Quantcast
Channel: Know Your Meme Entries - Confirmed
Viewing all 1410 articles
Browse latest View live

Death to All Juice

0
0

About



Death to All Juice is an exploitable catchphrase stemming from a picture of a protester holding an anti-Israel picket sign that read “death to all (zionist) juice.” Also see: Get a Brain, Morans.

Origin: Protest Picket Sign

On December 28, 2008, a New Jersey high school student Carlos Almonte attended a protest against the bombing of Gaza region, held outside of the Israeli embassy in New York. In this picture uploaded via FAILblog in February 2009, Almonte can be seen standing with a picket sign that reads “death to all (zionist) juice”:



The FAIL macro iteration recieved over 7000 thumbs up reviews and nearly 400 comments on the popular blog site. Taking pride in the viral success of his own picture posted on FAILblog, Almonte even uploaded the image as his own Facebook profile picture.

Over a year later in June 2010, Carlos and his friend Mohamed Alessa were arrested by the federal authorities at the JFK International Airport, who allegedly sought to fly to Somalia and join an Islamist insurgent group.



Both young men, who have been identified as naturalized Americans, are charged with conspiracy to murder, kidnap or maim persons outside the United States. According to NYTimes’ recent interview with relatives and friends, Almonte was a “nice, peaceful guy who liked to read and use computers.” While there is no direct evidence supporting the linkage, our research on Google shows that Almonte may have been aware of its antecedent usage through another popular catchphrase “I have eliminated all the juice.” See bottom for more information.

Spread


  • Little Green Footballs wrote up the first blog entry featuring the image, the day after the anti-Israeli protest took place in Manhattan.
  • Several internet users posted the image on Digg, the earliest thread dating back to December 2008.
  • It also appeared on several Reddit threads and the most popular instance garnered over 200 comments.
  • In a recent NYTimes article in June 2010, the identity of “Death to All Juice” protester has been confirmed as Carlos Almonte, one of the two NJ terrorist suspects who were arrested at the JFK airport on June 6, 2010.
  • Gawker wrote a follow-up article, which further highlighted the fact that one of the terrorist plotters had garnered internet fame prior the arrest.

Similarity to Other Memes

One of the earliest instances to use the word “juice” in replacement of “Jews” appeared in early 2008. Featuring an image of a kid dressed as Hitler with the text “I have eliminated all the juice,” it became quite popular on 4chan as well as other social media outlets, including Digg, Buzzfeed, Reddit, Bored and etc:




Bzzzzzzzzzz / World Cup Vuvuzelas

0
0

About



Bzzzzzz is the onomatopoeia of the droning noise made by the Vuvuzuela, a stadium horn popularized during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Spread

Knowledge of the instrument and the sound that it makes spread immediately from the stadiums to the rest of the globe via the mediums of TV, radio, and the web simultaneously. The horns could be heard throughout the stadiums as fans blew the horns with enthusiasm, as a declaration of support for their teams and their countries. Despite the best intentions of most horn-blowers, the sound has been received by many as an annoyance.

Last Year

As early as June of 2009, a full year prior to the World Cup, the BBC published a story addressing the bad reputation of the Vuvuzela in an article entitled, In defence of the vuvuzela.

Excerpt:

The electrifying atmosphere generated by the ubiquitous instrument at the ongoing Confederations Cup has left many of the onlookers spell bound.
But many in Europe say the incessant blowing in the terraces is irritating and have complained that it is drowning out their TV commentators.

June 8th

On June 8th, 2010, BBC Comedy web series Misery Bear was posted to Youtube, and Misery Bear is seen packing a Vuvuzela prior to the official start of the World Cup; foreshadowing that knowledge of the Vuvuzela was already fairly widespread prior to this year’s games.

[WORK IN PROGRESSFILLING GAPS]

June 11th

As Mexico and Russia squared off in the first World Cup match, comments began appearing in Spanish language discussion threads about the particular “bzzzzzzzzz” sound of the horn:

The same onomatopoeia began showing up the same day on reddit threads, and even Yahoo Answers as well.

June 13th

On June 13th, Reddit user sobmorok posted Vuvuzela Instruction Manual [pic] which quickly reached Reddit’s front page with around 280,000 views.

The Daily What reblogged User Manual of the Day: Your Vuvuzela And You: A Step-By-Step Instruction Guide later that day reaching an esitimated 40,000 additional viewers.

Buzzfeed user anteater posted Vuvuzela, meet world

Time magazine published What is that weird hum during World Cup games? which was subsequently reblogged to Buzzfeed.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

On the night of June 13th (anything prior?) thread containing image macros of vuvuzelas and posts of the word BBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZ began appearing all over 4chan, resulting in 4chan sysop (presumably moot) adding an audio clip to play in the background on /b/. The clip contains a sample of Jim Carey’s famous line from the movie Dumb and Dumber: “Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?” followed by a sample of a vuvuzela.

June 14th

Someone created a twitter account @the_vuvuzela and proceeded to tweet numerous Bzzzzzzzes. @thevuvuzela’s Twitter stream was then posted to Buzzfeed by Top 10 Buzzfeed user Tanner Ringerud. After 10 hours the account has nearly 1700 followers.

The BBC published the article Can you block out the blare of vuvuzelas? but on the sidebar, it was listed as “Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Can technology block the blare of the vuvuzelas?”

The New York Times published the article The World Cup Will Drone On which reported that, despite complaints, vuvuzelas would not be banned.

June 17th

Newswire service Reuters even seems to have adopted the BBBzzzz term, publishing the story BBBBzzzz! Noisy iVuvuzela latest app.

Google Maps also incorporated the instrument into Street View. When looking at maps of South Africa, the pegman appeared with a mini red vuvuzela. My Google Map Blog covered it on the 17th and Mashable posted about it on the 25th.

June 21st

Hitler is informed about the Vuvuzela:

June 23rd

YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing site, joins in on the BZZZZZZZZZ phenomenon by adding a “vuvuzela sound generator” button to its football-related videos.



Additional Vuvuzela Youtube Videos

Hitler and the Vuvuzela at the 2010 World Cup

Hyundai Giant Vuvuzela – sound test

Film Classics on Vuvuzela

Eat Da Poo Poo

0
0

About

“Eat Da Poo Poo” is a YouTube remix fad inspired by a viral video of the same name.

On May 24th, 2010, YouTube user dudeuter uploaded EAT DA POO POO. The clip focuses on anti-homosexuality propaganda presentations by Ugandan pastor Martin Sempa.

It was taken from a longer video, CurrentTV’s Vanguard: Missionaries of Hate, a piece that explores various anti-homosexuality campaigns.

How it went viral.

The video went largely unnoticed until the last week of May.

May 29th the video was embedded on WTFoodge.com.

On May 31st, Reddit user Dimesyl created the thread TO eat DA POOPOO! Uganda speech about homosexuality, freakin hilarious, I started crying while I was laughing because of it =D reaching Reddit’s front page with 285,791 readers.

The same day, the video was posted to milkandcookies.com by RabidMadness.

June 1st, Digger jrod4040 submitted EAT DA POO POO” [video]" to Digg where it was Dugg 285 times, falling short of making it to the front page.

On June 2nd, blogger Perez Hilton posted the video on perezhilton.com (Point B on the chart) exposing the video to a larger audience. Hilton called the video “infuriating, truly sad, and ridiculous anti-homosexual presentation,” adding, “you sort of can’t help but laugh due to the sheer insanity of it, but it’s still so unfortunate that this kind of misrepresentation still exists in the world! EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL!”

The same day, Eat Da Poo Poo appeared on Punchbaby.com and in the Encyclopedia Dramatica forums.

On June 4th, YouTuber Ray William Johnson took notice of the video, featuring it in his own video entitled “You Be Nasty.” Referral views from RWJ’s video to the original are marked at Point A on the graph above.

Derivatives

Although Perez Hilton and Ray William Johnson were responsible for driving many views to the video, they were not the only ones to discover it. Plenty of other YouTubers were creating their own remixes of the video; many before either Hilton or RWJ had posted about it.

On June 1st, theoriginal77 created “Chocolate Soft Serve (Eat da Poo Poo Remix)”

The same day DJ Horsey Horse uploaded EAT DA POO POO! DJ Horsey Horse BOOM BOOM Video Remix.

On June 2nd, BartBaKer created the Autotune Remix.

Zach Anner / Oprah Contest

0
0

Breaking 2/25/2011: Zach Anner wins his own travel show! click here for the latest details!


Origin

Zach Anner became an Internet sensation after a campaign on 4chan, YouTube, and Reddit was started to help “the wheelchair bound lady magnet” win a contest to be a guest host on oprah’s show. Large support for his campaign started on YouTube and Reddit.

Zach’s page on Oprah’s contest web site.

Spread

  • Phrases said in the video (and Zach himself) became memetic on 4chan , especially the phrases “the sexiest of the palsies” and “no Atlantis is too underwater or fictional!”
  • Zach answers questions for Reddit on June 23rd.
  • On July 12th Reddit posts about making Zach a daily show correspondent.

Controversy

For a while the campaign was successful, but Zach lost his lead in what people accuse is a fix by the site or Oprah herself.
(HuffingtonPost)
This cheating caused /b/ to launch Operation SyPhyllis.

Geekosystem publishes an article about 4chan users claiming to have used a greasemonkey script to rig the votes.

Voting ending July 3rd with Zach leading at 9,161,042 votes. On July 9th the votes were published with Zach in the 7th position with 3,484,018 votes. (Reddit)

Afterward the contest was moved on to it’s own reality show, with Zach as one of the contestants.

Zach Wins

On 2/25/2011 Zach won his own travel show with the Oprah network. (Urlesque)

Search

Fire Up the Quattro / Gene Hunt

0
0

About

“Fire up the Quattro (It’s Time for Change)” is a political slogan adopted by the British Conservatives during the UK’s 2010 general elections, in reference to the signature line frequently uttered by the main character Gene Hunt in BBC’s popular TV series Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes.

Origin

The phrase was originally introduced to the British audiences through BBC’s sci-fi police drama series Ashes to Ashes in 2008. The show is centered around Gene Hunt, the foul-mouthed, chain-smoking chief police who often says “fire up the Quattro” as a go-signal, in referring to his red 1983 Audi sedan:

As the series grew quite popular, Gene Hunt’s catchphrase took on a slightly different meaning outside the show. According to TVTropes wiki, “Fire up the Quattro” has been used by the viewers poke fun at male chauvinists in general, reflecting Hunt’s character which as been described as “politically incorrect” and “arrogant.”


“‘Fire up the Quattro’ has mutated. It’s used to compare male chauvinists to Gene Hunt – and not as a compliment.”

Photoshopped Poster

During the UK’s general elections in 2010, a promotional poster of Gene Hunt (played by British actor Philip Glenister) sitting on the hood of an Audi Quattro was shopped with the face of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, along with the slogan “Don’t let him take Britain back to the 1980s”. This iteration was created and posted online by a 24 year old Labour party activist Jacob Quagliozzi.



But Quagliozzi’s attempt at comparing Gene Hunt to David Cameron backfired, when the Conservatives took the image and changed the slogan to Hunt’s famous quote, “Fire up the Quattro.” With Labour’s new counter-advert, Quagliozzi had unintentionally designed a image macro template for the Tories and Gene Hunt fans to easily add their own comments.



Spread


“Fire up the Quattro” is an example of how a meme develops offline with the help of traditional mass media, a popular TV character, and a misguided attempt at co-opting pop culture into a political slogan.

Derivatives








Airbrushed for Change

0
0

About

Airbrushed for Change is a name commonly associated with a series of alterations made to various Conservative party election posters during the 2010 British general election.

Background

The campaign consisted of several different posters, of which three have been exploited to some extent. Many exploits include changing the text and images of the posters, typically to berate the policies of the Conservative party and several of its members and supporters, several of whom are considered to be overly posh and “toff”-like. They additionally played on other minor memes that appeared during the general election, including “I agree with Nick”, “Bigotgate” and the tax-evading scandal of main Conservative donor, Lord Ashcroft.

The first and most well known originated from a vandalised billboard in Hereford, which had painted over Cameron so that he resembled Elvis Presley, altering the text to read “We can’t go on like this. With suspicious minds.” Several other billboards were also vandalised, many of which have been collected on the Vandalised Conservative Billboards Facebook group.

Macros and Generators

Online generators and collections of manipulations where made, most prominently MyDavidCameron.com and Andy Barefoot’s poster creator. Several news outlets caught on to the manipulations happening online including The Guardian, The Independent, The Mirror and The Daily Mail.

This meme is unlikely to spread further now that the election has finished – resulting in the election of David Cameron as prime minister in the first British coalition government since World War II (with the Liberal Democrats, a point that has also been played upon) – however there are still some occasional additions being made, usually satirical takes on current events in the new Conservative government.

Commonly manipulated posters

The first poster released (“We can’t go on like this”) consisted of a large image of party leader David Cameron in serious, yet casual attire. The poster was criticised by the media and then-prime minister Gordon Brown for being photomanipulated to make Cameron look younger and cleaner – during one of the three leadership debates, Brown was quoted as saying to Cameron “You can airbrush your face, but you can’t airbrush your policies”. This poster is by far the most replicated and vandalised.

The second poster (“The Tory tombstone”) is of a large tombstone, bemoaning the planned inheritance tax increase by the opposition Labour party, which was advertised as a “Death Tax” by the Conservatives.

The third poster (“I’ve never voted Tory before”) is the most varied of the four poster campaigns. The posters consist of images of normal members of the public, along with a quotation stating that they have never voted for the Conservative party before, however plan to at the upcoming election, usually citing a specific policy from the party. This has also been widely exploited.

The fourth image (“Gordon Brown”) is the only poster that directly attacks another party, in this case the then-incumbent Labour Party and it’s leader, Gordon Brown. The poster features Brown smiling – an expression often belittled as looking unnatural due to Brown’s stereotypically sullen manner – with a quotation typically to do with how the economy, poverty and unemployment have worsened under the previous 13 years under a Labour government. This poster – unlike the previous three – have not been widely manipulated, however have come under criticism for being inaccurate and misleading.

The fifth image (“Benefits”) was released relatively late in the election campaign (up to a week before the election itself) and thus has not seen the same spread as the first three posters did.

Annoying Facebook Girl

Lucky Lucky

0
0

About

Lucky Lucky / “I’m so Lucky Lucky” is a series of animated videos depicting an anthromorphic character shaking its hip and swaying arms side to side to the song “Lucky” by the Swedish teenage pop duo Lucky Twice. Similar to other animated dance memes, “Lucky Lucky” videos gained a lot of attention on YouTube for its cute dance routine and the catchy pop melodies.

Origin

“Lucky” is a dance pop single by the Swedish teenage duo Lucky Twice. Upon its release in July 2006, the song was positively received across Europe, reaching #1 in the Spanish singles chart and Top 50 in Denmark (# 5), France (# 8), Finland (# 17), Germany (# 41), Austria (# 42) and Sweden {# 43).

On February 20th, 2010, YouTuber BingoKitteh posted a late happy Valentine’s Day video which shows her fursona (a character or identity assumed by a person or player normally associated with the furry fandom) “Bingo” shaking its hip side to side to the song “Lucky” with a scrolling message “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

Spread

In the month following the upload of “Lucky Lucky” video by BingoKitteh in February 2010, many other Youtubers created their own versions of Lucky Lucky video without the text “Happy Valentine’s Day!” in the original video with their own fursona characters. The meme is mostly known for Spottedfire25’s Lucky Lucky, video which has 20,000+ views, more than the original Lucky Lucky video by BingoKitteh which had 6,000+ views. Since the upload of the original video, the series consists of 50+ video responses.

Derivatives


F*ck Yo Couch

0
0

About

F*ck Yo Couch is a popular catchphrase used to convey complete irreverence for another person, similar to the conversational usage of “F*ck You.”

Origin

The phrase was first uttered by the comedian Dave Chappelle playing as the character of Rick James, who shows complete disrespect to the party hosts by soiling their white leather couch with his boots. The original sketch aired February 11th, 2004 on Chappelle’s Show. The sketch, entitled “Rick James: Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories”, was co-written by Dave Chappelle and Charlie Murphy, who plays himself in the sketch.

Spread

The phrase was added to Urban Dictionary in Fall 2004, Defining it as:

1. More disrespectful than ‘fuck you’ because it means disrespect to you, your property, and your crib.
2. Can simply mean that you don’t give a damn about someones couch.

The phrase began to trend in the summer of 2005, more than a year after the sketch originally aired.

In January of 2007, DJSuckapunch uploaded the first remix to YouTube, which currently has over four million views.

The F*cking of the Couches

Shortly after the phrase gained popularity, people began uploading videos and images of themselves demolishing their couches under the name “F*ck Yo Couch” or “F*ck Your Couch.” The most common method appeared to be setting them on fire, though other methods included throwing them off of balconies, running them over, and laying waste to them with assorted melee weapons.

In Popular Culture

In October of 2007, the line was referenced on the show the Boondocks during the episode Stinkmeaner Strikes back. One of the main characters, Tom, becomes possessed by the ghost of Colonel H. Stinkmeaner, who was killed in the first season. During the middle of a courtroom hearing, he is overtaken by Stinkmeaner’s ghost and jumps on top of a table, kicking his legs and shouting “F*ck your court, nigga! F*ck your court!”

In 2009, the clip was remixed for the song “Fuck Yo Couch” by Bailey.

The line was also mentioned in North Carolina rap group Little Brother’s “Say it Again”.

When clothes fit strange
I’m playin’ Rick James
“Fuck yo’ couch nigga!”
I’m comin’ out with a bang

In June of 2010, the line was mentioned again in Eminem’s “Session One” featuring Slaughterhouse.

I pull it out and flip your partner upside-down like ya’ll are a couple 69ing
It’s like Rick James is shooting up your house, nigga….fuck your couch nigga!

Derivatives

Baby edition (August 2007) 293,000+ views

Tom Cruise on Oprah (June 2008) 112,000+ views

While I Play Unfitting Music (June 2008) 54,000+ views

Furry edition (July 2008) 9000+ views

Sparta remix (January 2009) 14,000+ views

2204355 (Coxinha Roll)

0
0

About

2204355 is an example of a “specific number ID meme.” These tend to be self-reinforcing, as it is created by people searching for the number assigned to the image or .gif.

The animation that goes by 2204355 is also known by the names “Awesome Rainbow Chicken Dance” and Coxinha Roll. It consists of a specific number used as a unique identifier, and this low-resolution flash animation of a man dancing while eating two pieces of fried chicken, accompanied by a 80’s video-game style background music and colorful blinking lights.

“Coxinha,” in Portuguese, means thighs, as in the chicken thighs the man is eating.

As a bait-and-switch.

On 4chan, people would trick each other into typing “2204355” into Google search and clicking “I’m feeling lucky,” leading to the flash animation. This happens because the name of the file on the server is “2204355.swf”. This sort of “bait and switch” utilizing Google Search forces the content to trend.

Origin

The video itself is comprised of two main elements: the dancing chicken-eating man and the background audio.

The dancing man came from a Kentucky Fried Chicken ad campaign which aired in 2009:

The audio is a remix of the theme song from the late 1980’s television show ALF by chiptune artist Zalza, also known as Alessandro Bulér from Sweden. He commented on the video on his Last.fm page. He had the following to say about the song:

I’m afraid that I don’t recall the exact year/date when it was made but I remember I’ve just joined a Chipgroup called Tequila (TQL) when I composed that one. Must have been year 1999 or 2000.

[It was uploaded in 2004 to] Modarchive, Though [when he had first composed it,] it was mostly spread via IRC channel #trax #tql on the network IRCNET that I remember.

It has also been used as background music for a cracktro/keygen “Warhammer”.

The original flash loop was posted to Pown.it on January 14th, 2010. It was created by a user named w33n.

The loop became associated with 2204355 in March 2010 when the .swf file was uploaded to Imageshack. In July 2010, the imageshack uploader created a Facebook fan page to document their original upload.

Google Insights

Significant Google search data began on June 26th, 2010

Further spread

On June 28th, 2010, Reddit user MaximumInteresting created the thread Go to Google, type in 2204355 and click I’m feeling lucky. Just do it reaching the Reddit front page with 282,677 readers, 977 points (59% like it) 3,080 up votes 2,103 down votes within the first 24 hours.

Just as the Reddit thread peaked, it was carried to Buzzfeed by Reddit Top Links.

Still within the same day, it was also mentioned in Happy Rainbow Chicken Dance and How To: see the awesome rainbow chicken dance.

Time Magazine’s newsfeed covered the phenomenon on that day as well.

Nope.avi

0
0

About

Nope.avi is a video clip of a BLU Engineer from Team Fortress 2 saying “nope.” Because of its comically abrupt nature, the clip is most often used as a negative response or a curt dismissal in comment threads and discussion forums.

Origin

Nope.avi was originally created and uploaded by YouTuber Jimbomcb1 on January 11th, 2010, using Valve’s Source Filmmaker software. The clip begins in the Gravel Pit with a BLU Engineer character approaching the screen, who suddenly stops and utters the phrase “nope” before walking away.



The embed form of Nope.avi was quickly adopted by TF2 fans who frequent Steam Users’ Forums2 to tell someone “no” in a rude manner, oftentimes for comedic effect. According to Team Fortress Wiki:

nope.avi is frequently used in conversations as a “humorous” negative response. Instead of replying no, instead the person may post a link to the video or type “nope.avi”.

Spread



Since its rise to popularity on TF2-related discussion forums, usage of Nope.avi has been seen elsewhere on the web, such as Halolz3, Reddit4, Bungie5, Democratic Underground6 and GameSpot7 forums among others.

Usage

While the video embed is the most common form of delivery, some users have opted for the simple text version “nope.avi”, an image version (nope.jpg) or a hyperlink to the video or audio file (nope.mp3).

User #1: Are highlander servers a myth, or do they actually exist? I’ve been searching for awhile and I thought it would becool to you know actually play on one. Any IPs I should know of?

User #2: Nope.avi

Notable Examples



YouTube Derivatives

On YouTube, there are several derivative versions of nope.avi, using other TF2 characters uttering a phrase before a drastic physical transformation takes place.

  • Yeah.avi (Uploaded on January 12th, 2010 / +395,000 views)
  • Naa.avi (Uploaded on January 18th, 2010 / +87,000 views)
  • Nooooo.mp4 (Uploaded onJanuary 18th, 2010 / +98,000 views)

External References

1 YouTube – Nope.avi / Posted on 1-11-2010

2 Steam Users’ Forums – TF2 bizarre character mythos / Posted on 5-5-2010

3 Halolz – [VIDEO] Nope.avi / Posted on 6-21-2010

4 Reddit – No: WTF / Posted on 7-10-2010

5 Bungie Forum – Off Topic: The Flood: What does nope.avi mean? / Posted on 1-24-2011

6 Democratic Underground – Nope.avi / Posted on 4-18-2011

7 GameSpot Forum – I Have New Information About the Potato Hat / Posted on 4-6-2011

Jesus is a Jerk

0
0

About

Jesus is a Jerk (also known as “Jesus is a Dick” or “Asshole Jesus”) is a set of image exploitables showing Jesus by average people doing everyday tasks. Hilarity ensues as it often involves funny and often vulgar text is added.



Origin

The original images with the caption “With You Always” were illustrated as a series titled " Jesus: With You Always" in 1987 by the Christian artist Larry Van Pelt who resides in Niceville, Flordia. On his website, he explains:

The enclosed images are from 11×14 pencil drawings that are the result of an undertaking that began when I was 50 years old. I was awakened in the middle of the night with a clear, vivid impression that the Lord wanted me to do some special drawings — drawings depicting ordinary people in their everyday environment . . . . with one important addition: the presence of Jesus Christ and His involvement in those routine activities.




Larry Van Pelt



Spread



Although it is unclear exactly when or where the earliest parodies of Pelt’s artworks were uploaded, but keyword search trend for the irreverent drawings of Jesus began in 2004 under the name “Asshole Jesus.” According to Google Insights graph, it wasn’t until late 2009 when the image series became associated with phrases like “Jesus is a Jerk” and “Jesus is a D*ck.”

Related Threads

- Strange Beaver’s Meme of the Week was posted in May 2010.
- Fubar.com posted an image gallery in September 2010.
- Jesus is a Jerk Single Topic Tumblr was launched in September 2010.
- F Yeah Asshole Jesus Blog was launched in September 2010.
- I Was F’d Up Blog posted a compilation article in October 2010.

Griefing

0
0

About

Griefing is the act of intentionally causing distress to other players in an online game and the tactics used to cause grief vary depending on which game is being played. Griefers sometimes record their victim’s reactions and upload the videos onto YouTube. (See also: Trolling, Pools Closed, Ralph Pootawn)

History

Griefing has existed since the days of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) in the late 1980s and early 90s. In 1991, a notable MUD griefing event occurred in the LambaMOO game community, which was caused by a character named Mr. Bungle. According to Wikipedia[5], Mr. Bungle griefed the community by using a subprogram to commit “cyberrape”:

The “cyberrape” itself was performed by a player named Mr. Bungle. The user behind this avatar ran a “voodoo doll” subprogram that allowed him to make actions that were falsely attributed to other characters in the virtual community. These actions, which included describing sexual acts that characters performed on each other, went far beyond the community norms to that point and continued for several hours. They were interpreted as sexual violation of the avatars who were made to act sexually, and incited outrage among the LambdaMOO users, raising questions about the boundaries between real-life and virtual reality, and how LambdaMOO should be governed.

The Griefer

The earliest known use of the word “griefer” comes from a USENET[1] group discussion about the game Ultima Online from August 14th, 2000. Ultima Online, one of the earliest massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), holds the Guiness World Record for “First MMORPG to Reach 100,000 Players”. The first Urban Dictionary[11] definition was submitted on May 23rd, 2003:



griefer: In online gaming, someone who purposely seeks to annoy the other players, especially his own teammates. Usually a griefer is someone who is not good at the game, has a poor internet connection and wants to vent frustration. There are articles related to griefers and griefing on the Minecraft Wiki[6], TF2 Wiki[7], and the Second Life Wiki.[8]

Types of Griefing

There are several types of griefing, many of which are only effective in specific video games.

  • Spamming / Flooding: this method involves flooding in-game chat areas with massive amounts of text to make it difficult for other players to communicate. Some games have audio chat as well, and spammers can blast annoying sounds, or simply yell into the mic. These methods are typically circumvented by using ‘mute’ options.
  • Blocking: some games have use collision detection that prevents players from being able to run through each other. This allows griefers to block other players from entering certain areas, or boxing in players to keep them from leaving, This has famously been used in the Habbo Hotel raids.
  • Training: triggering monsters for the sole purpose of bringing them to other players to kill them (see Leeroy Jenkins).
  • Camping: In games that allow player versus player (PvP) combat, a common practice to kill a player repeatedly by waiting for them to resurrect by their corpse, or by a spawn point.
  • Team Killing: intentionally killing members of your own team. This tactic is most common in first-person shooters with friendly fire turned on.
  • Kill Stealing: the practice of repeatedly killing enemies that another player is attempting to kill themselves. This is most common in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft.
  • Destruction: destroying work created by other players. This is a common form of griefing in Minecraft.

Griefing Clans

The YouTube[2] channel FFGriefers posts videos of their Minecraft griefing exploits. Another example of a griefing group is the so called: “Team Avolition”. This group seems most active in minecraft, but has also uploaded several griefing videos from: Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, etc.Team Roomba has posted several popular griefing videos on their YouTube[9] channel, the most notable being their Team Fortress 2 videos. The Gorons are a griefing group that has posted several videos to YouTube[10] from both Garry’s Mod and Team Fortress 2. The gaming organization myg0t[3] was created for the sole purpose of griefing and hacking online games for the amusement of the group’s members.

Notable Examples



Search Interest



External References

[1] Google Groups – rec.games.computer.ultima.online

[2] YouTube – FFGriefers

[3]myg0t

[4]Griefer Madness

[5] Wikipedia – A Rape in Cyberspace

[6] Minecraft Wiki – Griefing

[7] TF2 Wiki – Griefing

[8] Second Life Wiki – Griefer

[9] YouTube – TEAMROOMBA

[10] YouTube – GoronCityEnterprises

[11] Urban Dictionary – griefer

[12] Team Avolition homepage – Griefing Group

Vengeance Dad

0
0

About

Vengeance Dad is an image macro series based on a digitally composited family photograph of a balding father on the right side and presumably the mother and two children on the left side. In similar style to PTSD Clarinet Kid, Vengeance Dad images are captioned with first-person style confessions as if he is recounting a terrible event that happened to his family to his own fault or intent.

Origin

The photo surfaced on 4chan’s /b/, on Thursday, July 1st, 2010, with a post asking 4chaners to caption the image. The original source photograph was posted on the single topic blog Awkward Family Photos on June 18th, 2010.



The image was likely intended to be a memorable family photo, yet the strange partition of the father figure from the rest of family members implies sad things have happened. The phrases typically consist of him killing his family or him going psycho and having regrets as to what his family witnessed him do.

Notable Examples



Double Rainbow

0
0

“Double Rainbow” or “Giant Double Rainbow” is the common name of a viral video uploaded by YouTube user Hungrybear9562 where he declares his awe and wonder for a rare “double rainbow.” He eventually starts to cry because he is so struck by its radiance and vividness.

A Brief History of Hungrybear9562

Paul Vasquez, aka Hungrybear9562, aka Yosemitebear, aka Bear, was a firefighter in LA, but then moved to Yosemite National Park in 1985 at the age of 22 years old. Vasquez married and had two children. Although they got divorced about 15 years ago, he is able to see his kids often because they still live near by with their mother. Bear worked in Yosemite from 1985 to 1994. He purchased land near Yosemite in 1988 and built a farm. Bear took up trucking from 1994 to 2004, but, because of his obesity, he was forced to end trucking. To combat his health problems, he took up cagefighting.

Today, Bear lives on the same land plot near Yosemite. He actively participates in the Indian ceremonial culture with his kids, girlfriend, and ex-wife. People ask to visit him on his from multiple times a week from countries around the globe, even before his rise into fame. To read additional information on Bear, click here.

The “Double Rainbow”

The video “Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10” was uploaded to Youtube.com on January 8, 2010, by user Hungrybear9562. The video sat dormant in obscurity and anonymity for months. On July 3, Jimmy Kimmel posted a tweet that linked Twitter users to the video . A little over an hour later, Bill Simmons retweeted the previous tweet on his own board.

On July 4, a short article was posted on The Huffington Post promoting the video. It can be seen here.

On July 5, the Youtube.com user RayWilliamJohnson posted a video that highlighted the Double Rainbow video.

The Know Your Meme Interview

On July 7th, Internet Scientist Elspeth Jane interviewed HungryBear.

Elspeth: Double Rainbows don’t happen every day- is this the first time you’ve caught one on film?

HungryBear: I have lots of rainbow vid on my You Tube page, they come to my
front door on a regular basis.

Elspeth: What type of camera are you using?

HungryBear: A Sony DSC f 828

Elspeth: When was the video taken?

HungryBear: January 8th, 2010

Elspeth: You are in incredibly high spirits during the video- are you usually like that? If so, any advice for us on how to always be that happy and in awe of nature?

HungryBear: The rainbow was the Universe or Spirit flowing through me, the
reaction you heard was how I reacted to seeing the Holy Ghost, kind
of like Moses seeing the burning bush in the 10 commandments.

Elspeth: There’s a small noise in the background that sounds like a windchime. What is it?

HungryBear: I have lots of wind chimes in my front yard, it’s windy and I have
a great view, they go together.

Elspeth: What does your Youtube name mean?

HungryBear: The Yosemite people are the Bear clan, I married into them 25 years
ago and I look like a bear, there is more to it of course.

Elspeth: Can we find you anywhere else online?

HungryBear: http://yosemitedigitalphoto.smugmug.com/
http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/yosemitebear/

Elspeth: What do you think of the attention your video is receiving? Do you like it?

HungryBear: I’m not surprised by the attention, I always knew someday I was
going to go viral, I knew when I shot the vid that it was special, it
was a reaction to the Holy Spirit and people would react to my
reaction, it’s as expected. Spirit is speaking through me, people are
connecting to Spirit through me, they have a sense of recognition of
the power of the Universe. I love it!

Elspeth: Thanks so much!!

Furthermore

On July 8th, in interview with Shira Lazar of CBS News, Vasquez (Hungrybear9562), comments on his video:

What exactly were you shooting on that day?

“That day I was finishing a note to a friend telling her I was like Noah because I’m building what seems to be like an arc here. I have greenhouses and gardens and fern trees and lots of animals here. Right after finishing that email, I look out there and the colors. I walked out with my camera. What you see in the video is what I experienced. That rainbow lasted over an hour. My camera only captured about 40 percent of the color. It was a lot brighter than you see”.

You seemed pretty excited about this rainbow…

“Because you could actually feel the rays down from the sun but it was rainbow rays. You can’t describe it. It was so powerful that it knocked me down”.

The rainbow rays knocked you down?

“You couldn’t see me on the ground, but at one point I had been knocked on the ground. But the rainbow was a double rainbow and then it turned into a triple rainbow. You can’t see it on my camera but the whole thing was filled in with color. It was a giant disc of color. It looked like a giant eye looking at me”.

Is that common to be knocked down by rainbows?

“I don’t think it’s common, but it happened. It was pretty amazing!”

Full interview here

Yosemitebear on Jimmy Kimmel

On July 22, Jimmy Kimmel’s official YouTube channel JimmyKimmelLive displayed Bear in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

As of July 31, 4:26 P.M. CST, the video has 8,445,058 views on YouTube alone.

On July 6, the user schmoyoho (popular for “Auto-Tune the News”) created an Auto-Tuned version of this video.

The song can be purchased here. Proceeds go to Yosemitebear and Auto-Tune the News.

If you feel like being cheap and unsupportive, the song can be downloaded here. Remember, you are stealing.

Other videos and responses have been popping into the spotlight since the video became popular.

A remix involving Kermit the Frog singing “Rainbow Connection” called “The Double Rainbow Connection” was made by voice actor James Urbaniak, who plays Dr. Venture on Adult Swim’s The Venture Bros. (see also: James Urbaniak’s Livejournal.

The Double Rainbow Connection (Remix) by gdelahaye

Double Rainbow (deadmau5 modular mayhem mix) by fuckmylife

Double Rainbow by cliff_huxtable

Mike Laurie – Double Complete Rainbow by mikelaurie

Even Cartoon Network picked up on the meme.


Paul The Octopus

0
0

About

Paul is an octopus that lives at the Aquarium Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany, and was extremely successful in predicting the outcomes of Germany’s 2010 World Cup matches.

Paul was presented with two boxes containing food. One box would be marked with the German flag, and the other was marked with their opponent for the next match. Paul has correctly predicted the winner of every German World Cup 2010 match.

On October 26th, 2010, Paul died in his sleep due to natural causes. According to a report from the Press Association, Paul’s remains will be cremated.

Spread

As an offbeat news item during the 2010 World Cup, knowledge of Paul was spread primarily in a top-down fashion from news-media to viewers. But as a topical story, people across the globe took to photoshopping the cephalopod and created fan pages.

  • Paul the Octopus hates symmetry on BuzzFeed.

Search

Struttin' (That Ass)

0
0

Origin

On June 18th, 2010, “Struttin’” was uploaded to YouTube by user Schmoove2k6, showing an elderly man interrupting a news report.
From what is said, it sounds as though the report is from Huntsville, Alabama. The man complains about walking, and “struttin’ that ass.” As of October, 2010, the video has over one million views.

Judging from the mention of Huntsville in the video, and the number 19 on the reporter’s microphone, it appears that the clip originated on local news station WHNT 19. It’s not clear when the video was recorded. Judging from the appearance of the automobiles in the background it looks to be from the mid 1990’s. The identities of the reporter and the older gentleman are unknown.

Spread

On July 3rd, 2010: TabloidProdigy embedded the video in CONFUCIUS OF THE TRAILER SAYS ‘YOU WON’T BE STRUTTIN’ THAT ASS’.

This was then re-blogged by Current TV later that day as Confucius says ‘you won’t be struttin’ that ass’

On July 5th, a copy of the video was embedded on The Rundown.

On July 6th, the video was featured on popular blog, Dlisted: Open Post: Hosted By An Ass Struttin’ Hater, and on InternetToday.

Also on July 6th, a version of the video uploaded to eBaum’s World was featured on the Tosh.0 blog with the headline Reporter Gets Interrupted By Crazy Man of the Day.

On July 8th, 2010, the video was added to Gawker.TV and then covered by video blogger Ray William Johnson:

RWJ: “STRUT THAT ASS!”

Derivatives

The video has also been made into a few remixes:

Struttin’ Remix

Struttin’ that Ass Remix – Dirty South Verison

Struttin’dat ass goes shoppin’ for a mercedes

X Shreds

0
0

About

An “X Shreds” video takes footage from musician’s performance, and dubs new audio in sync with lip and instrument movements to create a hilarious remix. Solo and band acts such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Van Halen, Kiss, and most notably Creed (see the Creed Shreds section) have been subjected to this new video phenomena.

Origin

The first videos seemed to have surfaced around 2007 when YouTube user StSanders (real name – Santeri Ojala) from Finland used a few live performances from notable musical acts and after stripping the original audio from the footage, he re-dubbed the audio with his own instruments.

Below is a clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live of Ojala creating one of these videos using a live video performance of Guns N Roses guitarist Slash in action (Slash happens to be there as a bonus):

StSanders has since created a number of these videos, ranging from Yngwie Malmsteen and Slash to Carlos Santana and Angus Young. All of these different creations can be viewed on his new webpage at this link.

Below is what is considered one of his best creations using the music video from Kiss’s “I Was Made for Loving You.” The video has received over a million hits since it’s debut in 2008 and is still receiving positive acclaim:

Formula For Success

The two foundational elements of making a “shred” video is based on how well an electric guitarist “shreds” on the guitar they are using during the performance and on the vocal style/ability of the vocalists involved. For those unfamiliar with “shredding” in guitar terms, you can check out this Wikipedia link to get you up to speed. Basically, the more a guitarist “shreds” or the more unique and/or incoherent the vocalists are, the more lulz a video potentially has.

One other common element found in the creations of StSanders and other “video shredders” is the video frame visual element. In other words, if an instrument is not shown in the current frame, it is typically not heard, as if it does not exist outside of the visual context of the viewer. This element creates an awkwardness with the performance, making the video seem empty or lacking substance, which is the general idea. If you couple this element with the abruptness of having a random drum solo occur in certain parts of the video (when the drums and drummer are shown in the videos), then you have a completely different but amusing experience that deviates from what the musical artists originally intended, resulting in an unexpected lulzy moment.

Creed Shreds

Back in October 2007, YouTube user Spiritswitchboard (SWB) uploaded his attempt at creating a “video shred” by using a live performance of Creed during one of their many earlier recorded performances. SWB titled the creation “Creed Shreds” and due to its overwhelming popularity (mostly among anti-Creed people, which is argued to be in the hundreds of thousands), SWB created a total of five of these videos. Below are four of the five videos in the series:

Original “Creed Shreds” video:

Creed is back for round 2 (Creed Shreds II):

Creed plays at the Olympics (Creed Shreds III – You S**t Here with Me)

Creed re-unites and lives to shred again (Creed Shreds IV – A Thousand Yasseahs!)

Other notable works

Thanks to StSanders and SWB, others were inspired to create other video productions of live performances all over, including this video from Yo-Yo Ma’s performance at the inauguration of United States President Barack Obama in February 2009:

Here’s another video made by YouTube user thisnextsongiscalled which shows metal group Slipknot performing during their “Iowa World Tour” back in 2002. The original video was taken off their “Disasterpieces” DVD:

Google Insights

As mentioned earlier, the original videos did not see an increase in internet views until later on in 2008 when other variations (Creed Shreds II, for instance) started to appear. It is believed that more and more of these videos will appear as time moves on and more lulz will be had at the expense of the rich and famous bands of yesterday, today, and the future.

Relevant Links

A “Shreds” article by Vince of UpRoxx

“Yasseah” gifts from Zazzle.com

StSander’s Web page

Stu Making Chocolate Pudding At 4 AM

0
0



About

Stu Making Chocolate Pudding At 4 A.M. is a Youtube Poop series based on a scene from the 1990s children’s show Rugrats in which the mom character DiDi finds out her husband Stu Pickles is up at 4 a.m. to make chocolate pudding for his demanding niece Angelica, only to find out she is no longer hungry. Since being uploaded onto YouTube in May 2010, Stu’s pessimistic response “because I’ve lost control of my life” heard in the video gradually became a popular source material for YouTube Poop remixes.

Origin

The scene originated from a Season 3 episode of the animated TV series Rugrats titled “Angelica Breaks a Leg.” The episode first aired on November 7th, 1993. The remix fad began on YouTube and the /v/ (videogames) board on 4chan years later in May 2010 and the original video clip was uploaded by YouTuber Lustikk on May 11th, 2010:



Didi: Stu, what are you doing?
Stu: Making chocolate pudding.
Didi: It’s four o’clock in the morning, why on earth are you making chocolate pudding?
Stu: …Because I’ve lost control of my life.


The earliest archived thread featuring the exploitable was posted via 4chan on May 16th, 2010:



Spread

The first response video titled “Stu Lights up the night at 4 in the morning” was uploaded by YouTuber Saucyluvschicken on May 23rd, 2010:



The popularity of Stu-related threads continued to grow on 4chan imageboards through the latter half of 2010, spawning a series of parody images on the site. Meanwhile, the original clip became used as a popular source material for YouTube Poop videos, spawning over one hundred derivative remixes and mash-up videos.

The Urban Dictionary entry for “Chocolate Pudding” was first submitted in October 2010:


If you make it at 4 in the morning, then you have lost control of your life.

There is a Facebook page[4] titled “Stu Making Chocolate Pudding at 4 AM” that has over 250 likes and the exploitable series began trending as a popular tag on Tumblr[5].

Notable Images



Notable Videos



External References

[1] YouTube – Stu making chocolate pudding at 4 am

[2] 4chanarchive – Stu on /v/

[3] YouTube – Video Responses: Stu making chocolate pudding at 4am

[4] Facebook – Stu Making Chocolate Pudding At 4 AM

[5] Tumblr – F Yeah Stu Pickles

Google Bombing

0
0

About

Google bombing is the practice of enhancing any website’s SEO profile by repeatedly inputting the keyword associated with the destination. With enough mass participation, Google bombing can bump the desired content to a higher page ranking in search results. This somewhat subversive practice can be employed for a variety of purposes: to drive traffic to a business, share political ideology, or even just for the lulz.

Origin

The first known Google Bomb was in 1999. When a user searched for the terms “more evil than Satan himself,” Microsoft came up as the top result. This was an immensely popular trick at the time, though the originator of this particular Google Bomb is not known.

September 2000 marked the first Google Bomb with a clear creator. The long-gone Hugedisk Men’s Magazine linked the text “dumb motherfucker” to a site selling George W. Bush merchandise. After a fair amount of publicity the George W. Bush-related merchandise site retained lawyers and sent a cease and desist letter to Hugedisk, thereby ending the phenomenon. The event was covered on Wired in January 2001.

The term “Google Bombing”

Adam Mathes is credited with coining Google Bombing when he used it in an April 2001 article with the online magazine uber.nu. In the article, Mathes details his connection of the search term “talentless hack” to his friend Andy Pressman’s website. He also recruited fellow webloggers to link to his friend’s page with the term. Despite that, Archimedes Plutonium is known to have used the phrase “search engine bombing” (and variants, including “searchengine bombing” and “searchenginebombed”) on Usenet as early as 1997.

The phrase Google Bombing was introduced to the New Oxford American Dictionary in May 2005.

Other successful examples of Google Bombing

The Google Bomb has also been used as a way of performing a ‘hit-and-run’ media attack on popular topics. Such attacks include Anthony Cox’s attack in 2003. He created a parody of the “404 – page not found” browser error message in response to the war in Iraq. The page was set up identical to a standard Internet Explorer 404 page but was titled “These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed.” This website could be found as one of the top hits on Google after the start of the war in Iraq.

Another successful Google Bomb would appear when a users would search for the term “worst band in the world.” From 2006-2008, Google would suggest the user to “See results for: Creed.” The creator of this Bomb is unknown. It was added to Digg in 2006 and covered on the LA Times blog in 2008.

4Chan targeted pop star Justin Bieber with a Google bomb in June 2010. On 4Chan’s /b/ message board, a 4Chan user said:

“Go to Google and search ‘Justin Bieber Syphilis’. Let’s get this to be No. 1 searched phrase on Google Trends. Use an autoclicker or macro if possible and get others involved. Unlike a death rumor, this will be hard for him to disprove.”

Justin Bieber did not have syphilis, but when “Justin Bieber Syphilis” made it to #1, the blogosphere began to buzz. It was covered by Gawker, Celebrity Smack, Trending Daily, and even the San Francisco Gate.

Other search engines

Other search engines use similar techniques to rank results, so Yahoo!, AltaVista, and HotBot are also affected by Google Bombs. According to the Wikipedia page on Google Bombing, a search for “miserable failure” or “failure” on 29 September 2006 brought up the official George W. Bush biography as the number one hit on Google, Yahoo! and MSN and number two hit on Ask.com. On 2 June 2005, Yooter reported that George Bush was ranked first for the keyword ‘miserable’, ‘failure’ and ‘miserable failure’ on both Google and Yahoo!, Google has since addressed this and disarmed the George Bush Google Bomb.

Viewing all 1410 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images