Overview

The Vault 7 Leaks is the code name for a massive leak containing documents that purportedly discuss hacking tools used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to compromise the security of various devices connected to the internet, including smart phones, computers and smart TVs.

Background

Pre-release

On February 4th, 2017, the @Wikileaks Twitter feed posted a photograph of the Svalbard Seed Vault, along with the message “What is #Vault7?” (shown below). Over the next month, the tweet gathered upwards of 4,100 likes and 3,000 retweets. The following day, @Wikileaks posted a second tweet featuring a photograph of Nazi gold stored in Merkers Salt Mine, along with the message “Where is #Vault7” (shown below, middle). Two days later, the account tweeted “Who is #Vault7,” along with a series of spy posters featuring Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden (shown below, right).

Release

On March 7th, 2017, Wikileaks released thousands of documents purportedly containing tools used by the CIA to hack various internet-connected devices.^[1] In a press release about the leak, Wikileaks named the first portion of the leak “Year Zero,” and claimed it provides information on the CIA’s “global covert hacking program,” including exploits that compromise the security of iPhone, Android and Windows operating systems, as well as Samsung televisions.^[2] Additionally, the press release claimed the CIA had “zero day” exploits that could bypass the encryption of various messaging applications, including WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman.

Meme Warfare Center

Among the documents included a paper on a proposed “Meme Warfare Center,” described as an organization that would advise on “meme generation” and “transmission” (shown below).

Umbrage

In the documents, a library of cyberattack techniques codenamed “Umbrage” is described, which, according to Wikileaks,collects malware from countries like Russia to obfuscate or falsify the origin of various cyberattacks.

Developments

Online Reaction

That day, Redditor icatalin submitted the Wikileaks page to /r/technology,^[3] where it gathered upwards of 20,100 points (90% upvoted) and 4,700 comments within five hours. In the comments section, Redditor taylen42 commented that the leak suggested that the “CIA has more hacking capabilities than the NSA.” Meanwhile, other threads reached the frontpage of the /r/Bitcoin,^[6] /r/Android^[7] and /r/netsec^[5] subreddits. Meanwhile, Edward Snowden posted several tweets about the leaks, noting that they appeared to be “a big deal” and “authentic” (shown below).^[9]

News Media Coverage

That day, the story was covered by dozens of news sites, including The New York Times,^[4]

Search Interest

External References

Kyorochan had his own 1999–2000 anime series and a movie based on the anime series released between 2000-2001 in Japan. It was later released on VHS and DVD. The series was released in very limited amounts in DVD format (though there is a rare box-set containing the whole series, which is usually very expensive), and, outside Japan, is found only in Hungary (“Kukucska Kalandjai”), Romania (the original name), Taiwan (“大嘴鳥”), the Czech Republic (“Červánek”), and South Korea (“왕부리 팅코”). In the Anime News Network website it is suggested that there might be an English dub^[1] for the Kyorochan anime with Richie Campos as the only voice actor listed.

The Indian channel Pogo will begin showing Kyorochan from May 31, 2017. It is currently unknown if it will be dubbed in Hindi, Tamil, or English, since the channel has programming in all three languages. It will most likely be a Hindi dub, however.

About

Blue Whale Challenge, also known as the Blue Whale suicide game, is an online game in which participants are purportedly assigned a curator who provides various acts of self harm to be committed over the course of 50 days. On the final day, participants are urged to win the game by committing suicide.

Origin

On May 17th, 2016, the Russian news site RT^[7] reported that groups on the Russian social network VK were linked to “130 teen suicides in Russia” (shown below).

Spread

On November 16th, 2016, the Russian news site RBTH^[8] reported that a VK group administrator had been detained by police for urging children to commit suicide. On February 20th, 2017, YouTuber Sasho Panchuk uploaded a video titled “The guy plays Blue Whale jump from roof,” in which a Russian teenager pretends to jump off a roof (shown below).

On February 21st, the news site RadioFreeEurope^[9] published an article, reporting that the “Blue Whale” suicide game had become a “shadowy online phenomenon” across Russia and Central Asian countries. On February 27th, The Sun reported that police were investigating the deaths of Russian teenagers Yulia Konstantinova and Veronika Volkova (shown below, right), who were suspected of committing suicide after communicating with a “sinister social media group.” That day, Snopes^[10] published an article, labeling the claim that the “Blue Whale” game was “responsible for more than 130 in Russia” as “unproven.”

On March 3rd, The Sun^[4] reported that the Blue Whale “suicide game” was linked to 130 teen deaths in Russia. That day, YouTuber Fame Magazine released a video about the Blue Whale game (shown below). On March 6th, The Sun^[2] published a follow-up article about the challenge, On March 6th, Redditor -WATAFAK- submitted a post asking “What are the exact 50 challenges in the ‘blue whale challenge’?” to /r/morbidquestions,^[1] to which Redditor jeanclauder replied with a translated list from a game.

That day, Redditor Normalguy112 submitted a post asking “What is the blue whale game?” to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[5] where it gathered upwards of 1,600 points (89% upvoted) and 300 comments within 24 hours. In the comments section, many Redditors expressed skepticism, speculating that the game may be a viral hoax. The following day, the Australian news site News.com.au^[6] published an article reporting that the Russian police investigation of the suicide game.

Search Interest

External References

Pieperson50, is know form scamming and taking credit for games on ROBLOX. He is also know for being diagnosed with cancer and visiting ROBLOX HQ provided by via make a wish foundation

About

Japanizing Beam! is a 3 panel image series that aims to poke fun at how Japanese media takes liberties in depicting characters or object, primarily as female anime characters. The image series features from top to bottom; a character or object, the character Ultraman Tiga from the Ultra series shooting a laser beam with the caption “Japanizing Beam!”, and the japanese iteration of said character or object.

Origin

Spread

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Kellyanne Conway’s Oval Office Couch Photo refers to a photograph of Donald Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway seated on a couch in the oval office on top of her legs. After the photo began circulating online in late February 2017, many expressed outrage toward Conway for placing her feet on the couch.

Origin

On February 27th, 2017, Getty Images^[1] photographer Brendan Smialowski photographed Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway checking her phone while seated on top of her legs on a couch after snapping a photograph of President Trump with leaders of historically black universities (shown below).

Spread

That day, the photograph began circulating on Twitter, with many accusing Conway of being disrespectful for putting her feet on the couch and checking her phone (shown below).

That evening, Redditor ahatzz11 submitted the photo to the /r/trashy^[2] subreddit, where it received upwards of 36,900 votes (70% upvoted) and 2,800 comments. The following day, Redditor whatshisuserface invited viewers to photoshop the image in a post on /r/photoshopbattles,^[6] which gathered more than 5,600 votes (86% upvoted) and 340 comments within six hours. Many of the comments contained digitally edited versions of the photo, placing a cutout of Conway in a variety of humorous contexts (shown below).

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the online reaction to the photo, including Time,^[3] The Washington Post^[4] and The Huffington Post.^[5] Meanwhile, Washington Post^[7] staff writer Chris Cillizza wrote an op-ed characterizing the controversy as “incredibly dumb,” noting that Conway was perched on the couch to get into position to take a photograph.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Boneless Water is an image macro series and photoshop meme featuring a bottle of Crystal Pepsi with “Boneless Water” edited over the label. While originally launched on Facebook in mid 2016, the images saw a large resurgence on the /r/me_irl subreddit in early March 2017.

Origin

On August 5th, 2016, the Boneless Water Memes Facebook^[9] page was launched, which uses a photoshopped picture of a Crystal Pepsi bottle with the words “Boneless Water” edited on the label as a profile picture (shown below).

Spread

On August 19th, 2016, the Pepsi bottle image was uploaded to the Shitpostbot 5000 image gallery.^[1] On September 9th, the Meta Memes Facebook^[5] page posted an image pairing Facebook reaction emojis with various fake beverages (shown below). On October 27th, the Robust Gourmet Memes Facebook^[6] page uploaded a multi-pane image of the Boneless Water bottle followed by the Angry Michael Phelps photo (shown below, right).

On January 11th, 2017, Twitter user @JervanF^[7] tweeted a photograph of a sleeping child captioned with a mock drive-through order including “cheese apple with two salts on it” and “boneless water” (shown below). Screenshots of the tweet were subsequently circulated on Instagram.^[8]

On March 7th, Redditor benjimaestro submitted a Persuadable Bouncer image featuring the Boneless Water bottle (shown below, left) and a Boneless Water-themed map of the United States (shown below, right) to /r/me_irl.^[3][4] That day, Redditor Socratic_Dragon submitted a post asking “What is boneless water and why is this a thing?” to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[2]

Search Interest

External References

About

“I Can’t Drown My Demons, They Know How to Swim” are lyrics from the 2013 metalcore song “Can You Feel My Heart” by the British band Bring Me the Horizon. Online, the lyrics are often used to ironically caption images showing various people, characters or objects floating and swimming in water.

Origin

On April 1st, 2013, Bring Me the Horizon released “Can You Feel My Heart” as a track featured on the band’s fourth studio album Sempiternal.

The lyrics were subsequently widely used to caption various Instagram quote-style images circulated on sites like Pinterest^[6] and WeHeartIt^[7] (shown below, left, middle). On July 15th, 2015, Tumblr user colormephan^[8] posted a picture of several floating Minions captioned with the song lyrics, which gained over 4,700 notes over the next two years (shown below, right).

Spread

On August 14th, 2016, the Magenta Memes Facebook^[9] page uploaded a photograph of several floating pairs of Crocs captioned with the “Can You Feel My Heart” lyrics (shown below).

On October 13th, Redditor halsalmonella submitted a picture of a Minion bikini captioned with the lyrics to /r/IHE^[1] (shown below, left). On December 21st, 2016, the Fresh and Slunky Memes Facebook^[5] page posted a picture of Meme Man’s head floating in the ocean captioned with the song lyrics (shown below, right).

On January 23rd, 2017, the Eric’s Creamy Memes Facebook^[3] page uploaded a picture of swimming Roblox characters captioned with the song lyric (shown below, left). Within two months, the post gained over 4,400 reactions and 1,500 shares. On February 14th, Instagram user @protections^[4] posted images of Jar Jar Binks drowning captioned with the lyrics along with the message “people add deep quotes to literally anything” (shown below, right). Within three weeks, the post received more than 26,100 likes and 380 comments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Behind The Meme is a YouTube channel that explains the origins of and offers analysis on trending memes. While the channel has a high follower count, it has been the target of derision in certain meme communities due to its tone, unoriginal content, and the perception that he kills memes after he reviews them by making them accessible to normies.

Online History

Behind the Meme’s YouTube channel launched on August 12th, 2016.^[1] The name of the person behind the channel is unknown. However, on his channel, he lists a California PO Box. His first video was uploaded on August 13th, explaining Dicks Out For Harambe (shown below).

As of March 8th, 2017, the channel has accrued over 646,000 subscribers. Some of his most popular episodes have acquired over one million views, including his videos for Cash Me Ousside, The Dab, We Are Number One, and Yee.

Anthony Fantano Controversy

On November 12th, 2016, thatistheplan, the meme-explainer channel of Anthony Fantano, released a video on Rickrolling parodying the style of Behind The Meme. Fantano criticizes Behind the Meme’s scripts by reading the entry in broken english. He also says the channel talks down to its audience like its full of 6 year olds and accuses the channel of regurgitating information on Know Your Meme.

The following day, Behind The Meme responded to Fantano’s video by posting a video where he addressed some of the criticisms Fantano lobbed and got his mom to roast him by calling him a geek.

Criticism

Though popular, Behind the Meme is despised in certain meme communities. Often, he is accused of being a normie and cancer in comments on his videos (ex: shown below).^[2]

The channel is particularly loathed on meme-focused subreddits such as /r/dankmemes and /r/MemeEconomy. For example, on March 8th, 2017, an image of a Behind The Meme comments section asking the channel to review Expanding Brain caused a stir in both subreddits. In /r/dankmemes, the screenshot was posted with the title, “Behind the meme, if you’re out there, on Reddit, I’m begging you, don’t do this to us. This meme is only a boy, it has so much to live for” (shown below).^[3]

On /r/MemeEconomy, the subreddit responds to Behind the Meme actions by crying “Sell!” whenever he reviews or is encouraged to review a meme.^[4]

Zenzi

On February 19th, 2017, an anonymous 4chan user took to /r9k/ to complain about Behind the Meme and ask how 4chan could take it down. In response, another user suggested that in every video, 4chan commenters demand he cover “Zenzi,” a meme that doesn’t exist, and downvote every video in which he doesn’t cover Zenzi, which they thought would result in Behind The Meme getting frustrated and quitting (screenshot shown below). It appears the original thread has been deleted, though a similar thread has been archived.

Behind The Meme quickly discovered what was going on and thwarted the attempted 4chan raid by creating an explainer video for Zenzi the same day as the raid. The video turned into less of an explainer and more of an extended riff on the elitism of some meme communities. Behind The Meme’s quick and accurate response to Zenzi resulted in the Zenzi raid being deemed a failure.

Know Your Meme Plagiarism Accusations

Behind the Meme has been accused in the past for allegedly plagiarizing Know Your Meme. In Anthony Fantano’s parody of Behind the Meme, he sarcastically says “This is the part where I regurgitate information I found on Know Your Meme, but you’re so stupid, you think I researched it.” The channel’s tendency to steal Know Your Meme information has been a noticeable trend for its followers. For example, in his episode for What in Tarnation, he says:^[6]

“What in Tarnation?” is an older saying that is often associated with the Southern states of America.

The “About” section for the Know Your Meme entry for the meme reads:

“What in Tarnation?” is a rhetorical question meaning “what in damnation?”, which is often associated with Americans living in the Southern United States expressing incredulous bewilderment.

Furthermore, as of March 8th, 2017, the channel’s Twitter name is “Ky Memes,” possibly an acronym for “Know Your Memes.”^[5]

Search Interest

External References

About

“What Is My Purpose?” is a memorable quote uttered by a robot^[7] from the animated television series Rick and Morty, who is built by the character Rick Sanchez for the sole purpose of passing butter.

Origin

On March 24th, 2014, Season 1 Episode 9 “Something Ricked This Way Comes” of Rick and Morty was broadcast. In the episode, a newly built robot asks Sanchez “What is my purpose?”, to which Sanchez replies “You pass butter.” Three days later, YouTuber jorthak uploaded the scene to YouTube, where it gathered upwards of 2.4 million views and 1,900 comments over the next three years (shown below).

Spread

On September 21st, 2015, Redditor Reddit__PI uploaded an illustration of the robot surrounded by sticks of butter to /r/rickandmorty,^[1] where it accumulated more than 1,000 votes (95% upvoted) and 30 comments prior to being archived (shown below, left). On May 2nd, 2016, Redditor Pm_Me_Squanch posted a CGI model of the robot, which gained over 16,000 votes (91% upvoted) and 200 comments within 10 months on /r/rickandmorty^[4] (shown below, right).

On August 8th, 2016, Redditor andrewdotlee posted a multi-pane comic in which Rick informs a robot representing Microsoft’s Edge browser that its purpose is to “install Chrome” (shown below, left). Prior to being archived, the post received upwards of 39,000 votes (89% upvoted) and 920 comments on /r/rickandmorty.^[3] The following day, Redditor mepper reposted the image to /r/funny,^[2] where it gained over 147,900 votes (63% upvoted) and 1,000 comments prior to being archived.

On November 5th, YouTuber ESDEV uploaded a video of his 3D printed version of the robot, which gathered more than 1.4 million views and 900 comments over the next four months (shown below).

On November 20th, Redditor MrNubs posted a version a similar multi-pane in which Donald Trump informs Mike Pence that his purpose is to keep him from “being assassinated” to /r/rickandmorty^[6] (shown below, left). On December 9th, Redditor Pm_Me_Ur_Nudes_Gurl uploaded a Bojack Horseman themed version of the image to /r/BojackHorseman,^[5] where it garnered more than 4,800 votes (87% upvoted) and 80 comments in two months (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

The Berg is an Ice Monster that appears in the video game LEGO Racers 2 as the boss of the Arctic world. He presents himself as a scary monster, although he isn’t. He does not drive a car; instead he simply runs. At the beginning of the race against the player, he cheats and starts before the light turns green and while racing, he leaves giant ice spikes behind him. After the player defeats him he cries, but after some reassuring from the player he calms down and gives him large tyres. However, according to Captain Ross, he abducted an explorer who has yet to be found. He eventually appears when the player beats Rocket Racer on Xalax calling the player his friend. He is the only known intelligent Ice Monster, or any such creature, for that matter.

About

[Laughs In Spanish] refers to a series of images and screenshots with the snowclone“[X in Y language]” meant to subtitle the action taking place in the image. In the snowclone, X is replaced with a universal noise that does not need language clarification.

Precursor

The meme is an evolution of Descriptive Noise, a genre of images where subtitles humorously describe the audio of the accompanying image. On June 13th, 2011, the single topic blog Descriptive Noise^[3] launched with a still shot from the History Channel’s show Larry the Cable Guy (shown below). In the image, Larry and five teenagers are shown holding up frogs and smiling while the caption reads [indistinct mumbling].

Origin

The [X in Spanish] meme was first used in reference to Soraya Montenegro, the antagonist of Mexican telenovela María la del Barrio. On November 27th, 2014, Redditor InsomniacAlways submitted a screenshot image of a teary-eyed Soraya with the audio-descriptive English subtitle reading “Cries in Spanish” in a /r/funny^[1] post titled “Have you ever been so mad you cried in Spanish?” garnering more than 1.7 million views on Imgur and 3,742 points on Reddit.

Spread

On March 23rd, 2015, a single topic blog titled Life in Spanish^[2] was launched on Tumblr with various screenshots of Soraya from María la del Barrio captioned with parody subtitles in English based on the snowclone [X in Spanish].

Over the following two years, dozens of derivatives appeared using the snowclone using various actions and languages, though sometimes the language half of the snowclone was switched to simply an adjective. On March 7th, 2017, Fraolinch submitted a thread to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[4] asking about the origin of the snowclone.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

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About

Grammarly is a writing platform designed to proofread and check for plagiarism. The company has an online presence on YouTube with more than 76 500 subscribers, on which they upload videos to promote their product.

In late 2015 Grammarly uploaded a video to YouTube titled “The Best Writing Tool for Students” which has since become notorious for being an annoying YouTube advertisement. The video has over 84 000 000 views as of March 2017. Many users became annoyed at the frequency at which they received the ad, leading to a nearly 1:1 like/dislike ratio.

In October of 2016, Grammarly released a new video called “Better Writing with Grammarly”, which led to similar controversy as their previous video. This video has over 44 million views, 346 likes, and 304 dislikes.

Origin

The first sentence of the “Better Writing with Grammarly” video was mocked by displeased people who got the ad before nearly every single video.

Let’s suppose you’re writing a really important email to a colleague or a post on Facebook that all your friends will see…

On October 10th, 2016, twitter user chaz hutton tweeted about Grammarly. His tweet was retweeted 4 times and liked 18 times.

Spread

Roblox Forums

On October 25th, 2016, ROBLOX user Dedotated_Wam created a thread on the Off Topic section on the ROBLOX forums, titled “Let’s supposed you’re writing a really”. In the thread he purposely writes in broken English to mock the Grammarly ad. Four other users posted replies.

Various Examples

Twitter

Search Interest

About

Laughing Theresa May refers to a video clip of United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May laughing

Origin

On March 8th, 2017,

Shortly after, Twitter user @youngvulgarian^[1] tweeted a clip of May laughing along with the message “What the hell was that” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 1,800 likes and 1,500 retweets.

Spread

That morning, Twitter user @davidsonhrj posted an edited version of the clip in which May is shown swallowing a fish, which received more than 18,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

Meanwhile, Redditor Lazzars uploaded a glitched version of the laughing clip to /r/brokengifs^[2] (shown below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Expanding Pupil is a multi-pane image macro series claiming that eye pupils can dilate 55% while looking at an object of affection, followed by a series of images in which a pupil expands in reaction to various photographs.

Origin

[Researching]

Spread

On April 17th, 2016, the @hoegivesnofucks^[2] Instagram feed posted a variation in which an pupil dilates in response to a photograph of avocados (shown below, left). Within one year, the post gained over 6,700 likes and 3,900 comments. The following day, the Ginger the Chicken Facebook^[3] page posted an Expanding Pupil image with a picture of the character Ginger from the film Chicken Run (shown below, right).

On September 16th, the “George Lucas Eating Alone at a Food Court-core” Facebook^[1] page posted a version of the image in which film director George Lucas’ pupils dilate while looking at a green screen (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

I Feel Like My Asshole Is In Danger is a Hentai Quote that became fodder for remix videos in early 2017.

Origin

The line initially appeared in the hentaimanga“Virginity Graduation Trip” by Taihei Tengoku, which was posted to Hitomi.la^[1] on July 1st, 2013. In the panel, a character is approached by a gay prostitute and thinks “I don’t know what’s going on, but I feel like my asshole is in danger!” (Shown below).

Spread

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Azure Window Collapse refers to the collapse of the rock formation located off an island of Malta known as the “Azure Window.” The event was met with sadness and dark humor.

The Azure Window

History

The natural icon was a popular spot in pop-culture.^[1] For example, it served as the background to the wedding of Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo in the first season of Game of Thrones (shown below).

On March 8th, 2017, a storm hit Malta and caused the Azure Window to collapse into the sea.

Related Memes

Shortly after the collapse, Maltese and English meme-makers began to make jokes about the rock formation’s collapse. Lovin Malta^[2][3] posted two compilations of jokes made on social media about the collapse that day. Times of Malta^[4] posted a compilation as well.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

#TapperDirtFile is a satirical hashtag containing humorous, innocuous factoids about CNN anchor Jake Tapper, which were inspired by rumors that he was being targeted by the GOP for aggressively questioning Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway in early February 2017.

Background

On February 7th, 2017, Tapper questioned Conway about why United States President Donald Trump had yet to offer sympathy to Canadians following a shooting that occurred at a Quebec mosque the previous month (shown below).

The following day, the news site Axios^[2] reported that an anonymous source claimed “Republican operatives” were urging a conservative blog to write “hit pieces” on Tapper in retaliation for the Conway interview. That day, Tapper jokingly launched the hashtag “#TapperDirtFile”^[7] in response to the rumors, featuring various innocuous factoids about his past (shown below).^[1]

Developments

That day, other Twitter users posted parody facts about Tapper’s lifestyle and history along with the “#TapperDirtFile” hashtag (shown below). Meanwhile, Twitter created a Moments page highlighting notable #TapperDirtFile tweets.^[4]

Hoaxes

On February 23rd, the @OMFGNN Twitter feed posted a 2007 recording of Dog the Bounty Hunter’s racist rant falsely attributed to Jake Tapper. The tweet was subsequently deleted, but the video was reuploaded to the TRexstasy YouTube channel (shown below).

That day, Tapper tweeted that the “alt-Reich” was falsely attributing the audio to him (shown below). Meanwhile, the news site RawStory^[3] published an article about the hoax titled “Gullible Trump supporters go nuts over fake audio of ‘Jake Tapper’s racist rant’.”

Following Wikileaks release of the Vault 7 Leaks on March 7th, a photoshopped tweet appearing to call for the assassination of Julian Assange was falsely attributed to Tapper, with many claiming he had deleted the tweet shortly after posting it (shown below).^[6]

Search Interest

External References

Doctor Strangeglove is a trolly meme based off of a Moshi Monsters song, and people started commenting it on SamzGamz’s youtube channel.