About

Shrek (not to be confused for the franchise) is the titular ogre from the animated film series of the same name^[1] created by Dreamworks and based on a book^[2] by American cartoonist William Steig. Although the first film was released in 2001, the series suddenly gained attention mid-2012. Shrek can most commonly be found back in ironic fanworks and pun jokes based on either him or ogres in general.

Background

Shrek is a computer animated film series first released on May 18th, 2001, and produced by Dreamworks. There were 3 official sequels to the franchise, being Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010). The films focus on the titular green ogre Shrek, his companion Donkey, and significant other Fiona. The movies are a parody of the standard children’s fantasies films, mainly those produced by Disney, and feature various well known characters from these films.

The popularity of the franchise has resulted in various spin-off and short films based on the Shrek universe. So was the character Puss in Boots given two films in which he was the main character. Various short films were also released, such as a Christmas special and a 4-D ride found on various theme parks around the globe. A musical^[4] for the franchise was first shown during a Seattle tryout 2008, followed by a 12 month long run from December 2008 to January 2010. Since its debut, the musical’s rights have been available for independent overseas theatres, who have chosen to stage their own versions of the show. So far 10 incarnations of these independant adaptations exist worldwide.

Spread

The popularity of the character has resulted in quite a few websites offering content related to Shrek. Shrekchan^[3] is a 4chan style image board solely dedicated to Shrek. Launched on May 29th, 2012, the site consist of a total of 4 boards.

On Tumblr, search results can be found for both the #Shrek^[6] and #Shrek-jokes^[7] tags. The LittleShrekThings^[5] Tumblr blog started reposting on January 10th, 2013, after the previous incarnation of the blog eventually turned into a porn blog for Shrek and contains over 600 posts as of January 28th of the same year. On DeviantART, searching for “Shrek”^[8] yields over 12,000 results as of January 28th, 2013.

On June 3rd, 2012, Tumblr user skrillbgolyb made a post in the style of Are You Frustrated along with the caption “Check Urself Before U Shrek Urself” (shown below, left).^[9] On November 4th, 2012, Tumblr user fuckyeahmeelz made a Hey Girls post using Shrek (shown below, middle).^[10] On November 13th of the same year, Tumblr user mossball made a post featuring a life-size Shrek doll sitting in a car alongside with the note “PUTTHATSHITINTOOGREDRIVE” (shown below, right).^[11] As of January 28th, 2012, the posts gathered respectively over 13,500; 36,500 and 22,000 notes.

Other common usage of Shrek is through the usage of pun jokes, commonly being a play of words on either Shrek or Ogre. Various of these pun jokes are commonly found back in greentext stories on Shrekchan.^[3] Captions of these greentext stories can also be found through the Tumblr tag #shrekchan.^[12]

Search Interest

External References

About

Cory Booker (born April 27th, 1969) is an American politician who has served as the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey since 2006. Online, he has gained a celebrity status for his spontaneous and open interaction with the people of Newark through his Twitter account.^[1]

Online History

Cory Booker established his personal website, CoryBooker.com^[2], in late November 2002. As of January 2013, this website is used as a hub site for information about Booker’s work in Newark and has a section^[3] where city residents can submit stories of how Booker’s policies and initiatives have helped change their lives. The site also links to his official social media accounts including Twitter^[1], question and answer site Quora^[4], LinkedIn^[5], YouTube^[6], Flickr^[7] and Facebook^[8], where he has more than 132,000 likes. Of these accounts, Booker is most active on Twitter, which he joined on August 11th, 2008.

Reputation

Blizzard Response

On New Year’s Eve 2009 and during several snowstorms in February 2010, Booker picked up a shovel and went around Newark helping those who could not get out of their homes following the storms. However, his snow shoveling did not gain media attention until a blizzard on December 26th, 2010 which dropped more than 24 inches of snow on the city. During the storm, Booker’s Twitter feed turned into a crisis helpline, as he retweeted calls for help and posted responses noting that he was digging out people’s cars (shown below). His tweets were featured on Vanity Fair^[11], The Wrap^[12] and the New York Daily News^[13] on December 28th, followed by a profile piece in TIME^[14] the next day. However, many Newark residents were not happy with the mayor’s efforts^[15], noting the city’s poor planning as sections of the city were left unplowed for up to 48 hours.

#CoryBookerStories

On April 13th, 2012, Booker rushed in to a fire at his next-door neighbor’s home with members of his security team to help evacuate residents^[16], going in a second time to rescue a woman from her second-story bedroom. Both Booker and the woman were taken to hospitals and treated for second-degree burns and smoke inhalation. Hours after the event, two single topic blogs were created on Tumblr, Super Cory Booker^[17], featuring image macros, and Cory Booker Story^[19], which used a Texts From Hillary inspired format, created two-pane images featuring a photo of the mayor looking at a mobile phone (shown below) On Twitter, the hashtag #CoryBookerStories began appearing featuring Chuck Norris Facts-style anecdotes about the mayor. It was used nearly 25000 times on April 13th.^[18]

Hurricane Sandy

Following October 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, Booker tweeted posts of support for those stranded and chronicled his own efforts including taking homeless people to safety, delivering supplies to shelters and checking up on people whose homes were damaged by fallen trees. Highlights from his Twitter feed were shared on Cnet^[20] and People^[21] in late October. On November 1st, three days after Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, Booker began inviting people who were without power into his home to charge their electronics.^[22] That day, approximately a dozen people came to Booker’s home, where provided food, DVDs and toys to entertain the younger visitors.^[23] On November 5th, Mashable^[24] compiled a series of the Mayor’s best tweets in the wake of the hurricane, highlighting his physical actions as well as the virtual advice he provided to residents.

There is someone at my house now (Eric). I’ve got space u can relax in, charge devices & even a working DVD player. Come by@my_serenelove

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) November 1, 2012

SNAP Challenge

On November 19th, 2012, Twitter user @MWadeNC^[30], a 39-year-old married woman from North Carolina, made a comment to Booker asking why children need school lunches provided to them if their families already have access to food stamps. Booker then challenged @MWadeNC to try to live on food stamps for a week or a month in New Jersey, which is known for its high cost of living.^[31] On December 3rd, Booker began the SNAP Challenge, named for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program^[37] that offers these benefits. Booker alloted himself $33 per week for groceries, based on the average monthly food stamp benefit in New Jersey, $133.23 per person per month.^[32] He chronicled his journey via his LinkedIn blog^[35] and Instagram^[29], where he shared photos of the meals he was eating. The challenge was featured on NPR^[33], Gothamist^[34] and NJ.com^[36], however, it is unclear whether or not @MWadeNC went through with the challenge. He was met with some criticism, as food stamps are supposed to be a supplemental and not a person’s only source of money for food. Booker offered a rebuttal on CNN (shown below), noting that many Americans unfortunately cannot survive without the SNAP program.

Dog Rescue

On January 24th, 2013, local New York area news reporter Toni Yates tweeted^[25] that she saw two dogs outside in 12 degrees Fahrenheit weather, tagging both her news channel, Eyewitness News, and Cory Booker in the tweet. Soon after, Booker and a police squad car responded to the scene, where the mayor took the one dog that was still outside, Cha Cha, into the police car to keep warm.^[26] The cops were able to track down the owner, who claimed he was unaware the dog had left the house.^[28]

Because of you that dog was rescued. Thank you for reaching out. Thank u for your kindness RT <a href="https://twitter.com/toniyates7">toniyates7</a>: 2 dogs left outside, freezing.</p>&mdash; Cory Booker (CoryBooker) January 24, 2013

Personal Life

Cory Booker was born in Washington D.C. on April 27th, 1969 to Cary Alfred and Carolyn Rose (Jordan) Booker. He was raised in a religious household in Harrington Park, New Jersey and graduated from the Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan in 1986. The same year, he was named as a defensive back player in the USA Today All-USA high school football team.^[9] In 1991, Booker received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Stanford, followed by a Master of Arts in sociology from the school in 1992. During his schooling, he ran The Bridge, a student-run crisis hotline, and was elected senior class president. He went on to receive an honors U.S. history degree from the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship in 1994 and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1997. While attending Yale, Booker ran free legal clinics for New Haven’s low-income residents and participated in a Big Brother program. Prior to being elected as Newark’s mayor, Booker served as a City Councilor from 1998 to 2002. Outside of his political career, Booker is a vegetarian, does not partake in alcohol and lives in Newark’s South Ward^[10], which was noted for being a rough area of the city, with drug dealers and boarded-up houses, when he moved there in 2006.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

The Battle of Asakai refers to a major multiplayer battle that occurred in the MMORPGEVE Online^[8] in late January 2013. The battle mainly took place between two multiplayer alliances known as TEST Alliance and Goonswarm, which involved almost 3,000 individual combatants and totaled nearly $20,000 (USD) in losses for both factions, 99.7% of which belonged to Goonswarm. Due to the scale of the battle and the escalating tension of an all out war between two of the largest factions, the battle received notable media coverage throughout the Internet.

Background

EVE Online is an MMORPG in which players control spacecraft to trade with or battle against other players. The players can also wage warfare to control territory and form alliances. Two of the largest Alliances in the game are Goonswarm^[14], the unofficial group for posters from the Something Awful forums^[11] formed in June 2006, and TEST Alliance^[12], created in May 2010 and associated with a group of Redditors known as Dreddit.^[13] Prior to the Battle of Asakai, Goonswarm and TEST Alliance were bound by an agreement not to attack either factions’ infrastructure after their alliance degraded into antagonism.

Notable Developments

January 27th: Battle

On the early morning of January 27th, 2013, an unknown Goonswarm pilot accidentally warped his ship to a hostile zone, instead of summoning the alliance members to his location, just moments before the launch of a planned raid. Stuck in enemy space and unable to warp out of it, the Goonswarm pilot’s ship was attacked by rival factions, including members of the TEST Alliance. As reinforcements from both sides continued to arrive, the scale of the battle soon grew to more than 2,500 combatants involved. At its peak, the influx of Eve Online players resulted in significant time dilation and combat lag at an approximate conversion rate of one hour of gameplay to four hours in real time.^[10] In addition, the first-person crossover of the game DUST 514^[15] went offline due to the server overload. Eventually, Twitch.tv member ShigsyTV^[16] began livestreaming the events.

ShigsyTV’s livestream station was linked on Reddit^[5], where it received 3563 upvotes, 1880 points overall and nearly 1000 comments.
Other commenters in the thread began exchanging kill statistics for the lost ships, including one that was reportedly worth nearly $800 (USD), taken down by 1,070 different players.^[17] The same day, EVE players who took part in the battle began sharing various albums of screenshots as well as summaries and opinions to /r/Games^[13] and /r/EVE subreddits.^[18] Blogger Alizabeth at The Mittani^[19] also compiled a series of real-time reactions and kill reports. Kotaku Australia^[1] became the first news outlet to break the news, followed by stories on Polygon^[7] and Examiner.com.^[6]

January 28th: Aftermath

On January 28th, Mashable^[2], Eurogamer^[21], VentureBeat^[22] and PC Mag^[20] featured stories on the event. On Reddit, Lighth_Vader submitted an Explain Like I’m Five^[9] post asking EVE users to simply explain the game and the reasons behind the fight, which was met by almost 400 comments on gameplay, the battle itself and how gameplay translates to real monetary currency. Redditor jimmysaint13 elaborated further on the battle’s monetary losses in a post on /r/Gaming^[4] by breaking down the cost of the ships and estimating that more than $17,000 (USD) in ships were destroyed.

Search Interest

[Not currently available.]

External References

This page is a work in progress.

About

Philippe Dubost’s Resume is a page created by web designer Philippe Dubost which imitates the look of an Amazon.com^[1] product page in order to advertise his availability for a job. The page launched in January of 2013 and went viral on Twitter within a few days.^[2]

External Links

1. Philippe Dubost’s Resume
2. Huffington Post – Philippe Dubost’s Resume Is Pure Genius, Goes Totally Viral
3. Twitter – Philippe Dubost

About

Flaming referes to hostile and insulting interaction between internet users, often involving the use of profanity. Flaming is frequently the result from discussions about heated or controversial topics and issues such as politics, religion, or social structure, but can also be provoked by seemingly trivial differences.

Background

Various theories exist about what may cause flaming. Social researchers have came with several different theories about the phenomenon. A common reason used to explain flaming is the presence of the Online Disinhibition Effect^[1] on the internet, being a loosening or complete abandonment of social restrictions and inhibitions that would otherwise be present in normal face-to-face interaction. Because of the lack of accountability and loss of inhibition during online interactions, people open up more easily and tend to be less guarded about their emotions and opinion. The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory explains this by saying that any well-adjusted individual may display psychopathic or antisocial behaviors when given both anonymity and a captive audience on the Internet.

Spread

As of April 25th, 2010, a total of 23 definitions for flaming have been submitted to Urban Dictionary with the earliest dating back to February 21st, 2003, although they share a variety of definitions. The highest scoring definition was made on March 12th, 2004, by user Arch (shown below).^[2] Additional translations can also be found on Wikipedia^[3] and TechTerms.^[4]

An online argument that becomes nasty or derisive, where insulting a party to the discussion takes precedence over the objective merits of one side or another.

On May 15th, 2005, the Moore’s Lore blog post sharing his past experiences with PARTIcipate in the 1980’s where misunderstandings at times escalated.^[5] On February 20th, 2010, the webcomic xkcd published a comic about a male being unable to get away from the computer because “someone is wrong on the internet” (shown below, left).^[6] On October 5th, 2010, Wired released an article titled “Anger Management for Online Trolls”,^[7] which resulted in Switched covering a similar topic 2 days later in an article titled “Putting Out the Flame War”.^[8]

Flame War

Flame Wars are large, often violent, confrontations between two parties surrounding a specific topic. Unlike a shitstorm where the discussion is caused by an event, in a flamewar the cause was an initial discussion between two parties which over time expanded. During flame wars, the use of private messages, excessive swearing and other rude remarks are a common practice. Flamers may also try to impugn their opponents’ intelligence by highlighting any errors in their adversaries’ grammar or spelling. Flame wars are often seen back through images and image macros in the form of a warning that tells viewers that a flame war is going on.

Flame Trolling

Flame Trolling is an act of trolling in which a person posts a provocative or offensive message with the intent of provoking an angry comment or argument in reply to it. This message, known as “flamebait”, commonly ivolves a topic the poster has no real interest in. While flame trolling can be the result of legitimate debates, it commonly is done for the sole purpose of personal entertainment and in order to cause harm to others.

Search Interest

External References

This entry is currently open for editorship request! You can help improve this entry by requesting editorship to the staff. Please specify what you would like to research or write about in your request. For more instructions on open entry editing process, please check out KYM Forum – Editing Open Entries.

About

Eve Online is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) set in the colonial space in the distant future where each player takes command of one of the five major races and customizable fleets through a galaxy of over 7,500 star systems. Since its release in May 2003, the game has attracted more than 400,000 subscribers and received several awards.

History

Eve Online was developed by CCP Games and released in North America and Europe in May 2003. The developers were inspired by games like Ultima Online, specifically the permanent loss of items. This forms the core of EVE’s gameplay: if something can be bought or made, it can be destroyed. EVE started as a fairly niche, if expanding, game, but quickly developed a loyal fanbase. It gained a reputation for its horrifying difficulty curve.

Gameplay

Reception

Controversy

Notable Events

Search Interest

External References

About

“Popped a Molly, I’m Sweatin” is a lyric from the rap song “All Gold Everything” by Trinidad James, indicating the the speaker has ingested an MDMA capsule and is feeling the effects. The line is often used to caption image macros in which the subject appears to be perspiring or listening to music.

Origin

The song “All Gold Everything” was released on Trinidad James’ debut album Don’t Be S.A.F.E. on October 16th, 2012. On the following day, the music video was uploaded by YouTuber TheTrilllMusic, which received over 5 million views and 11,500 comments over the next four months.

Etymology

“Molly” is a slang term for a powder or crystal form of the drug methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA), which implies a higher level of purity to the pressed pill form known as “ecstasy.” On December 18th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[4] user Eckstahsee submitted an entry for “MDMA,” which used the word “molly” describing pure MDMA in capsule form.

Spread

On November 30th, 2012, YouTuber stoopehdfresh uploaded a six-minute looped clip of the “popped a molly” line from the “All Gold Everything” video (shown below, left). Within two months, the video accumulated over 700,000 views and 1,400 comments. On December 9th, YouTube stoopehdfresh’s video was highlighted in an article about Trinidad James on Gawker.^[2] On December 13th, YouTuber victorxinhere uploaded a five-minute looped clip of professional basketball player LeBron James mouthing the lyrics “popped a molly, I’m sweatin” (shown below, right), which received over 680,000 views and 1,100 comments within the next month.

On January 2nd, 2013, YouTuber fon ducci uploaded a video of a shirtless man dancing to the song “All Gold Everything” (shown below, left). The same day, YouTuber Dillon Francis uploaded a looped clip of himself singing the “popped a molly, I’m sweatin” line for over six minutes (shown below, right). Both videos received over 50,000 views within the next month.

On January 27th, Tumblr^[1] user fr3sh-lik3-dougi3 posted an animated GIF of the dog Jake from the animated television series Adventure Time bobbing his head while wearing a pair of headphones with the caption “Popped a molly im sweatin’ WOO!” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post received over 390 notes.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Mom? Dad? Friends? is an image macro series based on an illustration of a white monster-like creature emerging from a cave and captions desperately calling for its loved ones after prolonged isolation or preoccupation with a particular activity.

Origin

While the authorship of the original artwork remains unknown, children’s book illustrator Stephen Gammell has been speculated as the artist due to his comparable style of drawing. The original drawing (shown below, left) was submitted by Redditor masterilly in a post titled “Internet disconnection” on September 29th, 2011, receiving more than 10,700 up votes and 270 comments. Months later on December 11th, the first image macro instance was submitted by Redditor screwmaths as a commentary on the seclusive nature of student life during the final exam weeks (shown below, right).

Spread

[researching]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Samantha Wright

Female gymnast turned weightlifter won internet fame fame at the 2011 American open

Currently being Researched

Currently Tumblr has a crush on young weightlifter declaring her “The Pixie Warrior”

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d0wvcnTGjY8/UBQlDXZ1T6I/AAAAAAAACMs/swqwJtF61hg/s1600/188fda59-ade0-423a-93b6-260c60234be3_thumb.png.jpg

ABOUT

A Dragable or Transparent image is a type of picture often found on Tumblr dashboards. They are often .png images but some times animated .gifs. Both of these image types have a special property which allows them to have transparent backgrounds/areas within them. This property is exploited by Tumblr users where they hide messages or images (masking them in dashboard white) within an uploaded image so it looks innocent or blank. Its only when the image is dragged onto a darker background that the user finds out that there is a hidden message.

More inventive users make animated gifs which instruct you to grab the image and drag it to determine an out come or spoilers i.e. your death, your future lover etc.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/transparent

WARNING: THEBELOWCONTENTCONTAINSMATERIALTHATMAY BE DISTURBING TO SOMEREADERS. READERDISCRETION IS ADVISED

About

Cumbox (also spelled cum box) is a Reddit Copypasta of redditor’s story in an Askreddit thread of how and where he disposes his ejaculate after masturbation. The story gained popularity outside of reddit and has been often referenced within the website due to it’s shock factor and disgusting content.

Origin

On May 1st, 2012, Reddit user ohgoshwheretobegin posted a thread in subreddit AskReddit (a Reddit sub-forum where users ask for and receive answers from other users on specific questions) titled, “Throwaway time! What’s your secret that could literally ruin your life if it came out?”^[1] The thread became popular, and was filled with many dark and disturbing stories in response to the original question, so much it became #3 top thread on Reddit of all time. Among the many responses was a story from redditor Lynfect, who told the story of him stealing some of his cousin’s possessions.^[2]

Cousin died when we were both seventeen. There was a reception at his house just after the funeral. I went into his room and stole all the money… [and] some other valuables that his parents wouldn’t realize were gone…

…Also my cum box.

Upon further inquiry buy reddit user eeeeevil^[3], Lynfect disclosed further information of the previously mentioned cum box.^[4]

Along with the account, Lynfect also uploaded an Imgur album containing images of the cum box for proof.^[5] Much disgust and horror was expressed by many other redditors in response to the account and album. Upon frequent request by redditors, Lynfect decided to post an additional update image of the now oft-mentioned cum box^[6], of which had started to develop mold.

Spread

Immeadiately after being posted to Reddit, the story went viral outside of Reddit, being mentioned on websites such as Slacktory^[7], Uproxx^[8], Buzzfeeed^[9] and FunnyJunk^[10]. The two words used to describe the object that contained Lynfect’s semen became homogenized to describe the object in particular. Since it’s posting, the original Imgur album containing the pictures of the cum box has achieved more than 6.6 million views alone, with the update image obtaining approximately a quarter of a million views. Today, the cumbox story has been copypasta’d and been referenced among redditors within the website in the same vein of other notable shock stories.

Search Insights

External References

^[1]Reddit – Throwaway time! What’s your secret that could literally ruin your life if it came out? / Posted on 5-1-2012

^[2]Reddit – Lynfect’s Original Comment / Posted on 5-1-2012

^[3]Reddit – eeeeevil replies to Lynfect’s comment / Posted on 5-1-2012

^[4]Reddit – Lynfect replies to eeeeevil [Warning: NSFW] / Posted on 5-1-2012

^[5]Imgur – Cumbox Album [Warning: NSFW] / Posted on 5-1-2012

^[6]Imgur – Cumbox Update [Warning: NSFW] / Posted on 7-4-2012

^[7]Slacktory – Reddit’s “What Secret Could Ruin Your Life if It Came Out?” Thread Is a Harrowing Descent Into the Darkest Reaches of the Human Soul / Posted on 5-2-2012

^[8]Uproxx – BREAKING: Redditor Stores Years Of Ejaculate In Old Shoe Box / Posted on 6-13-12

^[9]BuzzFeed – This Is A Burned Box Of Semen / Posted on 5-2-2012

^[10]FunnyJunk – Cum Box / Posted on 5-1-2012

About

“Thrift Shop” is a 2012 song by the American rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis, with additional vocals by R&B singer Michael “Wanz” Wansley. The song’s lyrics describe Macklemore’s penchant for discovering rare bargains at thrift clothing stores, while eschewing expensive designer brands. The music video became widely popular online shortly after it was uploaded to YouTube in August of 2012, inspiring the creation of many parody video tributes.

Origin

The song “Thrift Shop” was released as a single on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ debut album The Heist on August 28th, 2012, and the official music video was uploaded to YouTube on the following day. As of January 2013, the video has received over 70.9 million views, 469,000 up votes and 86,000 comments.

Spread

The same day the video was uploaded to YouTube, Redditor pricklypete submitted it to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it received over 2,000 up votes and 160 comments in the next six months. On September 10th, Redditor orangepeelz reposted the video to the /r/videos^[2] subreddit, where it garnered more than 7,500 up votes and 640 comments over the next five months. On September 26th, a fan page for “Thrift Shop by Macklemore” was created on Facebook,^[5] which accumulated over 9,000 likes over the next four months. On October 8th, 2012, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis participated in an “ask us anything” (AMA) post on the /r/IAmA^[3] subreddit, in which they revealed that The Heist had become the #1 album in America on the online music store iTunes during the course of the AMA. On December 6th, YouTuber whatsupelle uploaded a parody of the “Thrift Shop” music video in which a poor father is forced to shop at thrift shops (shown below). Within two months, the video received over 460,000 up views and 600 comments.

On December 11th, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and Wanz performed “Thrift Shop” on the talk show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. On December 17th, the “Thrift Shop Memes” Facebook^[4] page was created to showcase various image macros with captions inspired by the song’s lyrics (shown below).

On January 9th, 2013, YouTuber steveberkecomedy uploaded a “Thrift Shop” parody video titled “Pot Shop,” with lyrics calling for the legalization of marijuana (shown below, left). The same day, Redditor mysterieuxmystere submitted the video to the /r/videos^[6] subreddit. Within 19 days, the Reddit post received over 6,700 up votes and 600 comments and the YouTube video accumulated more than 1.3 million views and 2,400 comments. On January 17th, the video game news site IGN uploaded a parody titled “Game Shop” to their official YouTube channel, with lyrics describing the experience of shopping for video games in retail stores (shown below, right). Within two weeks, the video received over 993,000 views and 4,400 comments.

On January 23rd, “Thrift Shop” reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.^[9] The following day, the Seattle PI^[8]reported that Macklemore was the first Seattle-based artist in over two decades to reach the top position on the Billboard chart. On January 25th, Time Magazine^[10] published an article reporting that “Thrift Shop” was the first indie hit to top the Billboard chart since 1994.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“Thanks, Obama!” is a sarcastic expression used by critics of President Barack Obama to blame personal troubles and inconveniences on public policies supported or enacted by the administration. The phrase is often used to caption animated GIFs in which the subject appears to be struggling with a rather simple task, satirizing those who scapegoat Obama as the cause of problems for which he has little or no influence.

Origin

On December 17th, 2009, the conservative political blog Authentic Connecticut Republican^[1] published a post highlighting a demotivational poster of a young girl making a “middle finger” gesture with the caption “Thanks, Obama” (shown below).

Spread

On March 10th, 2011, YouTuber SecretAgentBob uploaded a video in which a woman threatens a man’s life with a knife, to which he sarcastically responds “Thanks, Obama!” (shown below). The video received over 390,000 views and 2,400 comments within the next two years.

On August 23rd, the “Everything is Barack Obama’s Fault” Quickmeme^[8] page was created, featuring a photo of a sullen-looking President Obama with captions listing petty grievances, followed by “Thanks Obama” (shown below).

On November 20th, 2012, Redditor ronaldo95 submitted a post^[7] featuring an animated infomercial FAILGIF of a man dropping several items from a food tray and the caption reading “Thanks, Obama” (shown below). Within three months, the post garnered more than 3,600 up votes and 100 comments, as well as inspiring dozens of derivative instances based on other infomercial GIFs from the /r/wheredidthesodego^[6] subreddit.

On December 5th, Redditor filmisbone submitted a post titled “Lately, Republicans blame everything on Obama” to the /r/gifs^[4] subreddit, featuring an animated GIF of a man knocking over a snack food bowl. Within two months, the post received over 7,000 up votes and 265 comments. The same day, Redditor kvachon submitted the first post^[5] to the /r/ThanksObama^[3] subreddit, featuring an animated GIF of a woman having a difficult time using plastic wrap (shown below, right).

Within two months of creation, the /r/ThanksObama subreddit accumulated over 14,500 subscribers and 250 submissions. On December 6th, the “Thanks Obama” Tumblr^[2] blog was launched, which highlighted over 60 notable examples from the /r/ThanksObama subreddit over the next seven weeks. On January 11th, 2013, the International Business Times^[9] reported that Twitter users were expressing outrage toward Obama’s tax increases on the middle class by tweeting sarcastic comments with the phrase “Thanks Obama.”

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

[Work in Progress.]

About

Vibrating GIFs are GIFs (usually Reaction Faces) that shake in a vigorous or violent manner.

Origin

[researching]

Spread

[researching]

Notable Examples

The War Z Controversy refers to the controversy surrounding the release of the zombie survival PC game The War Z, developed by Hammerpoint Interactive and published by OP Productions. The game was heavily criticized at launch for buggy game play, false advertising, and trying to scam customers.

The game’s foundation release was launched on Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam on December 17, 2012, and began to do very well, arriving on the top of the Steam’s Top Sellers list. Prior to this, there had already been some accusations that The War Z was a ripoff that was trying to cash in on the success of the popular Arma 2 zombie survival mod, DayZ (which is currently being developed as a standalone release). The game was priced at $15 US, but had many microtransactions already in place for additional items in the game and the ability to shorten the respawn time for your character, which was 1 hour at the time of release but eventually changed to 4 hours. Players soon noticed that there were many features listed in the game’s Steam description that were simply not in the game. Multiple maps, 100 player servers, private servers, and the skill point leveling system were not to be found in the game. There were also reports of large scale bans being enacted on legitimate players and those who criticized The War Z in the game’s Steam forums. On December 18, the game’s Steam description was changed, but still highlighted features that were not yet in the game. The developers also apologized and unbanned all unfairly banned players and gave them all ingame currency. The game’s executive producer, Sergey Titov, was interviewed by the gaming website Gamespy on the possible false advertising in the game’s description. In the interview, Sergey attempted to defend the game, but the Gamespy interviewer asked many questions that showed The War Z was responsible of false advertising that Sergey was not able to refute. On December 19, the game was removed from purchase on Steam and Steam began to offer refunds to those who bought the game and were not happy with it or felt they had been scammed. Steam released a statement on the issue:

“From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here: https://support.steampowered.com/newticket.php
Again, we apologize any inconvenience.”

The War Z is currently purchasable on thewarz.com, but the terms of service have been changed so you can no longer get a refund. Currently the game has a critic score of 23 out of 100 on the website Metacritc, which aggregates scores of games, movies and music from all around the internet. It’s user score is 1.3 out of 10.

There are some other controversies related to The War Z. During it’s alpha testing, the terms of service was apparently copy and pasted from the League of Legends (a popular MOBA style game) terms of service. Also, the game’s executive producer, Sergey Titov, was involved in the infamous Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, a racing game which is often regarded as the worst game of all time.

About

Faces of Marijuana, also known as “Faces of Pot,” is a series of images that parody hyperbolic anti-drug PSA posters. The pictures are typically edited to show unrealistic or absurd consequences of smoking marijuana, many of which use a similar format to the Faces of Meth^[3] mug shot website and X Isn’t Normal, But on Meth it Is parody images.

Origin

While parodies of anti-marijuana propaganda have existed for many years since the beginning of War on Drugs in the 1970s, the earliest known “Faces of Marijuana” instance was uploaded by YouTuber pianoflames on February 15th, 2011, which featured several a slideshow of satirical before-and-after photographs of people that purportedly consumed too much marijuana (shown below). Within the next two years, the video accumulated over 13,000 up votes and 140 comments.

Spread

On May 9th, 2012, the Cheezburger site FAIL Blog^[5] published a before-and-after image showing a black man becoming a white man after “2 hits” of marijuana (shown below).

On October 15th, Redditor ReAzem submitted a parody of anti-marijuana PSA poster to the /r/4chan^[4] subreddit, which urged readers to avoid injecting marijuana by showing mug shots from the Faces of Meth website (shown below, left). Within three months, the post received over 6,300 up votes and 200 comments. On November 4th, FunnyJunk^[9]user onlyfornsfwhaha submitted another parody poster featuring a man who appears to have overdosed on heroin with the caption “Marijuana / What will your mother say when she finds your corpse?” (shown below, right). Within the next three months, the post received over 54,000 views, 1,600 up votes and 260 comments.

On November 29th, Redditor xerim submitted an image to the marijuana enthusiast subreddit /r/trees,^[2] featuring a white man turning into a black man after consuming marijuana (shown below, left). On December 13th, the same image was tweeted by the @ConcernedMom420 Twitter account. Within two months, the post received over 1,400 up votes and 45 comments. On January 3rd, 2013, the “Faces of Marijuana” Facebook^[1] page was launched, featuring notable examples of parody anti-marijuana images. On the following day, the Colorado news blog Westword^[7] published several “Faces of Pot” images, including a photo of a pit bull turning into Stoner Dog (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Eyebrow Cat is a nickname given to Sam, a white cat with black eyebrow-like markings on his head, who became internet famous after his pictures were uploaded to the image-sharing site Instagram in December of 2012.

Origin

On December 13th, 2012, the first picture of Sam (shown below) was uploaded to the Instagram feed @samhaseyebrows,^[1] which received over 430 likes and 40 comments within the next two months. By the end of January 2013, Sam’s Instagram feed had gained more than 14,500 followers.

Precursor

Eyebrow Cat (Japanese: 眉毛猫) is a white Japanese cat with similar markings, who rose to fame on the Japanese web in 2011.

Spread

On January 28th, 2013, Redditor ertdgaf posted a gallery of photos from the @samhaseyebrows Instagram feed to the /r/pics^[2] subreddit, receiving over 12,000 up votes and 150 comments within a week. On the following day, photos of Sam were published on several Internet and tech news blogs, including Mashable,^[6] Laughing Squid,^[8] BuzzFeed^[9] and Gawker.^[7]

By January 30th, Sam had reached over 7,000 followers on Instagram, according to the International Business Times.^[10] The same day, Redditor osrule86 submitted several photos of Sam in a Imgur photo gallery to the /r/aww^[3] subreddit, while claiming to know Sam’s owner in person. Several hours later, Redditor Madhatter24 submitted a photo of Sam to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[4] subreddit with the caption “I don’t always use the Internet / but when I do, eyebrows” (shown below), following the caption format of The Most Interesting Man in the World advice animal character.

On January 31st, The Daily Mail^[11] published an article about Sam’s newfound Internet fame, comparing him to Kitler. The same day, The Huffington Post^[12] noted that Sam had accumulated more than 10,000 Instagram followers.

Search Interest

External References

Background

On January 29th, 2013, Saint Louis resident and Applebee’s waitress Chelsea Welch, known as “gateflan” on Reddit, submitted a photograph to the Atheism subreddit in a post titled “My mistake sir, I’m sure Jesus will pay for my rent and groceries,”^[1] showing a receipt that a customer had left for another server at the restaurant. Along with the customer’s signature, a note on the receipt read “I give God 10%, why do you get 18,” referring to the automatic 18% gratuity added on to parties of 8 or more. In the comments, Welch explained that the receipt was issued for a table of 20 people who all asked for separate checks to avoid the automatic gratuity.^[2] The post received 12,861 upvotes and 3599 points overall.

Notable Developments

Though the signature looked illegible to Welch, Redditors began parsing the image in the comments in an attempt to track down the pastor in question. Welch stated that she received a large amount of messages and comments with Facebook profiles and other personal information from people wanting her to confirm the identity of the customer. She told the Guardian^[3] that she worked closely with Reddit moderators to remove all personal or identifying information from the thread in order to protect everyone involved. On the 29th and 30th, the photo spread across many internet culture blogs and news sites including the Consumerist^[5], BoingBoing^[6], Yahoo! News^[7] and Gawker.^[8]

Chelsea Welch’s statement

On January 31st, Consumerist^[11] and other news sources reported that Welch was fired from her job for violating the customer’s rights to privacy. In an interview with Consumerist, Welch stated that she initially posted the image as a “light-hearted joke” because she thought other Redditors would find it funny. She also asserted that she did her best to protect the identity of all parties involved and checked the company handbook prior to posting the image to assure that she did not break any policies. Applebee’s countered this in a statement on their Facebook page^[12] arguing that it violated the customer’s privacy as the check itself is personal information. However, a screenshot^[17] of another, positive check that was posted earlier this month on the official fan page for the Applebee’s Welch was fired from began to circulate online. As of February 1st, this image has been removed from the Applebee’s page.

The link to the Consumerist article was subsequently posted to the News subreddit^[18], where it earned 1578 upvotes and 1146 points overall. Welch’s termination was covered on Buzzfeed^[20], the Huffington Post^[21], the Daily Dot^[26], the New York Daily News^[22], Yahoo! News^[23], Raw Story^[24] and BoingBoing^[25], among many others. Welch also detailed her experience for the Guardian Comment^[3], where she stated her frustration with the situation as an employee who makes $3.50 an hour and depends on tips to survive. She also stated her confusion over why Applebee’s would rather side with a disgruntled customer over a dedicated employee who had high sales and had never previously violated a policy. Her statement gained more than 4300 notes on Tumblr in just a few hours.

Backlash

As the image and news of Welch’s termination began to circulate, people began voicing their opinions on the situation on the Applebee’s Facebook page^[13] and on Twitter with the hashtag #BoycottApplebees^[14], which was used nearly 500 times on January 31st. A handful of Facebook comments threatening to boycott the chain were highlighted on The Daily Dot^[28] on February 1st. Also on Facebook, the group Hire Back Chelsea^[15] was launched on the 31st, gaining nearly 5400 likes in one day. Additionally, the staff members of Huffington Post Comedy launched an online petition^[19] stating that the signers would eat at an Applebee’s at least once in 2013 if Welch was rehired. It gained more than 5200 signatures in a day.

The Smoking Gun Interview

Also on January 31st, Pastor Alois Bell (shown below) was interviewed by The Smoking Gun^[9] where she stated that she has brought embarrassment to her ministry and that the comment was a “lapse in judgement that has been blown out of proportion.” When she was informed that the reciept with her signature was on Yahoo! News^[7], she called the Applebee’s restaurant to complain. She learned later that day that the waitress who posted the image, Chelsea Welch, had been terminated. Gawker^[10] noted that Bell asked to have other employees working that night fired as well, requesting “a brand new staff” at the location by the next time she visited.

Official Statement from Applebee’s

In the early morning on February 1st, Applebee’s responded directly to concerns on their Facebook page^[4], summing up the events that led to Welch’s termination. Gawker^[27] quickly commented on the official statement, again drawing a comparison to receipts that have appeared on the official Saint Louis Applebee’s Facebook fan page.

Search Interest

External References

Background

On January 25th, 2013, a faction within Anonymous launched the Twitter account @OpLastResort with links to several videos criticizing the U.S. Justice Department’s treatment of computer programmer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz prior to his suicide.

Notable Developments

USSC Website Takedown

On January 26th, 2013, the website of the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC)^[45] was defaced with a video message lamenting “the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the ‘discretion’ of prosecutors." (shown below)

Operation Last Resort

Anonymous claimed responsibility for the cyberattack against the U.S. Justice Department in retaliation for the prosecution that the group say ultimately led him to commit suicide and announced the launch of Operation Last Resort, threatening to release “warhead” files that contain sensitive information on individuals in the Justice Department. Within 48 hours, the video received more than a million views, 5,000 up votes and 3,600 comments and the event was covered by Gawker^[44] and The Verge^[48] among others.

On January 27th, @OpLastResort^[46] tweeted the well-known Konami cheat code with an instruction to input the code on the U.S.S.C website. According to Slate, typing in the code initiated a flash-based game with the alert message “”/memes/pew-pew">PEW PEWPEWPEWPEW! End Prosecutorial Overreach!" in which the visitor could control a missile-enabled Nyan Cat and shoot chunks of text off the government page. Later that day, the website of the U.S. Probation Department for the Eastern District of Michigan was taken down by another attack in a similar fashion, presumably carried out by the members of Anonymous.

ussc.gov-> enter Konami code (with cursor keys) ↑↑↓↓←→←→ B A <Enter> --> CAEK#opLastResort

— OpLastResort (@OpLastResort) January 27, 2013

Authenticity Questioned

On January 26th, a list of alleged encryption keys to the so called “warhead files” allegedly obtained from the USSC was released via Pastebin. The following day, The Daily Dot reported that it had received an anonymous e-mail purportedly containing hundreds of names and addresses attributed to the Witness Protection Program, but later speculated that the files could be a hoax, citing the claim of @AnonymousIRC that the file comprised of data “ripped from a two year old document.” On January 27th, a possible decryption of the warhead files was posted to The Pirate Bay by a user known as “zingelll.” According to zingelll, the translated keys contained several messages addressed to the decoder, including:

* “G00DLUCKPH4GG0T”

• “YOUWONTBEABLETOCRACKTHIS
• “BECAUSEYOUREADUMBBITCH”
• “HAVEFUNTHOUGHBECAUSEITWASFUNFORME”

On January 29th, The Daily Dot followed up on the hoax rumor with corroborated claims from members of an Anonymous faction known as Anonymous X-SecT. Among them was Joe Falzano, who launched a Change.org petition urging those spreading the files to cease and desist. The following day, Falzano posted a Pastebin message expressing his skepticism towards the authenticity of Operation Last Resort:

“ALL credible sources/anon cells to date have no idea who is running this operation. It came out of thin air and is using old anon operations data claiming its new.”

Search Interest

External References

About

“This is happening!” is a meme that originated from reddit in early 2013. It usually features a game cartridge/disk in the wrong console, e.g a GBA cartridge in a PC’s Laptop Tray

Origin

This meme originated from Reddit at r/gaming when an instagram screenshot was upload entitled “This is not happening!”

Spread and Popularity

The Popularity of this meme has spread on r/gaming

Search Insight