About

Forget Gumwaa Have Funwaa is an expression referencing the Hindi word “gum” (“sadness” in English), meaning “forget sadness, have fun” associated with the website Funwaa.com. On Reddit, the site and slogan inspired the creation of the rival communities /r/gumcels and /r/funwaa, and is frequently referenced as an in-joke on /r/ComedyCemetary.

Origin

On March 19th, 2015, the domain for the internet humor site Funwaa.com^[5] was registered, which features the slogan “Forget Gumwaa Have Funwaa” on the site logo (shown below).

Spread

On September 21st, 2017, a page for Gumwaa was created on the Be Like Bro Wiki.^[6] On October 9th, the /r/Funwaa^[2] subreddit was launched. On August 16th, the rival subreddit /r/Gumcels^[3] was created. On October 20th, Redditor SuperCykelaunched the /r/Funcels^[4] subreddit. On November 14th, a page for “Funwaa-Gumwaa war” was created on the Be Like Bro Wiki,^[7] which included a photoshopped picture of emojis and the Funwaa.com logo battling Waluigi and a “Gumwaa.com” logo (shown below).

On November 22nd, Redditor Ipingpong1 submitted a joke post about funwaa.com and “net neutrality”: to /r/ComedyCemetary,^[1] where it gathered upwards of 72,000 points (87% upvoted) and 250 comments prior to being archived.

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About

Cheddar Man refers to the a human male fossil excavated in 1903 from Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. In February of 2018, its full genome was extracted and scientists were able to discover what Cheddar Man possibly looked like. They discovered he had dark skin and blue eyes, upending the idea that the British have always been fair-skinned. The news of Cheddar Man’s appearance led to jokes on Twitter.

Origin

Cheddar Man was excavated in 1903 from Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, England, and is kept in Natural History Museum in London. The remains date back to the Mesolithic Period, around 9,100 BCE. On February 7th, 2018, the Natural History Museum^[1] released a statement from postdoctoral researcher Dr. Tom Booth saying that Cheddar Man had dark skin.

“Until recently it was always assumed that humans quickly adapted to have paler skin after entering Europe about 45,000 years ago… ‘Cheddar Man subverts people’s expectations of what kinds of genetic traits go together… It seems that pale eyes entered Europe long before pale skin or blond hair, which didn’t come along until after the arrival of farming… He reminds us that you can’t make assumptions about what people looked like in the past based on what people look like in the present, and that the pairings of features we are used to seeing today aren’t something that’s fixed.”

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Egg Challenge or #EggChallenge refers to a social media game in which people place an egg in the mouth of a golden retrievers, hoping to prove how soft their dog’s pallet is by how carefully they handle the egg.

Origin

While the discussion around golden retrievers holding eggs in their mouths without cracking it may have existed before the internet, the earliest known example of it online was posted on October 3rd, 2009 by YouTuber^[1] ampstube. The video (shown below) features a woman placing an egg in their dogs mouth. As of February 2018, the video has received more than 28,000 views.

Spread

On January 14th, 2013, Redditor^[2] FierceThrombone posted in the /r/aww subreddit a picture of a dog with an egg in their mouth with the caption “My friend saw on Animal Planet^[3] that Golden Retriever’s mouths are so soft they can carry eggs without breaking them, so she tested it.” The post (shown below) received more than 3,200 points (98% upvoted) and 700 comments in four and a half years. The following year, on August 14th Tumblr^[4] user thecutestofthecute uploaded the image and caption, receiving more than 518,000 points in four years.

One of the earliest known usage of the activity being referred to as the “Egg Challenge” comes from Twitter user @_jayzerine.^[5] On February 2nd, 2018, they posted a video (shown below, left) of a golden retriever with an egg in its mouth and the caption “Good boy, Aspen! 😚🐶#EggChallenge.”

Two days later, Twitter^[6] user @NewtonConner tweeted a video of a golden retriever dropping en egg out of its mouth. They captioned the post “My parents did the egg challenge with my Golden Retriever today and here were the results 😂” The post (shown below, right) received more than1,600 retweets and 6,300 likes in four days.

However, the trend began to spread more rapidly following a post by Twitter^[7] user @laurdreyfuss. That day, she posted a video of a golden retriever with an egg in its mouth. They captioned the vide0 (shown below) “my aunt read online that a golden retriever’s mouth is so gentle they can hold an egg in their mouth without cracking it so she tried it on her dog and well.” The post received more than 224,000 retweets and 683,000 likes in four days.

Following this post, more people began to attempt the “egg challenge.” Twitter^[8][9] published two Moments pages about the post and subsequent attempts at the challenge.

Several media outlets covered the trend, including The Daily Dot,^[10]NBC,^[11] Maxim,^[12]BuzzFeed^[13] and more.

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CmonBruh, stylized as “cmonBruh,” is a Twitch TV emote used to signify confusion, particularly when something in the Twitch stream is seen as racist.

Origin

While the exact date “cmonBruh” was created is unclear, it appears to have started around February of 2016. The earliest known mention of the emote was tweeted on February 9th, 2016 by user @shofu,^[1] who called the emote “racist as fuck.”

Spread

Mentions of the emoji appeared on Reddit in posts of a clip from a stream by Reckful in which someone says a racial slur on February 10th, 2016 (shown below).^[2][3]

On September 28th, 2017, nicetrysna uploaded a definition of the term to Urban Dictionary, focusing it on the emote’s confusion definition (shown below, left).^[4] On January 7th, 2018, Urban Dictionary user SpongeBoobies uploaded a definition focusing on its reaction to racism (shown below, right). This is the top definition of the term as of February 8th, 2018.

On December 3rd, 2017, Redditor zAaaaaaaaAaaaaaaaAz uploaded a question about the origin of cmonBruh to /r/twitch,^[5] to which a Redditor with a deleted account said the face was a member of the Twitch staff who goes by “cmonBruh.”^[6]

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Review Bombing is the practice of leaving negative reviews on various websites en masse by groups attempting to harm the sales or popularity of various productions, most often targeting video games and films.

Origin

On September 8th, 2008, the tech news Ars Technica published an article titled “Gamers fight back against lackluster Spore gameplay,” which referred to a wave of negative Amazon review for the game Spore as “review-bombing.”

Spread

On September 23rd, 2011, the video game news site The Escapist^[8] reported that the review aggregator Metacritic was banning users who gave “unreasonable zero point scores.” In 2012, the game Mass Effect 3 saw an influx of bad reviews due to the poor reception of the game’s controversial ending.

On August 30th, 2017, the video game news site EuroGamer^[5] reported that Steam users were review bombing Sonic Mania due to the game’s use of Denuvo digital rights management. On September 19th, Valve published a blog post^[7] explaining how they would be addressing review bombing on their Steam platform by displaying graphs of a video game’s score over time (shown below).

On September 21st, The Know YouTube channel posted a video discussing Valve’s respond to review bombing on Steam (shown below, left). On October 4th, YouTuber Rags uploaded a video discussing the ethics of review bombing (shown below, right).

On December 21st, Polygon published an article reporting that Star Wars: The Last Jedi was being review bombed, which was subsequently submitted to /r/GameGhazi^[6] in a post titled “The alt right is using bots to review bomb The Last Jedi.”

Subnautica

On February 5th, Subnautica sound designer Simon Chylinski tweeted that he had been fired from the Subnautica team (shown below, left).^[2] The announcement came just two days after he received criticism over tweets posted in the past, which seemed to mock identity politics and social justice activism. The following day, Chylinski posted a tweet asking his followers to “plz stop targeting subnautica devs.”^[3] On February 7th, the video game news blog GameRevolution^[1] reported that the Steam page for Subnautica was being “review bombed” by supporters of Chylinski, which included a graph illustrating the surge in bad reviews (shown below, right).

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Monkey Puppet refers to a reaction image and GIF of a puppet appearing surprised. It’s used to express shock, particularly in situations where one party owns another in a verbal exchange.

Origin

The puppet comes from a Japanese children’s television show called Ōkiku naru Ko (Growing Children) which first aired April 7th 1959 and ran until March 18th, 1988.^[1] It also ran in Latin America. The main character, Kento (“Pedro” in Spanish), is the monkey used in reaction images and GIFs. The character began being used in Spanish-language-speaking parts of the internet under the name No Ahora Porfavor (“not now, please”).

Spread

On March 31st, 2016, YouTube user TobiSilvero uploaded the clip from which the meme spread to the site (shown below).

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#ValentinesDayChallenge is a Twitterhashtag cataloguing a social game in which people message someone their romantically interested in and ask them on a Valentine’s Day date.

Origin

On February 5th, 2018, Twitter^[1] user @Oloni posted the “Valentine’s Day Challenge” on Twitter. She tweeted, “Ladies, ask the guy you have a crush on to be your Valentine this year & tell him you’d like to go on a date with him. Tweet me a screenshot of his response 😏” The post (shown below) received more than 4,700 retweets and 7,900 likes in three days.

Spread

Shortly after @Oloni’a initial post, people began posting success stories of the challenge. Twitter^[2] user @Sisi_Tomi posted a screenshot successful ask over text massage, receiving more than 390 retweets and 4,000 likes in three days (shown below, left). Some even posted that the person they looked to ask was thinking of asking them, such as the case with @JeffChangx’s post^[3] (shown below, center) and @FonJovi’s post (shown below, right).

Three days later, Twitter published a Moments page regarding the challenge.

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About

Origin

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Overview

Jesse Farrar’s “Drown Conservatives” Tweet Controversy refers to a tweet by Vice and Deadspin writer Jesse Farrar to Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA in which he said college professors should “hold the conservative students’ heads underwater until they stop breathing.” While many saw the tweet as sarcastic, Kirk and other conservatives took the tweet seriously, leading to articles from conservative publications about the tweet, a person to write to Deadspin to try and get Farrar fired, and a television segment on the tweet on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Background

On February 7th, 2018, Charlie Kirk tweeted about how he had received letters from conservative college students saying their grades were lowered because of their views. Farrar responded saying that professors should instead hold conservative students’ heads underwater until they drowned (screenshot shown below).

Developments

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Big Nigga is a series of photoshops and image macros featuring photographs of obese Black men, many of which are edited in the style of Deep Fried Memes.

Origin

Spread

On November 24th, 2017, Redditor ganggxnggvng created the /r/bigniggasaga^[1] subreddit, which gathered upwards of 4,600 subscribers over the next three months. On November 30th, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Mr_Avacado_Man submitted an entry for “Big Nigga,” defining the character as “the god sworn to protect the earth from harm” (shown below).

On February 2nd, 2018, Redditor tylertiushman submitted a post asking “should I invest in big nigga memes?” to /r/MemeEconomy.^[3]

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The 24 Hour Challenge is a social game in which people attempt to stay inside of a store for 24 hours without getting caught.

Origin

The earliest example of the Ikea challenge was posted by YouTuber^[1] Bakuna Fatata posted a video entitled “TWOIDIOTS AT NIGHT IN IKEA.”The video (shown below) features two men spending the night in Ikea without the knowledge of the staff. Within a year and a half, the video has received more than 2.6 million views.

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Gladstone Brookes is a British payment protection insurance company founded on 13th June, 2007 and is headquarted in Warrington, England. Gladstone Brookes is well-known for their jingle at the end of their advertisements.

Origin

Gladstone Brookes originated from a YouTube video published on 11th June, 2014, which depicts the advertisement for Gladstone Brookes. The video has accumulated over 100,00 views and over 74 dislikes.

Spread

Gladstone Brookes gained popularity after YouTuber ‘Marcus Ryan’ uploaded an electronic sound version of the Gladstone Brookes advertisement on 28th June, 2014. On 27th October, 2015, YouTuber ‘The Retro Revival’ created a ‘YouTube Poop’ of the Gladstone Brookes advertisement. This video has accumulated over 30,000 views and over 30 likes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KbJdyKSnXw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeaC2ckTalU

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Overview

Stormi Webster Birth Announcement refers to the birth of Kylie Jenner’s first child, Stormi Webster, who was born on February 1st. Since her birth, Stormi Webster has been the subject of numerous memes.

Background

Ending months of speculation,^[1] Kylie Jenner announced the birth of her and rapper and producer Travis Scott’s first child on Instagram^[2] on February 4th, 2018. That day, she posted a note to the site. It said, “I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark through all the assumption. I understand you’re used to me bringing you along on all my journeys. my pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front of the world[…]my beautiful and healthy baby girl arrived February 1st and i just couldn’t wait to share this blessing.” The post (shown below) received more than 10 million likes in four days.

Development

That day, Jenner uploaded a video entitled “To Our Daughter.” The video (shown below) is an 11-minute compilation featuring footage of her pregnancy, labor and newborn child.^[3] Within five days, the video received more than 49.7 million views.

Baby Picture

On February 6th, Jenner posted an image of her child holding her thumb on Instagram.^[4] The image was captioned with the name of her baby: “stormi webster 👼🏽.” The post (shown below) received more than 15.9 million likes in 48 hours.

That day, people began posting memes of the image. Instagram^[5] account @girlwithnojob posted the picture with several makeup swatches photoshopped on her baby’s wrist, parodying Jenner’s makeup products. The post (shown below, left) was captioned “That was fast…” Within 48 hours, it has received more than 209,000 likes.

Instagram user @byrdiebeauty posted the image on Instagram^[6] with the caption “Kylie Jenner’s baby has better nail beds than I’ll ever have.” The post (shown below, center) received more than 7,500 likes in 48 hours.

The following day, the official Instagram^[7] account account for The Ellen Show posted a photoshopped image of Ellen Degeneres and wife Portia de Rossi sitting at home in front of the picture. They captioned the post “Portia and I love our new art.” The post (shown below, right) received more than 789,000 likes in 24 hours.

Additionally, people made jokes about the name on Twitter. On February 6th, Twitter^[8] user @iiordanou tweeted, “I had a DREAM last night that my SAINT of a friend PENELOPE was holding out a MASON jar catching REIGN coming from the NORTHWEST side of CHICAGO. Guess it was a STORMI night…” The post (shown below) received more than 420 retweets and 1,100.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered Stormi Webster’s birth, including Teen Vogue,^[9] The Daily Dot,^[10] Cosmopolitan,^[11] Us Weekly^[12] and more.

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Oovoo Javer refers to a popular video in which a student is asked “Who’s the hottest Uber driver you’ve ever had?” to which he replies “I’ve never been to Oovoo Javer.” The video spread on Vine.

Origin

On October 26th, 2015, YouTube show Like IDK Whatever posted a video in which the host of a satirical television show asked a student on an unknown college campus “Who’s the hottest Uber driver you’ve ever had?” to which the student replies “I’ve never been to Oovoo Javer.”

Spread

Shortly after, the video began spreading on Vine. An early post on Vine with the video was posted November 22nd, 2015 by Funny AF, gaining over 1.8 million loops (shown below).

The Vine was shared in a tweet by @jayandy_^[1] on November 25th, 2015, gaining over 670 retweets. The video began seeing a resurgence in interest around the summer of 2017. On July 24th, Twitter user @VineThreads1_^[2] posted the video in a list of Vine videos, gaining 6,200 retweets and 10,000 likes. On November 26th, 2017, Twitter user @lilyurivert tweeted a discovery of a “part 2” of the video, in which the same person is asked a question about Guy Fieri. The tweet gained 1,000 retweets and 1,600 likes (shown below).

On January 9th, 2018, YouTube user Alex Coult uploaded the Vine, gaining over 188,000 views (shown below, left).

On January 14th, 2018, Urban Dictionary user Raychhelxo uploaded a definition of the term to the site (shown below).^[3]

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Grug refers to an illustrated caveman character who is often depicted as

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“I’m Poopin” Cat refers to a three-panel image macro of a cat sitting in a bathroom. In the first two panels, the cat says “I’m poopin!” and in the third panel, it says “false alarm.”

Origin

The image macro began circulating online in 2008. One of the earliest posts of the image macro appeared on blog Life Is a Joke^[1] on September 4th, 2008 (shown below).

Spread

Estoy Poopin

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Forget Gumwaa Have Funwaa is an expression referencing the Hindi word “gum” (“sadness” in English), meaning “forget sadness, have fun” associated with the website Funwaa.com. On Reddit, the site and slogan inspired the creation of the rival communities /r/gumcels and /r/funwaa, and is frequently referenced as an in-joke on /r/ComedyCemetary.

Origin

On March 19th, 2015, the domain for the internet humor site Funwaa.com^[5] was registered, which features the slogan “Forget Gumwaa Have Funwaa” on the site logo (shown below).

Spread

On September 21st, 2017, a page for Gumwaa was created on the Be Like Bro Wiki.^[6] On August 16th, the subreddit /r/Funwaa^[2] was created. On October 9th, the rival subreddit /r/Gumcels^[3] was launchedm which often uses the character Waluigi as a mascot. On October 12th, Redditor WhosCountin submitted a Virgin vs. Chad image depicting Gumwaa.com as a virgin and Funwaa.com as Chad Thundercock (shown below).

On October 20th, Redditor SuperCykelaunched the /r/Funcels^[4] subreddit. On November 14th, a page for “Funwaa-Gumwaa war” was created on the Be Like Bro Wiki,^[7] which included a photoshopped picture of emojis and the Funwaa.com logo battling Waluigi and a “Gumwaa.com” logo (shown below).

On November 22nd, Redditor Ipingpong1 submitted a joke post about funwaa.com and “net neutrality”: to /r/ComedyCemetary,^[1] where it gathered upwards of 72,000 points (87% upvoted) and 250 comments prior to being archived.

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Marshmello is the stage name of American DJ and EDM producer Christopher Comstock. His music, name, and costume style is largely derived from fellow artist Deadmau5 which is reflected in his “marshmallow” helmet he wears when he performs and was alluded to in his first world wide hit “Alone” which featured a mouse named Joel.

Music Career

[W.I.P.]

Online History

Social Media Presence

Lil Peep Tribute – Spotlight

After the passing of SoundCloud rapper Lil Peep at the end of 2017, Marshmello tweeted his respects to the rapper and mentioned that they had expressed interest in working together the week prior to his death. On January 11th, 2018, the song “Spotlight” (below left) was uploaded to the Marshmello YouTube channel per the request of Lil Peep’s mother.^[2] A tribute video (below right) was then posted on January 19th which featured footage of the wrapper set to the song. Within a month the videos received 17.3 million and 1.5 million views respectively and more than a half million likes combined.

Other Collaborations

Cooking with Marshmello

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Origin

The meme originated when YouTube user Chuggaaconroy (real name: Emiliano Rodolfo Rosales-Birou) uploaded Part 40 of his Pokemon Black and White playthrough on February 10th, 2018. At the 1:02 mark, he decided to show off what he does with his friends whenever the theme for the “Hiker” is played.

Original Source

It’s just a silly little song, and I like how it sounds, and I thought that that was a very fitting visual for it… I just kinda started doing [the dance] every time I heard [the song]
-Chuggaaconroy.

Reception

Within the next two hours, Emile’s fans began making parodies and fanart of Hiker Chuggaaconroy’s dance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJGrDEF7mgE