About

Jokes Clown is an illustration of a clown posing behind a large scroll or paper on which is written “Jokes”, the picture of which may be exploited in order to change the written text or to superimpose the word “Jokes” onto another image.

Origin

The image was posted presumably on its own without context sometime prior and near to July 16th, 2015. The original illustration’s post has apparently been deleted, as tumblr tag searches for “jokes clown”, “clown jokes”, “jokes” and other such related phrases turn up no incidences of the lone image, and likewise reverse image search for similar terms does not lead to an origin. The presumed original version of Jokes Clown is shown below.

On July 16th, 2016, An edit featuring the face of the illustration was posted to the blog badgerking.tumblr.com and is at present the earliest image able to be attributed to the meme.^[1] The caption, “this house… has JOKES” indicates the meme’s recognition at the time.

Spread

At the time of the July 16th 2016 edit, other edits, usage, and discussion of the illustration on tumblr received shows that it had already spread considerably. However, despite its spread, Jokes Clown received only situational use from sparing groups of people (notable example includes SrPelo, who illustrated a variant of the meme with a representation of himself, shown below).^[2]

On August 1st, 2016, Tumblr user ivelischpfuli posted a photoshopped version of the Jokes Clown parodying the mugshot art for the Phantom Thieves of Hearts from Persona 5 (shown below).^[3]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Due to the commodity of searches for “jokes”, “clown” and the low widespread popularity of the meme, Google search trends do not provide any useful information, and thus search interest is not available.

External References

^[1]Tumblr – this house… has JOKES
^[2]Tumblr – YOUKNOWWHATTIME IS IT?!?!?
^[3]Tumblr – Phantom Thieves of Hearts mugshots

About

Casually Explained is a YouTube channel featuring parody educational animated videos providing humorous overviews of a variety of topics, including science, math, relationships, heath, fitness and technology.

History

On December 7th, 2015, the Casually Explained channel was launched. The following day, the first video was uploaded to the channel, featuring a parody instructional video for sketching a graph of a polynomial function by using the Wolfram Alpha web application (shown below, left). On December 26th, Casually Explained posted a video explaining the concept of absolute hot, the postluated highest attainable temperature of matter (shown below, right).

On February 3rd, 2016, the channel uploaded a video mocking various fitness and weight lifting in-jokes, which received more than 1.15 million views and 890 comments (shown below, left). On May 29th, an episode titled “Is She Into You?” was released, satirically explaining how to tell if a woman is sexually attracted to a man (shown below, right). Within two months, the video garnered upwards of 3.3 million views and 4,200 comments.

The following day, Casually Explained posted a video explaining the concept of the friend zone, which gained over 2.6 million views and 4,400 comments in two months. On July 18th, a video featuring a graph ranking various animals on the spectrum of intelligence was released. Within one month, the video garnered upwards of 1.6 million views and 3,700 comments.

Social Media Presence

In December 2015, the @CastuallyE^[3] Twitter feed was created, which gained more than 4,500 followers within eight months. On February 4th, 2016, a Facebook^[4] page for the YouTube channel was launched, accumulating more than 45,700 likes in six months. On July 4th, Casually Explained created a Patreon page.^[1] Within one month, the page received $160 per month in donations from 49 patrons.

Search Interest

External References

About

Above Average Productions is an online comedy distributor featuring short videos and satirical news articles written by “the industry’s top creators, celebrities, rising talent.”^[1]

History

Above Average is a subsidiary of Broadway Video, a creation of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock producer Lorne Michaels.^[2] Though Michaels used the “Above Average” moniker in the late 70s, the online comedy network “Above Average” is known as today did not launch until June 2012.

Launch

Above Average was conceived when SNL writer Michael Patrick O’Brien needed a venue for his web series idea.^[3] This became 7 Minutes In Heaven, an interview series in which O’Brien interviewed comedians, actors, and actresses inside a closet. The show launched as part of Yahoo’s first Newfront slate and convinced Broadway Video to do more with the short-form comedy platform.

Focus

Above Average focuses on partnering with online comedy creators and giving up-and-coming comedians an opportunity to show off their talents. Comedians such as Broad City’s Ilana Glazer and SNL’s Sasheer Zamata were featured on Above Average well before their successful television careers.^[4]

Above Average has 72 channel partners, including The Lonely Island, Jay Pharoah, The Harvard Sailing Team, and more. It is home to 77 original shows.^[5]

The Kicker

In October 2015, Above Average launched “The Kicker,” an original sports comedy site focusing on videos, articles, and other content similar in tone to Above Average.^[6]

Online Presence

Above Average posts their content primarily on Youtube. Their network has over 9 million subscribers and over 2.6 billion views as of August 3rd, 2016.^[7] They also have over 1.2 million likes on Facebook^[8] and almost 43,000 followers on Twitter.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

#TrumpOlympics is a Twitter hashtag featuring names of satirical Olympic sporting events mocking the 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Origin

On August 2nd, 2016, the @HuffPostComedy^[2] Twitter feed posted a tweet launching the #TrumpOlympics^[1] hashtag as part of their recurring “Stupor Tuesday” Twitter game series (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 230 likes and 130 retweets.

Spread

That day, Twitter user @TeaPainUSA^[8] posted a Politico article about Trump’s criticism of recent polling data with the caption “#TrumpOlympics ‘Poll Faulting’” (shown below, left). Within 24 hours, the tweet garnered upwards of 2,300 likes and 1,100 retweets. Meanwhile, Twitter user @zachj46^[9] posted an image of Melania Trump and Michelle Obama with the caption “Synchronized speaking #TrumpOlympics” (shown below, right).

Meanwhile, Twitter user @MissLizzyNJ^[3] tweeted an animated GIF of Hillary Clinton reacting to balloons dropped at the finale of the 2016 Democratic National Convention with a set of jail bars appearing at the end, captioned “#TrumpOlympics / Crooked Parallel Bars” (shown below). Over the next day, the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and 880 likes.

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the trending hashtag, including The Independent,^[4] SF Gate,^[5] The Washington Post^[6] and The Daily Dot.^[7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Safely Endangered is a popular webcomic created by Chris McCoy. It is notable for its cute characters and its use of nostalgic references to Pokémon, Super Mario, Winnie the Pooh, and more.^[2]

Origin

McCoy named his comic “Safely Endangered” because it was originally going to exclusively feature animals, but as the comic focuses mostly on nerd culture, awkwardness, and human interactions, the name is a non-sequitur.^[2] His first comic, shown below, appeared on safelyendangered.com^[1] on November 11th, 2012.

Spread

Safely Endangered did relatively well in the months following its launch. The comics regularly gained hundreds of notes on Tumblr, with a few reaching tens of thousands of notes.^[3] However, the blog first gained viral notoriety when, on July 5th, 2013, McCoy posted the Winnie the Pooh riff, “Oh Bother.”^[4]

Sweet Jesus, Pooh! That’s Not Honey!

“Oh Bother” gained over 270,000 notes on Tumblr,^[4]making it far and away McCoy’s most popular post at the time. This is likely in part due to the fact it became an exploitable comic series that went by the name Sweet Jesus, Pooh! That’s Not Honey! in 2015.

Online Presence

Safely Endangered is on all the major social networks. As of August 3rd, 2016, the comic has over 63,000 followers on Instagram,^[7] 49,000 likes on Facebook,^[5] and 4,800 followers on Twitter,^[6] and a popular Tumblr page.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Fam, short for “family,” is a slang term which is typically used to signal a kin relationship or intimate bond. Online, the term is associated with various memes popularized through Black Twitter, including The BarberCheck Out My Mixtape and Real Nigga Hours.

Origin

The exact origin of the slang use of “fam” is unknown. Some have cited black communities in the United States as the original source of the term, while others dispute claim it originated within the United Kingdom.

On November 6th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[1] user Chris submitted an entry for “fam,” defining it as “someone you consider family” (shown below). Over the next 13 years, the submission gained over 7,000 upvotes.

Spread

In October 2008, the question “What does ‘fam’ mean in English slang?” was submitted to Yahoo Answers!.^[2]

On January 5th, 2016, MTV News^[4] included “fam” in a listicle containing various slang terms. On July 27th, Redditor Lonely-Quark submitted a post titled “Why have Americans suddenly started saying ‘fam’?” to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[3]

Search Interest

External References

Work in progress. Feel free to request editorship

About

Buffalo Bell, or Bell-Chan as some fans call her^[1], is a mascot for the Japanese baseball team Orix Buffaloes along side her brother Buffalo Bull.

Origin

WIP

Spread

WIP

Various Examples

WIP

Search Interest

External References

About

Doggo is an internet slang term for dog, which is often associated with the word pupper in various ironic meme communities online.

Origin

According to Google Dictionary,^[4] the word “doggo” means to “remain motionless and quiet to escape detection,” which is believed to have originated sometime in the late 19th century.

On May 22nd, 2014, the Ding de la Doggo Facebook^[3] page was launched, which typically highlights various dog-related meme images. Within three years, the page garnered upwards of 29,300 likes.

Spread

On June 6th, 2015, the /r/doggos^[2] subreddit was launched for viewers to share photographs of dogs. On July 21st, a “better names for things” chart titled “What are aninmals?” was submitted to /r/meirl,^[1] featuring a picture of a Shibu Inu dog labeled as a “common doggo” and a Fennec fox listed as a “special doggo” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 2,400 votes (91% upvoted) and 70 comments.

On September 15th, the role-playing video game Undertale was released, featuring a an anthropomorphic boss named Doggo. On September 18th, the SmolDoggos Tumblr^[9] blog was launched, featuring pictures and videos of small dogs. On December 30th, a narrated video featuring the “What are aninmals?” chart was uploaded by YouTuber LilCosco08 (shown below).

On June 22nd, 2016, Urban Dictionary^[5] user VictorLictor submitted an entry for “doggo,” defining it as “a big ol pupper.” On July 1st, Redditor InfiniteBungle submitted a post asking where a copypasta referring to a pupper as “a small doggo” and a doggo as “a big ol pupper” to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[10] to which Reddit SpaceJam0 replied that it originated on the /r/me_irl subreddit. On July 16th, Redditor kingofbreakers submitted a image of a blue button with the word “Doggo” written on it accompanied by a caption in which a “barber” says “You don’t undertand meme formats” (shown below). Within three weeks, the post gained over 8,400 votes (81% upvoted) and 200 comments on /r/me_irl.^[6] On July 21st, Redditor TurtlesOfJustice submitted a copypasta titled “Here’s the thing. You said a ‘pupper is a doggo.’” to /r/copypasta.^[7]

Related Memes

Doggo Fight

Doggo Fight is a Tumblr^[11] blog and exploitable image macro series featuring a mock fight poster with photographs of two different dogs placed in juxtaposed panels (shown below). Each dog is given a nickname placed above their photograph along with a special move written directly below.

Search Interest

External References

Background

On July 19th, 2016, Twitter user @CoolMemesClub^[2] tweeted a picture of Kermit the Frog with his mouth open, captioned “WHEN YA EX DIES.” On August 1st, 2016, Twitter user @hyped_resonance^[1] posted a screenshot of that tweet and challenged Twitter users to send the image to their exes and post screenshots of the results (shown above). As of August 4th, 2016, the tweet has 239 Retweets and 949 likes.

Notable Developments

August 1st: Twitter Responses

Two minutes after @hyped_resonance posted his tweet, a follower with the handle @bnjesselacey^[3] tweeted her result from the challenge. The tweet, shown below, gained 144 retweets and 624 likes in three days.

@hyped_resonance received dozens of responses to the challenge, though @bnjesselacey’s tweet gained the most popularity.

August 3rd: Coverage and Spread

On August 3rd, 2016, The AV Club^[4] covered the challenge, calling it “maybe the nerviest Twitter challenge of 2016.” Variations of the original image macro began appearing on the meme-hosting site Onsizzle.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

<div class ="references">

^[1]Twitter – @hyped_resonance

^[2]Twitter – @CoolMemesClub

^[3]Twitter – @bnjesselacey

^[4]The AV Club – “When ya ex dies” may be the nerviest Twitter challenge of 2016

^[5]Onsizzle – pew pew

People tried using an image that almost perfectly fits with shotcode, but it wasn’t true. Now most people use it as a joke when making a suggestion.

About

Donald Maroney is a Tumblr blog and image macro series featuring photographs of 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump captioned with tactless quotes uttered by the character Jenna Maroney (played by Jane Krakowski) in episodes of the television sitcom 30 Rock.

Origin

On August 2nd, 2016, the Donald Maroney Tumblr^[1] blog was launched, with the first post featuring a picture of Trump shaking the hand of Ted Cruz with the caption “You look like that flashcard they told me means sadness,” taken from 30 Rock Season 7 Episode 3.^[2] Within 48 hours, the post gained over 225 notes.

Spread

The same day, the Tumblr^[3] blog published a photo of Trump standing at a podium at the 2016 Republican National Convention with the caption “I’ll do it. / But only for the attention.” quoted from 30 Rock Season 2 Episode 14 (shown below). Over the next two days, the post garnered upwards of 285 notes.^[3]

Also on August 2nd, the blog featured a picture of Trump standing in front of a crowd of supporters with the Maroney quote “Goodbye forever, you factory reject dildos” from Season 7 Episode 12, garnering more than 160 notes within 48 hours (shown below, left).^[10] The following day, the Tumblr highlighted a picture of Trump at a 2016 Republican presidential primary debate with a Maroney quote about setting aside her “feud with Raven Symone” from Season 3 Episode 18 (shown below, right).^[11] Within 24 hours, the post gained over 350 notes.

Also on August 3rd, the term “Donald Maroney” began trending on Facebook. In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the Tumblr blog, including NY Mag,^[4] Perez Hilton,^[5]USA Today,^[6]Mashable,^[7] UpRoxx^[8] and The Daily Dot.^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Cargo Shorts are loosely cut trousers designed for outdoor activities and distinguished by an abundance of cargo pockets. Since emerging as a fashion trend during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the cargo shorts remained a staple of men’s summer clothes for over a decade. In July 2016, they became the subject of an online debate after the Wall Street Journal published an article about their waning popularity.

Origin

It is believed cargo pants were developed in the mid-1940s for World War II soldiers, but they did not reach popularity until the mid-90s, when they were sold by popular teen retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch.^[1][2]

Spread

Sales of cargo shorts continued to grow until 2016, when sales dwindled for the first time in a decade.^[1] This came after a few years of backlash to cargo shorts. Several reddit threads from the early-mid 2010s are devoted to discovering why exactly cargo shorts went out of style. Answers include that their supposed practicality made it unwelcome in fashion circles,^[3] they became a part of the MRA uniform,^[4] or that they were simply ugly and the extra pockets have no functionality to most wearers.^[5]

In 2014, Matthew McConaughey appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and the two of them mocked cargo shorts wearers for trying to fool people into believing they were doing hard labor and required pockets for tools.^[6]

The Wall Street Journal Article

While the conversation surrounding Cargo Short had been touched upon by publications before,^[10][11] the debate surrounding them truly exploded when, on August 1st, 2016, The Wall Street Journal^[7] published an article humorously suggesting that cargo shorts were tearing marriages apart. This marked the first volley in what would develop into a deluge of publications writing pieces about cargo shorts. Some defended cargo shorts, like Today.com,^[8] The Washington Post,^[9] and Deadspin.^[12] Others, including Broadly,^[13] Maxim,^[14] Woman’s Day,^[15] The Cut,^[16] and more, were against them. Others like The Daily Dot^[18] and NPR^[17] covered the debate.

Search Interest

External References

About

Coldplay is a British rock band formed in London featuring lead vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, drummer Will Champion, and bassist Guy Berryman. They are a subject of both love and derision online.

Discography

Coldplay debuted in 2000 with the album Parachutes, which, spearheaded by songs like “Yellow” and “Trouble,” hit number 1 on the UK Albums Chart and went double platinum in the United States.^[1] In 2002, they released A Rush of Blood to the Head, which featured songs like “Clocks” and “The Scientist,” and also hit #1 on the UK Albums Chart and went quadruple platinum in the United States.^[2] In 2005, they released X&Y, marking their third straight UK #1 and their first US #1.^[3] 2008’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends also went #1 in both countries,^[4] as did 2011’s Mylo Xyloto^[5] and 2014’s Ghost Stories.^[6] 2015’s A Head Full of Dreams hit #1 in the UK, but failed to hit #1 in the United States top 100.^[7] They have sold over 80 million records worldwide and have won eight Brit awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, three World Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, and seven Grammys.^[8]

Reputation

Despite their commercial success, Coldplay has fought against critical and popular backlash for their entire career. People derided Coldplay’s blandness and supposed similarity to Radiohead’s early catalogue.^[12] In his 2003 book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, music critic and writer Chuck Klosterman famously eviscerated Coldplay.^[9]

“Fake love is a very powerful thing. That girl who adored John Cusack once had the opportunity to spend a weekend with me in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria, but she elected to fly to Portland instead to see the first U.S. appearance by Coldplay, a British pop group whose success derives from their ability to write melodramatic alt-rock songs about fake love. It does not matter that Coldplay is absolutely the shittiest fucking band I’ve ever heard in my entire fucking life, or that they sound like a mediocre photocopy of Travis (who sound like a mediocre photocopy of Radiohead), or that their greatest fucking artistic achievement is a video where their blandly attractive frontman walks on a beach on a cloudy fucking afternoon. None of that matters. What matters is that Coldplay manufactures fake love as frenetically as the Ford fucking Motor Company manufactures Mustangs and that’s all this woman heard. “For you I bleed myself dry,” sang their blockhead vocalist, brilliantly informing us that stars in the sky are, in fact, yellow. How am I going to compete with that shit? That sleepy-eyed bozo isn’t even making sense. He’s just pouring fabricated emotion over four gloomy guitar chords, and it ends up sounding like love. And what does that mean? It means she flies to fucking Portland to hear two hours of amateurish U.K. hyperslop, and I sleep alone in a $270 hotel in Manhattan, and I hope Coldplay gets fucking dropped by fucking EMI and ends up like the Stone fucking Roses, who were actually a better fucking band, all things considered."

In 2004’s The 40 Year Old Virgin, Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen’s characters used liking Coldplay as a punchline to their “You know how I know you’re gay?” riff, which Arbitrary Analysis^[10] writer Jake Pitre marked as the moment Coldplay were established “as effeminate, emotional and generally soft, ready to be mocked and dismissed.” For much of the 2000s, Coldplay remained something of a joke.^[11] They did not, however, reach the level of derision leveled at bands like Nickelback or Creed.

Chris Martin

In December 2003, Chris Martin married actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Since then, Martin’s personal life has been subject to some ridicule.

Apple

On May 12th, 2004, Paltrow gave birth to a daughter that she and Martin named “Apple,” which attracted mockery and was the subject of many lists about ridiculous celebrity baby names.^[13][14][15]

Conscious Uncoupling

In Spring 2014, Martin and Paltrow announced they were splitting. They called the split a “conscious uncoupling,” which some mocked as new-age and pretentious.^[16]

Plagiarism Controversy

In 2008, guitarist Joe Satriani opened a lawsuit against Coldplay, arguing that their song “Viva La Vida” had ripped off his song “If I Could Fly.” The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2009.^[17]

Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show

In February 2016, Coldplay played the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show, alongside Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. Many believed that the latter two performers severely upstaged Coldplay, leading to the Sidelined Chris Martin meme.

Cultural Appropriation Controversy

In February 2016, Coldplay’s “Hymn For The Weekend” music video drew criticism from Indians for being “an amalgamation of cliches” about the country.^[18]

Social Media Presence

Coldplay is active on all social media networks. As of August 4th, 2016, they have over 17.2 million followers on Twitter,^[19] 39.1 million likes on Facebook,^[20] and 4.2 million followers on Instagram.^[21]

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Orlando Bloom’s Nude Photos refers to nude photos of actor Orlando Bloom taken by paparazzi while he was vacationing with girlfriend Katy Perry in Italy during Summer 2016.

Background

On August 3rd, 2016, The New York Daily News^[1] published a gallery of photos featuring Bloom and Perry vacationing in Italy. Their pictures of Bloom, who was nude in some of the photos, were censored, sparking the internet’s curiosity and a hunt for the uncensored photos, which appeared the next day.^[2]

Developments

Reactions

After The Daily News article, memes appeared on Twitter expressing excitement for the uncensored photos and speculation about what Bloom’s penis looked like.^[3] Orlando Bloom trended on Twitter for the next day. After the uncensored photos appeared, Tweeters were thankful,^[4] impressed,^[5] and nonchalant.^[6]

Backlash

Another vocal reaction came from people pointing out the apparent hypocrisy of people who would be angry when a female celebrity’s photos leaked yet thrilled when a male celebrity’s leaked. The Daily Beast^[7] published an article pointing out the hypocrisy and expressing sympathy for celebrities whose privacy is invaded. Mic.com^[8] approached the story by focusing on Twitter users who were outraged that people did not seem to mind that they were invading a male celebrity’s privacy.

Search Interest

External References

About

Jared Leto’s Green Jacket refers to a series of image macros and jokes made about the jacket Jared Leto wore to the premiere of the Suicide Squad film.

Origin

On August 2nd, Jared Leto attended the London premiere of Suicide Squad in a long green jacket and pink pants, attracting the mockery of the internet, particularly when it was discovered that Leto had seen the jacket a month earlier at a Gucci fashion show.^[1]

Spread

The next day, Twitter user “@jasonnmomoa”^[2] posted a photoset of Leto seeing the jacket at the fashion show, reacting with glee, then wearing the same jacket at the Suicide Squad premiere. The tweet gained over 58,000 retweets and 74,000 likes (shown below).

The image and Twitter’s reaction to the jacket was covered by fashion websites including Elle^[4]
and Slate.^[5]

On August 4th, 2016, Leto clarified to Vanity Fair^[6] that the picture of him seemingly giddy at the sight of the jacket misrepresented the moment, and that he was not giddy at the jacket but joking with a friend.

“The thing about the photo is--I’m going to be honest with you--I was actually making a face at someone across the runway…I have that feeling with most things [Gucci] makes because they make such beautiful things. But I was actually goofing off with a friend, and you can’t actually tell from the picture… Sorry to ruin your meme."

Leto’s clarification certainly upset many bloggers,^[7][8][9] and arguably gained more coverage than the meme itself.

On Reddit,^[3] the image of Leto in a jacket also prompted a photoshop battle started by user “ifknlovela.” The thread has 793 points, 90% upvotes as of August 5th, 2016.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

#MenInHijab is a social media hashtag and political activist campaign in which Iranian men post photographs of themselves wearing the traditional Muslim veil known as the “hijab,” in protest of Iranian laws requiring women wear the head scarf in public.

Origin

In May 2014, Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad launched the My Stealthy Freedom Facebook^[1][2] campaign for women to share photographs of themselves without wearing the hijab. On July 22nd, 2016, Ainejad launched the #MenInHijab hashtag on Instagram, encouraging men to post photographs of themselves wearing the veil as a sign of solidarity with women in Iran (shown below).^[4]

Precursor: “Be A Man” Campaign

In December 2009, during the height of the Green Movement across the Islamic Republic of Iran, prominent college student and political activist Majid Tavakoli was arrested after giving a speech at the Student Day protest in Tehran. Later that day, state-run news agencies reported that he was arrested by the security forces as he sought to flee the campus site “disguised as a woman,” accompanied by a photograph of him dressed in headscarf and robes. Outraged by the false allegations of the state propaganda, hundreds of Iranian men began updating their Facebook profiles with hijabs around their faces in display of solidarity for the imprisoned activist, which soon snowballed into a social media campaign dubbed “Be a Man” or “Free Majid Tavakoli.”

Spread

Over the next week, Iranian men began posting pictures of themselves wearing hijabs along with the hashtag #MenInHijab,^[6] some of which were featured on the My Stealthy Freedom Facebook page (shown below).^[7][8]

On July 28th, The Independent^[5] published an interview with Alinejad, in which she argued that Iran’s hijab laws were oppressive to women. On August 4th, Redditor kashayaar submitted a montage of #MenInHijab photos to the /r/pics^[3] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 2,700 votes (87% upvoted) and 190 comments. In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the hashtag, including ABC News,^[9] Mashable,^[10] Allure^[11] and Inc.^[12]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Three Word Phrase is a webcomic created by Ryan Pequin, who is also a storyboard artist and writer for Regular Show. The style has been described as ironic and surreal, hitting “the nice sweet spot between the zen professionalism of PBF and the unhinged id of KC Green’s comics.”^[1] Pequin describes the name “Three Word Phrase” thusly:

It’s kind of a joke about how a lot of webcomics have names that are made up of three word phrases, and also it’s kind of a dumb self-referential thing (“three word phrase” is a three word phrase). It doesn’t really mean anything beyond that, though.^[2]

Origin

On November 6th, 2010, Pequin uploaded the first comic to threewordphrase.com,^[3] called “Gon’ Eat Ya” (pictured below).

Spread

Three Word Phrase quickly gained popularity. In 2011, the comic was written up in a Buzzfeed community post,^[4] reviewed by One Punch Reviews,^[1] and endorsed by Fountains of Wayne singer Chris Collingwood.^[5] A few of his comics became their own separate memes, including “President Bird” and “I Want This Because of Reasons” (shown below).

The comic gained over 330,000 notes on Tumblr^[6] (as of August 5th, 2016) and helped the comic achieve its peak in popularity. Three Word Phrase was named one of the ten best webcomics of 2011 by Paste Magazine.^[9] On April 11th, 2012, Comics Alliance^[10] wrote an article praising Three Word Phrase. Meanwhile, more of Pequin’s comics gained hundreds of thousands of Tumblr notes.^[7]

Pequin has published three Three Word Phrase books.^[12]

In his 279th comic, Pequin announced that he had been hired by Regular Show and that he would be updating Three Word Phrase more sporadically.^[8]

As of August 5th, 2016, Three Word Phrase has over 18,000 likes on Facebook.^[11]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Bourne is a series of action films revolving around the adventures of Jason Bourne, an amnesiac assassin who is being hunted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

History

The film series is based off a trilogy of novels by Robert Ludlum, including The Bourne Identity (1980), The Bourne Supremacy (1986) and The Bourne Ultimatum (1990). In 2002, the film The Bourne Identity was released, in which Matt Damon portrays the protagonist Jason Bourne, a former spy suffering from psychogenic amnesia who is being hunted by CIA assassins (shown below, left). In July 2004, The Bourne Supremacy was released, focusing on Bourne’s past as he uncovers information about a CIA conspiracy (shown below, right).

In July 2007, The Bourne Ultimatum was released in theaters, in which Bourne continues to piece together his past involvement in the Operation Treadstone assassin program (shown below, left). In August 2012, The Bourne Legacy was released, featuring the character Aaron Cross (played by Jeremy Renner) as a member of the black ops program Operation Outcome (shown below, right).

Jason Bourne (2016 film)

In April 2016, a trailer for the upcoming film Jason Bourne was released, featuring the return of the titular protagonist (played by Matt Damon). The film was released in theaters on July 29th, 2016.

Online Presence

Facebook Twitter

On YouTube

On November 1st, 2012, the How It Should Have Ended YouTube channel uploaded an animated video titled “How The Bourne Identity Should Have Ended” (shown below, left). On January 8th, 2013, the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel uploaded a parody of The Bourne Ultimatum (shown below, right).

On June 29th, 2016, the Omaze YouTube channel uploaded a video in which actor Matt Damnon pranks people with a surprise “Bourne spy mission” (shown below). Within two months, the video garnered upwards of 1.6 million views and 1,300 comments.

On Reddit

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Entry is a WIP. Please request editorship if you think you can help.

About

Bedtime Paradox is an exploitable comic. In it, a son asks his father to tell him a paradox to help him get to sleep. The father does, and the son increasingly panics until he falls asleep.

Origin

The original comic (below, left) was posted June 15th, 2011,^[1] on the Gunshow website.^[2] Roughly two years later, on September 10th, 2013,^[3] the first known edit of it (below, right) was posted by Tumblr user claxdio-fx.^[4] It was in Spanish, and changed the paradox. It obtained over 1,000 notes in about 2 years.

SON: Dad, I’m still not sleepy.

SON: Can you tell me a…

SON: Sleeping paradox!

FATHER: What would happen if pinocchio said:
“My nose will grow”?

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Good luck.