[W.I.P]

About

The Big Lebowski is a popular cult classic that is often quoted through out the internet.

Origin

It is a Conan Brothers film based on Jeff Dowd, a man known as “The Dude.” The movie is based on events that happened in his life. Including such things as being really proud of a rug that really “tided the room together.”

Memes

Many memes have stemmed from this movie such as:

Am I the only one around here who

Based on one of the popular lines from the character Walter

Popular on Reddit, it is a frequent Advice meme used to express frustration:

Well that’s just your opinion man!

Another quote is seen in forums to retort to an controversial post.

About

On May 8, 2013, a video that was uploaded to YouTube called “Jeff Bliss decided to give his teacher a peace of his mind” is currently going viral. In the video, a what appears to be a frustrated student, gets up from his chair and starts ranting to his teacher (Julie Phung) saying:

“If you would just get up and teach us instead of handing ‘em a packet yo, there’s kids in here that don’t learn like that… they need to learn face-to-face,” said student Jeff Bliss on the 84-second video clip recorded by a classmate. “You want kids to come to class? You want them to get excited? You gotta come in here, you gotta make ‘em excited, to change him and make him better, you gotta touch his freakin’ heart. You can’t expect a kid to change if all you do is just tell him.”

He has appeared in several local news websites about the incident including:

everyjoe.com

wfaa.com

myfoxdfw

These links are linked below.

External References

About

Pencil Carving Art is the practice of carving wooden and graphite sculptures out of pencil writing utensils.

Origin

The exact origin of carved pencil art is unknown, though some of the early pioneers include Brazilian artist Dalton Ghetti, who began carving pencils as early as 1986 according to his website’s bio page,^[1] and Japanese artist Mizuta Tasogare, who created a honeycomb-patterned pencil sculpture (shown below) in the fall of 1987, as featured in the JAD Project Internet Museum.^[2]

Spread

In 1997, the woodcarving hobbyist website Carvers Companion^[4] posted an article about the craft, highlighting several photographs of pencils carved by artist Tony Wipinski (shown below, left). On August 23rd, 2003, author Clifford Pickover published an article about pencil carving on his website Reality Carnival,^[5] showcasing several examples of carved pencil art (shown below, right).

On April 28th, 2007, Ebaums World Forums^[6] member Natedawg1848 created a pencil carving art thread. On February 11th, 2007, The New York Times^[3] published an article about artist Dalton Ghetti, who was quoting saying he appreciates carving pencil graphite because it is a “very homogeneous material.” On August 4th, 2010, YouTuber jkumar Bj uploaded a slideshow of Ghetti’s carved pencils (shown below, left). On August 28th, 2010, YouTuber LordSaves uploaded another slideshow featuring the artist’s works (shown below, right).

On November 24th, 2011, DeviantArtist^[7] cerkahegyzo uploaded a photograph of a pencil carved in the shape of a spiral (shown below). In the next six months, cerkahegyzo uploaded over 50 photographs of additional pencil carvings.^[8]

On February 6th. 2012, YouTuber Julius Campo uploaded a time lapse video that shows the carving of “I

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Die Cis Scum is a phrase used by some transgenders as an oppression towards people who are identified as cisgendered and a reply to the common death threats transgenders have to deal with. Although cisgender describes a gender identity where the individual’s self-perception of their gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth, the term cis has gained usage in certain kinds of social justice circles as a negative slur against those who question or dislike the choice of transsexuality.

Origin

On November 21st, 2011, Tumblr user Char the Butcher made a post in which they shows their new tattoo which reads “Die Cis Scum” (shown below).^[1] In the post, Char explains they got the tattoo for Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorializes those killed as a result of transphobia and highlights the continuing violence endured by the trans community, and that the tattoo is meant to be a threat towards cisgenders. The post was also featured on the Tranarchism Wordpress blog the same day by blogger Asher Bauer,^[2] who was also the person who made the tattoo for Char.

Spread

On March 7th, 2012, Youtube BlackLipstckBuxomBoy^[3] made a video titled “Die Cis Scum” giving an opinion towards the controversy caused by the phrase. The video was met by mainly negative and mocking opinions and also received various replies towards it. Although the original video was eventually removed^[4] from Youtube, a post^[5] on the r/cringe sub-Reddit mocking the video from February 1st, 2013, which managed to get more than 400 upvotes at May of the same year, shows it was still online at that point.

On March 3rd, 2012, the Dear Cis People^[6]single topic blog which uploads image macros showing anonymous messages from transgenders, in a style of just little things, aimed at cisgenders. The blog’s first image macro showed a message mentioning the perturbs caused by the “Die Cis Scum” phrase (shown below).^[7] As of May 2013, the blog contains over 650 posts.

Search Interest

External References

History

Deng Jiahua (Chinese: 邓佳华, born 1994 in Taitung, Taiwan) is a Youtuber who creates videos of him showing off his strange behaviour for the sake of being famous. He once studied in the National Guan-Shan Vocational Senior High in Taiwan, but he was unemployed and now lives with his mother in an apartment. He started filming in order to have more friends and gain attention on the Internet.

Origin

In 28 August 2012, he uploaded 5 similar videos on YouTube^[1] of him showing off his looks like a mirror. It recieved over 130,000 cumulative views on the day he uploaded the videos. Of all of the comments posted on the video, almost every single one were negative notes and many of them have been shared or been embeded to Facebook, causing the widespread of him. (Below shows the first video)

Spread

Via the spread on Facebook, Jiahua’s notability has been increased to an impressive scale, even though it was all filled with negative remarks. The video “自我1X秒” (or Self-1X Seconds)^[2], a video of him introducting himself recieved the most views, possessing 300,000 views the day he posted the video. “自我1X秒” now has over 1,090,000 views to date, the highest of them all.

The spread has been covered all over North-East Asia, mostly because knowing Mandarin Chinese, including Taiwan itself, China, Malaysia and even Singapore. There were no known spreads reported outside of Asia.
The videos of Jiahua were getting more and more disgusting and meaningless over the time, which sometimes can be used as a shock video as a prank to a friend.

Notable Examples

Since his first post in 28 August 2012, Jiahua now posts a total of 197 vidos on his channel. Some of them were videos about trends and memes right now.

Anti-Jiahua Facebook Pages

Due to the repulsive behaviour to Jiahua, Facebook sparked many anti-Jiahua pages^[3], in which many people posts negative notes about him, with not a single “hater”(which is paradoxically positive fans) was found.

Jiahua’s Presidental Bombing Hoax^[4]

A fake Deng Jiahua Facebook account posted the following joke on Janurary 6 2013:
I’ve sent people down to set bombs on the president’s house. By 12 a.m., we’ll blow Ma Ying-jeou (President of Taiwan) ’till none of his bits were found

Original Chinese post:
我已经派人在总统府放好炸弹了，预测今晚12点让马英九死无全尸

This joke later controversy towards the government, fearing Jiahua really sent people to blow the president up. As soon as an Anonymous Facebook user found out someone else posted this, he/she immediately reported to the police, claiming Jiahua never posted this and therefore, he was indeed proven framed.
The police department tried to track down the suspect by revamping IP addresses he had went, but was never caught.

External Links

Search interests

About

Gurren Lagann (Japanese: 天元突破グレンラガン Tengen Toppa Guren Ragan, lit. “Heaven-Piercing Gurren Lagann”) is a mecha anime created by Gainax. It details the adventures of Simon, a boy living in a sub-terrain village, who manages to break to the surface with his friend Kamina, using a machine named a Gunmen. They soon meet a girl named Yoko, and explore the surface world together. The show has gained a considerable online fanbase both in Japan and in the west, spawning fan art, sub-memes and cosplay.

History

Gurren Lagann was originally a 27 episode anime produced by Gainax, airing between April 1 and September 30 2007 in Japan, and dubbed in English on November 18 2008. The success of the series eventually spawned 2 special episodes, as well as two films titled “Gurren Lagann The Movie: Childhood’s End” and “Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars”, being released in 2008 and 2009 respectivly. As well as this, the series also spawned a manga series which retold the events of the anime, as well as two spin-off manga titled “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Gurren Gakuen-hen”, which retold the series in the setting of a Highschool, and “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 4-koma Kingdom: Yoko no Oheso-hen”, which acted as a gag Manga.

Reception

Gurren Lagann has received critical acclaim, receiving many awards such as an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2007^[1], as well as winning the “Best Television Production” award at the Tokyo Anime Awards in 2008. The series has also had a large impact on popular culture. In January 2009, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph held an online competition to design the new Union Jack for their flag, following a controversy about the Welsh Dragon requested into the design. User Partyvan.info’s design was declared the winner, a flaming skull with Gurren Lagann character Kamina’s sunglasses^[2].

Online Relevance

Gurren Lagann has a large presence on sites such as Tumblr^[3], Reddit^[4], 4chan’s /a/ anime and manga^[5] and /m/ mecha^[6] boards and DeviantArt^[7]. As well as this, sites such as Anime News Network^[8], TV Tropes^[9] and the Gurren Lagann wiki^[10] offer information on the series. The series has a large presence on video sharing sites such as Nico Nico Douga^[11] and Youtube^[12], as well as over 300 fanfics on Fanfiction.net^[13]. The Facebook page for the show also has over 27,000 likes also^[14].

Notable Sub-memes

Row Row Fight the Power

Row Row Fight the Power is a popular catchphrase first mentioned in a song of the same name, which was included as part of the Gurren Lagann soundrack. This phrase grew in popularity on 4chan, most notably after 4chan creater Moot had edited the layout of the /b/ random board to turn all new posts to the line, sparking many of it’s users to spam the line on the other boards.

When I’m Bored

When I’m Bored is a video remix series featuring short clips and images played alongside the Audiostalkers remix of “Let Me Hit It” by Sporty-O. The original video was uploaded to Youtube on August 31 2010 by Youtuber ancsagirl95^[15], and included short clips of the character Yoko.

Gurren Lagann Eyecatch Parodies

Gurren Lagann Eyecatch Parodies refer to a number of parodies created surrounding the Eyecatch used during the airing of the anime. These became a popular source of parody on both Nico Nico Douga and Youtube.

Kamina Glasses

Kamina Glasses refers to a photoshop exploitabke, in which the character Kamina’s glasses are photoshopped onto a number of different people and objects.

Search Interest

External References

(work in progress!!1)

About

Nail Art is a method of applying nailpolish to create images, pictures or designs on ones finger or toe nails. Many online communities have surfaced around this art, with many people using social networks to show off their work.

Origin

Though nail art^[1] has been part of high fashion for decades, it has been discussed online since as early as 1994, beginning in the alt.fashion newsgroup. One of the earliest discussion threads was posted on May 2nd, 1994 by a student named Lisa at Michigan State University. The post^[2] discussed airbrushed nail art (example shown below) that is available for people who used acrylic-based extensions for their nails.

Spread

In 1999, the New York Times^[3] published an article on nail art’s rise in fashion, citing an increase in the amount of nail salons throughout America in the 1990s, making artificial nails as well as simple manicures more affordable for people from all walks of life. As local women began experimenting with long, flamboyant nails, high fashion labels began to co-opt the trends with Gucci (shown below), Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen using audacious nail looks both in print advertising and on the runways.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Liberator is the name of the 3D printed gun designed by Defense Distributed’s open source printing project DEFCAD. After the blueprints were made available online on May 5th, 2013, they were downloaded more than 100,000 times within four days. On May 9th, 2013, the US Department of Defense Trade Controls requested the files be removed from the site.

Background

On June 4th, 2012, 24-year-old University of Texas law student Cody Wilson founded the organization Defense Distributed^[1] with the intent to create a completely 3D-printed, open source gun, which was inspired by gunsmith Michael Guslick’s partially printed rifle.^[6] The staff launched the official website that July and released a video (shown below) detailing their ideas to create a “wiki weapon” that would be accessible to anyone.

Notable Developments

Indiegogo Campaign

In August, Defense Distributed launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in order to raise $20,000 for equipments and supplies, including a Stratasys 3D printer and enough plastic filament to built and test several iterations of the firearm. The campaign lasted for 22 days and raised nearly $2,000 dollars before Indiegogo took the page down down, claiming a violation of their terms of service which state that campaigns cannot be used for activities relating to the sales of firearms or certain firearm parts and accessories.^[2] After their fundraiser was shuttered on August 27th, they switched to accepting donations via PayPal and Bitcoin through their homepage^[3], raising more than $20,000 by September 20th, 2012.^[4]

Printer Seized

That September, Wilson leased a 3D printer from Stratasys to begin testing their prototypes. Less than a week after receiving the $15,900 uPrintSE, Wilson received an email from Stratasys’ lawyers stating that they wanted the printer returned. Despite the plea that it would not break federal arms-manufacturing laws, the lease was cancelled and contractors came to Wilson’s home to seize the printer (shown below).^[7] Following this, Wilson consulted with a field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who noted that he needed to get a license to manufacture a weapon. By late October 2012, two unnamed companies in Texas offered Defense Distributed safe spaces to work on their designs in secret.^[8]

Launch of DEFCAD

In early December 2012, members of Defense Distributed uploaded a video (shown below) demonstrating a partially 3D printed AR-15 rifle^[5] based on Guslick’s previous design that broke apart after six shots. On December 19th, 2012, Makerbot Industries decided to pull Guslick’s design from their blueprint repository Thingiverse in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Schooling. Additionally, Makerbot altered Thingiverse’s Trrms of Service to disallow the sharing of objects that “contribute to the creation of weapons.”^[9]

In response to this, Defense Distributed launched DEFCAD.org^[10], a repository dedicated to hosting any file that Thingiverse would censor. Prior to a takedown in May 2013, DEFCAD hosted blueprints for dozens of
weapon related objects including grenades, rifle pieces, silencers, pistol pieces and ammunition cartridges.

Blueprints Released

On May 3rd, 2013, Defense Distributed shared photos^[11] of his first prototype printed gun, known as the Liberator, possibly inspired by a World War II-era pistol^[12] of the same name. The weapon was made nearly entirely from 3D printed parts, with the exception of a nail used as a firing pin and a six ounce piece of steel to make it perceivable by metal detectors.

Two days later, Defense Distributed uploaded a video (shown below) of its test firing. Within 48 hours, the blueprints were downloaded more than 100,000 times.^[13] The files were also reshared on The Pirate Bay, where it immediately was one of the most popular 3D printing files.

Department of State Takedown

On May 9th, 2013, less than a week after the Liberator went online, Cody Wilson received a request from the United States Department of State (shown below), asking him to remove the Liberator blueprints from DEFCAD so they could be reviewed by the department.^[14]Though Wilson complied and took the files down, there were at least three separate torrents for the Liberator available on The Pirate Bay^[15] as of 8:45 p.m. (ET) that evening. Meanwhile, DEFCAD put up a red banner announcing that their files had been removed from public viewing after the US government claimed control of the information.

Letter from Department of State to Defense Distributed

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Mike Jeffries’s Anti-Plus-Size Controversy refers to various online backlashes surrounding the current CEO of American fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch and his alleged advocacy of anti-plus-size policy in order to appeal to “thin and attractive” customers.

Background

On May 3rd, 2013, Business Insider published an article^[1] titled “Abercrombie & Fitch Refuses To Make Clothes For Large Women,” which cited several quotes from retail industry analyst Robin Lewis accusing Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries of trying to exclude overweight customers from shopping at his stores. The article also went on to mention that Jeffries had previously stated in an interview with Salon in 2006 that the company was intentionally exlusionary and only wished to market to “cool kids.”

On Reddit

Then on May 7th, Redditor NJFiend submitted a link to the Salon interview article in a post titled “TIL The CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch went on record as saying he does not want fat or unattractive people wearing his clothes or employed at his company,” receiving over 8,800 up votes and nearly 2,000 comments prior to being archived.

Notable Developments

Redditors were quick to point out Jeffries’ own lack of physical appeal, creating a slew of images insulting his looks and comparing him to actors like Gary Busey and Thomas Wilson in the process.

Local News Investigation

Meanwhile, ABC News visited Abercrombie’s flagship store in New York City to survey the distribution of available sizes and reported that most items on display were double-zeros and extra-smalls, with few large tops and size 10 pants. The report also confirmed that Abercrombie & Fitch doesn’t carry extra large or extra-extra large for women.

Change.org Petition

On May 8th, 2013, Change.org member Benjamin O’Keefe submitted a petition demanding Jeffries to make clothes for all sizes available to the customers. The petition has received at least 2,480 pledges as of May 9th, 10:30 p.m. (ET).

Search Interest

External References

About

Time Magazine Cover: Me Me Me Generation refers to the cover of the May issue of Time Magazine which was subject to many photoshopped variations mocking the cover’s premise.

Origin

On May 9th, 2013, Time Magazine^[1] released the cover for their upcoming issue titled “The Me Me Me Generation,” planned for released on May 20th, featuring a photograph of a young woman holding an iPhone over her head (shown below).

“Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents / Why they’ll save us all”

Spread

Shortly after the cover was released on May 9th, 2013, a Tumblr^[3] blog titled “The Millenials” was launched, featuring photoshopped variations of the Time cover. The same day the blog Billfold^[2] mocked Time’s accompanying video (shown below).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Not yet available]

External References

About

Agora um poema (“And now, a poem”) is an exploitable comic where the protagonist, usually a child-faced boy, declaims a simple and shot poem about love, amenities or other themes.

Origin

In 2012, Tumblr user brave-neville posted (broken link) a image with the caption:

“And now, a poem by Tom Riddle :)

Roses are red.

Violets are blue

Avada Kedavra!!

I love you

This image has been reposted by a number of other Tumblr users (see sources). In April 2012, it has appeared slightly changed in Desmotivaciones.es. The following month, some Facebook pages of Brazil started to make variations of this comic and spread the format that it becomes popular.

Search interest

Notable sites

• Facebook – Agora um Poema
• Facebook – Agora um Poema
• Facebook – Agora um Poema

Sources

• Pensamentos perdidos
• Cartas para Hogwarts
• Tone of surprise

About

“Horror Movie Logic” is an expression used to highlight the unrealistic or irrational events and behaviors portrayed in horror films. The phrase is often used mockingly, similar to both “video game logic” and “women logic”.

Origin

The earliest known use of the phrase “horror movie logic” online was in a review for the 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project posted on the Wiccan blog Witchvox^[1] on November 5th, 2000. In the review, a scene where it is revealed that the protagonists failed to back up their research is referred to as “horror movie logic”:

“With delicious horror movie logic, we learn they didn’t back up their research on the computer: their only copy now lies strewn around the forest floor.”

Spread

On March 5th, 2003, CHUD Forums^[3] member billz used the phrase “horror movie logic” to describe moments in films where the viewer must suspend disbelief. On September 10th, 2009, the Internet humor site Cracked^[5] published an article about dangerous predators, which suggested that termites operate on “horror movie logic” for being fooled by assassin bugs using termite corpses as bait. On October 25th, the Gawker Media science fiction blog io9^[4] published an article mocking the Marvel Zombies comic for being riddled with “horror movie logic.” On October 19th, 2011, YouTuber stewdippin uploaded a video titled “Horror Movie Logic,” which listed several things he has learned to avoid based on watching horror movies (shown below).

On November 18th, an image macro was submitted to the /r/funny^[7] subreddit, featuring a screen capture of the villain Michael Myers from the horror film series Halloween with the caption “No matter how fast you run / Michael Myers can run faster” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained upwards of 2,400 up votes and 95 comments.

On August 26th, 2012, FunnyJunk^[6] user oregamesss uploaded a rage comic mocking how characters in horror movies often split up when in danger (shown below, left). On December 14th, Redditor thevuvuselanist submitted an image macro titled “Horror Movie Logic” to the /r/funny^[2] subreddit, which pointed out how characters in films often remove their IVs after waking up in a hospital bed (shown below, right). Within four months, the post received over 1,000 up votes and 35 comments.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Not available]

External References

About

“Yeah Science!” and “Yeah science, bitch!” are expressions associated with the character Jesse Pinkman from the television drama series Breaking Bad. On the web, the phrase is often used to express enthusiasm and approval for scientific discovery.

Origin

Pinkman was originally quoted in Breaking Bad saying “Yeah science!” in Season 1 Episode 7 that aired on March 9th, 2008. In the episode, Walter White informs Pinkman that he discovered an alternative method to cooking methamphetamine that does not require pseudo-ephedrine as an ingredient, to which Pinkman replies “Yeah Mr. White! Yeah science!” (shown below).

On July 28th, 2012, Redditor Pass-A-Fist submitted an image macro featuring a screen capture of Pinkman with the caption “Yeah / Science bitch” (shown below) to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] subreddit. Within seven months, the post received over 12,700 up votes and 230 comments.

Spread

On August 24th, Aaron Paul tweeted a link to a BuzzFeed^[1] post titled “35 Reasons Why Aaron Paul Should Be Your Favorite Actor On Television,” adding “Yeah bitch!! Yeah science!!” On August 29th, the “Yeah Bitch, Science!” Tumblr^[2] blog was launched, featuring notable stills and animated GIFs related to the television show.

Yeah bitch!! Yeah science!! I mean that’s pretty much what this is right? Science? buzzfeed.com/daves4/reasons…

— Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) August 24, 2012

On December 27th, a Facebook^[4] page titled “Yeah Science BITCH” was created. On February 9th, 2013, Redditor lol0star submitted a post to the /r/funny^[5] subreddit, which featured a screen capture of a news report about the health benefits of looking at breasts followed by Redditor Pass-A-Fist’s Pinkman image macro (shown below, left). Within six weeks, the post received over 17,000 up votes and 230 comments. Additional examples can be found on Tumblr under the tag “#yeah science.”^[6]

External References

WIP. Feel free to request editorship

About

Dora the Explorer is an animated television series created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh, and Eric Weiner. The series centers arround Dora Márquez, a Latina girl who love embarking on quests, accompanied by her talking backpack and by an anthropomorphic monkey called Boots. The series get a huge fanbase in Internet, like other children series, and some aspects from the show are often parodied.

History

Reception

Impact

Fandom

Search Interest

[w.i.p.]

About

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Japanese: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン Shin Seiki Evangerion) Is a mecha anime series created by Gainax.
The show takes place in an alternate 2000, where a global cataclysm named the “Second Impact” destroys most of Antarctica and causes the deaths of half humanity. The show picks up fifteen years later, with the main character Shinji Ikari becoming the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 at the behest of his father, Gendo Ikari, who is the Machiavellian commander of military unit NERV. Shinji then begins his mission to locate and destroy the beings known as Angels. The series has gained popularity both in Japan and in the west, and has received critical acclaim from critics.

History

Neon Genesis Evangelion was the first success of anime studio Gainax, and was first aired in Japan on October 4 1995 and later dubbed in English. The show was a huge success, leading onto the creation of 2 films, “Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth” and “The End of Evangelion”, both of which were released in 1997. A later film series, “Rebuild_of_Evangelion”, was also created, and was split into four individual films, “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone”, “Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance”, “Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo” and “Evangelion: Final”. The first three films were released in 2007, 2009 and 2012 respectively, with the fourth film still in production. As well as films, the show also spawned a number of manga series, books and video games based off the series.

Online Relevance

Neon Genesis Evangelion has a large online following, spawning a fansite, named Eva Monkey^[1], as well as two wikis dedicated to the show^[2][3]. As well as these, Evangelion also has a large following on Tumblr^[4], DeviantArt^[5], 4chan’s /a/ anime and manga^[6] and /m/ mecha^[7] boards and Reddit^[8]. Also, sites such as Anime News Network^[9] and TV Tropes^[10] offer a variety of information regarding the series. Fanfiction.net^[11] also has over 7000 fanfictions in it’s archives.

Notable Sub-Memes

A Cruel Angel’s Thesis parodies

A Cruel Angel’s Thesis Parodies refers to a number of parodies revolving around the opening to the anime of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The opening became popular in MADs, both on Youtube and Nico Nico Douga.

The Gendo Pose

The Gendo Pose refers to a series of photoshop parodies revolving aroung the character of Gendo Ikari.

Gendowned

Gendowned refers to a video series in which the character Gendo Ikari is show shooting something down to AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock”, followed by the words Gendowned. The meme was first shown during the video “AMV Hell 2: Son of AMV Hell”^[12].

Search Interest

External References

About

K-On is a Manga series written by Japanese author Kakifly, and later developed into an anime by Kyoto Animation. It details the lives of four high school girls who join Sakuragaoka Girl’s High School’s light music club to try to prevent it from being disbanded, and has grown a considerable online following both in Japan and in the west.

History

The original 4-panel manga series began serialization in the manga magazine Manga Time Kirara, and lasted between May 2007 and October 2010. The 13-episode anime series, created by Kyoto Animation, first aired on April 3 2009 and lasted until June 26 of the same year. A 26-episode long second season began on April 7 2010 and lasted until September 28. The success of the show soon paved the way for a film adaptation, which was released on December 3 2011 and a number of video games.

Reception

K-On! has received positive feedback from critics and fans alike, selling over 26,500 volumes between April 27 and May 3 2009, and the first and second manga volumes were the 19th and 20th highest-selling manga volumes in Japanin the following week. The anime series did equally well, with the first Japanese DVD volume of the anime series sold around 8,000 copies in the week of July 29, 2009. The series has also received a number of awards, such as the Best TV Animation Award at the Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2010.

Online Relevance

K-On! has a large online following on sites such as Tumblr^[1], Fanpop^[2], DeviantArt^[3], 4chan’s /a/ anime and manga^[4] and /c/ anime/cute^[5] boards and Reddit^[6]. Also, Anime News Network^[7] and TV Tropes^[8] offer information about the series, as does the K-On wiki^[9]. Fanfiction.net also has over 1,000 fanfictions in it’s archives^[10]. There are a number of videos on both Youtube^[11] and Nico Nico Douga^[12] relating to the anime, and the Facebook fan page for the series has over 140,000 likes^[13].

Notable Sub-memes

What Would X Do For Money? / Fistful Of Yen

What Would X Do For Money? (Also known as Fistful Of Yen) is an exploitable, showing a character being presented with a large sum of money, and then using the money afterwards. This meme originates from a scene in episode 2 of the second season, in which Ritsu waves 100,000 yen in front of Azusa while the girls discuss what they would do with the money.

Jaka Jaka Jan (じゃかじゃん)

Jaka Jaka Jan Refers to a series of MADs based on a scene during the third episode of the second season of the anime, in which Yui tries to think of ideas to not make Ritsu feel lonely in the back, and imitates the noise an electric guitar would make in the process of presenting her ideas.

Untan (うんたん)

Untan refers to a series of MADs involving a scene from the first episode of the first season, in which Yui attempts to demonstrate her ability to play the clarinet, shouting Untan as a way to imitate the noise a clarinet would make.

Search Interest

External References

Note: Work in progress, Researching, Request Editorship

About

GameFAQs is a video gaming website that specialized in archiving walkthroughs, guides, and codes for thousands of video games, which are provided by users of the site. The site also houses various message board forums, for which users can discuss a wide range of topics and interests outside of gaming.

History

[researching]

The site was first launched by programmer Jeff Veasey, also known by his online alias “CJayC,” on November 5th,1995, as a way to categorized guides, and FAQs within one location. Under its first name “Video Game FAQs Archive,” the site was originally hosted on America Online web-space, before registering the domain “gamefaqs.com” on September 11th, 1996, and relaunching later that year under the new name GameFAQs.^[1]

Features

[researching]

The site allows registered users to volunteer in writing walkthroughs and guides for any video game listed in the site. Users can also help out in providing codes, box art, screenshots, videos, developer critics, and as well as publishing game reviews. Members can also use feature called “GameFAQs Answers”, similar to that of Yahoo! Answers, allowing users to ask and answer questions about a specific game.

Message Boards

The most notable addition of the site are the site’s message board, with one board for each video game listed in the site, which are often used to discuss said game. Separate boards has also been set up for users in the site, which range from topics and interests like anime, music and wrestling, to specific regional boards, for users from other parts of the world.

LUE Board

The LUE (Life, Universe, and Everything) board is often considered as one of the most recognized, and notorious, boards on the site. With the name being in reference a quote from Douglas Adams’ science fiction book The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy, the board was created sometime during 2001 as was to discuss religious and philosophical topics. As time passed, the board began to steer out of its original direction, with topics ranging from immature to offensive. Eventually, the board would be closed off to newer users, and since May 2012, it has been reported that the site has over 13,000 accounts that still have access to the original board.^[2]

Traffic

As of May 2013, the GameFAQs is ranked as 404 in United States and 854 globally on Alexa^[4], a ranking of 539 and as well as an estimate of 2.3 million monthly visits on Quantcast^[5], and a compete^[6] ranking of 888.

Highlights

Hot Skitty on Wailord Action

Hot Skitty on Wailord Action, often abbreviated “HSOWA,” is a catchphrase referring to the bizarre breeding pattern of the two creatures from the Nintendo video game series Pokémon. The phrase was first coined by GameFAQs member Endgame in a thread on the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire board sometime after the North American release of the game during 2005. The phrase has since became popular with fans, with a series of fan creations pairing the two Pokémon.

Suddenly X! Thousands of Them!

“Suddenly X! Thousands of Them!” is a phrasal template that is often used in storytelling to introduce a group in a abrupt manner. It began being popularized online when the phrase “Ninja! Thousands of Them” was widely used on the Random Insanity board of the site.^[3] It is often used in online discussion as a way to express a sudden arrival of a group, and it also been used in a series of image macros featuring a large abundance of a certain group or object.

Search Interest

Search Queries for “GameFAQs” saw it’s peak of interest during the end of 2006, but interest began dwindling during mid 2009, and it has been dropping ever since.

External References

Used when someones being a bad boy.. Or when a robbery finishes :P

About

Exploding Knees is a photoshopped advertisement which depicts a young boy playing with a wireless Nintendo joystick and explosions erupting from his knee caps.

Origin

According to the tech news blog Geekosystem,^[4] a Nintendo apparel ad was run by the company Homer’s in 1994, featuring a young boy wearing a Super Mario hat and a Nintendo sweater while playing with a wireless joystick (shown below, left). On August 9th, 2007, a photoshopped version of the Nintendo advertisement was posted to a thread in the /b/ (random board) on 4chan,^[9] which included explosions superimposed over the child’s knees with the caption “Exploding Knees” (shown below, right).

Spread

On January 24th, 2010, YouTuber xXUltraSushiXx uploaded a video featuring the exploding knees image macro, accompanied by a looped audio file of a text-to-speech voice narrating “Maik is pro in Sonic games, but just because he’s gay” for 10 minutes (shown below).

On August 4th, 2011, DeviantArtist^[2] Valenmere uploaded an illustration titled “Exploding Knees,” featuring several renditions of the Nintendo ad (shown below, left). On September 5th, a Facebook^[10] page titled “Help Raise Awareness of Exploding Knee’s Syndrome” was launched. On November 30th, a T-shirt with the Exploding Knees image macro printed on the front was put up for sale on the online retailer Red Bubble^[3] (shown below, middle). On December 5th, Canvas^[7] user darkexecutor posted a photoshopped image of professional golfer Tiger Woods with exploding knees (shown below, right).

On April 6th, 2012, the Internet news blog Unreality Mag^[5] highlighted the original 1994 ad, which was subsequently reblogged by the tech news sites Geekosystem^[4] and Geeks Are Sexy^[6] within the next week. On October 1st, an anonymous 4chan^[8] user mentioned exploding knees while listing several of the imageboard’s older memes.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

[W.I.P.]

About

Not Cool, Zeus is a phrase used to describe a trivially uncool action taken by someone in a position of arbitrary power.

Origin

“Late Night with Conan O’Brien” aired a well loved ^[1] skit called “Satellite Channels” featuring "a channel that’s called “Not Cool, Zeus”" wherein Zeus (played by Matt Walsh ^[2]), the Greek god and master of Olympus, eats his roommate’s burrito, sweats on gym equipment without toweling it off, and cannonball’s into a pool getting two people wet.

Derivative

The phase, and it’s short form NCZ, has been referenced on MySpace profiles ^[3]:

Flickr ^[4]:

as well as Facebook ^[5] and other social forums ^[6].

External References

¹ Blog – I “Get” Conan O’Brien: Why So Many Americans Support Team Coco Over Jay Leno Referenced 2013-05-13

²IMDB– Matt Walsh Referenced 2013-05-13

³ MySpace – Zeus Hates Your Space Downloaded 2013-05-13

⁴ Flickr – Not Cool Zeus Downloaded 2013-05-13

⁵ Facebook – Not Cool Zeus and the Mt Olympus Jam Crew Referenced 2013-05-13

⁶ VWVortex – Generic meme usage Referenced 2013-05-13