About

Alys is the name given to a fictional blue-haired young woman considered to be the first French virtual singer ever made. Deeply influenced by the Vocaloid subculture, she made her singing debut in the summer 2014, to which she gained a decent notoriety among Vocaloid fans worldwide, inspiring fan art of her dark blue style as well as remixes of her songs.

Origins

VoxWave is a studio founded in October 2012^[1] by a group of French Vocaloid fans with the purpose of creating their own French virtual singer, similar to popular Vocaloid icons such as Miku Hatsune.and her lof of spin-off characters. After about two years of development under the codename Alys, an art contest was launched on the site in early March 2014 in order to put a definite face to the French idol. The result was a young woman created by Deviant Artist Saphirya (shown below), which was officially announced on March 11th 2014^[2].

The character is defined as a purple-eyed, dark blue-haired 21 years old woman wearing mostly blue attires and owning a pet cat named Lupin^[3]. Using the CeVIO software as well as being voiced by French YouTube singer Poucet, she made her debut on September 19th 2014 with her first song Dans Mon Monde (shown below).

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Two other songs, Avenir (shown below, left) and Pr☆messe (shown below, right) were further released in November and December 2014.

Following the character’s popularity on YouTube, Several French Otaku news sites made articles about her. including Error404^[7] and Adala-news^[8].
An official Facebook page was also launched, accumulating over 10 000 likes^[9].

Fan Art

Her official design inspired a lot of fan art on Deviant Art^[10].

Videos

Related Memes

Mooloid

Mooloid is a parody character that emerged during the March 2014 contest. Before revealing their official art for Alys, VoxWave teased it with a silhouette of her outlines. On March 19th, 2014, Vocaloid.fr user Acetea made a thread offering her own version of a character matching the silhouette^[4], embodied in a brown-haired girl wearing a dappled black jacket and sporting various French stereotypical items, including a baguette and a beret in the colors of the French flag (shown below). Her name is also a reference to French dairy products, translated by cow patterns on the jacket and the fact she is often drawn carrying a bottle of milk.

A Tumblr compilation^[5] as well as a Facebook page^[6] were created soon after, as tributes to the character.

External References

About

Microaggression is a neologism used to describe statements or social behaviors that unintentionally reflect a sentiment of discrimination toward a minority group. Online, the concept is hotly debated in various discussions of social injustices, particularly in the context of racism and sexism, with some recognizing it as an emerging form of discrimination evolved from overt expressions of bigotry, while others criticize that the term represents a culture of victimhood driven by political correctness.

Origin

In 1970, the term “microaggression” was coined by Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce in reference to dismissive statements and insults directed toward African Americans. In 1973, the term was expanded by MIT economist Mary Rowe to include statements that could be viewed as insulting toward women. “Microaggression” eventually became a label for casual remarks that could be viewed as disparaging to any socially disadvantaged group.

Spread

On October 4th, 2010, the Johnwileysons YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Microaggression in Everyday Life,” in which author Derald Wing Sue explains microaggression theory (shown below).

On March 22nd, 2011, the Microaggressions Project^[1] blog was launched, which aims to “provide a visual representation of the everyday of ‘microaggressions’.” On December 9th, 2013, BuzzFeed^[2] published a listicle titled “21 Racial Maicroaggressions You Hear On a Daily Basis,” which contained photographs of women and ethnic minorities holding signs containing examples of microaggressions (shown below).

On March 1st, 2014, Harvard University sophomore student Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence launched the Tumblr blog I Too Am Harvard with dozens of photographs of African American students holding whiteboard signs with racially insensitive comments that have been said to them because of their race. According to Matsuda-Lawrence, the campaign was intended to highlight the faces and voices of black students at the university that often go unnoticed due to widespread ethnic stereotypes. Throughout March 2014, the Tumblr blog inspired a series of spin-off campaigns at a number of other Ivy League and prestigious schools across the United States and overseas, including University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Yale University and University of Pennsylvania, among others.

On February 5th, 2015, the SheKnows YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring young women quoting examples of microaggressions (shown below). Within seven months, the video garnered more than 200,000 views and 300 comments.

In May, the University of Wisconsin^[4] released a list containing “Examples of Racial Microaggressions,” which became a subject of controversy for it’s inclusion of questions and statements like “where are you from?”, “America is a melting pot” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” (shown below).

On June 10th, 2015, the higher education news site The College Fix^[10] reported that professors at the University of California had been given examples of microaggressions during faculty training sessions, including the statements “American is the land of opportunity” and “There is only one race, the human race.” On July 22nd, the MTV News YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “If Microaggressions Happened to White People,” featuring skits in which white people are confronted with discriminatory remarks by ethnic minorities (shown below).

Criticisms

On September 11th, 2014, YouTuber TruthRevoltOriginals uploaded a video mocking microaggressions (shown below, left). On July 16th, 2015, YouTuber StevenCrowder uploaded a 1960’s education video parody titled “Microaggression: A Beginner’s #SJW Guide” (shown below, right).

On August 10th, The Atlantic^[6] published an article written by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education president Greg Lukianoff titled “The Coddling of the American Mind,” which cited higher education’s embrace of “emotional reasoning” for the rise in focus on microaggressions and trigger warnings. Additionally, the article warned against shielding students from ideas that may cause emotional discomfort.

“Rather than trying to protect students from words and ideas that they will inevitably encounter, colleges should do all they can to equip students to thrive in a world full of words and ideas that they cannot control.”

On September 7th, 2015, Haidt published an article on his blog Righteous Mind^[9] titled “Where microaggressions really come from: A sociological account,” which cited a 2014 sociology paper in arguing that “a new moral culture of victimhood” was responsible for the rise in concern about microaggressions, and warned that it “creates a society of constant and intense moral conflict as people compete for status as victims or as defenders of victims.” On September 9th, The Atlantic^[8] published a round-up of reader emails responding to “The Coddling of the American Mind.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Still Does The Job is an image macro series featuring various fictional characters from TV shows, films and video games and captions highlighting their dedication to professionalism despite the conflict of interest with their personal beliefs. The series is meant to poke fun at the Kentucky state county clerk Kim Davis who became a subject of controversy in September 2015 after repeatedly refusing to issue licenses for same-sex marriages on the basis of her religious faith in Apostolic Christianity.

Origin

On September 9th, 2015, San Francisco-based graphic designer Shaun Osburn^[1] and his partner Michael tweeted an image macro based on the X-Files protagonist Dana Scully with the caption praising the character’s work ethics in the style of Good Guy Greg, along with a note to the actress Gillian Anderson asking for her reaction (shown below).

Background

In June 2015, Kim Davis, the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, began denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance against the United States Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges from earlier that month which determined that the Constitution requires all states to recognize gay marriage as a valid union. In response, four couples who were denied their marriage license filed a federal lawsuit against Davis. On August 12th, Judge David L. Bunning of United States District Court for Eastern Kentucky ruled that Davis must issue licenses to all couples. On September 3rd, Following a period of deliberation, she was held in contempt of court and jailed before her subordinates began issuing the licenses for same-sex couples. On September 8th, after five days of detainment, Davis was released from the Carter County Detention Center under the stipulation that she does not interfere with her deputies issuing marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.

Spread

In less than 24 hours, Shaun’s post received more than 240 retweets and 480 favorites, as well as a shoutout response from the actress’ official Twitter account.^[11]

Upon its re-submission to /r/funny^[3], the post reached the front page and garnered more than 5,100 points overall (94% upvotes). Throughout the day, several derivative image macro jokes highlighting other fictional characters’ dedication to professionalism followed suit on Imgur^[2] (shown below). On September 10th, Vocativ^[4] picked up on the emerging image macro series in an article titled “This Is The Kim Davis Meme We’ve All Been Waiting For.” In the following days, numerous internet news and humor sites, as well as LGBT magazines, ran compilations of notable examples from the series, including Cheezburger^[5], Reverb Press^[6], Pink News^[7], Reason^[8], New Now Next^[9] and Advocate.^[10]

Examples

Search Interest

[not available]

External References

About

Super Mario Maker is a side-scroll platformer and video game editor developed by Nintendo, which allows players to create and share custom courses for games in the Super Mario franchise using in-game level creation software.

Gameplay

Super Mario Maker allows players to create custom levels for various games in the Super Mario franchise, including Super Mario Bros. (1983), Super Mario Bros. 3(1988), Super Mario World (1990) and New Super Mario Bros. U (2012). New editing tools can be unlocked by creating courses or scanning Amiibo figurines. Custom levels can be shared and downloaded online using the game’s “Course World” system.

History

Pre-Release Announcement

At the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Nintendo announced an upcoming game titled Mario Maker, a Super Mario level editing tool initially created for internal use by the company’s development team. On June 16th, 2015, Nintendo released the official trailer for Super Mario Maker at the 2015 E3, which featured gameplay footage of custom levels created with the software.

Hackathon

Also in June 2015, Nintendo partnered with Facebook for a Super Mario Maker hackathon event, in which 150 Facebook employees created custom levels using the video game software. On July 31st, the GameSpot YouTube channel uploaded gameplay footage of the winning level titled “Love Ship” (shown below).

Release

On September 10th, 2015, Super Mario Maker was released in Japan, followed by North America and Europe the next day.

Super Smash Bros. Level Editor

On September 14th, 2015, Nintendo released a video showcasing a Super Mario Maker-themed stage for Super Smash Bros., announcing that the stage would be available at the end of the month (shown below).

Online Presence

On June 10th, 2014, the /r/MarioMaker^[1] subreddit was launched for discussions about the video game. On December 28th, YouTuber THE rohail uploaded a live-action parody of the game titled “Mario Maker in Real Life,” accumulating upwards of 1.8 million views and 130 comments in nine months (shown below, left). On September 11th, 2015, YouTuber DanTDM uploaded a video in which he plays Super Mario Maker with Nintendo video game designers Shingeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka (shown below, right). Within four days, the video gained over 1.2 million views and 5,200 comments.

The same day, The Game Theorists YouTube channel uploaded a video explaining the history of the game, which cited Automatic Mario as the spiritual predecessor to Super Mario Maker (shown below, left). Also September 11th, YouTuber DashieGames uploaded footage of himself playing various Super Mario Maker levels downloaded from the game’s “Course World” system (shown below, left).

Reception

Following its release, Super Mario Maker received was well received by players and critics alike. Within one week, the game held a Metacritic^[2] rating of 89/100. In the E3 2015 Game Critics Awards, Super Mario Maker received awards for “Best Family/Social Game,” “Best Platformer” and “Best Wii U Game.” At the 2015 Gamescom conference, the game received awards for “Best Console Game Nintendo Wii” and “Best Social/Casual/Online Game.”

Search Interest

External References

About

This Is Snek refers to a phrase used as a caption of a photo of a Indian woman holding a giant snake. The phrase is used as a hashtag or to caption other humorous photos of snakes.

Origin

The exact origin of the photo is unknown, although it began to pop up online on various photo blogs during the winter of 2013-2014.^[1] The caption, an unrelated quote by Indian singer Dharmendra Rada, appeared on the photo during this time as well, and it’s likely that the combination was first created on 4chan, although it hasn’t been archived. The first instance of the photo posted online was on FunnyJunk on January 24th, 2014.^[2]

Precursor

The word “snek” in reference to snake predates the “This Is Snek” image by several years. The word snek has been archived on 4chan almost 10,000 times, and the first instances of the word snek being used to reference a snake date back to at least 2012.^[3] According to Urban Dictionary, snek is often paired with the word “stahp,” as in “Snek Stahp!” in the image below.^[4] In addition, snek is often used as a hashtag on Tumblr, where many use it to tag photos of their own snakes, and Instagram, where there are more than 12,000 posts doing the same.^[5][6]

Spread

The first known reddit post of This is Snek, to the subreddit /r/nottimanderic, was February 10th, 2015 and received 1691 upvotes as of September 2015.^[7] This post, in turn, inspired the subreddit /r/sneks, which has gained over 11,000 readers in the same time span.^[8] The image phrase has been used over 750 times on 4chan, the first of which was May 19th, 2014 on the /s4s/ board.^[9] On November 26th, 2014, the image was posted to reddit again, this time in the /r/indianpeoplefacebook subreddit, where it received 2,888 points (100% upvoted).^[10]

There are thousands of snake-related results at any given time for “This Is Snek” on Tumblr,^[11] and the hashtag #thisissnek produces a variety of results on Instagram and Twitter.^[12][13] There are 24 deviations on DeviantArt.^[14]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Penis Inspection Day is a copypasta which asks reader if they remember a school event the poster claims to remember in which their penis was inspected by a school staff member, usually a gym teacher. The joke comes from the subject mistaking their molestation for a physical routine.

Origin

The copypasta was popularized by a widely-spread screenshot of a Yahoo! Answers question (seen below), which was first shared as early as March of 2010.^[1]

<

I was talking to some people I know, and apparently I’m the only person who remembers “Penis Inspection Day” in Elementary School. The gym teacher took us into the washroom one at a time while everyone else kept playing, and tugged our foreskin back and inspected our penis to make sure we were developing properly and keeping clean. Surely I can’t be the only one who remembers this, other people must have had Penis Inspection Day at their school too.

Spread

Following the distribution of the screenshot, the question began to be asked multiple times on both Yahoo! Answers like the original, as well as other websites. An Urban Dictionary definition was submitted in December of 2010.^[2] In March of 2012, the image was submitted to the subreddit /r/funny, where it gained over 500 upvotes on the sub and 900 upvotes on Imgur.^[4][5] In Novermber of 2014, Reddit user fuckingpsychopath asked about the supposed event on the subreddit /r/OutOfTheLoop, where it gained 370 upvotes prior to being archived.^[3]

Search Interest

External References

Note: This entry may contain spoilers to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

About

Quiet is a fictional character that appears in the 2015 stealth action video game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Quiet is a sniper with seemingly supernatural abilities that the player can recruit early in the game. Since her reveal in 2013, the character has become the subject of controversy due to her sexualized design.

Origin

While Quiet originally made her first appearance in the VGA 2012 trailer of The Phantom Pain on December 10th, 2012,^[1] the character later made her official debut in the E3 2013 trailer of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on June 10th, 2013 (shown below, left). Quiet is first encountered during the prologue of The Phantom Pain and later reappears in the 11th mission of the game where players are given the opportunity to recruit the sniper after defeating her in battle (shown below, right).

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Work in progress.

Various Examples

Work in progress.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Youtube – The Phantom Pain Trailer

Ylilauta is a Finnish imageboard, created in 2011, when the two largest boards Lauta.net and Kotilauta merged.^[1]

History

The Finnish imageboard Kuvalauta was created in 2007.

About

“Trap Queen” is a hip hop song by rapper Fetty Wap about his appreciation for a loyal girlfriend with whom he makes and distributes illegal drugs. Since its release in April 2014, the song has been widely covered, parodied and remixed online.

Origin

The name “Trap Queen” is derived from the term “trap” or “trap house,” which is often defined on Urban Dictionary^[3][4] as a location for drug dealers to make and sell narcotics. In March 2014, rapper Fetty Wap released the song “Trap Queen” as his debut single, which contains lyrics proclaiming his affection for a girlfriend who assists him with drug dealing operations.

Spread

On May 4th, 2014, Urban Dictionary^[1] user OG Trap Queen submitted an entry for “Trap Queen,” defining it as a fiercely loyal woman who listens to trap music.

On August 7th, Fetty Wap released the official music video for the track on YouTube, where it received upwards of 237 million views and 76,000 comments in the next year (shown below).

On November 20th, the pop culture blog Complex^[5] published an interview with Fetty Wap, in which revealed that the song was about a woman he dealt drugs with while “being in the trap.” On March 20th, YouTuber Matt Steffanina uploaded footage of a choreographed dance for the song (shown below, left). Within six months, the video accumulated more than 22 million views and 7,800 comments. On April 23rd, 2015, YouTuber short334 uploaded a parody music video titled “Fat Queen,” which gained over 4.6 million views and 4,800 comments in the first five months (shown below, right).

On May 29th, Redditor Nimbus2000 submitted a post titled “What’s a ‘trap queen’?” to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[2] subreddit, to which several Redditors replied by citing the drug dealing woman in the Fetty Wap song. In three months, the post garnered upwards of 1,800 votes (91% upvoted) and 400 comments.

Various Examples

George Dalton Cover

On July 21st, 2015, child actor George Dalton uploaded a music video to YouTube in which he and other children cook pies while performing a cover of the Fetty Wap track (shown below). In September, several blogs published articles mocking the video, including Billboard,^[6]Jezebel,^[7]MTV^[8] and The Daily Dot.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

“Maymay” is a phonetic spelling of a common mispronunciation of the word meme, which is typically used ironically in various online communities to mock mainstream Internet culture.

Origin

On January 5th, 2009, YouTuber ThatsErapProductions uploaded a video titled “Top 10 Internet Memes and Phenomena – listverse lists,” in which he pronounces the word “meme” as “may-may” (shown below).

Spread

On March 11th, 2009, Newgrounds Forums^[2] user Andsoitbegins submitted a post titled “How do you pronounce ‘meme?’,” to which user thisisL replied that he pronounced the term as “may may” (shown below). On September 2nd, IGN Forums^[3] user legacyAccount submitted a thread titled “Am I the only one who pronounces ‘meme’ like ‘may-may’?” Over the next several years, additional IGN Forums users submitted posts about the mispronunciation.^[7]

On May 30th, 2013, YouTuber BrendanielReads uploaded a video titled "Tips For Making A Great Meme (or “may-may”)", featuring instructions on making image macros and rage comics (shown below, left). On July 30th, the /r/maymay^[4] subreddit was launched. On December 17th, YouTuber Matt Haywood uploaded a video titled “H0w to make le dank maymays kid,” featuring a screencast of a “coaxed into a snafu” illustration (shown below, right).

On February 27th, 2014, Redditor xvvhiteboy submitted a post titled “Le New Meme: Nice MayMay Man” to the /r/circlejerk^[8] subreddit, featuring an illustration of man’s face in front of a yellow and blue color wheel background with the caption “Is maymay / and man” (shown below). In the first four days, the post gained over 3,500 up votes and 180 comments, inspiring an entire series of Nice MayMay Man image macros.

On March 1st, 2014, Redditor brilee213 submitted a post titled “What is ‘MayMay’?” to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[1] subreddit, to which Redditor Patjay replied that it was an “intentional incorrect spelling of ‘meme’.” On September 26th, the /r/dankmaymays^[6] subreddit was launched for posts featuring dank memes. In February 2015, the humor site DankMayMays^[5] was launched, which highlights a variety of ironic memes from the /s4s/ (shit 4chan says) board on 4chan.

Search Interest

External References

work in progress, get in touch if you’d like to help!

Overview

On September 14th, 2015, a 14 year-old boy named Ahmed Mohamed was arrested in Irving, Texas, after bringing a home-made clock to school. Police and school administrators described the device as a “hoax bomb,” but later did not charge the student with anything after determining that the device was not intended to be anything other than a clock.^[1]

Background

“My hobby is to invent stuff,” said Ahmed Mohamed to the Dallas Morning News. The boy was a member of the robotics club in middle school, and he hoped to impress his new high school teachers with his knowledge of circuitry and electronics.

Instead, the teacher suggested that he not “show any other teachers,” but when the clock beeped during an English class, he showed his teacher the invention after class. The teacher kept the clock, and Mohamed was pulled from his sixth period class by a police officer and his principal. He was later interrogated by several more officers and sent to a juvenile detention center, where he was finally allowed to contact his parents.^[2]

Left: Mohamed’s clock; Right: Mohamed under arrest.

Notable Developments

The following day, on September 15th, 2015, the Irving Independent School District suspended Mohamed for three days for bringing the clock to school, and released the following letter to the parents of students in the district, claiming that although they investigated a Mohamed’s device as a threat they did not find it to be threatening, but that this was a good time for parents to discuss what types of objects were allowed and not allowed in school.^[3]

Online Reactions

As soon as this story was published by the Dallas Morning News, it began to accrue heavy online reaction across all social media sites. An initial post of the photograph of Mohamed being arrested to the subreddit /r/pics received 5,899 points (96% upvoted),^[4] while an additional post of a video to the subreddit /r/videos of Ahmed’s father running for President in his native country of Sudan received 6,146 points (95% upvoted).^[5]

#IStandWithAhmed

Soon after the first news of Mohamed’s arrest began to go viral, Mohamed’s two older sisters, Eyman, 18, and Ayisha, 17, created a Twitter account for Mohamed using the hashtag people were using to talk about his story, @IStandWithAhmed. Within 24 hours of the account’s creation, he had 31,400 followers.

The #IStandWithAhmed hashtag began to trend worldwide in the 24 hours after Mohamed’s arrest. Twitter released this chart demonstrating the hashtag’s growth. According to analytics group Topsy, the hashtag had been used almost 500,000 times in less than 24 hours, and in the afternoon of September 16th, 2015, was being used at a rate of about 100,000 times per hour.

Many political figures and celebrities tweeted about Mohamed. President Barack Obama offered him a trip to the White House in a tweet that received over 190,000 retweets in less than three hours. Hillary Clinton offered her support, and the astronaut Chris Hadfield offered Mohamed the chance to visit the science show Generator. Other celebrities, especially those of color, like comedian Aziz Ansari, blogger Anil Dash, and musician Questlove, tweeted in support. Many others took selfies of themselves holding up clocks in support.

Media Coverage

Search Interest

Not yet available.

External References

Editor’s Note: Work in progress.

About

School-Live! (Japanese: がっこうぐらし!), also known as Gakkou Gurashi, is a manga and anime series written by Kaihou Norimitsu and ilustrated by Chiba Sadoru. The series follows the exploits of four girls who life on school, being the sole survivors of a zombie apocalypse in the city.

History

Gakkou Gurashi was first serialized in May of 2012,The anime was announced in June of 2014.The anime aired in July the 9th of 2015.

Reception

Gakkou Gurashi manga sale went up 10 time after the anime first episode of anime aired.

Online History

[WIP]

Fandom

[WIP]

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s note: This entry will remain under the “Event” category until its official release in 2016.

Overview

Pokémon GO is an upcoming game for iOS and Android mobile devices which uses augmented reality technology to battle, train and trade virtual Pokémon in real-world locations. The game is currently being developed by Nintendo and Niantic, Inc for release in 2016.

Background

Precursor

On April 1st, 2014, Google Maps released an update that included Pokémon-capturing abilities using Google Maps. In an official blog post,^[8] Google Project Manager Tatsuo Nomura announced the app’s Pokémon features for both iOS and Android systems. Google Maps also posted an announcement video which received over 17 million views as of September 16, 2015.

The following day, the blog post was updated to reveal the announcement was part of Google’s 2014 April Fool’s activities and revealed the feature would only last for a few more days.

Release Announcements

On September 9th, 2015, the The Official Pokémon Channel YouTube channel released a trailer for Pokémon GO, featuring live-action footage of young people interacting with augmented reality Pokémon characters with their mobile devices (shown below). Within one week, the video gained over 13.6 million views.

The game is set to be released in 2016 along with the Pokémon Go Plus, a wearable device that connects to a smart phone using Bluetooth and sends notifications when a virtual Pokémon is nearby.

Developer Background

The game is currently being developed by Nintendo in partnership with Niantic, Incorporated. Niantic, Inc. was previously a Google subsidiary founded by John Hanke, a Google executive who was also founder of Google Maps.^[9] Niantic had established previous virtual reality gaming success with their mobile game Ingress while still a Google subsidiary.

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

The same day, several posts about the announcement trailer reached the front page of Reddit, including submissions on the /r/pokemon,^[1] /r/android^[2] and /r/gaming^[3] subreddits. On September 10th, a 4chan user replied to a thread about the game joking about threatening kids with violence to obtain their rare Pokémon (shown below). That day, a screenshot of the reply was posted in the /r/pokemon^[6] subreddit, where it received upwards of 5,400 votes (96% upvoted) in the first six days.

On September 14th, Tumblr user delacroix911^[5] posted a web comic in which a Pokémon Go player battles Pope Francis at the Vatican in Italy for the Pokémon Arceus (shown below). That day, Redditor Doomherald3000 reposted the comic on the /r/pokemon^[4] subreddit. Within 48 hours, the Tumblr post gathered more than 42,600 notes and the Reddit post received over 5,100 votes (94% upvoted).

Search Interest

External References

About

“Quizzaciously” is an English word meaning “in a mocking manner.” In September 2015, the word was widely referenced online in response to a Vsauce episode noting its position as a Google search hapax legomenon,^[1] a linguistic term for a word that only appears once in a body of text.

Origin

On September 15th, 2015, the Vsauce YouTube channel uploaded an explanatory video on the statistical phenomenon known as Zipf’s law (shown below), in which the host Michael Stevens briefly mentions the word “quizzaciously” as a notable example of a hapax legomenon in the English language, since it only appears once in Google Search results^[8] despite its inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Spread

That day, Redditor PM_ME_LEGAL_PAPERS submitted the question “Reddit, have you ever seen the work ‘quizzaciously’?” to the /r/AskReddit^[5] subreddit. Shortly after, Vsauce host Michael Stevens posted a tweet^[6] announcing that the Reddit post doubled Google’s results for “quizzaciously” (shown below). That evening, the /r/quizzaciously^[2] subreddit was launched for discussions about the word.

On September 16th, a Wikipedia^[3] page for “Quizzaciously” was created, which notes the word’s former status as a hapax legomenon. That day, the article was flagged for deletion.

Also on September 16th, the single-serving site Quizzaciously.com was launched, featuring an embed of the Vsauce episode. Meanwhile, YouTuber Liam Heffernan^[7] changed the title for the music video “Chacarron Macarron” by El Mudo to “Quizzaciously.”

Search Interest

Not yet available.

External References

About

Stuart Ashen known online as Ashens, is a British comedian, actor, animator and reviewer who started his career as an extra in British comedy and satirical series’ and eventually gained a large YouTube following in the years following 2009 for his reviews of generally poorly produced bootleg wares, tastings of poor or out of date consumables and various comedy sketches. He has since gained 900k subscribers to his YouTube Channel with 200 million overall views.

History

Stuart Clive Ashen was born on the 16th of December 1976 and has subsequently achieved a PhD in Psychology. Ashen’s started his acting career in 2003 appearing as extras in various satirical productions along with a minor presence on the web under the moniker Dr Ashen. Between 2007 to 2011, Ashen’s has appeared in various British comedy and satirical shows such as Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe and The Armstrong and Miller Show. He has also starred in a few online projects such as Ashens Techdump and Sci-Fi series The Proxy.

YouTube Career

Since 2006, Ashen started the YouTube page “Ashens” in which Ashen created reviews for old and poor quality electronic products, these reviews being interspersed with various comedy clips and animations. In 2010 given the good reaction and small following to his previous work, Ashen increased the production of his review series having at least an episode a week. Since then, the Ashens channel has grown into a satirical comedy review channel with many different series and projects being undertaken by Ashen.

Poundland Special

One of the most popular series Ashen produces is the Poundland Special series. Poundland is a chain of reduced item stores in the UK with a similar concept to American 99 cent stores. Due to the poor quality of consumer products on sale at these stores, Ashen’s reviews of these products with emphasis being placed on their over advertised quality against their proper quality has lead to a series of comedic videos showing the typical quality one can expect from such a store.

Bootleg and “Tat” Reviews

Similar to the Poundland Special reviews, Ashen has also received numerous bootleg and worthless products for him to review by his fan base. These products include fake iPhones, Tablets, Phones, Electronic devices, toys and other “tat” which are reviewed to the same standard as their genuine counterparts. Due to this, the juxtaposition between the strange characteristics of the bootleg material against the genuine material has lead to various comedic moments.

Food Special

Along side his videos of consumer products, Ashen also tastes and reviews various poor quality or out of date food. These foods have ranged from infamous food products such as the “Full chicken in a can”, “Sandwich in a can”, “Poundland all day breakfast” and various out of date foods such as 17 year old chocolate and 30 year old beer. Ashen’s subsequent reactions to the food’s appearance and taste have made this series become a fan favourite and caused the series to be occasional rather than stick to its original one off special.

Popular Creations

Sad Onions.

Sad Onions refers to Ashen’s term for the standard age restriction logo on toys and materials for children which Ashen describes as a Sad Onion. Due to the reoccurring gag on various Ashens videos, the phase Sad Onion has became a popular term among fans of the channel along with the description now being widely used to refer to the age restriction logo.

An Excellent Product

An Excellent Product refers to the Chef Excellence range of “Stay Fresh Resealable Bags” which were reviewed by Ashen during his Poundland Special 2 Review. Due to the poor quality of packaging and the amateur artwork used on the front of the packaging combined with a stock photo of a chef as a mascot, the product was lambasted as the definition of Poundland tat. The phase “An Excellent Product” subsequently became a joke referring to the poor quality of a product Ashen was currently reviewing with it being likened to the “Stay Fresh” bags.

The Brown Sofa

The Brown Couch refers to Ashen’s brown suede sofa which has became a staple of the channel. Due to it ubiquitous nature in most of Ashen’s video reviews, the sofa has became a popular symbol of the channel with it appearing in fan art and it being one of the Ashens trademarks.

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Metal Gear Solid V is a stealth action video game developed by Kojima Production, published by Konami, and directed by famed designer Hideo Kojima. The sixth installment in the Metal Gear Solid series, the game centers around the character Snake in 1975 and 1984 as he goes on the path of revenge against the organization known as Cipher for the destruction of his motherbase and the death of his comrades.

History

On September 1st, 2012, Metal Gear Solid V was first announced during PAX 2012 under the title Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (shown below, left). On December 10th, 2012, Kojima Productions, under the fake name of Moby Dick Studios, unveiled a trailer to a game titled The Phantom Pain during VGA 2012 (shown below, right).

On March 27th, 2013, Kojima announced during GDC 2013 that Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain are part of the same game that has been officially titled as Metal Gear Solid V: the Phantom Pain (shown below, left). On March 18th, 2014, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was released as a standalone prologue to The Phantom Pain for the Sony PlayStation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One (launch trailer shown below, right). A PC port of Ground Zeroes was released on December 18th, 2015, via Steam.

On September 1st, 2015, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released worldwide for the Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC. The game’s online multiplayer component titled Metal Gear Online, is currently scheduled for release on October 6th, 2015 (shown below, right).

Reception

Ground Zeroes was met with mixed reponses while The Phantom Pain was met with critical acclaim upon launch. Both games have been praised for their open ended and emergent gameplay.The Phantom Pain was met with further praise due to its scope, replayability, and themes that delves into subjects such as the cold war, nuclear weapons, child soldiers, language, and disease. Ground Zeroes was criticized for its short length and steep price tag. The Phantom Pain was met with criticism due to its more lighter approach in storytelling in favor of gameplay which differs from previous installments in the series that were more story focused.

Controversy

Quiet’s Design

A Hideo Kojima Game

Konami Review Invitation

Cut Content

Online Presence

Related Memes

Punished Snake

A Weapon To Surpass Metal Gear

They Played Us Like A Damn Fiddle!

Such A Lust For Revenge

Nuclear

The Phantom Pain

Fan Theories

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About

Hot Debate Guy is the nickname of Los Angeles resident George Caruso, who was pictured standing behind moderator Jake Tapper during the September 2015 Republican presidential primary debate.

Origin

During the Republican presidential debate held on September 16th, 2015, Twitter user Khier Casino tweeted a picture of his television screen cropped around a man seated in the audience at the event, referring to him as a “fox” (shown below).

Spread

That evening, many other Twitter users commented on the man’s physical attractiveness, many of which featured the hashtag “#HotDebateGuy” (shown below)

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the Internet’s reaction to the man, including

Identity Discovered

On September 17th, 2015, CNN^[3] published an article featuring highlights from the debate, which identified the man as aspiring filmmaker George Caruso. In an interview with the news outlet, Caruso revealed he was a fan of former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush but had yet to decide on a Republican presidential candidate for the upcoming election.

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Taylor Swift™ No Copyright Infringement Intended is a phrase used to mock Taylor Swift’s aggressive pursuit defense of the copyright on her lyrics and name, most frequently on Tumblr, where users paste the copyright notice after using a number or phrase that can also be found in a Taylor Swift song or song title.

Origin

Sources differ on the origin of this meme. Buzzfeed has reported that the meme in response to a cease and desist received on September 4th, 2015 by the podcaster Alison Kilkenny, who records the podcast Citizen Radio with Jamie Kilstein.^[1] Kilkenny tweeted that she had received a cease & desist for from Taylor Swift’s legal team, despite having only discussed the star and recited some of her lyrics on the podcast, instead of actually playing a song.^[2] Kilkenny was unclear as to why the cease & desist had been issued, but nonetheless she complied with the letter and removed the episode from iTunes. It had been previously reported ^[9] that in October of 2014 that Swift had copyrighted several phrases and lyrics from her hit record 1989, including:

•"Party like it’s 1989"
•"This sick beat"
•"Cause we never go out of style"
•"Could show you incredible things"
•"Nice to meet you. Where you been?"

It is possible that Kilstein recited one of these copyrighted lyrics, thereby spurring the cease and desist, which caused the ridicule.

However, other sources on Reddit claim a different source for the meme.^[6] Later that month, on September 13th, 2013, Niall Horan of the boy band One Direction celebrated his 22nd birthday at a concert by beginning to sing Taylor Swift’s song “22,” stopping after a few lines and claiming that he didn’t know the words;^[4] according to Tumblr user taylorswiftandmisandry, a user on Instagram posted a video of this, captioning it (Taylor Swift™ No copyright infringement intended. Property of TASLLC Management 2014©).^[5] The first posts on Tumblr using the phrase showed up on the same day; some were directly referencing Horan’s birthday.^[3]

Spread

The phrase can be found on hundreds of Tumblr posts, and throughout the Twitter communities of both Taylor Swift and One Direction fans. In addition it has been profiled on Buzzfeed,^[1] Pollstar,^[8] and Cheezburger.^[9]

Notable Examples

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Graphic Design is My Passion is a sarcastic expression often used to caption images featuring frog clipart on a dark, cloudy background. On Tumblr, the phrase is often used mockingly when referring to the site’s graphic design staff when changes are made to Tumblr’s user interface.

Origin

On July 7th, 2014, Tumblr user Yungterra^[1] posted an image of a cloudy sky with a green cartoon frog clipart image and the caption “graphic design is my passion” written in Papyrus font (shown below, left). The cartoon frog can be found on the clipart website Classroom Clipart,^[4] where it has a copyright date of 2011 (shown below, right).

Spread

A single topic blog on tumblr aptly titled Graphic Design is My Passion posts and reblogs various deviations of the meme from tumblr.^[2] Additionally, the meme became popular enough to be archived and documented in the meme-documentation blog memearchives.^[3]

Various Examples

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#IStandWithAhmed is a hashtag on Twitter used by supporters of 14-year-old high school student Ahmed Mohamed of Irving, Texas, who became a subject of national interest after he was arrested for bringing a self-assembled digital clock to school in September 2015. Many have speculated that the incident is an example of Islamophobia and racial profiling.

Origin

On September 14th, 2015, 9th grader Ahmed Mohamed brought his homemade electronic clock to school to show to his engineering teacher, who advised Mohamed not to show other instructors the device. After the clock’s alarm went off during English class. Mohamed was sent to the school’s office where he was arrested by several police officers for “possession of a hoax bomb.”

That evening, Twitter user Amneh Jafari posted a tweet^[5] speculating that Mohamed would’ve been “labeled as a genius” if he had a different name along with the hashtags “#doublestandards” and “#IStandWithAhmed” (shown below). In the next 72 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 690 favorites.

Spread

Within 24 hours of his arrest, an outpouring of support for Mohamed on Twitter caused the #IStandWithAhmed^[3] hashtag to begin trending worldwide.

On September 16th, Mohamed’s two older sisters created the @IStandWithAhmed^[1] Twitter feed. In 48 hours, the account accumulated upwards of 93,000 followers.

Also on September 16th, Twitter’s official @TwitterData^[4] feed released a chart visualizing the hashtag’s rapid growth (shown below).

On September 18th, USA Today^[6] published an interview with Amneh Jafari, who explained why she created the hashtag and how she felt about its success on Twitter.

""It’s about all the other kids that have been discriminated against in this country – no matter what religion, race. I feel like it also represents them, as well."

According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[2] #IStandWithAhmed was tweeted over 1.2 million times within the first 72 hours.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References