About

I Killed Man is an exploitable webcomic in which a large prisoner reveals he “killed a man” before scooting the other side of a bench after his cellmate reveals a variety of customized reasons for his imprisonment.

Origin

On July 30th, 2009, the gaming news site Dueling Analogs^[2] published a comic titled “Xbox Killer,” in which a large, bald inmate reveals he was convicted of “kidnapping a guy, tying him to a tree and forcing him to watch me dig up and violate his dead mother’s corpse,” to which his cellmate reveals he “bought an Xbox 360 just to watch it die,” leading the bigger prisoner to distance himself to the other side of the cell (shown below).

Spread

On July 27th, 2010, Team Liquid Forums^[1] member Manit0u posted an edited version of the comic in which the smaller prisoner identifies himself as the director of “2 Girls 1 Cup” (shown below).

On August 18th, 2012, BodyBuilding Forums^[5] user ace_gauntlit started a thread with a blank template of the comic. On January 30th, 2013, a blank template of the comic was submitted to 4chan, where other users were invited to customize the speech bubbles (shown below). That day, a collection of examples from the thread was submitted to /r/4chan[3 subreddit.

On June 30th, 2017, Redditor Marvellous_Napkins submitted the comic with the caption “I laughed at a 9gag meme” to /r/MemeEconomy, where it gathered upwards of 16,100 points (82% upvoted) and 150 comments within three months (shown below, left). On October 8th, Redditor RastaLasagna submitted an edit of the comic referencing swearing on a Christian server (shown below, right). Over the next 24 hours, the post received more than 830 points (84% upvoted) on /r/dankmemes.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Porgs are small, puffin-like creatures found on the planet Ahch-To in the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Since the release of behind-the-scenes and preview footage of the film, porgs have been a topic of conversation, jokes and memes, particularly one shot of a porg screaming, which has been used in various reaction images and photoshops.

Origin

On July 15th, 2017, the official Star WarsYouTube^[1] account posted a video of behind-the-scenes footage for the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which premiered at D23. About two minutes into the clip, a porg can be scene looking up at the camera. This is considered to be the earliest public appearance of porgs.

Spread

Five days later, StarWars.com^[5] published an interview with Pablo Hidalgo, a member of the Lucasfilm Story Group on porgs. In the interview, Hidalgo said, “Porgs are native to Ahch-To, and can be found dwelling along the cliffs of the island where Luke and Rey are. In many ways, they’re the Star Wars version of puffins. They build nests. They can fly. Their babies are called porglets.”

Shortly after the release of footage, numerous media outlets reported on the popularity of the characters, including Polygon,^[2] Mashable,^[3]CNET^[4] and more.

While the characters have become something of a fan favorite, some have reacted negatively to porgs. On September 7th, 2017, Redditor whitemike40 posted an image of a storm trooper holdings a porgs decapitated head on the /r/StarWars^[6] subreddit. The post (shown below) received more than 7,200 points (90% upvoted) and 240 comments in one month.

Screaming Porg

On October 9th, the final trailer for Star Wars The Last Jedi was released (shown below). In the trailer, at about 1:30, a porg can be seen screaming with the character Chewbacca. The video received more than 10 million views in less than 24 hours.

Shortly after the trailer was released, people online began using the moment as a reaction image. On Twitter, people would post the picture of the porg screaming with a humorous caption (examples below). That night, Twitter^[7] published a Moments page about the reaction to the porgs.

The image also became the popular image to photoshop. That night, Twitter^[8] user @GenePark posted a variation of the Distracted Boyfriend featuring the boyfriend ignoring the character Jar Jar Binks for the screaming porg. The tweet (shown below) received more than 6,300 retweets and 17,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

The following day, Redditor^[9] tommy0b started a photoshop battle on the /r/photoshopbattles, inspiring other Redditors to post photoshopped versions of the moment. Within four hours, the post had more than 4,900 points (92% upvoted) and 100 comments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Portrayed By Spongebob refers to a series of parody videos which take scenes from Spongebob Squarepants and has them represent the different facets of a certain category of pop culture. Since the first video of this type was uploaded to YouTube in early 2017, hundreds of variations have appeared there.

Origin

On February 11th, 2017, YouTuber rokamo uploaded a video which paired Spongebob Squarepants scenes with playable characters from Super Smash Bros. Wii U. The video gained over 790,000 views (shown below).

Spread

In the following months, rokamo would upload several other popular variations on the theme. On May 2nd, they uploaded a clip where he paired Smash Bros. characters they’d missed from Smash Bros. Wii U as well as characters from previous entries in the franchise, gaining over 240,000 views (shown below, left). On June 7th, they uploaded a clip pairing Spongebob characters with video games in general, gaining over 540,000 views (shown below, right).

After rokamo popularized the style, many other YouTubers uploaded variations where Spongebob represented various subcultures. On September 30th, 2017, Indientis uploaded a version which paired Spongebob with various websites, gaining over 1.3 million views (shown below, left). On September 3rd, jackoshap4 uploaded a version which paired Spongebob with countries, gaining over 756,000 views (shown below, right).

Many of the popular examples have been created by a few YouTubers: jackoshap4, rakamo, and Barbacus.^[1]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

I Gave You All the Clues refers to parodies of a poster advertising the 2017 crime thriller The Snowman. The titular Snowman is the nickname given to a serial killer in the film. The film’s marketing poster shows a note from the character which reads, “Mister police. You could have saved her. I gave you all the clues.” The line has been paired with various humorous pictures on Twitter.

Origin

On July 18th, 2017, Working Title pictures released a poster for The Snowman ahead of the film’s first trailer.^[1] The poster reads “Mister police. You could have saved her. I gave you all the clues” (shown below).

The film’s trailer was released the following day by Zero Media’s YouTube channel, gaining over 9.5 million views (shown below).

Spread

Mentions of the poster began appearing on Twitter several months later, coinciding with the time the posters began appearing in New York City subway stations. Many Twitter users took notice of the film’s advertising campaign. On October 9th, Twitter user @davidlsims^[3] posted a picture of the tweet, saying, “never getting tired of this. these posters should be mandated to stay up forever” (shown below, left). The same day, @theJoshBanks^[4] tweeted his disbelief that the movie the poster was advertising, saying “I don’t know if it’s the Mister Police or the little snowman at the bottom. If I was a memesman I would meme the shit out of it” (shown below, right).

Parodies of the line began appearing around the same time. On September 27th, 2017, Twitter user @strictmachine^[2] applied the quote to a screenshot of Animal Crossing (shown below, left), marking the first example of a parody on Twitter. On October 10th, Twitter user @pilotbacon^[5] tweeted the quote and paired it with a poster for the film Jack Frost, a movie in which Michael Keaton turns into a snowman.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

A few years back, in 2012 “DJ KEEMSTAR” made a song called “DOLLAR in the WOODS” on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dan-keem/dollar-in-the-woods

Then on October 8th 2017 he Uploaded an actual Music video on YouTube that was based on his old song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n38Qxi7TVWo

Overview

Marvel/Northrup Grumman Partnership Controversy refers to the online backlash against an announced partnership between Marvel and aerospace and defense technology company Northrup Grumman. After Marvel announced the partnership and that it would host a panel with Northrup Grumman at New York Comic Con 2017 to talk about a series of planned crossover comics between Marvel’s Avengers and characters from Northrup Grumman called “N.G.E.N.S,” Marvel fans voiced their anger online at the partnership, leading the Comic Con event and the partnership to be cancelled.

Background

Developments

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About

Knack refers to a series of platforming beat-em-up video games developed for the Playstation 4. While generally received as average, the games received an ironic following a running joke about them from YouTuber videogamedunkey

Search History

External References

^[1]Meme Generator – Knack

Overview

Dove Facebook Ad Controversy refers to a short advertisement for Dove body wash in which women take off their shirts to reveal another woman underneath, which was accused of being racist for showing a black woman changing into a white woman after removing her shirt.

Background

On

Developments

Online Reaction

Following the release of the ad, Twitter user @AriannaModels tweeted a screenshot of the black woman turning into the white woman, along with the message “Wtf is this suppose to mean @dove” (shown below). Within 72 hours, the tweet gained over 16,200 retweets and 13,000 likes.

Dove’s Apology

On October 7th, the ad was removed from Facebook and the @Dove^[3] Twitter account tweeted an apology, saying “an image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully.” Two days later, Dove tweeted a statement that the ad was “intended to convey that Dove body wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity” but that they “got it wrong” (shown below).^[4]

Online Reaction

On October 9th, 2017, “The Young Turks”: released an episode discussing the ad (shown below).

Lola Ogunyemi’s Response

On October 10th, an op-ed authored by Nigerian model Lola Ogunyemi was published by The Guardian titled “I am the woman in the ‘racist Dove ad’. I am not a victim,” in which she

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Eminem’s Anti-Trump BET Freestyle refers to a video by rapper Eminem that aired during the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards in which he delivers a freestyle rap, or “cypher,” against President Donald Trump. The political rap was divisive online, as some people praised the rap while others were less impressed and mocked some, particularly political pundit Keith Olbermann, for their overenthusiastic response.

Background

On October 10th, 2017, Eminem released a video during the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards in which he delivered a cypher, a style of hip-hop in which one freestyles in a relaxed manner without following a beat, against Donald Trump.

Developments

Keith Olbermann Reaction

Search Interest

External References

About

Nose Hair Extensions are false eyelashes placed around or inside one’s nostrils to appear as if they are overgrown nose hairs.

Origin

On October 4th, 2017, Instagram user @gret_chen_chen uploaded a photograph of herself with eyelash extensions placed around each of her nostrils, along with the caption “nose hair extension #nosehair #lashes #extensions #beauty #selfie #eyelash extensions #falselashes” (shown below). Within one week, the post gained over 520 likes.

Spread

On October 6th, YouTuber Davison Video uploaded footage of herself putting false eyelashes on her nostrils (shown below).

On October 8th, makeup artist Sophie Hannah Richardson posted a nose hair extension video to her Facebook page, which received more than 163,000 views and 1,200 reactions within 48 hours (shown below, left). The same day, YouTuber Taylor R テイラー uploaded a video titled “I Tried Nose Hair Extensions (Instagram Beauty Trends)” (shown below, right).

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the nose hair extension videos, including The Mirror, Metro and LadBible.

Search Interest

External References

About

Doki Doki Literature Club is a free-to-play psychological horror game created by the game development studio Team Salvato, which is presented as if it is a romance visual novel.

History

On February 12th, 2017, Team Salvato founder Dan Salvato posted an ""ask me anything"": thread to the /r/smashbros subreddit, where he hinted about the game, saying “I’m also doing some stuff for a literature club.”^[1] On September 8th, 2017, Salvato tweeted that he would “reveal information” regarding his “never-before-seen next big project” the following week (shown below).^[3]

The following week, the Team Salvato Twitter feed was launched.^[4] On September 22nd, the trailer for Doki Doki Literature Club was uploaded to the Team Salvato YouTube channel (shown below).

Online Presence

Fandom

On September 24th, 2017, the /r/DDLC^[5] subreddit was created for discussions about the video game. On September 26th, YouTube ManlyBadassHero uploaded the first in a series of ""Let’s Play"": videos of the game (shown below).

On October 6th, the Doki Doki Literature Club Wiki was launched.^[2] On Twitch,^[6] a directory was created for streams of the game.

Search Interest

External References

About

#MyNationalAnthemChallenge refers to a social game popular on Instagram in which people take videos of themselves holding their hands over their hearts reverently with different tracks playing in the background. The challenge pokes fun at the #TakeAKnee controversy surrounding the NFL’s National Anthem protests.

Origin

On October 10th, 2017, Instagram user incarlwetrust uploaded a video of himself holding his hand over his heart while listening to Lil Troy’s “Wanna Be A Baller” captioned “My National Anthem.” The video gained 2,800 views in one day (shown below).

Spread

Over the course of the following two days, over 675 posts were uploaded to Instagram with the “#MyNationalAnthemChallenge” hashtag. Most notably, popular musician Kehlani uploaded a video of herself performing the challenge to her 4 million followers, popularizing the challenge (shown below).

Uproxx^[1] first covered the spreading challenge on October 11th.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About

Rotten Tomatoes is a review aggregator, curating critical analysis and assessments for film and television. Since 1998, Rotten Tomatoes has been accused of diluting critical analysis for its audience and reader-friendly scoring system, which rates media as “fresh” or “rotten.” As the site has become more popular, those within the movie industry have accused the site of hurting box office residuals.

History

Rotten Tomatoes was launched by Senh Duong on August 18th, 1998. Duong, who started the site as a hobby, aimed “to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U.S.”^[1] 1998’s Your Friends & Neighbors became the first film reviews published on the site, and shortly after its launch it started to attract significant traffic. According to Senh, it received more about 100 reviews on its first day and mentions from USA Today and Netscape.^[2]

Senh said:

“I had the idea while searching for reviews of Jackie Chan imports -- Rumble in the Bronx, Supercop, Twin Dragons, and First Strike.

In high school, I started looking at the box office charts every week to see what movies were popular. I also started watching Siskel & Ebert, which obviously had a huge influence on me. When I was started picking a domain name for Rotten Tomatoes, I was gonna call it “Thumbs Up” as a tribute to them, but luckily (for copyright reasons), all variations of the show’s trademarked rating system were taken. I ended up with Rotten Tomatoes because I didn’t think anyone had used it as domain name. And I was right! So I guess the love of Jackie Chan movies and Siskel & Ebert eventually gave birth to Rotten Tomatoes."

By the year 2000, he took the site on full time (shown below, Rotten Tomatoes in 2000)

In 2004, the site was purchased by IGN Entertainment, which was later acquired by Fox Interactive Media in 2005. In 2010, IGN sold Rotten Tomatoes to Flixster, who in turn sold it to Warner Bros. in 2012. Four years later, Warner Bros sold Rotten Tomatoes and Flixter to Fandango.^[3]

Features

Highlights

Search Interest

External References

About

What R U Going To Gain From It? refers to an exploitable series of images that imagine an iPhone text message conversation between two people. The first texts a picture of themselves to the wrong number. The person on the other end replies that they will expose some sort of private information gleaned from the picture. The first person then replies “What r u going to gain from it?”

Origin

On August 11th, 2016, Twitter user @Fkod_Tristan^[1] posted a picture of a text message he mistakenly received from a man in prison. After telling the man he would expose him for having a cell phone in prison, the man in prison responded “What r u going to gain from it?” The tweet gained over 3,000 tweets and likes (shown below).

Spread

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

Background

On October 3rd, 2017, YouTuber iDubbbz uploaded an episode of his series Content Cop deceptively titled “Content Cop – Jake Paul,” which refers to vlogger RiceGum as the “Asian Jake Paul” for being a pompous, lying and unethical braggart (shown below).

Developments

On October 3rd, YouTuber Boyinaband uploaded behind-the-scenes footage from making the diss track with iDubbbz, which garnered upwards of 4.3 million views and 13,100 comments within 10 days (shown below).

RiceGum’s Response

Also on October 3rd, RiceGum uploaded a short sketch in which he reacts to the Content Cop episode (shown below, left). On October 7th, RiceGum uploaded a longer response video to his channel titled “My Response to Content Cop (Diss Track)” (shown below, right). Within five days, the video gathered upwards of 7.8 million views and 298,000 comments.

<br.

On October 9th, RiceGum released a preview of the diss track directed at iDubbbz (shown below, left). The following day, the full diss track music video was released, which gained over 8.7 million views and 387,000 comments over the next 48 hours (shown below, right).

Content Deputy Episode

On October 11th, iDubbbz released an episode of Content Deputy, in which he reacts to RiceGum’s response video (shown below). Over the next 24 hours, the video accumulated upwards of 5.3 million views and 122,000 comments. That day, the video reached the front page of the /r/videos,^[2] /r/idubbbz^[1] and /r/h3h3productions^[3] subreddits.

Search Interest

External References

About

King Dice is a villainous character in the run-and-gun platformer game Cuphead. Since the game’s release, the character has been depicted in numerous examples of fan art and various meme templates.

Origin

King Dice appears in Cuphead, which was release September 29th, 2017.^[1] He plays the devil’s right hand man and the gatekeeper to the devil, only allowing the protagonists to pass him when they have defeated every boss prior to him. Notably, in his area, “The Die House,” a jazz song plays (shown below). He also is the game’s penultimate boss.

Spread

Fan Art

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Rich Chigga is the stage name of Brian Imanuel, the Indonesian-based rapper and internet comedian who rose to fame with the release of his viral debut single “Dat $tick” on YouTube in March 2016.

Online History

Imanuel released his debut track “Living the Dream” via his personal YouTube account on July 17th, 2015, which has been since removed from the channel. On February 22nd, 2016, Imanuel uploaded the music video of his single “Dat $tick” to the YouTube channel. In the music video, Rich Chigga is seen rapping in cargo shorts with a fanny pack around his waist. Upon its premiere on YouTube, the music video quickly went viral, gaining millions of views within weeks. Following its online success, “Dat $tick” was formally released as Rich Chigga’s debut digital single on Apple Music, Spotify and SoundCloud on March 11th. The song eventually peaked at #4 Billboard’s Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart in June 2016.

Rappers React to “Dat $tick”

On June 12th, 2016, 88rising, the U.S.-based online media and talent management company behind Imanuel, released a reaction video featuring a group of rappers, including Desiigner, Cam’ron, Ghostface Killah, 21 Savage and MadeinTYO, all of whom praised Imanuel’s music video for its ironic humor, as well as his lyrical flow.

On August 9th, 2016, Imanuel released his second single “Who That Be” on iTunes. On October 12th, 2016, 88rising released a remix edition of “Dat $tick” featuring Ghostface Killah and Pouya. Within the first year, the video garnered more than 11 million views.

Search Interest

External References

About

She’s Beautiful. Who Is? The Girl Reading This is a phrase featured in image macros intended to surprise a girl seeing the image by breaking the fourth wall and calling her beautiful. It became the subject of ironic iterations in the mid-2010s due to its cringeworthy nature.

Origin

The phrase has appeared in various iterations for several years. For example, an image employing the concept was tweeted on June 5th, 2012 by @RileyRainbow01^[1] (shown below).

Spread

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

W.I.P.

About

God of War is an action-adventure hack and slash video game series loosely based on Greek mythology, originally created by David Jaffe at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio.
The protagonist of the series is Kratos Kratos and anti-hero of the God of War series. Born a Spartan, Kratos held the military rank of General, and would ascend to being a God before exacting his revenge on the Olympians who betrayed him.

The series has become a flagship title for the PlayStation brand, consisting of seven games across multiple platforms. An eighth installment is currently in development and it will be a reboot based on the north mythology.

Reception

In June 2012, Sony reported that the series had sold more than 21.65 million copies worldwide (as of April 2016, Sony has not released updated sales data). God of War, God of War II, Chains of Olympus, God of War Collection, and God of War III have each received critical acclaim from several reviewers as compiled by review aggregate Metacritic.Betrayal and Ghost of Sparta only received generally favorable reception.Ascension also only had a generally favorable reception but it has the lowest score in the series from Metacritic (80/100).

At the time of its release, Raymond Padilla of GameSpy wrote that the first entry of the series is the “best action game ever to grace the PS2”.Critics have similarly said that it is one of the best action games of all time; it received over a dozen “Game of the Year” awards.
God of War II has similarly been called one of the best action games of all time and is considered the “swan song” of the PlayStation 2 era. In November 2012, Complex.com named God of War II the best PlayStation 2 game of all time--where God of War was named the 11th best--and consider it better than its successor, God of War III.Betrayal was acclaimed for its fidelity to the series in terms of gameplay, art style, and graphics.

Chains of Olympus has been praised for “fantastic” graphics and “tight and responsive” controls.In 2008.God of War III received praise for its graphics, in particular of Kratos; IGN stated that Kratos is “perhaps the single most impressive-looking character ever in videogames.”

IGN also said that God of War III“redefines what the word ‘scale’ means with regards to videogames, as it throws you into scenes with Titans that are larger than entire levels in some other games”.It received awards for “Most Anticipated Game of 2010” and “Best PS3 Game” at the 2009 and 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, respectively.The game also won the “Artistic Achievement” award at the 2011 BAFTA awards.

Ghost of Sparta was praised for its graphics and story, with Chris Pereira of 1UP saying that it was “a more personal story than the other GOW games.”It received several awards at E3 2010 including “Best Handheld Game”, “Best PSP Game”, and “PSP Game of Show”,and won “Best Handheld Game” at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards.

History

Console games

God of War-2005

God of War 2-2007

God of War 3-2010

God of War Ascension-2013

God of War-2018

Portable console games

God of War:Chains of Olympus-2008

God of War:Ghost of Sparta-2010

About

Call Me By Your Name Dance refers to remixes of a scene from the film Call Me By Your Name starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet in which Hammer dances to the song “Love My Way” by Psychedelic Furs. After being released online ahead of the film, it was remixed several times such that it appeared that Hammer’s character was dancing to different songs. These clips were posted by Novelty Twitter Account @armiedancingto.

Origin

On October 11th, 2017, the Sony Pictures Classics YouTube channel uploaded a scene from their upcoming film Call Me By Your Name in which actor Armie Hammer dances to “Love My Way” by Psychedelic Furs. The scene gained over 71,000 views (shown below).

Spread

The same day, a Novelty Twitter Account devoted to pairing the scene with different songs was created.^[1] The first tweet paired the song with “Lane Boy” by Twenty-One Pilots ft. Mutemath (shown below).

In the following two days, the account gained over 2,300 followers. Its most popular tweet, with over 870 retweets, features Hammer dancing to the song “Green Light” by Lorde (shown below).

After the account began going viral, it was covered by several news outlets, including Indiewire,^[2] New York Daily News,^[3] Entertainment Weekly,^[4] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References