http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO_YuYTB0ag

ABOUT

“X has let himself go” is a comment about Stewart Lee on videos, articles about him/by him. The comment makes reference to stewart lees weight gain and how he looks like other celebrities. There are variations and exaggerations of this comment as well

ORIGIN

The seedcrystal of the comment was a video interview with Stewart Lee and Armando Iannucci from the red button special of the 1st series of Stewart lees comedy broadcast in 2009. Stewart Lee then incorporated it into his next stand up tour 41st best stand up routine.

SPREAD

It subsequently spawned fans to start commenting it onto things by Stewart Lee most notably YouTube comments. It then back full circle when Stewart Lee then incorporated internet comments about his weight and similar appearance to other celebrities into his carpet remnant world stand up routine. It is now a staple of comments about Stewart Lee and any video will likely have one if not more.

REFERENCES
TV Tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/StewartLee?from=Main.StewartLee
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdUkotM1uDI
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw6hLzY0-64
Image catalogue: http://almossawi.com/stewartlee/

W.I.P.

About

Bolbi Stroganovsky is a Jimmy Neutron character and a weird resident exchange student from Backhairistan. He normally speaks broken English with a vaguely Russian or Czech accent, but has a surprisingly good Shakespearean acting voice (but only when auditioning).

WIPWIPWIP

Derived from Absolutely Disgusting meme:

It is used as a response to something the author is greatly disgusted with. “Haram” is sometimes used as a synonym to something that is forbidden online.

Mutations:

About

The Face You Make, also known as That Face You Make, is a peculiar type of reaction image in the form of macros meant to convey a peculiar feeling represented by the image itself in reaction to a situation described by the captions over it. As a matter of fact, its usage is related to the colloquial expression My Face When.

Origin

The earliest mention of the phrase “The Face You Make” itself comes from Urban Dictionary. On June 20th, 2003, user Goohead used it for the definition of the phrase “Gas Face”^[1], to describe a facial expression commonly assiocated with bahtroom antics:

gas face

the face you make when taking a shit or blowing a fart. popularized by 3rd Bass in the 80’s

elroy cohen gets the gas face!

It quickly became a recurring type-phrase at the beginning of a definition for different entries about facial expressions within the site.

On March 2nd, 2006, blogger Charley Campbell used the phrase in order to comment on a photograph showing him with a peculiar facial expression when packing stuff in order to move out to Florida^[2].

This is the face you make after putting boxes back together and and slowly start packing them up. I have total ADD right now. Anything will draw my attention away from packing. Even the ceiling.

The phrase was eventually incorporated as a caption in an image as early as 2012^[3], to express the feeling when someone else is talking to someone one has a crush on (shown below). The 9gag watermark as well as a the source linking to a defunct Tumblr page show that the image may have existed prior.

Related Trend: My Face When

My Face When (also shortened as “>mfw”) is a colloquial phrase commonly used on 4chan imageboards since at least late 2009 as the opening line of reply posts and greentext stories in particular. The phrase is used in forum discussions to discuss how users would respond to a given situation, whether it be hypothetical or based on experiences of real life, using a reaction image coupled with the phrase.

Spread

On November 8th, 2013, a picture of 30 Rock’s character Liz Lemon (portrayed by Tina Fey) rolling her eyes in contempt was submitted to the Meme Generator website, under the title “That Face You Make”. Although it didn’t start a noticeable trend, it still led to about 250 parodies made on the site as of May 2016.
Macros of different characters’ and celebrities’ faces with the capion “The Face You Make” began popping up on the web without necessarily pertaining to their own memes, as evidenced by parodies appearing on Tumblr^[4].
Two compilations of images were also hosted on the AwesomeInventions.com website^[5].

Robert Downey Jr. My Face When

Inspired by the meme involving actor Robert Downey Jr. rolling his eyes with his arms crossed, a photograph of that moment was reposted to the Imgflip website, under the title “Face You Make Robert Downey Jr”. It led to more than 131 pages of parodies made on the site.

Search Trend

Various Examples

External References

^[1]Urban Dictionary – Gas Face

^[2]FooChuck.com – Moving To FL Pt 1: If Packing Is Hell, Consider Me Lucifer

^[3]SayingImages.com – The face you make when someone starts talking to your crush

^[4]Tumblr – Tagged posts with ‘That Face You Make’

^[5]AwesomeInventions.com – 14 HILARIOUS‘THE FACEYOUMAKE WHEN…’ IMAGES– PART 1

About

Eye Rolling Robert Downey Jr. refers to an animated gif of actor Robert Downey Jr. rolling his eyes in contempt with his arms crossed. It became a reaction image used on the internet to express annoyance, either in the form of gif animations or image macros.

Origin

In the 2012 Blockbuster film The Avengers, a scene involves Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.), reacts to the fact that Captain America (played by Chris Evans) candidly exclaimed that he understood the referenceNick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) uttered by crossing his arms and rolling his eyes in contempt (shown below, left). A cropped-up version was soon posted online (shown below, right).

Spread

On its own, the animation was mainly used as a reaction face on various boards and forums. Then, a pink-out still image was uploaded to Meme Generator on March 29th, 2013, titled “Robert Downey Junior face”^[1], accumulating to over 14 000 parodies and ranking #486 on the site, as of May 2016.
The same image was reposted to Imgflip, leading to more than 130 pages of parodies^[2], as part of the The Face You Make meme.

Various Examples

Blank Template

External References

^[1]Meme Generator – Robert Downey Junior face

^[2]Imgflip – Face You Make Robert Downey Jr

About

The 50 Cent Party (五毛党, English: wǔmáo dǎng), also known as 50 Cent Army, is a nickname given to Internet commentators hired by the propaganda authorities of the Chinese government to produce and promote positive messages that are in alignment with the Chinese Communist Party’s interests.

Origin

[researching]

Spread

[researching]

Search Interest

External References

W.I.P.

About

The Loud House is an American animated television series created by Chris Savino for Nickelodeon. The show follows the adventures of a boy who gives tips on how to survive living with ten sisters.

History

The show premiered on May 2, 2016 and the first episode left in The Dark and Get the Message. It became very popular on Nick.

Premise

The series ravels a boy name Lincoln with his best friend Clyde who has a crush on one of his sisters Lori trying to survive from his 10 sisters.

Intro

W.I.P.

Notable Examples

W.I.P.

WIPWIPWIP

Derived from Absolutely Disgusting meme:

It is used as a response to something the author is greatly disgusted with. “Haram” is sometimes used as a synonym to something that is forbidden online.

Mutations:

The twitter handle “dankmuslimmemes” uses the name “Absolutely Haram”, referencing the meme.

Editor’s Note: This entry contains plot spoilers to the sixth season of Game of Thrones.

About

“Hold the Door” is a quote uttered by Hodor, a recurring character in George R. R. Martin’s fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s TV series adaptation Game of Thrones, before he sacrificies himself to save Bran Stark from a horde of White Walkers.

Origin

The mysterious origin as to how the character earned his name “Hodor” has been a subject of intense discussions among the fans of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones for many years. On May 22nd, 2016, the backstory was finally revealed in Season 6, Episode 5 of Game of Thrones titled “The Door.”

In the episode, Bran Stark continues his time-traveling journey with the Three-Eyed Raven. Meanwhile, in the present time, a hoard of White Walkers led by the Night King close in on the cave that Bran and his group have been hiding in. As Meera Reed and Hodor prepare their escape, Meera asks Bran to warg, a form of mind-controlling, into Hodor’s mind so that he can rescue his unconscious body out of the cave, which Bran obliges by warging into a younger version of Hodor, a cheerful stable boy then known as “Wylis,” in the past. As they flee their way out of the cave, Meera pleads Hodor to “hold the door” to buy her and Bran enough time to escape safely, a command that echoes through the past into Wylis’ head and triggers him to lapse into a state of seizure and “hold the door!” over and over again. As Hodor complies with the request in the present time, the character is overrun and killed by the White Walkers while “holding the door.”

Spread

On May 22nd, immediately after the airing of the episode, the phrase “hold the door” and its hashtag form #holdthedoor began trending worldwide on Twitter and elsewhere in the social media, as fans reacted to the heart-wrenching death of Hodor and the reveal of a fatalist backstory behind the character’s name.

At 10:02 p.m. (ET), Colombian pop culture commentator @9000x tweeted a two-pane image of the phrase “hold the door” stylized in the signature typeface of the TV series and a cartoon drawing of a stick-figure character lying down in a pool of one’s own tears (shown below). In less than 24 hours, the tweet garnered nearly 2,000 retweets and over 1,600 likes.

At 10:05 p.m. (ET), Redditor Jedbanguer submitted an unknown author’s webcomic referencing the quote from the episode (shown below) in a post titled “It’s gonna be hard to be polite from now on,” racking up 6,550 points (95% upvoted) within the first 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References

About

The Dog Filter is a Snapchat lens that uses facial recognition software to place a dog’s nose, ears and tongue over a person’s face while taking a selfie in real-time. Due to its popularity among young women, some have controversially nicknamed the lens the “hoe filter.”

Origin

In February 2016, Snapchat released an update to the applications, which contained a new lens that places an animated dog’s nose and ears over a person’s face. Additionally, an animated dog’s tongue is shown protruding whenever their mouth is opened.

Spread

On March 1st, 2016, the @MeninistTweet Twitter feed posted a tweet accusing women who use the dog Snapchat filter of being promiscuous (shown below, left). On March 9th, Redditor kittiestitties4ever posted an animated GIF of actress Eliza Dushku using the dog filter on Snapchat to /r/gifs^[6].

via GIPHY

On March 28th, 2016, YouTuber JustLikeThat uploaded a comedy sketch titled “How Girls Use Snapchat,” in which she expresses her appreciation for the dog filter (shown below).

On April 9th, Urban Dictionary^[5] user sugary submitted an entry for “hoe filter,” defining it as an alternative name for the Snapchat dog filter. On April 22nd, Vice published an article titled “The Internet is Slut Shaming Women Over Snapchat Filters Now,”^[8] which criticized the use of the term “hoe filter” for being sexist. On April 27th, YouTuber Unoriginality uploaded a video titled “A Hoe’s Favorite Snapchat Filter,” in which a woman is accused of being a “whore” after her boyfriend walks in on her using the Snapchat filter (shown below).

On May 10th, Kim Kardashian posted a Snapchat story asking for a new Dalmatian-themed dog filter. Shortly after, Snapchat released an update that would place a Dalmation’s ears and nose over the second person detected in a Snapchat with the dog filter enabled (shown below).

On May 13th, Vice published an interview with a psychiatrist titled “We Asked a Psychiatrist Why We’re So Obsessed with the Dog Filter.”^[2] On May 18th, the women’s interest blog Allure^[4] published an article titled “There’s a Reason Why You Love the Dog Filter on Snapchat,” which claimed the filter hides imperfections and elongates faces. On May 20th, a parody horror movie trailer starring Ariana Grande was broadcast on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in which she is cursed with wearing the dog filter in real life after using the Snapchat app (shown below). Within 72 hours, the sketch received upwards of 380,000 views and 240 comments on YouTube. On May 23rd, Snapchat disabled access to the filter to promote a new set of filters promoting the the film X-Men Apocalypse.^[7]

Search Interest

External References

Hail the Twix Army. We will rule all.
Twix Army is a subculture in Hive365 about the godly Twix,

About

“This Ugly Son of a Bitch” is a banner advertisement for online porn sites based on a photograph of a young man wearing glasses with the caption reading “this ugly son of a bitch is fucking super hot chicks and basically, you are fucking stupid.” Online, the banner ad has become a popular subject of photoshopped parodies featuring a variety of characters and altered captions.

Origin

On February 13th, 2012, Redditor freddybear submitted a screenshot of the website ad titled “Made me laugh during faptime” to the /r/WTF^[4] subreddit, where it gained over 1,600 votes (94% upvoted) and 100 comments prior to being archived.

Spread

On October 21st, 2013, FunnyJunk^[2] user leodamanhunter posted a screenshot of the ad. On July 29th, 2014, Newgrounds^[6] Forums user WegraMan posted a thread featuring a template of the ad image, inviting users to submitted photoshopped variations (shown below).

On February 13th, 2015, IGN Forums^[3] member DudeWheresMyAccount posted a thread highlighting a screenshot of the original ad. On April 29th, Redditor DiGuilherme submitted an edited version featuring a character from the role-playing video game Mount and Blade (shown below, left).^[7] On October 16th, the “Special Meme Fresh” Facebook^[1] page posted a variation of the ad text. On November 21st, Redditor GoblinParadox posted a photoshopped version of the ad featuring 2016 Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders to /r/circlejerk^[5] (shown below, left).

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr. was a 25-year-old resident of Baltimore, Maryland who died from spinal injuries while in custody of the Baltimore Police Department shortly after his arrest on alleged possession of an illegal switchblade in April 2015. In the wake of the incident, as well as the larger string of police brutality controversies involving African Americans leading up to it, the public reaction quickly developed into a series of large-scale, and oftentimes violent, protests in Baltimore and the metropolitan area in the following months.

Background

On the morning of April 12th, 2015, Baltimore resident Freddie Gray was arrested for alleged possession of a switchblade knife and taken into custody by the Baltimore Police Department. The scene of his arrest was captured on video footage by two bystanders, which shows Gray being carried into the van by multiple officers.

According to the police report, within 30 minutes the arrest, Gray suddenly fell into a coma while being transported, prompting the attention of paramedics and admission at the University of Maryland’s shock trauma center, where it was discovered that he had sustained severe injuries to his spinal cords and larynx. In the following week, Gray remained unconscious and underwent extensive surgery. On April 19th, a week after his arrest, Gray was pronounced dead.

Notable Developments

Community Reactions

In the days following Gray’s death, hundreds of local residents began assembling in downtown Baltimore to march down the streets adjacent to the scene of Gray’s arrest and stage a demonstration outside the city’s Western District police headquarters. According to Reuters and local news media outlets, the protest was peaceful.

Official Statements

On April 21st, 2015, Baltimore Police Department suspended six officers involved in the arrest due to an internal investigation of Gray’s death, in addition to the launch of a federal investigation by the United States Justice Department. The next day, Gene Ryan, the president of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, released a statement expressing sympathy for the Gray family, while condemning the anti-police rhetorics of protests by likening the local reaction to a “lynch mob.” Ryan’s remark was met with heavy backlash from the family’s attorney, as well as the national news media outlets, most notably in a New York Times op-ed column titled “‘Lynch Mob’: Misuse of Language.”

Protests

On April 25th, 2015, thousands of Baltimore residents participated in a massive rally by marching from the Baltimorean city hall to Inner Harbor, during which a small contingent of unruly protesters began throwing rocks at police officers and damaging vehicles. As a result, at least 34 people were arrested and 15 police officers were injured, while two photojournalists were forcefully subdued and briefly taken into custody while attempting to photograph the scenes of the escalating violence. Upon release, a video clip of J.M. Giordano, a photographer for Baltimore City Paper, getting swarmed and beaten by two police officers, was published on the online edition of the publication.

Memorial Service

On April 27th, the memorial service for Freddie Gray was held at the New Shiloh Baptist Church, which was joined by civil rights leaders, families of other people killed by police, and politicians including Congressman Elijah Cummings, Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, White House adviser Heather Foster, and Elias Alcantara of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Escalation of Violence

However, by early afternoon that same day, the Baltimore Police Department had reportedly issued a warning of “potentially violent activities on the rise” across the city. Around 3 p.m., a confrontation erupted between the police in riot gear and a group of about 100 youthful protesters who began throwing bricks and bottles at the officers. In response to the unrest, a handful of schools, universities and major businesses closed early and several professional sporting events were postponed to a later date. Meanwhile, several police vehicles were destroyed and set on fire and a CVS pharmacy store in downtown Baltimore was looted and set ablaze.

Investigation

On May 1st, Maryland’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby announced 28 criminal charges against six Baltimore Police Department officers involved in Gray’s arrest, Officers Caesar R. Goodson Jr., William G. Porter, Edward M. Nero and Garrett F. Miller, Lieutenant Brian W. Rice and Sergeant Alicia D. White, for various crimes ranging from second-degree murder to manslaughter and misconduct, among others (listed below). During the press conference, Mosby delivered a speech condemning the police officers for arresting an innocent man without probable cause and lethally assaulting him.

All six officers were taken into custody and processed at Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center; all of them were released on the same day after posting bail, which ranged from $250,000 to $350,000.

Trials

• On September 8th, 2015, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that the city had reached a $6.4 million settlement with Gray’s family, while adding that the settlement “should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial."

• On December 16th, Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams declared a mistrial in the case of William G. Porter, the first of the six Baltimore Police officers implicated in Gray’s death to stand trial, after the jury failed to reach an agreement on any of the charges filed against Porter.

• On May 23rd, 2016, Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams rejected the state of Maryland’s case against Edward Nero, acquitting him on all charges, including two counts of second-degree assault, two counts of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. The verdict was announced after five days of deliberation. In his ruling, Williams explained that the decision was largely driven by the absence of “credible facts” directly linking Officer Nero’s role in Gray’s arrest and the detainment.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Oh Neptune” refers to a memorable line uttered by the character Mrs. Puff in the popular Nickelodeon animated series Spongebob SquarePants. Online, The scene became a popular reaction image for various situations with mostly negative implications.

Origin

The scene originated in an episode of the second season of Spongebob SquarePants titled No Free Rides which first aired on March 7th, 2001. In the episode, Spongebob fails his driver license test which results in him requiring to retake boating school for another year. Mrs. Puff, realizing she has to bear having Spongebob in her class for another year, utters “Oh Neptune”.

Spread

(WIP)

Various Examples

(WIP)

Search Interest

External References

Overview

[WIP]

Background

On March 25th, 2016, Blizzard forum user Fipps started a discussion thread in Overwatch’s beta feedback page^[9] asserting that the victory pose of Tracer, one of the more well-known playable characters, is irrelevant to her character traits and therefore unwarrantedly objectifies her into a female sex symbol:

Then out of seemingly no where we have this pose:

WHAT? What about this pose has anything to do with the character you’re building in tracer? It’s not fun, its not silly, it has nothing to do with being a fast elite killer. It just reduces tracer to another bland female sex symbol.
We aren’t looking at a widowmaker pose here, this isn’t a character who is in part defined by flaunting her sexuality. This pose says to the player base, oh we’ve got all these cool diverse characters, but at any moment we are willing to reduce them to sex symbols to help boost our investment game.

Notable Developments

Throughout the weekend, Fipps’ thread on Tracer’s victory pose devolved into a lengthy and messy debate with hundreds of other users debating on a wide range of tangential topics, from Blizzard’s art direction and marketing strategies to objectification of female videogame characters. On March 28th, Jeff Kaplan, the game director of Overwatch, replied^[10] to the thread by pledging to replace the character’s pose, which inadvertently led to the escalation of an already tense debate on the forum.

We’ll replace the pose. We want everyone to feel strong and heroic in our community. The last thing we want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable, under-appreciated or misrepresented. Apologies and we’ll continue to try to do better.

In response to Kaplan’s announcement, many users criticized the decision for what they perceived as a disproportionate response to an individual beta participant’s qualm, some raised their eyebrows at the studio’s seemingly arbitrary hypersensitivity to sexualization of cartoon characters, despite its gratuitous depiction of cartoon violence, while others complimented the studio for its receptiveness to community feedback and dedication to the details in portrayal of characters in line with their personalities. That same day, Kaplan’s response made its way over to Reddit’s /r/overwatch community^[11], where it further snowballed into a controversy by drawing nearly 2,000 comments within the first 24 hours of the post. In addition, a petition^[12] seeking to preserve the original pose of Tracer was launched by Redditor AetherPrismriv, which has garnered over 4,000 points and 2,400 comments over the same time period. During the following days, the controversy spawned several jokes and fan art related to the pose (shown below).

On April 5th, the game was updated to include a replacement for the original, which was consequently praised by the fans for being more fitting with Tracer’s personality. A post on the Overwatch subreddit regarding the pose change gained over 2,900 points (89% upvoted) and 950 comments in less than 16 hours.^[15]

Search Interest

External References

About

Captain America is a fictional superhero created by Marvel Comics, who was designed as a patriotic supersoldier to fight for the United States during World War II. The character is known for wielding a large shield and wearing a costume resembling the United States flag.

History

In 1940, Captain America was invented by writer Joe Simon. In March 1941, the first comic book featuring the character was released titled Captain America Comics #1, in which the character was depicted wearing an American flag-themed costume and shield (shown below).

Films

On July 19th, 2011, the film Captain America: The First Avenger was released, in which the character Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) becomes the supersoldier Captain America after being injected with a powerful serum in order to fight against the Nazi-backed HYDRA organization during World War II (shown below, left). In April 2012, Evans starred as Captain America in the film The Avengers. On March 13th, 2014, a sequel titled Captain America: Winter Soldier was released (shown below, right).

In May 2015, Captain America appeared in the The Avengers sequel Age of Ultron. On April 12th, 2016, the film Captain America: Civil War was released, in which The Avengers engage in an internal feud based on differences between Captain America and Iron Man (shown below).

Online Presence

In July 2010, a Facebook^[2] page titled “Captain America” was created, garnering upwards of 16 million likes over the next six years. On February 3rd, 2011, /r/CaptainAmerica^[1] subreddit was launched for discussions about the superhero character. In July 2012, the @CaptainAmerica^[3] Twitter feed was created, gathering more than 1.18 million followers in four years.

Related Memes

I Understood That Reference

“I Understood That Reference” is an expression typically used in online forums and comments as an affirmative acknowledgement of a pop culture reference or technical jargon said by another. The quote was originally uttered by Captain America in the 2012 Marvel superhero action film The Avengers.

Captain America: Civil War 4 Pane

Captain America: Civil War 4-Pane (also known as Captain America vs Iron Man) is a series of vertical multi-pane image macros based on an exploitable photo set from the 2012 Marvel superhero film The Avengers illustrating a deadlocked conversation between two people at odds, usually over fandom rivalries.

Mission Report: December 16th, 1991

“Mission Report: December 16th, 1991” is a quote repeatedly uttered by the supervillain character Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War.

#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend

In late May 2016, Captain America fans on Twitter^[5] and Tumblr^[4] launched the hashtag #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend encouraging Marvel to give Steve Rogers a boyfriend in future films in the franchise. Along with the hashtag, many fans “shipped” the superhero with his childhood friend Bucky Barnes.

On May 24th, opponents of the idea began tweeting counterarguments, claiming that they should be promoting characters who are already depicted as gay rather than pushing for characters to be altered (shown below). In the coming days, several news sites reported on the hashtag, including Yahoo,^[6] Entertainment Weekly,^[7]USA Today^[8] and Bustle.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

Candace Payne’s Chewbacca Mask refers to a viral video uploaded to Facebook by Texas resident Candace Panye in late May 2016, in which she is shown wearing a mask for the Star Wars character Chewbacca while laughing hysterically in her car. The recording quickly became the most-viewed Facebook Live video in history, landing Payne interviews with several major publications and television shows.

Origin

On May 19th, 2016, Facebook user Candace Payne uploaded a video of herself sitting in her car while enthusiastically presenting a Chewbacca mask she recently purchased at a Kohl’s store (shown below). While demonstrating the mask’s ability to produce a growling noise out of its built-in speaker, Payne begins to laugh excitedly and exclaims “I’m such a happy Chewbacca!” Within six days, the video gained over 145 million views, 3.2 million shares and 2.6 million reactions.

Spread

On May 19th, YouTuber Jon Deak reuploaded Payne’s video, receiving more than 3.1 million views and 3,900 comments.^[1] The following day, Redditor PI_Producer posted the video to /r/videos,^[4] where it gathered upwards of 11,500 votes (72% upvoted) and 3,000 comments in five days. On May 21st, actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy, posted a tweet praising Payne for her video (shown below).^[2]

That day, other Twitter users began posting about the video using the hashtag #HappyChewbacca.^[3] Also on May 21st, Kohl’s posted a video to Facebook of a store representative delivering various Star Wars merchandise to the Payne family along with $2,500 in gift cards to the store. Within four days, the video gathered upwards of 32 million views, 725,000 reactions and 505,000 shares.

Meanwhile, the pop culture blog Crave^[5] reported that the Chewbacca mask had sold out at various toy stores across the United States and United Kingdom. On May 23rd, Payne appeared in a comedy sketch about the video on The Late Show with James Cordon (shown below).

That day, the schmoyoho YouTube channel posted a songified remix of Payne’s original video (shown below). Also on May 23rd, Payne was interviewed on the morning talk show Good Morning America (shown below, right).

On May 24th, Payne visited the Facebook headquarters, where she was greeted by the Facebook Live team and given an award from the company (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Zakia Belkhiri’s Selfie Protest refers to a series of selfies taken by 22-year-old Belgian Muslim woman Zakia Belkhiri in front of an anti-Muslim demonstration held in Antwerp, Belgium in May 2016. Upon the online publication of a photograph depicting the woman’s selfie moment, the image quickly went viral, with many news outlets praising it as a symbolic act of defiance against Islamophobia, though it soon became a target of online backlash after the woman’s history of anti-semitic remarks in the social media came to light.

Background

On May 14th, 2016, the third annual Muslim Expo, a weekend-long festival celebrating the lifestyle and culture of Muslims, was held in Antwerp, Belgium. During the second day of the event, around 40 members of Belgium’s right-wing political party Vlaams Belang gathered outside the premise of the event for a protest with anti-Islamic picket signs reading messages like “No headscarves,” “No mosques,” and “Stop Islam.” As the demonstration continued, a 22-year-old Muslim woman named Zakia Belkhiri decided to stage a subtle counter-protest by posing for some selfies in front of the picket line, a scene that was captured by photographer Jürgen Augusteyns.

Developments

That same day, Augusteyns’s photograph was published by the Dutch edition of VICE^[1], while additional photographs of the woman taken by other attendees and bystanders at the event also began circulating on Twitter.^[2][3]

News Media Coverage

In the following days, several dozens of English-language news outlets reported on Belkhiri’s protest selfie, including Vox^[8], BuzzFeed^[9], Mashable^[7], Mic^[3], Huffington Post^[10], BBC News^[6] and Telegraph^[5], with many of them describing her action as “fearless,” “inspirational” and “defiant.”

Belkhiri’s Anti-Semitic Remarks

On May 19th, Dutch news site Geenstijl^[12] ran an article exposing a history of anti-semitic remarks posted by Belkhiri on her Twitter, Facebook, and Ask.fm accounts, including screenshots of an offensive tweet she had posted in December 2012, which read “Hitler didnt kill all the jews, he left some. So we [would] know why he was killing them,” and her Ask.fm post declaring “Fuck that Jewish language” (shown below). By May 21st, Belkhiri’s anti-Semitic commentaries had been picked up by Breitbart^[13], as well as some of the aforementioned news sites.^[14][15]

Belkhiri’s Response

On May 20th, as the backlash against Belkhiri continued to escalate in the wake of the revelations, she promptly deleted all of her social media accounts. Two days later, Belkhiri temporarily reinstated her Twitter account to address the accusations of anti-semitism (shown below).

Later on, Belkhiri issued a lengthy apology to “everyone in the Jewish community which I’ve hurt with my comments of several years ago,” adding that “I am not an anti-Semite. Even if it seems so because I haven’t thought of deleting my angry comments from when I was younger and ignorant.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Lolirock is a 2014 French 2D-animated cartoon series created by Jean-Louis Vandestoc and produced by Marathon Media. The show, about Iris and her friends Auriana and Talia as they fight off the evil wizard Gramorr and save their home planet of Ephedia, gained a niche following on some communities like Tumblr after its English release in mid 2016.

Premise

Set in the lakeside town of Sunny Bay, the show focuses on Iris, a teenage girl who, with her new friends Talia and Auriana, perform in an all-girl pop group called Lolirock, while also warding off the forces of the evil wizard Gramorr and his minions, twins Mephisto and Praxina, as the magical princesses of the kingdoms Ephedia, Xeris, and Volta respectively. To defeat Gramorr and save their home planet of Ephedia, they must also collect the Oracle Gems, jewels that belong on the the crown of Ephedia and contain untapped power.

History

The show was created by Jean-Louis Vandestoc, who previously worked on other Marathon Media-produced shows such as Martin Mystery, Rekkit Rabbit, and Monster Buster Club. Prior to airing, Marathon produced animated music videos for some of the songs featured in the show as promotional material (example shown below, left). The show would would eventually premiere on October 18, 2014 on French TV channel France 3. The show would eventually spread to sister channel France 4 and Disney Channel France along with being aired in other countries such as Spain, Italy, and Portugal. On May 1st, 2016, the show made its official English premiere on streaming service Netflix (trailer shown below, right).

Reception

The show currently has an IMDb rating of 7.9/10 from 61 users as of May 2016.

Online Relevance

The show’s official Facebook page has garnered over 7,600 likes as of May 2016, while the show’s Twitter account has only amassed over 400 followers. A Lolirock subreddit was created by Redditor chowdertheclam on Sept. 15, 2014, garnering only 8 subscribers as of May 2016. A dedicated wiki also exists with over 200 pages since its creation. The show’s production blog on Tumblr, however has accumulated over 1000 followers since its creation. The show has also been considered as a cousin show by fans of Miraculous Ladybug and its creator, Thomas Astruc, who also works on the show as a storyboard artist.

Search Interest