About

Are You Sexually Active? is an image macro series featuring various stock photos of doctors and nurses speaking to patients captioned with mock conversations in which the patient is asked if they are “sexually active.”

Origin

On November 5th, 2015, the @Cabbagecatmemes^[1] Instagram page posted a stock photo of a child speaking to a nurse, who responds that he makes his own memes when asked if he is sexually active, leading the nurse to write “pussy destroyer” on her notepad. Within one year, the post gained over 1,700 likes and 600 comments.

Spread

On April 11th, 2016, Instagram user @thefunnyintrovert posted a captioned stock photo in which a doctor asks a man if he is “sexually active,” before rescinding the question after seeing a vaporizer fall out of his pocket (shown below).

On September 2nd, Instagram user @gucci.gameboy published a stock photo in which a patient tells his doctor he is “jacking off under the table” when asked if he is sexually active (shown below, left). On January 9th, 2017, Redditor Dank-R-Us posted an image macro in which a doctor responds “that’s disgusting” to an elderly woman affirming she is sexually active (shown below, right). Within 24 hours, the post gained over 19,000 votes (90% upvoted) and 100 comments on /r/dankmemes.^[2]

Search Interest

External References

About

Ripped Referee refers to jokes made about the muscular referee at the 2017 College Football National Championship game between the University of Alabama and Clemson University.

Origin

The 2017 College Football National Championship game between the University of Alabama and Clemson University was officiated by Mike Defee. Defee’s large biceps instantly drew commentary from viewers on Twitter. One of the first tweets was from the account of sports website The Ringer,^[1] who tweeted a joke with a screenshot of Defee officiating the coin toss.

Spread

Jokes about the Defee’s stature appeared on Twitter throughout the game. Uproxx^[2] first posted about the spread of the jokes on Twitter. Yahoo Sports followed^[3] (reposting Uproxx’s article). SB Nation^[4] and Kansas City Star^[5] also wrote similar articles. Many of the jokes referenced National Football League referee Ed Hochuli, who also is known for his muscular upper body.

The spread of the jokes was compiled in a Twitter Moment^[6] the night of the game.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About

How to Break Your Thumb Ligament refers to an infographic providing false instructions on to break one’s own thumb ligament by firmly slamming a fist downward while squeezing the thumb. The image was widely circulated online in early January 2017 when various Twitter users claimed to have broken their thumb by following the image’s instructions.

Origin

On September 25th, 2015, the Flex-PT sports medicine website posted an article on testing oneself for Quervain’s tendonitis by performing a “Finklestein Test” by placing one’s thumb into their palm and making a fist, then bending their wrist downward (shown below).

On January 5th, 2017, Twitter user @RahSenpai posted screenshots of a text message conversation in which a young man named Jonathan breaks his thumb by following the infographic instructions (shown below). Within five days, the tweet gained over 217,000 likes and 118,000 retweets.

Spread

On January 6th, 2017, the @Dory Twitter feed reposted the screenshots.

Search Interest

External References

yeah, you got the money, you got the bitch. You got the car, you got the bitch, I know what I say, I’M a black man! I grow up from the ghetto, I was born in the ghetto, I Hussle in the street, I know what I see, I know what I talk everytime I talk, everytime I see, I welcome the money. I see the nigas hussling in the ghetto, you dont know what I see, you dont knwo what I saw, you dont know why I hussle, you dont know what I’Ve gone through, everytime, I know what I see. Everything I do. You dont know how many nigas in the club, you get the cash, the niga money, you got the car, the niga money, you get the house, the niga money you put the sock on, the niga money

Overview

Mariah Carey’s New Years Eve Performance FAIL refers to singer-songwriter Mariah Carey’s live performance at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest in 2016, during which she stopped singing due to a technical malfunction with her monitors.

Background

On December 31st, 2016, Carey stopped singing while performing her 1991 pop song “Emotions” at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, claiming she could not hear through her audio monitors. That evening, YouTuber scubafeet uploaded footage of the performance, which gained over 9.7 million views and 16,500 comments in the first 24 hours (shown below).

Developments

Carey’s Response

Hours later, Carey posted a tweet saying “shit happens” and wishing everyone a “happy and healthy new year” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 159,000 likes and 64,000 retweets.

Online Reaction

That evening, a video of the incident reached the front page of /r/cringe,^[1] where it gathered upwards of 30,900 votes (77% upvoted) and 1,200 comments within 24 hours. The following day, Redditor CrimsonPig submitted a photograph of a train wreck titled “Still image of Mariah Carey’s New Year’s performance” to /r/funny.^[4] On Twitter, clips of the performance were widely circulated, many of which contained captions denouncing the year 2016 (shown below). A collection of the tweets were subsequently highlighted by the women’s interest blog Bustle.^[6]

Sabotage Accusation

On January 1st, 2017, Carey’s manager Stella Buclochnikov accused the show’s producers of intentionally sabotaging the performance “to get ratings” in an interview with the entertainment news site US Weekly.^[2]

“They acknowledged that they knew her inner ears were not working. They did not cut to a commercial. They did not cut to the West Coast feed; they left her out there to get ratings”

That day, Dick Clark Productions released a statement refuting the sabotage claims as “outrageous and frankly absurd.”^[5] Meanwhile, Twitter^[3] created a Moments page titled “Rockin’ Eve producers call Mariah camp’s ‘sabotage’ claim ‘absurd’,” highlighting various tweets about the accusation.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the online reaction to the performance, including The New York Times,^[8] The Washington Post^[9] and Jezebel.^[10]

Search Interest

External References

Overview

#Pissgate refers to an ongoing political scandal surrounding allegations made by a former British intelligence officer that the Russian government has been grooming Donald Trump to be the United States president for years, while simultaneously gathering compromising information about him, including a claim that Trump hired a group of prostitutes to urinate on the bed in the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where President Obama and the First Lady had stayed during their official trip to Russia in 2013.

Background

On January 10th, 2017, CNN reported that both President Barack Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump received a classified debriefing of allegations from a credible source that the Russian government has been covertly gathering compromisable personal and financial information about Trump, all the while regularly exchanging information with his campaign team through indirect channels. About an hour after CNN broke the story, BuzzFeed News published the full-length version of the document, a 25-page long dossier compiled by a former British MI6 agent with ties to the U.S. spy agencies and prepared as opposition research for a bipartisan groups of anti-Trump Republicans and Democrats.

The allegations in the document includes a particularly scandalous claim that during one of Donald Trump’s visit to Russia in recent years, he hired a group of prostitutes to urinate on the bed, otherwise known as a ‘golden showers’ show, in the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where President Obama and the First Lady had stayed during their official trip to Russia in 2013. According to news reports, while the credibility of the source has been vetted by the U.S. authorities, the allegations remain unverified and under investigation.

Notable Developments

Official Investigations

Upon publication, the BuzzFeed News report garnered more than 1.3 million views within the first few hours.

External References

About

X but without Y is a series of video and audio remixes of each film but without an object.

Origin

On November 22nd, YouTuber That One Ghost Named Asdfghjkl posted a remix titled “The Bee Movie But Without Bees” (shown below). Over the next week, the video gained over 3.01 million views and 7,700 comments.

Spread

On November 30th, YouTuber That One Ghost Named Asdfghjkl posted a remix titled “Shrek But Without Shrek”. Over the next week, the video gained over 738,885 views and 2,637 comments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not Available

External References

The ‘in a bit of a pickle’ meme is very simular to the ‘Naked Banana’ meme, and can be seen as the new standard for hijacking YLYL (You Laugh You Lose) threads on 4chan.

Links:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/naked-banana

See also:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-is-now-a-spiderman-thread

About

Cash me ousside / Howbow dah refers to a series of jokes using an image macro of a 13-year-old girl on The Dr. Phil Show challenging the show’s audience to a fight with the phrase “Catch me outside, how about that?” in a thick accent. In the jokes, the image is usually paired with captions describing situations that cause the poster to challenge another to a fight.

Origin

On September 15th, 2016, The Dr. Phil ShowYouTube channel uploaded a clip in which a 13-year-old girl named Danielle appears on the show with her mother, who has turned to Dr. Phil because Danielle is stealing cars. Tired of the audience laughing at her, cries “Catch me outside, how about that?” The moment, shown in the video below, appears at about the 3:20 mark.

Spread

The clip, and particularly Danielle’s “Catch me outside, how about that?”, began spreading through the internet in the coming weeks. On October 2nd, 2016, an image of Danielle with “Cash me ousside, howbow dah?” written on it was posted to Memecrunch.^[1]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

[W.I.P. HELPWANTED]

About

Millennial Falcon is an advice animal image macro series featuring a picture of a hawking falcon, with captions detailing the problems that Millennials are forced to go through due to the actions of the previous generation. The name of the macro is a pun on the name of Han Solo’s spacecraft, the Millennium Falcon, from Star Wars.

Origins

The image came from a picture of a peregrine falcon.^[1] The very first Millennial Falcon post (pictured below) appeared on the image sharing website Imgur from a user named ChrisDurpaderpherp.^[2] The post quickly brought in almost 221,000 views and around 5,000 upvotes.

Spread

After the original Millennial Falcon was posted, the macro quickly gained popularity with many more Millennial Falcon posts popping up on the site.

Notable Examples

External References

“I do not associate with niggers” is a video of a young Indian boy saying just that. Little is known about this meme, but as of 2016, it became quite popular and was edited and featured in compilations very frequently.

About

Google screaming ad pardoies is a meme that remixes the other scenes and funny earrape videos

Oirigin

On 31st october, google posted an ad with young kid and the text saying “when you find delicious ice cream nearby”

Spread

Unknown

Notable examples

Some kid in a Sonic suit wants to kill himself.

About

“Take a Fucking Sip, Babes” is a an expression referencing an image of Kermit the Frog sipping a mug of tea, which is typically used to patronizingly indicate that someone is ignorant or naive.

Origin

On October 24th, 2016, Tumblr user praisejeebus^[2] posted a screenshot of a tweet by Twitter user @thugyonce,^[1] claiming that Beyoncé Knowles was the “first female artist under 40 with an ‘é’” at the end of her name to have a child named Blue born on January 7th," followed by the caption “Take a fucking sip babes” along with a steaming cup and frog emoji (shown below). Within three months, the post gained over 34,200 notes.

Spread

On November 17th, 2016, Tumblr user adobekillustrator posted “take a fucking sip from your trusty vault 13 canteen babes,” in reference to the video game series Fallout. Tumblr user cattgirl subsequently reblogged the post along with a photoshopped image of a Fallout notification (shown below). Within six weeks, the post gained over 8,700 notes.

On December 12th, Redditor conjunctionfunktion submitted a post asking “what does ‘take a fucking sip, babes’ mean?” to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[5] On December 18th, Tumblr user nukachemistry^[3] posted a photograph of the “Star Wars”: character C-3PO with a straw in mouth captioned with “take a fucking sip, babes” (shown below). Within two weeks, the post garnered more than 53,000 notes.

Search Interest

External References

About

Fake History is an image macro series featuring photographs of screenshots of various people and fictional characters accompanied by false historical captions, bearing similarities to Troll Quote image macros.

Origin

[Researching]

Spread

On October 14th, 2016, the /r/fakehistoryporn^[1] subreddit was launched, highlighting various images containing false historical captions. On November 16th, /r/fakehistoryporn moderator Vmoney1337 launched the Fake History Caption Maker.^[2]

On January 11th, 2017, Redditor memefoundry submitted a post titled “History Memes making a comeback! Should I invest?” to /r/memeeconomy, highlighting a black-and-white Spongebob Square Fake History image macro (shown below, left). The following day, Redditor The_King_Of_Memes submitted a “Shrek”: image erroneously identified as President John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy “moments before his tragic assassination” to /r/dank_meme (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

“Take a Fucking Sip, Babes” is a an expression referencing an image of Kermit the Frog sipping a mug of tea, which is typically used to patronizingly indicate that someone is ignorant or naive.

Origin

On October 24th, 2016, Tumblr user praisejeebus^[2] posted a screenshot of a tweet by Twitter user @thugyonce,^[1] claiming that Beyoncé Knowles was the “first female artist under 40 with an ‘é’” at the end of her name to have a child named Blue born on January 7th," followed by the caption “Take a fucking sip babes” along with a steaming cup and frog emoji (shown below). Within three months, the post gained over 34,200 notes.

Spread

On November 17th, 2016, Tumblr user adobekillustrator posted “take a fucking sip from your trusty vault 13 canteen babes,” in reference to the video game series Fallout. Tumblr user cattgirl subsequently reblogged the post along with a photoshopped image of a Fallout notification (shown below). Within six weeks, the post gained over 8,700 notes.

On December 12th, Redditor conjunctionfunktion submitted a post asking “what does ‘take a fucking sip, babes’ mean?” to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[5] On December 18th, Tumblr user nukachemistry^[3] posted a photograph of the “Star Wars”: character C-3PO with a straw in mouth captioned with “take a fucking sip, babes” (shown below). Within two weeks, the post garnered more than 53,000 notes.

Search Interest

External References

About

Otamatone Covers are a series of instrumental tributes to various songs and themes performed with an Otamatone, a Japanese electronic musical instrument synthesizer which emits notes played out of a plastic head.

Origin

The Otamatone was originally developed in Japan by the toy company CUBE. On October 9th, 2009, the Maywadenki YouTube channel uploaded a video of several people performing a cover the traditional English folk song "" using Otamatones (shown below). Within eight years, the video gained over 3.4 million views and 3,700 comments.

Spread

On April 4th, 2012, YouTuber Sp4zie uploaded a cover of the “League of Legends”: theme played with an Otamatone (shown below). That day, the video reached the front page of /r/leagueoflegends.^[1]

On July 3rd, 2016, YouTuber Sakura Novas posted a cover of the “Chocobo Theme” from the Final Fantasy series played on a Otamatone (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

“You Are Fake News” refers to a series of jokes on Twitter made in mockery of President-elect Donald Trump’s claim that CNN was “fake news” at his first press conference as President-elect. In the jokes, a poster responds to a claim against their character by calling it “fake news.”

Background

Following the 2016 United States Presidential Election, one of the key issues discussed as a possible reason for Trump’s win was the spread of articles with false information on Facebook. On January 10th, the day before Trump held his first press conference as President-elect, CNN^[1] published an article that stated they had learned of a 35-page dossier filled with unverified but damning information Russians allegedly had against Trump, and that this dossier had been a topic of discussion for months in the government. The dossier was published by Buzzfeed^[2] later that day, launching what would come to be known as PissGate, referring to a story in the dossier that Trump had allegedly paid Russian sex workers to urinate on a bed because the Obamas had slept in it.

Origin

On January 11th, at his first press conference as President-elect, CNN’s Jim Acosta repeatedly attempted to ask Trump a question, as Trump had spent much of the press conference railing against CNN and Buzzfeed. Trump refused, eventually saying to Acosta, “You don’t get a question… your organization is terrible… your organization is fake news” (shown below).

Spread

The clip instantly drew buzz, as media noted how Trump’s “Fake News” charge seemed to imply that any news on Trump he didn’t like could be wielded as “fake news.” In its summary of the event, The Verge^[3] wrote “Even as the idea of ‘fake news’ becomes more difficult to define, when it’s wielded as a tool by the president-elect to sidestep criticism, its rhetorical strength grows and any of its definitions start to seem applicable.”

Meanwhile, Twitter users began to joke about the moment by imagining scenarios where anyone slighting their character could be dismissed with “fake news.”

The popularity of the jokes led to a Twitter Moment^[4] the following day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Hacker Stock Photos are a variety of licensed images depicting cyber-criminals in action, typically in an overdramatized or oversimplified fashion. Most often used as a generic visual aid in articles and publications about hacking-related news, this subset of awkward stock photos has become a popular subject of online parodies due to their hyperbolic interpretation of how computer hacking works.

Origin

While difficult to pinpoint, the earliest known appearance of a hacker stock image in a news article dates back to 2008 in a CBS News report about the vandalism of Epilepsy Foundation’s official website with seizure-inducing images.

Spread

In the following years, usage of hacker stock photos became increasingly frequent as the coverage of cybercrimes continued to grow in technology journalism, heavily fueled by the emergence of Anonymous hacktivism and other faceless hacking collectives, beginning with Operation Lulzsec. On August 1st, 2011, BoingBoing ran an article titled “Hacker Stock Art” with a compilation of awkward and cliched stock photographs used in tech journalism. In December 2011, Sad and Useless ran a similar compilation in a post titled “What Hackers Look Like According to Stock Photo Sites.” On September 26th, 2013, BuzzFeed published an article titled “All These People Are “Computer Hackers” According To Getty Images.”

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References