Overview

2017 Cleveland Facebook Live Murder refers to the fatal shooting of a man carried out and filmed by Steve Stephens, the suspect who still remains at large at the time of writing, and livecast on the social networking site in real-time in downtown Cleveland, Ohio on the afternoon of April 16th, 2017.

Background

At around 2 p.m. on April 16th, 2017, Easter Day, a man named Steve Stephens began a Facebook Live video in which he is seen driving down a road in downtown Cleveland, Ohio before coming to a stop and exiting the vehicle at East 93rd Street, where he approaches an elderly man to ask how old he is before drawing a gun and shooting him in the face. The victim has been identified by the Cleveland Police Department as 74-year-old Robert Goodwin Sr.

Development

Status Updates

The suspect continued to post status updates on his Facebook page after the livecast ended, in which he claimed that he had murdered a dozen more people in the time leading up to what he described as an “Easter day slaughter.” In another post, he claimed that he had killed three more before, whose bodies are allegedly concealed in an “abandoned warehouse,” and said that he won’t stop until his mother and another woman, whose name has not been released, call him. In a later post, Stephens blamed the shootings on a woman with whom he had presumably dated, as he can be heard asking the victim to say his ex-girlfriend’s name before committing a senseless murder, saying that “she’s the reason this is about to happen to you.”

Online Reaction

The video immediately made the rounds on most social networking sites in the United States, while the term “Facebook Live” and #Cleveland skyrocketed to the #1 search on Google Trends and Twitter.^[3]

Official Response

In the following hours, Cleveland Police Department began a citywide manhunt for the suspect and released a statement urging Stephens to turn himself into police, while informing the public that he should be considered armed and dangerous. In response to Stephens’ claim that he had killed at least a dozen additional people, Cleveland Police Department Chief Calvin Williams has released a statement saying “there are no more victims that we know are tied to him.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Extra Thick! (Also known as Extra Thicc) is an exploitable scene featured in the 2001 animated series Samurai Jack, in which the shapeshifting master of darkness, Aku, is shown ordering a henchman for his plan. Online, the scene is humorously utilized in reference to the slang term Thicc.

Origin

The origin of Extra Thick comes from Samurai Jack’s season 4’s Episode XLVIII: Jack versus Aku.^[1] In the beginning of the episode, the main antagonist of the series, Aku, is shown picking up a phone and making an order for what seems to be a large pizza, but is in actuality an order for a bounty hunter. Nearing the end of his order, Aku is asked a specific detail about the henchman, to which he replies with “Extra thick!” After a a particularly enthusiastic laugh directed towards his order, the phone call abruptly ends.

Spread

While the scene and episode were particularly well-known among and outside the Samurai Jack fandom, the scene did not receive major attention until the coincidental meshing of the phrase “Thicc,” alongside the renewal of Samurai Jack. The first known instance of this occurred on October 9, 2016, when YouTube user Nepeta Leijon uploaded an edit of the phone call. ^[2]

Following the release, a wide variety of YouTuber users decided to continuously upload variations of Thicc and Aku’s phone call, becoming a combination trend.

Various Examples

Search Interest

References

About

Pennywise The Clown refers to a series of images that use shots from the 1990 made-for-TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s It. Online, people use the image as a reaction or to portray the things that would entice them in the face of certain death.

Origin

The image of Pennywise in the sewer first appeared in a scene from the made-for-TV movie adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel It.^[1] In the film, actor Tim Curry plays Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the corporeal form of a malevolent entity that terrorizes the children of Derry, ME. Pennywise resides mostly in sewers, and in one of the film’s most infamous scenes, he lures a child named Georgie down into a storm drain.

On September 4th, 2010, Funny Junk user Notnamed^[2] posted one of the earliest iterations of the meme as a Demotivational Poster that read “COMMONSENSE Don’t trust anyone that lives in the sewers.” The image, shown below, received more than 3,300 views.

Spread

Pennywise the Clown

On February 17th, 2012, MemeGenerator.net posted a variation on the Pennywise meme, a photo of the clown staring directly at the camera. It has since been the subject of more than 21,700 posts.^[8]

Pennywise Gets You

Following the release of the trailer for the 2017 remake of It, a new crop of Pennywise-related memes emerged. The two-panel image macro includes the shot of Pennywise peering out from the sewer above a screenshot of a video of a woman crawling into a sewer to rescue a kitten (shown below). The screenshot appears to come from the spanish-language website Schanuzi.com, which used a three panel screenshot in their article about the rescue.^[3]

On April 5th, Twitter user @ezeqserra^[4] tweeted the two images together under the caption “¿Querés papas con cheddar de por vida?” which translates to “Do you want some cheese fries?”

On April 12th, Instagram user @skyferreira^[7] posted the images to Instagram under the caption “come here kid, i have masochism.” The post received more than 15,700 likes.

The images have been featured^[5] on Inverse and TIME.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

The Shadow Brokers are a group of black-hat hackers who gained much notoriety online for leaking a collection of National Security Agency (NSA) hacking tools in April 2017.

History

The name “Shadow Broker” is believed to be a reference to a character in the Mass Effect video game series, who leads a shadowy organization that trades in information on the black market.^[1] On August 13th, 2016, the @TheShadowBrokerss^[2] Twitter feed posted a link to a Pastebin page,^[3] inviting interested parties to bid on various cyber weapons in their possession. On August 16th, Edward Snowden tweeted that “circumstantial evidence” suggested the Russians were responsible for stealing the cyber weapons (shown below).^[6]

In October, the group released a message on the /r/DarkNetMarkets^[4] subreddit, containing a list of tools and servers purportedly hacked by Equation Group, a threat actor suspected of being tied to the NSA. On April 8th, 2017, The Shadow Brokers released an article on Medium^[5] titled “Don’t Forget Your Base,” providing a password to various encrypted files they had previously released, claiming the leak was in response to Donald Trump’s airstrike on the Shayrat Air Base in Syria.

April 2017 Leak

On April 14th, 2017, the group tweeted out a link to a page on the blogging site Steemit, providing a link to a batch of files along with the password “Reeeeeeeeeeeeeee.” Among the files included various tools and exploits, many of which targeted Microsoft Windows operating systems. That day, Twitter user @hackerfantastic posted a video showing how the leaked ETERNALBLUE tool could be used to compromise a Windows 2008 machine in under two minutes (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

White House Easter Bunny refers to the costumed Easter Bunny that appears at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

Origin

The White House Easter Egg Roll has been a presidential tradition since April 22nd, 1879, when President Rutherford B. Hayes hosted the first celebration on Easter Monday, allowing children onto the White House grounds to roll Easter eggs.

In April 1969, the White House Easter Bunny made its first appearance at the Easter Egg Roll, when one of First Lady Pat Nixon’s staff members dressed as the Easter Bunny to entertain children.^[1][2]

Spread

Sean Spicer Easter Bunny

On March 3rd, 2017, Twitter user @JordanUhl^[3] posted a picture of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer dressed as the White House Easter Bunny. The picture comes from when Spicer served as assistant United States trade representative for media and public affairs in the Bush administration and took on the duties of Easter Bunny.^[4] The post received more than 500 retweets and 800 likes.

Spicer later acknowledged his role as the Easter Bunny in a March 28th tweet,^[5] shown below, which received more than 1,300 retweets and 2,400 likes.

On April 15th, 2017, Melissa McCarthy parodied Sean Spicer’s performance as the Easter Bunny as well as his infamous Hitler gaffe on Saturday Night Live.

2017 White House Easter Bunny Roast

On April 17th, President Donald Trump hosted the 139th annual White House Easter Egg Roll. As Trump welcomed visitors to the event, he delivered a speech about the event and his administration while standing next to a costumed Easter Bunny.

Later that day, Twitter user @BradJaffy^[6] posted a video Trump and the Easter Bunny together under the caption
“’We’re right on track. You see what’s happening,’ President Trump tells a crowd of children while standing with the Easter Bunny." The tweet received more than 1,900 retweets and 3,200 likes within the first three hours.

Throughout the day, other users made jokes about the image of Trump and the Easter Bunny standing side by side.

On April 17th, Twitter published a Moment,^[7] documenting the tweets about the Easter Bunny Roast.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External Reference

About

Peppa Pig is a British animated television series starring an anthropomorphic female pig named Peppa, her pig family and her friends of various different animal species.

History

On May 31st, 2004, the first Peppa Pig episode premiered on Britain’s Channel 5. On August 22nd, 2005, the American version of the show premiered on Cartoon Network’s preschool television programming block. As of April 2017, a total of four seasons containing 52 episodes each, along with two additional special episodes, have been released.\

Online Presence

In September 2014, the Peppa Pig Wiki^[4] was created, garnering upwards of 3,300 pages over the next several years. On January 4th, 2015, YouTuber Two Beardy Dorks uploaded a Peppa Pig-themed Thug Life video (shown below, left). On July 22nd, 2016, YouTube Jeff MyName uploaded a “montage parody”: featuring Peppa Pig footage (shown below, right).

Controversies

YouTube Videos

On November 15th, 2014, YouTuber Stephen Rattigan uploaded a video titled “Peppa for Adults episode 1,” featuring Peppa Pig footage dubbed with expletive-ridden dialogue (shown below, left). In 2016, YouTuber Baby Funny TV uploaded a fan-made video titled “#Peppa pig #Dental #Cry #Afraid #Story #Nursery Rhymes Lyrics #Kids,” in which Peppa visits a dentist who uses a variety of frightening tools on her, causing her to cry. The original YouTube channel has since been removed, but mirrored versions of the video have been reuploaded (shown below, right).

On March 16th, 2017, the news site The Outline^[2] published an article titled “YouTube Has a Fake Peppa Pig Problem,” in which the author complained about her child discovering the Baby Funny TV video. On March 27th, the BBC Trending YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “The disturbing YouTube videos that are tricking children” (shown below).

On March 31st, The Sun^[3] published an interview with YouTuber Stephen Rattigan, who blamed parents giving their children access to iPhones and iPads for exposing their kids to upsetting content. On April 16th, 2017, Redditor trueBlue1074 submitted a post asking about the YouTube videos to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[1]

Related Memes

Peppa Pig Hanging Up

Peppa Pig Hanging Up, also known as Peppa Hangs Up the Phone, is a scene from the Peppa Pig episode “Whistling”, which is often used online as a reaction image.

Peppa Pig “Grown Up Music” Parodies

Peppa Pig “Grown Up Music” Videos are edited versions of a clip from the children’s show Peppa Pig, in which music played over a radio in the cartoon is replaced with other music, usually of a coarse or bizarre nature.

Search Interest

External References

About

“Physical removal” is a phrase commonly used by anarcho-capitalists and libertarians to express a desire to separate and dissociate from those with opposing viewpoints or lifestyles viewed as undesirable, especially liberals and communists. It’s used in a manner similar to Free Helicopter Rides in that it can also be used as a euphemism for executing political opponents.

Origin

The phrase originated in libertarian author and political theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s 2001 book “Democracy: The God That Failed” ^[1], in which he argues that in order to maintain a libertarian social order, those with political views antithetical to private property such as democrats and communists would have to be disallowed from joining libertarian communities.

In a covenant…among proprietor and community tenants for the purpose of protecting their private property, no such thing as a right to free (unlimited) speech exists, not even to unlimited speech on one’s own tenant-property. One may say innumerable things and promote almost any idea under the sun, but naturally no one is permitted to advocate ideas contrary to the very covenant of preserving and protecting private property, such as democracy and communism. There can be no tolerance toward democrats and communists in a libertarian social order. They will have to be physically separated and removed from society.

Spread

It is unclear when the term became popular as a meme within Alt-Right and libertarian circles. On July 16, 2015, Youtube user SeventhSon associated with the podcast the Daily Shoah uploaded a video “Physical Removal” which reimagined Hoppe’s concept of physical removal as an actual business.

Similarly, on July 21, 2016, the subreddit /r/Physical_Removal ^[2] was created dedicated to the meme and similar jokes.

External References

^[1]Wikipedia – Democracy: The God That Failed

^[2]Reddit – /r/Physical_Removal

About

The McElroy Brothers are Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy, three brothers who have created several popular podcasts, including My Brother, My Brother, and Me and The Adventure Zone, as well as the popular YouTube series Monster Factory for Polygon. Both Justin and Griffin have managerial roles at Polygon.

History

Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy grew up in Huntington, West Virginia.^[1] They are the children of actor Clint McElroy and Louise McElroy.

My Brother, My Brother, and Me

My Brother, My Brother, and Me, sometimes abbreviated to MBMBaM, is a weekly comedy advice podcast hosted by brothers Justin, Griffin, and Travis McElroy. The show finds the McElroy’s alternating between answering questions they receive directly from listeners and answering questions submitted to Yahoo! Answers.

The McElroy brothers released the first episode of My Brother, My Brother, and Me on April 11th, 2010. For the rest of the year, the show consistently landed in the top 10 or 20 podcasts on iTunes.^[2] They began appearing on iTunes on October 11th, 2010.

On January 17th, 2011,^[3] they announced they had joined the Maximum Fun network of podcasts. In 2012, they appeared on two AV Club writers’ Best Podcasts of 2012 roundup.^[4] They have amassed over 300 episodes as of September 22nd, 2016. They also regularly perform live. They have received positive press from The Daily Dot,^[5] AV Club, Pajiba,^[6] and more.

SeeSo TV Show

On September 15th, 2016, West Virginia’s Herald-Dispatch^[7] reported on a parade the McElroy brothers held in their hometown, Huntington, West Virginia, as part of an episode for their upcoming TV series on SeeSo. On January 26th, 2017, the brothers uploaded a teaser for the show to YouTube (shown below).

Unlike their podcast, the brothers spend each episode devoted to helping one person asking for advice rather than several. On February 16th, they streamed their first episode of the series, which features the parade reported on by the Herald-Dispatch, a week in advance of the show’s February 23rd premiere on SeeSo.

The Adventure Zone

The Adventure Zone (sometimes shortened as TAZ) is a fantasy, comedy podcast featuring the McElroy brothers Travis, Justin, Griffin and their father Clint playing Dungeons and Dragons. It began as a special episode of My Brother, My Brother, and Me that aired on April 8th, 2014. The popularity of the episode led to its expansion into a standalone podcast series covering an original adventure authored by Griffin. The podcast has inspired a wide array of fan art and fan animations of certain segments.

Monster Factory

On May 4th, 2015, Griffin and Justin McElroy, two senior staff members at video game website Polygon, released the first episode of Monster Factory, a YouTube show in which the two abuse games’ character creation features to make grotesque playable characters. In the first episode, they worked to create a character that looked like the Pokémon Squirtle in Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin.

The series has since aired periodically on Polygon’s YouTube channel.^[8]

The Final Pam

One of the most popular characters to come out of the Monster Factory series was “Final Pam,” a character Griffin and Justin created in Fallout 4. Pam was introduced on November 12th, 2015. The McElroys joked that hideous abomination of a woman that they created would be the harbinger of the end times and so they named her “The Final Pam.” The episode has over 816,000 views.

After the success of the first video, two more Monster Factory episodes were created detailing the nightmarish adventures of Pam and her ‘family.’ In the episodes, the McElroy brothers had The Final Pam reap devastation and horror, such as marrying a radroach to summoning ghost children to killing and immediately resurrecting gibbed foes.^[2]

The Final Pam has inspired fan art on Tumblr and other sites. On April 2nd, Final Pam appeared in Monster Factory’s Wrestlemania special, defeating her opponent.

Online Presence

The McElroy Brothers have a large fanbase on various social media platforms. On Facebook, the My Brother, My Brother, and Me Appreciation Group^[9] page has over 30,000 likes. Griffin McElroy also had a popular Vine account before the platform was shut down.

The group is also popular on Tumblr, ^[10] where fans create fan art and celebrate much of their content.

Search Interest

External References

About

Phishing is a neologism used to describe attempts to obtain sensitive information by masquerading as a reputable company or organization in electronic communications. Typically, phishing attempts are carried out through email and instant messaging services, which direct targets to fake websites that are designed to appear identical to official banks, social media platforms or other password-protected services.

Origin

In 1987, a presentation was delivered at the International HP Users Group, which described a phishing-style technique. The term “phishing” is believed to have been coined by hacker Khan C. Smith in the 1990s, but the first archived use of the term was found in the 1994 hacking tool AOHell,^[1] which contained a function for stealing the passwords of America Online users.

Spread

In June 2001, the earliest phishing attempt against a payment system was directed toward the digital gold currency service E-Gold.^[2] In 2003, the financial affairs publication The Banker reported on the earliest known phishing attempt against a retail bank in an article titled “Battle Against Identity Theft.”^[3] According to the American research and advisory firm Gartner, phishing attacks increased by 28% between May 2004 and May 2005, with an estimated 2.4 American victims and approximately $929 million in losses. In October 2007, The Washington Post^[4] reported that nearly half of phishing thefts in 2006 were orchestrated by various operations maintained by the St. Petersburg-based Russian Business Network. That year, Gartner^[6] reported that an estimated 2.6 million adults lost $3.2 billion due to phishing scams. On June 14th, 2008, the /r/phishing^[5] subreddit was launched for discussions about the scamming practice. On August 21st, 2013, YouTuber Cyber51Security posted a video demonstrating how phishing attacks working by fishing a bag containing the words “user name” and “password” out of a small bucket filled with water labelled “Internet” (shown below).

On April 30th, 2014, YouTuber minutephysics uploaded a video about a sophisticated YouTube phishing attack (shown below, left). Within three years, the video gained over 1.46 million views and 2,700 comments. On October 14th, Trend Micro released a ad parodying phishing attacks titled “Phishing Scams – Don’t Be That Guy” (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Quicksaving refers to a video game feature that allows players to save their progress with a single keystroke or command as oppose to going to specified saving zone, checkpoint, or options menu. Moreover, the ability to quicksave enables the player to repeatedly attempt something difficult from the same point. Online, people use “Quicksave” as a catchphrase to express that a dangerous and/or ill-advised action is about to take place.

Origin

In 1987, Nintendo introduced the saving feature with The Legend of Zelda. According to the website How to Geek:^[10]

The golden Legend of Zelda cartridge featured an internal battery that powered a small RAM chip which stored player progress. For the first time console gamers could save the game at any point and return to it later. Games were no longer limited to a race-to-the-finish style delivery. Because of this, the size of the in-game universe and the complexity of the game could be greatly expanded as the designers knew players would be able to complete the game over multiple sessions at their leisure.

On April 30th, 2009, Urban Dictionary defined “quick save” as “A method for instantly saving the state of a video game, designed for pussies who cannot beat the game without cheating.”^[6]

On July 8th, 2016, Redditor Coryan posted “’I’d better save first’ is often the gamer’s version of ‘hold my beer’” in the /r/Showerthoughts subreddit, receiving more than 3,100 points (93% upvoted) and 45 comments.^[8]

Several months later, on December 29th, Redditor hesinthetrees posted “Quicksaving is like the gaming equivalent of ‘Hold my beer’” to the /r/Showerthoughts subreddit.^[7] The post recieved more than 150 points (91% upvoted).

Spread

On April April 17th, 2017, Redditor CuteBabyPeguin^[5] posted a screenshot from the video game Skyrim (shown below) to the /r/Gaming subreddit. The image received more than 72,000 points (89% upvoted) and 1,400 comments.

That day, Redditor Fish_Grillson^[9] posted a picture (shown below) to the /r/dankmemes subreddit in the thread “2meta2fast.” The photo of a teenage boy above the Skyrim “quicksaving” chyron and under “when the teacher roasts you but she doesn’t know you got an M9 in your backpack” received more than 2,900 points (97% upvoted) and 20 comments.

The school shooter picture appeared again that day on the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. Redditor lukeM22 submitted
the picture (shown left) in the thread "’Quicksave’ memes on the rise!!! Buy buy buy!!! lukem22’s post received more than 5,900 points (91% upvoted). The meme adds the “Quicksaving” status bar to another meme from a post by Whitepeopleonly (shown right) on iFunny.co.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

Overview

DaddyOFive Prank Controversy refers to a prank video in which Maryland resident Mike Martin and his wife loudly yell profanities at their children after pouring invisible ink on a carpet. After the video was uploaded to YouTube in mid-April 2017, the parents were widely accused of being verbally abusive to their children and exploiting them for advertising revenue on the video-sharing platform.

Background

On April 12th, 2017, the DaddyOFive YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Invisible Ink Prank! (Epic Freakout)”, in which a mother and father pour invisible ink on the carpet, then loudly scold and scream profanities at their children while accusing them of making the mess.^[1] After the video was uploaded, comments, ratings and embedding was disabled by the channel.

Developments

Online Reaction

On April 15th, Redditor faudeywauda submitted the video to /r/h3h3productions,^[2] where it gathered upwards of 2,000 points (96% upvoted) and 430 comments within 72 hours. On April 16th, DaddyOFive uploaded a video titled “Blocking All the Haters!,” in which one of his children says “it’s just a prank bro” while the father compares himself to YouTuber Roman Atwood (shown below).

On April 17th, Philip DeFranco uploaded an episode criticizing the parents for repeatedly exploiting their children for YouTube views, specifically their youngest son Cody (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video gained over 1.44 million views and 38,800 comments.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the controversy, including The Sun,^[3] The New York Post^[5] and BBC’s Newsbeat.^[6]

Search Interest

External References

About

Pintman refers to a photograph of Paddy Losty, a Dublin resident known to have drunk more than 30 pints or more in a single day. Online, people have photoshopped the picture of Loddy into various memes.

Origin

Pintman comes from a photograph found in the book Dublin Pub Life and Lore -- An Oral History of Dublin’s Traditional Irish Pubs: The Recollections of Dublin’s Publicans, Barmen and ‘Regulars’ by Kevin C. Kearns, which was originally published on August 1st, 1996.^[3]

On September 25th, 2015, the website Publin.ie^[1] posted the picture (shown below) of “Pintman” Paddy Losty from Dublin Pub Life and Lore along with caption that read, “Pintman Paddy Losty. Some of Dublin’s great pintmen have been known to put away more than 30 pints or more in a day.”

Spread

On January 5ht, 2017, Facebook user Luke Nelson^[2] posted Losty’s picture to the Facebook group “Ireland Simpsons Fans”, photoshopping into a scene from The Simpsons. The post received more than 810 reactions and 15 shares.

Throughout January 2017, the memebers of “Ireland Simpsons Fans” posted numerous Simpsons-related Pintman memes.

The Pintman meme became so popular that “Ireland Simpsons Fans” mods decided to temporarily ban the image.^[5] They released this statement on the matter:

On one particular evening there was a new one every few seconds, it was chaotic! That kind of content could only ever appear on this page, and it brought out some serious creativity. In the end we decided to encourage people to set up another group for it so that it didn’t consume us and that group now has over 2,000 members, many of whom never had anything to do with ISF.

On January 26th, Publin posted a follow-up article, tracking the rise of the Pintman meme, particularly its impact on the “Ireland Simpsons Fans” group.^[4]

On February 8th, the subreddit /r/PintmanPosting launched. It currently has more than 1,100 readers.^[6]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

C’mon, Do Something is a photoshop meme featuring an exploitable illustration from the webcomic White Ninja, in which the titular character pokes a variety of things with a long stick.

Origin

In 2003, the webcomic White Ninja began selling merchandise featuring an illustration of the White Ninja character poking a dead fish with a stick (shown below, left).^[8] As of April 2017, image is currently being used as the masthead for the White Ninja animation series website (shown below, right).^[1]

Spread

On June 11th, 2015, Redditor KayakBassFisher submitted a version of the comic poking the mobile game The Simpsons: Tapped Out.^[2] On September 25th, 2016, Redditor axiomaticwisdom posted a picture of the character poking a logo for the Pittsburgh Steelers football team to /r/steelers, where it received more than 5,400 points (86% upvoted) and 130 comments prior to being archived. On February 5th, 2017, the NFL Memes Facebook^[7] page posted a version in which the character pokes a logo for the New England Patriots football team, which gained over 63,000 reactions, 52,000 shares and 4,300 comments within two months (shown below, right).

On April 17th, 2017, Redditor ALLCAPS-hashtag submitted a comic captioned with “When you run out of memes” followed by the character poking several different flags with a stick while saying “C’mon, do a world war” (shown below). Within 48 hours, the post gathered upwards of 14,100 points (87% upvoted) and 240 comments on /r/dankmemes.^[5] On April 18th, Redditor WhyDidntYouDoMyJob reposted the image to /r/meirl,^[4] where it gained over 4,800 points (88% upvoted) and 170 comments in 24 hours. Meanwhile, Redditor napuinsai submitted another “When you ran out of memes” images on /r/dankmemes,^[6] featuring a group of emo teens being poked with the caption “C’mon, do a suicide” (shown below, right). That day, Redditor Bill_Cosby666 submitted a post to /r/MemeEconomy^[3] asking if “C’mon do something” memes were “invest worthy”.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Will We Find Intelligent Life? is an exploitablewebcomic panel originally published by Poorly Drawn Lines. The comic is set up as a cosmic search for intelligent life, leading to a man on earth. In the third panel, the man says something unintelligent, and the fourth panel reads, “The search continues…”

Origin

Poorly Drawn Lines published the original version of the comic^[1] on January 26th, 2015.^[2] In the original version of the comic, the man says “I’m not racist, but I mean--” before the final panel says “The search continues…” (shown below).

Spread

On August 26th, a variation was uploaded to Imgur that replaced “I’m not racist, but I mean--” with “Black Lives Matter.” This was likely the first post that turned the original into an exploitable.

After that post, several other variations appeared over the following two years with various images and sayings replacing the third panel. Oftentimes, the panel is used to make a political point, though there are several variations relating to video games.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

A spinoff of a particular Jeb! meme, depicting Jeb Bush stood in front of an electoral map of the United States, photoshopped to show a landslide victory for a party called “Jeb”.

Users on the facebook political shiposting group UK Politics II and its splinter group UK Politics 2.1 took to immitating this graphic when discussing predictions for what was, at the time, the next general election: In 2020. Variations would always feature an electoral map of the UK, showing a total victory of one particular party, with the leader of that party stood in front of the map, usually with their arms outstretched.

Variations
Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats:

Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for North East Summerset:

Chuka Umunna, Labour MP for Streatham:

John McDonnel, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer:

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish Independence Party:

Barrack Obama, former US president, running as leader of either Labour or the Green Party:

Subversions of this meme also exist, such as Owen Smith, the Labour MP who challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the party leadership in 2016, shown above a UK in which every seat is Conservative, implying that Smith’s leadership would lead to a Conservative majority in 2020:

“Foreboden” or “X is foreboden” (a corruption of the word “forbidden”) is a catchphrase associated with Toriel in the Undertale fandom.

Origin

The phrase “foreboden” originated in a comic posted to Tumblr by phillip-bankss on September 28, 2015. In the comic, Frisk asks Toriel how to access the Internet at her house. Toriel imagines Frisk searching for the phrase “booby” on Google, then promptly denies access to the Internet, declaring it to be “foreboden”.

Interest

This meme comes from a Thiojoe video titled “How are people this stupid?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzmsZlFq-V8)
At the 4 minute and 32 second mark in the video, a commenter named Avinash Tiwari coins the now famous phrase among Joe’s fans, “It’s valid in india or not.” This phrase has recently transformed into comments on his latest videos, for example, “Is comcast valid in india.” It is a known method to get top comment on his videos.

About

Jughead’s “I’m Weird” Speech refers to a speech given by Jughead in the Archie Comics based TV show Riverdale.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m weird. I’m a weirdo. i don’t fit in. And i don’t want to fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on? That’s weird.”

Origin

On The Tenth Episode of Riverdale, which aired April 12th, 2017^[1] the character Jughead says:

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m weird. I’m a weirdo. i don’t fit in. And I don’t want to fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on? That’s weird.”

Spread

On April 18th, 2017, the website PopBuzz posted the Article "Jughead’s “I’m Weird” Speech Got Turned Into A Meme And It’s Perfection" posting various memes that used the quote said by jughead.

Various Examples

Search Interest

^[1]Previously TV – S01.E10: Chapter Ten: The Lost Weekend

^[2]PopBuzz – Jughead’s “I’m Weird” Speech Got Turned Into A Meme And It’s Perfection

About

Me Opening up to Someone is an image macro series featuring photographs of various objects used as a metaphor to represent how difficult it is for someone to expose their emotional vulnerabilities.

Origin

On October 16th, 2015, Twitter user @RelatableQuote^[2] tweeted a photograph of an opened can revealing another can inside, along with the message “me opening up to someone.” Over the next two years, the tweet received upwards of 7,600 likes and 4,300 retweets.

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Later that day, the same tweet was reposted by the @glowmuva^[3] Twitter feed, which garnered more than 27,300 likes and 30,000 retweets in two years. On November 17th, 2016, YouTuber @flufferfish^[1] posted the message “Why don’t you open up to people?” followed by a photograph of a cabinet in which a stack of bowls are placed precariously against the glass door (shown below). Within six months, the tweet gained over 90,200 likes and 59,500 retweets.

On February 12th, 2017, the @Dory Twitter feed posted a video of a man removing 11 do-rags from his head, along with the message “me opening up to someone” (shown below). Over the next two months, the tweet received upwards of 4,200 likes and 1,400 retweets.

On March 24th 2017, the @WorldStarFunny^[4] Twitter feed posted photographs of a pen package being poorly opened, along with the “me opening up to someone” caption (shown below). Within one month, the post gathered upwards of 5,700 likes and 2,000 retweets. Two days, later, Redditor bakedsnorlax420 submitted a picture of an orange being peeled to reveal another unpeeled orange with the caption, gained over 2,500 votes (91% upvoted) over the next month (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

“It’s called fashion, look it up” is a catchphrase from fashion blogger Nicky Ottav, which people frequently use for image macros of animals wearing clothes.

Origin

In September 2013, Jimmy Kimmel Live^[1] aired an installment of their infamous “Lie Witness News” segment from New York’s Fashion Week, in which they interviewed attendees about designers who do not exist. During the clip, they ask fashion blogger Nicky Ottav about picture of a runway model with a watermelon photoshopped over his head. Ottav responded, “It’s called ‘fashion.’ Look it up.”

Spread

On September 23rd, 2015, Redditor FredMedlin posted a photo of a runway model with a mouse-like cage on his head and titled the thread “Its Called Fashion Look It Up.” The post received more than 1,200 points (87% upvoted) and 60 comments.

On October 30th, 2016, the Instagram account @dabmoms^[2] posted a photo of cat with pink netting on its head under the caption “It’s called fashion Brenda look it up.” The picture received more than 13,000 likes.

Notable Examples

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External References