About

Mr Rental is the titular mascot character of the Australian company Mr Rental focussed on renting a variety of products. Around late 2015, the official Facebook page for the character started accompying more memes in their posts, before also being featured in GiilvaSunner videos in July 2016.^[6]

Origin

Mr Rental began in 1983 when founders Glen and Kerrianne Hickman moved to Bribie Island, north of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia; the first store opened by 1991. Today the Mr Rental group services thousands of customers in Australia and New Zealand.^[1] Mr Rental also maintained an official Facebook page for their brand for years.^[2] Over the years, the account has posted hundreds of messages in character of Mr Rental, including many promotional posts about the chain and various life hacks.

Spread

In 2015, the Facebook page suddenly started using various internet memes in their posts, however always maintaining a theme of renting products in the posts. The earliest notable example of this dates back to June 30th, 2015, with “The Rentinator” (shown below, left), a play on “The Terminator” in relation to promotional post for the release of the Terminator: Genisys film.^[3] These posts increased in December of that year, likewise to the oddity of the Photoshops accompying the posts, such as a post making fun of Kanye West and a Merry Christmas message showing Nyan Cat (shown below, middle and right).^[4][5]

Likewise to the usage of memes, the popularity of the posts also increased throughout 2016; frequently gaining thousands of likes. The posts also began to use a frequent theme of disliking outright buying products opposed to renting them, referring to those that buy outright as “chumps,” and started to include “Mr John Cena” at various occassions. As of October 2016, the official Facebook page managed to gather over 53,000 likes.

Various Examples

[Editor’s Note: These examples were all posted by Mr Rental on his official Facebook page]

In GiIvaSunner Videos

External References

Overview

The Trump Tax Scandal refers to the fallout from documents leaked to the New York Times^[1] that indicate Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could have avoided paying taxes since 1995.

History

Throughout the 2016 United States Presidential Election, Trump has bucked the tradition of presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, causing speculation that something detrimental to his campaign and reputation was hiding in them.^[2] In the first Presidential Debate, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton questioned why Donald Trump had not released his tax return. Trump may have alluded to the fact he had not paid taxes and bragged, “That makes me smart.”^[14]

On October 1st, 2016, after receiving a leak of some of Trump’s tax returns, The New York Times published an article that revealed Trump had lost $916 million dollars in 1995, “from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.” Because of American tax laws, the loss would have wiped out over $50 million dollars in taxable income over the next 18 years.

Developments

The news dominated talk shows on October 2nd, 2016. On CNN,^[3] Rudy Giuliani called Trump a “genius” for avoiding his tax returns. Clinton released an ad attacking Trump about the scandal that day.^[4]

Slate,^[5]NPR,^[6]CNN,^[7] and more speculated the leak could hurt the Trump campaign. ThinkProgress^[13] and other Twitter users found instances of Trump complaining about where his now non-existent tax dollars were going. In a tweet,^[8] Trump suggested the news proved he knows America’s tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and he was the only one who could fix them.

#LastTimeTrumpPaidTaxes

On Twitter, the hashtag #LastTimeTrumpPaidTaxes spread as users reveled in 90s Nostalgia and used it to mock how Trump had avoided paying taxes for maybe twenty years. Uproxx,^[9] Huffington Post,^[10]TIME,^[11] and Daily Mail^[12] covered the spread of the hashtag.

Search Interest

External References

About

Huh Challenge is a series of roasting videos in which a person jokingly insults someone before uttering the word “huh.”

Origin

On September 10th, 2016, Instagram user youloverichard1 uploaded a video titled “#HuhChallenge,” featuring clips of himself roasting people, followed by an extended exclamation of the word “huh” (shown below). Within three weeks, the video gained over 132,000 views and 300 comments.

Spread

On September 12th, 2016, Twitter user @danial_babar tweeted a similar roasting video along with the hashtag “#huhchallenge,” garnering upwards of 49,000 likes and 36,400 retweets in the next three weeks (shown below).

On September 14th, YouTuber Juice Pop uploaded a compilation of Huh Challenge videos (shown below, left). On September 16th, WorldStarHipHop^[3] featured @danial_babar’s video in a Vine compilation. On September 21st, the Top Viral Vids YouTube channel highlighted a #HuhChallenge video featuring pop star Jacob Sartorius (shown below, right). The following day, BuzzFeed^[2] published an article about the video series.

On September 24th, YouTuber TopClips247 uploaded a montage of #HuhChallenge roast clips (shown below, left). Two days later, YouTuber RiceGum posted a video criticizing the video series, which received more than 3.1 million views and 34,000 comments (shown below). On October 3rd, 2016, Redditor UpVotesGoHere submitted a post asking about the video series to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[1]

Search Interest

External References

About

Ruin a First Date in Four Words is a prompt urging viewers to provide humorous four-word sentences that could potentially spoil a romantic date.

Origin

On May 11th, 2016, a image with the words “Ruin a first date in four words” over a black background with four blank boxes was submitted to 9gag^[2] (shown below). In the comments section, viewers responded with various four-word jokes related to bad dates.

Percursor

In December 2014, the Twitter hashtag #WorstDateInFiveWords^[1] was launched along with humorous descriptions of bad dates (shown below).

Spread

On May 25th, a image macro compilation featuring responses to the “ruin a first date in 4 words” prompt was uploaded to 9gag.^[3] That day, 2CoolFishing Forums^[7] member gom1 submitted a thread titled “Ruin a date in four words.”

On September 28th, the Veterans Against Tattoos Facebook^[5] page posted a variation of the blank template with the caption “Wanna see my tats?” (shown below). Within five days, the post gathered upwards of 330 reactions and 70 shares. On September 29th, Imgur^[6] user sleepless01 uploaded the blank template.

The following day, users on the Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Memes Facebook^[4] page posted edited versions of new template, which were subsequently removed by moderators. On October 3rd, The Daily Dot^[8] published an article about the meme’s circulation on Facebook.

Search Interest

External References

About

AriZona Iced Tea is a beverage company based in Woodybury, New York. It’s iconic pastel-colored cans and art style have made it a popular icon in the vaporwave community, particularly with noted “sad boy” rapper Yung Lean.

History

AriZona Iced Tea has its roots in 1970s Brooklyn, where creators John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio opened a successful beer distribution company.^[1] They saw Snapple’s success in the early 90s and decided to move into selling canned teas, and sold their first AriZona-branded drink in 1992. They have remained popular due to its pledge to never sell their 32 fl. oz cans for more than 99 cents.

Online Presence

In 2013, Arizona Iced Tea became coopted into the Vaporwave Aesthetic following Yung Lean’s video for “Hurt,” in which the rapper held bottles of AriZona (shown below). The pastel colors and Japanese imagery of the cherry blossom Green Tea crossed with several other examples of Vaporwave imagery.^[2]

As Yung Lean gained more popularity, AriZona Iced Tea’s association with Vaporwave and Aesthetic culture began to grow in the quasi-ironic artworks. In 2014, a thread on hip-hop forum KanyeToThe.com^[3] devoted to Yung Lean fans featured 3 teenage white boys miming crying while holding Arizona Iced Tea.

Over the following two years, AriZona Iced Tea remained a popular icon in Aesthetic culture. On September 30th, 2016, The Daily Dot^[2] published a piece that investigated how AriZona Iced Tea became a meme in Vaporwave culture. AV Club followed the next day with a piece on its “Great Job, Internet!” blog. While its conclusions on the meme origins of AriZona were indefinite, its look at AriZona’s Twitter^[5] account indicated the company is aware of its popularity in the subcommunity.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Mad World” is a 1982 new wave song by the British band Tears for Fears. A 2001 cover of the song by composer Michael Andrews and singer-songwriter Gary Jules has been frequently used online in videos to elicit a somber or melancholic tone.

Origin

On September 20th, 1982, Tears for Fears released the song “Mad World” as their third single release (shown below, left). On January 19th, 2001, a cover of the song by composer Michael Andrews and singer-songwriter Gary Jules was featured in the science fiction horror-drama film Donnie Darko. On January 8th, 2006, a music video for the cover was uploaded to YouTube, which gathered more than 96 million views and 69,000 comments (shown below, right).

Spread

On October 17th, 2012, YouTuber james cameron uploaded a slideshow featuring illustrations of the Spongebob Squarepants character Squidward wearing a sad-looking expression with the Andrew and Jules cover playing in the background (shown below, left). On November 13th, 2014, YouTuber Hoocham uploaded a distorted version of the song played over a picture of Gordon Hurd titled “Mad World – Gary Jules (Ear Rape Edition)” (shown below, right).

On April 23rd, 2015, YouTuber Fran zi uploaded a video featuring the Andrew and Jules cover of “Mad World” along with a slideshow of illustrations featuring Pepe the Frog and Feels Guy (shown below).

On Vine

On December 17th, 2013, Viner JohnsEdge uploaded a video titled “1st attempt to singing Mad World by Gary Jules” (shown below, left). Within three years, the video received more than 2.4 million loops, 48,000 likes and 22,000 revines. On October 29th, 2015, Viner stop it, joe posted a clip of a teenager falling from a skateboard followed by an overlay of JohnsEdge singing the song (shown below, right).

On November 19th, YouTuber Tom Davies reuploaded the video to YouTube, where it gathered upwards of 1.15 million views and 1,100 comments.^[1] Over the next month, other remixes of the video began appearing on Vine and YouTube.^[2] On December 8th, JohnsEdge uploaded a compilation of “All Around Me Are Familiar Faces” Vines to YouTube, gaining over 1.7 million views and 1,700 comments in 10 months (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

w.i.p. editors welcome

About

8 Sex Positions That Will Blow His Mind And Destroy His Penis is a form of clickbait similar to Top 10 Anime List Parodies in which a suggestive or humorous pose is edited to include the text 8 sex positions that will blow his mind and destroy his penis.

Origin

On May 27th, 2013, author Rachel Wenitsky^[1] posted an article on Reductress titled 8 Sex Positions That Will Blow His Mind And Destroy His Penis.^[2] It is part of a series of articles in the site’s Love and Sex category.^[3] Reductress is a satirical American feminist website which parodies articles targeted towards women.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

About

#ImWithKer is a hashtag campaign employed by Twitter users that claims Kermit the Frog as an anti-bigotry, pro-hope symbol of the left in an effort to counter the rise of Pepe as a symbol of alt-right and white nationalist politics. It is a play on a slogan of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton supporters, I’m With Her.

Origin

On October 2nd, 2016, journalist Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo tweeted^[1] a plea that America needed to get behind a “canonical pluralism frog to turn back the tide,” along with a picture of Kermit the Frog. The tweet, shown below, gained over 1,600 retweets and 3,200 favorites as of October 4th, 2016. Shortly after Marshall’s tweet, one of his followers, @BrooklynSpoke,^[2] replied with the hashtag, “#ImWithKer.”

Spread

Twitter users began tweeting pro-Kermit sentiments with with #ImWithKer and #TakingBackTheFrog hashtags,^[3][4] along with the quote “Kermit Trumps Pepe,”^[5] a play on a slogan popular with Hillary Clinton supporters, “Love Trumps Hate.” In further tweets, Marshall claimed that Kermit “demonstrated generosity of spirit, perseverance, collegiality and openness to introspection and melancholy that are ingredients of any open, free society,” while Pepe “embodies sadism, cruelty, and the lust for domination as touchstone of public life that are the makings of autocracy.”^[6] #ImWithHer trended on Twitter on October 3rd, 2016.^[12]

Shortly after the hashtag’s initial spread, alt-right users attempted to raid it in an effort to squash the movement.^[7][8] Marshall responded to the attempted raid by suggesting it was he desperate work of people “who know they are about to lose.”^[9]

Threads about the trend were posted to Reddit in the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[10] and /r/MillionDollarExtreme,^[11] and the moment was covered by The Daily Dot^[13] and Daily Kos.^[14]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About

“Deus Vult” (“God wills it” in Latin) was a battle cry called out by Crusaders at the declaration of the First Crusade in 1095. Online, the historical phrase has gained popularity among fans of the strategy video game series Crusader Kings, as well as the alt-right camp on Reddit’s /r/The_Donald and 4chan’s /pol/ (politically incorrect) board, typically in the context of discussions relating to Islamic extremism and the moe anthropomorphized character Christ-chan. The phrase can be seen as the Christian equivalent of “Allahu Akhbar”, an Islamic Arabic expression that is most well-known as the battle cry of Jihadhists in Western cultures.

Origin

In 1095, “Deus vult” was used as the cry of the people during Pope Urban II’s declaration of the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in Clermont, France. On February 14th, 2012, the strategy game Crusader Kings II was released, which contains a pop up message displaying “Deus Vult!” when the Pope announces a Crusade during the campaign (shown below).

Spread

On December 10th, 2013, YouTuber universalbean uploaded a video titled “Deus Vult!,” containing a slideshow of various paintings depicting the Crusades (shown below, left). On October 14th, 2015, YouTuber Metaphysical Gnome uploaded a video titled “Ave Maria! Deus Vult,” featuring footage of Christian soldiers in the Free Syrian Army (shown below, right).

On October 21st, Urban Dictionary^[1] user speed_kill submitted an entry for “Deus vult,” translating it as Latin for “God wills it.” On March 2nd, 2016, FunnyJunk^[7] user thedankmemer submitted a gallery titled “Deus Vult! Meme Collection” (shown below).

On May 6th, /r/The_Donald^[6] moderator D4rkd3str0yer submitted a post titled “Meme Magic Friday: Deus Vult Edition” to the subreddit, inviting viewers to “bring down the holy wrath of meme fire” upon Donald Trump’s political opponents. On July 10th, Imgur^[4] user TheBigGay submitted a gallery of image macros referencing the Crusades and “Deus vult,” which reached the front page of the /r/dankchristianmemes^[5] subreddit two months later (shown below).

On August 22nd, YouTuber Starbot Dubs uploaded an animated web comic in which a crusader repeats the phrase “Deus vult” (shown below). On October 3rd, Redditor MarlRhane submitted a question about “deus vult” references to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[3] subreddit.

Search Interest

External References

About

“The Boys Are Back In Town” is a classic rock song by the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy off their 1976 album, Jailbreak.^[1] The song is extremely popular and well-received, having made Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and Q Magazine’s list of best guitar tracks. It gained traction as a meme when its title lyric was placed over popular Advice Animals and image macros, and later it resurged as an ironic reference on Weird Twitter.

Origin

The single was released on April 17th, 1976 and reached number 12, number 8, and number 1 on the US, UK, and Irish charts, respectively. Initially it was not going to appear on Jailbreak, but management convinced the band it would be a hit.^[2]

Spread

In Pop Culture

The song has been used in commercials for Wrangler jeans and extensively covered. A cover by the band Everclear appeared on the soundtrack for the 2001 film A Knight’s Tale. The song was referenced in the 2010 episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, “Dennis Gets Divorced,” (shown below) and has been referenced in other episodes of the show.

An episode of The Powerpuff Girls featuring the title characters male counterparts, The Rowdyruff Boys, took the song’s title as its name.^[3] Other notable television series to use the song include Entourage, Cougartown, Gladiators, and more.^[4] It was also used to introduce Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan to the stage at the 2012 Republican National Convention to the displeasure of the family of Thin Lizzy singer Phil Lynott.

Online Use

“The Boys Are Back In Town” first saw use in memes as captions to Advice Animals like Brace Yourself (below, left), Matrix Morpheus (below, center), Success Kid (below, right), and many more.

A single-serving Twitter account, @intownagain,^[9] devoted to posting lyrics from “The Boys Are Back In Town” joined Twitter in September 2009. On March 23rd, 2015, Vice^[5] published an article titled “I Played ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ on a Bar Jukebox Until I Got Kicked Out,” in which the writer does what the title implies, which set the precedent for an ironic resurgence of references on Weird Twitter. On November 29th, 2015, Dril^[6] published a tweet that referenced “The Boys are Back In Town” (shown below).

About a week later, Tumblr user Bromurra^[7] posted a text post that read:

Good end: the boys are back in town
Bad End: the boys are not back in town
True End: the boys never left town. the town they were looking for was inside of them all along

The post was reblogged by Meme Archives on February 9th, 2016, and has gained over 5,900 notes as of October 4th, 2016. In the following months, “The Boys Are Back In Town” would become a popular reference on Weird Twitter, causing one user, @SocMalpractice,^[8] to tweet a scenario where he describes Twitter to his mother as “it’s a website where we disagree about everything except that referencing ‘the boys are back in town’ is funny.”

Various Examples

Spread

External References

Work in progress

About

Ballio and Pinnister are the names given to a fan-made Pokémon evolution from Popplio, the water starter Pokémon from the 2016 games Pokémon Sun and Moon. Since his reveal on 4chan in mid-2016 as an alleged leak, he gained both an ironic and unironic fandom due his disturbing appearance.

Origin

The original thread was created in mid-May 2016, where an anonymous user posted a supposed leak of the final evolutions from the 7th Pokémon generation starters. From all the leaks, the one that catched most attention from the viewers the evolution of Popplio, the water starter, featuring a clown-like sea lion creature holding a giant water ball. While the original thread isn’t registered on most 4chan archives, the earliest mention of the term and the Pokémon come from a post from May 22nd, 2016.^[1]

Spread

Various Examples

External References

The ‘Everybody Knows Dave’ meme first appeared in r/jokes in 2016. It is used in a sarcastic fashion typically saying that one knows Dave and referring to something personal sounding that only someone who knew this hypothetical Dave would know. This meme seems to stem from an old joke about a man named Dave and his boss. Dave claims to know everyone in the world, so his boss twice tells him to prove it. The third time, Dave is recognized, with the Pope’s identity unknown, and the boss has a heart attack in disbelief.

origin:

This charismatic face featured in the manga series Mob Psycho 100 (by ONE) caused a stir on twitter, at first people only used it because it looks out of place and weird. But then some started to realize that the face looks a lot like the ones Dreamworks™ tend to make:

About

Inktober is a yearly 30 Day Challenge in which artists challenge themselves to draw one picture in ink a day through the month of October.

Origin

The challenge was started by comics short-story creator, concept artist, illustrator, and animator Jake Parker in 2009^[1] as a way “to improve his (art) and develop better professional habits.”^[2]

Spread

Parker kept the challenge up every year, and it found some small spread among artists.^[4][5] The first instance of mass traction, however, came in 2013, when Parker posted the instructions to the #Inktober challenge to his Tumblr (shown below).^[3] The post has gained over 4,700 notes as of October 5th, 2016. Both a Tumblr^[10] and subreddit^[12] devoted to Inktober was also launched that year.

The challenge began attracting media attention in 2014, as Telegraph^[6] and Paste.^[7] To Paste, Parker explained that Inktober’s 2013 spike in popularity came when he introduced the hashtag“#Inktober” and cites over 46,000 #Inktober posts in 2013 and 186,000 #Inktober posts in the first eight days of 2014.

Further media attention came in 2015 from The Washington Post,^[8] Business Insider,^[13] and Tech Insider,^[9] the latter of which reported over 1 million Instagram posts using the hashtag.

By 2016, Inktober has grown into a widely celebrated event among the artist community. As of October 5th, 2016, the Inktober Facebook community^[11] has over 77,000 members, the subreddit has over 400 readers and it’s a popular trend among artists on Reddit.^[14]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

My Longest Yeah Boy Ever is a video remix series based on footage of YouTuber llMegaxlxll yelling an extended version of rapper Flavor Flav’s iconic catchphrase “yeah boy.”

Origin

On October 15th, 2015, YouTuber llMegaxlxll uploaded a clip of himself attempting to yell the phrase “yeah boy” for as long as possible within one breath (shown below). Over the next year, the video gained over 2.4 million views and 10,000 comments.

Spread

On March 19th, 2016, Redditor assignpseudonym submitted the video to /r/DeepIntoYouTube,^[1] where it gathered upwards of 1,500 votes (96% upvoted) and 110 comments prior to being archived. That day, YouTuber YourSpecialFriend uploaded a remix of the video which zooms out into outer space as he begins yelling “yeah boy” (shown below, left). Also on March 19th, Redditor OpticalData posted a screenshot of the YouTube page for the original video to /r/me_irl,^[2] where it accumulated more than 1,300 votes (96% upvoted) prior to being archived (shown below, right).

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On May 26th, YouTuber kawaiigaythug ミ uploaded a 10-hour-long loop of the video, which gained over 1.3 million views and 8,300 comments over the next five months (shown below).

On August 13th, YouTuber DeluxeGods posted a trap remix using audio from the original clip (shown below, left). On August 27th, YouTuber 3 Nazis walk into a B.A.R. uploaded a vaporwave remix of the video (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

“That Mexican Thing” is a memorable quote uttered by 2016 Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence during the Vice presidential debate held in early October 2016. Following the debate, many criticized and mocked the statement on Twitter along with the hashtag “#ThatMexicanThing.”

Origin

On October 4th, 2016, the 2016 vice presidential debate was held at the Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. During the debate, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine accused Donald Trump of saying “Mexicans are rapists and criminals” to which Pence retorted “Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again” (shown below). Shortly after, the news site Politico posted a clip of the gaffe on Vine.^[4]

Spread

That evening, Twitter users began posting jokes about Pence’s statement along with the hashtag “#ThatMexicanThing”^[5] (shown below).

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed^[2] published an article about the online reaction to the gaffe while Redditor beautanddelusion submitted a post about it to /r/politics.^[3] That night, host Stephen Colbert mocked Pence’s statement during a segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (shown below).

On October 5th, the @realDenaldTrump^[11] parody Twitter account posted a tweet sarcastically commending Pence’s response at the debate along with the hashtag #ThatMexicanThing (shown below).

That same day, Redditor blapenstein submitted a post arguing that the “media is trying to spin Pence saying ‘that Mexican thing’” to /r/The_Donald,^[3] urging Trump supporters to circulate a leaked Democratic National Committee email calling to drum up “taco bowl engagement.”^[3] In the coming days, several other news sites published articles about the online reaction to the gaffe, including The New York Times,^[12] The Guardian,^[13] Uproxx,^[6]CNN,^[7] Chicago Tribune,^[8] NY Daily News^[9] and Business Insider.^[10]

Search Interest

External References

Micheal!

About

Bikecat is the nickname given to Kuma, a cat from Nagoya, Japan who rose to fame after pictures showing him riding around in the basket of his owner’s bicycle were posted to Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel.

Origin and Spread

Although it is currently unknown when pictures of Bikecat first appeared on Futaba Channel, the earliest mention of him dates back to April 12, 2006 when user Bikecat of allakhazam.com’s Final Fantasy XI Online forum posted a series of links to now deleted photographs of Bikecat that had been posted on Imageshack.^[1] On November 16, 2006 Flickr user “the boy on his bike” posted an image macro depicting Bikecat sitting at what appears to be a console with the caption reading “This is relevant to my interests”.

^[2] On October 4, 2007 Blogspot user Laruru made a post about Bikecat saying that his owner found him as a kitten.^[3] On April 8, 2008 YouTube user RosaRossa uploaded a video about Bikecat entitled とっとこクマゴロー (Tottoko Kumagoro). As of October 6, 2016 the video has over 24,000 views and 24 comments.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

^[1]BIKECAT :: Final Fantasy XI :: ZAM

^[2]Flickr – Buro9

^[3]Blogspot – KUMA, the celebrity with paws

^[4]YouTube – とっとこクマゴロー

About

The Retrowave Text Generator is a web application that allows users to create graphic images with custom texts in bright neon colors reminiscent of ’80s science-fiction film posters and production logos, a style of visual art that has been also referred to as neon-noir. In October 2016, the image generator gained widespread attention with the growing popularity of retrowave aesthetics on the internet, in a similar vein to the Stranger Things-themed title sequence generator Make It Stranger.

Origin

On July 16th, 2016, generator site PhotoFunia announced on its Instagram^[1] that it had introduced a new text effect generator^[2] it dubbed Retro Wave.

Spread

In the coming months, images using the generator appeared on Flickr,^[3] but it did not gain widespread popularity until October 5th, 2016, when images using the generator began spreading very quickly through Twitter, to the point where it was a Twitter moment the following day.^[4] Most users used the generator to post popular memes. Popular examples include J. Cole Went Platinum With No Features, ^[5]Actually, It’s About Ethics in Gaming Journalism, ^[6]Smooth, ^[7] and many more. The spread was covered by The Daily Dot,^[8] The Mary Sue,^[9] The Next Web,^[10] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

“Norf Norf” Rant refers to a video recording of a Christian mother tearfully condemning the lyrics heard in the 2015 rap song “Norf Norf” by Vince Staples, which she criticizes for being offensive after hearing a censored version of the song on a local radio station. The video was widely mocked after circulating online in early October 2016, spawning numerous remix variations.

Background

On September 6th, 2016, YouTuber Twoevils Lesser uploaded a video titled “Norf Norf Rant,” in which a woman laments hearing an offensive rap song on a local radio station while in the company of her young daughter (shown below). In the video, she tearfully recites portions of the song’s lyrics and condemns the messages contained within.

Developments

Online Reaction

Remixes

On October 4th, Redditor StuntingOnAJumbotron submitted the video to the /r/hiphopheads^[1] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 3,700 votes (98% upvoted) and 1,000 comments. In the comment section, Redditor Shaliek LaFlare Jenkins linked his remix of the song, setting portions of her reciting the song’s lyrics to a rap beat (shown below). Shortly after, the remix reached the front page of /r/videos,^[2] garnering more than 7,500 votes (79% upvoted) and 1,100 comments that day.

Hours later, Jenkins posted an extended remix on Facebook,^[3] while the original remix was featured on the /r/bestof subreddit.^[4] Within 48 hours, the extended remix gained over 7,200 views and the /r/bestof post received more than 4,100 votes (84% upvoted). Also on October 4th, YouTuber needlessnoise posted a similar remix (shown below).

YouTuber Reactions

On October 5th, YouTuber Anthony Fantano posted a reaction to the rant video on his channel TheNeedleDrop, in which he expresses skepticism that she heard the song on a local radio station (shown below, left). Meanwhile, The Young Turks YouTube channel released an episode about the online reaction to the rant video (shown below, right).

Vince Staples’ Reaction

Also on October 5th, The Independent^[5] published an interview with Staples, in which he defended the woman in the rant video and criticized those who were attacking her online:

“It’s not right to attack someone over their stance, their opinions, and their religion. I think that’s very immature.”

Additionally, Staples claimed the woman had misunderstood the song’s lyrics, lameting that there were many “issues between black and white relations in this country based on misunderstandings.”

Search Interest

External References