About

The Pixuleco / Lulainflado (Inflated Lula) refers to a series of photomontages involving a 12 meter-tall inflatable doll of Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva dressed as a convict, as a part of the 2015 protests in Brazil. ^[1]

Origin

In 2015, a massive series of anti-corruption and anti-government popular protests erupted in Brazil, thanks to the aggravation of an economic crisis and the developments in the investigations of a giant corruption scandal involving the state-owned oil company Petrobras. President Dilma Rousseff’s party, the Worker’s Party, has been severely implicated in the scandal. The protesters demanded the ousting of president Dilma Rousseff and the end of the Worker’s Party (PT) ruling.^[2] The first protest, which happened in March 15, was attended by 2.4 million people.^[3] A second protest scheduled for April 12 gathered over 700,000 people.^[4] During the third protest, which was scheduled for August 16 and had an attendance of close to a million people,^[5] the Movimento Brasil (Brazil Movement) exhibited a 12 meters (39 feet)-tall inflatable doll of Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the country’s capital, Brasília.^[1] The doll featured a caricature of Lula in black and white prison garb with a ball and chain around his ankle, and was dubbed “Pixuleco,” a reference to the codeword for “money” used by the involved in the Petrobras corruption scandal. Lula, who ruled the country between 2003 and 2010, is being investigated for alleged influence peddling,^[6] and his popularity has eroded ever since.

Spread

Since the day of the protest, the doll has quickly become extremely popular among Brazilian internet users. Numerous photoshoped involving the doll in various comical scenarios have taken the internet.^[7] Users created the hashtag #lulainflado for the spread of photomontages.

After the protests, the doll initiated a tour around Brazil. On August 28, protesters inflated the doll on the bridge Octavio Frias de Oliveira, in São Paulo. The studio of the TV news program Bom Dia São Paulo has windows from which the bridge can be seen, but was aired with the windows closed in order to hide the appearance of doll.^[8] The move to hide the doll has been severely criticized by internet users,^[8] who promptly mocked Globo, the news corporation responsible for the program:

On the same day, it was exhibited in front of City Hall of São Paulo. A turmoil started when supporters of the Worker’s Party attacked the protesters, and a member of the Communist Party of Brazil stabbed the doll.^[9] It was fixed by the owners, and on August 30 it appeared at the Paulista Avenue, where it caused another turmoil.^[10] Supporters of the Worker’s Party have sworn to stab it again.^[11] Not intimidated by the threats, the protesters continued the tour and carried the doll to Curitiba.^[12]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Reuters – Brazil protesters keep pressure on President Rousseff

^[2]Reuters – Brazil’s Rousseff popularity plunges amid scandal, bad economy

^[3]Globo – Mapa das manifestações no Brasil, domingo, 15/03

^[4]Globo – Mapa das manifestações no Brasil, domingo, 12/04

^[5]Globo – Mapa das manifestações no Brasil, domingo, 16/08

^[6]FT – Prosecutors in Brazil investigate Lula for alleged influence peddling

^[7]UOL– Boneco inflável de Lula usado no protesto em Brasília vira meme

^[8]Veja – Globo explica por que não exibiu Lula inflado

^[9]O Globo – Boneco inflável de Lula sofre ‘atentado’ durante protesto em São Paulo

^[10]Veja – Lula Inflado: patrulha petista tumultua protesto contra o governo na Av. Paulista

^[11]Reinaldo Azevedo – No Facebook, defensores do PT incitam a violência. Os que protestam contra o governo não podem ceder às provocações

^[12]Veja – Lula Inflado visita Curitiba, sede da Operação Lava Jato

About

“That’s Not How It Works You Little Shit” it’s a catchphrase uttered by the character Kyubey, from the anime and manga series Puella Magi Madoka Magica, on a fancomic as response to the possibility of wishing making more wishes on his contract. Kyubey’s face while uttering the quote became an exploitable and a reaction image for posts seen as nonsensical or stupid.

Origin

The original comic was created by the artist Slurpoof, and first submitted to her personal Tumblr blog on February 11th, 2013.^[1] The comic despicts a girl asking Kyubey if she could wish that she could make more wishes, followed by a close up of Kyubey’s face and the reply “that’s not how it works you little shit”. The post got over 10,000 notes in the following two years.

Spread

On February 19th, 2013, the bottom panel of the comic was used as response to a post submitted on 4chan’s anime and manga board /a/, which suggested wishing to Kyubey infinite wishes.^[3] On March 13th, 2013, a post on /a/ used the catchphrase as response to a post.^[4] Both image and catchphrase started being used as a common response on 4chan.^[2][5]

In November 2014, user unknownjedi uploaded to the media sharing page Meme Center a picture titled “Get Your Shitty Story Together, Kyle!”, featuring a Facebook post with the image at the end, gaining over 1700 likes in less than a year.^[8] Previously, in September 2014 the catchphrase was featured in the title of another submission, though the content is unrelated to the picture.^[7] Since unknownjedi’s picture, the image was adopted in the website as exploitable and featured on various images.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available

External References

[It’s WIP. I ain’t gotta explain shit.]

About

“It’s Magic. I Ain’t Gotta Explain Shit.” is an image macro, used as an reaction image to explain various improbable or illogical things or situations, describing it as “magic”. It is also used as a snowclone “It’s X. I Ain’t Gotta Explain Shit”.

Origin

The picture, which was the basis for the original image macro, depicts the character Dungeon Master from the Dungeons & Dragons animated TV series, which aired in 1983-1985. It is unknown when the image macro was originally made, but the earliest known archived example of it can be found in a thread on 4chan’s /a/ board, dating back to December 21st, 2008^[1].

Spread

On July 29th, 2012, a Reddit user 4alex6 posted a derivative image macro to r/atheism subreddit, featuring the former Pope of the Catholic Church, Benedict XIV. In over 3 years, the post got over 1244 upvotes^[2].

Various Examples

Search Interest

[unavailable]

External References

Overview

Peace Day Burger is a viral marketing campaign orchestrated by the fast food company “Burger King”:/memes/burger-king to collaborate with other chain restaurants in creating a special hamburger to honor of the International Day of Peace held on September 21st.

Background

On August 26th, 2015, the fast food restaurant chain Burger King launched the website McWhopper.com,^[1] featuring a proposal for the competitor fast food company McDonald’s to collaborate on making a “McWhopper” burger in celebration of Peace One Day on September 21st.

In addition, the company ran full-page ads for the proposal in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune (shown below).

Notable Developments

McDonald’s Response

The same day, the official McDonald’s Facebook^[3] page published a response from CEO Steve Easterbrook, who declined Burger King’s offer and stated “a simple phone call will do next time” (shown below). Within one week, the post gathered upwards of 9,100 likes and 6,000 comments.

Peace Day Burger

On August 28th, the restaurant chain Denny’s released a video titled “Hey @Burgerking,” proposing to create a combination of the Burger King “Whopper” and the Denny’s “Slam Burger” (shown below).

On September 1st, Burger King published an open letter^[2] to the restaurants Denny’s, Wayback Burgers, Krystal, Giraffas and McDonald’s asking to collaborate on the burger. Within 24 hours, the post gained over 9,800 notes on Tumblr.

That day, both Denny’s and Wayback Burgers tweeted to Burger King that they would join the campaign (shown below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Movie Scenes Without CGI refers to behind-the-scene images from various production sets that reveal the shooting of memorable scenes before they are enhanced with special effects in the editing process, often juxtaposed with their post-production counterparts for humorous effect.

Origin

[researching]

Spread

[researching]

External References

About

Divorce Selfies are self-taken photographs featuring formerly married couples posing together after filing for divorce.

Origin

On April 21st, 2014, Instagram^[4] user emilyrose920 posted a photograph of herself with her former husband in front of a painting of a bald eagle with the caption “‘Can we take a divorce selfie?’” (shown below).

Spread

On August 21st, 2014, Florida resident Keith Hinson posted a selfie photograph with his former wife Michelle Knight taken immediately after signing divorce papers at a courthouse to Instagram^[1] (shown below, left). On August 12th, 2015, Instagram user stormyseastudio^[3] posted a photograph of herself standing next to a man with the caption “#divorceselfie ha ha… This is how you stay friends thru the drama” (shown below, right).

On September 1st, Calgary, Canada resident Shannon Neuman posted a photograph on Facebook^[2] of herself posing with former husband Chris Neuman outside an Alberta courthouse. The post explained that they were amicably separating and was accompanied by the hashtag “#divorceselfie” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the photo gathered upwards of 33,200 shares.

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the divorce selfie photography trend, including BuzzFeed,^[5] The Daily Mail,^[6]ABC News,^[7] Inside Edition^[8] and The Huffington Post.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

Overview

The Jimmy Kimmel YouTube Gaming Controversy refers to the online backlash surrounding a skit poking fun at the video game streaming community aired on the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live in late August 2015.

Background

On August 28th, 2015, the Jimmy Kimmel Live show aired a comedy sketch parodying “Let’s Play” channels on YouTube, in which gaming enthusiasts watch videos of other people watching video game streams (shown below). In the first week, the video gained over 900,000 views with more than 110,000 dislikes.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

Immediately after the skit was uploaded to YouTube, other YouTubers posted videos responding to the backlash. Videos by Scarce of FaZe Clan, Proto Mario and AlphaOmegaSin received 100,000 views, 30,000 views abd 21,000 views respectively in the first week (shown below, top left, top right, bottom left). Additionally, YouTuber Boogie2988, who released a video about the issue under his persona Francis. The video got 100,000 views in the first 24 hours, along with over 10,000 likes. Other YouTubers also posted negative comments about the skit, including Philip DeFranco, Nathaniel Brandy and Stonefox Media.

On September 2nd, YouTuber TotalBiscuit published a blog post]2\ about the incident. The following day, a post questioning why Kimmel’s videos were getting downvoted was submitted to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[1] subreddit.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Response

On September 2nd, Kimmel responded to the backlash in a segment in which he highlighted many of the most aggressive comments from critics. On September 3rd, the show aired another segment in which he reads additional angry comments from video gamers.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Transgender Headcanons refers to a series of fan made theories despicting fictional characters as transgenders. Mostly found on Tumblr, those theories have been criticised and mocked due the tendency of their creators to confirm the cannonity of those, often having a lack of support from the source material.

Origin

Spread

Some popular characters featured on trans headcanons include Danny Fenton from the cartoon series Danny Phantom, ^[9] Dipper Pines from the cartoon series Gravity Falls^[8] and Link from the video game series The Legend of Zelda. ^[11]

Samus Is A Transgendered Woman

On September 1st, 2015, Brianna Wu and Ellen McGrody published an article titled “Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It.” on the feminist pop culture news website The Mary Sue.^[1] In it, both claim that Samus Aran from the Metroid series is a male-to-female transgendered woman due to developer comments and instruction booklet excerpts.

Within 24 hours, the article had 2000+ comments and made #samus trend on Twitter. Criticism of the article focused on lack of sources and mistranslations. An anonymous user on Wikipedia, rumored to be Wu herself, started editing the Wikipedia article for Samus Aran to include references to transgenderism, and claiming those who were reverting the edits were “Gamergators” and “transmisogynists”. This used was quickly blocked and the article locked.

Search Interest

Not available

External Links

About

Oh No, It’s Retarded, also known as Aww Ain’t You the Cutest Lil Thing, is an exploitable web comic featuring a stick figure character discovering a small dog that says various statements deemed disturbing, inane or controversial.

Origin

On December 27th, 2014, Tumblr^[1] user aaaaa42c posted a comic in which a small dog informs a boy that he produces multiple cancerous cells every day, with each having the potential to be fatal (shown below). Within nine months, the comic gained over 17,100 notes.

Spread

On March 29th, 2015, Redditor zjin submitted a post about the comic to the /r/tipofmytongue^[2] subreddit, to which Redditor AAAAA42 replied that he was the original creator. On July 31st, 2015, FunnyJunk^[3] user Sewallman submitted a variation of the comic in which the dog says “Feminism is about equality” (shown below, left). On August 16th, FunnyJunk^[4] user joshlol submitted a comic in which the dog praises Donald Trump (shown below, right).

On August 23rd, a template image was submitted to 4chan inviting viewers to post edited versions of the comic (shown below). On August 22nd, Redditor alienware posted a collection of the responses to the /r/4chan^[5] subreddit, where it gained over 2,700 votes (92% upvoted) in two weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Kiyiya Vuran Insanlik, usually used as the hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik, is a Turkish expression meaning “Humanity Washed Ashore.” The hashtag became popular during the Syrian Refugee Crisis of 2015, when it was used on Twitter, usually accompanied by graphic photos of migrants who died during the dangerous journey from the Middle East to Europe.

Origin

Sometime on September 1st, 2015, Turkish Twitter users began tweeting the hash tag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik, along with a photo of the three year-old Syrian boy named Aylan Kurdi, who died overnight on September 1st by drowning during his family’s failed attempt at a night passage from Turkey to Greece. In the photo, Kurdi is face-down in the sand on the beaches of a town called Bodrum, in Turkey. Later reports said that Kurdi’s family was attempting to eventually find their way to Canada. Kurdi’s his five-year-old brother, Galip, and mother, Rehan also died; their father, Abdullah, survived.^[4]

[Translation] The most common reaction following the disaster was: “if it was a whale, not a Syrian child, the whole word would react”

Spread

The Kiyiya Vuran Insanlik was used more than 74,000 times on Twitter in the two days after Kurdi’s body was found.^[2] Many tweets attached the photos of his body in the sand, or photographs of his body being transported by a Turkish police officer; some tweets used different photos of children who had died under similar circumstances. Almost 6,000 more people used the English translation #HumanityWashedAshore. Arts and Culture website Buzzfeed collected a series of cartoons users had created of Kurdi’s pose if he were in different situations, and many of these cartoons also became popular on their own as emblems of the crisis.^[3] In addition, the hashtag was reported on in the mainstream press, including the Guardian, the New York Times, and the BBC.^[5][6][7]

/r/imgoingtohellforthis

After the original image went viral, users on the subreddit /r/imgoingtohellforthis began creating more controversial photoshopped images of Kurdi’s body.^[8] Many images featured the body in a situation that could be considered trolling or shitposting, and many others attempted to shock the viewer by the juxtaposition of the boy’s body and creating images classified as NSFL] Note: Many of these images can be seen if you click to this post’s image gallery below.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

not yet available

External References

About

John Cena (full name John Felix Anthony Cena) is an American professional wrestler, rapper and actor signed since 2005 to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.^[3] Since then he has become one of the promotion’s most popular wrestlers, with the second-highest number of WWE World Championships of all time, and has become the modern face of the company.

Online History

As A Rapper

In 2005 Cena released his debut rap album titled “You Can’t See Me”^[7] after his debut catchphrase. The album contained the single “My Time Is Now” which has become his current entrance song and a popular meme on sites like Vine and Youtube in the form of Unexpected John Cena. The song, which was uploaded to Youtube on May 20, 2007, has received 37,599,939 views as of September 2015.

In January 5, 2007 a video titled “JOHNCENARAPBATTLES A FAN” features a fan challenging Cena to a freestyle rap battle. As of September 2015, the video has gathered 31,100,337 views

Cena is also known for challenging his in-ring opponents to rap battles multiple times.

Related Memes

Cena Wins Lol

Cena Wins Lol is a phrase taking a jab at the predictability of Cena’s matches, which most of the time result in his victory.

Unexpected John Cena / And His Name is John Cena

Unexpected John Cena (also known as “And His Name is John Cena” and “It’s John Cena”) refers to a video clip that loudly introduces Cena as his intro music plays. Initially, the short clip was often edited onto the end of a video or Vine either to produce a jumpscare or humorous effect, but as the meme has grown popular there have been gifs and images that have diverted from this conventional approach.

Reputation

Cena is a polarizing figure within the professional wrestling franchise, as he is known for being a superhero and a good model for kids, thus not allowing him to either swear, cheat or otherwise be excessively violent. This makes him popular amongst children, but is divisive among adult wrestling fans who prefer the more violent and mature “Attitude Era” of WWE.^[1] He is also unpopular for his near-invincibility, leaving almost all major matches the victor, even through almost illogical means.^[2]

Despite this, Cena continues to be amongst the most lucrative, popular and beloved wrestlers within the franchise.

Personal Life

Cena is currently dating Nikki Bella,^[4] a female wrestler also employed with WWE.^[5] He is a fan of Anime, his favorite anime movie being Fist of the North Star. He also has fulfilled over 500 wishes through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the most by any celebrity in the history of the foundation.^[6]

Search Interest

External References

About

Medjed is an Egyptian god who rose to popularity in Japan after an illustration of the god was placed on display at a museum on Tokyo. In the depiction, Medjed appears to be a figure covered in a sheet with only the eyes and feet showing.

Origin

The first mention of Medjed (Egyptian: “The Smiter”) comes from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead in the Greenfield papyrus. Medjed’s name means “The Smiter” and he has the power to fly and “shoot from his eye”. In the papyrus, two vignettes are included which are believed to represent Medjed, depicting a figure hidden underneath what appears to be a sheet (shown below).

In 2012, the British Museum held an exhibit at the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo, Japan where the Greenfield papyrus was put on display. Visitors to the museum noted Medjed’s strange appearance, claiming he resembled a type of mascot character.^[2][3]

Spread

Medjed’s popularity began on Twitter, likely by those sharing the picture on the papyrus. Following the circulation of Medjed images on the Japanese web, the @Medjed_tweet Twitter feed was launched, which gained over 11,600 followers over the next several years.^[5][6] In 2014, a game titled Flying Mr. Medjed was released, featuring the god as a playable character (shown below).^[7] Medjed has also appeared on numerous pieces of merchandise, such as t-shirts, dolls and foods.^[8] On July 21st, 2015, the anime news blog Anime News Network^[9] published an article about the god’s Internet fame in Japan.

Various Examples

As of September 2015, the Japanese art site Pixiv returns over 900 results in a search for “Medjed”.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

About

Melee Hell is a "Facebook group^[1], designed as a satirical response to the Melee Social Facebook group and Melee Social board on Smashboards. Brookman, a Super Smash Bros. Melee player hailing from Connecticut, created the group in late 2014, with active posting members that include Hungrybox, Mew2King and Hax, among many other both professional and non-professional Smashers, though the majority of members, mostly due to content, are older members of the smash community.

Posters on Melee Hell often reference in-jokes, such as 20XX (with Hax being their lord and savior and with everyone in the group saying they main Fox), farcical posts about Melee’s perceived quality compared to other games in the series, and satirical statements about other smashers, with a large majority of posts tending to be photoshopped images.

Origin

It’s known exactly known when Melee Hell was created, but it is speculated to have been created in late 2014.

h2, Reception

Melee Hell has been controversial to some members of the Smash community, with criticism being focused at the often vulgar and obscene content of the page; some of the content has also been criticized for being racist or sexist, as well as promoting trolling. Some followers of Melee Hell have also sent threats to smashers outside of the group; however, admins for Melee Hell prohibit such threats, and the majority of members do not approve of such threats.

Provocative users tend to post memes and other jokes on the community, most of which are controversial, leading to Melee Hell being a very touchy subject amongst Smashers. There are also very explicit posts made, which furthers this point. However, sexual images are usually banned, mostly due to not wanting the group to be removed by Facebook.

Impact

When professional Ice Climber main Chu Dat was dropped from Mortality eSports, Melee Hell held a crowd funding to pay for his plane ticket to EVO 2015. Due to the “sponsorship,” Chu Dat wore a Melee Hell themed shirt and signed with the tag "MH | Chu Dat. Despite not being a Fox main, Chu Dat is known in the Smash community for his trolling antics. After Chu Dat finished 7th at EVO 2015, interest in Melee Hell sparked, including a tweet by top professional Melee player, PPMD.

Many smashers have used “Melee Hell” as a clan/crew name in tournaments, mostly as a joke.

Because of the large user base Melee Hell has garnered, offshoots of the group have been created, which include "Sm4sh Hell, a group dedicated to Smash 4 anti social debauchery ^[2], "M2K Hell, dedicated to renowned professional smasher, Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman^[3], and "Squid Hell dedicated to Splatoon^[4].

h2, Fandom

Members of Melee Hell often congregate to the Melee Hell facebook group page, where they make shitposts and create dank memes in relation to Super Smash Bros. Melee and its competitive scene.

Aside from the group page, “Melee Hell also has a facebook^[5] and twitter^[6]” that showcases some of the memes that the members of the facebook group created. "Melee Hell has their own subreddit^[7] and tumblr^[8] account that also include the same aspects of the facebook and twitter pages.

Search Interest

External References

Refers to a twitch.tv meme that cropped up around SGDQ2015 where, during a Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament, a player walked up to the opponent on the edge of the map and simply “down-smashed” him. The commentators reacted with hilarity and disbelief stating, “You, did he just walk up (pause) slowly and down-smash” and was replied with “He did, he really did though”.
This, later, because a spam-meme during the SGDQ event where viewers would replace certain parts of the quote with relevant information, such as “Did he just walk up slowly and ledge grab” during a clutch situation, and often broken up with emotes.
Most commonly, the emote "" is used between each word like “Yo did he just walk up slowly and bow tap” (best represented with the KappaEverywhere extension).

Relavent video highlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NMhGCf20i0

[WIP]

About

“That’s What We Wanted You To Think” is a quote from a memorable scene in an American animated sitcom The Simpsons, uttered by a Russian ambassador before revealing that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a ruse.

Origin

The scene appeared in the episode Simpson Tide, which originally aired on March 29th, 1998^[1]. In the episode, Homer Simpson joins the Navy and is placed on board of a nuclear submarine. The US submarine ends up in Russian waters and the event causes a political schism between the nations. It is then revealed that Russia was still Soviet Union, and it cuts to events like Berlin Wall rising from the ground, and Lenin coming back from the dead.

Spread

[WIP]

Various Examples

[WIP]

Search Interest

[Unavailable]

External References

Work in Progress

About

Booker, Catch! is a memorable quote uttered by the character Elizabeth from the 2013 first-person shooter game Bioshock Infinite. The quote is uttered when Elizabeth is about to toss an item for the player to use. The quote has since become popular among fans of the Bioshock series, spawning fanart, parodies, and remixes.

Origin

In Bioshock Infinite, Elizabeth acts as a passive companion during Booker Dewitt’s quest to escape the floating city of Columbia alongside the girl. Throughout the game, Elizabeth will provide aid to Booker in the form aid, ammo, or money which she will toss to the player if they are at a distance. During these moments, Elizabeth will occasionally shout “Booker, catch!”.

Spread

On March 12th, 2013, Tumblr user posted an animated gif that pokes fun at the quote. In 2 years, the post gathered over 4.500 notes.^[1] The Gif was subsequently shared on /r/Gaming by redditor jaycrew on April 21st, 2013, which gathered 1.736 points (90% upvoted) and 460 comments prior to being archived.^[2]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Tumblr – BOOKERCATCH

^[2]reddit – Booker, catch!

Work in progress. Feel free to request editorship

About

“Get Jinxed” is the song released by the video games company Riot Games in order to promote the character Jinx from the MOBA game League of Legends. The song and the music video inspired various parodies, along with the use of the song title as catchphrase associated to the character.

Origin

On October 3rd, 2013, the official League of Legends channel on YouTube released the song “Get Jinxed” as promotion for their new champion Jinx, a manic and impulsive criminal armed with a minigun and various other weapons;^[3] featuring the vocals of Agnete Kjølsrud, from the Norwegian band Djerv. In less than two years, the video recieved over 43 milion views and 90,000 comments.

Search Interest

External Links

About

The X-Men are a team of Marvel Comics superheroes, all of which are mutants, people born with the “X-Gene” which activates in mutants during their adolescents and gives them superpowers. Mutants are often persecuted and the X-Men stand for equality between humans and mutants and often deal with villains who seek human or mutant superiority.

The X-Men are usually used to reflect social issues like Racism, LGBT issues, Antisemitism, Diversity, The Red Scare and Religion. In general the X-Men represent social outcasts or misfits.

History

Comics

The X-Men were first a comic that was created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The original team consisted of 5 teenage mutants, the leader was Cyclops, whose mutant ability was that he shoots lasers out his eyes whenever he opens them and his team members Iceman a mutant whose body is made out of ice and can create ice from his body, Angel the mutant with wings, Marvel Girl who was a telepath and Beast who had ape like strength and agility, as well as oversized hands and feet (who later grew grey/blue fur when experimenting).

Eventually in the 70’s the X-Men had start to fall out of popularity, and the writer Len Wein along with artist Dave Cockrum revived the series with “Giant Size X-Men #1” (1795) and brought a new more diverse team consisting of Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Sunfire, Banshee, Thunderbird as well former Hulk enemy Wolverine, who would become a breakout character and the most popular X-Man.

The popularity of the X-Men increased with the new team, which was constantly adding more mutants and X-Men like Shadowcat, Psylocke and Rogue and eventually new teams such as Alpha Flight, X-Factor, X-Force, The New Mutants and Excalibur. Wolverine also got his own solo series.

The X-Men had many events like “Age of Apocalypse” or “E for Extinction” and appeared in universe wide events too with “House of M” and “Avengers vs X-Men”. The X-Men are considered a main staple and a big part of the Marvel Universe.

Films

The first X-Men film was released in 2000 making it the second ever big budget Marvel superhero film (first being Blade). The rights were sold to 20th Century FOX due to financial issues with Marvel. The first X-Men film, simply titled “X-Men” which featured different team members than the comics was a big commercial and critical success, and so was the sequel “X2” (2003). However the last of the original trilogy “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006) and the spin off “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) received mixed/negative reviews. Later a new trilogy was released starting with “X-Men: First Class” (2011) and then “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014).

There are currently more planned films, “X-Men: Apocalypse”, “Deadpool” and “Gambit” are all set for 2016 as well as a third Wolverine film is planned for 2017.

Related Memes

Peace Was Never an Option

Peace Was Never an Option Is a quote from Magneto in the film X-Men: First Class that is often used to reference the character and his aggressive nature.

Magneto Was Right

Magneto Was Right is a meme that describes how the X-Men villain Magneto more violent approach/methods in how he deals with humanity.

Wolverine Crush

Wolverine Crush is an exploitable from the 90’s X-Men cartoon in which Wolverine stares at a picture frame. It is often edited to put someone or something else in the frame to elicit a humorous response.

Overview

Kim Davis is the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, who became controversial after refusing to issue licenses for same-sex marriages after the 2015 Supreme Court Gay Marriage Ruling. Davis was held in contempt of court and jailed before her subordinates began issuing the licenses.

Background

Two months after the Supreme Court Gay Marriage Ruling, on August 12th, 2012, Judge David L. Bunning of United States District Court for Eastern Kentucky ruled that Kim Davis must be ordered to issue licenses to four couples who had sued her for her refusal to issue licenses to same-sex couples.^[1] Her lawyers appealed and she did not show up for work the next day, and her deputies continued to say that licenses would not be issued. Davis claimed that it went against her religious freedom as an Apostolic Christian to be forced to offer licenses that she didn’t agree with.^[2]

On Monday, August 31st, the United States Supreme Court denied her requests to prevent the order from taking effect. On September 3rd, Davis was charged with contempt of court and jailed for continuing to refuse to issue marriage licenses.^[3] After several attempts at a compromise, which Davis refused, she remained jailed on September 4th as five other employees of the Rowan County Clerk’s office began issuing licenses to same-sex couples that day; however, Davis’ attorney claimed that licenses were void.^[4]

Notable Developments

Kim Davis’s Marriage History

On September 1st, several news sources reported that Kim Davis, who claimed her religious beliefs prevented her from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, had been married four separate times, and mothered children out of wedlock.^[5]

Clerks at the local courthouse claimed that Davis’s wedding history was a “popular file,” and that many had asked to see it. Inside, it recorded that Davis was first divoced in 1994, and that she gave birth to twins after the divorce. However, those twins were fathered by the man who would be her third husband, and adopted by her second husband. In 2006 and 2008 she divorced again, and after marrying her most recent husband, claimed that she became a born-again Christian and therefore had lived a Christian life since her most recent marriage.

GoFundMe Changes

Many spectators of Kim Davis’s case predicted that she was attempting to cash in via crowdfunding, in the way that other opponents of same-sex marriage, like Memories Pizza in Indiana, had been able to after refusing to service gay couples. In an MSNBC interview on September 1st, sex columnist and political activist Dan Savage said,

“I think Kim Davis is waiting to cash in. I predicted from the beginning that she would defy all the court orders, defy the Supreme Court. She would be ultimately be held in contempt of court, lose her job, perhaps go to prison for a short amount of time and then she will have written for her ghost-written books, she will go on the right-wing lecture circuit and she’ll never have to do an honest day’s work ever again in her life.”^[6]

However, on September 3rd, Uproxx reported that Kim Davis would not be able to reap any benefit from a GoFundMe page as Memories Pizza had done, because GoFundMe had altered the policies by which it would allow people to set up accounts. They reported that GoFundMe would now not allow “Campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts.”^[7] However, a parody fundraiser was created on the competing site Crowdrise, called “The Kim Davis Make-Over Fund”^[12]

Online Reaction

Between August 31st and September 4th, Kim Davis and #KimDavis were tweeted over 300,000 times cumulatively.^[8][9] In addition, many users tweeting about the controversy also employed the hashtags #tcot (Top Conservatives of Twitter) and #DoYourJob, the slogan for the New England Patriots, which was being repurposed by people telling Davis to resume issuing licenses.^[10]

The parody Twitter account Next To Kim Davis was created on September 1st, claiming to be a woman who was featured in many photographs of Davis, sitting next to her. The account bio read “I sit next to Kim Davis. This was supposed to just be a chill job. Goddamn it, Kim.” and by September 4th, it already had about 64,000 followers.^[11]

Many users created image macros featuring photographs of Davis taken at her office, in the Rowan County Courthouse. Many of these images made jokes about Davis’ four marriages, and many criticized her fashion sense or physical appearance, and sites like Queerty and PinkNews collected the images.

Search Interest

Kim Davis is a common name and many of the results here dating before August 2015 refer to others who possess it.

External References

About

“That’s my purse!” is a quote uttered by King of the Hill character Bobby Hill in the episode “Bobby Goes Nuts” which he utters before kicking an assailant in the testicles. The phrase and scenes involving it have been been parodies numerous times, often in the form of YouTube Poops.

Origin

On November 11th, 2001, King of the Hill aired the first episode of its 6th season entitled “Bobby Goes Nuts”.^[1] In the episode Bobby Hill enters into a woman’s self defense class in which he learns to attack an assailant by kicking them in the groin. The various scenes have been uploaded to YouTube over the years.

Spread

On September 9th, 2009 YouTuber DurhamrockerZ uploaded a YouTube Poop of “Booby Goes Nuts” (shown below, left).^[2] As of August 2015 the video has over 1.3 million views. On January 24th, 2010 YouTuber metalcoatbts uploaded a parody trailer for “Bobby Goes Nuts” (shown below, right).^[3]

On December 31st, 2012 the YouTube channel for New Baltimore Club Music #Shakeoff uploaded a video titled “Mario x SirPhresh- Thats My Purse I Dont Know You! (King Of The Hill)” featuring samples from the episode (shown below, left).^[4] On July 28th, 2013, YouTuber PyterodactylCrew uploaded a video called “Thats My Purse (Remix)” (shown below, right).^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References