About

Australia is not real. It’s a hoax, made for us to believe that Britain moved over their criminals to someplace is a copypasta which says Australia is not a real place and it does not exist, the copypasta, which is usually used as a way to shitpost on Reddit or 4chan sometimes when Australia is somehow mentioned or involved in something.

Origin

It appears that this copypasta has its origin from Facebook by, Shelley Floryd, but after some media attention and the heat she got out of it, she decided to remove the post and hasn’t been heard of since. It again resurfaced and received some minor attention after being posted on Reddit an 4chan a couple of times.

Australia is not real. It’s a hoax, made for us to believe that Britain moved over their criminals to someplace. In reality, all these criminals were loaded off the ships into the waters, drowning before they could see land ever again. It’s a coverup for one of the greatest mass murders in history, made by one of the most prominent empires.Australia does not exist. All things you call “proof” are actually well-fabricated lies and documents made by the leading governments of the world. Your Australian friends? They’re all actors and computer-generated personas, part of the plot to trick the world.If you think you’ve ever been to Australia, you’re terribly wrong. The plane pilots are all in on this, and have in all actuality only flown you to islands close nearby – or in some cases, parts of South America, where they have cleared space and hired actors to act out as real Australians.Australia is one of the biggest hoaxes ever created, and you have all been tricked. Join the movement today, and make it known that they have been deceived. Make it known, that this has all just been a cover-up. The things these “Australian” says to be doing, all these swear words and actions based on alcoholism, MDMA and bad decisions, are all ways to distract you from the ugly truth that is one of the greatest genocides in history. 162,000 people were said to have been transported to this imaginary land during a mere 80 years, and they are all long dead by now. They never reached that promised land. Tell the truth. Stand up for what is right. Make sure to spread the world – Australia is not real. It’s a codeword for the cold-blooded murder of more than a hundred thousand people, and it is not okay. We will not accept this.Stand up for the ones who died. Let it be known, that Australia does not exist.

Spread

It started had spread out from Facebook, the original comment section has tens of thousands of comments of comments, some funny others not so much. It was even picked by some media outlets. It is hard to say who had the biggest influence on the spread of the copypasta, as it is rarely used on 4chan and Reddit

Oi

Overview

Bin Laden Files refer to documents taken from the computer of late terrorist and orchestrator behind the September 11th, 2001 Attacks, Osama bin Laden. On November 1st, 2017, the CIA released the files taken from bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, leading to intense internet scrutiny as internet users discovered banal and quotidian files, including memes, movies, and video games.

Background

Developments

Online Reaction

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About

“It’s Okay to Be White” is a slogan launched on 4chan as a “proof of concept” to demonstrate that posting signs with the phrase “it’s OK to be white” in public would be accused of promoting racism.

Origin

On October 23rd, 2017, the STOP/RESET YouTube channel uploaded a segment aired by the Boston television news station WHDH, reporting that police were investigating if white supremacists had placed signs featuring a picture of Uncle Sam with the caption “I want you to love who you are / don’t apologize for being white” at Boston College campus (shown below).

Starting on October 31st, 2017, posts began circulating on 4chan calling for viewers to place posters with the slogan “It’s Okay to Be White” in public places as a “proof of concept” that a “harmless message” would cause a “massive media shitstorm.”^[1]

Spread

On November 1st, The Washington Post^[4] published an article reporting that posters with the message “it’s okay to be white” were discovered at a Maryland high school, which included a statement from the school’s principal Renay Johnson:

“We are taking this seriously and are investigating this incident. Our research so far has indicated that this may be part of a concerted national campaign to foment racial and political tension in our school and community. The same flier was posted in other cities and communities this week.”

On November 2nd, Redditor Aconserva3 submitted a post asking “Is the ’It’s okay to be white’ campaign racist?” to /r/NoStupidQuestions.^[2]

Search Interest

External References

About

Constable Frozen is a Tumblr based fan-blog for the Disney animated film, Frozen known for posting bizarre edits of the film without context. The blog amassed a large following on Tumblr and attracted mainstream attention when users began to hypothesize that the unknown person behind the account had a vore fetish.

Origin

Constable Frozen launched on May 7th, 2014.^[1] In its first post, it showed a GIF of the Frozen characters bobbing their heads, gaining over 780 notes (shown below).

Developments

The blog developed a dedicated Tumblr following over the following three years, as fans gravitated towards the surreal nature of the blog as well as the mystery behind it. The page has a dedicated TV Tropes wiki^[2] which states that some have praised the blog as “comedic genius.” On March 3rd, 2015, Tumblr user clockworkmod^[4] posted a summation of the account which read:

Here’s what we know about constable frozen:
-they have some kind of crush on Elsa
-they’re proficient with Photoshop
-thats it
-thats all we know

One of the most popular posts on the blog, posted June 15th, 2014, features a miniature Elsa animated to be eating a potato chip, gaining over 80,000 notes^[3] (shown below). It has also grown to include crossovers with various other animated films.

Vore Accusations

On October 27th, 2017, Constable Frozen posted a photoset which showed illustrations of the cast of Disney’s Tangled engaging in what appeared to be fetishistic behavior. The post gained over 6,600 notes (shown below).

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About

“It’s Because of the Meth, Isn’t It?” is a phrase based on an “NSFW” date described on Reddit.

Origin

On November 1st, 2017, Redditor^[1] isterbibble described a first date experience in the /r/ASkReddit thread "What is the creepiest NSFW thing you have experienced? They wrote:

“While on an unremarkable first date, the guy asked if I minded if he smoked and I said no. We were walking in a quiet park after dinner. He sits down on a bench and busts out meth, asking me if I want some. After realizing he intend to smoke meth, not cigarettes or weed, I said it was time for me to go home. He seemed surprised and then said, “it’s because of the meth, isn’t it?”

Within 24 hours, the post received more than 48,000 points. Additionally, within 24 hours, the thread reaceived more than 25,800 points (82% upvoted).

Search Interest

Not Available.

External References

About

I Wonder What My Hamster Will Type is an exploitable two-panel image of a hamster running across a keyboard to type various humorous passages into a notepad application on a computer screen.

Origin

[Researching]

Spread

On February 18th, 2016, Instagram user @beigecardigan^[1] posted the image with the expression “Free me from this prison that is my life” written in the document (shown below). Over the next two years, the post gathered upwards of 49,700 likes.

On March 1st, the @cabbagecatmemes^[3] Instagram feed posted an edit in which the hamster types “communism will prevail” (shown below). Within two years, the post gained over 20,500 likes.

On March 13th, the “Post Ironic Memechartcore II: But Then WAS Graph” Facebook^[2] page posted an anti-meme variation of the image (shown below).

Various Examples

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Overview

The 2017 Lower Manhattan Attack was a vehicular attack in which eight people were killed and an additional 11 were injured on a bicycle in lower Manhattan, New York City in late October 2017.

Background

At approximately 3:04 p.m. (EST) on October 31st, 2017, a pickup truck rented from a Home Depot in Passaic, New Jersey rammed into pedestrians traveling along the Hudson River Park’s bike path at West Street, killing eight people and injuring 11. After crashing into a school bus transporting children with special needs, the attacker reportedly ran while brandishing a paintball gun and pellet gun while shouting “Allahu Akbar” before being shot in the stomach by New York Police Officer Ryan Nash.

Developments

Suspect Identified

Following the attack, police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Satfullo Habibullaevich Saipov from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who entered the United States under a Diversity Immigrant Visa in 2010. Additionally, authorities discovered an ISIS flag and note professing allegiance to the terrorist group in the truck used in the attack. According to prosecutors, Saipov requested to have an ISIS flag displayed in his hospital room and that “he felt good about what he had done.”^[4]

Online Reaction

That day, Redditor ffrosteh submitted a post about the attack to /r/news,^[1] where it received upwards of 42,700 votes (84% upvoted) and 15,300 comments within 24 hours. Meanwhile, Twitter user @KolHaolam posted video of the aftermath of the attack (shown below).

On 4chan and Reddit, some users began sarcastically referring to the truck used in the attack as a “truck of peace”. Also on October 31st, the You Tube YouTube channel posted footage of the aftermath and the attacker (shown below).

Donald Trump’s Response

Also on October 31st, United States President Donald Trump posted several tweets condemning the attack and personally attacked Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer for sponsoring the diversity visa lottery program that Saipov entered the country with. The following day, Trump revealed he would begin the “terminating the diversity lottery program” (shown below).

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I’m Tom Wolf I want people to know what I did I frame people with doctors so I don’t look like a piece of shit.

Overview

NAMBLA Protest Sign refers to a sign at a protest of a talk by right-wing media personality Mike Cernovich at New York City’s Columbia University that claims “No Pedo Bashing.” The sign has been reported on as planted by the alt-right in order to make the protestors appear to have sympathies for pedophiles, though Cernovich and noted Infowars writer Paul Joseph Watson have claimed that the reports of a plant are “fake news”.

Background

On October 30th, 2017, Gothamist reporter Jake Offenhartz^[1] tweeted an image of a group of protestors holding a sign branded by North American Man/boy Love Association (NAMBLA) that reads “NO WHITESUPREMACY. NO PEDOBASHING. NO MIKECERNOVICH.” Offenhartz attributed the sign to the Alt-right, figuring it was a plant attempting to make the protestors look like they sympathized with pedophiles.

Developments

After Offenhartz posted the photo, Cernovich and other prominent alt-right figures such as Paul Joseph Watson, Gavin McInnes, and Jack Posobeic began tweeting the photo as though NAMBLA were part of the protest against Cernovich.^[2] The image in Cernovich’s tweet was removed by Twitter (shown below, left), leading Watson to claim Twitter was trying to censor it (shown below, right).

The story of Columbia protestors marching with pedophiles went viral on the right, to the point where Donald Trump Jr. notably liked many of Paul Joseph Watson’s tweets about the event on Twitter.^[3]

Writing about the ordeal the day after the protest,^[2] Offenhartz quotes Mistee Denson, a Columbia student and protest organizer, as saying, “Someone said ‘hold this real quick’ and then they proceeded to snap pics. Someone quickly realized what it said and ran them off. Unfortunately, they got what they wanted.” Offenhartz also notes that Cernovich contemporary Jack Posobeic, who attended Cernovich’s speaking event, was behind planting the “Rape Melania” sign which went viral during the protests after the 2016 United States Presidential Election. ^[4] Select All^[5] and The Daily Beast^[6] were among the sites to cover the sign as a hoax orchestrated by the alt-right.

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

Extreme W.I.P

About

“S” stands for? is an exploitable image in which a character answer what does the leter S stands for.

Origin

On October 7th, 2017 the anime adaptation of the yonkoma manga Blend S was released, during the opening scene variuos chacters say what does the letter “S” stands for:

Spread

Various Examples

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About

“Soy Boy” is a pejorative which is often used in right-wing online communities to describe men lacking masculine characteristics, bearing many similarities to the slang term “cuck”. The term is based on the presence of phytoestrogens contained within soybeans, which have led some to conclude that soy products feminize men who consume them.

Origin

According to a study by Canadian researchers published in November 2009, soy products contain the second highest relative phytoestrogen content after nuts and oilseeds.^[2] In April 2010, an article by Dr. Mark Messina of the School of Public Health in Loma Lina, California revealed that soy consumption has no effect on the levels and quality of male sperm.^[1]

Spread

On October 16th, 2017, conservative writer Will Sommer posted an article titled “How ‘soy boy’ became the far right’s favorite insult” to Medium.^[3]

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Gothamist and DNAinfo Shutdown refers to the events leading up to and fallout from the sudden closure of the websites Gothamist, DNAinfo and their subsidiaries. The sites’ owner Joe Ricketts stated that he closed the website for financial reasons, while others speculated that Ricketts was retaliating against a vote to unionize the outlets one week prior.

Background

On October 27th, 2017, the New York-based local news sites DNAinfo and Gothamist successfully voted in favor of joining the Writers Guild of America East, a labor union representing writers throughout America.^[1] While the newsroom celebrated the victory, Joe Ricketts, the site’s owner publicly stated his opposition to unionization in a blogpost^[2] entitled “Why I’m Against Unions At Business I Create” on September 12th, 2017.

One week after the vote, Ricketts announced via statement on DNAinfo that he would be shutting down. In a latter addressed to DNAinfo and Gothamist readers, he wrote, “But DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure. And while we made important progress toward building DNAinfo into a successful business, in the end, that progress hasn’t been sufficient to support the tremendous effort and expense needed to produce the type of journalism on which the company was founded.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Newsflash Asshole refers to an exploitable image from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia in which the character Dennis exclaims to Mac “Newsflash Asshole! I’ve been hearing it the entire goddamn time!” In the exploitables, “hearing it” is changed to a different message.

Origin

The It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia episode “Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs” aired on February 3rd, 2016.^[1] In the episode, the characters Mac and Dennis move to a house in the Philadelphia suburbs. Though things initially seem idyllic, things quickly grow dark. A recurring problem with the house is a beeping of a fire alarm that Mac hears. Dennis denies hearing it for most of the episode until the end, when in a fit of rage he exclaims to Mac, “Newsflash asshole! I’ve been hearing it the entire goddamn time!”

Spread

On September 10th, 2016, It’s Always SunnyFacebook fan page Charlie Day Quotes^[2] posted an image macro of the scene, gaining 3,400 likes and reactions (shown below).

Various Examples

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About

I Fear No Man refers to a series of exploitable images and YouTube remix based on a promotional video for the character The Pyro from the video game Team Fortress 2. In both the images and the videos, the character the Heavy is seen in the shadow saying, “I fear no man. But that thing, it scares me.” In between “that thing” and “it scares me,” the author inserts another image, video clip or word.

Origin

On June 27th, 2012, the official YouTube^[1] account for Team Fortress 2 posted a video entitled “Meet the Pyro.” At the start of the video, the Heavy with shadows covering his face says, “I fear no man. But that thing, it scares me.” The video has become the basis for both picture and video variants of the meme. As of November 2017, the video has been viewed more than 28 million times.

The earliest known instance of the video as a meme occured on June 11th, 2013. That day YouTuber^[9] SUPERMARIOGALAXY13 cut the “Meet the Pyro” video with footage of Super Smash Brothers“Villager Comes to Town” advertisement. The post (shown below) received more than 113,000 views in four years.

Spread

The following year, the audio from the scene was used in a video by the YouTuber^[2] The Mantyke in which the Heavy is about to fight the Pyro. Within four and a half years, the video (shown below) has received more than 2,000 views.

In February 2014, MemeCenter^[6] user TheMatriman posted a vertical version of the meme. In between photos of the Heavy is a surreal verison of Woody from the film Toy Story. The post (shown below) received more tahn 2,100 likes in three years.

Throughout 2014, the line was used as the title for several pieces of fan art on the Steam Community message board.^[3][4]
Later that year, on September 15th, FunnyJunk^[5] user epicsorpion posted a gif of the moment, along with the quote as a caption.

On August 16th, 2015, YouTuber^[7] latroph posted a remix of the original video with a clip of professional wrestler John Cena. The post (shown below, left) received more than 4,400 views in two years.

The following year, YouTuber^[8] Lonetholsskia posted the video with another video called “Funny High Guy fighting Air” intercut into the action. The post (shown below, right) recevied more tahn 2,600 views in one year.

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About

Samus Aran is the lead character from the NintendoMetroid franchise. She has been a popular Nintendo hero, appearing in Nintendo spinoff games such as Super Smash Brothers, and has inspired memes and fan art.

Origin

Samus was introduced in the first Metroid game, released August 6th, 1986.^[1] Samus is a galactic bounty hunter with a powerful exoskeleton suit which has weapons such as missiles and mines. In the first game, her gender is not revealed until the end of the game, announcing her as one of the first female protagonists in video game history.

Spread

Samus has since appeared in every Metroid game, as well as every Super Smash Brothers game. In 2004’s Metroid: Zero Mission, another form of Samus in which she is portrayed as a blonde in a skin-tight blue jumpsuit called the Zero Suit was revealed (gameplay shown below, left). Zero Suit Samus made her console debut in Metroid: Other M (shown below, right), which some fans received poorly for the overt feminization of Samus.^[2] Zero Suit Samus appeared in Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Super Smash Brothers Wii U.

Samus has been called one of the most influential characters in gaming, and is in the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer’s Edition as the first playable human female character in a mainstream video game. Much discussion has been given to Samus’ gender and sex appeal in gaming journalism, as journalists have debated Samus’ cultural impact as a feminist icon as well as a sexual character. Samus has been portrayed in various pieces of fan art on Tumblr and DeviantArt.

Related Memes

Horny Samus

Horny Samus is an image macro series in the styling of Advice Animals that utilizes the character Samus Aran from the Metroid video-game series as the focus of many sexually-stimulated jokes.

The Baby

THEBABY is a catchphrase referring to the Metroid larva that appears in Metroid. Online, the catchphrase is typically iterated in the forms of comment spams and shitposts by Metroid fans to poke fun at its repeated utterance by Samus Aran in Metroid: Other M, wherein the main protagonist is portrayed as an emotionally fragile and insecure character in stark contrast to her strong and confident persona from the previous titles.

Samus Weight Gain

A particular strand of fan art related to Samus is centered around body inflation, particularly of Zero Suit Samus. On October 30th, 2016, YouTuber WeightGainGirl uploaded a compilation of Samus Body Inflation fan art that gained over 217,000 views (shown below).

It’s also a relatively popular subgenre of Samus fan art on DeviantArt (examples shown below).^[3]

Search Interest

External References

Lagomorphshipping is the name given to a pairing in the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl anime between Ash’s Pikachu and his companion Dawn’s Buneary. Due to the latter’s crush on the former, and it’s possible connections to the Ash-Dawn pairing, it quickly became popular on the internet, spawning many media forms.

Origin

The shipping started in the Diamond and Pearl episode Setting The World On Its Buneary, which introduced the titular Buneary. After an incident causes a potato to fly in the sky, Pikachu quickly jumps off Ash to catch it before doing multiple front flips in slow motion. This catches the eye of a wild female Buneary, and she instantly falls for him. After being caught by Dawn, she agrees to tag along, where she would flirt or display affection to Pikachu for more episodes to come.

Spread

Since the English dub aired, the pairing quickly caught on to many online users, and it stills holds a warm reputation in the present day.

Forms of the shipping come from videos (primarily YouTube ones) dedicated to the duo, to fan art and fanfiction.

Surprised Rarity refers to an image of the My Little Pony character Rarity looking down at a newspaper in shock, as if reacting to something bad or outstanding.

Origin

The image originates from the second season episode “Ponyville Confidential”. Just roughly over the middle of the episode, Rarity discovers that the school newspaper, being printed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders against their will, revealed her diary secrets. Obviously upset that her younger sister, Sweetie Belle, who’s part of the school paper, named Gabby Gums, wrote this in the paper, she yells “I’ll destroy her!”

Spread

Shortly after the episode aired, the scene and quote became popular amongst various sites. Often times, it would be done in a three panel comic showing Rarity reading the paper, a close-up of a fake article or scene in the paper, and Rarity’s reaction.

Fan art referencing this scene have been made as well.

About

Cartoon Live Streams are lives streams of full episodes from animated television shows that appear on YouTube.

Origin

W.I.P.

Spread

W.I.P.

Various Examples

Search Internet