in other Black Ops sequels as well as recreations of the map in fan artworks and IRL.

History

Precursors

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Glow Foam is a GIF of a bowl in which shaving cream is mixed with UV reactive facepaint, while under a blacklight. Most people who see the Glow Foam GIF get hungry and want to eat it.

The GIF is originally from a youtube video: https://youtu.be/EQw1b5g1uC8, and was submitted as a GIF by PhotoandGrime on Imgur first: http://i.imgur.com/ARL6oWs.gifv.

Next, it was posted on the subreddit /r/awesome: https://www.reddit.com/r/awesome/comments/3ira3n/glow_foam/

Other subreddits started to repost it (https://www.reddit.com/r/woahdude/comments/3itchr/glow_foam/?ref=search_posts and https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/3it6vo/glow_foam_rawesome/), and users started to wonder what it was made of, and why they wanted to eat it. Bangarang Peter Pan references were made, and many link the Glow Foam to their childhood memories of the film Hook, in which the lost boys eat colourful food in the food fight scene.

9gag took the GIF from Imgur as well and uploaded it (http://9gag.com/gag/adpv1d2 and http://9gag.com/gag/aNKLvD0), after which other social media quickly followed. For example:

http://funnyjunk.com/Glow+foam/hdgifs/5669214/
http://rebrn.com/re/glow-foam-695566/
https://twitter.com/TMVtweetz/status/638517296751857664
http://www.skarro.com/featured/how-to-make-glow-in-the-dark-uv-foam-diy-tutorial-halloween-ideas/

The original GIF on imgur has been viewed 587,380 within the first 4 days. The first 9gag post gained over 20,813 points within 3 days.

Matias Duarte is a Chilean computer programmer who currently works at Google responsible for the multiple UI revamps of Android: Holo and Material Design. He previously worked on HP WebOS before coming to Google.

“Our Lord DuARTe” is the running gag of /r/Androidcirclejerk on reddit since the days of Android 3.0 Honeycomb and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich when his UI decisions really started coming into effect.

About

Logan Paul is an American vlogger and aspiring actor who gained much notoriety online by releasing short comedy videos on Vine.

Online History

In 2013, Paul launched a video feed on Vine^[1] while attending Ohio University. On November 13th, 2013, Paul posted a compilation of clips from his Vine account on YouTube, which gathered upwards of 7.2 million views and 2,500 comments in the next two years (shown below, left). On November 18th, 2013, Paul was a guest on the morning talk show Today,^[7] where he discussed his online fame and took over the program’s Vine feed (shown below, right).

On February 18th, 2014, Paul released another compilation of Vines on YouTube, which garnered more than 1.3 million views and 940 comments in two years (shown below, left). On July 18th, 2015, Paul uploaded a Vine titled “Kitty Cat Car Jump,” in which he appears to dodge cars on a busy street in order to save a cat crossing the road (shown below, right). Following the video’s release, many speculated that it was faked using video editing techniques.

In September, Paul began posting Vines of himself pranking pedestrians in New York City but spontaneous performing split poses. On August 29th, the Try not to laugh YouTube channel uploaded a montage of the clips, gathering more than one million views and 280 comments in the first 48 hours.

Social Media Presence

Paul has gained a substantial online following since joining Vine in 2013. As of September 2015, Paul has over 8.4 million Vine subscribers, 2.2 million Facebook^[4] likes, 1.6 million Instagram^[2] followers, 563,000 Twitter^[3] followers and 364,000 YouTube subscribers.

Reputation

On July 29th, 2015, Tech Insider^[5] published an article titled “Logan Paul has conquered the Internet, but he can’t figure out how to conquer the world,” which depicted Paul as a naive aspiring actor with questionable talent. On August 12th, BuzzFeed^[6] published a listicle containing factoids about Paul, noting he had a substantial following of teenage girls.

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About

Getty Images Baboon refers to a series of short videos (often represented as GIFs) of a baboon or several baboons using office technology on a red background; the images also usually possess a Getty Images watermark. Since their discovery, the videos have been employed as embeddable reaction GIFs, usually on posts relating to feels.

Origin

Between December 2011 and February 2012, the photographers GK and Vikki Hart uploaded 48 different videos to Getty Images of a baboon and a group of baboons using office technology, like computers, flip phones, flip charts, and regular telephones. The baboons were depicted sitting at desks and meeting at conference tables.

The first instance of the images being removed from the stock photography context and used with the watermark as a humorous reaction image was by tumblr user risingtensions on April 15th, 2014, where a short GIF of the video labeled “Medium shot baboon holding stacks of money and making faces” was posted and received 538 notes as of September 1st, 2015.

Spread

At some point during late August, 2015, the videos from Getty began to appear on Twitter. The earliest known instance was a tweet by @BMacGoat on August 20th, 2015 which received 19,866 retweets and 16,230 favorites.

In addition the GIFs have been used commonly on tweets that have been posted to the /r/blackpeopletwitter subreddit, including one post on August 31st, 2015 by user red_45 that received 5,396 points (97% upvoted).

The Getty Baboons have also been catalogued by Gawker, Digg, Blavity, and more publications.

Search Interest

not yet available

External References

About

Duck Army is a video in which a hand pressing down under a shopping cart filled with squeaking duck toys all at once, causing a loud echoing noise.

Origin

On August 30th, 2015, YouTuber Kevin Synnes uploaded footage of himself pressing down upon a shopping cart filled with plastic squeaking ducks, producing a sound as if the inanimate toys were echoing a loud battle cry (shown below). Within two days, the video gained over 3.9 million views and 1,400 comments.

Spread

That day, Redditor The-Respawner submitted the video to /r/videos, where it received more than 5,700 votes (95% upvoted) and 1,200 comments in 48 hours. Shortly after, Viner Charlie Murphy^[1] reuploaded the video, which received upwards of 68 million plays, 163,000 revines and 15,7000 comments in the first two days. Also on August 30th, YouTuber uǝsıɐʃoʞıᴎ sɐǝɹpu∀ uploaded a reversed version of the video, which subsequently reached the front page of the /r/videos^[2] subreddit (shown below, left). Meanwhile, YouTuber Trill Phill uploaded a mashup of the duck army audio with the 1978 disco song “Le Freak” by Chic (shown below, right).

On September 1st, the Mirror^[3] published an article about the online reaction to the video. Meanwhile, MTV^[4] posted a compilation of notable remixes from Vine.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

Work in Progress

About

A Hideo Kojima Game is a brand name on the box cover and titles of video games that were directed by famed game designer Hideo Kojima. The brand gained notability online after video game publisher Konami removed Kojima’s name from his studio, the box cover and all promotional ads for Metal Gear Soild V: The Phantom Pain as part of the rumored fracture between the two.

Origin

On March 19th, 2015, several gaming news sites including Kotaku,^[1] PC Gamer,^[4] Polygon,^[5] and Eurogamer^[6] reported about the rumor that Hideo Kojima might be leaving Konami, among the evidence include the renaming of Kojima Productions Los Angeles into Konami Los Angeles Studio and the removal of Hideo Kojima’s name from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s title on the official Konami website (shown below, top was before the change).

On July 14th, 2015, a NeoGAF thread was submitted by user Love Deterrence that shows the final version of the official box art for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which reveals Kojima’s brand being completely removed.^[7]

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About

Oh Look, A Pony! Now Your Day Is Ruined! is a popular phrase used within the fandom of the Hasbro animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is typically used to caption images of characters from the show, which are then used as reaction images or as bait.

Origin

The original image that spawned the meme (shown below, left) was created by adding the phrase as a caption to a vectored image of the character of Twilight Sparkle taken from the show. The image in question (shown below, right) was submitted by DeviantArt user RyantheBrony on December 4th, 2011, titled “Twilight Wants a Hug”.^[1] The captioned variant was submitted to the MLP image hosting site Derpibooru on December 5th, 2012.^[3]

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Researching

The variant featuring Twilight is a popular spray image in the first-person shooter video game Team Fortress 2 by Valve Corporation. It was uploaded to GameBanana in 2012 and has been downloaded over 3,500 times and holds a rating of 9.5 out of 10 as of September 2015.^[2]

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Overview

Conrad Roy III was an American teenager who died by suicide in July of 2013. After his death, investigators found that a friend, Michelle Carter, had encouraged him to kill himself repeatedly over text message. Michelle Carter was later charged with involuntary manslaughter in Roy’s death, in a trial which received widespread media attention in September of 2015.

Background

On July 13th, 2014, 18 year-old Conrad Roy III was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in his pickup truck in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Michelle Carter, also 18, was a teen he communicated with often who lived in Michigan – she is sometimes described as his former girlfriend, and it is clear they communicated mostly by phone and online. Carter claimed to have been on the phone with Roy when he died, telling a friend later “It’s my fault. I was talking to him while he killed himself. I heard him cry in pain.”^[1]

During the investigation into Roy’s death, the prosecutor in Massachusetts found thousands of text messages sent between July 6th and July 12th between Carter and Roy where Carter positively encouraged Roy to kill himself.^[2] A selection of these messages was provided by the prosecution^[3] and can be viewed below:

On August 21st, 2015, the District Attorney of Massachusetts indicted Michelle Carter for involuntary manslaughter in the death of Conrad Roy III. On her first court appearance, Carter claimed that Carter had brainwashed her into entering a “Romeo and Juliet”-style death pact.^[5]

Online Reaction

#JusticeForConrad

In addition to extensive news media coverage from sources like People Magazine, WCVB Boston, the Daily Mail, and the Huffington Post,^[4][3][6][7] the indictment of Michelle Carter inspired the hash tag “#JusticeforConrad”, which between August 28th, 2015 and September 2nd, 2015 was used 29,000 times on Twitter.^[8][9] A page on Facebook supporting Justice for Conrad received over 1,200 likes.^[10]

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