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Don't Talk To Me Or My Son Ever Again

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Work in progress


About

“Don’t Talk To Me Or My Son Ever Again” is a catchphrase paired with pictures of characters containing an edited, diminutive version of themselves. In late 2015, posts containing variations of the picture saw a significant resurgence on Tumblr and Twitter.

Origin

On November 4th, 2014, Tumblr user splendidland[1] posted a picture featuring the character Spike Spiegel from the anime series Cowboy Bebop with a diminute version of himself, featuring the catchphrase “don’t ever talk to me or my son ever again”. The post gained over 6,300 notes in the following year.



Spread

[WIP]

Various Examples



Search interest

Not available

External References


Dutch Man City Bandwagoner

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The first instance of this meme arose in the year 2015, beginning of the 2015/16 premier league football season. On the 4chan board /sp/ (sports). It started with a single thread entitled, “ETERNALBLUEMOONTHREAD” with the original poster showing a dutch flag. It was started with the intention of discussing the team Manchester City.

The poster regularly posted the same thread with hopes of discussing his team, however the Dutch Bandwagoner (as he was dubbed) was regularly mocked and insulted due to his choosing of the football team that would win trophies. He kept posting the thread throughout the season despite this. In one thread the Dutch Bandwagoner posted a picture of himself in one of his threads around the month of November (which is usually regarded as a bad move on 4chan). This led to hundreds of photoshopped images of him in various scenarios involving either Man City or showing him in a negative light in regards to his reason for supporting the club.

As such The Dutch Bandwagoner stopped posting the threads as much but Anonymous users would “Dutchpost” which involves the posting of the previously mentioned photoshopped images and further mocking the user for his appearance and his club.

Buruma

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[WiP]


About

Buruma (Japanese: ブルマ) is the Japanese term for Bloomers, which were used as PE outfits in Japan in the 20th century. Not to be confused with gym outfits in general, buruma refers to the specific underwear-like gym shorts part of the outfit. Despite no longer being used officially in present day, their close resemblance to underwear made them a common form of fanservice in anime and manga and kept them alive as a fetish item amongst its fanbase.

Origin

According to books on the history of Japanese sports,[1] buruma were introduced in Japan as women’s clothing for physical education in 1903. Initially introduced for ease of movement, the PE outfit changed its appearance several times throughout the 20th century.[2] The final change in appearance occured in the mid-1960s; resulting in the pittari (tight-fitting) buruma, which were a drastic minimazation from previous versions (shown below). This lead to the pittari buruma having the drawback of not always covering underwear. However, concerns over this were borne largely in silence until the early 1990s, when schools and individuals began to choose sports shorts instead due to the exponentially increasing modesty concerns; resulting in a rapid decrease in buruma use in the following decade. Nowadays, the usage of buruma as a required PE uniform in Japan has mostly disappeared.


Later Style (left) | Early Style (right)


Spread

The buruma’s revealing nature and close resemblance to underwear lead to the bloomer becoming a popular type of clothing fetish. Despite it no longer being used officially, the piece has survived through anime and manga where it’s frequently used as a form of fanservice. Although the fetish commonly extends itself to the PE outfit, the buruma has remained the most consistent throughout these fanworks; buruma fanworks often feature additional elements, most notably having the character wear a track jacket over the shirt or thigh-highs instead of socks (shown below).


Examples utilizing the Track Jacket and Thigh-Highs


[WiP: Mostly the Pixiv and Booru stats]

Examples



Search Interest


External References

[1]Wikipedia – Bloomers in Japan

[2]The Japan Times – Bloomers

[3]Pixiv – ブルマ

[4]Danbooru -

[5]Gelbooru -

[6]DeviantArt -

Need For Speed

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About

Need for Speed (NFS) is a racing video game series published by Electronic Arts known for its high speed police chases, car customization and exotic track locations. In the racing game genre, the franchise is the most commercially successful of all time, having sold over 150 million copies within 10 years of launch.

Gameplay

In the series, players pilot various race cars in a variety of tracks within single player or multiplayer game modes. The games in the series takes place in many different locations and contain differing mechanics in regards to physics, car damage, police pursuits and car tuning.

History

On August 31st, 1994, the first installment in the series The Need for Speed was released for the 3DO console and was subsequently ported to the MS DOS, PlayStation and Sega Saturn systems (shown below, left). The driving experience in the game was unique for simulating real world physics and car sounds, stemming from a collaboration with Road & Track magazine. The game contained seven tracks and eight licensed cars, along with car commentaries, detailed specs and videos showcasing the model in real life. On March 31st, 1997, Need for Speed II was released, which added car customization and removed police chases (shown below, right).



On March 25th, 1998, Need for Speed III was released for PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows systems, which reintegrated police pursuits into the game (shown below, left). In March 1999, Need for Speed: High Stakes was released for PlayStation and Windows, which was the first game in the series to include vehicle damage.



Over the next 15 years, 18 more titles in the series were released for Windows, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PS3, PS4, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii and Wii U. In 2012, Criterion Games announced full control of the franchise. In 2013, Ghost Games UK joined with Criterion in developing Need for Speed games.

Reception

The Need for Speed series is the most commercially successful in the racing game genre. In October 2014, EA announced the franchise sold more than 150 million copies since 1994.

Online Presence

On February 8th, 2006, the Need for Speed YouTube[2] channel was launched, accumulating upwards of 187 million video views and 620,000 subscribers over the next 10 years. On April 14th, a Need for Speed Wiki was made on Wikia.[7] In March 2009, the @needforspeed[4] Twitter feed was created, garnering more than 374,000 followers within seven years. In September 2010, a Facebook[5] page titled “Need for Speed” was launched, which gained over 17 million likes in six years. On December 29th, the /r/needforspeed[6] subreddit was created for discussions about the video game franchise. On Twitch,[1] a directory page contains links to feeds of Need for Speed streams.

Related Memes

#CraigItUp

#CraigItUp is a hashtag used to mock the creative director of Criterion Games Craig Sullivan’s design of the Need for Speed games. Commentary typically employs the use of 420 MLG Montages, glitch & bug videos, image macros and general negativity towards the games.



Search Interest

External References

Valentine's Day at an All-Boys School

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About

Valentine’s Day at an All-boys School (Japanese: 男子校バレンタイン; Danshikō Valentine) refers to a series of parody illustrations inspired by a photo of a romantic day event at an all-boys school. Since the photo was posted to Twitter on 2013 Valentine’s day, many illustrations has been uploaded to the social network as well as Japanese illustrators community Pixiv by Fujoshi or female otakus addicted to Boy’s Love.

Origin

The trigger of this illustration meme was a joke photo of a boy getting a lot of Valentine’s presents from his classmates in an all-boys high school, which was posted to Twitter by a user @naoyaynyn on February 14th, 2013.[1] As Valentine’s Day in Japan and several East Asian countries is marketed as a commercial-driven event of women gifting men chocolates or candies as a sign of affection, this photo at all-boys school was received quite funny on the social web.



Spread

Though it’s unknown how many retweets and favorites the original post had because the user has removed it, it’s clear that that funny photo also evoked Fujoshi’s homosexual delusion so much. Just after it went viral on the social network, it got mutated into a template for their favorite parody art style: tracing. Over a hundred of illustration mimicking the composition of this photo by Fujoshi’s favorite manga/anime/game characters had been posted to Twitter and Pixiv[2] in that month. And those posts were soon summarized in naver matome and togetter articles[3][4] as well as reported by Taiwanese online new media gammenews in the following year.[5] Besides, as Pixiv’s art news section Pixiv Spotlight mentioned in later years[6], it has been also reclaimed annually in parodies for the romantic day of February.

Various Examples




Search Interest

External References

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

Rolled up Shirts with Black Bikinis

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About

Rolled up Shirts with Black Bikinis (Japanese: たくし上げ黒ビキニ; Takushiage Kuro Bikini) refer to a popular motif for moe illustrations where girls are rolling up their shirts and showing black bikinis. Throughout its trend on Twitter and Pixiv in February 2015, this sexy pose was established its concept as a moe situation in the Japanese otaku culture.

Origin

According to Pixiv Encyclopedia[1] and Nico Nico Pedia[2], the trigger of this illustration meme was a series of fan arts for Kantai Collection (KanColle) which were posted on Twitter by a Japanese illustrator Ichijirushi (いちじるし)[3] in the beginning of February 2015. His first work of a fleet girl Hamakaze[4] rolling up her shirt and showing black bikini was uploaded on the 2nd day of that month.[5] Then, his another tweet summarizing several fleet girl works in in the following week had earned over 3000 retweets and 10000 favorites within its first 3 days (shown below). And from the very beginning, the term “Rolled up Shirts with Black Bikinis” was used by the author to express this situation.[6]


Translation:

Here are my recent works for Rolled up Shirts with Black Bikini series. It will make me happy if you like these and draw your own ones.

Naturally, Rolling up clothes wasn’t a new idea. There are so many photos of female models or cosplayers rolling up their skirts/shirts by hands or a mouth, and showing swimsuits, underwear or naked bodies. Particularly among otaku artists, this has been a cliche motif for hentai illustrations since before, which is evidenced by over thousands of illustrations tagged under “Roll up” (たくし上げ) in online illustrators communities.[7][8]

Nevertheless, this series of his works was the milestone in the subculture because his catchy naming and convincing illustrations of big boobs girls succeeded to show its allure enough to establish the motif as one of the moe concepts.

Spread

Within that month, the term became to a hashtag on the social network[9], and over 300 of “Rolled up Shirts with Black Bikinis” illustrations had been uploaded to Twitter, Pixiv[10] and Nico Nico Seiga[11] by many amateur illustrators. Because these followers works were largely associated with the KanColle fandom due to its origin, this illustration fad was quickly covered by many KanColle-affiliated matome blogs and a togetter article[12] as well as featured by Pixiv’s art news section Pixiv Spotlight in English.[13]

Meanwhile, this illustration trend actually ended in a short period because of the advent of new moe fetish item Front Zipper Swimsuit in the following month. But after that, its concept is widely shared among otaku people by the term coined by the originator.

Various Examples




Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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

[1]Pixiv Encyclopedia – たくし上げ黒ビキニ (Japanese)

[2]Nico Nico Pedia – たくし上げ黒ビキニ (Japanese)

[3]Twitter – いちぢるし (@one_emblem)

[4]Twitter – いちぢるし on Twitter: "浜風っぱい http://t.co/gXGOnU5qYh" / Posted on 02-02-2015 (Japanese)

[5]Kancolle Wiki – Hamakaze

[6]Twitter – いちぢるし on Twitter: "今晩はたくし上げ黒ビキニあげられないかもなぁ…。仕事しないと…。" / Posted on 02-03-2015 (Japanese)

[7]Pixiv – Search results for the tag たくし上げ

[8]Nico Nico Seiga – Search results for the tag たくし上げ

[9]Twitter – Search results for the hashtag #たくし上げ黒ビキニ

[10]Pixiv – Search results for the tag たくし上げ黒ビキニ

[11]Nico Nico Seiga – Search results for the tag たくし上げ黒ビキニ

[12]Togetter – #たくし上げ黒ビキニ まとめ / Posted on 02-09-2015 (Japanese)

[13]Pixiv Spotlight – Rolled up shirts with black bikinis! / 02-17-2015

Jeb Bush's "America" Tweet

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Overview

Jeb Bush’s “America” Tweet refers to a tweet shared by Republican candidate Jeb Bush, featuring a picture of a personalised gun followed by the words “America”. Shortly after the image was posted, the tweet received a number of parodies by other Twitter users.

Background

On February 16th, 2016, Jeb Bush’s official Twitter account[1] tweeted out a picture of Jeb Bush’s personalised handgun, followed by the words “America”, receiving over 10,000 retweets and 7,000 likes in the same day


#BoycottBeyonce

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[Work in progress]

Overview

#BoycottBeyonce is an online campaign to boycott pop star Beyoncé Knowles in protest of the singer’s music video and Super Bowl 50 half-time performance for her track “Formation,” which some accused of “race baiting” and promoting anti-law enforcement attitudes.

Background

On February 6th, 2016. Knowles released the music video for her song “Formation,” which features (shown below). In the first 10 days, the video gained over 26 million views and 33,000 comments.



That day, Twitter users began posting tweets criticizing the imagery contained within the video along with the hashtag #BoycottBeyonce (shown below).



Notable Developments

Super Bowl Performance

On February 7th, 2016 at approximately 8 p.m. (EST), the halftime show kicked off at the 50th National Football League championship game with Coldplay playing their hit songs, including “Viva la Vida,” “Paradise,” and “Adventure of a Lifetime,” before they were joined by Bruno Mars’ performance of his 2015 pop funk hit Uptown Funk and Beyoncé’s live debut of her latest new single “Formation” (shown below). During the performance



That evening

On February 14th, Saturday Night Live featured a parody trailer for a film in which white people realize that Knowles is black following the Super Bowl halftime show (shown below).



Protest

On February 16th, an" Anti-Beyonce Protest Rally" was held at the NFL headquarters in New York City. The rally was organized by former New York City mayor Rudy Guiliani to protest “race-baiting stunt at the Super Bowl,” as well as the political tactics used by the groups Black Lives Matter and the Black Panthers.

That day, Twitter user Glenn Schuck posted a photographs showing only counter protesters at the headquarters (shown below). That day, The Daily Dot reported on the event.



Search Interest

External References


Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash

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About

Bernie Sanders’ Dank Meme Stash is a Facebook group page devoted to creating and distributing memes, generally image macros and exploitables in support of Bernie Sanders during his campaign for the nomination during the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary. The group is well-known for producing memes about Sanders at a high rate of mutation.

History

The Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash (BSDM) was created in early October 2015 by college students Will Dowd and Sean Walsh.[1] It is unknown whether or not the pair was influenced by the Facebook group Barnie Sandlers, who had associated Bernie Sanders with dankness in a late July. Will’s first post was on October 1st, 2015; it was a photograph of Bernie Sanders putting a man in a headlock during a wrestling event; the photograph had notably been featured in a popular /r/psbattle thread a few days earlier, where it earned 3,722 points (89% upvoted).[3] When Dowd posted it in the Facebook group, however, it received only 11 likes.



Notable Developments

As interest in Sanders as a candidate grew, so did the group. On January 13th, Walsh posted that the group had grown to 5,000 members.[2] On January 28th, a post in the /r/terriblefacebookmemes subreddit claimed that it had been taken from the BSDM group; the post received 605 points (86% upvoted).[4] Also on January 28th, the reddit post that started the Bernie or Hillary? meme was created; it quickly became popular within BSDM, in turn leading to massive growth; on February 9th, in an article about Bernie or Hillary, the online news publication Slate noted that the group had 160,000 members and counting.[5]




A selection of recent posted images.

Also on February 9th, the post which initiated the I’m Not Kidding, Maddi meme was posted in BSDM; the popularity of that meme, and its attribution to the group in press sources like the Telegraph,[6] caused more growth. As of February 16th, the group has more than 250,000 members. Facebook does not release data on frequency or numbers of posts within a group, but it is overwhelming enough to make it difficult to find a post twice.

Online Presence

In addition to the Facebook group, BSDM also maintains a significantly less popular presence on Instagram, where they have 353 followers.[7] However, one aspect of the group’s popularity have included its Facebook group spinoffs, which include the Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Museum (1,334 members), the Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Singles (2,573 members), and the Bernie Sanders Uncensored Dank Meme Stash (54 members).

Related Memes

I’m Not Kidding, Maddi

I’m Not Kidding, Maddi is a personalized subject line from a fundraising email sent to Hillary Clinton supporters after her loss to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire during the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary.



Bernie or Hillary?

Bernie or Hillary? refers to a series of fake campaign posters supporting Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary against Hillary Clinton in which Sanders is depicted as being more knowledgable than Clinton on a series of popular but apolitical topics.



Search Interest

not yet available

External References

Jorts

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About

Jorts, a portmanteau of the words “jean” and “shorts”, refers to a style of cut-off denim garment which covers the upper portion of the legs. In pop culture, denim shorts are often mocked as tacky and unfashionable in a similar vein to Crocs brand shoes.

Origin

On August 31, 2005, Urban Dictionary[2] user theSuperJesus submitted an entry for “jorts,” defining them as a type of jean shorts “worn mostly by children and douchebags.”

Spread

On October 22nd, 2012, an entry for “jorts” was created on the online dictionary Wiktionary.[1] In June 2013, the fashion blog Style Girlfriend[4] published an article about “acceptable” styles of jorts for men to wear. On May 22nd, 2014, the men’s interest blog Esquire[5] published an article defending jorts as a fashion choice. The following day, BuzzFeed[3] published an article titled “Dear Men, You Seriously Need To Stop Wearing Jorts,” arguing that only women look attractive in the denim garment. On March 31st, 2015, Tumblr user slavicinferno[8] posted an image titled “A Quick Guide to Jorts,” listing several reasons to wear the denim shorts (shown below, left). In June, many Twitter users mocked box Floyd Mayweather for being photographed wearing jorts at a basketball game (shown below, right).[9]



On July 19th, Redditor bouncingsouls submitted a post about the popularity of jorts in Europe to the /r/malefashionadvice[6] subreddit, where it gained more than 890 votes (87% upvoted) and 380 comments prior to being archived.

On Tumblr

Tumblr users often photoshop a denim pattern on to various characters along with the hashtag #jorts in reference to the garment.[7] On February 9th, 2016, Tumblr[10] user ask-crystal-gems published a photoshopped image of the character Crystal Gems from “Steven Universe”: with the jean pattern superimposed over her dress (shown below, left). On February 15th, Tumblr user threedogs-toaster posted a photoshopped image of “Pepe the Frog”: featuring the denim pattern (shown below, right).



Search Interest

External References

Bannaaynna

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“Bannaayna” is a video upload by Youtube user sǝlddɐᴉsdǝd on February 16, 2016. It depicts a person throwing a supposed banana at a door before ending the video. It is undefined when the video was actually recorded, but it is fairly low quality. It was uploaded shortly after to Reddit on dolphinice7’s account (https://www.reddit.com/user/dolphinice7/). After its upload to Reddit, it was uploaded to noahtec’s account on Ebaumsworld. Shortly after its upload on Ebaumsworld, it was uploaded to 4chan on the Television and Film board.

Interspecies Friendship

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About

Interspecies Friendship refers to the social relationships formed between members of different animal species. Online, media documenting these amiable associations are often shared in animal-related blogs, social media and discussions forums.

Origin

In December 2004, a hippopotamus nicknamed Owen was brought to the Haller Park rescue center in Mombasa, Africa, where he bonded with Mzee, an Aldabra giant tortoise.[5] In January 2005, the site OwenAndMzee[2] was launched to document the interspecies friendship. In 2006, caretakers separated the two animals due to fears that the hippopotamus could potentially harm the tortoise..



Spread

On November 9th, 2008, the Interspecies Friends blog was launched on Blogspot,[3] highlighting photographs and stories of “unique animal friendships from around the world.” On March 25th, 2009, YouTuber gormogon4927 posted a video titled “Unusual Animal Friends,” featuring a slideshow of animals from a variety of species photographed together (shown below, left). On September 26th, the ABC News YouTube channel uploaded a news segment on interspecies friendship (shown below, right). Within seven years, the videos received over 2.2 million views each.



On August 10th, 2010, the Fuck Yeah Interspecies Friendships Tumblr[6] blog was launched, showcasing pictures and videos of animals from various species interacting with one another. On October 4th, Wired[4] published a listicle highlighting videos of interspecies friendships. On November 5th, 2012, the PBS YouTube channel posted a video about a deer who had been adopted by a Great Dane dog (shown below, left). On January 17th, 2013, the /r/unlikelyfriends subreddit was launched for pictures and videos of interspecies friendships. On May 24th, 2013, the Barcroft TV YouTube channel uploaded footage of a dachsund dog licking the face of a lion (shown below, right). Over then next four years, the videos garnered upwards of 3.1 million and 2.5 million views respectively.



On October 20th, 2014, the Animalz TV channel posted a montage of clips featuring animals of different species interacting together (shown below, left). In two years, the video gained over 3.7 million views and 1,200 comments. On February 5th, 2015, the Android mobile operating system released a commercial titled “Friends Furever,” containing footage of various interspecies friendships (shown below, right). Over the next year, the ad received upwards of 22.7 million views and 3,700 comments on YouTube.



Search Interest

External References

Boltman

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wip

About

Boltman is the name of the mascot of the American football team, San Diego Chargers, pictured as a lightning bolt with a face and abs. The mascot grew online popularity for it’s notability in Thread Simulators.

Origin

Boltman grew popularity after becoming a focal point in Thread Simulators, as the intro post, with the text “IT BEGINS”. The photo became a staple for videos to come.

Search Interest

External References

Draw The Squad

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W.I.P.

About

Draw the Squad is a drawing meme that involves images with multiple characters in flamboyant outrageous poses for artists to replicate with their own choice of characters. Occasionally when only two characters are the main focus in the image being replicated the popular caption for the images turn to Draw your OTP. The meme has been seen used with screen caps, images in real life similar to Nightmares Fear Factory photos, and original blank templates for the sole purpose of the meme.

Origin

W.I.P.

Spread

A single topic blog titled Squad Poses posts images with subjects poised in different manners from various different sources.[1]

Various Examples



Search Interest



External References

[1]Tumblr – Squad Poses

#WTFU (Where's The Fair Use?)

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About

#WTFU[1] (aka Where’s The Fair Use) is an online campaign in response to Youtube copyright system and addresses how people and companies can easily file fraudulent claims on a Youtube video and how Youtube needs to rebuild its copyright system.This lead many people to believe the Youtube completely disregards Fair Use[2] and Freedom of Speech. This was a result after many videos, and even accounts/channels, were taken off the Youtube site, despite obviously being made under Fair Use.

Origin

On February 16, Doug Walker (aka The Nostalgia Critic), published a video titled “Where’s The Fair Use?”. In the video (below) he describes the practice of Fair Use, and how videos are being target by people and companies. It also featured guests such as
I Hate Everything and YourMoviesSucks talking about their personal experiences and what they went through as a result of false claims.

Spread

As a result, various other Youtubers spread the message of #WTFU in support of the cause, including Markiplier, MysteriousMrEnter, Ross O. Donovan (RubberNinja) of Game Grumps, Jacksepticeye, Boogie2988, OmegaAlphaSin, have since commented, posted Tweets, or uploaded videos showing their full support.

Various Examples

Mr.Enter (left), OmegaAlphaSin (right), Boogie2988 (bottom left)

External References

[1]Doug Walker – Where’s The Fair Use? / 2-16-2016

[2]Wikipedia – Fair Use


Piraka Rap

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wip

About

“Piraka Rap” is a rap song from the one of the BIONICLE gang of antagonists, the Piraka. The term, “Yo Yo, Piraka!” is the opening lines of the song, and is popularly used as word play on social media websites.

Origin

The song “Piraka Rap” was featured in an winter marketing campaign for the BIONICLE figures, the Piraka. Versions of the song were used in many advertisements, and on Piraka.com, the official website for the LEGO Product. Also, the song was used in a false connect-the-dots game, Draw a Piraka.[1]

The earliest use of the song was a music video on YouTube uploaded by Vrahno on June 22, 2006. However, the rap or the phrase “Yo Yo, Piraka” didn’t spark popularity until circa 2014, when it began to pick up steam in the variety fandom blog, antoinebittersweet on Tumblr, in which he posts a prediction of what the BIONICLE fandom will say tomorrow.[2]



Spread

One of the first widespread variants of the meme is based on varieties of images on Tumblr. On June 8th, 2015, a blog in dedication to the BIONICLE fanbase by the name of bioniscribbles posted a gallery of GIFs from the Piraka Rap music video, with subtitles of the song’s verses on the bottom of the GIF. As of 2016, the post has up to 288 notes.[3]


Other images also associate with verses from the rap. One of the verses, “Yo Yo, Piraka!” is a one of the most popular quotes from the song, and has been frequently associated with various puns across Tumblr. One of the most popular varieties of this meme is a post on Tumblr uploaded by kopakaskoolkompanion. The post, “Yo Yo, PurAqua!” is a pun for “Yo Yo, Piraka!”. The post sparked a multitude of images of the meme, eventually circulating beyond Tumblr[4][5], which subsequently began circulating on DeviantART[6] and elsewhere online.

Various Examples

Search Interest


External References

Climategate / Climatic Research Unit Email Hacking Controversy

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Overview

“Climategate” refers to an email hacking scandal, in which 1073 emails and thousands of other documents, sent over the course of 13 years, were stolen from the servers of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.

Background

The Climatic Research Unit (CRU) is an academic research program of the University of East Anglia[1]. In late-2009, a large number of archived emails and accessory documents were stolen from a hacked server and published online, leading to widespread discussion in throughout broadcast media, talk radio, social media and political negotiation.

Notable Developments

E-mail Hacking and Leakage

The emails, seemingly stolen over the course of several weeks, were taken likely until November 12th, 2009, as this is the most recent date at which the leaked emails had been sent. The data, 160 megabytes in size[27], was uploaded onto a Russian server, and from there was linked to on a skeptical blog named The Air Vent, using a computer located in Saudi Arabia[23].

Coinage

While the term “Climategate”, bearing similarity to numerous other scandals named with the “-gate” suffix, was first conceived by a commenter named “Bulldust” responding to the subject’s article on popular skeptic blog Watts Up With That[4], the phrase was popularized by and widely-accredited to James Delingpole, a blogger and writer known for anti-Environmentalist works such as Watermelons: How Environmentalists are Killing the Planet, Destroying the Economy and Stealing Your Children’s Future[6] and The Little Green Book of Eco-Fascism[7], the former named for a joke disparaging environmentalists as “green on the outside, red on the inside” – implying a connection between popular environmentalism and socialist ideology.

Concerns of Scientific Malfeasance

The emails, according to skeptics and those concerned about the scandal, revealed numerous potential problems in the scientific consensus on climate change. The first among those concerns, which received the most media coverage, was that CRU scientists manipulated data or the presentation of data to cloak scientific evidence contrary to the popular consensus that anthropogenic – or “man-made” climate change, was real.

The following is an annotated list of quotes deemed most concerning by several media outlets:

I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.

The phrase “hide the decline” was taken by many skeptics to mean that CRU’s scientists obscured data to mask unfavorable temperature data, while “Mike’s Nature trick” was taken to mean that the scientists used an evidently popular means of deception to manipulate climate data. However, it was found upon investigation that these phrases had meanings different than was originally interpreted by the skeptics. Measurements of tree ring growth – taken from samples of trees at high latitudes – is considered a historically accurate means of estimating temperature averages dating back to 1880. However, tree rings measured from high-latitude locations since the 1960s reveal temperature estimations different than the actual temperature records then taken. Tree rings, thus, have useful but limited value when estimating historical temperatures. This phenomena has been discussed heavily within peer-reviewed scientific research[8]. Mike’s Nature Trick, coined from a presentational technique previously used in the scientific journal Nature, refers to the technique of plotting historical temperature estimations along with, once possible, real recorded temperatures. The trick refers not to an act of deceit, but a means to lend context to temperature reconstructions – normally regarded as a more honest means to present scientific data. The “decline” referred to declines in tree ring growth, not declines in temperature.

The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.

Then-CRU scientist Kevin Trenberth wrote in an email what seemed, to readers, an admission of deceit in scientific reporting on climate warming. The context of the email, however, was largely missed. Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere reflect heat radiating from the earth’s surface back onto the planet, effectively increasing the amount of energy entering the lower layers of the atmosphere and striking the surface of the planet. The amount of energy reflected, when the amounts of greenhouse gasses added to the atmosphere are known, is calculable[10]. However, where much of the energy reflected back onto the earth’s surface has gone remains a scientific mystery, as measured increases in the energy content over land, in the polar ice caps and so on does not account for all of the added energy. Trenberth, in this email, laments the lack of scientific knowledge on where this energy is going, but suggests elsewhere that it is likely entering the deeper waters of the oceans, as energy flows through them are currently not monitored nor well-understood[9].

The potency of concerns over scientific malfeasance were amplified by two key facts of the time. The first was that the email were leaked on the eve of th 2009 Copenhagen Climate Negotiation Meetings, a major United Nations Event in which leaders of 192 of the world’s countries convened to discuss a potential agreement over climate change and the responsibilities of different nations to combat it[23]. The second was that data from the University of East Anglia were components of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s research base. The IPCC is an organization established by the World Meteorological Association and the United Nations Environmental Programme[24]. The IPCC synthesizes scientific research on climate and provides summary reports for policymakers across the world.

Concerns of Scientific Misbehavior

The remainder of the concerns are best understood in the context of the sociology of science. How scientists expect themselves and fellow scientists to behave were famously described by Robert K. Merton, who received the National Medal of Science from former United States President Bill Clinton[26]. The scientific process, as written by Merton, consists of four basic principles: Universalism – that scientific work is defined by its substance and not by the scientist responsible, Communism – that the fruits of scientific work belonged to all (Note: Merton very explicitly differentiated this “Communism” from Marxism), Disinterestedness – that scientists should not be motivated by outside interests and biases when performing scientific work – and Organized Skepticism – that every claim should be equally scrutinized and tested[25] by fellow scientists.

Many of us in the paleo field get requests from skeptics (mainly a guy called Steve McIntyre in Canada) asking us for series. Mike and I are not sending anything, partly because we don’t have some of the series he wants, also partly as we’ve got the data through contacts like you, but mostly because he’ll distort and misuse them. Despite this, Mike and I would like to make as many of the series we’ve used in the [Reviews of Geophysics] plots available from the CRU web page.
~
My personal opinion is that both FOI requests [for data related to a 2008 paper and for correspondence dating back to 2006] are intrusive and unreasonable. Steven McIntyre provides absolutely no scientific justification or explanation for such requests. … McIntyre has no interest in improving our scientific understanding of the nature and causes of climate change. He has no interest in rational scientific discourse. He deals in the currency of threats and intimidation. We should be able to conduct our scientific research without constant fear of an “audit” by Steven McIntyre; without having to weigh every word we write in every email we send to our scientific colleagues.
~
When the FOI requests began here, the FOI person said we had to abide by the requests. It took a couple of half hour sessions -- one at a screen, to convince them otherwise showing them what CA was all about. Once they became aware of the types of people we were dealing with, everyone at UEA […] became very supportive.

A component of the scandal, albeit one with a history long preceding Climategate itself, was the matter of Freedom of Information Act requests. As a public institution, the University of East Anglia had a legal obligation to fulfill Freedom of Information Act requests (FOI requests), in which any information that requested of the University had to be fulfilled, within legal limits. CRU scientists began to feel that the law was being abused, and that skeptics were using their blogs to coordinate request brigading to waste as much of the research program’s time as possible. CRU scientists lamented this phenomena, joking or discussing the prospect of obstructing the process along the way. Ensuing investigations found that actual instances of this happening were overblown and that, while CRU could have been more open with regard to FOI requests, that no wrongdoing had been committed as the emails had suggested. While skeptics did accurately observe that the University, even after claiming it made an effort to open as much data to public access as it could, did not publically release all of the climate data. CRU defended itself, noting that 95% of its data had been made publically available and that the remaining data came from other institutions, and that they themselves did not hold the legal title to publically distribute the data [28].

Next time I see Pat Michaels [A fellow of the conservative Cato Institute] at a scientific meeting, I’ll be tempted to beat the crap out of him. Very tempted.
~
In an odd way [the death of long-time climate change skeptic John Daly] is cheering news!

The resulting investigations noted, the seemingly unprofessional attitudes contained within these emails had no bearing on if scientific misconduct had transpired. Furthermore, the history behind the emails were more complicated than could be captured not only out of their original context, but without an understanding of how the Climatic Research Unit was operating. Finally, a key lesson noted in many of the reports, as well as in opinion pieces published by scientific journals and institutions, was that scientists are human like anybody else, and how they privately conduct themselves are an irrelevant when considering their professional conduct.

Despite the fact that CRU’s scientists were found to have upheld professional standards, the accusations not relating to the manipulation of data or the presentation of data did have decided merit. For the various reasons previously described, CRU scientists did, in some of the hacked emails, display behavior arguably violating the social norms of science. For example, the rejection of skeptical work – although the scientists felt they were justified – violated the principles of Universalism. The handling of FOI requests, although not motivated for reasons purely scientific, violated the norm of Communism. The emotional or aggressive comments presented within the emails depicted a culture not entirely disinterested from the subject that the scientists were studying, violating Merton’s third norm. Finally, from the perspective of a skeptic, the CRU scientists showed no interest in greeting their claims with symettrical skepticism. However, the skeptics were guilty of the same offense, from the perspectives of CRU’s scientists.

The actual merits of these norms – as well as whether or not they were violated – cast aside, it can be said that sufficient room exists to debate whether or not CRU’s scientists acted as should be expected of scientists. For the skeptical community, Climategate leaves an enduring bruise on their perception of the scientific community affirming anthropogenic climate change.

Aftermath

Following the spread of the story throughout the blogosphere, several media outlets picked up the story such as The Telegraph[11] and Fox News[3]. James Inhofe, long-standing environmental skeptic and, as of 2015, the head of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, announced that he would order an inquiry into Climategate so that he could expose what he believed was a conspiracy to control global politics using the climate change “hoax”[22] . In the process, several CRU scientists reported receiving death threats, which were then investigated by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation[5].

More slowly, the debacle lead several institutions to investigate the actions and behavior of the CRU scientists, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency[12], the United States Department of Commerce[13], the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee[14], The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration[15], The National Science Foundation[16], Penn State University[17], Fact-checking websites such as Factcheck.org[18] and Politifact.com[19] and several other independent investigations[20]. All found no evidence of scientific wrong-doing by the CRU scientists and declared the scandal concerns unfounded.

In response, the editorial staff of the peer-reviewed Nature journal wrote:

Climate scientists are on the defensive, knocked off balance by a re-energized community of global-warming deniers who, by dominating the media agenda, are sowing doubts about the fundamental science. Most researchers find themselves completely out of their league in this kind of battle because it’s only superficially about the science. The real goal is to stoke the angry fires of talk radio, cable news, the blogosphere and the like, all of which feed off of contrarian story lines and seldom make the time to assess facts and weigh evidence. Civility, honesty, fact and perspective are irrelevant[21].

The Union of Concerned Scientists wrote:

The stolen emails were published just two weeks ahead of a major U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen. According to a British newspaper, they were originally hacked in October. Whoever published these emails likely wanted to spread misinformation about climate science to try to undermine the conference. The University of East Anglia, which housed the emails, has launched an investigation to determine who stole them.

Scientists are as human as anybody else.

Some of the other emails simply show scientists expressing frustration and--in one email--even talking (not seriously, we hope) about beating up someone who had, in his view, made an unfair, public attack on his colleague. Such chatter is not surprising to find in private emails. But they have generated widespread attention in part because they don’t mesh with the public’s image of scientists.

Scientists have a wide array of dispositions. But regardless of how scientists act, they should all advance their arguments through evidence and valid scientific interpretations. The process of science is what is important. Over time, rigorous analyses, vetted through expert peer review, tend to weed out poorly substantiated arguments. And only the best explanations for how the world works--such as the obvious evidence that excess carbon dioxide emissions are driving global warming--survive the process[2].

Search Interest

External References

[1]CRUHistory of the Climatic Research Unit

[2]Union of Concerned Scientists – Debunking Misinformation About Stolen Climate Emails in the “Climategate” Manufactured Controversy

[3]Fox News – Why You Should Be Hot and Bothered About ‘Climate-gate’ / November 24th, 2009

[4]James Delingpole – How the ‘greatest scientific scandal of our generation’ got its name / November 29th, 2009

[5]The Guardian – Hacked email climate scientists receive death threats / December 8th, 2009

[6]ISBN Search – Watermelons: How Environmentalists are Killing the Planet, Destroying the Economy and Stealing Your Children’s Future

[7]ISBN Search –The Little Green Book of Eco-Fascism

[8]Skeptical Science – Clearing up misconceptions regarding ‘hide the decline’

[9]Skeptical Science – Trenberth can’t account for the lack of warming

[10]NASAThe Earth’s Radiation

[11]The Telegraph – Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation / November 28th, 2009.

[12]US Environmental Protection Agency – Investigation

[13]US Department of Commerce – Investigation / February 18th, 2011

[14]House of Commons Science and Technology Committee – Investigation

[15]NOAA / February 24th, 2011

[16]National Science Foundation – Investigation / August 15th, 2011

[17]Juliet Eilperin on the Penn State – Investigation / July 1st, 2010

[18]Jess Henig – Factcheck Investigation / December 22nd, 2009

[19]Catherine Richert – PolitiFact Investigation / December 11th, 2009

[20]Justin Gillis – British Panel Clears Scientists: / July 7th, 2010

[21]Nature editorial – Climate of fear / January, 2015

[22]US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works – Listen: Inhofe Says He Will Call for Investigation on “Climategate” on Washington Times Americas Morning Show

[23]The Times – Climate e-mails were hijacked to ‘sabotage summit’

[24]IPCCOrganization

[25]Janet Stemwedel – The Norms of Science

[26]University of Columbia – Robert K. Merton

[27]Leo Hickman and James Randerson – Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists / November 20th, 2009

YouTube Fair Use Controversy

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About

The YouTube Fair Use Controversy describes the ongoing controversy about the misuse of YouTube’s robotic automatic copyright strike system, which has been used both accidentally and purposefully to attack content creators on YouTube, including h3h3 Productions, YourMovieSucks, I Hate Everything, and Channel Awesome, among a plethora of others. The controversy has spread with many content creators using the hashtag, #WTFU.

Origin

Content Creators receiving copyright strikes has been increasingly notable since late 2013 following changes to the copyright system, beginning with Day One: Garry’s Incident, a situation in which the creators of the game Day One: Garry’s Incident flagged a review by popular gaming channel, TotalBiscuit’s, negative review of said game. The situation garnered a negative reaction towards the copyright system, following TotalBiscuit’s video following the incident.



The next large case of copyright misuse was against another large gaming channel, Angry Joe. In the video, Joe rants about how copyright strikes affect partner channels, and how multiple of his videos were unfairly taken down.



Errors with the copyright system continued throughout 2014 and the majority of 2015, however the next large case of Copyright abuse was with YouTuber, I Hate Everything.

Cases of Copyright Abuse

I Hate Everything and Cool Cat Copyright

YouTuber I Hate Everything has been a popular poster child for cases of YouTube copyright abuse. In November 2015, IHE released a video about the movie Cool Cat Saves the Kids under his Search for the Worst Series. In the video, IHE criticizes the movie under fair use. The video got taken down a few days later by movie creator Derek Savage, using the copyright system. After a continued fight, IHE got his video back. However a few months following, IHE got his channel suspended for unknown reasons. He quickly was able to regain status in his account, however no reasoning was ever given.



h3h3 Productions and Fullscreen Copyright

In late July 2015, the video company Fullscreen flagged h3h3production’s most popular video, which was subsequently removed for copyright infringement. On August 4th, Klein posted a video to his Ethan and Hila channel reacting to the take down, which claimed his video qualified as “fair use” (shown below). The same day Ethan uploaded his response, YouTuber and game critic, Jontron tweeted a link to the video. Within four months, the video gathered upwards of 520,000 views and 2,100 comments. Following the backlash, Fullscreen removed their copyright claim.



Total Biscuit

YouTuber TotalBiscuit has received multiple instances of Copyright misuse. ometime around late 2012, TotalBiscuit had received various copyright claims and strikes on some videos on Shining Force from Sega of Japan. TotalBiscuit reported on the issue in a Content Patch (shown below, left) and issued a channel wide boycott on all Sega video games and content ever since. On March 18th, 2013, TB had removed all the strikes from his channel. In Feburary of 2014, TotalBiscuit reviewed the game “Guise of the Wolf” (shown below, right) and FUN had both his stream and review taken down. A Reddit post was made on r/Games about the removal and received over 3,900 points with 95% upvoted.



The Day One: Garry’s Incident was the largest controversy to have taken place that involved DMCA takedowns and took place on his channel. TB had released a WTF is… on the game in question and gave it a negative review (shown below, left). Shortly afterwards, Wild Games Studio made a copyright claim, giving the channel a strike and taking down the video. TB released a response video analyzing the situation which, is his most viewed video with over 4 million views (shown below, right).



#WTFU (Where’s The Fair Use)

#WTFU (aka Where’s The Fair Use) is an online campaign in response to Youtube copyright system and addresses how people and companies can easily file fraudulent claims on a Youtube video and how Youtube needs to rebuild its copyright system.This lead many people to believe the Youtube completely disregards Fair Use[2] and Freedom of Speech. This was a result after many videos, and even accounts/channels, were taken off the Youtube site, despite being made under Fair Use. The trend was originally started by popular video reviewer, Doug Walker, or the Nostalgia Critic.



Search Interest



External References

Get You a Man Who Can Do Both

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About

Get You a Man Who Can Do Both is a Twitter copypasta which often accompanies photographs and illustrations of celebrities and fictional characters appearing classy or formally dressed juxtaposed next to a pictures in which they are wearing casual attire.

Origin

On February 14th, 2016, Twitter user @MikeShotya_[1] submitted a photograph of the rapper Drake wearing a suit and tie juxtaposed next to a photograph of himself wearing warm-ups and a Michael Jordan baseball cap with the caption “Get you a man who can do both” (shown below). Within one month, the tweet gained over 15,200 likes and 11,500 retweets.



Spread

On February 15th, Twitter user Larrymoans_ replied to @MikeShotya_ with a photograph of English actor James Corden dressed in a suit on a red carpet next to a photo in which he is wearing a polo shirt (shown below, left). The same day, Twitter user @kurtis_connor posted the original @MikeShotya_ tweet next to photographs of Guy Fieri with the caption “found him” (shown below, right)



On February 16th, Twitter user Chris Person (@Papapishu) posted a screenshot of the Drake tweet next to photographs of Jeb Bush in and blazer and hoodie (shown below, left). On February 17th, Redditor scrimrz submitted a screenshot of the Drake tweet next to photographs of Ethan Klein from h3h3productions to the /r/h3h3productions[3] subreddit (shown below, left). On February 18th, NY Mag[2] published an article about the Twitter meme, noting “it says a lot about the perceived dichotomy between ‘class’ and ‘swag’.”



Search Interest

Not available.

External References

DJ Akademiks

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About

DJ Akademiks is a YouTuber who mainly focuses on news in hip hop culture. He has gained notability for his style of reporting, and has collaborated with other notable music names including Anthony Fantano and Charlemagne, the God.

Origin

DJ Akademiks begun his original channel, October 13th 2012. He begun his channel originally by uploading 3 clips of his original radio show, Campus Invasion Radio. Akademiks’ first news video was uploaded on June 14th, 2013, titled DJ Akademiks on 2-Chainz Robbery “He Ran Faster Than Ricky in Boyz in the Hood”. It has gained 250,000 views.



His next video, about Kanye West’s album Yeezus, was his first video over 10,000 views, gaining 15,000 views, however mixed reactions with 200 likes and 91 dislikes.



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