About

XXXTENTACION is a South Florida rapper, who despite being in jail for the majority of his career, has continued to grow a large cult following. Due to this, he has gained extensive notability online.

History

Search Interest

Overview

#PieGate refers to a controversy in which former Sutton United Football Club reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw ate a meat pie on live television in late February 2017. After it was discovered that he had knowledge about a bet regarding the incident, Shaw resigned as goalkeeper for breaking Football Association gambling regulations.

Background

On February 20th, 2017, the @SunBets^[6] Twitter feed tweeted a photo of Shaw next to a meat pie captioned with 8 to 1 odds against him eating the food live on the air (shown below).

That evening, Shaw was filmed eating a meat pie at the touchline toward the end of football game at the Gander Green Lane stadium in London, England (shown below).

Developments

Following the incident, Shaw admitted to reporters that he knew a betting company was offering 8-1 odds against a bet that he would eat a pie on a bench during the football game, claiming he pulled the stunt to give fans “a bit of banter.”

“A few of the lads said to me earlier on: ‘What is going on with the 8-1 about eating a pie?’ I said: ‘I don’t know, I’ve eaten nothing all day, so I might give it a go later on.’ Sun Bets had us at 8-1 to eat a pie. I thought I would give them a bit of banter and let’s do it. All the subs were on and we were 2-0 down. I went and got it at half time from the kitchen, I had it all prepared and ready to go. It was meat and potato”

The following day, Shaw resigned from Sutton United after being informed that his actions broke Football Association gambling regulations.

On Twitter

On February 21st, television host Piers Morgan tweeted a photograph of himself with Shaw, referring to his dismissal as “absurd” (shown below). Within six hours, the tweet gained over 4,300 likes and 1,700 retweets.^[1]

That day, many Twitter users tweeted about the incident along with the hashtag #PieGate^[2] (shown below).

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites reported on the controversy, including The Guardian,^[3] The Huffington Post^[4] and The Mirror.^[5]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

#HurtBae is a nickname given to Kourtney, a young woman who confronts her ex-boyfriend, Leonard, about their relationship in the past, and more specifically, his history of sleeping with other women while they were dating, in a seven-minute video released by The Scene on the Valentine’s Day in February 2017.

Origin

On February 14th, 2017, The Scene published a video titled “Why Did You Cheat On Me?” in which Kourtney and Leonard, a couple who had dated each other for three years, talk about how infidelity affected their relationship. That same day, the video also entered circulation on Twitter via The Scene’s official account, garnering nearly 221,900 retweets and 478,799 likes within the first week. On the following day, it was also uploaded to The Scene’s YouTube channel, where it racked up more than 3.4 million views over the same time period.

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[researching]

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ITSJOHNPODESTA IN THEVIDEOGUYSLOOK IT UP

http://worldcorpo.net/content/video/fatherhood.webm

The Meme know as Gogrio, is a well know inside joke between two people which soon followed shit storm of funny memes spread around the classroom. This meme follows a photo of student Georgio as he photoshopped to different bodies/situations. Example: http://imgur.com/a/DjVYx

About

“#RelationshipGoals” is a hashtag used to share pictures on social media that the poster believes exhibits the type of romantic relationship worth striving to achieve with a partner.

Origin

While the moment “Relationship Goals” became a popular way to comment on images of couples on social media is unclear, one of the earliest articles to use “Relationship Goals” in that way was posted on Lifehack^[1] on June 15th, 2009 in an article titled, “Relationship Goals: 8 Traveling Couples To Follow On Instagram.” This was an example of the first type of #RelationshipGoals narrative, which was often employed for couples traveling to exotic locations.

Spread

The phrase and its hashtag began seeing more spread over the coming years on photo-sharing sites like Instagram and Pinterest. However, it was not until the Summer of 2014 when the hashtag began to gain some more widespread attention. On July 7th, 2014, Buzzfeed^[2] published an article of cute couples’ photos that featured several posts using the hashtag #RelationshipGoals. On the same day, a Reddit photo^[3] of an old couple titled Relationship Goals was posted and gained over 18,000 upvotes (shown below).

After the summer of 2014, the phrase became common vernacular, appearing in dozens of articles devoted to couples behaving particularly romantically. Often, the phrase would be used by clickbait style articles with overly sentimental images (ex: shown below).

The prevalence of the phrase and the various images associated with it led to a mild backlash where articles used the phrase to encourage setting more realistic relationship goals.^[4] In December of 2016, Bustle^[5] ran an article in which they interviewed a couple’s therapist who warned that the fantasy moments portrayed in standard “relationship goals” photos were not the key to a successful relationship. #RelationshipGoals also grew into a common way to refer to celebrity relationships, which also has drawn critical thought, as psychologists warn that comparing one’s life to a celebrity relationship is detrimental.^[6]

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About

“Welcome to Japari Park” (Japanese: ようこそジャパリパークへ, Youkoso Japari Park e) is the opening theme song for a Japanese TV anime Kemono Friends. Led by the anime’s huge popularity surged in early 2017, the song became to a popular musical resource for MAD and parody video remixes on the Japanese video sharing service niconico Douga (niconico).

Origin

The TV anime adaptation for the Japanese media franchise was aired between January and March 2017. Its opening song was written by a Japanese pop music singer/producer Masayoshi Oishi and sung by Animal Biscuits (どうぶつビスケッツ, Doubutsu Bisukettu) and PPP (PENGUINS Performance Project; pron. Pa-Pe-Pu). The former is a trio of main animal girls perfomed by Yuka Ozaki, Kana Motomiya and Saki Ono. The latter is a fictional penguin idol group performed by Mikoi Sasaki, Ruka Nemoto, Kyoka Tamura, Aina Aiba and Ikuko Chikuta.

Spread

After the anime began catching much attention among Japanese anime viewers around the end of January, a lot of parodies, remixes, and musical covers inspired by its catchy theme song became to be uploaded to niconico^[1] and YouTube.^[2] And the amount of videos had reached over 600 within its first 3 weeks after sparkling its popularity.

Various Examples

In the track of the famous remark in the anime, popular videos usually earn comments or tags like “You’re a Friend Good at Dancing!” (top left), “Great! You’re a Friend Good at Stopping the Time!” (top, right).

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos/illustrations listed in this section.

He who speaketh the former mod Arcanine in a negative light shall be eternally damned with karma bombing.

My mom encourages the karma bombing I am doing right now.

One last thing, HolyCrapItsBob is the Devil.

About

Big, If True is a phrase often used by journalists to comment on rumors in the news. Its use gained traction as a sarcastic reply to outlandish rumors or extremely obvious headlines on Twitter and certain subreddits in the mid-2010s.

Origin

The origin of “Big, If True” is unclear, though it likely started as a cliché in sports broadcasting and journalism. Futurama parodied the cliché in the episode “Why Must I Be a Crustacean In Love?”, which aired on February 9th, 2000 (clip shown below).

According to a Daily Dot^[1] study of a variation on the phrase, “Whoa, if true!”, first appeared on Twitter in 2008 (shown below). It began being parodied on Twitter in the mid-2010s as an in-joke for news twitter types mocking posters tendency to spread shock at bombshell rumors while maintaining the caveat that what they are sharing might be false.

Spread

In line with the cliché’s sports origins, one of the early targets of “Big, If True” jokes was National Football League journalist Ian Rapoport, who often reports on rumors in the NFL.^[2]

Big, If True continued to be used mostly on Twitter until it started finding traction on certain subreddits. In particular, /r/frankocean, the subreddit devoted to popular R&B artist Frank Ocean began using it in August of 2016 while discussing Ocean’s 2016 album, Blonde.^[3] It then became a popular joke on /r/kanye, the subreddit devoted to Kanye West] On February 21st, 2017, 4UNMe posted a thread inquiring about the phrase’s origins to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[5]

Various Examples

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About

“Apologies to Matt Damon” refers to an ongoing joke orchestrated by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, in which he apologizes to actor Matt Damon for being unable to have him on his show Jimmel Kimmel Live.

Origin

In 2003, Jimmy Kimmel closed an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live by saying “Apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time.” In an interview with NPR,^[1] Kimmel claims he improvised the joke following a particularly bad show in order to amuse on of the show’s producers.

“We had a bad show. … The guests were bad, and I was feeling pretty bad about myself at the end of the program. And I decided to say, for the amusement of one of our producers who was standing next to me … ‘I want to apologize to Matt Damon. We ran out of time.’ … And he got a kick out of it, the producer, so I just started doing it every night to amuse him.

Spread

On January 21st, 2013, the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel uploaded a montage of Kimmel apologizing to Damon for “running out of time” over the years (shown below, left). On September 28th, 2015, Jimmy Kimmel Live a segment in which Kimmel and Damon attend couples therapy to discuss the feud (shown below, right).

On February 28th, 2016, actor Ben Affleck walked on to his interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live with Matt Damon hidden underneath a large coat (shown below, left). On September 18th, the Jimmy Kimmel Live channel uploaded footage of Damon confronting Kimmel following Kimmel’s loss at the Emmy Awards (shown below, right).

On October 12th, the UpRoxx YouTube channel uploaded a video on the history of the satirical feud between the two celebrities (shown below, left). On February 13th, 2017, Jimmy Kimmel Live aired a segment in which a paternity test is performed to see if Damon is the father of his wife’s child (shown below, right).

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External References

Reforge was a masterpiece of a band formed in Port Talbot, Wales, United Kingdom in 2015. They attempted to “reforge the metal genre”; however, due to the inclusion of a singer that couldn’t sing, a bass guitarist that couldn’t play, and a drummer who didn’t know the song, the band’s first gig failed. Ever since, the band has gained quite the local following as a meme, by the humorous nature of their bad performance, and their original songs.

About

Edges2Cats is an image-to-image tool which uses a neural network of stock images to turn line drawings into pictures of cats.

History

In February 2017, developer Christopher Hesse released several tools using the pix2pix image translator ported to the TensorFlow open-source software library.^[1] Among the tools included edges2cats, which turns line drawings into cat photographs (shown below).

Online Presence

On February 21st, Twitter users began sharing screenshots of cat images made with the tool (shown below).

Meanwhile, @EimhinMcNamara uploaded a video of the edges2cats app processing an animation of an anthropomorphic cat (shown below).

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the web application, including Laughing Squid, Kotaku, Business Insider and UpRoxx.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Welcome to the Rice Fields, Motherfucker is a quote by Filthy Frank from his video “HOW TO SAYHELLO IN 30 LANGUAGES.” It became a popular quote among his fans and has spread in various image macros

Origin

On August 25th, 2012, Filthy Frank uploaded “HOW TO SAYHELLO IN 30 LANGUAGES.” For his impression of how to say “hello” in many asian countries, the camera zooms in on him as he screams “Welcome to the rice fields, motherfucker!”

Spread

The day after he uploaded the video, he posted “WELCOME TO THERICEFIELDSMOTHERFUCKER” on his Facebook page^[1] and gained over 1,200 likes. On October 5th, 2012, the clip of Frank saying the line was posted to /r/youtubehaiku^[2] where it gained 79 points. The clip has gained over 800,000 views in four years. Over the next four years, the phrase has become a popular joke among Filthy Frank fans, appearing in dozens of image macros and referenced in other fandoms. It also appeared in several YouTube remix videos as a punchline clip (ex: shown below).

Various Examples

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About

“TRAPPIST-1 ^[1]” is a unique system discovered by NASA, announced on February 22, 2017. The announcement detailed the discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a singular parent star, and that the system is roughly 40 light-years away from Earth.

Origin

In early 2016, the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope team (TRAPPIST) discovered a Red Dwarf star with three planets orbiting within the habitable zone of the star.

On February 22nd, NASA held a news conference announcing an update on the discovery of TRAPPIST-1’s system, stating that seven Earth-sized planets were orbiting the star, six of which are likely thought to be rocky planets, with three in the zone where they could be capable of having liquid water on their surfaces.

Spread

Following the announcement, the information was “posted on the subreddit /r/space, gaining upwards of 33,000 upvotes in the span of three hours ^[2],” and “also began trending on social media sites such as Twitter ^[3],” frequently being discussed using the hashtag #trappist1.

Notable Developments

(W.I.P, will be updated as it develops)

Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]NASA– NASA.gov / Posted on 2-22-2017

^[2]Reddit – NASA’s Big Announcement: 7 Earth-Like Planets Orbit One Nearby Star / Posted on 2-22-2017

^[3]Twitter – #trappist1 / Posted on 2-22-2017

About

Select All Squares is a series of images mocking Google’s bot detection software which instructs users to “select all squares” that match a certain label.

Origin

Spread

On June 21st, 2016, the Savage memes for savage teens Facebook^[3] page posted a photograph of Caitlyn Jenner embracing her daughter Kendall Jenner with the instructions to “select all square with females” (shown below, left). On July 25th, Redditor staplednipples submitted a photograph of an American flag with the caption “Select all squares with street signs” to /r/facepalm^[2] (shown below, right).

On August 15th, Redditor Akes. On September 4th, the 4chong page that actually posts stuff from halfchan^[4] Facebook page featured a picture of an envelope with instructions to “Select all squares with street signs” (shown below).

On February 14th, 2017, Twitter user @lachrob tweeted at “Google”:, jokingly asking them what kind of artificial intelligence he was helping them “train” (shown below, left).^[5] In response, Twitter user @xpirabit replied with a photoshop of the character Sarah Connor from the 1991 science fiction film Terminator 2: Judgment Day (shown below, right).

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Jolt Reskin is a pretty recent meme featured by Frank Copper alias Coop772, a youtuber known for his reviews about Nerf blasters. The meme is in full expansion, so there’s no official usage outside Frank Cooper’s videos.

The Jolt Reskin meme started before it receive his name: The Jolt, a N-Strike Nerf blaster, was known for his very compact size. But it was very bad in performances, attributing the role of cheap blaster to the blaster. It made the base of the meme.

The Jolt Reskin’s name have been given after the release of the Clampdown, a Zombie Strike blaster very close to the Jolt. In fact, at exception a tactical rail, it was a reshell Jolt. But commonly, it is called a Jolt Reskin.

Finally, Frank Cooper, a youtuber doing Nerf reviews, started talking of " Jolt Reskin " in his review about the Zombie Strike serie. However, after releasing a video about the suposed Nerf Conspiracy, the world started talking of “Jolt Reskin” in literally everything. Today, most of comments about Nerf blasters are fullfilled of the Jolt Reskin meme. However, in reason of his recent birth, it is unknown if it is official or just a local meme.

W.I.P.

About

Azure Striker Gunvolt or Armed Blue: Gunvolt in Japan (Japanese: 蒼き雷霆 ガンヴォルト) is an 2D Side-Scrolling Action game developed and published by Inti Creates with input from Keiji Inafune for the Nintendo 3DS and Steam. It is Inti Creates’ first self-published title and multimedia franchise.

History

Released in August 2014 for the Nintendo. In addition to utilizing gameplay similar to Mega Man Zero, Azure Striker Gunvolt also introduced new gameplay elements such as Gunvolt’s ability to “tag” enemies and target many at once, adding an additional layer of complexity to the genre. The game also got a PC version on Steam released in August 2015, featuring full Japanese voice acting and some lines cut from the 3DS version.

Azure Striker Gunvolt is a side-scrolling action platform game. The player controls the eponymous Gunvolt, who is able to jump, dash, and utilize a gun with special bullets that “tag” their targets, which grants a homing effect to Gunvolt’s electric fields. The player’s actions are limited by an energy bar, which depletes when using the electrical field, using additional movement abilities such as double-jumping or air dashing, or being hit by enemies.

Gameplay

Gameplay focuses heavily on the player’s technique and skill in moving through levels. While finishing a level is relatively easy, the game provides a ranking system as well as several optional challenges. The game introduces a “chain” system in which the player’s score is constantly increased so long as the player avoids being hit by enemies, with special actions such as defeating an enemy in the air or defeating multiple enemies at one time providing an additional bonus. The game uses an item-forging and equipping system, the former of which is instrumental in achieving the game’s true ending.

Plot

Azure Striker Gunvolt is set during an unspecified date in the near future, in which several people called “adepts” have developed “septimal powers”.These powers enable superhuman feats including flight, the use of powerful energy weapons, and manipulation of the elements like fire, water, and electricity. The world is at peace thanks to the efforts of a world-spanning corporation known as the Sumeragi Group. However, the Sumeragi Group is, in reality, controlling and experimenting on adepts. Gunvolt, one of the most powerful adepts, has the ability to create electrical fields and works for an organization known as QUILL, which is seeking to reveal and put a stop to Sumeragi’s ulterior motives.

Reception

Azure Striker Gunvolt received critical acclaim and sold over 90,000 units six months after its release, being praised for its art and gameplay, although it has experienced some criticism of its similarities in plot to the Mega Man series. Inti Creates later announced that Azure Striker Gunvolt had sold 100,000 units by March 2015. In March 2016, Inti Creates announced that Azure Striker Gunvolt had sold over 150,000 units worldwide and aired a presentation regarding its sequel on April 26, 2016. In May 2016, Inti Creates announced that it had sold 160,000 units worldwide.

Impact

Spin-off

Mighty Gunvolt (マイティガンヴォルト Maiti Ganvoruto in japan) is a platform video game developed by Inti Creates originally for the Nintendo 3DS platform. The game is a spin-of of Inti Creates’ Azure Striker Gunvolt, additionally featuring characters from Gal*Gun and Mighty No. 9.
Mighty Gunvolt is an 8-bit style platform game in the style of Mega Man, in which players shoot their way through five main stages (as well as additional stages available as downloadable content). Players can play as one of three characters; Gunvolt from Azure Striker Gunvolt, Beck from Mighty No. 9, and Ekoro from Gal*Gun, each with their own unique abilities. Gunvolt can perform a double jump and use a chargeable lightning attack, Ekoro can float in mid-air and convert certain enemies to her side, and Beck can use slides and tackles to access certain areas and charge through opponents.

The game was released on the Nintendo eShop on August 20, 2014 in Japan and April 2, 2015 in Europe. A port for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, titled Gal Gunvolt (ぎゃるガンヴォルト Gyaru Ganvoruto in japan), was released in Japan on August 6 2015. A version of the original Mighty Gunvolt has also been announced for Microsoft Windows, and will be available for free to purchasers of Azure Striker Gunvolt within the first month of its release on PC.

On the Inti-Creates’ blog, a MS-DOS text-based port of the game was made to celebrate the release of the PC version of the game.

Sequel

The game was teased in February 2015, when Inti Creates posted a tweet with the logo for the game. No further info was revealed until over a year later, when a Nintendo Direct on March 3, 2016, showed footage for the game. An official trailer was published the same day, revealing a vague release date of “Summer 2016”.
A physical release containing the game and its predecessor, titled Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack, was released alongside the digital release in Japan and North America.

The gameplay is directly based on the one in the original game. The main character, Gunvolt, controls nearly identically as in Azure Striker Gunvolt, using a gun to lock onto enemies and then using his electric field in order to attack them. The game, however, now adds the option to play as Copen, a character that played a major role in the previous game. He has an entirely different control scheme, now focusing on his dash attack, which is used to lock onto enemies, then using a gun to attack them. He can also use powers from defeated bosses, similar to the Mega Man franchise.

As a result of the collaboration with Yacht Club Games, players can unlock a special boss battle against the titular protagonist of Shovel Knight through use of the Shovel Knight amiibo. In December 2016, Japan released a DLC pack that contains score attacks, a song track and a speed run mode.

OVA

An original video anime adaptation was announced by Inti Creates at the Anime Expo 2016 convention in Los Angeles, California on July 3, 2016. The series will be directed and produced by Yoshinori Odaka, with animation by LandQ Studios, scripts written by Shigeru Murakoshi, and character designs by Masakazu Sunagawa. It was planned for a 2016 release, but it was delayed to 2017, eventually being released worldwide on the Nintendo eShop on February 9, 2017, along with an English dubbed version.

Novel

Azure Striker Gunvolt: Fleeting Memories (陽炎のメモリア, Kagerou no Memoria) is a side story written by Toshiaki Tai, first appearing in INTI CREATES’ YouTube program Interactive Wave. An English translation by Matt Papa is found on their website.

Cameos

Gunvolt is an unlockable character in the 2015 game Runbow.

Search Interest

About

Wizard Cat, known in Russia as вжух, is an image of a cat crudely dressed as a wizard casting a spell that casts unfortunate spells. It grew popular on Russian websites in December of 2016.

Origin

The image of the cat is taken from a post on me_irl from April 2016 that referred to it as the High Wizard Cat (shown below).

Spread

Various Examples

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