About

#AltRightMeans is a Twitter hashtag accompanied by various jokes, critiques and defenses of the conservative political ideology known as the “alt-right”. In late August 2016, the hashtag was launched in response to speech delivered by 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in which she linked her Republican opponent Donald Trump to the fringe political movement.

Origin

On August 24th, Twitter user @kLodeserto^[1] launched the hashtag in a tweet saying “#AltRightMeans not being ashamed of being white” (shown below). Within 48 hours, the tweet gathered more than 140 likes and 70 retweets.

Spread

On August 25th, MSNBC television host Joy Reid tweeted a clip of herself denouncing the alt-right on the cable news network along with the hashtag “#AltRightMeans” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 1,000 likes and 960 retweets.

That afternoon, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivered a speech criticizing Donald Trump for embracing radical segments of the right-wing, while blasting the alt-right as an “emerging racist ideology.”

“The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for the alt-right. A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party.”

Meanwhile, Redditor notevenmylastaccount submitted an animated GIF of comments left by Trump supporters for the live YouTube feed of Clinton’s speech in a post titled “#AltRightMeans” on /r/EnoughTrumpSpam (shown below).

For much of the day, the hashtag was a top trending topic in the United States on the social networking platform. Also on August 25th, several #AltRightMeans tweets attacking Hillary Clinton posted by Infowars host Paul Joseph Watson^[3] reached the front page of the /r/The_Donald^[4][5] subreddit (shown below).

In the coming days, various news sites published articles about the hashtag, including The Daily Dot,^[6] Talking Points Memo,^[7] Raw Story,^[8] Blue Nation Review,^[9] Esquire,^[10] Inquisitr,^[11] Mediaite^[12] and Thought Catalog.^[13]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

Overview

The French Burkini Ban refers to the prohibition of burkinis, a swimsuit designed in accordance with Islamic traditions regarding the modest dress of women, in public areas in various parts of France.

Background

In August 2009, staff at a pool in Emerainville, France stopped a woman from wearing a burkini swimsuit on the premises, claiming that the pool rules prohibiting people from “swimming while clothed” based on hygiene concerns.^[1] On June 9th, 2016, a pool near Regensburg, Germany banned burkinis on their premises. In August, Cannes mayor David Lisnard banned the burkini swimsuits from public beaches, claiming they were a “symbol of Islamic extremism.”^[2]

Developments

Additional Bans

That month, up to 30 towns in France joined the ban, including Menton, Villeneuve-Loubet, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Nice.

Online Response

Throughout the month of August, several news articles about the burkini bans reached the frontpage of the /r/worldnews subreddit.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]} On August 26th, Redditor Smitheren uploaded a Polandball comic about the burkini ban, which accumulated more than 2,700 votes (82% upvoted) and 370 comments in the first 24 hours on /r/polandball.^[12]

Nice Police Enforcement

On August 23rd, The Guardian^[3] reported that French police made a woman remove her burkini on a beach in Nice (shown below). The Nice mayor’s office subsequently denied she had been forced to remove the clothing, claiming she was showing officers her tunic underneath her clothing. The following day, Redditor hardypart submitted a photograph of the confrontation to /r/pics,^[6] where it gained over 5,100 votes (88% upvoted) and 2,400 comments within 48 hours.

Villeneuve-Loubet Ban Suspension

On August 25th, France’s highest administrative court suspended the burkini ban enacted in Villeneuve-Loubet, finding that it “seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms.”^[5]

Search Interest

External References

About
Juan Gabriel was the artistic name of Alberto Valadez Martínez, and one of the singers and composers most prolific of México. His death become a trending topic, and was missed for most of the music industry of Latinamerica.

Online History
: What notable things have they done online?
Reputation
What are they known for?
Related Memes
When applicable.
Personal Life
What are they best known for outside of the internet?
Search Interest
External References

[in development]

About

#McChicken is a Twitter hashtag referring to a video of a man masturbating with a bread bun, purportedly taken from a McChicken sandwich ordered at the fast food restaurant McDonald’s. The shock video was widely discussed online after it began circulating on social media in late August 2016, becoming a subject of mockery in communities like Black Twitter.

Origin

On August 27th, 2016, a 7-second video of a man vigorously masturbating between a McDonald’s hamburger bun began circulating on Vine.^[1] Although the original video was subsequently removed, mirrors were immediately reuploaded on a variety of websites. Additionally, a censored, audio-only version was uploaded by YouTuber TheCrazyGinger (shown below).

Spread

That evening, the video began circulating on Twitter, leading the hashtag #McChicken^[7] to trend worldwide on the social networking site.

Additionally, several celebrities tweeted about the trending hashtag, including actor Seth Rogen and comedian Hannibal Buress (shown below).

On August 28th, the video was sticked to the front page of the /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[6] subreddit. Meanwhile, Twitch user FragileHedgehogVoHiYo looked up why the hashtag was trending during a live stream and inadvertently showed the uncensored McChicken video to his entire audience.^[3] On YouTube, several vloggers posted reactions to the video (shown below).

Also on August 28th, Urban Dictionary^[2] user A Random My Guy submitted an entry for “McChicken,” defining it as “when as person takes a McChicken and starts to jerk themselves off.” In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the masturbation video, including BroBible,^[9] The Mirror,^[10] Yahoo! News,^[11] Mashable,^[12] Inquisitr^[13] and UpRoxx.^[14]

Search Interest

External References

About

Millennials Are Killing is a phrasal template used to mock various think-pieces and op-ed articles on the changing consumer habits of the Millennial generation and their allegedly negative impact on major industries and economic sectors that had once thrived during the latter half of the 20th century.

Origin

A “Millennials are Killing X” trend piece generally involves a writer from the Boomer generation noting that millennials’ financial situation (high student loans, lack of available, well-paying jobs) have made millennials unwilling or unable to spend as freely as their ancestors, and that this phenomenon is hurting either a specific industry or the American economy as a whole. Backlash to the trend began in 2013, notably with the response to Time Magazine’s infamous Me Me Me Generation cover. Gothamist^[1] and The New York Times^[2] published articles compiling and criticizing Boomer pieces criticizing Millennials the same year.

Spread

Over the next three years, the phrase “Millenials are killing” began appearing more often in headlines, as Millennials were blamed for killing McDonald’s,^[3] the movie business,^[4] Home Depot,^[5] the napkin industry,^[6] etc. The trend spiked in popularity on June 30th, 2016, when The Economist published a tweet asking “Why aren’t millennials buying diamonds?”^[7] The tweet received intense derision as users mocked the transparent trendiness of the tweet and the ignorance of the questions obvious answer: millennials don’t have very much money.

The trend continued to spike throughout the summer of 2016. On August 24th, Fusion^[8] published an article linking to 47 different articles, each one accusing millennials of Millennials of killing a different industry or tradition. Two days later, Twitter user @necrosofty^[9] tweeted an image showing several different headlines with the phrase “Millennials are killing” in it. The tweet, shown below, has over 2,400 retweets and 2,600 likes as of August 29th, 2016.

On August 27th, The Daily Dot^[10] published an article claiming the “Millennials are Killing” backlash had reached its peak.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

(I am nowhere close to the best person for this so someone should take over and fix this. However, I felt this page needed to be made, it’s been too long and this is definitely a meme.)

It originated from the Soldier 76 voice line: “We’re all soldiers now.” From the video game, Overwatch. It is more of an audible meme than a visual one, but it has been paired with images of people who look the same/similar all doing the same thing on a few occasions.

(Like I said, nowhere close to the best person, but something is better than nothing.)
(Credit to http://somebodyondeviantart.deviantart.com/art/We-re-All-Soldiers-Now-616364484 for the image)

About

Before and After Contour is a series of images comparing two different illustrations or photographs, joking that the second is the result of a drastic makeup transformation.

Origin

In November 2013, a series of makeup transformation photographs reached the frontpage of the /r/WTF^[5] and /r/MakeupAddiction^[6] subreddits with the title “Contouring in the new photoshop” (shown below).

On November 5th, 2014, Tumblr^[1] user colabrat posted several different illustrations of the cartoon character Arthur with the caption “it’s not plastic surgery it’s contour, you’re all so ignorant, im quitting this toxic site” (shown below). Within two years, the post gained over 342,000 notes.

Spread

On February 21st, 2015, Twitter user @twelveoclocke^[4] posted a picture of the character Helga G. Pataki from the cartoon Hey Arnold! standing next to an illustration of herself wearing a dress and makeup with the caption “it’s not plastic surgery it’s contour, I’m leaving this toxic website” (shown below, left). On January 8th, 2016, Twitter user @ItsPepe^[3] posted a picture of Sad Pepe juxtaposed next to a Handsome Face illustration of Pepe (shown below, right).

On April 18th, the wot_u_sayin_tho Instagram^[3] posted a photograph of an English Bulldog next to a photo of an Italian Greyhound with the caption “before and after contouring” (shown below). On July 29th, Twitter user @nohpetsallowed^[7] posted a picture of the Pokémon Charmander next to a picture of its evolved form Charizard with the caption “before vs. after she contours” (shown below, right). Within one month, the tweet accumulated upwards of 43,000 likes and 35,500 retweets. On August 29th, The Daily Dot^[2] published an article about the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

The Lesbian Farmer Conspiracy is a theory put forth by American conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh which alleges that the United States government has been quietly subsidizing a rural settlement program for “lesbian farmers” to relocate to rural states traditionally affiliated with the Republican party (“Red States”) in order to swing their votes in favor of the Democratic party.

Origin

On August 16th, 2016, conservative blog the Washington Free Beacon^[1] published an article about an upcoming summit held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to discuss LGBT people in rural America. The piece suggested that the summit would “teach lesbian and transgender hillbillies how to get subsidies from the government like rural housing loans and ‘community facility grants.’”

Spread

The day after the article was published, Rush Limbaugh took to his radio show to proclaim that President Barack Obama’s administration has been trying to send lesbians to rural states to make them more left-leaning.^[3]“Here comes the Obama regime with a bunch of federal money and they’re waving it around,” he said. “And all you gotta do to get it is be a lesbian and want to be a farmer and they’ll set you up… They’re going after every geographic region that is known to be largely conservative. They never stop, folks. They are constantly on the march.”

The story began spreading on August 23rd, 2016, when The Daily Dot^[2] and New York Magazine^[4] picked it up. Soon after, The New York Daily News,^[5] Salon,^[6] and more published articles about Limbaugh’s conspiracy.

Online and LGBT Community Reaction

The instantly drew the mockery from comedians and the LGBT community. On Wednesday, August 24th, Los Angeles comedian and pianist Kathryn Lounsbery improvised and recorded a trailer to a 15-act musical called “Lesbian Farmers!” with songs like “Gay for Hay” and “I’m A-tractor-ed to You.” She posted the video to Facebook,^[7] where it has gained 2,900 likes and 6,800 shares as of August 29th, 2016.

In Iowa, the Des Moines-based company Raygun began making shirts that read “America Needs Lesbian Farmers.”^[8] Both Lounsbery’s musical and Raygun’s shirts were covered by The Daily Dot^[9] on August 25th, 2016.

Search Interest

External References

About

Geek Speed Dating is a multi-panel webcomic featuring a young man with glasses sitting at a speed-dating table and asking a woman about various pop/internet culture references, ending with the man shouting “And we’re done here!”, “next!” or “she’s the one!” depending on her answer. The comic became a staple as an exploitable image, typically throwing back to stereotypical elitist behaviors associated with geeks and fandom culture.

Origin

The original three-pane webcomic was created by Dutch freelance game designer Paul Van Der Meer and issued in the beginning of 2011 as part of a comic blog (prettylogic.nl, now defunct) that he ran from 2010 to 2012.
It depicts a man sitting at a table during a speed-date and asking a woman if she likes Star Wars. Upon hearing her negative answer, he turns around to shout “And we’re done here!” (shown below).
The earliest repost of it came from tech, science and social news site Geeks Are Sexy^[1] on April 17th, 2011.

Spread

On December 12th, 2013, the comic was submitted to Meme Generator, which led to more than 1 900 parodies over the next three years, ranking at #2 966 on the site^[2]. It also became a well-known macro on Quickmeme^[3].

[wip]

She’s The One!

[wip]

Various Examples

[wip]

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Geeks Are Sexy – Geek Speed Dating [Picture]

^[2]Meme Generator – Speed dating

^[3]Quickmeme – Speed Dating

About

“How to Talk to a Woman Who is Wearing Headphones” is a pickup tutorial article written by Dan Bacon and originally published on Australian men’s interest blog The Modern Man in October 2013.

Origin

While “How to Talk to a Woman Who is Wearing Headphones” was first published in October 2013, the article didn’t receive any mass exposure until August 29th, 2016, when the article was rediscovered and shared among bloggers and commentators on Twitter. Upon entering mass circulation, the article quickly prompted a debate on the propriety of approaching strangers with headphones in public.

The Article

Bacon’s article^[1] is divided into four sections. The first offers a step-by-step guide on how to approach women with headphones, with advice like “Stand in front of her (with 1-1.5 meters between you).” The second gives an example of dialogue to engage in once a man has successfully gotten a woman to remove her headphones (shown below). The third outlines common mistakes men make in this situation. The fourth assures men that most women like being approached.

Spread

Criticism of the article has largely focused on how it ignores the idea that for many women, wearing headphones is a clear sign they are not interested in being hit on. Twitter user @YoPhoebs^[2] posted a screenshot of the article’s title and answered it, “you don’t.” The tweet, shown below, gained over 5,000 retweets and 7,600 likes in a little over 24 hours.

Other Twitter users mocked the piece, turning “How to Talk To a Woman” into a phrasal template with which they’d either offer satirical advice on how to talk to a woman with headphones or they’d rewrite the headline altogether.

News Media Coverage

News publications soon picked up the article’s online spread. Metro.co.uk,^[3] Huffington Post,^[4] Vice,^[5] AskMen,^[6] Glamour,^[7] and others published articles offering point-by-point criticism of Bacon’s piece and giving the advice, “Don’t talk to women wearing headphones.” Buzzfeed^[8] compiled a list of Twitter’s best responses. It also published a parody piece titled “How to Talk To a Woman Even Though She’s a Ghost.”^[9] The Independent^[10] also parodied the article by imagining it in a “more realistic” screenplay.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About

The “Millennial Whoop” is a neologism referring to any sequence of notes alternating between the 5th and 3rd notes on a major scale, which are often heard during vocal segments in a variety of contemporary pop songs.

Origin

On August 20th, 2016, The Patterning published an article by musician Patrick Metzger of the band The Apple Kickers,^[2] which coined the phrase “millennial whoop” to identify “a sequence of notes that alternates between the fifth and third notes of a major scale.” For examples of the sound, Metzger initially cites portions of the “California Girls” (heard at :51) and a parody song by The Lonely Island (heard at :40).

In a subsequent article update, Metzger provided a list of songs identified by readers as having the Millennial Whoop:

Spread

On August 26th, Redditor breadvelvet submitted The Patterning article to the /r/popheads^[4] subreddit. On August 27th, 2016, Quartz released an article about the song riff along with a video highlighting various examples (shown below).

On August 28th, Redditor philamignon submitted the article to the /r/NewsOfTheWeird^[3] subreddit, referring to it as an “annoying whooping sound.” In the coming days, several other news sites published articles about the pop music cliche, including USA Today,^[5] AV Club,^[6] Refinary 29^[7] and Slate.^[8]

Search Interest

External References

About

Guzma is the leader of the antagonistic group Team Skull in the upcoming 2016 Nintendo DS video game Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Origin

On August 11th 2016, Nintendo released a trailer on YouTube revealing the villain group Team Skull in Pokémon Sun and Moon, which included a clip of the leader Guzma (shown below). Within three weeks, the video gained over 2.84 million views and 11,300 comments.

Spread

That same day, Twitter user @Fightbeast_^[8] posted a fan illustration Rick Sanchez from the television series Rick and Morty dressed as Guzma (shown below, left). Shorty after, Twitter user @bubbaguyz^[5] posted an emoji spam paragraph written from Guzma’s perspective (shown below, right).

Meanwhile, pages for Guzma were created on the Bulbapedia^[2] and Pokemon Wiki.^[3] Also on August 11th, the Internet humor site Dorkly^[4] published an article about the online reaction to the character, which included various fan theories about Guzma’s backstory. On August 15th, Redditor ZeroCalorieSoda posted Guzma fan art to /r/pokemon^[6] (shown below, left). On August 26th, Instagram^[7] user h0enn posted a video clip of Guzma followed by an image of the character Junkrat from Overwatch. On August 29th, Tumblr user bechnokid^[1] uploaded several fan illustrations of Guzma, which gathered upwards of 1,600 notes in the first 24 hours (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

“Midnight City” is a 2011 electropop song by French pop/electronic music band M83. Upon its release, the song was met with huge commercial success and critical acclaims, most notably for its insistently catchy hook and inclusion of an ’80s-inspired saxophone solo, which eventually became a popular subject of parodies, remixes and other tributes on YouTube and SoundCloud.

Origin

“Midnight City” was released on August 14th, 2011 as the first single off M83’s sixth studio album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, released October 18th of the same year.^[1] Upon its initial release as a single, “Midnight City” peaked at number 8 in France (SNEP), number 2 in UK Indie (Official Charts Company) and number 5 in U.S. Alternative Songs (Billboard). The song was eventually named the best song of 2011 by Pitchfork and Popmatters.

Spread

Commercial Use

On August 18th, 2011, M83 released the Midnight City Remixes EP, which featured four remixes and the original song.^[3] In 2012, the song was used during several high-profile international sporting events, most notably at the closing ceremony of the 2012 UEFA Euro and the 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as in commercials and TV shows.

Remixes

Beginning In 2012, “Midnight City” gained a lot of momentum as a popular sample within the YouTube remix community. On June 6th, 2012, YouTuber DIAMANTERO uploaded one of the earliest known parodies of “Midnight City” that shows Bill Clinton playing saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, set to the saxophone solo from the song (below, left). On December 27th, YouTuber g0urra uploaded another remix featuring the “Steppin on the Beach” scene from Spongebob Squarepants (below, right).

In the following years, “Midnight City” continued to appear in remix videos. Other popular videos and subcultures to get a “Midnight City” remix include Pretty much everywhere, it’s gonna be hot (below, top left), Harry Potter (below, top right), The Simpsons (below, bottom left), and Star Wars (below, bottom right).

A Reddit thread in /r/OutOfTheLoop^[4] appeared in 2016 asking how the song became a meme. The post has 134 points as of August 30th, 2016.

Search Interest

External References

About

Charizard and Dragonite Dance Remixes are a series of videos featuring the Pokémon Charizard and Dragonite dancing to various songs.

Origin

On August 7th, 2016, a Youtube user called Southern Lights^[4] uploaded a video in which Charizard and Dragonite dance to J-Pop group, Gokaru Jodo. The video, which was created by MMDSatoshi^[11] with the software MikuMikuDance,^[2] gained over 73,000 views as of August 30th, 2016.

Spread

On August 14th, 2016, the video appeared on Bilibili.com (shown below).^[1]

After that the video appeared with different music on international Pokemon fan accounts like Pokémon Brasil.^[3] Soon after, Twitter users began taking the video and applying it to different songs. Popular edits feature the dragons dancing to “Into You” by Ariana Grande (below, left), You Reposted in the Wrong Neighborhood (below, right), Smooth, ^[5] and “YMCA.”^[6]

Dancing Charizard and Dragonite videos were soon compiled in the media on sites including CollegeHumor,^[7] The Verge,^[8] Slate,^[9] and Polygon.^[10]

External References

Work in progress

About

Eurobeat Remixes refers to a series of videos involving footage of cars or drifts with eurobeat songs as background. The edits, which parody the anime series Initial D often use the songs “Running in the 90’s” and “Deja Vu”.

Origin

WIP

The edits are inspired by the racing anime series Initial D, which gained notoriety due its eurobeat soundtrack, a dance-pop musical style developed in the 80’s.^[1]

External References

About

Fish are Trying to Read refers to a series of photoshopped images of fish trying to read books and expressing in Russian how difficult it is to do so.

Origin

On March 17th, 2015, the page “Рыбы пытаются читать” (translation: “Fish are Trying to Read”) published its first post on Russian social media site, VK.com.^[1] The image of a fish trying to read and expressing frustration (shown below) has gained over 7,500 likes and 470 shares as of August 31st, 2016. The page solely posted pictures of fish expressing their difficulty reading.

Spread

After acquiring over 29,000 followers in less than a month, VK.com/fishread^[2] went dormant. A similar page, VK.com/fishwantread,^[3] appeared on May 11th, 2015. Similar to a Weird Facebook page, VK.com/fishwantread began by posting images in a similar vein as its predecessor, but has since expanded to publishing variations on the joke that have fish in popular image macros, webcomics, etc.^[4]

On August 27th, 2016, a post by Tumblr user thottielamottie^[5] that explained the meme for english-speaking audiences began circulating on the blogging website:

“k so i made this new russian friend at school this week and we were talking about memes, you know, as one does, and she was telling me about this underground russian meme where its pics of fish reading and saying shit like “i cant do this” and i thought it was the funniest fucking thing ive ever seen in my life so here u go. in order, theyre saying “help”, “disaster”, “pretty difficult”, and “it’s hard for me””

The post, shown below, has gained over 45,000 notes as of August 31st, 2016.

On August 29th, 2016, The Daily Dot^[4] published an article calling Fish Trying to Read “Russia’s coolest underground meme.”

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About:

A picture taken of a cat as it was in the process of falling off a table. The photo itself is notable only for the strange face caused by the blur effect of the subject’s sudden movement. This image is currently seeing use primarily as a reaction image on Reddit, as well as profile images across many other platforms.

History:

This image originally entered the social stream in late August 2016 when user u/SeriesOfAdjectives posted it on the r/Funny subreddit. From there the image exploded in popularity, showing up on the usual reposting sites within hours. Presently the original source is unknown and being investigated.

About

Waka Flocka’s “Bow Bow Bow” is a video remix series based around a short clip of rapper Waka Flocka Flame awkwardly repeating the the words “bow bow bow” in a recording studio.

Origin

On October 4th, 2010, Flame posted a video titled “Flockaveli TV – Episode 4 (Waka Flocka in the Studio with Yo Gotti)” to his official YouTube channel, in which he is shown repeating the word “bow” in a recording booth while working on his 2010 rap song “Bustin’ at Em” (shown below). Within six years, the video gained over 200,000 views and 350 comments.

Spread

On July 12th, 2011, YouTuber nicole wins uploaded a looped clip of Flame saying “bow bow bow,” which gathered more than 1.15 million views and 1,400 comments in the first six years (shown below).

On May 22nd, 2013, BuzzFeed^[1] published an article about the video titled “Waka Flocka Flame Makes Amazing Noises In The Studio.” The following day, the YouTuber Joseph Giancarlo uploaded a trap remix of the Flame video (shown below, left). On June 15th, YouTuber Ian Baker uploaded a video titled “Waka Flocka Pacman,” featuring footage of Pac-Man video game dubbed with audio of Flame repeatedly saying “Flocka” and “bow” (shown below, right).

On May 26th, 2015, Viner Dis Man Right Here posted a looped clip of Flame saying “bow” in sync with the Kirby’s Dream Land theme (shown below, left). On July 21st, YouTuber frustrated frog uploaded a remix in which the “bow bow bow” audio is played over a clip of Gabe the Dog barking (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Cross Ange is a mecha action comedy anime produced by Studio Sunrise about a princess named Angelise. In its premiere in October 2014 the show got popularity for it’s over the top take on the mecha genre and it’s heavy fanservice.

Premise

The story is set in the Misurugi Empire where Ange gets exposed for being a Norma, a group which is hated by the people in the city as people are loved with mana. She has to go to Arzenal and fight her way through DRAGONs and get revenge on her brother who sent her away and exposed her as well as killing her parents through her Paramail mecha and it’s special abilities for combat.

History

Cross Ange started as an anime series in October 2014 directed by Yoshiharu Ashino and produced by Mitsu Fukudora. Both had worked on Gundam and Code Geass in the past. The show obtained a spin off manga that’s a self parody of the show and a video game from the same name.

Reception

Critics generally gave it acclaim once it got released with Kotaku^[1] stated that the first episodes are bad but it gets very enjoyable and is a good show afterwards. IMDb also gave the show a 7.1 after the show ended and AnimeNewsNetwork stating that the show is good but not for everyone.

Online Presence

In North America, Cross Ange was licensed by Sentai Filmworks and was streamed by Crunchyroll and Hulu when the show came out. It has gained a large following on many sites such as Tumblr,^[2]Reddit,^[3]4chan’s /a/ board,^[4] MyAnimeList, and DeviantArt.

Fandom

Cross Ange has created a large volume of fanfictions and fanart on the internet. On Pixiv^[5] there was over 1,00 results that are tagged with “クロスアンジュ”. On Fanfiction.net there are over 30 short stories. On Cross Ange there are over 1,200 results tagged under “Cross Ange”.

Rape Scene Controversy

In the first episode of Cross Ange a controversy erupted over the last part of the episode with a rape scene shown. The DailyDot reported about the scene and the controversy where Ange is falsely imprisoned and sexually assaulted in the form of a body cavity search. Four people out of five reviewers on AnimeNewsNetwork stated that the way it was animated showed that it was suppose to be titillating and that it was wrong ^[6]. However some people argued that it severed as a narrative feature and that “body cavity searches are quite common in prison”. From the people who wrote the article it was also stated to create “echoes of GamerGate”.

Search Interests

External References

Overview

Annaliese Nielsen’s Lyft Rant refers to a video in which entrepreneur Annaliese Nielsen orders a Lyft driver to take down a bobblehead from his dashboard, claiming that she finds the Hawaiian figurine to be “racist.” After the video began circulating in late August 2016, Nielsen was widely mocked as an irrational “social justice warrior” in various online communities.

Background

On March 12th, 2016, Neilsen tweeted that she had been left on the side of a freeway after being kicked out of a vehicle by a “racist Lyft driver” (shown below).

On August 27th, conservative vlogger Lauren Southern uploaded a video titled “SJW Berates Lyft Driver,” in which Nielsen aggressively demands that her Lyft driver remove a Hawaiian bobblehead figurine from his dash board (shown below). After her driver refuses, she threatens to put him on “Gawker” and calls him a “fucking selfish dumbass idiot,” before he pulls over and orders her to leave his vehicle. Within four days, the video gained over 394,000 views and 5,000 comments.

“No, you will be published on Gawker. You will be like the next internet meme, it’s going to be super funny.”

Developments

Online Reaction

On August 28th, the Canadian News Agency YouTube channel reuploaded the video. Meanwhile, Neilsen deleted her @tornadoliese^[3] Twitter account, which was immediately relaunched by an impersonator. Also on August 28th, the video reached the front page of the /r/rage^[6] and /r/uberdrivers^[7] subreddits. On August 30th, Redditor MarcusJZE submitted the video to /r/videos,^[1] referring to Nielsen as a “vocal fry Valley girl.”

Neilsen’s Response

On August 29th, Twitter user @CassandraRules^[5] posted screenshots of a Neilsen’s Facebook post complaining about harassment she was receiving, claiming she had been targeted by “Gamergate” and the alt-right (shown below).

Lyft Driver’s Response

On August 30th, Southern tweeted that she had contacted the Lyft driver, who confirmed he had been fired for several days following the incident, but was reinstated after he was exonerating by the video (shown below).^[4]

News Media Coverage

In the days after the video was released, several news sites published articles about the online backlash, including The Daily Dot,^[8] Heat Street,^[9] The Daily Mail^[10] and The Daily Caller.^[11]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References