About

XFL is the name of a professional football league started as a joint venture by Vince McMahon of the WWE and NBC. The league attempted to add elements of professional wrestling, such as storylines and kayfabe, to professional football. However, waning interest due to the wrestling elements and poor quality of play led the league to fold after only one season. In late 2017, it was rumored that McMahon was interested in bringing the XFL back.

History

The XFL was founded as a joint venture by NBC and the WWF-owned subsidiary WWE Properties International.^[1] It was first announced on February 3rd, 2000. The league would present itself similarly to WWE, which was in its Attitude Era, and promise sex and violence. Also promised were less penalties for roughness and fewer penalties overall. The league also featured trash-talking stadium announcers and cheerleaders who were encouraged to date the players. It also innovated use of the “sky cam,” which NFL broadcasts would not adopt until much later.

The league had three televised games each week. The first game was broadcast on February 3rd, 2001, played between the Las Vegas Outlaws and the New York/New Jersey Hitmen. The game eschewed the traditional coin toss to determine first possession and instead went with a “human scramble.” In the first scramble, a player separated his shoulder and missed the rest of the season.

The first game was viewed by 14 million viewers. Though that was double what NBC promised advertisers, viewership of the league quickly dropped to minuscule levels. The league was won by the Los Angeles Xtreme, in the league’s championship, The Million Dollar Game. WWF and NBC reported a loss of $35 million dollars on the league. Critics and sports journalists paid the league little mind; noted sportswriter Bob Costas called the league “high school football with the presentation of a tawdry strip club.” The XFL folded after one season.

Legacy

The XFL has been often cited as one of the worst blunders and failures in television history. It ranked number 3 in TV Guide’s 2002 list of worst television shows in history. It was ESPN’s number 2 biggest flop in sports. In 2017, ESPN, created a 30 for 30 film about the XFL.^[2]

Revival Rumors

On December 15th, 2017, it was reported that McMahon was seriously interested in reviving the XFL. The WWE released a statement that McMahon is launching a company called “Alpha Entertainment,” which will supposedly look into other entertainment avenues, including professional football. McMahon^[3] has sold $100 million of WWE shares to potentially invest in the league’s revival.

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All Women Are Queens refers to a snowclone popular on Tumblr in which two people, usually characters from pop culture, are having a conversation in which one person says a variation of “If she breathes, she a thot,” to which the other responds “All women are queens!”

Origin

On March 26th, 2017, Facebook page Kit Fisto-core^[1] uploaded a three-panel image from _Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith featuring Anakin and Obi-wan Kenobi giving the dialogue (shown below). The post gained over 1,700 likes and reactions and over 2,900 shares.

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“The Law Requires that I Answer ‘No’” is a memorable quote from the 2004 Pixar film The Incredibles that has become the basis for a series of image macros. Online, people use a screenshot from the film along with the phrase to provide a punch line to a set up that implies someone begrudgingly admitting something that is illegal or inappropriate.

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Originated on a 4chan message board as a response to an annoying question. The meme is to post 10+ pictures or gifs of chairs in a row, usually without a person in them. It is to be used to respond to questions or post something non sequitur. Similiar to Rick Rolling

About

The Bowler is an image macro series featuring a photograph of a man throwing a bowling ball down a lane, which are typically captioned with the labels “Me” on the man and various humorous jokes on the bowling pins and bowling ball.

Origin

On December 24th, 2017, Redditor SpooningThemSofty submitted the photo with the pins labeled with the caption “Enjoy your movie, sir” and a photo of a movie theater ticketing agent with the bowling ball labeled “You too” (shown below). Within 48 hours, the post gained over 1,900 points (98% upvoted) on /r/me_irl.^[1]

Spread

On December 25th, 2017, Redditor hoodo12 posted the picture with the bowling pins captioned with “everyone else at the party” and the bowling ball labeled “LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga Cheat Codes” to /r/me_irl^[6] (shown below, left). That day, Redditor bacon_trays_for_days posted a variation of the image with pins labeled “everyone else at the party” and the bowling ball labeled “unwanted facts about serial killers” to /r/MemeEconomy^[5] (shown below, right).

<img src=http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/326/714/354.jpg" height="280">

On December 26th, Redditor troutline9209 submitted a flat earth-themed variation of the image to /r/MemeEconomy^[4] (shown below, left). That day, Instagram user @salad.snake^[3] reposted Redditor SpooningThemSoftly’s “Enjoy your movie, sir” image. That day, Redditor MaverickSoul9 submitted a variation featuring lyrics from the theme song for the television sitcom Friends to /r/me_irl^[2] (shown below).

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Overview

Kemono Friends Tatsuki Firing Controversy refers to the reaction to the sudden firing of Kemono Friends writer and director Tatsuki by publisher Kadokawa Shoten after the anime’s surprisingly successful first season. The move sparked outrage among the anime’s fans, in part due to the unclear reasoning behind the firing.

Background

On September 25th, 2017, Kemono Friends director Tatsuki announced on Twitter that he had been suddenly removed as director from Kemono Friends via a notice from Kadokawa Shoten, noting that he was extremely disappointed.^[1] The tweet has been retweets over 300,000 times (shown below).

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What Do You Meme is a party game featuring Cards Against Humanity-styled cards. The object of the game is to pair captions to pictures of famous memes, essentially creating an image macro. Winners are chosen by a judge that changes each round.

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About

VRChat is a free-to-play multiplayer virtual reality social game in which players explore various virtual worlds using customized in-game avatars. In late 2017, the game was widely featured in livestreams on Twitch and gameplay videos on YouTube.

History

On January 26th, 2017, the VRChat YouTube channel released the first trailer for the game (shown below). On February 1st, VRChat was released on Steam^[4] for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets.

Online Presence

On July 27th, 2014, the /r/VRchat^[1] subreddit was created for discussions about the virtual reality game. On June 30th, 2015, the VRChat Wikia^[3] was created. On Twitch,^[2] the VRChat directory page accumulated more than 28,800 followers by late December 2017.

Reception

As of late December 2017, VRChat has accumulated a score of 87% positive on Steam out of a total of 1,600 user reviews.

On YouTube

On September 10th, 2017, YouTuber Twitch is my city uploaded a video titled “Cockblocked in VR,” featuring footage of a blushing anime girl (shown below).

On October 26th, YouTuber PewDiePie released a video of himself playing VRChat (shown below, left). On November 22nd, PewDiePie uploaded a second VRChat gameplay footage video (shown below, right).

On December 21st, YouTuber Jameskii uploaded a video titled “VRChat in a nutshell,” featuring a montage of humorous moments recorded in the game (shown below, left). On December 24th, YouTuber VideoGameDunkey uploaded a VRChat gameplay video, which gained over 1.8 million views and 4,100 comments within 72 hours (shown below, right).

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Nintendo Switch Karen, also known as Antisocial Karen refers to a character who appeared in the first trailer for the Nintendo Switch, bringing the console to a party. After her appearance, social media users joked that she was an antisocial type who preferred gaming over hanging out with friends.

Origin

On October 20th, 2016, Nintendo released the first trailer for the Nintendo Switch (shown below).

In the trailer, a woman brings the Switch to a rooftop party. That day, Tumblr user joematar^[1] posted a joke about the woman arriving at the party with the caption “Oh shit, Karen brought her stupid Nintendo thing to the party again. We’re DRINKING, Karen. We’re having CONVERSATIONS.” As of December 27th, 2017, the post has over 23,000 notes (shown below).

Spread

Karen became the unofficial name for the character among the Nintendo fandom following the post. She also became the subject of a high volume of Reddit jokes. On the Nintendo Switch subreddit, the moderators were forced to temporarily ban posts related to Karen,^[2] which thus launched a subreddit entirely devoted to Karen posts, /r/NintendoKaren,^[3] that has over 1,800 subscribers. The subreddit features a high volume of Karen photoshops and intense discussion about the amount of rings Karen is wearing.

The Karen phenomenon was covered by Polygon^[4] and Mic.^[5] Karen also has her own parody Twitter account with 402 followers.^[6] On December 26th, 2016, unrealitymag^[7] published an interview with joematar and also discussed the meme. On April 22nd, the actress who played “Karen” posted to Instagram embracing her character’s fandom.

On December 25th, 2017, a high school named Karen took to Reddit’s /r/OutOfTheLoop^[8] to inquire about the origins of the meme, as she reported that she was being bullied in school by kids saying “fuck you Karen.” The post gained over 3,100 upvotes.

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Chrissy Teigen is an American model known online for her use of Twitter, where her tweets are often reported on for being humorous. She is married to pop singer John Legend.

History

Teigen was born on November 30th, 1985 in Delta, Utah.^[1] She first came into the public eye when she was named an IGN Babe in 2004. In 2007 she was a Maxim cover girl. She received wide exposure when she was a model for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2010. She has since appeared on magazine covers including Cosmopolitan and Ocean Drive and has appeared in editorials for Vogue, Glamour, and more. She married pop singer John Legend in 2013 and has one child. She is currently expecting a second.

Online Presence

Online, Teigen is known for her popular social media accounts. She has over 15.4 million followers on Instagram. ^[5] Twitter account which has over 9.25 million followers. Her tweets have been the subject of several news articles. She was named one of the funniest celebrities on Twitter by Complex^[4] in 2013. One of the earliest articles compiling Teigen tweets was posted by whowhatwear^[3] on September 20th, 2014. Buzzfeed^[6] compiled her funniest tweets from 2015 in a year-end roundup. In 2017, Buzzfeed^[7] compiled 100 of what they dubbed some of her funniest tweets. Many of her tweets continue to be covered by media outlets. For example, a series of tweets she sent on December 26th describing a poor flying experience (shown below) were covered by several media outlets including EveningStandard^[8] and New York Times.^[9]

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Overview

Toyotathon refers to an annual sale held by the Toyota car company which happens during December and is heavily advertised on television. Online, the event has been joked about as a real holiday conflated with the Christmas season.

Background

According to a newspaper clipping posted by the Butler Toyota dealership,^[1] the first Toyotathon was held in 1969 and lasted 36 hours.

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The ‘lean meme’ was born on Instagram, it was created and first posted by @sad.squidward.memes on the 27th of December 2017.

About

Brian Wilson Dies Christmas Day refers to a popular meme on 4chan’s music board, /mu/, in which the poster predicts that Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson will die on Christmas. The poster often uses repeating digits to persuade others that their prophecy will come true. On December 18, 2016, the meme grew in popularity when in a /mu/ thread of images of musician’s graves, an anonymous user posted an image of a grave for Brian Wilson with the text “Trips Confirmed He Died Christmas Day”; the post ended in three repeating 7s. ^[1]

Spread

The meme has been reposted on /r/4chan ^[2][3].

External References

The aphobe block list is a comprehensive list comprised of more than 2,000 Tumblr users who have at one point or another shown themselves to be aphobic to some extent.

The term aphobic refers to anybody who disagrees with the notion that asexual/aromantic people (or more colloquially referenced as ‘aspec’) have any place in LGBT+ spaces. This has been an ongoing debate on the website for the last several years and is showing no sign of coming to a full resolution anytime soon.

The list, compiled by Tumblr user dandymeowth, was first published to the site on April 27th, 2017 -- but didn’t begin gaining traction until the end of December later in the same year. It was around this time when popular blogs began ironically asking whether or not their username had ended up on the list, since it seemed anybody’s username would eventually show up on the list, regardless of the user’s actual morals and stance on the inclusion of aspec people in LGBT+ spaces.

The list ended up having so many users added to it that the original poster had to eventually remove the list from the actual post itself, as it started to crash people’s browsers -- the post itself being amended to explain this later on. While the list of users is now no longer a part of the original post, the list has been salvaged and can still be found on archive.org and the wayback machine.

About

Roz Weston’s ‘The Last Jedi’ rant refers to a bizarre and negative review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi made by ET Canada’s Senior Entertainment Reporter Roz Weston.

Origin

On December 18 2017, the ET Canada youtube channel uploaded a video entitled “Roz Rants Against ‘The Last Jedi’ | STARWARS”. The video features Roz and his cohost awkwardly reviewing the movie “The Last Jedi”. Roz’s reaction appears to be a form of exaggerated indifference to the film. During the video Roz explains the many ways in which “The Last Jedi” ruined star wars. At one point Roz asks the crew to blur his hand so he can to give the middle finger to the camera as a sign of disgust in the movie.

Spread

On December 27th the video was posted to the r/videos subreddit by user Solumnist and climbed to number two within seven hours. This video received 1627 up votes in seven hours. There have been a few video remixes made in criticism of Roz’s view on the film and even one that suggests that he changed his mind when the fan base expressed their disgust.

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About

Vanity Fair Hillary Clinton “Knitting” Controversy refers to the negative response to video by the magazine Vanity Fair in which they suggest new hobbies for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to take up in 2018. Vanity Fair asserts that the video was intended to be comedic, however, online, some took issue with the perceived sexism of the video, particularly when one of the suggestions included Clinton taking up “knitting,” a stereotypical activity for women.

Background

On December 23rd, 2017, Vanity Fair^[1] magazine tweeted a video entitled “6 New Year’s Resolutions for Hillary Clinton.” The video (shown below) included an intended humorous list of suggested resolutions for Clinton to make in 2018. Such resolutions included a sequel to her book, What Happened and not running for president in 2020. About 30 seconds into the video, one Vanity Fair staffer suggests that Clinton take up a new hobby, like “volunteer work, knitting, improv comedy.”

Within five days, the video has receieved more than 3,500 retweets, 7,000 likes, 13,000 comments and one million views.

Development

Within three days of the release of the video, some people online responded negatively to the video. The response video was primarily from Hillary Clinton supporters who found the inclusion of “knitting” offensive. Twitter user @DBB_JAIID responded, “I fuckin knit. & crochet too while being a Physicist, a cancer patient, an activist, a dying mother, grandmother, friend.
I’ll be working on a big knitted middle finger for Hillary to send you, berating successful women. Fuck you!” The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,400 retweets and 4,500 likes in 24 hours.

Academy Award-winner Patricia Arquette also reacted negatively to the video. She tweeted,^[3]“Hey STOPTELLINGWOMENWHATTHE F-CK THEYSHOULD DO OR CAN DO. Get over your mommy issues.” The post (shown below, center) received more than 1,500 retweets and 9,000 likes in 48 hours.

Some online began expressing their frustation using the hashtag“#CancelVanityFair.” Former Clinton advisor and Verrit founder Peter Daou tweeted,^[4]“So @VanityFair decided that the best way to end 2017 was to take a repulsive cheap shot at @HillaryClinton, one of the most accomplished women in the history of the United States. Now #CancelVanityFair is moving.” Within 48 hours,. the tweet received more than 6,000 retweets and 14,000 likes.

The Vanity Fair staffer who made the suggestion locked her Twitter account later that night after reporting harrassment by Clinton supporters online. Before locking the account, she tweeted, “i don’t appreciate being taken out of context to make me seem super sexist. this wasn’t a hillary hit piece either, fwiw! we made silly new years resolutions for a bunch of politicians.”^[5]

The backlash to the video had a backlash as well, with some of Clinton’s detractors asserting that the reaction to the video was unwarranted (examples below). Some of these detractors supported Vanity Fair’s suggestions and expanded upon them, joking that Hillary should take up a violent or deadly New Year’s resolution. Twitter user @BronzeHammer tweeted,^[6]“i think hillary clinton should knit herself a car and crash into the fuckin river with it. who cares what happens to that old shithead.”

Vanity Fair Apology

Vanity Fair responded to the backlash against the video. In a statement from Conde Nast, Vanity Fair’s publisher, the company wrote:

“It was an attempt at humor and we regret that it missed the mark.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the backlash, including EW,^[7] The Hill,^[8] The Daily Dot,^[9] HuffPost^[5] and more.

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The hoity dinos have existed in the realms of discord for hundreds of years. When the hoity dinos were discovered by god, they were spammed in many discord servers. Hoity dinos have been created by ikea, but this is a cover up, and I created them. I am a dino. I am your god.

Basically, a man known as Daniel had joined a discord server, and was new to the platform. Because he needed a unique profile picture, he decided to take a picture of his favorite, derpy faced, dinosaur plush from IKEA. He had owned them since 2015, but nobody had known of this as a meme. When people asked Daniel what this thing of a profile picture is, he said that it’s a dinosaur that looks funny. After this. many people wanted Daniel to take more pictures of the cute, small, green dinosaur. Since then, the dinosaurs have appeared in youtube videos, and more.

About

I Don’t Really Have Strong Opinions is an exploitable Owl Turd webcomic in which the character Shen professes to not “have any strong opinions on anything” prior to a figure yelling a variety of contentious or inflammatory statements, leading Shen to load a clip into a handgun.

Origin

On December 27th, Owl Turd artist Shenanigansen tweeted the “I Don’t Really Have Strong Opinions” comic, in which Shen loads a weapon after a man screams “Goth girls suck!” (shown below).^[1] By the next day, the tweet was deleted.

Spread

That day, Redditor Netherdwell submitted the original comic to /r/MemeEconomy in a post titled “Fresh new meme, start investing now.” That day, Redditor Mrblade54 posted a blank template to the subreddit (shown below).^[3]

Also on December 27th, 2017, Redditor Malifaxymus submitted a Super Mario Bros. Super Show-themed version of the comic to /r/dankmemes^[8] (shown below, left). The following day, Redditor PlushSteak44 posted an edit of the comic referencing communism to the same subreddit (shown below, right). In the coming days, numerous other examples were submitted to /r/MemeEconomy^[4][5] and /r/dankmemes.^[6][7]

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About

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy is a video game developed by QWOP creator Bennett Foddy in which the player plays a silent protagonist in a bucket using a hammer to climb a mountain. The game is peppered with narration from Foddy and features no checkpoints.

History

On September 28th, 2017, Game Trailers uploaded a trailer for Getting Over It.

Getting Over It was released in October 2017 by Humble Bundle as part of their Humble Monthly package, and was released on Steam and iOS on December 6th. In the description of the game on Steam,^[2] Foddy writes: “A game I made For a certain kind of person To hurt them.” He also states that the game can be completed “between 2 and ∞ hours” and that “The median time to finish for my playtesters was 5 hours, but the mean was closer to ∞.” He calls the game “an homage Jazzuo’s 2002 B-Game classic ‘Sexy Hiking’,” and references the game often in the narration of Getting Over It. The game was very well-received on Steam, where it has a user score of 9/10.

Online Presence

The game has been played by many popular Let’s Players on YouTube. PewDiePie released two episodes of himself playing the game, gaining 4.5 and 3.7 million views (episode 1 shown below, top left). Egoraptor played the game on the Game Grumps channel and gained over 719,000 views (shown below, top right). Markiplier played the game on his channel in several episode and gained over a combined 7 million views (episode 1 shown below, bottom right). jacksepticeye also played the game on his channel and gained over 4 million views over two episodes (episode 1 shown below, bottom right).

The game quickly attracted the attention of Speedrunners. Speedrunner Distortion2 completed the game in four minutes and twenty-one seconds in a video that gained over 3.2 million views (shown below, left). YouTuber Lumonen completed the game in two minutes and fifty-nine seconds in a video that gained over 1 million views (shown below, right).

Fan Art

The game has seen some fan art created. Several pieces of fan art appear on DeviantArt, often featuring different characters as the protagonist or a popular Let’s Player. An inquiry about some fan art of the game was posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[3] on December 27th, 2017.

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About

Bright is an American fantasy action film starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. With a $90 million budget, the film is the most expensive film Netflix has produced as of 2017. The film, directed by David Ayers (Suicide Squad) and written by Max Landis (Chronicle) was met with widespread critical condemnation, with some critics calling it the worst film of 2017. Additionally, the film was the subject of mockery online as well as debates over the film’s racial subtext. Bright also served to raise awareness about Landis’ sexual assault allegations.

History

On March 2nd, 2016, Deadline^[1] reported that David Ayer, who had then recently completed Suicide Squad, would be re-teaming with his Squad star Will Smith on Bright“a contemporary cop thriller, but with fantastical elements.” Two week later, the film was purchased by Netflix, paying $3 million for the script by Max Landis, and giving the film a $90 million budget, the companies largest budget to date.^[2] Production on the film took place between November 2016 and February 2017.^[3]

Five months later, on July 20th, Netflix uploaded the official trailer for Bright to YouTube, ^[4] revealing some of the plot and co-star Joel Edgerton’s orc makeup. The video (shown below) received more than 6.4 million views in five months.

Bright premiered at the Recency Village Theater in Los Angeles, California on December 13th, 2017. Netflix released the film on their online platform on December 22nd, 2017.

Reception

Bright received mostly negative reviews upon release. Review aggregate Metacritic^[5] rated the film a 29 out of 100 (based on 26 critics), and Rotten Tomatoes^[6] rated the film “Rotten” with a score of 27% based on 67 reviews. In their consensus, the website published, “Bright tries to blend fantasy, hard-hitting cop drama, and social commentary -- and ends up falling painfully short of the mark on all three fronts.”

On December 20th, film critic David Ehrlich tweeted,^[7]“BRIGHT, Netflix’s first mega-budget feature, is the single worst movie of 2017.” The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,100 retweets and 3,400 likes in less than one week.

Ayer responded to the critic, tweeting, “This is going on my fridge. Highest compliment is a strong reaction either way. This is a f*cking epic review. It’s a big fun movie. You can sure string words together Mr. Erlich. I’d love to read any script you’ve written.” His tweet (shown below, center) received more than 460 retweets and 2,700 likes in less than one week. Ehrlich responded (shown below, right, “you’re a good man, mr. Ayer. i’ll be waiting with fresh eyes for whatever comes next.”

Allegations of Sexual Assault

On December 23rd, the Daily Beast reported on a series of tweets alleging that _Bright_’s screenwriter Max Landis of sexual assault. The article points to a number of tweets made by women in Hollywood saying or alluding to Landis’ history of sexual assault. Actor Anna Akana tweeted^[10] (shown below, left) in response to Netflix tweeting about Bright with “Written by a psychopath who sexually abused and assaults women, right? Cool.”

Video game developer Zoe Quinn also tweeted a number of responses, claiming that Landis’ allegations were an “open secret” in Hollywood. She tweeted (shown below, center), “I’ve been holding in this shit for years as more friends have accrued “max landis stories” bc it wasn’t my place and him & his dad are powerful figures so naturally going against that is terrifying for survivors so I’m SO glad people are finding out what a piece of shit he is.”

Actor Siobhan Thompson responded to a thread that cryptically referred to Landis’ reputation and alleged that Landis sexually assault several of her friends. She wrote, “I don’t know who you mean but if that’s true I bet I have SEVERAL friends who have been sexually assaulted by him.”

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