About

Melted Duck on a Dashboard refers to a before-and-after image featuring a photograph of a green, plastic duck sitting on a dashboard next to a picture of the duck melted in the summer heat.

Origin

On July 18th, 2017, Twitter user @shiohitoshi tweeted a photograph of a rubber duck resting above his car stereo juxtaposed with a photo of the duck melted on to his dashboard (shown below), along with the message “最悪マジで。” (“This is the worst, I can’t believe it” in English). Within 48 hours, the tweet gained over 1.08 million likes and 635,000 retweets.

Spread

The following day, other Japanese Twitter users began questioning the authenticity of the photo, pointing out several apparent discrepancies between the two dashboards, some of which used illustrated diagrams and 3D models (shown below).

Meanwhile, the images uploaded to Imgur,^[2] where they received upwards of 346,000 views, 9,000 points and 450 comments. Also on January 19th, Twitter created a Moments^[3] page titled “The mystery of the melted rubber duck on a dashboard,” collecting various reactions to the viral images. The same day, Instgram user @shitheadsteve posted the image with the caption “Me excited for summer vs me after 2 months of summer” (shown below, left). Over the next 24 hours, the post gained over 47,800 likes. On July 20th, Redditor DiggurDig submitted the image captioned with the joke “Dont think marajuana is bad drug? Think again” to /r/dankmemes, where it garnered more than 1,600 points (94% upvoted) in 15 hours (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Jared Kushner Russian Collusion Speech refers to a series of image macros and online jokes about Jared Kushner’s press conference regarding his involvement in the Russiagate scandal.

Origin

On July 24th, 2017, President Donald Trump son-in-law and special counsel Jared Kushner, denying allegations that he colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 United States presidential election. The speech (video below) followed a meeting a with Senate Intelligence committee regarding his involvement with Russia.^[1]

Spread

During the speech, people began making jokes about Kushner on Twitter. Most of the jokes, focused on the timbre of Kushner’s voice as well as his milquetoast demeanor. Twitter user @BrendanHickey9 tweeted, “*Takes hit of helium from balloon* ‘My name is Jared Kushner.’” The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 600 retweets and 2,700 likes in less than 24 hours.^[3] Twitter user @morninggloria tweeted, “I could probably grow a beard faster than Jared Kushner.” The tweet (shown below, right) received more than 300 retweets and 2,700 likes.^[4]

Some users also made jokes about how Kushner reminded them of the Saturday Night Live character Jacob the Bar Mitzvah boy, played by Vanessa Bayer. Twitter user @JElvisWeinstein posted an image of the character with the caption “I did not collude with Russia.” The tweet (shown below) received more than 650 retweets and 2,800 likes.^[10]

Later that day, people began sharing and adding captions to a photograph by Mark Wilson of Getty Image of Kushner during the speech.^[2]

Several media outlets covered the speech and the memes it spawned, including Teen Vogue,^[5] Elite Daily,^[6] The Mary Sue^[7] and more. Twitter published two Moments pages on the speech. one on the content of the speech^[8] and the other on the memes.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

Anthony Scaramucci is an American political figure, financier, and the current White House Communications Director. He became notable online after being named White House Communications Director in July 2017, a decision which caused former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to resign.

History

Scaramucci was born on January 6th, 1964.^[1] He began his career as a financier for Goldman Sachs in 1989 and worked there through 1996. In 2005 he founded global investment firm SkyBridge Capital and worked there as a co-managing partner until 2017, when he sold the company to work in the Donald Trump administration. He has also appeared as the host of Wall Street Week and on Fox News as a contributor.

On July 21st, 2017, he was named White House Communications Director. Sean Spicer resigned as Press Secretary shortly after. The New York Times reported that Spicer resigned because he “vehemently disagreed” with the hire.

Related Memes

Bohemian Rhapsody Jokes

The day the Scaramucci hire was announced, a significant amount of Twitter users made similar jokes applying Scaramucci’s name to the lyrics of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, specifically the lyric, “Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?” The wide spread of the jokes was covered by Select All.^[2]

Misquoting Mark Twain

Futurama“That Guy”

Search Interest

External References

About

Crash Bandicoot “Woah” refers to a series of videos featuring audio of video game streamer Oney saying “woah!” dubbed over the video game character Crash Bandicoot.

Origin

In October 2016, YouTuber OneyPlays began uploading a series of videos in which he plays the 1997 platformer video game Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, in which he repeatedly says the word “woah” while jumping in the game (shown below).

Spread

On October 16th, 2016, YouTuber Greatrossturner uploaded a montage of Oney yelling “woah!” while jumping in the game (shown below, left). On November 14th, Greatrossturner uploaded a second montage of Oney saying the word while playing the game (shown below, right).

On January 3rd, 2017, a thread was submitted to 4chan’s /v/ (video games) board featuring a picture of Crash Bandicoot accompanied by the word “woah.”^[3] On April 25th, Redditor SomeStacheMan submitted a “Guys With Hair Like This” image macro featuring Crash Bandicoot to /r/crashbandicoot^[2] (shown below).

On July 8th, YouTuber Joseph J. Kuhr uploaded a video titled “Woah! | Crash Bandicoot™”, in which the 3D animated character repeatedly says “woah” (shown below, left). On July 18th, Kuhr uploaded a video of Crash Bandicoot saying “woah” in front of a green screen (shown below). On July 23rd, Redditor francistickles submitted a post asking “What’s with the Crash Bandicoot ‘whoa!’ videos?” to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[1] where it gathered upwards of 1,900 points (88% upvoted) and 80 comments within 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References

About

Tell An Amazing Fact refers to a series of image macros featuring the infamous Microsoft digital desktop assistant BonziBuddy. The meme contains two parts, the first sees BonziBuddy reading a piece of paper, as a cursor selects “Tell An Amazing Fact.” The second part shows BonziBuddy looking up and a speech bubble that contains something offensive, absurd or humorous.

Origin

“Tell An Amazing Fact” features the processes and image of BonziBuddy, a digital desktop assistant introduced on Microsoft’s Window platform in 1999. The purple gorilla mascot, however, did not appear until 2000.^[2] In addition to adding search bars to web browsers without user consent, leading to a lawsuit, users could ask BonziBuddy do things like sing, dance and tell jokes and “amazing facts.”

On July 9th, 2017, Redditor vader1941 posted the earliest known version of the “Tell An Amazing Fact” meme on the subreddit /r/ImGoingToHellForThis.^[1] In this version, BonziBuddy’s “Amazing Fact” is “Hitler did nothing wrong.” The thread received more than 300 points (89% upvoted).

Spread

One week later, on Redditor manman778 posted a variation on the meme featuring the “fact” “Anime is gay.” The post (shown below, left) received more than 3,000 points (93% upvoted) within one week.^[3]

On July 24th, two separate threads on the subreddit /r/MemeEconomy pointed to “Amazing Fact” as a potential new meme worthy of attention. Redditor FatMonkey4 posted two versions version with the “facts”: “Apes are fish in disguise” and “Death is optional” (shown below, center and right, respectively).^[4][5]

!{height:200px}

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Reddit – BonziBuddy Approves

^[2]Wikipedia – BonziBuddy

^[3]Reddit – iss gay af ni🅱️🅱️a

^[4]Reddit – New potential meme on the rise?

^[5]Reddit – New meme on the rise! BUYBUYBUY!

About

Hamburger Straws refer to a Photo Fad in which a person sticks a straw through a fast food hamburger and into their soda. The fad became popular in Japan before being covered by western media outlets.

Precursor

Before the trend included hamburgers and soda, a similar trend spread through Japan with doughnuts and iced coffee. On November 19th, 2016, dumbodc^[1] posted a photo example of the trend, suggesting the trend began growing popular in Japan late in 2016.

Spread

Various Examples

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External References

WIP

Basics
Extra Credits is a webseries on Youtube which covers the video game industry, design, and classification as an art. As of August 2017, they have 1.1 million subscribers.
Orgin
On Febuary 17, 2008, Daniel Floyd and James Portnow create the first “Videos games and…” episode as a gradute assignment. The series aired intermittently until April 10, 2010. The series continued to air on The Escapist from July 28, 2010 to August 10, 2011. The series was moved to PATV, hosted by Penny Arcade, until PA’s downsizing of partner services convinced the pair to move to Youtube, where Extra Credits offically began.

[WIP]

About

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, also known as simply Rainbow Six Siege, is a first person shooter video game and the latest entry in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series developed and published by Ubisoft. Released on December 1, 2015, the game garnered notoriety for its fast action multiplayer, similar to Valve’s Counter Strike: Global Offensive has garnered a niche fandom as well.

History

Reception

Online Relevance

Fandom

Related Memes

Lord Tachanka

Fooking Laser Sights

Fooking Laser Sights is a quote spoken by the character Thatcher in Rainbow Six Siege. The quote and its accompanying scene has since become the subject of remixes since the release of the game.

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About

The Magic School Bus/Captain Planet Theory is a popular fan theory about that the kids from The Magic School Bus eventually grew up and became the eco-friendly Planeteers in Captain Planet.

Origin

What this theory has going for it is that each child in the Magic School Bus does somewhat resemble one of the protagonists from Captain Planet.

Spread

Various Examples

Search Internet

About

3am clickbait videos refers to a trend of "Youtube"http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/youtube videos in which the subject of the video performs an action at 3:00 AM, usually either calling someone or playing with fidget spinners. Many of these videos have gained millions of views and have drawn criticism as obvious clickbait from various youtubers.

Search Interest

About

What Are You Watching refers to a series of exploitables based on a comic by artist Joan Cornellá. In the comic, a mother catches her son watching something inappropriate. She scolds him before changing the DVD to something even more inappropriate.

Origin

On January 27th, 2016, artist and cartoonist Joan Cornellá released a six-panel webcomic of a mother catching her son watching pornography.The comic (shown below) then features a mother forcing her son to watch a different DVD disc before the two enjoy a bestiality pornography film. While removed from several social channels, the comic still exists on Twitter, where it received more than 2,400 retweets and 2,500 likes.^[2] On Tumblr, it has more than 2,500 notes.^[3]

Spread

Various social channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, flagged the art as inappropriate, banning it from their sites, which he explained in a Tweet on June 1st.^[1] In the tweet, he said, “This comic strip was banned on FB and Instagram and some people reported it on Twitter. Good job, internet police!” The tweet (shown below) received more than 3,200 retweets and 4,200 likes.

Search Interest

Not Available

External References

A X Ate My X (or just Ate My….) is a meme originating on the site YTMND. It usually depicts a photoshopped image of a character or animal eating everyday objects or food.

Origin

The very first instance of the Ate My…. meme was posted to YTMND on October 17, 2006 by user Kassius. It depicted multiple images of a turtle munching on a small television set. As the next image appears, the screen flashes and so forth, giving them the impression that it’s moving like a video. The song in the background is taken from the 2003 puzzle game Mojipittan.

Spread

The image grew popular with the YTMND crowd and more variations started being created towards the end of 2006. Notable variations include 7 8 9 that depicts a poorly drawn seven (with monstrous features like sharp teeth) eating a nine, as well as Cosby Ate My Pokeman!, which is an image of Bill Cosby eating a Squirtle (with Cosby’s “Pokeman” quotes synched to the music).

Snail Gosh originated in May 2007 when the user Crash4563 began to be interested in YouTube Poops at the time however the influence for what would become Snail Gosh stems back to Frosties Kid Advert when one of the videos was uploaded back in 2006 it was reversed and this inspired Crash4563 the following year to see what it would be like if the Chocolate Guy was reversed and the user reversed the video but at the time did not have the technical ability to reverse videos so instead just reversed the audio of Chocolate Guy saying CHOCOLATE and uploaded into a video with just the audio only. This was known at the time as Still Nosh not Snail Gosh but gradually the name evolved into what would become Snail Gosh but unfortunately Crash4563 got suspended by Viacom in June 2007 for copyright violations but videos started to appear about Still Nosh/Snail Gosh.

About

#TrumpScoutBadges refers to a series of parodies, jokes and photoshops inspired by United States President Donald Trump speech at the 2017 Boy Scout Jamboree organized under the Twitterhashtag "#TrumpScoutBadges. The jokes come in the form of various scout-style merit badges that make reference to President Trump’s politics, history and controversies.

Origin

On July 24th, 2017, President Donald Trump delivered a speech before the Boy Scouts of America at the annual Boy Scout Jamboree at The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia.^[1]

The day of Trump’s speech, one Twitter user began using the hashtag "TrumpScoutBadges. It is the earliest known use of the tag. In a tweet (shown below), Twitter user @uneedlogic wrote, “Pussy Grabbing Badge.” The tweet received more than 20 retweets and 75 likes.^[2]

Spread

The following day, the hashtag went viral following a cartoon posted by The New Yorker magazine, which pointed out some of Trump’s supposed badges. On Twitter and their website, the New Yorker posted their Daily Cartoon, a Boy Scout sash filled with badges based on Trump’s personality, mocking his appearance and lifestyle. The post (shown below) received more than 2,100 retweets and 3,000 likes in 24 hours.^[3] On Facebook, the post received more than 25,000 reactions and 20,000 shares in under 24 hours.^[4]

Throughout the day, users continued to post photoshops and jokes about what a Trump merit badge might be. Others pointed to the fact that Trump had no merit badges because he was not a scout (examples below)

Several media outlets covered the hashtag and mock badges, including USA Today,^[6] Bustle,^[7] Elite Daily^[8] and more.

Similarly, The Washington Post newspaper published a satirical article entitled “A guide to Boy Scout ranks and badges, revised for Trump Scouts” that morning.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Ready Player One is a science-fiction, dystopian novel by Ernest Cline. After growing in popularity, a film adaptation was put into production. It is to be directed by Steven Spielberg and is set for release in 2018.

Plot Summary

Ready Player One follows Wade Watts in a dystopian future set in the year 2044.^[1] In the book, Watts, hunts for an “Easter egg” in a virtual reality game, the discovery of which will help him inherit a valuable fortune. In the year 2044, the world is wracked with an energy crisis as a result of the depletion of fossil fuels. People pass the time by living in a virtual reality world called OASIS, a program created by Jason Halliday. Before he died, Halliday announced that there was an Easter egg--a hidden message-- in the game, and the first person to discover it would inherit his fortune and company. Halliday was an avid fan of 80s culture, so much of the world contains references to 80s and 90s pop culture icons. The story begins as Watts finds one of the first clues to discover the Easter egg. As Watts goes on adventures, he develops a crush on Art3mis, a fellow hunter, and has a best friend named Aech.

History

The novel was published by Random House on August 16th, 2011. It was a New York Times Bestseller and a critical success. Critics lauded the novel’s wit and deep love of geek culture. The Huffington Post wrote the book “has it all – nostalgia, trivia, adventure, romance, heart and, dare I say it, some very fascinating social commentary.” USA Today wrote that the book made Cline “the hottest geek on the planet right now.”

Film Adaptation

The film rights were purchased by Warner Bros. on the same day Cline signed with Random House. Stephen Spielberg signed on to direct the film in March of 2015. On July 22nd, 2017, the first trailer for the film was released (shown below).

Backlash

Following the release of the trailer, both the book and film saw backlash on Twitter, where users criticized it for being a vast tableau of pandering, “nerd culture” references without any substance. A popular tweet by @donniemnemonic mocked a page in which the narrator offers a long list of 80s pop culture shows and films he had become obsessed with (shown below).

Neil Cicierega parodied the trailer by shouting “Whoa!” in a five-second clip in which various pop culture icons flash on the screen (shown below). AV Club^[2] and Fox News^[3] covered the backlash online against the film.

Fandom

Online, the book and film have decent followings. An official Facebook^[4] page for the film has 44,000 likes. There are also a few dozen illustrations under the #readyplayerone^[5] tag on DeviantArt.

Search Interest

External References

The Best Day Ever is a meme involving various terrible situations playing along with the song “Best Day Ever” from_* The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*_ (and later in the fourth season episode of the same name).

Origin

On YTMND, user MasterSitsu released a site that displayed footage of a gory beating from the film The Passion Of The Christ set to the SpongeBob song. Despite being released in March, it didn’t catch on until June.

Spread and Reception

As June rolled around, more versions of the meme began appearing. These include the burning of Anakin Skywalker, Paul Sheldon’s foot injury from Misery, and a Nazi solider getting run over by a tank from Band Of Brothers. And even then, there are more happier and hilarious variations such as SpongeBob’s Best Day Ever.

Overall reaction to the site was largely negative, which may explain its lack of popularity at first. Viewers criticized it for being too violent and too simple to make.

afgdfgsdfs dfsddsfdf dfs dfsgsasdfs sdgdfsggfdg fdf ghf gd asdsdf fd ds gdfg!Portal Protectors by Man!asfdsf

About

Not The Onion is a popular expression or catchphrase for expressing the opinion that a news story is so outlandish and unbelievable that it is reminiscent of the satirical newspaper The Onion.

Origin

While the satirical newspaper has been in publication since 1988, the phrase “Not the Onion” did not come into prominence until the mid-00s. On October 25th, 2008, the subreddit /r/NotTheOnion launched.^[1] This page allowed users to submit bizarre and funny news articles that look like satire but were, in fact, real. As of July 2017, the subreddit had more than 12 million subscribers.

Precursor

On August 13th, 2003, the website www.nottheonion.com was registered. While this is the first known usage of the phrase “Not the Onion,” the site does not abide by the popular definition.^[2] Instead, the site is an educational portal for learning to write satire.

Spread

Since the launching of the subreddit, the phrase has become used on other sites. The earliest known usage of the phrase as a hashtag on Twitter occured on February 17th, 2009.^[6] Twitter user @Shebanator commented (shown below), “RT @monkchips: Saudi Oil Minister Warns Against Hasty Transition to Renewable Energy – http://tinyurl.com/bryq65 ha! #NotTheOnion.”

One post on the Democratic Underground (shown below) made on October 4th, 2010 sees user lame54 use the phrase to describe the unusual circumstances of a story. They titled the thread, “I Swear – This Is NOT The Onion.”

On March 6th, 2012, the website theon1on.com launched, which archives and shares funny and bizarre news articles.^[3]

The following year, Not the Onion appeared on Twitter,^[4] when the account @ItsNotTheOnion joined on February 8th, 2013. The account, as of July 2017, has more than 1,000 followers. Two years later, on November 10th, 2015 a Facebook account called OnionFlavouredNews^[5] launched. As of July 2017, the page has more than 1,000 likes and 1,000 followers.

Search Interest

External References

1920s is a meme where users take clips or other memes and edit them to make them look like they’re taking place in the 1920s or done in the style of a silent film. Usually the song featured is “Happy Days Are Here Again”, though any other song related to the 20s is acceptable.

Origin

In August of 2005, user Ozone31 created a site on YTMND that takes a clip from the 2004 movie Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy of a cowboy getting stabbed by a pitchfork. The scene is done in a sepia tone with music typical of the 1920s playing throughout. Other additions are a title card saying “Ouch!” as the cowboy is hit (a reference to silent films) and fake mustache and top hat on his killer.

Spread

Not long after the site was posted, numerous other users embraced it and began making their own versions. A version with a movie clip (with speech done with title cards) is The Devious Snidely Grievous that makes use of a section of Star Wars III. A version with a meme is What is 1920s, which is an old school version of the What is Love meme.

Jayden The Vampire Boy is a meme based off a video made for children’s entertainment YouTube channel Jamster.

Origin

The video was originally uploaded to Jamster’s YouTube channel in 2010, though it did not become a meme until seven years later. The video depicts a CG vampire kid who wants to win the heart of a girl he encounters outside of her house. As he frolics the playground near him, he sings a Bieber-esque song about how he can’t do this due to being a different species before flying away as a bat. As of 2017, the upload sits at 2,027,529 views, though with a fair amount of dislikes.

Spread

Starting in April 2017, user chopping boss created a couple of mashups of the short animation and other videos/memes. These videos were having the whole thing play when characters from the Dragon Ball anime say “Dragon Ball” and a mashup with this and Casin by glue70.

He appears to be one of few users to continue this meme. In June 2017, he uploaded a mashup of Jayden and the Gorillaz song Saturn Barz, with Jayden’s lyric “All my life….” prominently repeated.

Later that month, a different user got in on it by uploading a one hour version.