About
Julia Has Autism is a meme based on a Sesame Street cartoon featuring Julia, a muppet who has autism.
Origin
On March 29 2017 YouTuber Carcinogenesis uploaded a video to his YouTube channel called “Julia Has A U T I S M”, gaining over 185,000 views and 4000 likes.

Spread
On April 6 2017, YouTuber darknd_115 uploaded an earrape video called “Julia has AUTISM” to YouTube, while YouTuber SirDiddleySquats uploaded a video called “JuLiA dOeS tHiNgS dIfFeReNtLy!” combining earrape with Milo Stewarts “All white people are racist” rant, gaining over 1800 views.

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Here comes dat old timey boi . Vintage dat boi . Created by meme station https://2thechoppaaa.deviantart.com/

About

Julia Has Autism is a meme based on a Sesame Street cartoon featuring Julia, a muppet who has autism.

Origin

On March 29 2017 YouTuber Carcinogenesis uploaded a video to his YouTube channel called “Julia Has A U T I S M”, gaining over 185,000 views and 4000 likes.

Spread

On April 6 2017, YouTuber darknd_115 uploaded an earrape video called “Julia has AUTISM” to YouTube, while YouTuber SirDiddleySquats uploaded a video called “JuLiA dOeS tHiNgS dIfFeReNtLy!” combining earrape with Milo Stewarts “All white people are racist” rant, gaining over 1800 views.

Examples

About

Where Is Gendry? refers to a series of jokes made about the long-awaited return of the character Gendry on the HBO fantasy telelvision series Game of Thones. After a four absence, Genry, last seen rowing into the sea, appeared in the fifth episode of season seven of Game of Thrones, to which many online made jokes about how he had been rowing since his exit.

Origin

About

Wrow is a stylization of “wow,” which was said in a popular Vine video by a man acting sarcastically impressed by a nearby girl vaping.

Origin

On February 26th, 2015, Vine user Jared Friedman^[1] posted a video in which a girl is seen vaping at a party. A man then turns to the camera and expresses his mock amazement by saying “wrow” (YouTube embed shown below). The Vine went on to amass over 453,000 likes and 226,000 revines.

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Overview

Late Capitalism or late-stage capitalism is term used by Marxists and left-leaning political activists to describe post-World War II capitalism. Online and in modern context, people use late capitalism to describe the gross wealth and income inequality between the rich and poor in the globalized world, particularly in how corporations and Silicon Valley manipulate the post-2008 economy to appear normal, livable or prosperous for the low and middle class.

History

German economist Werner Sombart coined the term “late capitalism” in 1902 in his book Der moderne Kapitalismus (“Modern Capitalism”).^[1] In the book, Sombart uses “late capitalism” to distinguish between early capitalism and the capitalism of the early 1900s. However, Marxists in post-World War II economy of 1945 use the term to disucss the end of capitalism, especially during the rise of multinational corporations. In his 1972 PhD dissertation, Marxist economist Ernest Mandel used the term to describe the failings of capitalism and a time that will enable socialists to seize the means of production.^[2]

In 1984 Fredric Jameson wrote an essay entitled Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, which he turned into a book in 1991. Jameson’s use of late capitalism is among the most cited today, appropriating the word to create a connection between modernity and economy. The Atlantic says, “Jameson argued that the globalized, post-industrial economy had given rise to postmodernist culture and art. Everything, everywhere, became commodified and consumable. High and low culture collapsed, with art becoming more self-referential and superficial. He told me he saw late capitalism as kicking into gear in the Thatcher and Reagan years, and persisting until today.”

In 2008, mentions of "late capitalism begin on Twitter (examples below). However, unlike post-Occupy use of the word, it is not used with the same sarcasm that would later become associated with the meme.

On April 12th, 2011, A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism by Peter Mountford is published.^[3] The book helps spread use of the term. The book description reads:

On his first assignment for a rapacious hedge fund, Gabriel embarks to Bolivia at the end of 2005 to ferret out insider information about the plans of the controversial president-elect. If Gabriel succeeds, he will get a bonus that would make him secure for life. Standing in his way are his headstrong mother, herself a survivor of Pinochet’s Chile, and Gabriel’s new love interest, the president’s passionate press liaison. Caught in a growing web of lies and questioning his own role in profiting from an impoverished people, Gabriel sets in motion a terrifying plan that could cost him the love of all those he holds dear.

In the tradition of Martin Amis, Joshua Ferris, and Sam Lipsyte--set against the stunning mountainous backdrop of La Paz and interspersed with Bolivia’s sad history of stubborn survival--Peter Mountford examines the critical choices a young man makes as his world closes in on him.

In 2011, during the Occupy Wall Street protests, late capitalism is used as a term describe the ills of capitalism following the economic recession. People on Twitter begin using the term to describe that which they are protesting.

During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election saw a resurged interest in late capitalism thanks, in part, to the popularity of democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, an independent senator, who ran as a democratic socialist. Around this time, “late capitalism” becomes a derogatory term for the problems created by capitalism in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis. It becomes meme online that describes the ways the post-economic crisis world is sold through lifestyle brands and the “gig economy.”

On August 3rd, 2017, The Atlantic^[4] published a video explainer about late capitalism entitled "What Does “Late Capitalism” Really Mean?" The video (shown below) examines the history of the term and what it means in the political climate of the 2017. It received more than 12,000 views in less than two weeks.

Related People

Bernie Sanders

Bernard “Bernie” Sanders (born September 8th, 1941) is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representative from 1991 to 2007 and currently serves as the junior United States Senator since being elected to the office in 2007. After over two decades of public service as an independent legislator for the state of Vermont, Sanders rose to national prominence with the launch of his campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination in the 2016 presidential election on May 26th, 2015. During his campaign, Sanders firmly established himself as a dark horse for the Democratic Party with primary and caucus victories in 22 states. In July 2016, Sanders officially endorsed his rival Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential candidate after she secured the number of delegates required for the party’s nomination.

Related Memes

United Airlines Passenger Removal

United Airlines Passenger Removal refers to the controversial ejection of a passenger from a United Airlines flight, after the airline informed the plane that they would be randomly selecting ticket-holders to give up their seats.

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi Ad

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi Ad refers to a commercial for Pepsi starring Kardashian family member Kendall Jenner in which Jenner joins a protest and offers a police officer a can of Pepsi. As soon it was posted online, the commercial was widely criticized and mocked online for its tone-deaf attempt to evoke the tense relationship between protest movements in America such as Black Lives Matter and police, which the commercial purports to ease via Pepsi.

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Immersive Sim is a sub-genre of game that are mostly played with a First-Person perspective while stealing many elements from Action Role-Playing Games like “The Elder’s Scrolls”, “Dungeon’s & Dragons” & “Ultima” series. The genre’s purpose is mainly to give the player the opportunity to take different approaches to reach a point A to B by exploiting the game’s mechanics, Level-Design, dialogues & lore in order encouraging the sense on immersion given by emergent gameplay & mechanics. Due to all those factors, the sub-genre acquired a lot of gratitude by the gaming press, gamers in general & mostly importants Internet’s figures such the 4chan’s discussion boards “/vg/”, amateur’s web critics, Indie game’s developpers & finally youtubers themselves (in particular Markiplier, Mark Brown, Anthony Fantano, Errant Signal & mostly, French streamer Benjamin Daniel A.K.A. Benzaie).

when steve and creeper on epic minequest on february 6th 2012 on charles the slime

About

Before the Liberals Find A Reason To Deface This Statue refers to a series of jokes on Twitter parodying a tweet by actor James Woods in which he captioned a picture of the United States Marine Corps War Memorial with “Before the #liberals find a reason to deface, destroy or degrade this one, I thought some of you might like to see it one more time…” In the parodies, Twitter users post pictures of various humorous statues with Woods’ caption.

Origin

On August 14th, 2017, actor James Woods tweeted a picture of the United States Marine Corps War Memorial, also known as the “Iwo Jima Memorial,” with the caption “Before the #liberals find a reason to deface, destroy or degrade this one, I thought some of you might like to see it one more time…” (shown below).^[1] Woods’ tweet came amidst debate in America following the 2017 Unite the Right Rally, which was started in protest of the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, the general of the Confederate Army in the United States Civil War, about whether America should remove statues of other prominent figures in the Confederacy. The tweet gained over 13,000 retweets and 28,000 likes.

Spread

Several hours after Woods’ tweet, dozens of Twitter users began to parody it by posting pictures of humorous and less iconic statues using his caption. One of the first notable examples was posted by @leftisbestwing,^[2] who used an image of a statue of the Jolly Green Giant, gaining over 150 retweets and 950 likes (shown below, left). One of the most popular examples was tweeted by @spookperson,^[3] who used the caption with an image of an inflatable buttplug, gaining over 820 retweets and 3,700 likes (shown below, right).

Hundreds of jokes were posted on Twitter by the following day, leading to coverage from Twitter Moments^[4] and The Wrap.^[5]

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About

Sonic Mania is a side-scrolling video game featuring Sonic the Hedgehog made by the Sega video game company. Released in 2017, fans and critics viewed the game as a return to form for the Sonic series, which after years of three-dimensional adventure games, revisited the franchise’s roots both in gameplay and design with 2D graphics and remastered versions of classic Sonic levels.

History

On July 22nd, during the San Diego Comic Con, Sega released the trailer for Sonic Mania, a new Sonic the Hedgehog video game reminiscent of the original installments. The game features new levels as well as remastered versions of levels from Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic CD, Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The trailer^[1] (shown below) has been viewed more than 855,000 times in one year.

Over the next week at San Diego Comic Con, the makers of the games held panels and premiered the trailer, answering questions about the game’s development.^[2] On July 24th, 2017, the YouTube account The Sonic Stadium posted the entire Sonic Mania panel (shown below, left). Two days later, YouTuber SEGAbits posted a video of fans reacting the Sonic Mania trailer. The video, as of August 2017, has received more than 193,000 views.

Two months later, on September 20th, Sega released the trailer for “Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition,” a limited version of the game that comes with a series of collectibles and statues. The trailer, which parodies infomercials of the 1990s, has received more than 200,000 views in less than a year.

On August 15th, 2017, Sega released Sonic Mania on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. However, though originally slated for release on Microsoft Windows, the company delayed release for further optimization.^[4]

Reception

Sonic Mania received generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom considered the game a return to form after decades of disappointing sequels. On the review aggregator site Metacritic,^[5] the game received a score of 86 from critics. Video game website Gamespot^[6] said:

“Sonic Mania methodically uses its sentimental appeal to great effect, but in the process, it heals the wounds inflicted by its most disappointing predecessors and surpasses the series’ best with its smart and interpretive design. An excellent 2D platformer, Sonic Mania goes beyond expectations, managing to be not only a proper evolution of the series’ iconic formula, but the best Sonic game ever made.”

On August 14th, YouTuber videogamedunkey^[7] uploaded his positive review of the game. Within 24 hours, the video (shown below) has been viewed more than 1.2 million times.

Fandom

On August 14th, Redditor Sages posted “Sonic Mania Review Thread” in the /r/Games.^[8] Within 24 hours, the post received more than 1,200 points (92% upvoted) and more than 500 comments.

Sonic Mania also became the inspiration for fan art on the website DeviantArt^[9] (examples below).

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About

Dear North Korea, Let’s Settle This Like Men refers to a series of image macros that humorously assert that the tensions between the United States and North Korea regarding the latter’s controversial nuclear weapons program could be resolved by playing a video game.

Origin

In August 2017, tensions between the United States and North Korea rose due to reports that the North Korean government led by Kim Jong Un had developed a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Following a response from U.S. President Donald Trump, North Korea then threatened to strike the U.S. territory of Guam.^[1]

On August 8th, 2017, Twitter^[2] user @Shelg0n posted a picture of the GameCube video game Super Smash Bros. Melee. They captioned the tweet “Dear North Korea, Enough is enough, send your best player and we’ll settle this like men.” The post (shown below) received more than 35,000 retweets and 72,000 likes in less than a week.

Spread

The initial tweet has been shared numerous times by various meme accounts on Twitter. However, the first variation of the meme occurred the following day. Twitter^[2] user @BiggerShaun321 posted an image of the Rust map from the video game Call of Duty with the caption “Dear North Korea, We dont need war, just send your best players and we can settle it here.” The post (shown below) received more than 10 retweets and 20 likes. However, when shared by the account @LucidRoxsur, the tweet^[4] received more than 270 retweets and 500 likes. The tweet^[5] was a variation of a popular meme regarding rappers Meek Mill and Drake.

Over the next few days, other people on Twitter posted the image of a different video game or other activity, with the caption being some variation on “Dear North Korea…Let’s settle this like men.” The joke of these tweets played on the idea that a video game would be the most civilized way to solve nuclear proliferation.

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Overview

Durham Statue Toppling refers to a protest in Durham, North Carolina in which protestors tore down a statue honoring the Confederate side in the United States Civil War. The event prompted strong reactions online as well as a series of jokes regarding the statue’s crumpled form after it fell to the ground.

Background

On August 14th, 2017, Two days after the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in which far-right protestors and white supremacists protested the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, leftist protestors in Durham, North Carolina tore down a statue outside of the old Durham County Courthouse honoring “the boys who wore the gray,” referring to the uniform of the confederate army.^[1] The statue had stood since 1924, 60 years after the Civil War, and was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.^[4] The statue fell to the ground and crumpled (video shown below).

Developments

Following the protest, reactions to the protestor’s actions were mixed. Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina suggested that there is a better way to have confederate monuments removed on Twitter.^[2] Charlie Reece of the Durham City Council posted a popular tweet in which he received an email from a person asking him to consider removing the statue, along with his response that the statue no longer stood (shown below).^[3] The tweet gained 4,000 retweets and over 13,000 likes.

Some conservatives were appalled by the event. The American Conservative^[5] called the event a result of “mob rule,” while more left-leaning publications framed the protestors as “heroic.”^[7] On August 15th, the Sheriff of Durham County Mike Andrews announced that he would be seeking charges on the protestors.^[6]

Online Reactions

While some online echoed the appall of some conservatives, the majority of popular online reactions celebrated the protestors. Several popular tweets used the image of the crumpled statue as a reaction image, while others parodied conservative responses to the event by posting different statues, defending them as “conservative monuments” (examples shown below). These jokes were covered by The Fader.^[7]

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About

Venmo is a mobile payments application for internet-ready mobile and desktop platforms that allows people to send and receive money to each other regardless of bank or device. The app works as a bank, keeping money in an account, but linking to the user’s checking account or credit card if the user has insufficient credit.

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Overview

March on Google is a series of protests planned at various Google campuses around the World to take place on August 19th, 2017.

Background

On August 7th, 2017, Google fired engineer James Damore after an internal memo criticizing the company’s diversity initiatives was leaked to the media, causing a backlash on social media. The following day, the MarchOnGoogle^[1] blog was launched, announcing plans to protest the corporation for “abusing its power to silence dissent and manipulate election results.” Additionally, the site urged readers to post the hashtag “MarchOnGoogle with your best memes.”

Developments

On August 12th, the alt-right rally “Unite the Right” was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which a car struck a group of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people. The following day, March on Google released a statement condemning “violence and silencing free speech as a means of promoting any political agenda” and that “any individual attempting to incite violence during the March on Google will not be part of our event.”^[4] On August 14th, NY Mag^[3] published an article referring to the planned protests as “alt-right demonstrations.” That day, the MarchOnGoogle blog published a “code of conduct” disavowing “White Nationalists, KKK, Antifa and NeoNazis,” and explicitly denied being an “alt-right event” (shown below).

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Russian Cat Translations refers to a trend on Tumblr in which pictures of cats in humorous situations are uploaded with captions written in Russian. Then, another user reblogs the photo with the Russian text translated to English, usually revealing something humorous.

Origin

The Russian source for many popular posts is Tumblr user markv5,^[1] a Russian Tumblr user who began posting mostly photos of cats in January of 2015. Meme Documentation^[2] traces the first post of makv5’s to be popularly translated into English a picture of a cat in a watering can uploaded November 27th, 2016.^[3] On January 5th, 2017, Tumblr user alexyar^[4] provided a translation of markv5’s caption, “another proof that cats are liquid.” The post gained over 150,000 notes (shown below).

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forum

Overview

Alt-Left refers to a loosely defined group of left-wing principles, organizations, politicians and activists, encompassing almost everything outside the norm of mainstream democratic liberal politics. Used as both a pejorative and an affirmative, alike, alt-left has been used as a catchall term for far-left political ideologies such as socialism, anarchism, communism as well as antifa groups. However, because this term remains so undefined and widely denounced amongst the groups associate with it, many of the ideologies within the so-call “alt-left” contradict from group to group.

History

On May 29th, 2010, the Swiss political party the Alternative Left (or “Alternative Linke”) was founded.^[1] The party’s goals were to unite the far-left political parties of Switzerland under a democratic socialist platform.^[2] The party’s website reads (translated to English):

“A call to all these women and men of our country, who are locally involved in the social movement, trade unionism, the associative fabric, environmental struggles, growth objection, food sovereignty, culture: let’s create this together A new left-wing political force, an ecosocialist, which is so much lacking in Switzerland.”

On August 4th, 2015, Redditor launched zxz242 the subreddit /r/AlternativeLeft.^[3] According to the Reddit’s purpose, the subreddit is open to all far-left leaning ideas. It reads:

"To improve communication between individuals who are dissatisfied with the behaviour and morality common to the mainstream Left and the far-Left.

This is oriented to be a place for Left-wing Nationalism, Left Communism, Anarchism of all branches, and any other form of political revisionism.

Yes, syncretic politics are welcome among regulars and contributors, so long as they’re based on empirical evidence, and not on mysticism, romanticism, and traditionalism."

On October 12th, 2015, the website AltLeft.com was registered.^[4]

Highlights

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Wikipedia – “Alternative Left”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_Left

^[2]Alternative Linke – CALL

^[3]Reddit – /r/AlternativeLeft

^[4]Who.Is – altleft.com

About

Oh, Fuck You Luigi is a misheard quote from Super Mario Bros. Super Show in which Mario, played by Lou Albano, says “Oh, thank you, Luigi,” but his inflection makes it sound like he is saying “Oh, fuck you Luigi.” The clip has become notable online and has grown into an interesting piece of trivia for fans, particularly the Let’s Play community.

Origin

The episode featuring the quote in question, “Neatness Counts,” was the pilot episode of Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which aired September 4th, 1989.^[1] The line occurs almost immediately in the episode, after Luigi points out Mario has spaghetti on his overalls (shown below). The clip has been uploaded to YouTube several times; the video shown below, uploaded by Ville Mustonen, has over 226,000 views.

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The moment had been mentioned online sparingly. On September 19th, 2009, a post on Fluther.com^[2] inquired about the moment. It has also been included in the TV Tropes^[3] page about the show as an example of “Memetic Mutation.” On January 28th, 2015, Docmock97 of the JonTron subreddit^[4] posted the clip, mentioning Jafari had talked about the scene at a recent panel. On September 20th, 2016, Vinesauce Joel tweeted the scene, gaining over 100 retweets and 330 likes (shown below).

On March 2nd, 2017, during an episode of “Oney Plays,” the Let’s Play channel of OneyNG, Oney, gamer DingDongVG, and Julian Marcel begin talking about the show. DingDongVG attempts to tell the group about the “Oh, fuck you Luigi” quote, to which the group is incredulous (shown below, left). The moment became popular in the Oney fandom and online as more people became aware of the clip. On April 17th, the channel uploaded an animation of the segment from their Let’s Play video by SuperProWaffles, gaining over 389,000 views (shown below, right).

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Hey There Demons refers to a screenshot of an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural in which a man addresses ghosts that may be in a room with “Hey there demons, it’s me, ya boy.” The shot became a reaction image in jokes where a person casually addresses their mental problems.

Origin

On April 7th, 2017, online show Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural uploaded an episode in which the cast investigates Bobby Mackey’s Music World, a rumored “portal to hell.” Late in the episode, cast member Shane Madej goes into a dark room and attempts to address any supposed demons in the room with “Hey there demons, it’s me, ya boy.” The episode has gained over 4.5 million views (shown below).

Spread

On May 27th, 2017, Tumblr user benpllatt^[1] uploaded a GIF of the moment along with another moment in which Madej casually addresses ghosts, gaining over 24,000 notes (shown below). The image was then posted to Instagram by _bookshelfie on June 8th.^[2]

On June 26th, 2017, Twitter user @FreddyAmazin^[3] tweeted the GIF as a reaction image to the caption “me: i need a break from social media!! me, logging in again 10 minutes later bc i need to live tweet my breakdown:”, gaining over 3,100 retweets and 8,700 likes (shown below, left). He would use the image as a reaction image again on July 25th,^[4] this time with the caption “when the anxiety and depression kick in hard,” gaining over 12,000 retweets and 29,000 likes (shown below, right). The phrase has also been used on Twitter with various different images.

Some video remixes of the clip have appeared on YouTube as well. On August 2nd, YouTuber valeriaguzman uploaded a video of the clip playing on loop for 2 minutes, gaining over 6,000 views (shown below, left). On August 4th, YouTuber Robstza Lobsza uploaded an ear rape version of the clip, gaining over 1,000 views (shown below, right).

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Terry, Are You Reading a Book refers to a line of dialogue from a series of exploitables based on the “Safely Endangered” webcomic by artist Chris McCoy.^[1] In the comic, a bird reads a book and uses that information to request sex from another bird. The memes, however, change the name of the book and the information used.

Origin

On June 10th, 2016, the Safely Endangered^[2] posted a four-panel webcomic entitled "The Art of Seduction. The comic features two birds, one of whom reads a book called “The Art of Seduction.” In the following panels, the bird sees another bird and says, “Hey, fancy a shag?” That day, Redditor^[4] jungle-boogie posted the comic in the /r/comics subreddit, recieved more than 680 points (90% upvoted). When posted on the Safely Endangered Facebook] the post (shown below) received more than 5,300 reactions, 830 shares and 300 comments in less than a month.

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External References

^[1]Webtoon – Safely Endangered

^[2]Safely Endangered – The Art of Seduction

^[3]Facebook – Safely Endangered’s Post

^[4]Reddit – The Art of Seduction