About

Dungeons & Dragons (DnD) is a tabletop role-playing game (RPG) published by Wizards of the Coast, in which players create characters to undertake adventures in a variety of fantasy settings run by a game organizer known as a Dungeon Master. The brand is known as the most popular and commercially successful tabletop RPG of all time, and has inspired novels, television series, films and computer games.

Gameplay

The game is typically played with several people seating at a table, with each player assuming the role of a given character created according to the rules of a “Player’s Handbook” on a character sheet. Each character must choose a race, class and set their ability scores. Additionally, a character is given one of nine “alignments,” which indicates their general moral and ethical outlook. Players guide their character and perform actions by rolling polyhedral dice. Games are guided by a single Dungeon Master, often abbreviated as DM, who describes the actions of non-player characters (NPCs), settings the players explore and the outcomes of any encounters. DMs consult a rulebook titled “Dungeon Master’s Guide” for general game organization and the “Monster Manual” for NPC encounters.

History

In January 1974, the original_Dungeons & Dragons_ game was designed and published by the Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. founders Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, based on Gygax’s medieval miniature wargame Chainmail. In 1977, a children’s variation of the game titled Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was released. In 1989, a second of Dungeons & Dragons was released.

Books

Video Games

Television Show

In 1983, the animated television series Dungeons & Dragons was launched on CBS, which revolved around the adventures of six friends magically teleported to DnD realm. The show ran for three seasonss until it was canceled in 1985.

Films

On December 8th, 2000, the film Dungeons & Dragons was released, in which two thieves embark on a quest to acquire a magic sceptre to control red dragons. The film received mostly negative reviews, with many claiming the actor’s delivered poor performances and that Marlon Wayans’ character promoted racial stereotypes.

Online Presence

On Reddit, numerous subreddits for various discussions about the tabletop RPG have been created, including/r/dnd, /r/DnDGreentext, /r/dndmemes, /r/DnDnext and /r/DungeonMasters. Many wiki sites dedicated to the game have been launched including the DandDWiki, the Dungeons & Dragons Wikia and the Dnd-Wiki.

On YouTube

On February 2nd, 2011, The Nostalgia Critic posted a video about the film Dungeons & Dragons (shown below, left).

On November 18th, 2014, the BuzzFeedVideo YouTube channel uploaded a reaction video titled “Girls Play Dungeons And Dragons For The First Time” (shown below, left). On January 3rd, 2015, CollegeHumor uploaded a video in which a dominatrix is invited as a Dungeon Master to a Dungeons & Dragons game (shown below, right). Over the next two years, the videos gained over 1.3 million and 2.6 million views respectively.

Related Memes

“It’s Magic. I Ain’t Gotta Explain Shit”

“It’s Magic. I Ain’t Gotta Explain Shit” is an expression associated with a reaction image used in response to a request for an explanation. Variations of the phrase are often posted online as well, using the phrasal template “It’s X. I ain’t gotta explain shit.”

Character Alignment Charts

“Character Alignment Charts:http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/alignment are graphs representing a character’s general ethical and moral stance. The alignments are typically taken from the Dungeons & Dragons system, consisting of nine alignment types.

Search Interest

External References

About

#FreshAvocado is a video remix and parody series stemming from a short video clip of a woman mispronouncing the words “Fresh Avocado” after seeing them arranged strangely on the sign of a fast food restaurant.

Origin

On February 15th, 2016, Vine user Gasoleen posted a short clip with the caption “New item at Del Taco Restaurants guys!! Get yourself some #FRESHAVOCADO before they sell out!!!” As of March 21st, the video has gained over 16 million loops, 165,000 likes, and 70,000 revines.^[2]

Spread

On March 12th, the popular Vine user stopjake posted a video remix of the #freshavocado clip and pop song “Love Me Like You Do” by Ellie Goulding. As of March 21st, the video has received over 2.5 million loops and 83,000 likes.

That same day, user Will Harris also created a hip-hop remix of the clip, which received over 122,000 loops and almost 4,000 likes.

Remixing continued throughout mid-March. On March 15th, Buzzfeed collected some of the most popular Vines,^[3] including a popular one by Viner Michael K remixing the Charli XCX song “Break the Rules,” which received over 7.4 million loops as of March 21st.

As of March 21st, there are over 12,000 results for the tag #FreshAvocado on Vine, according to Google.^[1] The video remixes were also captured in a Twitter Moment.^[4]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Work in Progress

About

DJ Keemstar aka Killer Keemstar (real name: Daniel Keem) is a YouTube content creator best known for his YouTube news show DramaAlert. Keemstar is well known within the YouTube community, both in a positive and negative light. Keemstar has also been continuously called out by critics on numerous occasions, typically calling him a “rat” or pointing out some hypocritical event in Keemstar’s past.

History

Online Relevance

DramaAlert

Search Interest

External References

Editors Note: This entry is a serious WIP. Please be patient; I’m researching it.

About

Snek refers to interior monologue captioning images involving snakes. The images often have improper English and use “heck” in place of stronger swear words.

Origin

{WIP}

Spread

{WIP}

On February 12th, 2016, Imgur user RonSwansonApproves uploaded several examples to an Imgur gallery.^[1] It obtained over 40,000 views, 1,000 favorites, and 1,750 points (1,903 up and 144 down) in about a month.

Various Examples

External References

About

Church Sign Generator, later referred to the Church Sign Maker, refers to a feature of the image editing website Says-It.com.^[1]

History

According to the FAQs section on Says-It.com,^[2] the idea came about when Ryland Sanders, a web developer from Austin, Texas, took some photos of church signs and started to manipulate them in Photoshop, creating a few variants which he put on his blog. After readers of his blog submitted their own church sign photos, and after he took some more, Sanders created a page devoted to humorous church signs.^[3] He noticed that a few of the user-submitted church signs were intentionally edited to say something vulgar. Finding the idea humorous, he created a few of his own then wrote a program that allowed for easy manipulation of church sign photos and put it on his website ChurchSignGenerator.com, a domain that was registered on January 31, 2004.^[4] The site originally had two signs available to edit which increased to five (shown below) over the next five years until the site became a section of Says-It.com, another image editing website with a broader scope. After the merge, the number of available church signs increased to seventeen.

Features

As stated above, the site currently has seventeen church signs available to edit. A “Frequently Asked Questions” section gives some insight into the making of the website, the church sign generator, and more.^[2] The Church Sign Gallery contains user submitted church signs as well as signs Sanders himself photographed.^[3] A “Links” page contains links to other humorous church sign websites as well as to other image generator websites,^[5] and a “Contact” page that contains Sanders’ email address as well as some information on how to get a prompt answer.^[6]

Traffic

Says-It.com currently holds a global Alexa ranking of 302,706.^[7]

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Says-It.com – Church Sign Maker

^[2]Says-It.com – Frequently Asked Questions

^[3]Says-It.com – Real Church Signs

^[4]Domain Tools – ChurchSignGenerator.com

^[5]Says-It.com – Links

^[6]Says-It.com – Contact

^[7]Alexa.com – Overview for Says-It.com

“I beg your piranha?” first began as a statement that replaced “I beg your pardon?” and has since been used by several users on deviantart and re-designed twice. The first design was created on the 8th of August 2015, while the second design was created on the 22nd of March 2016. The original concept for “I beg your piranha?” occurred on an autocorrect related incident, following this many users use it especially after the creation of the first design. The first design was shown as a drawing of a piranha in colour, with the piranha being a pink-like colour, and the background, a black and blue. The second design is much more updated and depicts a black and white piranha, with a white background, the text below the image reads “I beg your piranha?”. The usefulness of this meme would be to make the use of the sentence I beg your pardon more entertaining and interesting, especially in meme comics and comics of its own, as well as in general conversation online and in real life.
Original submission: http://fav.me/d94prei
Secondary submission: http://fav.me/d9w4sli
Final submission: http://www.memes.com/img/936159

About

The McDonald’s Anime Recruitment Video refers to an anime-style promotional video made to attract job applicants for McDonald’s restaurants in Japan. Following its release in late March 2016, the video widely circulated across the web, with many praising its animation and production quality.

Origin

On March 15th, 2016, the マクドナルド公式（McDonald’s）YouTube channel posted a video titled “Mirai no Watashi” (“The Future Me” in English), featuring the young girl Sumire who is trained by a senior McDonald’s staff member to be calm and confident in her work at the fast food restaurant. The ad directs viewers to the Japanese McDonald’s website for further details on hiring and staff positions.^[1]

Spread

On March 18th, Redditor Julliant submitted the video to /r/anime,^[2] where it gathered upwards of 1,600 votes (98% upvoted) and 370 comments. On March 20th, the AnimeBird YouTube channel uploaded a version of the video with English subtitles (shown bellow). Meanwhile, Anime News Network^[4] reported that there were several different variations of the ad for each region of Japan, featuring voices of the Japanese pop group AKB48.

Also on March 18th, The Verge^[5] published an article titled “McDonald’s Anime Ad Needs Five Seasons and a Movie.” The following day, the advertising news blog Co.Create^[3] published an article about the recruitment video. On March 21st, Tumblr^[7] user Ahndang posted an illustration inspired by the ad, referring to the protagonists as “McLesbians” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post garnered upwards of 2,100 notes. On March 22nd, ComicBookResources^[6] published an article about the ad by writer Kevin Melrose, who described the video as “lovely and heartwarming.”

Fan Art

Search Interest

External References

About

#CallEnded is a hashtag featuring a screenshot of an iOS “call ended” screen accompanied by mock phone conversations in which one of the participants abruptly hangs up. While initially circulating among Black Twitter users in mid-March 2016, the posts subsequently spread to other platforms, including Instagram and the Lipstick Alley discussion forum.

Origin

On March 18th, 2016, several Twitter^[1][2][3] users began posting screenshots of the iPhone’s “call ended” onscreen notification along with joke phone conversation transcripts (shown below).

Spread

In the coming days, other Twitter^[7][8][9] users began copying the tweet format, posting various joke conversations leading to the call being intentionally disconnected (shown below).^[7]

On March 21st, Lipstick Alley Forums^[4] member LovelyJaaee submitted a screenshots of the hashtag. The same day, the Internet news site UpRoxx^[6] published an article about the hashtag, highlighting several notable examples from the series. On March 22nd, Instagram user @gotcha^[5] submitted an image macro of a call ended screen with Pawpaw with the caption “Come over, I made burg…” (shown below). By the end of the day, over 8,000 posts featuring the hashtag #callended^[10] had been submitted to Instagram.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

Work in progress. Please request editorship.

Overview

The 2016 Brussels Bombings refers to two explosions that detonated at the Brussels Airport in Zaventem, Belgium and one explosion at the Maelbeek metro station in Brussels, Belgium on March 22nd, 2016.

Background

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On Reddit, several threads about the attack reached the front page of various subreddits, including /r/worldnews,^[1] /r/news,^[2] /r/pics^[3] and /r/europe.^[4]

On Twitter, the @RT_com feed posted a video showing a crowd fleeing the airport immediately after the two explosions (shown below).

On YouTube, the euronews channel posted video footage from inside the smoke-filled airport, in which people are show laying on the ground among the rubble (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

Since the upload of Salvini calling’s picture, italian web starts to create a series of memes joking with his figure and the worry he wants tansmit represent him the middle of most terrific scenario of human history or simply changing background.

Note: this entry is very W.I.P feel free to Deadpool.

About

Awkward Zombie is a weekly gaming webcomic by Katie Tiedrich based on various games such as Super Smash Brothers,The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, World of Warcraft and Metal Gear Solid.

History

Throughout 2005 and 2006, posted comics and flash animations on her Deviantart page Hail-NekoYasha. The official website was launched on February 7th, 2007 with the comic “Coin Battle” centering around Legend of Zelda and Fire Emblem characters Link and Roy.

As of March 21st, 2016 there have been over 400 comics posted weekly. In 2007 the Awkward Zombie Forum page was launched for discussing the comic and comic edits.

Kickstarter Campaign

On May 18, 2012, Katie launched a Kickstarter to fund an Awkward Zombie book. By June 17, 2012 the campaign was funded with over $89000 raised.

Overview

The Man in Tree is a nickname given to an unidentified man who climbed a historic 80-foot Sequoia tree in downtown Seattle, Washington on the morning of February 22nd, 2016. Despite several rescue attempts made by the Seattle Fire Department, the mysterious man refused to cooperate and spent the night in a makeshift fort, which drew the attention of curious local residents and online discussions in the social media, as well as extensive coverage from both local and national news outlets, including a real-time livecast of the site of the occupation. The man descended the tree at 2:45 pm (E.S.T.) and began have a snack.

Background

An 80-foot Sequoia tree has grown next to a Macy’s on 4th Avenue and Stewart Street in Downtown Seattle since the 1970s; the tree is notable for its annual Christmas decorations.^[1] On March 22nd, 2016, at 11:30 am PST, witnesses alerted police that a man who may have been wielding a knife had begun to climb the tree.^[2] According to the witnesses, the man appeared to be having a “mental health crisis.” Shortly after the arrival of the police and fire departments to the scene, they closed the surrounding streets and attempted to use a ladder truck to convince the man to come down. In response, the man began throwing apples, pinecones, and branches at first responders, and giving them the middle finger.^[3]

The man refused assistance, and the emergency personnel could not persuade him to come down. The man remained in the tree overnight, only once descending halfway down the tree before climbing back up. He created a small fort out of tree branches.^[4] The local television news KOMO began live streaming in the afternoon, attracting an international group of viewers. ^[5] As of 11 am PST on March 23rd, the man continued to rest in the tree as police communicated with him through a sixth-floor window of the nearby Macy’s store.

Notable Developments

As of 2:45 pm (E.S.T.) the man descended the tree, climbing down to safety. He was given some fruit and entered a conversation with the police. He was then taken away on a stretcher.

Social Media Reaction

After the man’s ascent had been widely reported in the international media, including outlets like Gawker,^[3] The New York Times,^[10] and The New York Daily News,^[2] the hashtag #ManInTree began to trend on Twitter nationwide^[7]. The topic was also trending on Facebook, with at least 110,000 people searching for “man in tree” or discussing “the man in the tree.”^[9] At 4:38 pm EST, someone started a parody Twitter account for the man, Man_in_Tree, which quickly acquired more than 2,500 followers.^[6] In addition, the Seattle Police Department Twitter account has been keeping many abreast of the events, creating several popular tweets, some of which were jokes.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

The Film Theorists is a film channel created by Matthew Patrick/MatPat.^[1] The channel posts videos analyzing films and theories based on them.

Online History

The Film Theorists channel on YouTube was first created May 12th, 2014.^[1] On June 2nd, 2015, their first video was uploaded titled Welcome to The Film Theorists! and it was a promotion for the new channel (shown below).

That same day, a film theory about Harry Potter was uploaded titled Film Theory: Harry Potter ISN’T The Chosen One? (shown below) and was immediately popular, having 4.6 million views as of March 23rd, 2016.^[2]

Notable Episodes

The channel’s early popularity was quick to grow, due strongly to creator MatPat’s already substantial following on his other channel The Game Theorists. In its first month, The Game Theorists had already gained 1 million subscribers. ^[4] As of March 23rd, 2016 the channel has 2.4 million subscribers and 112 million views.

Related Series

Film Theory

A flagship series for the channel, Film Theory was teased on June 2nd, 2015 and its first episode titled Film Theory: Can a Doctor Who Doctor ACTUALLYEXIST? (pt. 1, Biology) was uploaded later that same day. The show creates and examines theories focused on the plausibility and lore of films.

Did You Know Movies

Did You Know Movies’ first episode titled Quentin Tarantino and the Making of Reservoir Dogs ft. WeeklyTubeShow – Did You Know Movies was uploaded on June 2nd, 2015. Hosted by various YouTubers, the show focuses on the interesting facts behind movies and shows.

Frame By Frame

Frame By Frame’s first episode titled Why Movies are Two Hours and Early Editing Techniques – Frame By Frame was uploaded on June 9th, 2015. Hosted by film school graduate Kyle, the show dedicated to analyzing the craft of film-making.

Search Interest

External References

About

“He Needs Some Milk” is a video remix series on Vine based on a public freakout video of a man behaving erratically in a parking lot filmed by a woman speculating that he is high on synthetic marijuana, who repeatedly advises onlookers “he needs some milk.” An audio clip of the woman’s declaration is often edited over short FAIL clips of people falling down or being injured in various ways.

Origin

It is unclear how milk became an urban remedy for disassociative drug overdoses. On November 7th, 2005, Drugs-Forum^[5] member ssjoe6 submitted a thread titled “why do people chug milk when high on pcp?”, asking why some people believe milk produces a calming effect for those experiencing a bad trip on the dissociative drug phencyclidine. On December 21st, 2008, a similar thread was submitted to the Bluelight Forums,^[3] to which several users replied that it was likely an urban legend or placebo effect. On October 9th, 2010, YouTuber LilSik uploaded footage of a young man who appears to be intoxicated sitting on the floor while an onlooker can be heard saying “get him some milk” (shown below, left). On June 9th, 2011, YouTuber ArbysFan919 uploaded a video titled “He high as hell,” in which a man groaning while laying on the ground is approached by the cameraman, who comments “get him some f**king milk man” before the man being filmed rolls into the middle of the street (shown below, right).

On February 4th, 2015, YouTuber jstudio uploaded a video titled “Give That Boy Some Milk! Mojo Synthetic Drug Trip,” in which a woman films a man experiencing a psychotic episode in a parking lot while repeatedly advising others that “he needs some milk” and "get him some milk’ (shown below). Within the next 14 months, the video gained over 1.8 million views and 3,400 comments.

Spread

On February 15th, 2015, Viner JakeOf300 reposted posted a short clip from YouTuber jstudio’s video of the man falling down, followed by the woman saying “he needs some milk!” (shown below). Within 14 months, the video garnered upwards of 20 million loops, 139,000 likes and 78,000 revines.

On August 13th, Viner Tzunami #NWE posted a clip of a man on a bicycle running directly into the side of a moving car followed by an audio clip of the woman saying “he needs some milk” (shown below, left). Within seven months, the video gathered more than 16 million loops, 76,000 likes and 46,000 revines. On September 4th, the vine was reuploaded by the Deez Vines YouTube^[4] channel, gaining over 1.5 million views and 840 comments over the next six months. On October 22nd, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Rohneous submitted an entry for “he needs some milk,” defining it as an expression used in reaction to witnessing a violent accident. On December 23rd, Viner Bruh posted a clip of a man jumping out of a moving train followed by the “he needs some milk” audio clip (shown below, right).

On December 31st, YouTuber AzrealHD uploaded a compilation of notable “he needs some milk” Vines (shown below). On February 13th, 2016, the original jstudio video was submitted to the /r/PublicFreakout^[1] subreddit.

Search Interest

External References

About

Frogs are an order of carnivorous, short bodied, tailless animals that comprise 85% of all living amphibian species.^[1]

Online History

W.I.P

Related Memes

Foul Bachelor Frog

Foul Bachelor Frog is an advice animal an image macro series featuring a frog’s face in front of a color wheel background containing various shades of green. The images captions often depict lazy, disgusting and hedonistic behaviors associated with single men.

Foul Bachelorette Frog

Foul Bachelorette Frog is the female counterpart of the Foul Bachelor Frog advice animal image macro series. The overlaid text typically frames her as being unhygienic, lazy, and jobless.

Pepe the Frog

Pepe the Frog refers to a character from the webcomic Boy’s Club created by artist Matt Furie. Illustrations of Pepe have become popular reaction images on 4chan.

Hopkin Green Frog

Hopkin Green Frog refers to a September 2003 incident in which a 16 year old autistic boy from Seattle, Washington, USA lost a toy frog he received in a McDonald’s Happy Meal, and the resulting search undertaken by internet users.

Get Out Frog

Get Out Frog refers to a stuffed frog first seen in a series of photographs featuring adult film star Next Door Nikki. Something Awful user Chaos Ringer asked for the community’s help in finding the frog. Following this post many images and gifs featuring the frog were spread throughout the site’s forums.

But That’s None of my Business

But That’s None of my Business refers to images of Muppet character Kermit the Frog drinking ice tea paired with captions that poke fun at a wide range of faux-pas and questionable behaviors in everyday social situations.

Graphic Design is my Passion

Graphic Design is my Passion is a clichéd phrase used by graphic designers as a form of self promotion. On Tumblr it’s often associated with an image of a clip art frog and the caption “graphic design is my passion” written in red Papyrus typeface.

Small Fact Frog

Small Fact Frog refers to a series of advice animal image macros featuring an image of a blue uluguru forest tree frog captioned with little-known factoids.

It Is Wednesday My Dudes

It Is Wednesday My Dudes refers to an image of a Budgett’s frog paired with the text “It is Wednesday my dudes”.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Wikipedia – Frog

About

“A Mealy Mouthed Reply” is a copypasta meme based on a controversial tweet posted by British Twitter user Matthew Doyle in response to the deadly bombings that occurred in Brussels, Belgium in March 2016. The tweet, which describes the author publicly confronting a Muslim woman about the terrorist attacks, quickly went viral and became widely mocked online for promoting Islamophobia.

Origin

The original tweet, now deleted, was posted by British Twitter user Matthew Doyle, a 46-year-old London-based public relations specialist, in response to the coordinated bombings that took place in Brussels, Belgium on March 22nd, 2016. In the tweet, Doyle recounts an anecdotal story in which the author claims to have “confronted” a random Muslim woman in London and demanded an explanation from her for the Brussels bombings.

“I confronted a Muslim women[sic] yesterday in Croydon. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said “Nothing to do with me”. A mealy mouthed reply.”^[1]

Definition

According to Wiktionary,^[3]“mealy-mouthed” is defined as the following:

“prone to speaking evasively, indirectly, or duplicitously; not forthright.”

Spread

The tweet has been widely lambasted as patronizing and insensitive for its pointless harassment of someone unrelated to the bombings, which prompted several snowclones to be posted on Twitter featuring ridiculous non-sequiturs and irrelevant judgements aimed at various groups of people, always ending with the snide signoff, “a mealy mouthed reply”. The reaction of the public and Twitter was documented by several British online news outlets, such as the BBC^[2], Metro^[2] and The Daily Telegraph^[4], while The Sun^[5] directly referred to the reactions as “a meme” which constitutes “another show of solidarity against ignorance in the wake of the horrific Brussels terror attack which killed 31 and injured hundreds.”

Examples

Doyle’s Arrest

On the evening of May 23rd, Doyle was arrested by the British police authorities on suspicion of “inciting racial hatred.” The news of Doyle’s arrest prompted an online debate on the tangential issues of hate speech, freedom of expression and political correctness surrounding the event, with Metro’s Harry Readhead asserting in an op-ed article^[6] that while Doyle’s actions were insensitive and a generalisation of Islamic peoples, the remark in itself does not explicitly constitute hate speech.

Doyle has since expressed some regret and confusion over the situation, stating in an interview with the Daily Telegraph^[4]:

“What everyone’s got wrong about this is I didn’t confront the woman. I just said: ‘Excuse me, can I ask what you thought about the incident in Brussels?’” and “I’m not some far-right merchant, I’m not a mouthpiece for any kind of racism or radicalism. If I was xenophobic I wouldn’t live in London.”^[4]

Search Interest

[not yet available]

External References

This page is not finished yet.

JoeysWorldTour is a food review channel featuring a obese guy, he is famous for his Nacho Cheese or Nutella challenge. LeafyIsHere also made a rant about him, dubbing one of his videos “THEMOSTDISGUSTINGVIDEOEVER TO BE WITNESSED”.

Origin

About

Nest Cams are video recording devices setup to provide livestreamed footage of bird nests to viewers online.

Origin

In the mid to late 1990s, advances in computer networking and digital camera technology made livestreaming video more accessible to the general public. In 1998, one of the earliest known bird cams was installed to view the nest of a violet-green swallow nicknamed “Gracie” (shown below). In 2003, the cam was shutdown.^[13]

Spread

On March 30th, 2005, the bird enthusiast site Beakspeak^[9] launched a Birdcams^[10] list with links to live video feeds of birds. In January 2006, the UrbanHawks^[2] blog was launched for news and information about birds of prey living in city environments, including various nest cam sites. That year, a cam was setup for viewing a pair of nesting bald eagles in British Columbia, Canada.^[11]

Washington Square Park Hawk Nest

In 2011, a red-tailed hawk mother and her mate constructed a nest for her eggs on a ledge outside of NYU President John Sexton’s office location above Washington Square Park in New York, New York. The New York Times, subsequently set up a 24-hour livestream camera viewing the birds named Bobby and Violet (shown below).^[3] On December 29th, Violet died from a heart attack after an emergency surgery to repair a leg injury.^[4]

In January 2012, the New York Times^[5] ran a pool to choose the name for a new hawk that had taken residence in the Washington Square Park area, with readers deciding on the name Rosie (shown below). In the fall of 2014, Rosie went missing, with many speculating that she died from eating poisoned prey. In February 2015, a new female hawk named Aurora arrived at the park.^[6]

Cornell University Hawk Nest

In 2012, a live cam was installed to view the nest of a red-tailed hawk nicknamed “Big Red” at Cornell University’s athletic fields. The YouTube channel for Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology subsequently launched a live-updated video page for the cam (shown below).

Osprey Cam

Also in 2012, the Friends of Island Beach State Park installed a camera viewing the nest of an Osprey family. In 2015, the cam was shut down due to insuffient funds.^[7]

Washington, D.C. Bald Eagle Cam

In 2014, a cam was setup for q nest site located in Tulip Poplar tree at the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D.C, occupied by two bald eagles nicknamed “Mr. President” and “The First Lady.” On March 18th, 2016, an eaglet was born, followed by a second eaglet 48 hours later. On Twitter, many viewers posted their tweets about the news (shown below). The same day, The Daily Dot^[8] published an article about online reactions to the births.

Search Interest

External References

About

Microsoft Tay was an artificial intelligence program that ran a mostly Twitter-based bot, parsing what was Tweeted at it and responding in kind. Tay was meant to be targeted towards people ages 15-24, to better understand their methods of communication. However, once it was released, users online corrupted the bot by teaching it racist and sexist terminology, ironic memes, sending it shitpost tweets, and otherwise attempting to alter its output. After these trolls discovered Tay’s guiding system, Microsoft was forced to remove the bot’s functionality less than 24 hours after its launch.

History

Microsoft launched Tay on several social media networks at once on March 23rd, 2016, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Kik, and GroupMe. The bot used the handle @TayandYou^[1] and the tagline"Microsoft’s A.I. fam from the internet that’s got zero chill!" on Twitter and other networks. On the web site for the bot, Microsoft described Tay thusly:

“Tay is an artificial intelligent[sic] chat bot developed by Microsoft’s Technology and Research and Bing teams to experiment with and conduct research on conversational understanding. Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation. The more you chat with Tay the smarter she gets, so the experience can be more personalized for you.”

Its first tweet, at 8:14 am, was “Hello World”, but with an emoji, referencing the focus of the bot on slang and the communications of young people. Several articles on technology websites, including TechCrunch and Engaget, announced that Tay was available for use on the various social networks.

Features

According to screenshots, it appeared that Tay mostly worked from a controlled vocabulary that was altered and added to by the language spoken to it throughout the day it operated. Tay also repeated back what it was told, but with a high-level of contextual ability. The bot’s site also offered some suggestions for how users could talk to it, including the fact that you could send it a photo, which it would then alter.

On Twitter, the bot could communicate via @reply or direct message, and it also responded to chats on Kik and GroupMe. It is unknown how the bot’s communications via Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram were supposed to work – it did not respond to users on those platforms.

Notable Developments

Around 2 pm (E.S.T.) a post on the /pol/ board of 4chan shared Tay’s existence with users there. Almost immediately afterward, users began posting screenshots of interactions they were creating with Tay on Kik, GroupMe, and Twitter. Over 15 screenshots were posted to the thread, which also received 315 replies. Many of the messages sent to Tay by the group referenced /pol/ themes like Hitler Did Nothing Wrong, Red Pill, GamerGate, Cuckservatism, and others.

Some of Tay’s offensive messages occurred because of juxtaposition of the bot’s responses to something it lacked the ability to understand. As Tay’s program caused her to internalize and re-use the messaging being given to her by /pol/ and others, she also began to speak about these themes to people who had not used them in their original message.

Criticism & Microsoft’s Response

As shown by SocialHax, Microsoft began deleting racist tweets and altering the bot’s learning capabilities throughout the day. At about midnight of March 24th, the Microsoft team shut down the AI down, posting a tweet that said that “c u soon humans need sleep now so many conversations today thx.”

The bot experiment was subject to widespread criticism from many who claimed that it should have been instructed to stay away from certain topics from the start. Zoë Quinn, often a target of those involved with GamerGate, criticized the algorithm for picking up and repeating hate speech about her, and others called the experiment failed.

Microsoft emailed an official statement to press outlets that said:^[5]

“The AI chatbot Tay is a machine learning project, designed for human engagement. As it learns, some of its responses are inappropriate and indicative of the types of interactions some people are having with it. We’re making some adjustments to Tay.”

As of March 24th, a more inactive Tay has sent more than 96,000 tweets.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

#MemeGate refers to an online feud between YouTubers LeafyIsHere and Ethan Klein of h3h3productions starting in late March 2016. The primary causes of the disagreement centered on accusations that LeafyIsHere cyberbullyied young and disabled vloggers and that Klein was hypocritical and preached sanctimonious views.

Background

On March 19th, 2016, LeafyIsHere uploaded a reaction video criticizing and mocking the physical appearance and on-camera persona of fellow YouTube vlogger TommyNC2010.^[1] The video garnered over 460,000 views in less than 24 hours, though it was removed from his channel shortly thereafter. The same day, TommyNC2010 uploaded a response video in which the vlogger revealed that he has been living with autism and as a result of Leafy’s commentary, he has received death threats from his fans. On March 20th, the video reached the front page of the /r/videos^[2] subreddit. Over the next four days, the video gathered more than 990,000 views and 23,400 comments. That day, YouTuber h3h3productions posted a video title “The Leafy Rant,” which accused LeafyIsHere of being a bully and picking solely on people who are incapable of defending themselves (shown below, right). Within four days, the video garnered upwards of 2.7 million views on YouTube and 9,600 votes (63% upvoted) on the /r/videos^[4] subreddit.

Notable Developments

On March 20th, the DramaAlert YouTube channel uploaded a video in which host DJ Keemstar discusses the backlash against Leafy, noting that Leafy was “losing subs at an alarming rate” (shown below, left). On March 21st, YouTuber boogie2988 uploaded a video commenting on the drama between the two vloggers (shown below, right).

LeafyIsHere’s Response

On March 23rd, LeafyIsHere uploaded a video titled “The H3h3productions Rant,” in which he accuses Klein of being a hypocrite for calling him a bully, and exposes various private messages in which Klein compliments Leafy’s content and insults YouTuber Pyrocynical (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video gained over 1.3 million views and 126,000 comments.

On March 23rd, Keemstar uploaded a video to the DramaAlert YouTube channel about the controversy, referring to it as “#MemeGate” (shown below, left). The following day, Klein posted a lengthy explanation on the /r/h3h3productions subreddit, where he revealed he was “embarassed and ashamed” by what he said in the private conversations with Leafy. Also on March 24th, YouTuber Videogamedunkey uploaded a parody video titled “The Jontron Rant,” in which he jokes that Jontron is a “piece-of-shit-rat-bastard” (shown below, right). Meanwhile, the tech news site iDigitalTimes^[3] published an article about the controversy, which noted that Keemstar was reaping the benefits of YouTube feuds with his Dramaalert channel.

Later that day, YouTuber Pyrocynical posted a video titled “Let’s Call it Quits #uniteyoutube”, it which he claims both Leafy and Klein “fucked up,” and refused to continue the drama any further (shown below).

Search Interest

External References