About

Ouya^[1] is an Android-based video game console that was originally funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

History

On July 2nd, 2012, The Verge^[2] reported on a startup found on AngelList^[3] called Ouya that was planning on building a $99 gaming console on Android that was “built to be hacked.” The console was said to be designed by Yves Béhar under the direction of Ouya founder and former IGN executive Julie Uhrman^[7]. The following day, a number of other gaming blogs and message boards also reported on the company including Kotaku^[4], NeoGAF^[5] and Eurogamer.^[6] On July 10th, 2012, a Kickstarter^[8] campaign was launched to fund the initial round of consoles.

Within 10 hours, Ouya raised more than $1 million^[9], surpassing its $950,000 goal. After its 30 day campaign, Ouya raised $8,596,474, becoming Kickstarter’s most funded Gaming campaign and the second-most funded campaign of all time. At the time, Ouya was also the fastest project to reach a million dollars^[10] and the project to recieve the most funding within 24 hours, however both of these records were broken by the Veronica Mars film campaign in March 2013.^[11]

Online Presence

Ouya maintains active accounts on Facebook^[12], Twitter^[13] and Google+^[14] where members of the team interact with fans and answer questions about the console. Their YouTube account^[16] has uploaded a number of videos of Ouya gameplay. Additionally, Ouya’s support team has a Twitter account^[15] to help people solve problems in real time. Fans have discussed the console on Tumblr with the hashtag #ouya^[17] and on Reddit, where /r/Ouya^[18] has more than 7,200 subscribers.

Reception

Many gaming and tech blogs highly anticipated the Ouya console from the start including IGN^[19], Gamespot^[20] and Wired.^[21] In August 2012, Time Techland^[22] compiled a list of things that were still unknown about the console, despite the massive Kickstarter support it received. In December 2012, the first 1,200 developer consoles were sent out to Kickstarter backers^[23], many of which shared unboxing videos (shown below) and in depth reviews^[24] of the hardware and available software.

Full Launch

On March 28th, 2013, final versions of the Ouya consoles began shipping out to backers.^[25] As early as April 3rd, one of the first reviews of the console appeared on Engadget^[26], who noted the system was “rough around the edges.” That week, The Verge^[27] reviewed the console as unfinished, giving it a score of 3.5 out of 10 and Forbes^[28] reported that many early reviews (examples shown below) were not favorable for the new console. However, a Kotaku^[29] piece reminded fans that these were early prototypes and meant to be more of a beta test than the finished console.

In May, additional reviews of the console were posted on ReadWrite^[30], IT World^[31] and Wired.^[32] On June 25th, 2013, the Ouya launched in retail stores with more than 160 free games, selling out nearly immediately on Amazon^[33] and the GameStop website. However, approximately 7,500 Kickstarter backers did not receive their consoles prior to this official launch^[34], causing Ouya to triple its support team to handle incoming requests.

Highlights

ESA vs. Ouya at E3

At 2013’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Ouya chose to set up an unauthorized booth outside of the venue instead of paying for a spot on the show floor. After hearing of this booth, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) hired several semi-trucks to park in front of the booth, which the Ouya team countered by renting out the spaces in front of the trucks to post signage directing showgoers to their displays.^[35] Police were later called on the Ouya booth, where officers inspected the team’s permits and let them stay, but the ESA denied making this call.^[36]

Search Interest

External References

ABOUT

Dooshvari (variant of Doshvari meaning “difficulty” or “problem” in Persian) is the nickname of an unidentified man who became famous after being interviewed by an Iranian TV program, and is now popular among Iranians as the symbol of resistance, justice and cynicism.

ORIGIN

In 2009 a series of videos under the title of “Unaired Interviews” were uploaded on YouTube. These were interviews done by an Iranian TV program named Dar Ostan (“In the Province”) which interviewed people living in the province of Tehran and portrayed their problems. A number of these video clips were not considered appropriate for broadcasting, so they were never shown on Iranian television; however, they leaked on YouTube by, presumably, one of the creators of the program, and went viral.

One of these video clips shows an elderly man being interviewed in his neighborhood which apparently lacks many facilities. When the reporter asks him how many years he had been living there with such difficulty, he answers in a determined manner, “Difficulty?! This is a very good place! It’s number one. There is no difficulty here. It’s excellent. Not one person, since I came to stay here, has even taken my (walking) stick away. Nobody bothers me, and I don’t bother any person.”

When the reporter reminds him of a project which is going to destroy their houses, the man replies, “Are YOU going to destroy them?!” The reporter says, “The Municipality is going to destroy your houses”; the man then vies the Municipality by angrily saying, “Who is the Municipality? Show it to me first! Is it you?” The reporter denies any connection with the Municipality and says he has only come to report his problems, to which the man answers, “My problems? I have no problems!”

SPREAD

The man’s determined denial of any problems in his seemingly underdeveloped neighborhood, colored by his marked Turkish accent (especially evident in pronouncing the Persian word “doshvari” as “dooshvari”) made him popular among Iranians, but he remained relatively unknown until 2010 when a Facebook page titled “Dooshvari!?” ^[1] started its activity. The owner of the page who referred to herself as Yech Bashar (“One Person”) praised the man for a number of qualities, including his determination in denying any shortcomings in life, his satisfaction with a simple life style, and his bravery in confronting the reporter and the Municipality. As the page expanded its activities, more and more people became familiar with the man and soon a subculture was formed which considered the Municipality as the symbol of destruction and injustice, and praised Dooshvari as the paragon of resistance and freedom. While retaining the humorous atmosphere of the page, the owner and active fans stressed the need for moving beyond the apparent joke of the ironical situation of the interview, and moving deeper towards the serious meanings in the man’s words.

Dooshvari fans began propagating their cause by creating numerous forms of serious and humorous content, including essays, poems, songs, video clips and interviews. The man was claimed to be a mystic, a saint, a cynic philosopher. He was linked to all anti-oppression movements around the globe. T-shirts with the picture of the man and the word Dooshvari were designed and sold. Dooshvari keywords appeared in Iranian TV programs and articles on this phenomenon were published in magazines. The Dooshvari gesture became popular, too; pictures of celebrities posed like Dooshvari were shared on the page, indicating their alliance with his cause; fans also began sharing their own photos in which they posed like Dooshvari.

The original fan page now has three administrators with more than 35000 fans. Other Facebook pages exist as well, although the original page disapproves their “unoriginal activities”, “slapstick humor” and “condescending attitude” towards Dooshvari.

NOTABLEEXAMPLES

^[1]Facebook – Dooshvari Posted on 4-24-2010

About

Yowane Haku (Japanese: 弱音ハク)^[1] is a fan-made Vocaloid character which is officially recognized by Crypton Future Media. She was born as an incarnation of a state of mind of the people who gave up composing Vocaloid songs, and has earned a unique position in the Vocaloid fandom.

Origin

The first appearance of the term “Yowane Haku” was November 14th, 2007, and it was a mere joke by an anonymous user in a thread for Hatsune Miku in /mascot/ board in the Japanese text board community 2channel.^[2] The word is a pun for “Hatsune Miku” and a Japanese “Yowane [Negative Words/Thoughts or Complaining] (wo) Haku [Utter/Say]”, literaly means “Show the White Feather”. It expresses a state of mind of the people who can’t make the full use of Hatsune Miku even after they bought the software inspired by well-made Vocaloid songs on the web.

Translation

Akita Neru is good, but something has to be done for Yowane Haku, a massive wave of people who can’t create decent songs by Hatsune Miku.

On November 21st, 2007, Yowane Haku was reborn as a character by a Japanese amatuer illustrator CAFFEIN. He posted illustrations to his web site^[3] and pixiv^[4][5], which were gijinka version of the term based on additional personalities coming from other anonymous user’s posts.

Translation

Yowane Haku
A general term for Otakus who weep to the fact they are lacking in creativity even after buying Hatsune Miku unthinkingly. Or people who give up creation on the ground of lacking in inborn talents.

Spread

By getting an incarnation, Yowane Haku began to be utilized as one of the Vocaloid characters in the fandom. In the early days, as indicated by her nickname “VOYAKILOID” (lit. “Grumble-loid”), she in a drunk by sake was posting the comment “boring” (ツマンネ, Tsumanne) to other’s videos out of jealousy (shown below, left).^[6] However, her personality has been gradually changed into passionate and aggressive one throughout the fan creations. Since amatuer creators gave her various kind of roles as a foil to Hatsune Miku and other official Vocaloid characters in parodies and fan creations, especially Miku Miku Dance (MMD) videos, she has grown up as an adult sexy lady good at playing many musical instruments, fighting and dancing. (shown below, right).^[7]

As of June 2013, more than a 4,800 videos involving Yowane Haku have been uploaded to NND.^[8] An additional 59,000 can be found on YouTube^[9], including reuploads from NND. Thousands of pieces of fan art of the character can be found on pixiv^[10], Piapro^[11], deviantART^[12] and Zerochan.^[13]

Official Recognition

On April 18th 2008, Haku’s creator CAFFEIN announced in his blog post that he struck a licensing deal with Crypton Future Media for the sake of producing official character goods, which defined Yowane Haku was a derivative of Hatsune Miku.^[14] That was the second conclusion of the character license for derivatives after Akita Neru.

Under this license, a figurine and a plushie for Yowane Haku has been released from Good Smile Company since 2009. She has appeared on Vocaloid spin-off manga series hachune MIKU no nichijo ROIPARA! by Ontama (おんたま) and CHIBI Miku-san by MINAMI (みなみ). Sega’s rhythm game Hatsune Miku – Project DIVA - series has included Haku’s costume since its first title.

Figurine, Plushie and Chibi Miku-san

Notable Examples

Illustrations

Videos

Left: Original Song “However in a sexual meaning”^[15] | Right: Original Song “Daughter of White”^[16]

Left: MMD Kung-Fu Fighting^[17] | Right: MMD Dancing “toxic” by Britney Spears^[18]

Relationship with Akita Neru

Yowane Haku had often appeared with Akita Neru in the early days of fan works. In those creations, they sing satirically about the Vocaloid phenomena from a metafictional point of view.

Left: “Boring”^[19] | Right: “Turkish March Tsumanne”^[20]

Left: “Just Work NEET”^[21] | Right: “Could It Be You Guys Like These Kinds of Songs Anyhow?”^[22]

Search Interest

External References

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

About

Neymar’s Dive is a photoshop meme based on a replay footage of Brazilian footballer Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior diving while tussling with Uruguay defender Walter Gargano during the semi-final match of 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Origin

On June 26th, 2013, the FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final match between Brazil and Uruguay took place at the Mineirão stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. In the 86th minute, score of 1 – 1, Neymar, a 21-year-old rising star who had recently signed with Spain’s renowned FC Barcelona, delivered the tie-breaker with a corner kick, continuing his streak of scoring in every game of the tournament. Then in the 90th minute, with only overtime left in the game, Neymar got in a scuffle with Uruguay defender Walter Gargano, at which point he suddenly took a dive to feign a foul (shown below). That same day, the footage was uploaded by YouTuber MovieMonsterZer0.

Spread

[researching, please request editorship!]

External References

About

Feminism is a socio-political movement that centers around the idea of improving the living standards and cultural opinion of women, both through changing female representation in the media and legislation. Individual feminists and groups act on either the belief of gender equality or the superiority of women as a gender to men.

Origins

[researching]

Feminism began to develop as a philosophical idea in the early 19th century, encouraged by works such as Soujorner’s “Ain’t I a Woman”^[1]. In the 20th century, feminism developed into a social movement through activists in the suffrage movement.

Internet Presence

[researching]

Modern-day feminism has developed a presence online, especially on sites such as Tumblr.

External References

^[1]Wikipedia – Ain’t I a Woman?

This article is currently being researched. If you would like to assist, please request editorship.

About

Masculism is a socio-political movement that centers around the concept of improving the lifestyles and social impressions of men.

Origins

[researching]

Internet Presence

Masculism has developed an online presence on many sites, one of the most prominent being Reddit.

About

How To Draw an Owl is a satirical instructional image purportedly illustrating how to draw an intricately detailed owl in two steps. Despite what the title suggests, the vast majority of the artistic process is left unexplained for comedic effect.

Origin

The illustrator behind the instruction remains unknown, however, the earliest known instance of the image was hosted on a Tumblr blog and submitted to the /r/Pics subreddit^[1] on August 21st, 2010. The post received 1,787 upvotes, 893 points overall and 124 comments prior to being archived. The top comment on the post pointed out a similarity to a comic featuring parody superhero the Tick (shown below, right), in which artist Ben Edlund instructs readers to draw the tick by first drawing an oval with a line in it, followed by drawing the Tick holding the oval. This comic was first published in 1997 as part of The Tick Omnibus^[2]and shared online as early as 2008.^[3]

Spread

Spread: In August 2010, the owl image was reposted on FunnyJunk^[3], Buzzfeed^[4] and deviantART.^[5] Throughout the rest of 2010, the image continued to spread on DamnLOL^[6], Democratic Underground^[7] and MemeCenter.^[8] In June 2011, it was reposted to /r/Funny^[9], but only accrued 19 points overall. On January 5th, 2012, one of the first derivative instructional images was posted to Tumblr by artist Van Oktop^[10] providing a guide to drawing a horse. The post has received more than 7,200 notes and was featured on the curated Comics tag.

In April 2012, an interpretation of the Owl image created with the mobile gaming app Draw Something was posted to the /r/DrawSome subreddit.^[11] In May, an instructional image using artwork by late cartoonist Burne Hogarth was posted on Ki Creative Studio^[12] and in September, another variation of the owl image was shared on Flickr.^[13] In January 2013, artist Marlo Meekins posted a series of similar instructional drawings to her Tumblr.^[14]

Notable Examples

How to Draw Draco Malfoy

On February 20th, 2013, Twitter user @wasabeeef0630 shared an image with similar satirical instructions on how to draw the Harry Potter character Draco Malfoy, as played by British actor Tom Felton. As of July 2013, this tweet has been retweeted more than 41,000 times and favorited more than 18,000 times. The image was inspired by blending Draco’s Japanese name, Marufoi (マルフォイ) the phrase “Maru kaite” (まるかいて), or “Draw a circle.” This yields the phrase “Maru kaite foi,” translating to “Draw a circle. Presto!”

マルフォイの描き方。 pic.twitter.com/ZFt9zlKv

— わさ★ビーフ (@wasabeeef0630) February 20, 2013

Other Twitter users began to draw similar images with other Harry Potter characters, resulting in the creation of a mobile app in July 2013 that produces a drawing of Draco after the user inputs a circle (shown below). Coverage of this drawing phenomenon was posted on Kotaku^[15] on July 4th, 2013. The article was syndicated on Airing News^[16] and Addicted Gamer^[17] the same day.

Search Interest

External References

Melih Gökçek (NWA– F**k The Police Version) | Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum

Melih Gökçek’s musical response is usually parodized by various songs and diferent scenes mostly for mocking İbrahim Melih Gökçek, mayor of Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara.

Origin

On June 23 2013, Gökçek recorded a vlog against anti-government protests in Turkey, telling his fact that protests are actually based on provocations mostly held by Turkish people from abroad.

The parodies are mostly used on last minute of video, Gökçek’s response music after his conclusion words.

work in progress

About

“It aint gonna suck itself” is used in an image macro that implies oral sex. This phrase commonly used as a crossover with the Childhood Ruined meme.

Origin

Although the origin of the term is currently unknown, an early use of the phrase is from the song “Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself” by the country band Cracker on their 2003 album Countrysides. The song’s video received a little over 40,000 views.

Spread

An image of a suggestive Buzz Lightyear sip cup for children was uploaded on Bordom.net on December 10th, 2010 reaching a score of over 11,000 and an 82% approval rating.

On July 31, 2011, an image titled “SpongeBob gets real” was added to lolbrary featuring the phrase. It received a score of 143.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

About

Household Magician is an advice animal image macro series featuring an image of a bearded stage magician and captions undertaking mundane household tasks that are deemed surprisingly difficult to accomplish without trial and error. Each act is typically introduced with the phrase “for my next trick” or “for my next amazing act,” emulating the manner in which magicians transition between acts during live performances.

Origin

The original stock photo of the bearded magician was taken by Australian photographer David Freund^[1] and uploaded to iStockPhoto^[2] on April 20th, 2010. Years later on July 6th, 2013, Redditor unenlightenedfool submitted the first Household Magician image macro to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[4] subreddit with the caption “For my next amazing act / I will put this air mattress back into its original package,” describing the cumbersome process of repackaging an inflatable mattress after it has been used.

The post received more than 17,000 upvotes, 2,300 points overall and 260 comments within 48 hours. Redditor unenlightenedfool provided the blank template for the image macro series in a comment on the post, which accrued more than 400 upvotes, making it the top comment on the thread.

Spread

Shortly thereafter, several users began submitting their own Household Magician image macros to /r/AdviceAnimals^[5] as well as within the comments of the original image.^[6] Later that evening, Tumblr humor blog Tastefully Offensive^[11] shared a compilation of six Household Magician instances, which gained more than 6,000 notes in 48 hours. On July 7th, the air mattress instance was reposted to 9gag^[8], where it gained more than 1,100 Facebook likes, as well as on Flickr^[9], while another instance was shared on FunSubstance^[10] later that day. On July 8th, additional compilations were posted on humor sites FunnyChap^[12] and Caveman Circus.^[13]

Notable Examples

Within two days, more than 80 Household Magician images have been submitted to the /r/AdviceAnimals subreddit.^[7]

Search Interest

[Not Currently Available]

External References

About

#oomf is an Internet slang acronym meaning “one of my friends” or “one of my followers.” It is commonly used on Twitter as a hashtag in “subtweets,” or tweets that subliminally addresses a specific person or group of people without directly mentioning them.

Origin

Though it is unknown where the hashtag #oomf^[13] originated, one of the earliest tweets using the hashtag was posted on February 21st, 2011 by @MissShantae_, who was upset that one of her followers did not text her back.

#oomf didn't text me back… smh!

— Shantae Deary (@MissShantae_) February 21, 2011

Spread

“Oomf” was first added to hashtag dictionary Twittonary^[1] on February 27th, 2011, describing the term as a Twitter shorthand for “one of my followers.” On March 7th, it was similarly defined on Urban Dictionary^[2]
with an alternate meaning of “one of my friends.” Later that month, A Yahoo! Answers user inquired^[3] about the hashtag’s meaning, to which the top voted answer explained that people use #oomf so other people would not know who the tweet was about. In September 2011, the International Business Times^[4] included #oomf in a list of hashtag acronyms that trend frequently on Twitter. In December that year, Tumblr blogger 1week1project^[5] reported that #oomf was trending and logged a number of tweets using the hashtag.

In January 2012, members of the LipstickAlley forums^[6] discussed the pros and cons of using #oomf as a covert way to air one’s grievances without actually talking to the person in question. In August 2012, the single topic Tumblr The #oomf Diary^[7] was created, posting a handful of open-letter style romantic messages directed at an anonymous follower. Around the same time, the Twitter account @OhDearOOMf^[8] launched, tweeting similar messages using the hashtag #oomf. As of July 2013, the account has nearly 295,000 followers and the messages get retweeted thousands of times each.^[9]

Dear #oomf, #YouNeedToUnderstandThat I'll always be there for you. No matter what.

— Dear #oomf … (@OhDearOOMF) December 8, 2012

On November 21st, 2012, Buzzfeed^[10] reported on the notable resurgence of the “subtweet” hashtag in an article titled “Introducing #Oomf, Twitter’s Best Ever Hashtag.” In February 2013, Storify user the_toney compiled^[11] dozens of tweets using the hashtag in several different ways, from playful subtweets seeking to interact with anonymous crushes in real life, as well as confrontational tweets aimed at specific individuals. In July 2013, The Daily Dot^[12] also reported on the widespread use of the hashtag.

Notable Examples

As of July 2013, #oomf has been used on Twitter more than 25 million times, according to Topsy Analytics.^[14] According to Twee.co^[15], it has been a worldwide trend nearly a dozen times between November 2011 and May 2013. The hashtag can also be found on Tumblr^[16] and Instagram^[17], where more than 260,000 photos have been tagged #oomf.

Search Interest

External References

About

Animals Being Jerks is a subgenre of animal-related online media in which various creatures are portrayed as being socially ill-mannered.

Origin

The single topic Tumblr blog “Animals Being Dicks”^[7] was launched on July 11th, 2011, with the first post highlighting an animated GIF of two dolphins colliding in mid-air (shown below). Within the first two years, the post gained over 470 notes.

Spread

On November 9th, 2011, the Internet humor blog Slacktory^[11] published a video montage of misbehaving animals (shown below), receiving more than 700,000 views and 200 comments in the next two years.

On July 21st, 2012, Animal Planet^[9] introduced a playlist of mischievous animal videos titled “Animals Being Jerks.” On December 1st, MSN^[10] published a slideshow highlighting several animated GIFs of ill-mannered animals. On February 21st, 2013, the subreddit /r/AnimalsBeingJerks^[8] was launched by Redditor tara1, which garnered upwards of 74,000 subscribers in the next four months. On March 30th, YouTuber Olynoyem uploaded a montage titled “Animals Being Jerks” (shown below).

Notable Examples

Derivatives

On February 21st, 2013, the same day that /r/AnimalsBeingJerks was launched, Redditor Kijafa simultaneously created the first spin-off subreddit /r/AnimalsBeingDicks^[3], accumulating more than 10,400 subscribers in the same time frame. Over the course of the next few months, several similar subreddits were launched, including /r/AnimalsBeingBros,^[2] /r/AnimalsBeingDerps,^[4]/r/PlantsBeingJerks^[5] and /r/AnimalsBeingAnimals.^[6]

Search Interest

External References

About

I’ll Quit Singing is a Vocaloid song. It was originally sung by Megurine Luka, and she expresses her frustration about being forced to sing perverted songs, and being shipped. Unlike most Vocaloid songs, the song is entirely in English. Different versions of the song sung by others have been made, with tweaked lyrics to fit their particular situation.

WORKWILL BE MADELATER I AM AT SUMMERCAMPANDTEXTILE DOESN’T WORKWELL ON A PHONE.

About

Humans of New York^[1] is a photography blog run by Brandon Stanton, a self-taught photographer who shares portraits of people he meets on the streets of New York City along with a snippet of the conversation he has with them.

History

After purchasing a semi-professional camera in 2010^[2], Brandon Stanton began photographing portraits of people in downtown Chicago, where he worked trading bonds on the Chicago Board of Trade.^[3] After losing his job that July, Stanton began touring the United States, taking photos in New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. He shot more than 1,000 photos per day and uploaded 30-40 of them to a personal Facebook photo album. He began to focus more on taking candid portraits by the time he had reached New York City in August 2010, which were collected in Facebook albums titled Humans of New York. After uploading three Facebook photo albums worth of portraits, Stanton decided to move to New York with the intent of photographing 10,000 people to create an interactive map as an unofficial census of the city. On December 4th, 2010, he began sharing his photo essays to the Tumblr blog named after his Facebook albums, Humans of New York^[4], about various events he saw around New York, including a street fight (shown below) and a man talking to pigeons.

On January 13th, 2011, Stanton launched the Humans of New York Facebook fan page^[5] and three days later, posted the first portrait to be paired with a piece of conversation that took place with the subject of the photograph.^[6] By March 2nd, the blog had accrued more than 1,400 photos and saw its first press mentions in the local NYC blogs EV Grieve^[7] and Gothamist.^[8] In the following weeks of March, Humans of New York was also featured on The Village Voice^[9], The Huffington Post,^[10] New York Post^[11] as well as The Associated Press (shown below).

In May 2012, Humans of New York was featured on the Wall Street Journal.^[12] Three months later, New York Magazine^[13] partnered with Tumblr’s now defunct editorial team Storyboard^[13] for a video profile (shown below) on Stanton and his blog. Also in August 2012, images from Humans of New York were featured on Vogue^[15] and My Modern Met.^[16] Beginning in February 2013, Stanton partnered with Vogue for an exclusive project during the New York Fashion Week^[17] as well as street punks^[18] to coincide with that year’s punk-themed Met Gala. On May 20th, Stanton participated in an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit, which gained 8,023 upvotes, 1,954 points overall and 1,249 comments prior to being archived. In May 2013, 21 photos from Humans of New York were featured on Twisted Sifter.^[19] As of July 2012, Humans of New York has more than a million followers, accrued more than 905,000 Facebook fans and gained more than 27,000 followers on Twitter.^[21]

Hurricane Sandy Fundraiser

Following Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, Stanton began photographing people affected by the disaster^[26] (shown below) and on November 11th, the blog launched^[27] a fundraising campaign cosponsored by Tumblr with 100% of the proceeds going to The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a charity located in Staten Island. Using an Indiegogo^[28] crowfunding page, they raised $86,000 within 12 hours^[29] and a total of $318,530 in ten days.

Book Deal

On December 4th, 2012, Stanton announced^[22] that he was working on two Humans of New York books. The news was shared on publishing blog Galleycat^[23] two days later. The first book, also titled Humans of New York^[24], is scheduled to be released on October 15th, 2013, featuring 400 full-color photographs, including 80 brand new shots.^[25] A children’s book, Little Humans, is anticipated for Spring 2013.

DKNY Controversy

On February 25th, 2013, Stanton posted a photo^[30] to the Humans of New York Facebook page of a DKNY window display in Bangkok, Thailand that had used his photographs without his knowledge. He noted that DKNY had previously contacted him, offering to purchase 300 of his photos for $15,000. After attempting to negotiate for more money, DKNY revoked their offer, but seemingly went on to use the images anyway. Stanton requested people share the photo, asking DKNY to donate $100,000 on his behalf to the YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He reposted the plea to his Tumblr^[31], where it gained more than 42,000 notes. The same day, the story was publicized on the Wall Street Journal^[32], Gawker^[33], Gothamist^[34] and the Huffington Post.^[35]

Later that day, DKNY responded via Facebook^[36], noting that the Bangkok store had wrongly used an internal mockup and would be donating $25,000 to the Brooklyn YMCA in Stanton’s name. To raise the rest of the money he asked for, Stanton launched an Indiegogo^[37] to raise the rest of the $100,000 to send 300 kids to summer camp for free and within 72 hours, the campaign collected $103,000. In April 2013, Stanton was honored at City Hall for his actions.^[38]

Notable Examples

Spin-Off Blogs

Since its inception, Humans of New York has inspired dozens of similar portrait blogs and Facebook groups from cities and towns across the globe, as well as college-specific blogs. Additionally, there are a handful of parody blogs including Hummus of New York^[39], which photoshops containers of hummus in New York photographs, providing humorous commentary from the point of view of the dip.

Traffic

As of July 2013, Humans of New York has an Alexa^[40] US rank of 27,647 and global rank of 101,362. Much of their traffic comes from search results, Facebook, Imgur and Pinterest.

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Golden Corral’s Food Storage Controversy refers to the online backlash against the American family-style restaurant chain Golden Corral following the release of a YouTube video exposing their alleged improper food storage practices.

Background

On July 1st, 2013, Golden Corral employee Brandon Huber uploaded a video titled “all you can eat ribs,” alleging that food was being hidden by dumpsters during a routine health inspection at a Port Orange, Florida location (shown below). In the video, Huber exposes several food items by the garbage, including pot roast, gravy, hamburger patties and raw baby back ribs. Within the first eight days, the video gained over 2.57 million views and 7,300 comments. On July 7th, Huber uploaded a follow-up video complaining about the restaurant’s management practices (shown below, right).

Notable Developments

On Reddit

On July 8th, 2013, Redditor RageMau5 submitted Huber’s video to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it garnered more than 37,600 up votes and 4,500 comments in the next 24 hours. The same day, Huber’s follow-up video reached the front page of the /r/videos^[10] subreddit. Also on July 8th, several Redditors submitted image macros and animated GIFs joking about the controversy (shown below)^[11][12] and the /r/GoldenCorral^[13] subreddit was created.

News Media Coverage

On July 8th, several news sites published articles about the video, including USA Today,^[2] The Daily Mail,^[3] Los Angeles Times,^[4] NY Daily News,^[5]MSN,^[6] Time,^[7]ABC News^[8] and The Huffington Post.^[9]

Golden Corral’s Response

On the same day, Golden Corral submitted a comment to Huber’s YouTube video page, claiming that the food items shown in the video were not served to customers, that Huber’s father attempted to sell the video for $5,000 and that the manager involved in the improper storage of the food had been fired.

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About

Flower Crowns are headbands or other hair accessories created by stringing a number of flowers together. On Tumblr, these floral accessories have become an exploitable photoshop meme by adding them to photos of males who would not normally wear them.

Origin

On June 3rd, 2011, One Direction member Harry Styles tweeted the phrase “I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair.” Though it went unattributed, it may have been a reference to the title of Scottish singer-songwriter Sandi Thom’s 2005 debut single.^[1] By July 2013, this tweet had been retweeted more than 55,000 times and favorited more than 32,000 times. Though it went relatively unnoticed at first, around March 28th, 2013, One Direction fans began tweeting photoshopped images of Styles wearing flower crowns in response to this tweet.

I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair.

— Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles) June 3, 2011

Spread

One Direction fans continued to photoshop flower crowns on to photos of Styles using variations of the hashtags “Harry flower child”^[2][3] and “Harry flower crown”^[4][5] to share their photos. By March 31st, fans were bringing flower crows to One Direction concerts^[6], presumably to throw on stage during the set. By May, fans were reporting^[7] that multiple people were bringing flower crowns to One Direction concerts and styles Styles eventually began putting on the crowns thrown at him (shown below).

By May 15th, flower crowns began appearing in fan art featuring characters from other fandoms, including Supernatural’s Castiel^[8], using the hashtag “flower crown AU”^[9] as well as “flower crown”^[10] and “flower crowns.”^[11] Later in May, flower crowns began appearing on fan art of the television show Hannibal, with one photoset^[12] gaining nearly 1,800 notes as of July 2013. By June 16th, Tumblr users began to point out^[13] the prevalance of the trend, with Tumblr trend blogs thisweekontumblah^[14] and heres-what-happened-this-week-on^[15] reporting on it later in the month. On July 2nd, the single topic blog flower-crown-edits^[16] launched, posting edited photos twice a week.

Notable Examples

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About

I’m So Alone is an exploitable comic in which different characters, most commonly the characters or fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, get inserted into a situation in which they show their excessive love for something or someone, resulting into them becoming a social outcast.

Origin

On May 10th 2011 DeviantArt user seniorpony submitted a comic named the pen is lonelier then the to the site. It was showing the My little Pony: Friendship is Magic protagonist Twilight Sparkle and her obsession for books

Spread

In 2012, traced over versions of the comic popped up all around DeviantArt.com and DerpiBooru.org under the tag of I’m so alone and sometimes Dear Princess Celestia.
It’s not just used for My little Pony related content, but also for furries and in some cases for human characters.

Template

Base created by SumiShark

External References

About

“My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard” is a lyric from American recording artist Kelis’ 2003 R&B single “Milkshake." Following the commercial success and critical reception of the song in the early 2000s, the lyric has been frequently referenced and parodied both in popular culture and on the web.

Origin

On August 25th, 2003, the song “Milkshake” was released on August 25th, 2003 as the lead single for Kelis’ third studio album Tasty. During the chorus, Kelis repeats the phrase “My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard” in alluding to her own sex appeal.

Spread

The lyric was subsequently referenced in the Family Guy episode “Sibling Rivalry”, originally aired on March 26th, 2006, in which Peter Griffin sings the chorus of the song for a group of convicts (shown below). On June 12th, 2007, Yahoo Answers^[4] user blue_eyed_mikey1980 submitted a post questioning the meaning of the Kelis song lyric.

On August 14th, 2009, YouTuber nerdz4L uploaded a parody of “Milkshake” titled “My Subway” (shown below, left), which accumulated more than 250,000 views and 1,100 comments in the following four years. On May 15th, 2010, YouTuber melguadalupe uploaded a video of a man singing the Kelis song in a high-pitched voice (shown below, right). In the first three years, the video garnered upwards of 250,000 views and 940 comments.

On November 3rd, Urban Dictionary^[1] user that-spooky-kid submitted an entry for the phrase, defining the word “milkshake” as a metaphor for a woman’s sex appeal. On February 22nd, 2012, Redditor iskreamsocial submitted a Conspiracy Keanu image macro to the /r/funny^[3] subreddit, which speculated that Kelis’ milkshake did not actually bring the boys to the yard (shown below, left). On December 3rd, Redditor diNZy submitted a picture^[2] of an IRL troll poster featuring the Star Trek character Spock’s dry and verbose interpretation of the lyric. Prior to being archived, the post gained over 3,900 up votes and 30 comments.

Notable Examples

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Work In Progress

About

Origin

In 2011, Kanye West and Jay-Z collaborated on the song “No Church In The Wild” for their album “Watch The Throne”. The song featured Frank Ocean and The-Dream

Spread

Shortly after the track was dropped, photosets taking images from the music video were posted on tumblr ^[1]. The lyrics would then be taken and posted atop images from other media, including television, film, and literature.

An article on Buzzfeed compiled several of these parodies over the past two years ^[2]

External Links

^[1]tumblr – tagged:No Church In The Wild

^[2]buzzfeed – Jay-Z And Kanye West’s “No Church In The Wild” Is Like A Metaphor For Everything

About

“Blurred Lines” is a song by R&B singer Robin Thicke with guest vocals by rapper T.I. and singer Pharrell, which known for its sexually explicit music video that has been the subject of remixes and parody videos on YouTube.

Origin

On March 15th, 2013, “Blurred Lines” was released as the lead single for Robin Thicke’s sixth studio album of the same name. Five days later on March 20th, the music video was released as both explicit^[7] and edited (shown below) versions, featuring Thicke, T.I. and Pharrel flirting with scantily clad models Emily Ratajkowski, Jessi M’Bengue and Elle Evans.

Spread

On March 26th, 2013, Redditor WorkoutProblems submitted the explicit version of the video to the /r/Music^[4] subreddit, receiving over 8,600 up votes and 1,600 comments in the first three months. On March 30th, the unedited version of the video was removed from YouTube for violating the site’s terms of service regarding content containing nudity in a sexual context.^[2] On May 7th, the men’s interest blog GQ^[3] published an interview with Thicke, who responded to allegations that the music video was degrading toward women:

“We tried to do everything that was taboo. Bestiality, drug injections, and everything that is completely derogatory towards women. Because all three of us are happily married with children, we were like, ’We’re the perfect guys to make fun of this.’ People say, ‘Hey, do you think this is degrading to women?’ I’m like, ‘Of course it is. What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I’ve never gotten to do that before. I’ve always respected women.’”

On May 12th, YouTuber Aja Dang uploaded a food-related parody of the Thicke video titled “#HungryGirl” (shown below, left). In one month, the video gained more than 530,000 views and 440 comments. On July 8th, YouTuber GarlicJacksonComedy uploaded a remix video featuring the opening sequence from the 1980s American comedy television show The Cosby Show with “Blurred Lines” dubbed over the background audio track (shown below, right).

On June 20th, Vimeo^[5] user Ryan Rapaport uploaded a version of the explicit video edited with only shots featuring Ratajkowski. The following day, Redditor godsgimp submitted the Ratajkowski edit to the /r/videos^[6] subreddit, where it accumulated upwards of 6,900 up votes and 880 comments in the next 19 days. On July 4th, YouTuber Laina Morris uploaded a Snapchat-related “Blurred Lines” parody (shown below), which gained over 180,000 views and 2,100 comments in the first week.

Controversy

On June 17th, 2013, The Daily Beast^[1] published an article criticizing the song’s lyrics for being “creepy” and “trivializing consent” and the music video for treating women as sex objects. On June 26th, the women’s interest blog Jezebel^[8] published an article condemning the “Blurred Lines” director for admitting the video was supposed to be “sublty ridiculing.”

Notable Examples

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