About

The Swift Life is a social networking app for fans of pop singer Taylor Swift. The app features exclusive content from Swift as well as opportunities for fans to talk to Swift. After launching, the site quickly became a hotbed for controversy as it was flooded by right-leaning, racist and homophobic posts.

History

The Swift Life was developed by Glu Games. It was first announced in October of 2017 and launched on December 14th, 2017 (launch trailer shown below).^[1] It is free to download but in-app purchases can be made. On the app, Swift fans can communicate with one another and potentially talk with Swift, using “extremely rare and valuable Taymoji,” which can bump users’ posts such that Swift may see them. The app also offers fans the chance for exclusive updates from Swift.^[2]

Trump-supporting Users Controversy

Shortly after the app launched, it attracted controversy as right-leaning, Trump-supporting users posted inflammatory remarks on the site. The Daily Beast^[3] first covered the phenomenon on December 19th, 2017. One Trump-supporting post reported on by The Daily Beast featured a woman named Britt giving an all-caps screed on why she voted for the President (shown below).

According to The Daily Beast, this led to a political discussion on whether or not it’s okay to accept homosexuals (example shown below). The Daily Beast also reported that some fans claimed political posts were deleted by an unseen moderator, while others complained that Americans were ruining the app by talking about politics and not Swift. The controversy was also covered by Fortune^[4] and the Independent.^[5] It was noted in several reports that Swift’s silence on politics and her subsection of white supremacist fans brought more attention to the controversy.

Search Interest

External References

About

Wanna Sprite Cranberry refers to a line uttered by an animated depiction of LeBron James in a commercial for the soft drink Sprite Cranberry released in mid-November 2017. Online, the ad inspired the creation of various image macros and remix videos.

Origin

On November 16th, 2017, the Sprite YouTube channel uploaded a Christmas-themed animated advertisement for their Sprite Cranberry drink, featuring LeBron James providing a family with the soft drink during the holiday (shown below). Within one month, the video gained over 1.9 million views and 720 comments.

Spread

On December 9th, 2017, Twitter user @YaBoyGodot^[2] submitted a screenshot from the commercial along with the caption “viciously breaks into your house Wanna Sprite cranberry” (shown below).

On December 17th, Instagram user @shadymemecorner^[1] posted a screenshot from the commercial with “glowing eyes”: edited on to LeBron with the caption “Dear Sprite, We would deeply appreciate it if you release a full Sprite Cranberry song. Thank you” (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

Like the goose that laid the golden egg, Jake Paul has laid the golden YouTube turd, because well, Jake Paul is the golden boy of YouTube, and he is a turd to many.

About

GTA Guitar Bro refers to a viral video in which a person leaves an angry voice message over Xbox Live and concludes it by playing the opening riff of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” on his guitar. The video became an exploitable in which people would play different music at the end of the video.

Origin

On May 14th, 2014, YouTuber Ingrownsage posted the original video. In the video, the user receives a voice message from a user named xDeAdxFaCtOrx who says “You’re just mad cuz I’ll be able to do something with my fucking guitar hands that you’ll never be able to achieve in your entire life. So yeah, you’re gay.” He then plays the opening riff to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” The video gained over 677,000 views (shown below).

Spread

Three days later, YouTuber OMGTSN uploaded a remixed version of the video in which the music played at the end is a MIDI sound clip from Mega Man. That gained over 243,000 views (shown below, left). Two years later, Siivagunner parodied that clip by having the music that played be a MIDI version of the Flinstones theme play, gaining over 20,000 views (shown below, right).

On December 14th, 2017, Twitter user @SEMITOXIC posted a variation on the video which features several poorly played instruments, gaining over 400 retweets and 1,000 likes (shown below). This led to the meme being inquired about on /r/OutOfTheLoop]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About

Paul Ryan’s Gavel Bang is a series of image macros and jokes that referencing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s banging of the gavel to declare the passage of the Tax Cuts and Job Acts of 2017.

Origin

On December 19th, 2017, the House of Representatives passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a piece of legislature that Speaker Ryan has enthusiastically championed. After the house passed the bill, Ryan, as is his duty, banged the gavel to declare the bill passed (video below).^[1]

Spread

Shortly after the video of the gavel banging was posted online, people began joking about the gavel falling off the table, personifying the gavel as trying to escape Ryan and the bill, which polling has found to be unpopular amongst the American public.^[2] That day, Twitter^[3] user @markgongloff posted a gif of the moment with the caption “That’s a little on the nose, House gavel.” The post (shown below) received more than 600 retweets and 1,800 likes in less than 24 hours.

Throughout the day, people continued to joke about how the gavel disagreed with Ryan’s support of the policy, that it’s falling off the bench was it trying to escape (examples below).

Twitter published a Moments^[4] page regarding the joke to commemorate and archive the popularity of the gavel escaping.

Various Examples

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About

Brawlout is a platform fighting game developed by Angry Mob Games released for Microsoft Windows and the Nintendo Switch with Playstation 4 and Xbox One releases scheduled for 2018. The game has drawn comparisons to Super Smash Brothers due to the similar nature of its gameplay.

History

Brawlout was developed by Angry Mob Games and revealed at EVO in July 2016 (reveal trailer shown below).^[1] The game went into closed Beta in December of that year and was released for Microsoft Windows on April 20th, 2017.

In August of 2017, Nintendo announced that the game would be ported to the Switch (trailer shown below). The game was released for the Nintendo Switch on December 19th, 2017.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to that of Super Smash Brothers. Players control fighters on a platformed stage, increasing others damage percentage via a variety of attacks with the goal of getting players to fall off the stage. On August 18th, 2017, YouTuber Luis Alamilla posted a gameplay preview of Brawlout that gained over 13,000 views (shown below). The game features a roster of all-original characters, though the Switch version features Hyper Light Drifter from the indie game of the same name and Juan from Guacamelee.

Reception

Critical reception to Brawlout has been generally positive, but many agree that the game does not surpass the Super Smash Brothers series. BGR^[2] called the game an “adequate” Smash surrogate but noted that the game’s limited roster and combat system that isn’t as crisp as it is in Smash games left it feeling inferior to its spiritual counterpart. Kotaku^[3] wrote the game is fun and intuitive, but “misses out on a lot of what gave Smash character.” The game has a 7/10 user rating on Steam. ^[4]

Online Presence

The game features moderate online presence. It has a subreddit with over 400 readers^[5] as well as a Facebook page with 3,200 likes.^[6] It has also seen some play from Let’s Players. For example, Alpharad posted gameplay of him playing when the game was in closed BETA, gaining over 392,000 views (shown below, left). YouTuber yung maestro played the game on their channel ahead of the game’s Switch release, gaining over 161,000 views.

Search Interest

External References

About

Alpharad is the handle of Jacob Rabon IV, a competitive Super Smash Brothers player and popular YouTubeLet’s Player.

History

Rabon IV was born in Oklahoma, USA on December 19th, 1995.^[1] He uploaded his first YouTube video on July 22nd, 2014, showing some Super Smash Brothers Melee hacks. The video gained over 114,000 views (shown below).

Later that year, Rabon competed in his first competitive Smash tournaments, playing in a Project M and Smash Wii U tournament where he placed 9th and 7th, respectively. At the beginning of 2015, he began his “How To Play 101” series, in which he showed ways to be successful with Super Smash Brothers Wii U characters with humorous edits to his footage (examples shown below). These turned out to be one of the most popular series on his channels, with some of the videos gaining over one million views. He has also done “How To Play 101” series with different video games.

In September of 2016, his channel shifted from Smash content to more improv-comedy style Let’s Play. According to his Wikia,^[2] Alpharad marks a September 6th, 2016 video called “Overwatch: KUNAIWITHCHAIN” as the turning point for his channel (shown below).

Some other series Alpharad has started include the “NOT” series, in which he plays games that have close similarities to more popular games. His video “NOTOVERWATCH,” in which he plays the game Paladins, gained over 2.2 million views (shown below). Other series include “CLICKBAIT,” “Story For Glory,” and “Steam Cleaning.”

Alpharad helped create the Smash mod “Silly Melee,” which alters certain character’s behaviors, and is part of the YouTube channel Friends Without Benefits wherein he and other gamers compete at games. He has over 623,000 subscribers as of December 20th, 2017.^[3] His subreddit has over 4,000 subscribers.^[4] On Twitter, he has over 139,000 followers.

Ernie Gang

On November 22nd, 2017, Alpharad began a raid in a stream of VR Chat in which he convinced other online players to adopt a skin of Ernie from Sesame Street and go to other rooms. He first posted about the gang on that day in a tweet (shown below).

A week later, on November 29th, 2017, Alpharad uploaded a video devoted to Ernie Gang. The video gained 315,000 views (shown below, left). The same day the video was posted, YouTuber WindyAura uploaded a parody of Gucci Gang called “Ernie Gang,” which gained over 25,000 views (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

One Perfect Shot is Twitter account founded by Geoff Todd. The feed posts screenshots of individual frames from films that Todd finds to have high aesthetic quality, as well as the posting the director and cinematographer who photographed the shot.

History

Todd launched his Twitter^[1] page @OnePerfectShot on November 3rd, 2013 but did not post his first image until February 8th, 2014. The first post comes from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The tweet (shown below) has received more than 60 retweets and 100 likes in less than three years. The account, as of December 2017, has more than 300,000 followers.

Within a week of his first tweet, Todd began posting more information with the shots. On Feburay 15hth, he tweeted a frame from Wait Until Dark and included the DP or Director of Photography in the post (shown below, left).^[4] Several months later, on April 19th, Todd began including the film’s director in the tweets as well, beginning with a frame from the film The American Soldier (shown below, right)

Several months after launching on Twitter, One Perfect Shot launched a Facebook account on May 1st, 2014. As of December 2017, the pages has more than 30,000 likes and followers.^[5]

On October 24th, 2016, Variety^[2] reported that Film School Rejects had purchased One.Perfect.Shot in “an all-cash deal.”

Features

Originally, the site posted frames from films that Todd, the founder, considered to have high aesthetic import. The editor would, after a time, also come to start posting some important credits along with the shots, including the director and cinematographer.

When the Twitter account was purchased by the website FilmSchoolRejects.com,^[2] a number of features were added to a main page on FSR, allowing for easier search and categorization were added. Users could use the site’s features to look up shots by cinematographer, director, shot type and release year. The site also gave users the ability to rate the shots, purchase the film in question on Amazon or iTunes. ^[3]

The sale to FilmSchoolRejects also allowed the site to start producing videos (example below), which FSR has posted to their YouTube page.

In March 2017, the site has also branched out into a podcast channel called “One Perfect Pod.” The channel contains five podcasts, including “Shot By Shot,” which is hosted by Geoff Todd and H. Perry Horton. As of December 2017, the channel had produced more than 70 episodes.^[2][6]

Related Memes

Parodies

One Perfect Shot Parodies feature stills or frames from anywhere but are purposely mislabeled with the names of famous films for humorous effect. Therefore, users can use the image and caption to create a juxtaposition of something they are mocking online with a piece of popular culture that is considered important (examples below). These parodies are formatted in the style of a @OnePerfectShot tweet and sometimes contain a #oneperfectshot hashtag.

On January 4th, 2017, New York magazine^[7] published an article about the parodies.

Search Interest

External References

About

We The People is a site in which people can create petitions with the hope of bringing issues to the White House’s attention. During the Obama administration, if a petition gain enough signatures, the White House would respond to the petition with a statement. The Trump administration has not responded to any petitions since taking office, and shut the site down, allegedly to replace it with a new system that would supposedly save tax payers $1 million.

History

We The People launched on September 22nd, 2011 during Barack Obama’s first term as President.^[1] The petition system did not allow for petitions on criminal affairs and other processes of the Federal Government. Under the Obama administration’s rules, petitions needed to reach 150 signatures in 30 days to be searchable on the website, and needed to reach 100,000 signatures to merit a White House response (the original number was 5,000).

Shut Down

When Donald Trump was inaugurated, existing petitions were archived and made inactive. In the first year of Trump’s administration, two petitions reached above 100,000 signatures, while some later ones did not show the amount of signatures. By November, sixteen petitions had reached the 100,000 signature threshold, but the Trump administration never responded to any petition. On December 19th, 2017, the Trump administration shut down the site,^[2] stating a different system would be implemented in late January of 2018.

Notable Petitions

Death Star

In November of 2012, a petition to build a Death Star, the powerful space station and weapon from the Star Wars series, was launched and reached the required number of signatures. The White House responded in good humor, saying that the cost to build a Death Star would be far too costly and take too much time, and insisted that the administration did not support the destruction of planets.

Send Justin Bieber to Canada

On January 23rd, 2014, a petition was created to send pop star Justin Bieber back to his home country of Canada after he was arrested in Miami.^[3] This met the required number of signatures to merit a White House response. The White House declined to comment, citing the site’s policy of not commenting on criminal cases, and instead talked about the importance immigration reform.

Trump Taxes

Following Donald Trump’s inauguration, a petition was created asking Trump to release his taxes, which he infamously has resisted doing. The petition reached over 1 million signatures, the first of its kind to do so. White House spokesperson Kellyanne Conway stated two days after Trump’s inauguration that Trump would not release his tax returns. Another petition asked Trump to divest his business assets in a blind trust; Trump put his businesses in the hands of his sons. No comment was ever made on these petitions.

Search Interest

External References

About

Get Ready for the Best Gift Ever (“Preparate Para El Mejor Regalo De Todos” in Spanish) is an exploitable webcomic series featuring a woman who decorates her naked body in bows as a holiday gift for her significant other, who imagines the gift is a variety of other things he desires while holding his eyes shut.

Origin

On December 5th, 2017, webcomic illustrator Philip Kooper uploaded a comic to his Facebook^[1] page titled “Regalo Navideño,” featuring a man who imagines his secret Christmas present as a PlayStation 4 rather than his semi-nude girlfriend (shown below). Within three weeks, the post received upwards of 530 reactions and 260 shares.

Spread

That same day, Cuanto Cabron reposted the comic. On December 6th, 2017, the “Plantillas Para Memes :v 2017” Facebook page uploaded a blank template of the comic (shown below). On December 17th, Redditor notabot_27 submitted a net neutrality-themed edit of the comic to /r/dankmemes,^[5] where it received upwards of 800 points (95% upvoted) in three days.

That day, 9gag^[3] user trap submitted a version of the comic in which the man is shown imagining the woman with censor bars over her hips in the shape of a penis (shown below, left). Within 72 hours, the post gained over 3,500 points and 110 comments. On December 18th, Redditor AckwardSonic submitted a Minecraft-themed version of the comic to /r/xXRealGamerzXx^[4] (shown below, right).

On December 19th,

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

“Well, Of Course I Know Him. He’s Me.” is a memorable quote from the film Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope said by the character Obi-Wan Kenobi, which has become a popular punchline for image macros. Online, the line is used to punctuate a joke in which one person admits to something humorous, absurd or offensive.

Origin

The line was first uttered in the film Star Wars: Episode IV-- A New Hope, first released on May 25th, 1977. In the film, the character Luke Skywalker asks his friend and mentor Ben Kenobi if he knows or is related to an “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” unaware that they are one and the same. Kenobi responds, “Well, of course I know him. He’s me.”

The earliest example of the moment being used as an image macro was posted by Redditor^[1] StapMyVitals on July 14th, 2014 in the /r/shittyreactiongifs subreddit. The Redditor posted the scene in a gif in the thread “MRW the police are appealing for information about a local flasher.”

Spread

Three years later, on April 1st, 2017, the Star Wars Instagram^[2] account @starwars.humor shared a version of the scene with Senator Palpatine’s face photoshopped over Obi-Wan’s with the caption “When someone asks you about the Senate.” The post (shown below, left) references the I Am the Senate meme and received more than 3,400 likes in eight months.

On July 30th, another Star Wars Instagram,^[3] @starwarsonly, posted another variation, captioning the moment with a conversation between a woman and her neighbor, in which the neighbor turns out to be a registered sex offender. The post (shown below, center) received more than 6,100 likes in six months.

In September 2017, MemeCenter^[4] user Ice posted a variation with the caption “When the police ask if you know the local rapist.” The same post (shown below, right) was later shared on the /r/OTMemes^[5] subreddit on December 19th, received more than 2,100 points (89% upvoted) within 24 hours.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Terry Crews is an American actor and former professional athlete known for his roles in television shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Everybody Hates Chris as well as his roles in films including Are We There Yet? and White Chicks. He also was the star of a famous advertising campaign with Old Spice body spray.

History

Crews was born on July 30th, 1968 in Flint, Michigan.^[1] He played defensive end for Western Michigan University, and was later drafted to the NFL by the St. Louis Rams in 1991. He played with the Rams, Chargers, Redskins, and Eagles before leaving football in 1997. He began pursuing a career in film, and eventually got into acting. His breakout role came in the film Friday After Next starring Ice Cube. He began growing in popularity after appearing in the film White Chicks, where he famously was in a scene as a man with a humorous affection for Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” (shown below).

Crews played the father on the UPN sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, had a similar role in the TBS sitcom Are We There Yet? and currently plays Sergeant Terry Jeffords in Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Adam Venit Sexual Assault Allegation

During the fallout of the Harvey Weinstein Sexual Assault Allegations, Crews alleged a high-level Hollywood executive groped him at a party in 2016, but he did not come forward for fear of retaliation. That person was later revealed to be Adam Venit, head of the motion picture department of the talent company William Morris Endeavor. On December 15th, Crews alleged on Twitter that his family was being tracked and possibly bugged for his claims.^[2]

Related Memes

Terry Crews: Old Spice

Terry Crews: Old Spice refers to a series of television commercials for the Old Spice deodorant brand starring Crews. On March 31st, 2010, Old Spice uploaded the “Odor Blockers” series of commercials to their official YouTube channel (shown below). The videos starred Terry Crews and were directed by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim from the sketch comedy television series Tim and Eric Awesome Show.

The commercials were later parodied in YouTube Poop videos online (examples shown below).

A Picture of Terry Crews In My Wallet

On September 9th, 2016, Twitter user @MrDanielCabral posted a tweet showing a picture of Crews in his wallet, which he placed there to remind him not to spend money frivolously. His tweet gained over 220,000 retweets and 330,000 likes (shown below).

On September 27th, 2016, Crews acknowledged the viral tweet by posting a picture to Instagram, of his own wallet featuring a picture of him placed there for the same reason. His post gained over 104,000 likes (shown below).

Doomfist Voice Speculation

On September 7th, 2016, the Arekkz Gaming YouTube channel released a video speculating that Doomfist may be the next playable Overwatch hero (shown below).

On January 4th, Crews tweeted asking his followers asking if they wanted to hear him voice Doomfist.^[3] This tweet was co-signed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (shown below).

On February 3rd, 2017, the Yahoo Esports YouTube channel released a video in which actor Terry Crews performs a mock audition for the character (shown below, right). Within five months, the video garnered upwards of 1.2 million views and 2,100 comments. Crews did not end up voicing Doomfist.

Viral Videos

Crews has been the subject of several viral videos online. For example, on March 30th, 2017, he appeared in a video for Business Insider in which he explained why he built his own PC that gained over 1.2 million views (shown below, left). This also led to a Photoshop Battle posted to /r/photoshopbattles^[4] revolving around Crews and his PC. On October 5th, 2017, First We Feast uploaded a Hot Ones episode featuring Crews eating hot foods. The video was very popular, gaining over 7.3 million views (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Reylo refers to fan speculation, shipping theories and fan-fiction centered on the romantic relationship between Star Wars characters Rey and Kylo Ren.

Origin

In 2014, LucasFilm, the production company behind the Star Wars films announced the casting of Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver as Rey and Kylo Ren, respectively, in the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. ^[1] While the film had yet to be released, one year later, on October 4th, 2015, FanFiction.net writer AmazingGraceless posted the earliest know piece of Kylo Ren/Rey shipping fiction entitled “A Drink Called Loneliness.”^[2]

Spread

Following the release of the film, people began posting fan art and stories about the two having a romantic relationship on Tumblr and DeviantArt. One of the earliest know examples was posted by DeviantArt^[5] user l0veyd0vey on December 20th, 2015. The post (shown below) shows the two characters kissing and received more than 3,700 views in two years.

On December 27th, 2015, thealeksdemon posted one of the earliest on Tumblr^[6] and received more than 5,000 notes in less than two years (shown below, left).

In January 2016, a Tumblr dedicated to the shipping of Rey and Kylo launched. Reylo Source^[3] posted their first piece of art on January 5th, 2016, featuring Rey and Kylo kissing. The post (shown below, center) received more than 5,800 notes in less than two years.

That month, the most popular shipping on DeviantArt^[7] was posted several days later by user Ax25. The post (shown below, right) received more than 12,000 views in less than two years.

On December 15th, 2017, Adam Driver appeared on Late Night with Stephen Colbert. Near the end of the segment, the two acted out a scene from Star Wars: The Last Jedi using Kylo and Rey action figures. The scene ended in the two characters kissing.

On December 19th, Bustle^[8] published a listicle of some of the most popular jokes about the two characters shipping.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

Bobby burns is a youtuber who is been getting popularity latley

An annoying catchphrase that my friend has been saying for the past year.

[WIP]

About

Kim Jonghyun’s Death refers to the death of Kim Jong-hyun, a K-pop artist and member of K-pop boy band SHINee. Debuting in 2008 alongside his band members, the band would receive positive critical reception from critics and fans alike. He also received positive reception as a solo artist, starting in 2015 with the release of his first EP “Base”. Jonghyun died on December 18, 2017 from an apparent suicide attempt through toxic fumes caused by burning coal briquettes.

Background

Jonghyun made his debut as part of K-pop boy band SHINee, alongside band members Lee “Onew” Jin-ki

Search Interest

External References

“Lawful” replies used in context, where content alone is either questionable or revered to great degree of protection.
Often used satirically.

Placeholder

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About

SuperMega is a Let’s Play and live action comedy channel created and hosted by Matt Watson and Ryan Magee.

Online History

Although the channel was created on January 19, 2016^[1], their first two videos were uploaded on April 12, 2016; the first video as the introduction to the channel, and the latter as their first let’s play. All initial artwork and thumbnails were made by Kellie Kiakas, mostly known as her online handle FoolishCaptainKia.^[2]

As editors of Game Grumps and its other subseries, they’ve also collaborated with them and with Oney Plays as guests in some episodes and editors. Some Game Grumps hosts such as Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson and Ross “RubberNinja” O’Donovan, as well as the hosts of Oney Plays, have also appeared as guests in their channel. They also have a few collaborations outside Game Grumps, such as jacksepticeye and FrankJavCee.

The channel announced a week-long hiatus on September 11, 2017 to focus on rebranding the channel. FoolishCaptainKia announced that she will not be the channel artist after the rebranding, although both sides are still on good terms.^[3] Matt and Ryan soon announced their new artist taiikodon, also known as don, in their 60th podcast.^[4] Don confirmed this announcement as well on his Twitter.^[5] Daily uploads resumed after the hiatus, along with the new channel art for the banner and future video thumbnails.

Markiplier later addressed the matter of their recent job switch from his channel to Game Grumps. He

Podcasts

Their first podcast series, named as SuperMegaCast, started on April 14, 2016. Episodes consisted of Matt and Ryan talking about various topics, along with occasional guests. This series was initially replaced by The Talking Show on January 25, 2017, which was an experimental, live action version of the initial podcast.

The Talking Show later ended with the sixth episode on February 14, 2017,^[6] with the announcement of the series ending about a week later. In the same video, the SuperMegaCast was said to resume, along with the series continuing where it left off the next day.

Live Action

Besides the channel’s intro video, their first live action video was uploaded on April 20, 2016, where they taste various non-alcoholic beers and wines from a store in Little Tokyo. They also upload vlogs pre-titled as “The Guys…”, with the series starting on May 10, 2016, where they get water bottles from 7-Eleven.

One of their consistent live action series is cooking videos mostly consist of them making and eating nearly inedible foods using ingredients from the grocery store. The most popular of these videos, and in the channel, featured Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfard, and was uploaded on November 23, 2017, amassing more than 1.5 million views. The duo has also started making music videos in 2017, the first being My Two Lovely Uncles, featuring Oney as “Uncle Fungus”, song composer, and effects.

Their mail unboxing series Mail Room started on September 30, 2016, but was announced in the eighth episode (uploaded on December 17, 2017) that the series is on an indefinite hiatus.

Fandom

The channel’s fanbase came from fans of their former channels Cyndago & Kids with Problems, Game Grumps, and Oney Plays. Their subreddit /r/SuperMega was created on April 16, 2016, and currently has more than 6,800 subscribers. YouTube channel Ajakes praised SuperMega for their comedic editing quirks and acting in their live action videos. Another channel Saltydkdan dared co-host Matt Watson to kick him in the crotch.

Reputation

Sketch Comedy

Before SuperMega, Matt and Ryan were managing their own sketch comedy channels Kids with Problems^[7] and Cyndago,^[8] respectively. Both have appeared on each other’s channels as guests in a few videos. On August 10, 2015, Matt was introduced as the latest member of Cyndago, but the channel was shut down shortly two months after the announcement due to the suicide of Daniel Kyre, Ryan’s close friend and member of Cyndago.

Video Editing

After shutting down Cyndago, they worked for Markiplier as video editors, as he was a close collaborator with the channel. Both Matt and Ryan have appeared in a few of his videos while they worked for him. They quit on June 2016, and announced that they have been editing for Game Grumps on August 18, 2016. Game Grumps hosts Arin and Dan have later mentioned them as the new editors in an episode of Katamari Forever on September 11, 2016.

Markiplier later apologized to Matt and Ryan via Facebook on October 18, 2016, due to his mistreatment towards them during their time working for his channel.

Related Memes

Yes Yes Yes! / Daddy Likes

“Yes yes yes! Daddy likes!” is a catchphrase uttered by Ryan during an episode of their Super Mario Maker series. The phrase later became an ironic in-joke in the channel and fanbase as it was overused and unfunny in later times, even for Matt and Ryan themselves

Notable Videos

Let’s Plays

Live Action

Search Interest

References

About

Donald Trump Merry Christmas Sign is a series of exploitable images featuring United States President Donald Trump pointing at a red sign that reads “Merry Christmas.” Online, people have photoshopped the sign to read other humorous, satirical or absurd phrases.

Origin

On November 19th, 2017, during a speech on the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017”/memes/events/tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-of-2017 in St. Louis, Missouri, President Trump began discussing a perceived lack of people saying “Merry Christmas” in American society. At which point, he pointed at a large sign that had “Merry Christmas” printed on it (shown below).^[1]

Spread

Two weeks later, on December 20th, a version of the photograph with the words “Merry Christmas” erased was posted on the /r/MemeEconomysubreddit by Redditor^[2] kehwilliams. The post (shown below) received more than 980 points (96% upvoted) and 50 comments in 24 hours.

That day, the photo appeared on the /r/dankmemes subreddit. Redditor^[3] wizturd28 posted a variation with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un bent over with the words “My Favourite Things to Spank” above him. The post (shown below, center) received more than 1,100 points (98% upvoted) in 24 hours. Additionally, Redditor^[4] MidnightLightss posted a version with the words “Pee is stored in the balls” written on it, which received 1,900 points (96% upvoted) and 30 comments in 24 hours.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Wyatt Koch’s Shirt Video refers to a video of Wyatt Koch, heir to the Koch Brothers’ fortune, talking about his line of shirts. Though posted in the summer of 2017, video went viral in December of 2017 when it was linked to in a story by the New York Post. The video spread as social media users commented the video was emblematic of wealth inequality and joked about the style of the shirts, some of which had literal money bags emblazoned on them, which many found ugly and unattractive.

Origin

The video was originally posted to Instagram by Koch, though the post has since been deleted. A copy was posted to YouTube^[1] on June 6th, 2017 (shown below). In the video Wyatt talks about the value of being “bold” and an “individual” as it pertained to his line of shirts.

Spread

On December 19th, 2017, the video was linked to in a story by the New York Post’s gossip section, Page Six.^[2] Once the article was posted, Twitter users began to discover the video and joke about it. Twitter user @david_j_roth^[3] posted a link to the video and sarcastically congratulated Koch, as he stood to benefit from the recently-passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The tweet gained over 1,300 retweets and 2,900 likes. (shown below, left). User @AdamJohnsonNYC^[4] tweeted the video itself, simply stating “can’t look away,” gaining over 1,700 retweets and 5,300 likes (shown below, right).

Media coverage of the video tended to focus on the ugliness of the shirts while tying Koch to the recently-passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Vanity Fair^[5] wrote that Koch had “inadverdently emerged as the face of Trump’s tax plan.” Esquire^[6] wrote “A Koch Heir Has Created the Ugliest Shirts on the Planet.” Spin,^[7] GQ,^[8] and Mashable^[9] also covered the video.

Online Reactions

Search Interest

External References