About

Meme Center is a a meme-sharing website founded on January 1st, 2012, and hosted in the United States. The site focus lies mainly in common repetition of popular images and memes, such as rage comics and advice animals.

History

Meme center was created by Ben on January 1st, 2012. During the launch of the site, the creators collected a large number existing memes from around the internet in order to bring traffic. In the summer of 2012 this resulted in enough user submissions to keep content going without the admins having to find content elsewhere, putting the site’s focus on producing its own content.

Spread

Memecenter allows its users to easily generate and share memes on the website through a variety of tools, allowing options for creating rage comics, demotivational posters and image macros, amongst others. On February 19th 2013 meme center published a harlem shake video of their staff on their youtube channel:

Related Memes

The Like Face

Memecenters upvote system makes use of a derp-eyed smiley instead of a usual arrow or thumb up, which was based on the standard derp rage face commonly used in rage comics. This face became a popular icon among the site, leading to various modified gifs and images with it, commonly used on the site to show post appreciation.

Search Interest

About

The “SeeS or SooS” Debates are a series of videos created by various Garry’s Mod Animators based upon a video created by the YouTube user ugotaphonenumber.^[1] The videos open with two Team Fortress 2 classes “debating” to each other using a voice clip that have been reversed in the middle (Such as RaaR, YeeY or FaaF) to distorted music. Another class then interrupts and the two original debating classes act alarmed by the sudden appearance of the new class. This is then followed by a final class saying another voice

Origin

The original “SeeS or SooS?” video was created in response to a video guide that the YouTube user and Garry’s Mod animator Eltorro64Rus that was created to aid newer animators in their work.^[2] The original “SeeS or SooS” video was posted as a response to the tutorial. Possibly due to Eltorro previous success and the surreal nature of the video, it gained 100,000 videos within three or four months of it’s release, ironically gaining views quicker than some of Eltorro’s productions.

Spread

As the popularity of “SeeS or SooS” rose, various derivatives have been made in response to the original as early as February 2nd with “SiiS or SaaS”.^[3] Variations that have been made include different voices, classes and characters from various different franchises such as those from the Mario Series or the My Little Pony Franchise.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

About

[Intensifies] is an Internet slang term that is typically used in audio descriptive image macros and vibrating GIFs to denote a drastic build-up of a particular action, opinion or sentiment in progress.

Origin

On December 27th, 2012, an image macro featuring the Gorilla Munch cereal mascot with the caption “Rustling Intensifies” (shown below) was posted to the /tv/ (Television & Film) board on 4chan^[7] in response to the television crime drama series The Wire being called “a cop show.”

Spread

On April 6th, 2013, the Tumblr blog Cinco Family^[1] highlighted a screenshot of Paul Rudd from a sketch on The Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! with the caption “[music intensifies]” (shown below). Within five months, the post gained over 700 notes. On July 2nd, Redditor vetro submitted a vibrating GIF to the /r/mylittlepony^[2] subreddit, featuring an illustration of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters Applejack and Rarity with the caption “scrunching intensifies” (shown below, right). In the first two months, the post received more than 1,000 up votes and 75 comments.

On July 15th, Redditor Flareboy323 submitted a vibrating GIF of the Doge Shiba Inu with the caption “wow intensifies” (shown below, left) to the /r/SuperShibe^[5] subreddit. More than two weeks later on July 31st, the same GIF was posted to the /sp/ (Sports) board on 4chan.^[4] On September 13th, a vibrating GIF featuring the famous portrait of French philosopher René Descartes was posted on the /vp/ (Pokemon) board on 4chan.^[6]

Notable Examples

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External References

About

Worth1000 is a contest website and discussion forum where users submit digitally manipulated images, share photoshop techniques and discuss various practices in digital art. In August of 2013, the site’s founder announced that it would be closed to new submissions and turned into an archive the following month.

History

On June 18th, 2001, the domain Worth1000.com^[1] was registered by founder Avi Muchnick. According to the Worth1000 FAQ,^[6] the site was officially opened to the public on January 1st, 2002. When the site was initially launched, it included a searchable gallery which registered users could upload photos to (shown below left). By April that year, sections for contests, tutorials and forums had been added to the site.

Photoshop Books

On October 7th, 2004, the book When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop^[4] by Muchnick was released (shown below, left), which features photoshop tutorials paired with notable digitally manipulated images. On January 19th, 2006, a second collection of photoshop tutorials was released titled I’ve Got a Human in my Throat: Create MORE Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop^[5] (shown below, right).

AMA Thread

On December 29th, 2010, Muchnick participated in an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) post on the /r/IAmA^[2] subreddit, which received over 1,100 up votes and 340 comments prior to being archived. In the comments section, Muchnick revealed that his favorite image posted to the site was an photograph of several jazz musicians with their instruments replaced with large slabs of meat (shown below) and that he had been threatened by various copyright holders for the content on his site.

Closure

On August 12th, 2013, Muchnick published a forum post^[3] announcing that he no longer had the resources to properly maintain the website and would be turning Worth1000 into an archive that requires no maintenance. The post went on to reveal that the final day for submissions would be September 29th but past works could still be accessed on the site. Following the closure announcement, the news was reported on by several tech sites, including BoingBoing,^[14] TechCrunch^[15] and Fark.^[16]

Features

The site regularly held image manipulation competitions where contestants would submit photoshopped images to fit a specific theme. Winning examples listed on the site’s Hall of Fame^[7] include a “Bugle Hut”^[8] by user bpkelsey (shown below, left), 100% Froganic Cotton^[9] by user meowza (shown below, middle) and “Bajazet’s ‘Writing’”^[10] by user Shorra (shown below, right). The site also features tutorials^[11] on using image manipulation software and a variety of digital art-related discussion forums.^[12]

Related Memes

Colorized History

Colorized History are historical black and white images that have been colorized using image manipulation software. The earliest known tutorial demonstrating how to perform colorization on a PC was posted to Worth1000 in July of 2002.

One Letter Off Movie Posters

One Letter Off Movie Posters are a series of parody advertisements created by replacing, adding or removing one letter from the original title of the film. The earliest known photoshop contest for these images was launched on Worth1000 in September of 2006.

Traffic

According to Alexa^[13] traffic reports, Worth1000 has been on a steady decline in rank since late 2012 (shown below) and has a United States traffic rank of 24,881 as of September 2013.

Search Interest

External References

About

Sir Stuffington is a one-eyed cat living in Oregon who rose to fame after his foster parent Blazer Schaffer created a Facebook fan page^[1] for him in September 2013.

Origin

On September 12th, 2013, a resident of Troutdale, Oregon snapped a photograph (shown below, left) of a homeless, feral cat missing its right eye. In hoping to find a new home for the injured animal, the photographer then shared the picture with friends on Facebook. On the following day, the one-eyed cat and his two siblings were brought into the Multnomah County Animal Shelter, all suffering from upper respiratory infections and calicivirus, a highly infectious feline disease.^[2] In addition, the one-eyed cat was also diagnosed with a broken jaw, flea anemia and a heart murmur. On September 14th, local resident Blazer Schaffer volunteered to foster the trio until they were healthy enough to be adopted. That same day, she submitted a photo of the newly-dubbed “Sir Stuffington” (shown below, right) on photo sharing site Imgur^[3], where it gained more than 284,000 views and 360 comments in nine days.

Spread

On September 16th, Schaffer launched a Facebook fan page for the cat, which gained more than 28,000 likes within a week. On September 18th, she uploaded a photo album of Sir Stuffington dressed as a pirate, wearing a tiny eyepatch and red bandana, which was picked up by The Featured Creature^[9] on the following day in observance of the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. In the following days, photographs of Sir Stuffington were highlighted by major U.S. news outlets and popular internet culture blogs, including Headline News,^[8] Daily Mail^[10], MotherJones^[11], CNN^[12], Animal Planet^[6], Buzzfeed^[4], Death and Taxes^[5], Gawker^[7], Paw Nation^[13], the Huffington Post^[14] and MSN Now^[18], as well as Portland’s local news outlets Oregon Live^[15], Fox 12 Oregon^[16] and KGW Portland.^[17]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[Not Currently Available]

External References

[w.i.p]

About

Kerbal Space Program (often abbreviated KSP) is a space program simulator developed and published by Squad. Released in 2011, the game is currently in the alpha stages of development. On March 20, 2013 KSP was made available on steam.

Gameplay

Kerbal Space Program allows players to create and develop their own space program within a fictional solar system filled with planets and moons. The player creates multi-stage space vessels to be piloted by Kerbals, small green humanoids whom inhabit the world of Kerbin. The game also features a hanger for building air and space planes, a system for recruiting new Kerbonauts, and fully persistent space missions allowing for rendezvous and the construction of space stations.

Kerbals

Kerbals are the denizens of Kerbin. They have green skin, large heads, bulging eyes and are approximately 1 meter in height. The player can order the Kerbals to leave their capsule perform space walks, maintenance, lay flags, or just goof around. Kerbals are shown to be dimwitted and prone to accidents as shown in the backgrounds of assembly buildings and the games various trailers (shown below).

Reception

Kerbal Space Program has been praised by the scientific community for it’s accurate portrayal of physics. The game has been used as an education tool to explain the fundamentals of gravity and other laws of physics. Youtuber and astronomer Scott Manley has helped popularize Kerbal Space Program with videos of tutorials and other game related content. Within 5 hours of the games release on Steam it reached the top 5 of best sold games and is currently the #3 best seller for linux on Steam.

Derivatives

Jedediah Kerman

Jedediah Kerman is a permanent Kerbal who is renown for his fearlessness and badassery, often laughing maniacally regardless of the situation. His demeanor has led to the creation of advice animals and fan art.

[Editors note, feel free to request editorship if you have something to contribute]

About
BG Kumby is a Youtube blogger that has became target of trolling because of his many videos, mainly because of his videos about atheism and 9gag

Origin
BG Kumbi began his blog with a video titled “Random ideas and inventions”, where he gave random product ideas.

He began making videos from there on, with little to no attention, Until 19/05/2012 where he made a video titled “I Declare War on 4Chan… Join le 9Gag Revolution!!!” where he discussed about a “war” against 4chan, and asked for support on the attack, and giving rage faces names that are usualy used by 9gagers, such as “Cereal Man” or “9gag meme mask”

His video gained attention extremely fast, and was target of trolls and flamers for a long period of time. As of september 2013, this video has around 400.000 views and over 18.000 dislikes.
Regardless of the extremely negative feedback, that didn’t stop BG Kumby from making videos, on 21/05/2012 he released a video called “Apology to 4chan”. The title of the video was a Bait and Switch prank, and was actually an update on the war on 4chan, saying that if Christopher Pooles doesn’t take down 4chan within 2 weeks, he would start printing wanted posters with his face and place them around his neighborhood, and he would send his picture to Dog the Bounty Hunter

From there on, he started releasing many threat videos against 4chan, saying that one of his friends called “Dylan” is an expert hacker and would hack anyone who sends hate mail, and would take down 4chan, funnyjunk and Reddit of they didn’t take down their websites.

Later on he released another video, this time apologizing for real because of the threats he was taking in a daily basis.

search interest

About

Black MIDI is a type of music using the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)^[2] technical standard to create compositions with large numbers of notes. The name “black MIDI” refers to the solid black appearance of the music in standard notation and those who compose black MIDI tracks are referred to as “blackers.”

Origin

According to the Impossible Music Wiki,^[5] YouTuber kakakakaito1998^[7] created the original compositions utilized by a group of blackers known as the Black MIDI Team. On February 6th, 2011, kakakakaito1998 uploaded a video featuring a MIDI track containing a high volume of notes (shown below). Within the first three years, the video gained over 100,000 views and 290 comments.

Spread

On October 3rd, 2011, YouTuber John L. Sinneslöschen uploaded a black MIDI for the song “Red Zone” from the Japanese music rhythm game Beatmania IIDC (shown below, left). On August 11th, 2012, YouTuber Ryan Moua published his black MIDI version of the song “Necrofantasia” from the video game Touhou Project (shown below, right).

On March 13th, 2013, YouTuber RetoUnivrsalHT uploaded another black MIDI version of “Necrofantasia” which contained 4.5 million notes (shown below, left). On August 17th, Youtuber Xinyu Qian uploaded a 21 million-note track version of Fujiwara no Mokou’s theme song from the Touhou Project (shown below, right).

On July 4th, YouTuber vloggercousins uploaded a “Necrofantasia” black MIDI consisting of 9.8 million notes (shown below, left). On the following day, the Impossible Music Wiki^[4] was launched, which features articles about black MIDI music. On September 22nd, 2013, YouTuber TheSuperMarioBros2 uploaded a black MIDI song titled “Bad apple 4.6 million” (shown below, right), which used a pop dance song titled “Bad Apple” from the Touhou Project.

On September 23rd, a blog post about black MIDI was published by the non-profit arts organization Rhizome,^[1] which described how the music is created using piano software like Synesthesia.^[3] That same day, the Rhizome article was posted by Redditor Noumenology to the /r/experimentalmusic^[8] subreddit. Also on September 23rd, Gawker^[6] published an article on black MIDI YouTube videos.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Maury Povich Lie Detector is an advice animal image macro series featuring a screen captured image of the Maury tabloid talk show host Maury Povich, with captions presenting various claims as fabrications. The series plays off a recurring theme involving the use of lie detectors on the show, in a similar vein to the You Are Not The Father image macro series mocking the show’s frequent paternity testing.

Origin

Episodes centered around the use of polygraph tests have been a recurring theme on the Maury show, where guests agree to the lie detector test to support or contest various claims (shown below).

On October 2nd, 2012, a page titled “Maury Povich LOL” was created on the image macro website Meme Generator,^[1] featuring an image of Maury Povich reading off a card while seated in a chair with many captions ending with the phrase “the lie detector determined that was a lie.”

Spread

On October 21st, 2012, Redditor stopsayingyolo submitted a Maury Povich image macro titled “How I feeling [sic] studying for an exam” to the /r/funny^[4] subreddit, which featured the caption “Professor claimed the exam will look just like what was covered in lecture / the lie detector determined that was a lie” (shown below, left). On December 8th, Redditor I_From_Yugoslav posted an image macro on the /r/AdviceAnimals^[5] subreddit mocking people who threaten to delete their Facebook profiles (shown below, right).

The meme saw little activity until September 21st, 2013, when Redditor 4dolfin submitted a Povich image macro to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[6] subreddit, which joked about using a computer for masturbation (shown below, left). In the first four days, the post gained over 5,100 up votes and 40 comments. On September 23rd, Redditor 4dolfin submitted an image macro to /r/AdviceAnimals^[7] criticizing those who fail to pay back loans on time (shown below, right), gathering more than 23,800 up votes and 790 comments in the next 48 hours.

Notable Examples

As of September 2013, the “Maury Lie Detector” Meme Generator^[2] page has garnered upwards of 1,000 images and the “Maury Povich LOL”^[1] page has received over 800 images..

Search Interest

External References

About

FIFA is a series of association football video games released annually by Electronic Arts and officially endorsed by the international governing body of association football it is named after. Since the release of FIFA International Soccer in 1993, the series has been localized into 18 languages and sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises. As of 2013, FIFA consists of 21 official titles in the series as well as dozens of other games.

[researching]

About

“You Think This is a Motherfucking Game?” is a rhetorical question commonly associated with image macros of Starecat and other cute animals. Juxtaposing cuteness and intimidating language, the image macros are typically used as reaction images in response to flippant statements or behaviors.

Origin

The earliest known use of the phrase “you think this is a fucking game?” can be found in the first verse of hip hop artist DMX’s 1999 hardcore rap song “What’s My Name?” (shown below).

As early as in July 2010, the phrase began appearing in disapproving reaction images of Starecat on the imageboard 4chan. While the exact origin of the Starecat image macro is unknown (shown below, right), its earliest known instance can be found in an article published by the cricket video game enthusiast blog Gamers Cricket^[1] on August 4th, 2010.

Spread

On December 7th, 2011, Redditor heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey submitted the Starecat image macro to the /r/funny^[2] subreddit, where it gained over 8,700 up votes and 95 comments prior to being archived. OOn December 11th, Redditor SpareChang submitted an image macro of a cat wearing a knit sweater with the caption “You think this is a motherfucking game?” (shown below, left) in a /r/atheism^[4] post titled “My grandma when she saw I wasn’t bowing my head during Thanksgiving prayer." On July 26th, 2012, Redditor photojoe submitted an edited version of the Starecat image macro featuring Bane’s mask from the film Dark Knight Rises (shown below, right) in a /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] post titled “Friend tried to spoil ending of Dark Knight rises for me." Before the post was archived, it gathered more than 7,300 up votes and 220 comments.

On December 24th, Redditor dexxin submitted a photoshopped image of Starecat wearing a Terran Marine’s helmet from the real-time strategy game series Starcraft (shown below, left) to the /r/starcraft^[6] subreddit. On September 24th, 2013, Redditor jaycrew submitted an image macro of a swatting cat with the same caption to the /r/AnimalsBeingJerks^[5] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 3,000 up votes and 65 comments in the first 48 hours.

Notable Examples

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External References

About

“Drake The Type Of…” is a series of fan-written factoids that are presented as the personality traits of the Canadian rapper Drake.^[1] Typically iterated in the form of tweets, comments and image macros, the series is meant to poke fun at the rapper’s stage persona as being emotionally sensitive and even effeminate, which goes against the alpha male stereotype that is still prevalent in hip hop.

Origin

The earliest known tweet to feminize the rapper’s persona with the phrase “Drake the type of” was posted by @DJ_BERN^[2] on April 14th, 2011. Though it is unclear to whom the tweet was addressed, DJ Bern joked that Drake is the type of person who would challenge the traditional gender roles by letting his girlfriend propose to him.

Spread

Between 2011 and early 2013, “Drake The Type Of” factoids continued to spread on Twitter^[3], Tumblr^[4] and Instagram.^[5] On June 17th, 2013, YouTuber MeechOnMars compiled a number of these jokes into a YouTube video (shown below).

On June 22nd, a compilation thread of “Drake the Type of…” jokes was submitted to the Lil Wayne HQ Forums^[6], yielding more than 25 responses from the readers. On July 25th, the single topic Tumblr blog Drake the Type…^[7] was launched with screenshots of similar jokes taken from the comment sections of World Star Hip Hop (shown below, left). On July 29th, another single topic Tumblr^[8] was launched with a series of image macros featuring various “Drake the Type of” tweets and comments in the style of Just Little Things blogs (shown below, right).

On July 31st, the Twitter account @DrakeTheTypeOf^[9] was launched, accruing nearly 3,200 followers in the next three months, and on August 1st, the Instagram account DrakeTheTypeOf^[10] was created. On August 8th, the first Facebook fan page^[11] dedicated to the series was created, accumulating more than 22,000 likes in a month and a half. On August 14th, Buzzfeed^[12] posted a compilation of 16 “Drake The Type Of” tweets, each accompanied by a photoshopped image of the rapper (shown below).

By August 21st, the jokes had begun appearing on 4chan^[13] and Reddit.^[14] The same day, a second Facebook fan page^[15] was created, gaining more than 184,000 likes in slightly more than one month. Also in August, a discussion thread titled “Drake is the type of…” was posted on the Rap Genius forum^[16], attracting dozens of responses. On September 15th, Twitter accounts @DrizzyThatType^[17] and @DrakeeTheType^[19] posted their first tweets, gaining 166,000 followers and 11,000 followers, respectively, in less than two weeks. On September 25th, Tumblr user fromtheinnersoul^[18] posted a compilation of tweets from @DrizzyThatType, racking up more than 27,000 notes in 24 hours.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Slow Clap or Golf Clap^[9] is a sarcastic type of applause that is used to heckle a speaker or performer. On the web, the gesture is commonly expressed through text or reaction GIFs of people applauding at an even and leisurely pace.

Origin

Sarcastic clapping^[5] was parodied as early as 1991 in an Saturday Night Live skit titled “The Sarcastic Clapping Family of Southhampton.”^[6] Online, this type of sarcastic clapping was used as a text-based reaction as early as February 2003 on the alt.fan.don-n-mike^[7] newsgroup in a discussion of a different Saturday Night Live skit.

Dramatic Device

In film and television, the “slow clap”^[1] may also refer to a moment in which a single person begins clapping and, as it becomes infectious, leads to a large crowd clapping in response to an event which is often instigated by an underdog. his type of slow clap was written about as early as 2004 by late movie critic Roger Ebert^[2], who called it an “ancient cliche.” Despite being relatively different things, the double meaning of slow clap has converged^[8], as some reaction GIFs used in a sarcastic manner have stemmed from clips of the beginning of these enthusiastic slow claps. On January 22nd, 2007, YuppiePunk.org released a supercut of this type of clapping from film and television (shown below), showing the progression of appreciation from one person to a large crowd.

Spread

In April 2004, “slow clap” was first defined on Urban Dictionary^[4] as a sarcastic action. In February 2006, a posted on the FS Passengers forum^[10] inquired if anyone had heard a slow clap on a flight with a poor landing before. In 2008, a clip of Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight sarcastically clapping at the news that James Gordon (Gary Oldman) would be named Police Commissioner the following day. While Ledger is shown clapping at a normal speed in the film, the footage was slowed down in trailers for dramatic effect.^[11]

Throughout 2009, the phrase “slow sarcastic clap” or “slow clap” appeared in the comments of numerous blogs and forum posts including Celebitchy^[12], The Escapist^[13] and Xboxachievements.org.^[14] In July of that year, a poster on The Straight Dope^[15] began seeking out the origin of the enthusiastic slow clap which included discussion about the sarcastic version. Also in 2009, Yahoo! Answers posted a thorough explanation of the slow clap on their staff blog.^[16]

The Citizen Kane Clap

In 2005, a poster on the Straight Dope forums^[3] noted that the slow clap first appeared on film in the 1941 film Citizen Kane. During the film, Orson Welles’ character Charles Kane is attempting to start a round of applause for his wife after a poorly received opera performance, but he is the only person clapping (shown below). Though Kane’s intention was to cheer on his wife, it came off as a person fiercely applauding a dreadful display. The GIF has since become one of the most well-known clapping GIFs online and has been used since as early as December 2007.^[17]

#SlowClapForCongress

On July 31st, 2011, Baltimore resident Chris Ashworth^[18] registered the domain SlowClapForCongress.com^[19] launched as a hub spot for videos of people slowly applauding politicians for finally coming to a conclusion on the 2011 debt ceiling crisis.^[20] By August 3rd, 43 videos were posted on the site leading to it being featured on TechPresident^[21], BoingBoing^[22] and CNN^[23] that day. Also on August 3rd, the verified Twitter account for Congressman Hank Johnson’s staff tweeted^[24] that the site had been circulating around Congress. That week, the site was also featured on The Washington Post^[25], TIME^[26] and Mediate.^[27] As of September 2013, there are more than 5,700 search results for “slow clap for Congress” on YouTube.^[28]

Notable Examples

Additional images can be found on Giphy^[29], ReactionGIFs.com^[30] and Tumblr.^[31]

Search Interest

External References

About

Chicken Nugger is a misspelling of “chicken nuggets” originally found on a restaurant menu along with “french fried” (french fries) and “sweer potato” (sweet potato). Similar to other infamous typo memes, the term “Nugger” has drawn much ironic appreciation from internet humor communities, especially on Tumblr.

Origin

On December 31st, 2012, Instagram user senshistar^[1] posted a photo of the menu at the Japanese restaurant Wasabi^[2] in Mobile, Alabama, highlighting the three misspelled items on the children’s menu. She subsequently shared the image on her Tumblr, asagohan^[3], where it has accrued more than 130,000 notes as of September 2013.

Spread

On April 23rd, 2013, Tumblr user time-sponges^[4] reblogged the original photo, adding a short story about a father and son who encounter the menu at the restaurant. Throughout the rest of April, the story was reposted to 4chan’s /ck/^[6] (Food & Cooking) board and screenshots of time-sponge’s Tumblr post were submitted to humor sites FunnyJunk^[7] and LOLsnaps.^[8] On May 2nd, the single topic blog Starving For the Chicken Nugger^[11] was created. That same week, the story was reposted to 4chan’s /b/ (random) board, BodyBuilding.com^[9] forums and Reddit.^[10] On May 24th, Tumblr user kr-y^[5] uploaded a dramatic reading of the father-and-son anecdote (shown below), which has gained more than 82,000 notes and 237,000 plays as of September 2013.

On May 30th, a second single topic blog titled chicken-nugger-sweer-potato^[12] was launched. On June 5th, Tumblr user italianerd^[13] referenced chicken nuggers in an image post of two nuggets fused together (shown below), accruing more than 74,000 notes in three months. On June 12th, italianerd’s Tumblr post was re-shared on Twitter,^[14] where it was retweeted more than 1,200 times. By the end of June, a Chicken Nugger Wiki^[15] had been created.

Notable Examples

As of September 2013, there are dozens of Tumblr blogs with “chicken nugger” in the title. Additional images can be found on the Tumblr tags “chicken nugger”^[16], “french fried”^[17] and "sweer potato.^[18]

Search Interest

External References

About

“Wrecking Ball” is a 2013 pop song performed by singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus and the second single for her upcoming fourth studio album Bangerz. Similar to her first single from the year We Can’t Stop, the music video for the song spawned a slew of parodies upon its release in mid-September 2013.

Origin

On September 9th, 2013, the VEVO YouTube channel premiered a new music video for Cyrus’ second single “Wrecking Ball” , directed by Terry Richardson featuring nude scenes of the singer in which she demolishes a room with a sledge hammer and wrecking ball (shown below).

In the first 24 hours, the music video garnered more than 12.3 million views, breaking the record for the most viewed video within a a day previously held by the English boy band One Direction.^[1] Within 18 days, the video has been viewed more than 161.1 million times.

Spread

Despite its record-setting performance on YouTube, the music video was met by mixed critical reception. On the day the video was released, the New York Daily News^[2] called the video “overtly sexual,” suggesting the song was a metaphor for her on-again-off-again relationship with Liam Hemsworth and Mashable^[3] likened it to Sinéad O’Connor’s iconic 1990 music video for “Nothing Compares 2 U,” in which the singer is filmed crying in a similar manner. The following day, Fox News^[4] compiled a number of negative tweets from fans disappointed by the video. Also on September 10th, Vine user Frank McDonald uploaded the first parody of “Wrecking Ball” in which he is shown re-enacting the nude scene from the music video with an outdoor tire swing (shown below).

On September 11th, Cyrus’ father Billy Ray spoke out^[5] about the video, calling the song a “smash.” The same day, Cyrus was interviewed on New York City radio station Z100^[6] where she asserted that the music video
is about her emotional vulnerability rather than sexualized imagery and that the crying scene wasn’t staged. Meanwhile, parodies of the music video continued to surface on Vine^[7] and The Onion,^[8] while Funny or Die^[9] also joined in with a series of photoshopped images depicting Cyrus riding other spherical objects. By September 12th, a slew of parodies had appeared on YouTube, including a gender-swapped version (shown below, left) and a Nicolas Cage version (shown below, right).

On September 13th, BBC Radio’s Greg James uploaded his own parody video. That week, compilations of parody videos and vines appeared on CBC News^[10], Canada.com^[11] and Metro UK.^[12] A number of parodies (shown below) were captured at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan atop of a 1973 sculpture^[13] of a 42-inch bifilar pendulum by artist Dale Eldred, causing the school to remove the installation^[14] on September 17th. The removal led to the creation of the novelty Twitter account @GVSUWreckingBal^[15] and hashtag #ReinstallTheBall.^[16] As of September 25th, a student committee comprised of people enrolled in the physics and engineering departments have been selected to decide the fate of the sculpture.^[17]

Throughout the following week, “Wrecking Ball” parodies were featured on dozens of entertainment sites and internet culture blogs including Billboard^[18], Chicago Now^[19], AdWeek^[20], The Pet Collective^[21], College Humor^[22], Mashable^[23], Heavy^[24] and AOLOn.^[25] On September 25th, What’s Trending released a compilation video (shown below) of some of the song’s notable parodies.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Background

On September 26th, 2013, Guido Barilla, the chairman of the Italian food company Barilla Group, stated in an interview on the radio show La Zanzara^[1] that the company would not consider using gay couples in advertisements for their pasta brand because he does not agree with their lifestyles. He went on to emphasize the importance of what he considers a traditional family, stating “If gays like our pasta and our advertising, they will eat our pasta; if they don’t like that, they will eat someone else’s pasta.”

Notable Developments

News Media Coverage

On September 26th, news of Barilla’s remarks appeared on dozens of news blogs including the Los Angeles Times^[8], Mediaite^[9], The Independent^[10], Buzzfeed^[11], The Huffington Post^[12] and CNN Money^[13], among others. Snopes^[3] also verified the statement that day.

Online Reaction

On September 26th, “Barilla” was used on Twitter 47,826 times according to Topsy Analytics^[14], up 2910% from the previous day’s 1,623 mentions. Meanwhile on Reddit^[15], approximately 120 posts addressing Barilla’s remark were submitted and Buzzfeed^[16] featured a compilation of heated responses from unhappy pasta eaters on social networking sites, including photographs of Barilla pasta being discarded (shown below, left) or destroyed (shown below, center) and photoshopped ads for other pasta brands (shown below, right). Additionally, the hashtags #BoycottBarilla^[17][18] and #BoicottBarilla^[19] began to appear throughout Twitter and Tumblr, calling for LGBTQsupporters to stop buying the brand.

Company’s Apology

Within hours after the interview, Guido Barilla issued a statement on the company’s Facebook page^[5] apologizing for any misunderstanding his remarks has caused. He also asserted that he has “the deepest respect” for people of all kinds without distinction, including all same-sex couples, and that the company will continue to represent “the family” in its advertising. In another statement, Barillo tried to clarify what he meant by saying that he “simply wished to underline the central role the woman plays within the family.”^[6] Barilla US’s Facebook page also issued a separate apology^[7] (shown below), with no specific mention of the chairman’s remarks.

Competitors’ Response

On September 27th, pasta brands Buitoni^[20] (shown below, left) and Bertolli^[21] (shown below, right) took advantage of Barilla’s gaffe by sharing pro-LGBTQ messages on their official Facebook accounts. That day, these positive messages were shared on a number of advertising sites and internet culture blogs including AdWeek^[4], Consumerist^[22], Business Insider^[23], PR Newser^[24] and the Huffington Post.^[25]

Search Interest

External References

Background

On April 5th, 2013, Redditor heisenberg69 submitted a post titled “TIL that the Nazi swastika fits perfectly into the Office Depot logo” to the /r/circlejerk^[4] subreddit, which linked to an Imgur page containing a logo of the office product supply retailer Office Depot with a swastika drawn inside of it.

Then on November 6th, 2013, Office Depot sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)^[1] notice to Reddit, requesting the removal of heisenberg69’s “racist, hateful and violent” post from the site.

Notable Developments

The same day, the tech news site Tech Dirt^[2] mocked the unfounded basis of Office Depot’s copyright infringement claim in an article titled “Office Depot Sends World’s Worst DMCA Notice To Reddit.” The article was subsequently linked to the /r/technology^[3] subreddit, where it received more than 19,600 up votes and 1,600 comments in the first 24 hours.

Also on November 6th, Redditor RalphiesBoogers submitted a post titled “Googled ‘Office Depot CEO.’ Was not disappoint” to the /r/circlejerk^[6] subreddit, featuring a screenshot of a Google image search results page for the keywords “office depot ceo” containing images of the Nazi Germany dictator Adolph Hitler (shown below). In less than 24 hours, the post garnered upwards of 7,400 up votes and 200 comments.

As of 3 p.m. (ET), November 7th, at least 275 discussion posts ridiculing Office Depot’s DMCA notice have been submitted to the /r/circlejerk^[5] subreddit.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Scumbag Parents is an advice animal image macro series based on a stock photograph of a smiling couple and captions describing various hypocrisies and “white lies” that re commonly attributed to parenthood.

Origin

In August of 2011, a “Scumbag Parents” page was created on the image macro generator website Quickmeme.^[6] The earliest featured instance was submitted on August 29th, which complained about parents demanding a room be cleaned for visiting relatives (shown below).

Spread

On November 30th, 2011, the Internet humor blog Pleated Jeans^[4] ran an image compilation of notable examples from the Quickmeme page. On July 23rd, 2012, Redditor Star_Wolf posted an image macro to /r/AdviceAnimals^[5]complaining about his parents entering his room without asking first (shown below, left), which received upwards of 7,900 up votes and 440 comments prior to archival. On April 5th, 2013, Redditor Arsestolemyname submitted another instance to /r/AdviceAnimals^[1] mocking his parents’ criticism of younger generations (shown below, right), gaining over 1,600 up votes and 320 comments before it was archived.

On August 3rd, 2013, Redditor theacidrainman submitted an image macro deriding his parents’ aversion toward his black girlfriend in an /r/AdviceAnimals^[2] post titled “Honey, we’ll love you no matter what" (shown below), garnering more than 1,100 up votes and 100 comments. On August 15th, Redditor mobious622 submitted an image macro to /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] denouncing his parents for lying to him about his childhood pet dog’s disappearance (shown below, right), garnering upwards of 10,700 up votes and 450 comments in the following two months.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, is a destructive tropical storm that landed on the coast of central Philippines on November 7th, 2013, and northern Vietnam on November 10th. The Red Cross estimated that more than 1,200 people were killed as a result of the highly destructive tropical cyclone, although the death toll is expected to rise significantly in the coming days. By maximum speed, Typhoon Haiyan is believed to be strongest storm on record of all time.

Notable Developments

Casualties

By November 10th, the tropical storm had weakened significantly and made its landfall in northern Vietnam, and initial estimates of casualties began to emerge from various aid groups in the Philippines, with some figures expecting more than 10,000 dead in the hard-hit city of Tacloban alone. However, due to limited access to the affected zone, only 151 deaths have been officially confirmed as of November 10th.

Online Reaction

Meanwhile, many Filipinos who were affected by the disaster took their concerns requests to Twitter and Facebook, where people began sharing photographs of their missing relatives and requests for help using a series of purpose-specific hashtags^[14] (shown below) and several emergency relief fund pages^[10][11][13] were created.

Relief Efforts

To help expedite the process, several Fillippino news sites launched the Twitter account @Typhoon Haiyan, where the latest information on the progress of recovery and rescue missions can be found.

On November 11th, Google launched a database of missing people and requests for information, processing more than 17,000 records by midday and 43,100 records as of 7:30 p.m. (ET).

Misreports

In addition, an inspiring quote supposedly issued by CNN began making rounds on Twitter and Instagram, though it was quickly proven by to be a hoax statement falsely attributed to the news organization.

Search Interest

External References

About

I Will Murder Your Whole Fucking Family is an image macro series featuring innocent or harmless-looking subjects accompanied by the threatening caption “I will murder your whole fucking family.”

Origin

On January 6th, 2013, a photograph of a small, white dog with the caption “I will murder / your whole fucking family” (shown below) was submitted to the image macro creation site MemeGenerator.^[2]

Spread

On February 10th, 2013, FunnyJunk^[4] user jiraiyasannin uploaded a composite photograph of a baby which included the threatening caption (shown below), bearing similarities to the Vengeance Dad and PTSD Clarinet Kid image macro series.

On May 27th, Imgur^[2] user Leeeeroooy submitted an animated GIF titled “I will murder your whole fucking family,” which featured a cat being sprayed with a shower head in a bathtub (shown below).

Jonathan Martin’s Text Message

On November 3rd, 2013, the Miami Dolphins suspended starting guard Richie Incognito after representatives from the team’s right tackle Jonathan Martin claimed Incognito repeatedly had threatened and harassed him. Transcripts of voice mail and text messaged were provided by Martin, which contained explicit language and racial epithets.^[1] On November 10th, Incognito was interviewed on Fox about the incident, where he claimed that Martin had sent him a message saying “I will murder your whole fucking family” one week prior to the suspension. The same day, Martin’s lawyer David Cornwell posted an image macro captioned with the phrase, claiming it was meant to be a joke.

JMart's text 2 Richie Incognito. U decide….. pic.twitter.com/IrgdNnhGe2

— David Cornwell (@wmdavidcornwell) November 10, 2013

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References