About

“What Kind of Tree Is This Tree?” (Japanese: この木なんの木, Kono Ki Nanno Ki) is an alias of “Hitachi Tree” (日立の樹, Hitachi No Ki), a famous TV advert song for a Japanese major engineering and electronics company Hitachi.^[1] Due to its large presence among Japanese people, this song has been one of the well-used musical resources for online parodies since late-2000s.

Origin

The song “Hitachi Tree” was composed by Asei Kobayashi^[2] who also composed "Humans are Nice", and its lyrics was written by Akira Itou.^[3] This song is played in Hitachi’s famous TV advert running from 1973, which is an image advert which just displays names of Hitachi’s group companies/branches in each regions before a backdrop of a large tree. And because the lyrics begins from the line “What kind of tree is this tree?”, this song is better known as this alias among many Japanese people.

The tree in the adverts is also known as the “Hitachi Tree”, and the most famous one is a monkeypod which grows in Moanalua Gardens, Hawaii.^[4] Hitach, officially recognizes that tree which has appeared on the adverts since 1984 as its corporate symbol^[5], has the agreement of the exclusive right in commercial uses for the tree with the owner of the park.

Spread

“What Kind of Tree Is This Tree?” has been sometimes used in video parodies, especially in MAD videos, since after the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND) was launched in 2007.^[6] Several earliest instances featuring THE iDOLM@STER^[7] or Futae no Kiwami^[8] were already found in that year.

The most famous MADs in this series was uploaded on February 28th 2011^[9], which features "Kiiiihara-kuuuuuuuuun!!", a famous utterance by Accelerator from a Japanese TV anime A Certain Magical Index. This video had been watched over 1 million times within its first week, and nowadays it’s recognized as the template for this series.

On the other hand, this MAD series is also famous for Hitachi’s quite strange deletion criteria which has continued removing videos due to the infringement to their right for the tree. Dozens of famous parody videos have been taken down for a single tree even though some of them pixelated its picture.

Notable Examples

Niconico この木　何の木　保坂の木
Left: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure feat. It was Me, Dio!^[10] | Right: Hosaka the Weirdo
Niconico この気なんの気【ブロリーMAD】Niconico この日なんの日
Left: Broly | Right: Nenohi from Kantai Collection

Search Interest

External References

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About

Ceremonial First Pitches is a baseball tradition in which a guest of honor throws a baseball to a catcher to mark the beginning of the game. Since the arrival of online video-sharing platforms in the 2000s, a variety of video clips showing bizarre, impressive and poorly thrown pitches have gone viral online, especially during the baseball season in the summer and fall.

Origin

In 1908, the first ceremonial first pitch was thrown by former Japanese Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu at a game in Koshien, Japan. In 1910, the American ritual began at the Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., where the 27th President of the United States William Howard Taft threw a ceremonial first pitch at an Opening Day game between the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Athletics.

Spread

On April 2nd, 2007, former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio Mark Mallory threw a pitch that flew 30 feet to the left of home plate, hitting umpire Sam Holbrook in the foot (shown below, left). In May 2008, singer Mariah Carey threw an opening pitch at a game in Tokyo, Japan, which fell to the ground well before reaching home plate (shown below, right).

On May 4th, 2010, pop singer Justin Bieber threw a pitch that flew slightly outside home plate. A video was subsequently uploaded by YouTuber cspanjunkievideo, which gathered over 2.06 million views and 7,800 comments in the next four years (shown below, left). On June 25th, YouTuber Richard Dargan uplodaed a montage of 10 ceremonial pitch fails, garnering upwards of 1.4 million views and 1,500 comments in the next four years (shown below, right).

Korean First Pitches

On May 11th, 2012, member of the K-pop band Girls’ Generation Jessica Jung threw a ceremonial first pitch directly at the ground before a LG vs. Samsung Korean Baseball Organization game (shown below, left). On May 3rd, 2013, Korean actress Clara Lee made headlines after delivering a first pitch while wearing a pair of baseball-themed tights (shown below, right).

On May 6th, Girls’ Generation member Tiffany Hwang threw a first pitch which veered off course to the left at a Los Angeles Dodgers game (shown below, left). On July 5th, gymnast Shin Soo-ji threw a first pitch in which she performed an impressive spinning-kick move at the Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, South Korea (shown below, right).

On August 14th, ballerina Lee Eun did mid-air split dance while throwing a first pitch at Jamsil Stadium (shown below, left). On August 17th, martial artist Tae Mi threw a spinning leg kick first pitch at Jamsil Stadium (shown below, right).

Carly Rae Jepsen Pitch

On July 14th, 2013, pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen threw the first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game, which fell to the ground several feet in front of her. On the same day, Redditor samk0526 submitted an animated GIF of the pitch to the /r/funny^[1] subreddit, where it received more than 13,100 upvotes and 950 comments prior to being archived.

50 Cent Pitch

On May 27th, 2014, rapper 50 Cent threw a first pitch which veered well off course to the left at a Mets Game (shown below). That evening, Redditor moustachio-banderas submitted a clip of the pitch to the /r/sports^[4] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 4,100 upvotes and 940 comments.

On May 29th, The Washington Post’s Wonk Blog^[2] posted a chart of the “best and worst ceremonial first pitches,” which placed 50 Cent’s pitch the farthest outside the pitcher’s mound (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

Overview

#FreeTheNipple is a Twitter hashtag campaign introduced by Scout Willis, daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, to protest Instagram’s content moderation policy on nudity that resulted in the removal of several photographs she had uploaded to her account.

Background

On May 20th, 2014, Scout Willis sent out a tweet^[1] expressing her frustration over Instagram’s removal of a photograph she had shared because it featured^[2] a jacket decorated with a picture of two topless woman. She also expressed frustration over Instagram’s strict policy against nudity, insisting that it seems to be at odds with its comparatively lax restrictions against photos featuring drug use.

On May 26th, she tweeted,^[3]“Well, let’s just see how long they let me stay this time…,” referencing photos she had just posted to her Instagram account which featured women’s nipples. The next day she tweeted an e-mail from Instagram informing her they had removed the photos for not meeting their guidelines.

Precursors

On December 2nd, 2013, Lina Esco created a page on the crowdsourcing website Fund Anything^[9] for her film Free the Nipple, which focused on women fighting for the right to go topless in New York City. The film was covered by many websites including The Huffington Post^[10] and Oyster Mag.^[11] On December 14th, Miley Cyrus tweeted out a photo of herself with her shirt raised to expose her (censored) chest to the film’s Twitter account.^[12] As of May 2014, the tweet has gained over 27,000 retweets and over 30,000 favorites.

Notable Developments

Topless Photos in New York City

The same day, she tweeted out two photos of herself walking through New York City without a shirt, with the second tweet introducing the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. In less than a week the later tweet gained over 2,000 retweets and over 2,000 favorites.

The same day she tweeted out two photos of herself walking through New York City without a shirt, with the second tweet introducing the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. In less than a week the later tweet gained over 2,000 retweets and over 2,000 favorites.

News Media Coverage

The the same day Willis tweeted out her topless photos the hashtag was covered by Gawker.^[5] In the following days the hashtag was covered by many news websites including New York Daily News^[6], CNN^[7] and The Daily Beast.^[8] Following the media coverage, the hashtag #FreeThe Nipple^[4] was tweeted out over 20,000 times in less than a week.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

#RedskinsPride is a hashtag launched by the Washington Redskins professional American football team urging followers to tweet their support for the team’s controversial name to Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid on Twitter. The hashtag was subsequently hijacked by critics who found the ethnic slur for Native Americans offensive in May 2014.

Background

Washington Redskins Naming Controversy

In 1933, the Boston Braves football team name was change to the Redskins by co-owner George Preston Marshall. According to the Boston Herald, the name was changed to avoid confusion with the Braves baseball team and to recognize coach William Henry “Lone Star” Dietz’ claimed Native American ancestry. The origin of the slang term “redskin” has been claimed by some as a reference to Native American skin tone by settlers, while others argue it was used in reference to body paint worn by certain tribes.

In 1988, the first national protest against the name were held following the Redskins’ Super Bowl XXII victory. In 1992, Native American in Minnesota protested the team’s name at Super Bowl XXVI. Interest in changing the Redskins name was renewed in 2013, with Native American protests held in Texas, Colorado and Minnesota. On the March 26th, 2014, The Colbert Report featured a segment titled “The Sport Report” in which Stephen Colbert mocked Redskins owner Daniel Snyder for maintaining his team’s offensive name. After the @ColbertReport Twitter feed posted a quote of Colbert lampooning Snyder’s contradictory stance, Twitter user Suey Park launched the #CancelColbert hashtag in retaliation.

Harry Reid vs. Washington Redskins

On April 30th, 2014, Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid condemned the then-owner of Los Angeles Clippers Don Sterling’s racist remarks and went a step further to criticize the NFL and the Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder for refusing to change the team’s name from the controversial ethnic slur for Native Americans. On May 22nd, Reid released a letter signed by fifty Democratic senators calling for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to take action against the Redskins.^[1]

#RedskinsPride

On May 29th, the Washington Redskins Twitter feed posted a request for Twitter users to tell Reid what “the team means to you.” In the first 24 hours, the tweet gained over 550 retweets and 300 favorites.

Tweet SenatorReid</a> to show your <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RedskinsPride&amp;src=hash">#RedskinsPride</a> and tell him what the team means to you.</p>&mdash; Washington Redskins (Redskins) May 29, 2014

Notable Developments

Support

The hashtag was initially used by fans showing support for keeping the Redskins name, with many criticizing Reid and Democrats for choosing to target the professional football team.

#RedskinsPrideSenatorReid</a> Does the Senate not have anything else to worry about ?</p>&mdash; Andrew Moore (admoore711) May 29, 2014

Nothing demonstrates small minds of faux #redskins outrage than pseudo leftists who weren't 'offended' by name for 50 yrs. #redskinspride

— drhoagie (D) (@drhoagie) May 30, 2014

Backlash

Several minutes after the Redskins tweeted the hashtag, BuzzFeed politics reporter Andrew Kaczynski retweeted the post adding “Don’t do this to yourselves.”

Don’t do this to yourselves. RT Redskins</a>: Tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorReid">SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the team means to you.

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) May 29, 2014

Minutes later, blogger Jeb Lund replied to the Redskins with a photograph of the Wounded Knee Massacre and comedian Rob Delaney posted a tweet noting that Hitler studied American Indian reservations. In the first 24 hours, the tweets received more than 400 and 600 retweets respectively.

OK. RT Redskins</a>: Tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorReid">SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the team means to you. pic.twitter.com/L9DBy0KSVA

— Jeb Lund (@Mobute) May 29, 2014

.Redskins</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorReid">SenatorReid Hitler studied American Indian reservations while designing German concentration camps. #RedskinsPride!

— rob delaney (@robdelaney) May 29, 2014

On May 30th, the sports marketing blog Emory Sports Marketing Analytics^[2] posted a chart tracking the hourly Twitter mentions of the hashtag along with the hourly sentiment changes, noting that negative tweets eventually surpassed positive tweets 4:1. According to the Twitter analytics site Topsy,^[3] the hashtag was tweeted over 21,000 times within the first 24 hours.

News Media Coverage

In the comings days, many news sites published articles about the hashtag backlash referring to it as a “social media disaster,” including Today,^[4] The Washington Post,^[5] BuzzFeed,^[6] The Daily Dot,^[7] Salon,^[8] UpRoxx^[9] and CBS News.^[10]

Notable Examples

Tonight's Redskins</a> game is brought to you by Nike, Cheerios, and the slaughter of millions of Native people. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RedskinsPride&amp;src=hash">#RedskinsPride</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23changethename&amp;src=hash">#changethename</a></p>&mdash; Reasonable White Man (BlackGirlDanger) May 29, 2014

#RacialSlurPride RT Redskins</a>: Tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorReid">SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the team means to you.

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) May 29, 2014

If you like, beer, partying, football, and the extermination of a people, you'll love The @Redskins! #RedskinsPride#changethename

— Jamie Kilstein (@jamiekilstein) May 29, 2014

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Lizzie Velásquez is an author and motivational speaker who is known for speaking against bullying and body image issues inspired by growing up with a rare medical condition with symptoms similar to progeria.

Online History

On July 22nd, 2010, Velásquez’ book Lizzie Beautiful, the Lizzie Velásquez Story^[1] was released. On March 1st, 2012, Velásquez’ second book Be Beautiful, Be You^[2] was published. On December 20th, 2013, Velásquez uploaded her TEDxAustin presentation in which she discusses her medical condition and what it has done for her (shown below). In the first six months, the video gained over 5.9 million views and 8,100 comments.

Kickstarter Campaign

On May 2nd, 2014, Velásquez launched a Kickstarter^[3] campaign titled “The Lizzie Project” for a film following Lizzie’s life and experiencing dealing with bullying in hopes to “inspire a more positive online world” (shown below). In the first month, the campaign reached over $200,000 of its $180,000 goal.

Personal Life

Velásquez was born four weeks prematurely on March 13th, 1989 in Austin, Texas. She is a self-professed Roman Catholic and has thanked God for blessing her with her medical condition

Search Interest

External References

About

Uber Hax refers to a series of YTMNDs involving memorable fight scenes and real-world conflicts being reinterpreted as escapades in a Massively Multiplayer Online video game, musically accompanied with E.S. Posthumus’s “Pompeii”. 1337 Speak is commonly used along with terms commonly used in competitive gaming, and references to hacking the game itself is often prominent.^[1]

Origin

The original YTMND, simply entitled “Uber New Hax”, was created by user Bumbastic on July 31st, 2005.^[2] It used footage from the 2002 film Spider-Man, and depicted a storyline in which Norman Osborn team-kills and bans his former Oscorp clan members after being kicked out of leadership duties (shown below). The YTMND went on to gather over 1,900 votes (with a site average of 4.21/5.00), over 160 favorites, over 450 comments, and over 260,000 views.^[3]

Spread

The first variant of the YTMND fad was made by user Mojocoggo on August 16th, 2005, based on the 2003 movie Phone Booth.^[4] The next day, Mojocoggo uploaded another site based on the first half of the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird.^[5] During the month of September 2005, user Fyrestorm uploaded a duology of “Uber Hax” sites based on the Hurricane Katrina^[6] and Hurricane Rita^[7] disasters that had occurred earlier that year, eventually creating a director’s cut that combined the two sites and added new scenes.^[8] Eventually, on July 11th, 2006, user Nutnics created a site based on the fad that combined the 1988 anime film AKIRA with several other YTMND fads (shown below).^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

The Cold Water Challenge/24 Hour Cold Water Challenge is a challenge where you jump into a lake of cold water and nominate someone else to do it.

Online History

Jumping into ice/cold water has been done several upon millions of times. It is usually done as a dare or a test of courage. Even if the challenge is very life threatening because of the water being dangerously cold. Which can cause death from hypothermia, shock, or drowning if the water’s too deep. Never the less the challenge has gone viral and more and more people are attempting the stunt despite the warnings. To make the challenge try to seem more positive, it is often used for charity making people who attempt it pay $10 and the people that don’t pay $100, so the stunt doesn’t seem so pointless. Despite their efforts the challenge still receives a bad name due to teenagers being injured, and even killed by the challenge. Making parents urge more caution on their kids that want to try the challenge.
(Still researching)

Reception

Being one of the next viral challenges. It unsurprisingly got mixed reactions from the challenge being one of the most dangerous.

About

Orange Is the New Black is an American comedic drama web series that follows the story of Piper Chapman, an upper-middle class white woman convicted of drug trafficking, as she serves her 15-months sentence in a minimum security women’s prison. Produced and distributed exclusively by the video streaming service Netflix, the series quickly gained acclaim for its diverse cast of well-rounded female characters.

History

The show was loosely based on the 2011 memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, which chronicles the year author Piper Kerman spent in a low security women’s prison in Connecticut. It was created by Jenji Kohan, who is most well known for creating the Showtime comedy-drama series Weeds.The series was renewed^[1] for a second season on June 27th, 2013, two weeks before its first season was released through Netflix on July 11th. On May 5th, 2014, the show was renewed^[2] for a third season. Its second season is scheduled to premiere on June 6th.

Premise

Orange is the New Black follows Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) as she enters a low security women’s prison for smuggling drugs into the country for her then-girlfriend Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) ten years prior to the opening of the series. Now engaged and living in New York City, Chapman vows to do her time (15 months) and keep her head down, but she’s quickly dragged into the drama and politics of the prison. Main characters included Tiffany ‘Pennsatucky’ Doggett (Taryn Manning), a Christian inmate, Red (Kate Mulgrew) the prison cook, and transgender inmate Sophia Burset (Laverne Cox).

Reception

Orange is the New Black received a score of 8.5 on IMDB^[3] and a rating of 79 on Metacritic.^[4] It has been nominated for one Golden Globe in 2014 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama Television Series (Taylor Schilling). It has also been nominated for two Television Critics Association Awards in 2014 for Program of the Year and Outstanding New Program. Taylor Schilling also won a 2014 Webby Award^[23] for best actress for her portrayal of Piper Chapman.

Online Presence

As of June 2014, Orange is the New Black’s official Twitter^[5] account has over 230,000 followers, its Facebook^[6]page has over 1.1 million likes and its Instagram account^[8] has over 180,000 followers. Fans can also access episode guides and character sketches on the Wikia^[7] page for the show.

Fandom

In addition to the show’s branded web presence there are several fan-run sites for Orange is the New Black, including oitnb-fan^[18] and oitnb.^[19] There are numerous fan-run Tumblr blogs dedicated to the Orange is the New Black fandom, including fyeahorangeisthenewblack^[9], Orangeis^[15] and orange--black.^[16] Popular Tumblr tags fans use to tag their content include OITNB^[12] and orange-is-the-new-black.^[13] Fans also gather is discuss the show on the Reddit^[17] thread /r/OrangeistheNewBlack/, which has over 11,000 subscribers as of June 2014. As of June 2014, there are over 27,000 pieces of fan art tagged Orange is the New Black on DeviantArt.^[11]

Chapman and Vause

A lot of Orange is the New Black fanart surrounds girlfriends Piper Chapman and Alex Vause, a favorite couple within the fandom. Fan-run Tumblr blogs dedicated to the couple include be-my-little-spoon^[21] and fuckyeahchapmanvause^[22]. On May 30th, 2014, Flavorwire published a round-up titled “‘Orange Is the New Black’: The Internet’s Best Piper/Alex Fan Art.”

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Pi Symbol Trademark Controversy refers to the removal of several T-shirt designs bearing the mathematical constant “π” from Zazzle^[3] after the online retailer was issued a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer representing Paul Ingrisano, a New York City artist who obtained the trademark on the Greek letter, in May 2014.

Background

On November 21st, 2012, the founder of the Brooklyn-based apparel company Pi Apparels Paul Ingrisano^[1] filed a trademark request for the symbol “π” followed by a period punctuation mark. The trademark was registered on January 28th, 2014.^[2]

On May 16th, 2014, Zazzle received a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer representing Ingrisano, who demanded the online retailer to remove an array of merchandises bearing the Pi symbol.

Online Reaction

On May 28th, Zazzle Forums^[4] member Quidama submitted a thread title “Mathematical ‘Pi’ Symbol is Trademarked?”, noting that several designs containing the π symbol had been removed from the site. The same day, artist Jez Kemp criticized Zazzle in a post on his personal blog^[5] for removing his designs containing the symbol. On May 29th, artist Dave Lartique published a blog post^[6] calling the Zazzle takedowns “asinine.”

Zazzle’s Response

On May 29th, a staff member at Zazzle responded to the forum post, explaining that the items were temporarily pulled out as they continued to evaluate the legal basis of the complaint. On June 1st, many of the T-shirt designs had been restored on the site.^[3]

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several tech news sites published articles about the backlash to the trademarked symbol, including.The Daily Dot,^[7]CNET^[8] and Wired.^[9]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Luigi’s Death Stare, not to be confused with Weegee, is a meme centered around the odd facial expressions worn by the character of Luigi during gameplay in the eighth installment of Nintendo’s Mario Kart franchise. Upon the release of the game in late May 2014, the character’s creepy gaze quickly became the butt of many jokes and parodies among the fans of Mario Kart.

Origin

The meme originates from a video titled “Waluigi vs Luigi” (shown below, left), which was posted to Youtube by YouTuber Rizupicorr^[1] on May 30th, 2014, which shows a section of a highlight reel in which Luigi knocks out Waluigi using a green shell, before giving him an uncomfortable stare as he continues to drive past, and gained over 60,000 views. Another video, titled “Mario Kart 8 – Luigi’s Death Stare” was also posted to Youtube the same day by user Mega Beardo^[2](shown below, right), featuring Luigi attempting to overtake Mario, gaining over 5,000 views.

Spread

The meme did not grow in popularity until May 31st, when Youtuber CZbwoi^[3] posted a parody of the video using the original clip (shown below), which shows the scene alongside the 2006 song Ridin’ by Chamillionaire. As of June 2nd, the video has over 400,000 views and over 11,000 likes.

Luigi’s “death stare” further grew in popularity after a post titled “Luigi Death Stare” featuring a GIF of the scene was posted to Reddit’s r/gaming board on June 1st^[4]. The post received a positive reception from the community, garnering over 3,000 upvotes and over 800 comments, enticing other users to post parodies of their own. The topic was soon brought up on a number of different gaming forums and news sites, such as The Independent^[5], IGN^[6], Polygon^[7] and N4G^[8]. On the same date, Tumblr user Scarfydog posted a video on Tumblr^[10] featuring the same clip placed into a Dear Sister Parody (shown below). Within 48 hours the post managed to gain more than 95,000 notes.

Notable Examples

External References

About

Digital Image Stabilizationis an image and video editing technique used to reduce unwanted motion blurs in photographs or jitters in video clips for optimal viewing experience. This process involves shifting the position of electronic images frame-by-frame to compensate for various angular movements of the camera during recording. On the Internet, the technique has been used to improve the resolution of videos that have gone viral on sites like YouTube and Reddit.

Origin

On April 19th, 2011, Redditor Juu-hachi submitted an animated GIF featuring a stabilized clip from the Patterson-Gimlin of an unidentified subject purported to be the cryptid known as “Bigfoot” to the /r/pics^[2] subreddit (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received over 500 upvotes and 70 comments.

Spread

On April 16th, 2013, YouTuber taisui uploaded stabilized footage taken during several explosions at the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings (shown below). On July 16th, Vimeo^[8] user Greatest Hits uploaded a stabilized version of the entire 2008 science fiction thriller film Cloverfield. The video has since been removed.

On November 5th, the /r/ImageStabilization^[1] subreddit was launched for stabilized video requests and submissions, gaining over 14,300 subscribers in the first six months. On January 1st, 2014, Redditor 4rrow uploaded a stabilized GIF of actress Jennifer Lawrence wearing a revealing top to the /r/JenniferLawrence^[5] subreddit, where it gathered more than 1,300 upvotes and 20 comments in five months (shown below, left). On February 6th, Redditor jacho11 submitted a stabilized GIF of a skier performing a stunt off a ski jump to the /r/woahdude^[4] subreddit, garnering over 17,000 upvotes and 270 comments in three months (shown below, right).

On February 19th, the arts and technology news blog The Creators Project^[3] published an article about stabilized images, which highlighted several notable examples posted to Reddit. On May 31st, Redditor Death-By-Circlejerk submitted a stablized GIF with footage from the control bridge of the starship Enterprise in the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation to the /r/gifs subreddit (shown below). Within 48 hours, the post received upwards of 22,000 upvotes and 530 comments. That same day, the /r/startrekstabilized^[6] subreddit was launched for stabilized GIFs made from Star Trek episodes.

Notable Examples

Animal Head Stabilizers

On June 15th, 2008, YouTuber SmarterEveryDay uploaded a video titled “Chicken Head Tracking,” which demonstrated how chickens have the ability to keep their head stable while the rest of their body is being manipulated (shown below, left). In the first six years, the video gained over 2.67 million views and 2,900 comments. On August 18th, 2009, YouTuber Alex Holcombe uploaded a similar video featuring an owl (shown below, right).

On August 4th, 2012, YouTuber MieciaTheCat uploaded a video in which a cat’s head remains stationary while its body is moved around by a person (shown below, left). In two years, the video gathered more than 1.05 million views and 400 comments. On September 27th, 2013, the LG Mobile Global YouTube channel released a commercial featuring cameras mounted on chickens to stabilize recorded video (shown below, right). In eight months, the video accumulated upwards of 5.9 million views and 2,600 comments.

Search Interest

External References

About

Colin Furze is an English YouTube vlogger who creates engineering videos in which he builds and improves upon machines. He is best known for a viral video featuring a jet powered bike he created and dubbed the “most dangerous unsafe bike.”

Online History

Colin Furze, a plumber and inventor from Stamford, England, created his self titled YouTube channel^[2] on November, 15th, 2006. He uploaded his first video on February 5th, 2007, which features Furze dressed as Mr. Blobby, a character from the British television show Noel’s House Party, jumping onto a row of shopping carts a worker was leading through a parking lot. As of June 2014, the video has gained over 72,000 views.

As of June 2014, the channel’s most viewed video is titled “The JET Bicycle – The most dangerous unsafe bike EVER,” which was uploaded on June 6th, 2013. The video features Furze riding a bicycle which he outfitted with two flame throwing jets, which allowed it to gain speeds of 50 mph. The video was covered by many websites including The Telegraph^[4], The Daily Mail^[5] and The Huffington Post UK.^[6] As of June 2014, the video has gained over 6.2 million views.

On April 15th, 2014, Furze announced (below, left) that he would be uploading a series of videos in May in which he created inventions to mimic some of the powers of the X-Men characters from the Marvel universe. On May 15th, he uploaded his first video in the series titled “DIY X-MEN Making WOLVERINESCLAWS,” (below, right) which shows how he created retractable metal claws. As of June 2014, the video has gained over 470,000 views.

Over the course of the month Furze uploaded seven videos, including three X-Men projects (Wolverine claws, Pyro flame throwers, and Magnito ceiling shoes) and four behind the scenes prep-videos. As of June 2014, the most watched video in the series is titled “DIY X-MENWOLVERINE fully automatic claws,” (below, left) which was uploaded on May 15th, and has gained over 4.6 million views. The second highest viewed video is titled “DIY X-MENMAGNETO walking upside down with magnetic shoes,” which was uploaded on May 22nd, 2014, and has gained over 1.4 million views.

The series was covered by several websites including Metro^[7], The Huffington Post^[8] and TechCrunch.^[9]

Reputations

As of June 2014, Furze’s YouTube Channel^[2] has over 440,000 subscribers. His official Twitter account^[1] has over 2,000 followers and his Facebook page^[3] has gained over 10,000 likes.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Rikka’s Finger Spin refers to a series of hand-drawn animated GIFs/videos which are tributes to an adorable finger spin by Rikka Takanashi, a main character in a Japanese light novel/anime Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions. It was a poular subject for fan creations on the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND) and illustrators community pixiv in 2012-2013.

Origin

Rikka’s finger Spin appears on the opening movie of the 1st season for the TV anime series aired in October to December 2012. This opneing movie itself also became to a popular subject for the op parodies on NND. The finger spin is inserted in the beginning of the climax part of the song. However, its length is just 2 seconds.

Spread

Despite a quite short footage, her adorable finger spin caught a much attention among viewers. On YouTube, this part was used in a video titled “WOOP WOOP”, made and uploaded on October 4th, 2012 by user jgsfgs (shown below, left) and it was the first fandom. It has been watched over 200,000 times during 3 months of the anime’s airing period. And the finger spin reached more recognition, when a NND user 01 made a Fukkireta fad response and uploaded it on October 12th, 2012 (shown below, right). The video was also the trigger for Fukkireta videos featuring this dance and character were also re-drawed. As seen on Opening Parodies, the finger spin is also re-drawed in these.

Niconico 吹　っ　切　六　花

More than 100 of parody/tribute videos for Rikka’s Finger Spin had been posted to NND during the airing period.^[1] Additionally, dozens of the finger spin illustrations/animated-GIFs are also found on Nico Nico Seiga^[2] and pixiv^[3] as well as deviantART.^[4] On these Japanese online communities, Rikka’s finger Spin fan creations are usually tagged by a Shift-JIS art “（σ回ω・）σ←↖↑↗→↘↓↙←↖↑↗”.

Notable Examples

Niconico F U K K I R I K K ANiconico 吹　っ　切　咲　夜
Left: Rikka’s another edition | Right: Sakuya Izayoi from Touhou Project
Niconico 【手書き】中二病でもバスケがしたい！【黒バス】Niconico 【トレスMAD】吹　っ　切　蘭　子
Left: Tetsuya Kuroko from Kuroko’s Basketball | Right: Ranko Kanzaki from THE iDOLM@STER

Illustrations

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.

About

Greninja vs. Mewtwo is a popular debate topic among fans of Nintendo’s upcoming Super Smash Bros. crossover fighting game, similar to Ridley is Too Big.

Origin

On April 8, 2014, Nintendo released their newest trailer for the new Smash Bros, unveiling the Pokemon characters Charizard and Greninja.

Although Charizard was revealed early in the video, Greninja was shown as a mysterious silhouette for a large portion, which bore an uncanny similarity to another Pokemon, Mewtwo. Mewtwo had been a popular character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, an earlier game in the series, and many fans had been clamoring for his return.

Upon seeing the silhouette, many viewers immediately assumed it was Mewtwo, an assumption bolstered by the blue energy the mysterious figure produced. However, upon the reveal of the figure as the newcomer Greninja, waves of shock rippled through the Smash Bros community.

Spread

Viewers were quick to upload their reactions, with many videos relating to Greninja’s reveal appearing on YouTube within one to two days, with the most popular having over 220,000 views as of June 2014.

Example

These reactions were not limited to YouTube, either. Debates raged across sites such as Reddit and the Smash Boards on whether Greninja’s inclusion was a better idea than Mewtwo’s inclusion. Many of the Mewtwo supporters are fans of the older game, Melee, whereas most Greninja fans are rather new to the series. In addition, speculation about Mewtwo not being off the table yet is thrown in the mix. Until the Smash Bros full roster is released, debate regarding Mewtwo will likely continue.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

@Everyword is a novelty Twitter account which tweets out one word every 30 minutes from an alphbetical list of over 100,000 English language words. Launched in November 2007, the account is scheduled to complete the list in June 2014.

Origin

The Twitter account @Everyword^[1] sent out its first tweet on November 30th, 2007, which featured the first word in the English language, “A.” The account was created by poet and computer programmer Adam Parrish^[3][12] as his graduate project for the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University.

The account is run by a Python script that consistently tweets one word every thirty minutes. It gets the words from a list Parrish found online which contains 109,229 words.^[4] As of June 2014, the account has tweeted more than 109,0000 words in the English language and managed to gain over 95,000 followers. The account is scheduled to complete its task on June 7th, 2014.

Spread

On October 8th, 2011, Gawker^[6] published a profile of @Everyword creator Adam Parrish titled “One Man’s Quest to Tweet Every Word in the English Language.” In it, Parrish explained his motivation for beginning the account saying:

“It began as kind of a snarky stunt---a parody of (what I perceived to be) the needless verbosity of Twitter. ‘You like posting words on Twitter? Well, here’s a thing that is posting EVERY word! ha HA!’”

On April 24th, 2012, Nick Bilton^[7] wrote about @everyword in a blog post titled “The Letter “P” and the Everyword Bot,” which revealed that, at the time of the writing, the account’s most shared favorited tweets all began with the letter “P," possibly due to an exceptionally visible presence of profane language in them. However as of June 2014, the three most shared and favorited tweets^[13] are sex, weed and vagina.

On September 4th, 2013, Artcritical^[8] published a post titled “The Geeky Singularity is Near: Carla Gannis Shares Her Bookmarks,” which included @Everyword. On May 23rd, 2014, The Washington Post published an article titled “What happens when @everyword ends?” which examined the account’s history and legacy in light of its upcoming completion. In early June 2014, several websites reported on the account’s end date, including Buzzfeed^[2] and The Wall Street Journal.

Notable Examples

SearchEveryWord

On April 19th, 2013, John Holden^[10], self described “projectist,” launched searcheveryword/for-sentences^[11], a search engine for @Everyword tweets which allows the user to enter a sentence and see the @Everyword tweets containing the words which make up the sentence. A few months before the sentence search engine was launched, Holden released a basic, single word search^[9] for @Everyword tweets.

Search Interest

External References

About

Albert Einstein Copypasta, also known as “Malice of Absence,” is a fictional account of a philosophical debate on the benevolence of God between a religious-skeptic professor and a student of faith, the latter of whom is revealed to be the world-renowned scientist Albert Einstein. Online, the last line in the story is often referenced in discussion threads and comments to mock hyperbolic statements or tall tales.

Origin

According to Snopes,^[1] an early version of the copypasta began circulating via e-mail as early as 1999. In the story, a college professor asserts that God must be evil if evil exists in the world, to which a student responds that “evil is simply the absence of God.” The final line reveals the student’s identity as Albert Einstein.

Snopes determined that the copypasta was fictitious based on biographical information about Einstein and his expressed views on the subject of religion which have been described as “agnostic.”

Spread

According to About.com,^[2] a similar version of the story began spreading via email in 2004. On April 14th, 2008, the story was posted on the yoga blog Sahaja Power.^[7] On November 10th, 2009, Hyperacusis Network Forums^[8] member DanMalcore submitted the copypasta in a thread titled “Misphonia, 4S and Albert Einstein.” On April 14th, 2012, Facebook user Cory Jones posted a variation of the story, which gained over 402,600 shares in the next three years.

On October 21st, 2013, Redditor i_forget_my_userids submitted a joke in which science professor Carl Sagan is revealed to be Albert Einstein to the /r/circlejerk^[6] subreddit, where it accumulated more than 1,400 upvotes and 75 comments prior to being archived.

“‘Neil Degrasse Tyson and Richard Dawkins agonized for years over how to wear a fedora. it was Carl Sagan who came up with the answer: God isn’t real. That Sagan’s name? Albert Einstein.’ --Michael Scott”

Notable Examples

Liberal Muslim Homosexual ACLU Professor

According to Rational Wiki,^[3] a parody of the Einstein copypasta about a “liberal Muslim homosexual ACLU” professor who asks his class to pray to Karl Marx originated on 4chan sometime in 2011. On November 15th, 2011, the story was posted by Tumbler user Tossiblog,^[5] gathering more than 3,600 notes in the next three years.

A liberal Muslim homosexual ACLU lawyer professor and abortion doctor was teaching a class on Karl Marx, known atheist
“Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship Marx and accept that he was the most highly-evolved being the world has ever known, even greater than Jesus Christ!”

At this moment, a brave, patriotic, pro-life Navy SEAL champion who had served 1500 tours of duty and understood the necessity of war and fully supported all military decision made by the United States stood up and held up a rock.

“How old is this rock?”

The arrogant professor smirked quite Jewishly and smugly replied “4.6 billion years, you stupid Christian”

“Wrong. It’s been 5,000 years since God created it. If it was 4.6 billion years old and evolution, as you say, is real… then it should be an animal now”

The professor was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and copy of Origin of the Species. He stormed out of the room crying those liberal crocodile tears.

The students applauded and all registered Republican that day and accepted Jesus as their lord and savior. An eagle named “Small Government” flew into the room and perched atop the American Flag and shed a tear on the chalk. The pledge of allegiance was read several times, and God himself showed up and enacted a flat tax rate across the country.

The professor lost his tenure and was fired the next day. He died of the gay plague AIDS and was tossed into the lake of fire for all eternity.

Semper Fi

On April 16th, 2012, Redditor Waja_Wabit submitted a screenshot of the copypasta to the /r/atheism^[4] subreddit, where it received upwards of 6,000 upvotes and 690 comments prior to being archived. In the comments section, Redditor wolfchimneyrock referenced the original Albert Einstein story.

Marine Todd

Marine Todd is a similar copypasta story about a United States marine who violently assaults a college professor for challenging the existence of God. While numerous variations of this story have been circulating for over a decade, the meme resurged in April 2014 after Twitter users began parodying the original story in satire of various American conservative and right-wing ideologies.

Search Interest

External References

About

Guys With Zoo Eyes is a single topic blog featuring photoshopped images of male celebrities with actress Zooey Deschanel’s eyes, in a similar vein to Steve Buscemeyes and other photoshop memes centered around iconic facial features of celebrities.

Origin

The Tumblr blog GuysWithZooEyes^[1] was created on May 20th, 2014. The first image post featured an image of actor Nick Offerman (shown below, right), who portrays the character of Ron Swanson in Park and Recreation, with Zooey Deschanel’s signature blue eyes. Within two weeks, the post gained over 200 notes.

Precursor

On April 2nd, 2011, the Internet humor website Something Awful hosted a Photoshop Friday^[8] contest titled “Celebrity Match Game”, which featured a photo of Steve Buscemi combined with the pop star Justin Bieber. The contest subsequently gave rise to the launch of Steve Buscemeyes, a single topic blog featuring photoshopped images of various celebrities with American actor Steve Buscemi’s eyes superimposed onto their faces.^[7]

Spread

On June 2nd, 2014, Buzzfeed^[2] published a round-up titled “7 Guys With Zooey Deschanel Eyes,” followed by additional coverage from MTV^[4] and Mashable^[5] that same day and The Gloss^[5] and DigitalSpy on June 3rd.^[6] Also on June 2nd, Zooey Deschanel tweeted^[3] out a link to the BuzzFeed article, commenting “haha. I love this!!!” (shown below)

Notable Examples

External References

About

Noot Noot is the sound made by the title character of Pingu, a British-Swiss children’s television series about a family of penguins.

Origin

Pingu premiered on May 28th, 1986. The first “Noot Nott” compilation was uploaded to YouTube by user SoloWooper~!^[1] on August 20th, 2011. As of June 2014, the video has gained over 140,000 views.

External References

About: izmaster244 on Twitter sends in meme like pictures of people from a commentary group know as BrainScratchComms (BSC for short) to BSC member ExandShadow and BrainScratchSitComms and TedAndSakurai two fan parody sitcom accounts on Twitter.

Origin: Board at one time izmaster244 created a meme of BSC’s member Nyarman214 (Ryan) Pessimist Ryan, mocking Ted’s unlucky streak of not encountering shiny Pokemon, saying h has 9 and what is his excuse. Since them he has created more memes of the members of BSC and guest commentator ClementJ642 (Clement) Chaotic Clement, SomeCallMeJohnny (Johnny) Good Guy Johnny, and Ted himself, Grumpy Ted.

Spread: After he made the memes a few times around, two fan parody Twitter accounts showed up and caught izmaster244’s interest, he followed them do to their funny sitcom type antics they posted, he started sending the memes to them swell, after retweeting and favoriting most of the ones sent to them, the memes gained popularity among followers of the two sitcom accounts.

Notable Examples: Those would be the as of June 2014, the only forms of BSC Memes and they are; Pessimist Ryan, Chaotic Clement, Good Guy Johnny, and Grumpy Ted.

About

The UVB-76 Mystery refers to investigations and theories surrounding the Russian UVB-76 shortwave radio station (also known as “The Buzzer”) on the 4625 kHz frequency, which is known for broadcasting a repeating buzz tone for 24 hours a day along with rare Russian voice transmissions.

Origin

According to a UVB-76 document titled “The Buzzer Primer”^[12] by the international radio enthusiast group Priyom,^[12] the first reports of UVB-76 transmissions ranged from 1976 to 1982. The earliest known recording of a UVB-76 broadcast was taken by Netherlands resident Ary Boender in January 1982 (shown below).

Purpose

The purpose of the transmissions is unknown. An academic paper^[7] published by the Borok Geophysical Observatory claims that the signal comes from a scientific observatory that measure changes in the ionosphere. Conspiracy theorists have speculated that the station serves as part of a hypothetical “Dead Man Switch” automated system capable of launching a counter-strike upon a devastating nuclear attack. Others speculate that the station serves as a simple military communication system for western Russia.

Spread

On December 24th, 1997, the first recorded voice message broadcast on the station was taken by Polish resident Jan Michalski, which read the sequence “УЗБ-76 180 08 БРОМАЛ 74 27 99
14” (shown below).

On November 3rd, 2001, a Russian conversation was mistakenly transmitted according to The Buzzer Primer.^[12] On November 14th, Michalski launched a Geocities^[1] page documenting the UVB-76 radio station. On September 1st, 2008, YouTuber MrDrSmithJr uploaded a UVB-76 recording playing over a satellite photograph of the radio station, which gained over 1.25 million views and 1,000 comments in the first six years (shown below).

On August 25th, 2010, Redditor Quady submitted a link to the UVB-76 Wikipedia entry to the /r/technology^[8] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 1,700 upvotes and 580 comments prior to being archived. In September, the station was moved from a Russian military base near the town of Povaroo and switched to the identification MDZhB. On November 11th, an hour-long phone conversation was mistakenly transmitted (shown below).

On October 8th, 2011, Wired^[3] published an article about the mysterious radio station. On March 7th, the Russian urban exploration blog Kwasd^[5] published a report of a group’s investigation of the abandoned Povaroo base, which claimed to have discovered a log book of UVB-76 message broadcasts. On October 1st, 2012, Redditor bottlebob32 participated in a “ask me anything” (AMA) post on the /r/IAmA^[11] subreddit, where he claimed to have visited Povarovo and provided photo galleries of his trip. On October 12th, a thread was created in the /k/^[4] (weapons) board on 4chan, which noted that several bizarre transmissions were broadcast over the station earlier that month. On January 25th, 2013, the station broadcast the order “Command 135 initiated” (“OBYaVLENIYA KOMANDA 135” in Russian).

On August 27th, 2013, The Kernel^[6] published an article about the online fascination with UVB-76 transmissions, which noted that the new location of the transmitter may be near the Russian villages Kirsino, Pskov Oblast or Kolpino. On March 10th, 2014, Redditor mwguthrie submitted a photograph of the abandoned UVB-76 station in Povaroo to the /r/AbandonedPorn^[10] subreddit, where it gathered more than 1,000 upvotes and 50 comments in two months (shown below).

Less than 10 hours after Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation on March 18th, the voice message “T-E-R-R-A-K-O-T-A. Mikhail Dmitri Zhenya Boris. Mikhail Dmitri Zhenya Boris. 81 26 T-E-R-R-A-K-O-T-A” was broadcast from the radio station.

Search Interest

External References