About

Cat Transcendence, also known as The Prophecy Is True Cat and Flower Crashes Cat, is a short video of a cat reacting in bewilderment to being put a flower on its head. While it remained quite a small curiosity of its own since its release in mid-2015, it gained popularity following the upload a specific parody made by YouTuber Max Goodrich in early 2016.

Origin

On June 18th, 2015, Instagram user Sophiella_cats_n_nails upload a 15-second-long video of herself singing in Russian before putting a flower on the head of her cat, which reacts in bewilderment with its eyes wide open^[1]. A YouTube version was uploaded on June 25th by the lolzing4gifs channel (shown below) under the title “Flower crashes cat”, indicating that the video had already been made into an animated gif and shared. The video accumulated to over 2 800 000 views within the first year of its upload.

Spread

On June 30th, animal lovers website The Dodo issued an article about the aforementioned video^[2]. A full gif animation was also submitted to Imgur by user Wolfy1005 on August 4th, gaining over 2 500 000 views in the first year of its upload^[3].
Throughout the rest of 2015, a handful of parodies were made (shown below), without however amounting to as much views.

Max Goodrich’s Parody

On January 23rd, 2016, YouTuber Max Goodrich uploaded a 5-second-cut version of the video, featuring the short line “The prophecy is true” uttered by character Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne) in feature film Matrix Reloaded with an extract from epic science-fiction flick Interstellar’s theme song “Mountains”, performed by Hans Zimmer (shown below). it was also uploaded to his Vine channel the same day^[4].

This version has gained more than 680 000 views as of July 2016. It led to a surge in online popularity for the initial video, and launched a fad of remixes on YouTube.

Various Examples

Search Trend

External References

^[1]Instagram – sophiella_cats_n_nails’ post

^[2]The Dodo – Cat Reacts To Flower In Most Dramatic Way Possible

^[3]Imgur – Flower Crashes Cat

^[4]Vine – Cat Transcendence

Parody of 2 Users of Object Shows Community Wiki, Phuocpony is Actually Phuocphuc46, Retzyn is an User Who is Renamed into The Second Nation.

https://youtu.be/wAeB_yl2E90

The official black trump supporter.

About

The Band of the Bold, also known as #JoggingManChallenge, is a series of videos in which comedian Marlon Webb jogs through neighborhoods with a group of friends while the songs “Take On Me” and “Stayin’ Alive” are heard playing in the background.

Origin

On June 12th, 2016, Webb posted a video titled “The Band of the Bold” to his Facebook page,^[1] in which three men are shown jogging with a wide gait to the tune of the 1984 synthpop song “Take on Me” by A-ha (shown below). Within two months, the video gained over 11.6 million views, 200,000 shares and 39,000 comments.

Spread

The following day, the video was reuploaded to the Ready to Monday YouTube^[2] channel, and two days later, it reached the front page of Reddit’s /r/videos^[3] community. On June 28th, Webb posted a sequel video featuring the same group of joggers running down a street to the 1977 disco hit single “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees (shown below, left). On July 5th, Webb uploaded a third video in the series, which shows the group fleeing from a police officer with “Take On Me” playing in the background (shown below, right)

On July 23rd, YouTuber Impact Props uploaded a parody video titled “The Band of the Spartans,” wherein several Halo cosplayers recreate Webb’s video at the RTX convention in Austin, Texas (shown below, left). In less than a week, the video accrued nearly 240,000 views. The next day, a GIF from the video reached the frontpage of the /r/gaming^[6] subreddit. On July 26th, YouTuber ThePruld uploaded a Dark Souls-themed parody video, which accrued over 300,000 views within 48 hours after reaching the front page of the /r/gaming^[5] subreddit later that same day. (shown below, right). On July 27th, Redditor gnarledout submitted a post asking about variations of the jogging dance to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

About

“Why is she so perfect?” is a stock opening post often spammed on message boards such as 4chan’s anime & manga board, /a/. The post will include an image featuring a character about whom the discussion concerns and often affixes the website or board’s name on the end, for example, in the form: “Why is she so perfect, KYM?”

Origin

The oldest known use of the phrase was as a reply to a thread on 8th February 2008. Older image links in the archive are broken and it is difficult to tell which characters or series are being discussed.^[1]

The oldest archived use of the phrase as an opening post was on /a/ 20th February 2008, where the opening post simply contained an image of the character Noe from the anime True Tears and the sentence, “Why is she so perfect, /a/?” (the image link is now broken on DesuArchive.org).^[2] The thread prompted responses from other board users either elaborating on the reasons for perfection or staunchly opposing the idea that the character was perfect in the first place, preferring different characters.

The earliest known example of the phrase as an opening post on /a/.

Another thread on 15th April 2008 then used a similar OP, but discussing different characters from another show.^[3]

Spread

The phrase has remained consistently popular as an opening post on /a/, owing to its simple nature which quickly prompts discussion. Board culture practically invites an opposing point of view stating why the character is not perfect, and many examples of the post can be considered bait.

As of late July 2016, DesuArchive.org returns around 1,000 results for threads which have some form of the sentence as their opening post since 2008.^[4] Newer archive Fireden.net returns over 300 threads since 24th October 2015.^[5]

Sometimes the meme is used as a response instead of the OP. Desuarchive returns a further 1,600 results for the meme when used as a reply.^[6]

This meme spread beyond /a/ into other boards. Examples can be seen from /v/, ^[7] /vr/,^[8] /vg/,^[9] /co/,^[10] and many other boards.

Use of the phrase has spread beyond 4chan, and can be seen used as a tag on tumblr.^[10] Anime-related results can be seen with the tag, but there are many more examples that are not related to anime. Tumblr also returns results for a male-focused equivalent, “why is he so perfect”.^[11] Running a Google image search for the phrase will return quite a few anime-related results.^[12]

Examples

Search Interest

Not available

References

About

Lizard People of New York is a Weird Facebook page run by comedian Jeremy Kaplowitz that parodies the popular blog Humans of New York (HONY) by presupposing the people giving confessional stories are reptilians.

Origin

Kaplowitz started the page as a rising senior at Binghamton University because he “has always found the reptilian conspiracy intriguing,” according to an interview he gave to the BU Pipe Dream.^[1] On May 21st, 2014, Kaplowitz posted the first update to Lizard People of New York,^[2] pictured below.

Spread

In its first summer of existence, Lizard People of New York gained over 15,000 followers and inspired copycat pages across the country. Brandon Stanton, who runs Humans of New York, implicitly gave Kaplowitz his blessing in an email that read:

“I stole your idea because I am the Lizard King, and I knew that if I started a site called Humans of New York, your site would never be seen as anything other than a parody.”

Over the course of the next two years, Lizard People of New York gained recognition as a top HONY parody by Observer,^[3] Salon,^[4] and Bustle.^[5] On December 28th, 2015, Kaplowitz and other writers on the page did a live stand-up comedy performance under the billing Lizard People of New York (Live!).^[6]

In 2016, Kaplowitz launched LizardPeopleMeet.com,^[7] a fake dating website for reptilians. He told The Daily Dot^[8] that he did it as a way to creatively expand upon the success of Lizard People of New York.

As of July 29th, 2016, Lizard People of New York has over 187,000 Facebook likes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

The Young Turks is a pop culture and political commentary web series on YouTube, known for the left-wing, progressive stance of the show’s co-hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. The show is named after a colloquial expression for progressive revolutionaries, which references the Young Turks 20th century political political reform movement in the Ottoman Empire.

History

Radio Show

In 2002, Turkish American political commentator Cenk Uygur began hosting the show The Young Turks on Sirius Satellite Radio. In 2005, the show broadcast a 99-hour-long “filibuster” held in protest of the Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination in the United States. On November 19th, 2010, The Young Turks held their last show on the Sirius network.

YouTube Channel

On December 21st, 2005, The Young Turks YouTube channel was launched, with the first episode titled “The Young Turks Deal w/ a Stupid Conservative Caller” (shown below). On December 20th, 2007, the channel released a video titled “Kate Moss sex tape and Jennifer Love Hewitt Playboy?”, in which hosts Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss various celebrity gossip stories (shown below, right). Within nine years, the episode received upwards of 3.9 million views and 700 comments.

On June 26th, 2008, the show released an episode titled “Mini Me Sex Tape – You Know You Wanna Watch!”, featuring a discussion about a recently released sex tape starring actor Verne Troyer (shown below, left). In eight years, the video garnered upwards of 3.7 million views and 350 comments. On November 16th, 2009, the show released an episode discussing a woman who orgasms “300 times a day,” accumulating more than 28 million views and 5,800 comments in seven years (shown below, right).

On October 6th, 2010, an episode titled “What Are Chicken Nuggets Made Of?” was released, in which the hosts discuss a viral photograph of “mechanically separated chicken” (shown below, left). Within six years, the video gained over 12.2 million views and 2,600 comments. On July 18th, 2012, the show published a discussion about a man with the world’s largest penis, garnering upwards of 15 million views and 14,500 comments in four years (shown below, right). On July 3rd, 2013, a show about the Hawthorne police dog shooting was released, gathering more than 7.2 million views and 72,000 comments over three years.

On June 4th, 2014, the channel published a documentary titled Spent: Looking For Change, a film about the financial hardships of working class Americans (shown below, left). In two years, the documentary accumulated upwards of 12.1 million views and 2,500 comments. On December 16th, 2015, an episode criticizing Donald Trump’s performance at a Republican presidential debate was release, which gained over 4.2 million views and 16,700 comments in one year.

Documentary

On April 7th, 2015, a crowdfunded^[7] documentary about the series titled Mad as Hell was released on DVD, which outlines the history of the show’s creation.

Controversies

Armenian Genocide Denial

The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur has been accused of denying the Armenian Genocide based on an article about the genocide titled “Historical Fact or Falsehood” published in 1991.^[3] Uygur’s co-host Ana Kasparian has defended Uygur, claiming he has since changed his mind about the event. On May 13th, 2013, Uygur participated in an “ask me anything” (AMA) post on /r/IAmA,^[5] where he did not answer the top-voted question asking “Why do you deny the Armenian Genocide?” On April 22nd, 2016, Uygur posted a public retraction of the 1991 article, which was later removed from the site.^[6]

2016 Republican National Convention

During the 2016 Republican National Convention, hosts Uygur and Kasparian engaged in a loud argument with Alex Jones after he appeared on the show, during which Kasparian referred to Jones as a “fat fuck” (shown below).

Reception

In 2009, received an award in the Political category at the Podcast Awards and the Best Political News Site at the Mashable Open Web Awards. In 2011, The Young Turks were awarded in the News category at the Shorty Awards and the News and Political Series category at the Webby Awards. In April 2013, the show claimed to be the “world’s largest online news network” after reached over 1 billion views on YouTube.^[2] By July 2014, the channel reached 2 billion views.

Search Interest

External References

Major WiP

About

Stranger Things is an American television series released through Netflix. The series focuses on a group of children, who find a girl with telekinetic powers who band together to try and find their lost friend, meanwhile the town Police Chief tries to discover the dark secrets surrounding the town. The series is partially an homage to 1980s pop culture, taking inspiration from works by Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Stephen King, and many others.

History

The series’ first trailer was released on YouTube on June 9th, 2016 (shown below). In one month the trailer gained over 4 million views. The series released in entirety on Netflix on July 15th, 2016. The series has also been greenlit for a second season.^[4]

Reception

The series gained mostly positive reviews from critics, receiving a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 75/100 on Metacritic.^[1][2]

Online Relevance

The series has amassed a large following online, spawning various pieces of fan art as well as theory videos for what might be in-store for the series after the season one finale.

Fandom

On Tumblr there are various posts tagged under the series.^[3]

Search Interest

External Links

Overview

#WeWearWhatWeWant is a popular Twitterhashtag used by plus-sized women to post selfies and promote body positivity.

Background

On July 23rd, 2016, Los Angeles-based plus-sized model and blogger Simone Mariposa posted a series of tweets slamming the practice of fashion policing against plus-sized women after reading fellow Twitter user @thesoulasylum’s firsthand account^[1] of being bodyshamed for wearing ill-fitting clothes. Inspired by one of her followers’ suggestion, Mariposa then posted a call to action via her Instagram^[2] and Twitter^[3] accounts imploring plus-sized women to show off themselves in their favorite clothes using the hashtag #WeWearWhatWeWant.

Fatkini

The trend can be seen as a successor to the #Fatkini trend from 2012, a Twitter photo fad that found women taking pictures of themselves in plus-sized two piece bikinis to promote fat acceptance acceptance.

Developments

In the following week, the body positive campaign took off as women began using the hashtag to post selfies, many of which were retweeted by Mariposa. Three days later, Buzzfeed^[4] picked up on the trending hashtag and interviewed Mariposa. In the following days, the story was subsequently covered by outlets like Cosmopolitan,^[5] Essence,^[6] People,^[7] and more. As of July 29th, 2016, there are over 1,500 selfies associated with the hashtag on Instagram.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

#DemExit is a social media campaign and political movement encouraging Bernie Sanders supporters to leave the Democratic Party in protest of Hillary Clinton’s nomination in the 2016 United States presidential election.

Origin

On July 12th, 2016, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders formally endorsed rival Hillary Clinton for president against Republican candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming general election. That day, political news blogger Harlan Hill published an article titled “The Death of a Revolution and #DemExit,” noting that millions of Democrats would be considering leaving the political party to protest Clinton’s candidacy.^[1]

Spread

The same day, the /r/DemExit^[8] subreddit was launched for discussions about the political movement. On July 22nd, 2016, Wikileaks^[9] published a collection of nearly 20,000 e-mails exchanged among key staff members within the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the governing body of the United States Democratic Party, as well as unofficial correspondences with members of the press, between January 2015 and May 2016. In the emails, high ranking members of the DNC discuss various tactics to undermine the campaign of Bernie Sanders in order to secure Hillary Clinton’s victory in the primaries. On July 24th, Redditor staomeel submitted a post titled “If the DNC nominates Hillary Clinton for President. I can no longer support Democrats #DemExit,” to /r/SandersForPresident.^[9] The following day, Sanders was booed by supporters after calling for them to support Hillary Clinton in the upcoming general election (shown below).

Also on July 25th, Fox News broadcast a news segment about the the DNC protests, featuring an interview with an anti-Hillary protester who announced that 13 million people would be leaving the Democratic Party on Thursday in light of the DNC email leak (shown below). Later that day, a post about the planned #DemExit event was submitted to the /rSandersForPresident^[7] subreddit, where it accumulated upwards of 4,600 votes (91% upvoted) and 620 comments over then next four days.

On July 26th, Redditor LuddieStreak submitted a post encouraging viewers to leave the Democratic Party titled “#DemExit” to the /r/SandersForPresident^[5] subreddit, where it received more than 2,500 votes (93% upvoted) and 400 comments in 72 hours. The same day, 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein posted a tweet encouraging people to leave the “neoliberal Democratic Party” with the “#DemExit” hashtag (shown below).^[6]

Meanwhile, hundreds of Sanders delegates staged a walkout en masse following the roll call vote to nominate Hillary Clinton for president at the Democratic National Convention (shown below). On July 29th, Salon published a listicle titled “10 Reasons Why #DemExit Is Serious,” which subsequently reached the front page of /r/politics.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

“My ___ Grew A Beard” is a lesser meme that is typically circulated around followers of heavy metal culture. More specifically, Viking Metal, and most notably, the Swedish Melodic Death Metal band known as Amon Amarth. It is a joke that is typically told in the comments section of YouTube videos of their songs.

Amon Amarth’s songs are typically about Vikings, which are often depicted as overly manly, with large beards. The burly, heavily bearded appearance of the band’s lead vocalist, Johan Hegg, further pushes this idea. The joke is that the band’s songs are so manly, and carry such Viking nature, that the sheer sound of them can bring pure unfiltered manliness to all who are within the audible range of it. The joke is often told in a manner similar to this: “I turned on the song, and looked away from my cat. When I looked back, my cat grew a beard.”

It is unknown exactly who posted the first comment regarding this, or what the original comment even is, but it has been a joke for several years by the band’s fans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYQ3mkd_w9k

W.I.P.

About

Hey Arnold! is an American animated television series created by Craig Bartlett that aired on Nickelodeon from October 7, 1996 to June 8, 2004. The show centers on a fourth grader named Arnold, who lives with his grandparents in an inner-city boarding house. Episodes center on his experiences navigating big city life while dealing with the problems he and his friends encounter.

History

Animator Craig Bartlett graduated from Anacortes High School and obtained a degree in communications from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.^[8] During high school and college, he studied painting and sculpture at the Museum Art School in Portland, and his first job after college was at Will Vinton Productions, a claymation house.^[8] Originally, Bartlett intended to become a painter “in the 19th-century sense”, but he became interested in animation during a trip to Italy.

Premise

Hey Arnold! stars nine-year-old Arnol and his neighborhood friends: Gerald, a street-smart character who generally serves as the leader of the group, and Helga, a girl who bullies Arnold in order to hide the fact that she is in love with him. Bartlett drew inspiration from people he grew up with when creating the characters for the show.

Rated Memes

Stoop Kid

Stoop Kid is a nameless character who lives on a stoop in Hillwood. He is infamous throughout the neighbourhood for his attachment to his stoop, as he grew up on it and refuses to leave it.

Various Examples

[reassuring]

Search Interest

Work in progress

About

iDubbbz’s “I’m Gay” refers to a memorable scene where the vlogger iDubbbz utters the aforementioned quote after jumping from a table. The scene has been consequently remixed.

Origin

The original scene comes from the first behind the scenes video of “Edward Watermelon-Hands” from MaxMoeFoe, uploaded on May 19th, 2016 on his secondary channel. Near the end of the video, Max requests Ian to jump down from the table and “say some fucking gay shit”, with Ian jumping and saying “I’m gay” before bursting out in laughter with Max and Filthy Frank. In the following months the video got over 1.1 million views.

Spread

External References

every game of overwatch tannor plays he leaves because he is mad

Pokemon GO, after two weeks of the release date, the app is not in it’s best standing. Having been better standing on release, the active MILLIONS of players are furious of the creator’s (niantics) taking steps backwards since the app’s release.

And given the app’s issue’s impact, Niantics, after many days of these issues, sends an update to it’s players for “Minor text fixes”..

Niantics, being aware of the server crashes, has still not (outwardly) taken any notice of the “3-Foot-Step” bug, that has been ruining the game for many players.

Minor Text Fixes

Step Counter removal

External References

About

Zucked is a slang word that essentially means “to be screwed over by Mark Zuckerberg.” It has been popularly used in several different contexts since Facebook’s conception in 2007.

Origin

The earliest known use of Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder’s last name, as a verb dates back to 2007, amidst the news media coverage of legal controversies between Zuckerberg and several classmates of Harvard University over the foundation and ownership of the social networking site. On November 3rd, 2007, Urban Dictionary user Bentheguyfromcambridge submitted an entry for “Zuckerberg,”^[1] defined as:

to steal an idea from someone who trusts you

Spread

In 2010, with Facebook’s settlement of the lawsuits and continued expansion as the social networking empire, the meaning of the term “zucked” gradually evolved to convey any theft of an idea from a competitor, as defined by American tech entrepreneur and podcaster Jason Calacanis in his blog post.^[2]

Shortly after Facebook became a publicly traded company on May 18th, 2012, the company’s stock began free-falling after its lead underwriters reduced the earning forecasts in the middle of the IPO process, leading to heavy financial losses for investors, including Zuckerberg himself who lost $3 billion dollars in three business days. As a result, the term took on a new meaning of taking a “sudden wealth loss” due to ill-advised investment, which became widely used by finance journalists in the news media coverage^[3] of Facebook’s stock crash. According to Techopedia’s^[9] definition:

Zucked refers to the sudden wealth loss investors and company executives experience when a dotcom stock plunges, destroying shareholders’ inflated paper fortunes. This term originated in response to the decline of Facebook’s stock following its IPO in May 2012, which cost Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, other company executives and investors worldwide billions of dollars.

In Fall 2014, “Zucked” came to mean the act of Facebook deleting a person’s account because they were suspected of using a “fake name.”^[4] This policy came under scrutiny by people with non-western or non-traditional names, like the Irish,^[5] Native Americans,^[6] and the Vietnamese.^[7] It also drew criticism from the LGBTQ community, as the policy affected queer users using adopted names or pseudonyms.^[8]

Search History

External References

W.I.P.

About

Kimbo Slice (real name Kevin Ferguson,) is an online sensation street brawler turned professional UFC fighter and professional boxer originating from Nassau, Bahamas. Kimbo earned the title as the “King of the Web brawlers” prior to his career as a fighter inside the ring.^[1]

Online History

Kimbo Slice is most known for his unsanctioned street brawls that were recorded and uploaded to Youtube. The first of which was uploaded on 2007. The original uploads of Kimbo’s fight videos reached tens of millions of views.

Reputation

Kevin Ferguson’s nickname originated from his childhood nickname ‘Kimbo’ and ‘Slice’ from his first taped street fight, wherein the opponent he defeated -- who goes by the nicknames Byrd and Big D -- suffered a large cut in his right eye socket that deformed the eyeball. Kimbo Slice has a short but undefeated record as a professional boxer.

Kimbo was considered a formidable street fighter, but his reputation was put into question when he fought against professional fighters in the ring that can match his skills.

Death

Kimbo Slice died due to heart failure on June 6, 2016, just a few days after the death of Boxing legend Muhammad Ali.^[2]

Related Memes

Kimbo Slice vs Muhammad Ali (refereed by Harambe)

Kimbo Slice vs Dada 5000

Personal Life

Aside from being a professional fighter, Kimbo Slice was also an occasional actor, most notably appearing in the holiday special of Nickelodeon’s hit sitcom Drake & Josh.

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Wikipedia – Kimbo Slice

^[2]Independent – Kimbo Slice cause of death: MMA fighter needed heart transplant before he died aged 42

^[3]Uproxx – Kimbo Slice’s Fight With Dada 5000 Spawns Some Incredible Internet Reactions

^[4]For The Win – The Internet roasts Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 after slow, painful fight

About

Australian Shitposters refers to the commonly held stereotype that Australian 4chan users are responsible for the vast majority of shitposts created on the site, which is often attributed to the timezone difference preventing mods in the United States from regulating Australian submissions.

Origin

On March 13th, 2013, former 4chan owner Christoper Poole replied to a thread on the now defunct /q/ (4chan discussion) board asking “Who is hurting your feelings moot?”, to which he replied that “90% of shitposters are Aussies” (shown below).

Spread

On March 16th, 2013, a 4chan user posted a racists on 4chan comic featuring an Australian shitposter interacting with Poole to /q/ (shown below).^[3] On April 9th, a post was submitted to /q/ complaining about the increased shitposting volume present during prime hours in Australia.^[4]

On December 5th, 2015, a screenshot of a 4chan post complaining about Australian shitposting was submitted to /r/4chan,^[5] where it gathered upwards of 6,500 votes (92% upvoted) and 450 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On December 17th, YouTuber Gillian Seed uploaded footage of a man dancing with an illustration of an Australian shitposters superimposed over his head titled “Australia on /pol/” (shown below). On December 23rd, Redditor freyzha submitted a post asking “Why do people on image boards have such a strong aversion to Australians?” to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[1] subreddit, to which Redditor RunninOnStalin replied that it was a “running gag” on 4chan.

On February 8th, 2016, the internet culture blog Age of Shitlords published an article titled “Australian Shitposters are Ruining the Internet.” On July 16th, FunnyJunk^[2] user thecancerthatkills submitted a compilation of comics and green text stories mocking Australian shitposters.

Canadian Shitposters

During the summer of 2016, many 4chan users began speculating that Canadians had surpassed Australians as the biggest shitposters on the imageboard. On July 21st, a 4chan thread asking “Why are Canada and Australia such virulent shitposters?” was submitted to the /pol/ (politics) board on 4chan.^[6] On July 26th, a thread titled “Why are Canadians the biggest shitposters now and how have they surpassed the Aussies?” was submitted to /pol/, which included a graph showing Canadian shitposting exceeding Australian shitposting in 2016 (shown below).^[7]

Search Interest

External References

About

The Delegates, Donald is a photoshop meme based on a photograph of United States Senator Ted Cruz featuring a variety of internal monologue-style captions assertively demanding the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to “hand over” the delegates he had secured during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

Origin

The original photograph of Senator Ted Cruz purposefully walking down the congressional hallway on his way to the Senate floor was taken by Washington D.C.-based photojournalist Bill Clark^[1] on April 29th, 2014.

The earliest known mention of the conversational phrase “The Delegates, Donald,” as in “Hand over the delegates, Donald Trump,” can be found in the title of a 4chan thread^[2] submitted to the /pol/ (politically incorrect) board on May 11th, 2016.

Spread

On July 18th, 2016, an anonymous 4chan user submitted a thread titled “Donald, The delegates…” with the photograph of Ted Cruz to the /pol/^[3] board. Since then, there have been dozens of similar threads with variations on the original meme started and archived on 4chan.^[3]

Various Examples

External References