Origin

“Pretty cool guy” is a 4chan meme spawning late 2007. An Anon on /b/ made a thread with the image of Master Chief from the popular game Halo, saying…

“I think Halo is a pretty cool guy. eh kills aleins and doesn’t afraid of anything…”

…of which has so many grammar and spelling mistakes that Anon copy and pasted it all over the board, creating variation among variation of copypasta.

The thread has since been archived (Warning: NSFW)

The popular online web machinima “Arby ‘n’ the Chief” draws questions to the real origin. In Season 1, Episode 6, the meme was used.

Arby ‘n’ the Chief, Season 1 Episode 6

While the video was apparently uploaded October 12th, 2007, two months before the meme’s appearance on 4chan, the video shows gameplay of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which was released in the U.S. on March 9th, 2008. Gameplay of it was not possible at the time.

Further research says that the video’s actual release was March 14th, 2008 when one Googles it.

And even further research says that the creator himself, Digitalph33r, says it was released on March 14th, 2008

It’s safe to assume that the meme is from 4chan, and Youtube is somehow incorrect. The world may never know.

Usage

“I think X is a pretty cool { guy, girl }. {Eh, Seh} (verb) Y and doesn’t afraid of anything.”

Begin with “I think” with proper capitilization on the “I”. Refer to the character as a metonymy, for example, I’ll be using Light Yagami from the popular manga Death Note, although I’m using “Death Note”. Give your character proper capitalization. Next, put “is a pretty cool guy/girl” Then, refer to him/her as Eh, Seh, so on. Finally, make him/her do an action and end with “doesn’t afraid of anything.”

“I think Death Note is a pretty cool guy. Eh writes names of criminals killing them and doesn’t afraid of anything.”

Spread

Google insights shows interest starting in December 2007 and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

To this day, the meme is still used.

Examples

Because images of the meme are rare, here is a list found on Encyclopedia Dramatica of amusing examples.

• i think lesbians is a pretty cool guy. eh kisses girls and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think Youtube is a pretty cool guy. eh sucks viacoms dick and doesn’t afraid of anything

• i think star trek is a pretty cool guy. eh goes where no man has gone before and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think 3OH!3 is a pretty cool guy. eh is a vegetarian and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think existentialism is a pretty cool guy. eh isn’t related to marmalade or pickles and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think large hadron collider is a pretty cool guy. eh searches for higgs boson and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think left 4 dead is a pretty cool guy. eh eatin some zoey and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think candlejack is a pretty cool guy. eh kidna

• i think all the single ladies is a pretty cool guy. eh womanizes and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think txting is a pretty cool guy. eh kills the english language and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think sling blade is a pretty cool guy. eh kills doyle hargraves with a lawnmower blade and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think 4chan is a pretty cool guy. eh makes up this shitty meme and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think monk is a pretty cool guy. eh is a afraid of everything and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think za warudo is a pretty cool guy. eh stops time and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think triforce is a pretty cool guy. eh shots his sword at ganon and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think yes we can is a pretty cool guy. eh pwns america and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think watchmen is a pretty cool guy. eh lives on mars and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think cp is a pretty cool guy. eh gets pedos vannd and dusnt afrade of anything.

• i think mexico is a pretty cool guy. eh cuased rectal bleeding and doesn’t afraid of madagascar.

• i think girugamesh is a pretty cool guy. eh wears make up, says girugamesh and doesnt afraid of anything.

• i think holocaust is a pretty cool guy. eh kills jews and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think bleach is a pretty cool guy. eh has no character development and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think Hellsing is a pretty cool guy, eh has his 2 guns and shoots them and isn’t afraid of anything.

• i think jade goody is a pretty cool guy. eh dies of cancer and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think mah boi is a pretty cool guy. eh wonders what gannons up to and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think ghostbusters is a pretty cool guy. eh crosses streams and doesn’t afraid of no ghost.

• i think ED is a pretty cool guy, eh creates drama and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think star wars is a pretty cool guy, eh makes out with his sister and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think metroids is a pretty cool girl. esh kills random shit and doesnt afraid of anything.

• i think oxiclean is a pretty cool guy. eh sold crap and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think silence of the lambs is a pretty cool guy. eh rubs the lotion on it’s skin, or else it gets the hose again,and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think Grawp is pretty cool guy. eh moves wikipages and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think Pedobear is pretty cool guy. eh fucks loli and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think metal gear solid is a pretty cool guy. eh hides in cardboard box and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think courage the cowardly dog show is a pretty cool guy. eh is afraid of everything and doesn’t afraid of anything.

• i think AT&T is a pretty cool guy. eh blocks Anon and doesn’t afraid of anything.

About

Banhammer refers to the figurative banning tool used by web administrators and forum moderators to prohibit undesirable members from accessing the site, which is typically done by blocking individual IP addresses.

Origin

While the beginnings of banhammer may still be unclear, it was defined on Urban Dictionary as early as May 2003. The definition marks the term as used by moderators on the SomethingAwful forums.

Spread

December 2007 marked the launch of Banhammer.com, which at one point provided a link titled “Revenge,” which is now 404’d.

In the popular first-person shooter game Halo 3, there is a glitch that will enable a party host to pick up a gravity hammer that can kill several players at once from a distance.

In December 2009, the Banhammer.org forums were created, as a place where people could rage and troll without fear of banning.

Derivatives

The More You Know, the More You’ll MMO PSA (March 2010) 74,000+ views.

About

4chan (site domain: 4chan.org)^[1] is the most popular English-language imageboard community with over 700,000 posts per day made by roughly seven million daily visitors. The site consists of 56 topical imageboards that are sectioned into six major categories: Japanese Culture, Interests, Creative, Adult Content and Miscellnaeous and Others.

History

4chan.org^[2] was launched in late 2003 by Christopher Poole, a.k.a moot, who modeled the site after the popular Japanese image-board Futaba 2chan.

In the early stage of 4chan, the imageboards consisted of /a/ (anime), /b/ (random), /c/ (cute), /h/ (hentai) and /y/ (yaoi manga) boards. In 2004, 4chan went offline for several months before returning with a number of non-anime related boards including /k/ (weapons), /o/ (automobile) and /v/ (video games) boards. In 2008, the /jp/ board (Japan/General) was launched for Japanese culture topics not suitable under the /a/ (anime/manga) board, which was later renamed to Otaku Culture."

Features

Imageboards

Among the most popular imageboards are /v/ (videogames), /co/ (comics), /a/ (anime & manga) and /b/ (random)^[3] boards. Users generally submit image posts anonymously and as a result, the default username “Anonymous” has become closely associated with 4chan-related activism and subcultures, most notably the /b/ board.

Word Filters

4chan moderators are known for utilizing witty word-filters to censor terms or expressions that have become overused by general consensus of the imageboard community. The word-filters were mainly implemented in /b/ (random) board to curb cliches and forceful user behaviors, with the most notable example being the substitution of Duckroll for Rickroll, but they were later applied across other imageboards like /v/ (video games) and /k/ (weapons). In March 2007, all word filters were deactivated by the administrators but a few have been brought back for periods of times since then.

/b/ (random) board

4chan’s /b/ (random) board is by far the most popular imageboard with 30% of site traffic. Following the design of Futaba Channel’s Nijiura board, /b/ is most notorious for its “no rule” policy with exceptions on certain illegal content like child pornography and discussions of raids, as well as visitors of minor age. However, administrators of /b/ board may be also subject to the “no rule” policy from time to time.

Post Numbers

Each post on an imageboard is assigned a numeric sequence. Because of the high traffic volume and post rate of the site, certain post numbers became known as GET and were sought after by users as part of a forum game they played. A “GET” occurs when a post’s number ends in a special number, such as 12345678, 22222222, or every millionth post.

Highlights

Since its launch in October 2003, 4chan’s community has grown into one of the most influential memetic hubsites in the Western hemisphere and the /b/ (random) board in particular has been frequently cited as the site of origin for some of the most well-known Internet memes that emerged in the 2000s.

Internet Stars

4chan has been also attributed for the viral stardom of numerous YouTubers and other online personalities, most notably Chocolate Rain, Allison Harvard, Boxxy and Jessi Slaughter among others. Typically, the making of an Internet star begins with a 4chan poster urging others to swarm the target destination to increase its ranking and profile.

Anonymous

The website has been also cited in the news media as the birthplace of Anonymous, the online collective of hackers and activists who have gained public notoriety for its cyber-attacks on a wide range of religious, corporate and governmental institutions.

Pedobear

Due to 4chan’s anonymous nature and “no rules” policy in /b/ board, swapping of child pornography (CP) among some users increasingly became a concern within the community at large. In countering the influx of illegal content, some 4chan members began using a cartoon mascot of a bear to signal that illegal pornographic content has been posted by another user. Originally featured in a Japanese construction safety sign, the mascot was dubbed “Pedobear” and has since gained an iconic status across other parts of the Internet. Because of its situational usage, Pedobear has been also falsely equated to a pedophiliac bear or celebration of child pornography.

LOLcats

In 2005, threads featuring image macros of adorable cats known as LOLcats began to circulate on a number of 4chan imageboards. The eccentric craze around pictures of cats became a regular presence with the popularization of “Caturday,” a weekly event that involves posting pictures of cats relevant to each week’s theme on saturdays.

Studies

MIT Research Paper on 4chan & /b/

In May 2011, a group of scholars at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Southampton published a research paper titled “4chan and /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community”^[5] analyzing various environmental factors and user behaviors of the Anonymous community, particularly in the notorious /b/ board^[6].

Based on a dataset compiled over a span of two weeks (576,096 posts in 482,559 threads), the paper provides statistical insights on the average pace of site activities and common user habits like frequent archiving of /b/ content or practice of unicode (tri-force) as a status indicator or an “alternative credibility mechanism.” It also attributes the ephemeral nature of 4chan activities as a potential motivator for repeated user participation:

“One may think users would see no point to contributing if their actions will be removed within minutes. However, if /b/ users want to keep a thread from expiring within minutes, they need to keep conversation active. This ‘bump’ practice, combined with a norm of quick replies, may encourage community members to contribute content. This hypothesis was derived from our observations, and will need to be tested more rigorously.”

• The median life of a thread is just 3.9 minutes.The fastest thread to expire was gone in 28 seconds (i.e., a thread with no responses during a very high activity period); the longest-lived lasted 6.2 hours (i.e., a thread with frequent new posts to bump it).

• The median thread spends just 5 seconds on the first page over its entire lifetime..The fastest thread was pushed off the first page in less than one second (actually, 58 of them shared this dubious honor), and the most prominent thread spent 37 minutes on the first page cumulatively over its lifetime.

• Threads last the longest between 9am and 10am EST and expire fastest between 5pm and 7pm EST. High activity is sustained until 3 am or 4 am EST.

• The result suggests that, despite the not infrequent references to European and British users (e.g. “eurofags” and “britfags”), the demographics of /b/ are primarily North Americans that use the website after business or school hours.

DDOS Attacks

On November 13th, 2011, the official 4chan Twitter account announced that the site had been taken down by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

<!-- https://twitter.com/4chan/status/135770033094791169 -->

The following day, the technology blog Thinq_^[7] published an article about the attack and mentioned a rumor circulating on 4chan that the DDoS was being carried out by LulzSec.

A number of posts on the site allege that hacking group Lulzsec is responsible, but there’s nothing to back that up on of the group’s Twitter accounts or related news sites.

On November 15th, the Internet services company Netcraft^[8] published a blog article about the attack and moot announced on the official 4chan^[9] status page revealed that the site was still down due to a DDoS “consisting of a UDP flood on port 80.”

Traffic

4chan ranks in at #622 on Quantcast^[4].

Search Interest

Search queries for 4chan have increased steadily over the years that 4chan has been operational.

External References

About

TL;DR is internet slang commonly used in discussion forums as a shorthand response to previous posts that are deemed unnecessarily long and extensive; it stands for “Too Long, Didn’t Read.” Due to its indiscriminate usage by many, tl;dr is frequently considered as spam or meaningless replies by both those unaware of the term and those who are familiar with the meaning.

Unknown Origin

It’s not entirely clear where and when tl;dr first began, but the first Urban Dictionary¹ entry was submitted on January 15th, 2003:

“Too long, didn’t read.”

“OMG LOOK AT ME I AM THE MASTAR OF TEH INTARNET!!! ONE TIME I WAS AT THIS PLACE ON THIS WEBSITE AND IT WAS PORNOS WITH GIRLS NAKED1 SO IN CONCLUSION I RULE!”

“TLDR.”

Spread

“TLDR” has been adopted into common usage on discussion forums like General Mayhem, 4chan, SomethingAwful and FARK since at least 2003, with the earliest known instance dating back to a discussion thread² posted by GenMay user “waptang” on June 19th, 2003.

Another Urban Dictionary entry³ submitted on November 20th, 2003 was later chosen as UD’s Word of the Day on May 16th, 2005. The Google Insights graph for the term indicates a noticeable spike in search interest circa 2006.

The Wikipedia essay article⁴ for “tldr” was first submitted on September 18th, 2007, suggesting its widespread usage among Wikipedia editors. Reddit’s /tldr/ subsection⁵, a daily round-up of Reddit’s most notable threads, was launched by poweruser qgyh2 on November 14th, 2009.

Usage

Most of the time, tl;dr is used to call out another user on the length of their post. However, in cases of more courteous exchanges and serious discussions, tl;dr can be self-invoked by the original poster as a disclaimer to the readers. It is then paired with a brief summary of the longer original text.

Image macros of teal deers are sometimes used in place of “tl;dr”, due to it sounding close to “tee el dee are.”

Related Concept: RTFM

In communities where information is valued, tl;dr is often unwelcome, as it is antithetical to the more widely-accepted philosophies of RTFM (Read the Fucking Manual) and Lurk Moar.

External References

¹ Urban Dictionary Urban Dictionary:tldr / Posted on 1-15-2003

² General Mayhem – tl;dr – Genereal [M]ayhem / Posted on 7-19-2003

³ Urban Dictionary – Urban Dictionary: tl;dr / Posted on 11-20-2003

⁴ Wikipedia – Wikipedia: Too Long Didn’t Read / Submitted on 9-18-2007

⁵ Reddit – /tldr/ Too Long Didn’t Read / Launched on 11-14-2009

Overview

Internet Slang is as old as Internet itself and has spawned a huge amount of different ways of speaking, sub-languages, expressions and idioms that have got the most of their meaning on the Internet. Those different kinds of language can be either known as chatspeak, SMS speak or IM language. Appreciated by some, despised by others, they nevertheless have taken hold as a strong element pertaining to the web since their birth to these days.

Intentional Misspellings

The heart of Internet Slang is to be based on a modified version of our current alphabetical way of speaking. Because of space restriction existing since the dawn of Instant Messaging, SMS and services such as Twitter or because of a will to gain time at the expense of understanble grammar in sending a message, explaining why a big part of the web tends to hate the ones who use it, those kinds of misspellings became words on their own.

Phonetic Translation

Coming straight from SMS language, this is a way of replacing entire words or bits of words by their phonetic equivalent embodied into single letters or figures.

A few examples below :

2 => to
u => you
gr8 = great
4 => for
da => the
y => why

Many memes tend to reuse them on their own, as can be seen by examples such as In Ur base or LOLcats.

A Russian version from that type of language exists as well, and is called Padonkaffsky jargon

Disemvoweling

Disemvoweling is the way of removing all vowels from a token word. According to wikipedia, the name exists since 1990 and it works as follows :

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

would, after being disemvowelled, look like this:

Th qck brwn fx jmps vr th lzy dg

Disemvoweling is also abused in SMS/IM writings as the above picture shows.

Leetspeak

1337speak consists of replacing a letter by its closest figure’s look-alike, or by using various keyboard signs such as “+”, “(”, “[”, “/”, “_” and more to recreate that letter.

A more detailed explanation of that phenomenon can be read in the 1337speak article.
A Filipino equivalent has emerged in 2010 : Jejemon.

Letter repetition

More than a slang, it symbolizes a type of language, often pointed as being used by teenagers, consisting of the same letter in a word repeated several times for emphasis, like the “gurlllll” word in the picture below.

Derived from it, other phenomena took off such as !!!111oneeleven as an ironic way to replace an exclamation mark or the FUUUUUU slang to express great frustration, and coming directly from Rageguy.

Acronyms and Initialism

Acronyms or the art of creating a neology through the association of letters and initials between them exist on the Internet since the late 1980s.
Starting with LOL, from laughing out loud and used to convey great hilarity, hundreds of others have been made since then. Among them can be found : OMG, BRB, RTFM or also tl;dr.

Idioms

More than pieces of languages, Internet is also the cradle of many expressions and usages which complete meaning can only be acknowledge and understood because of or in relation to the Internet.
While some of them are used as synonymous of another word, the way Over 9000 can be viewed as a replacement in expressing lots or bucketload the same way win and fail are respectively meaning success and failure, others have their own meaning, such as DERP as a way to signify stupidity, or also Fag as a suffix which has a totally different meaning and doesn’t necessarily address homosexuals in a derogatory way.

About

“Teh” is a common typographical error of the word “the” which has become adopted as an intentional mis-spelling, sometimes as lolspeak. This has occurred as long as there have been QWERTY keyboards and typewriters.

Mutation

When “teh” precludes an adjective, it implies that the word is the ultimate specimen of whatever the quality is. For example, “teh suck” means “This sucks bad.”

References

Wiktionary mentions a similarity in usage to the Spanish word El.

Teh can be used in grammatically different ways than the word “the”, in a similar way to the Spanish word el. For example, “teh” can be applied to adjectives, whereas “the” cannot; “He is teh stupid.” is an acceptable sentence, whereas “He is the stupid.” is not.

UrbanDictionary contains a total of 63 entries for teh.

Examples

“Teh” is used so widely that it has even been used in some blog headlines, such as this one from Media Bistro

Gawker’s Jezebel has used “teh” in a headline as well.

Teh has been discussed on a variety of forums and message boards.

Including:

Linuxhomenetworking.com in 2002
Google Answers in 2003
Metafilter in 2004
arstechinica in 2004
Mustang forums in 2005
Snopes forums in 2006
Gamepro forums in 2007
xkcd forums in 2007
Spore forums in 2008

About

Push Button, Receive Bacon is a catchphrase & IRL prank often found in public restrooms under the graphic instruction for automatic hand dryers. While the original two-pane depicts a person pushing the button to release heat from the machine, the caption takes the meaning of red wavy stripes (shown above) as thick slices of bacon dispensed from a mysterious bacon box.

Origin

On September 7th, 2005, photographer Rick Lee posted a blog recounting how the phrase came to him years earlier; although even he is unsure if it spread from him, or if the phrase “push button receive bacon” might be a common conclusion many people might come to.

Quite a few years ago, when hand dryers stopped having English instructions and these little pictures made their debut, I was out on a photo shoot with friend and art director Dick Allowatt. We were washing our hands in a McDonald’s somewhere and I said to him “look at this… to me this looks like it says push button, receive bacon.” Well… we laughed and laughed all day about that. I thought it up all on my own but I have no idea really what year that was. When I put this post on my blog, a friend of mine said “did you get that idea from Charlie Cooper?” I said that I thought it up all on my own, but she said that she heard that Charlie said that. Well… I did a quick Google search and found that the phrase was all over the place. Apparently there was a punk band named Push Button Receive Bacon. Somebody had a CafePress site selling stuff with the phrase on it! Was I the first to say that? Did it spread virally from me? I have no idea. Perhaps I was the first but I doubt that it spread just from me… perhaps many people said it. No one will ever know, but it’s still funny.

Earliest Online Instance

An earlier blog post on all-encompassingly.com from August 14th, 2004 features an image of “push button recieve bacon” as found graffiti.

Bacon as Miscommunication

In 2007, Usability Works posted a blog on icons as a means of communicating information. Once the images are taken out of context, it is easy for a person to get confused about the meaning of the sign. If a person is seeing the image for the first time with no captions, they may misinterpret “heat” as “bacon.” It works the same way as re-captioning a photo: Once the original context is removed, it could mean anything.

Update (3/1/2011): Indie game developers Incredible Ape releases a voice-activated, scroll shooter arcade PewPewPewPewPewPewPewPewPew!

About

Pew Pew is an onomatopoeia commonly associated with the sound effect of laser-beam guns portrayed in popular sci-fi films, TV shows and videogames. In the realm of massively multi-player games, “pew pew” has become synonymous with the verb to own, a leetspeak term often used to indicate one’s absolute dominance over another player.

Origin

While the sound effect of laser-beam has been imitated by sci-fi movie fans for decades (most notably in Star Wars films), popular usage of “pew pew” in online conversations began to surge in mid-2005, around the same time when lolcat & lolspeak phenomena started gaining grounds on 4chan.

The earliest definition of the phrase “pew pew” appeared on Urban Dictionary in August 2005:

interj. 1. Used to imitate the sound made by firing a gun; specifically a laser gun (esp. a Stormtrooper rifle).

Spread & Usage

An alternative definition of “pew pew” (as it is used in the context of MMORPG chat) was submitted to Urban Dictionary on on May 28th, 2006:

1. Sound made by lasers, usually related to Star Wars.

EX: “wow those lasers sounded like pew pew on the surround sound”

2. Owning a person, usually related to World of Warcraft.

EX: “less QQ, more pew pew.”

Derivative: Less QQ, More Pew Pew

“Less QQ, More Pew Pew” is a popular catchphrase used in vein of “less talking, more walking”, often pointed towards incessant whiners on massive multi-player gaming platforms like World of Warcraft and EVE Online. In this context, “QQ” can be read as an emoticon indicating “sadness” due to its resemblance to a set of crying eyes, although its original meaning as defined in Urban Dictionary is considerably different.

A term directed at whiners to stop crying and start doing something. Derived from wow mage forums, which are notorious for housing cry babies.

The Videogame

On March 1st, 2011, Portland indie game developers Incredible Ape released a video clip demonstrating how to play their upcoming voice-activiated scroll shooting arcade game “PewPewPewPewPewPewPewPewPew”, which involves a team of two players using two microphones to control one jet-pack equipped shooting space-man. According to their website, PewPewPew will be available in XBOX Live Indie Games:

About

Garry’s Mod (also shortened as GMod) is an independent physics sandbox game, modified from the Source^[2] 3D game engine. The game does not have a set of rules or goals and is used to manipulate props from other Steam based games like Team Fortress 2 or Portal.

History

Garry’s Mod^[1] was originally released on December 24th, 2004.^[3] Created by Garry Newman^[4], the game was originally intended as a mod for Half-Life 2. On November 29th, 2006, Garry’s Mod was made available for download on Steam, allowing all Valve games to be used in Garry’s Mod.

The game has been continually updated since its release. On September 7th, 2010, a Toybox feature was released for the game, which automatically downloads third party content while you’re already in the game, making it much easier for users to add on the new content and eliminating the need for users to download from alternate websites.

Gameplay

In the game, users can build contraptions by connecting different models such as nails, pulleys, muscles, balloons, hoverballs and more in a number of ways. There are also face, eye, and finger posing interfaces for ragdolls built into the program by default, as well as with 3rd party plugins that allow for scene playback from different characters.

Reception

Many add-ons and tutorials are available on the official message board for the site, Facepunch Forums.^[5] There is also an unofficial download site, GarrysMod.org^[11], which hosts a collection of skins, builds, maps, and other addons for the game. Most of the fandom exists around YouTube creations. There is also a GMod Wiki^[12] which hosts a manual, tutorials for new players, and links to other sites to encourage player creations. The Wiki hosts a collection of links to GMod communities^[14], including over 40 forums, 4 download hubs, 5 news sites, and over 20 Roleplaying sites.

Garry’s Mod has sold more than 1.4 million copies since its release for sale in 2007, according to the record of sales history published by its creator Garry Newman in March 2012. PC Gamer commented that the enduring success of Garry’s Mod exemplifies the potential reward in continuous development of a title long time after its initial release.

Machinima

Using Garry’s Mod’s customizable functions and 3D computer graphics rending engines, many users have created original short films as well as re-creating segments from popular films and TV shows that came to be known as Machinima. Such videos are typically created with first-person games like Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead and produced by game fans who are sometimes referred to as “machinimists” or “machinimators.”

Related Memes

Dr. Hax

Dr. Hax is a character from the GMod Idiot Box YouTube series based on Half Life 2 characters. The videos are made by YouTuber DasBoSchitt.^[6] The channel was created on December 9th, 2006 and receives nearly 23,000 views a day. Dr Hax is based on Half Life 2’s Dr Breen having an inflated head. In the series, Dr. Hax character shouts “HAAAX” while telekinetically thrusting a computer monitor at his target. The act of pointing at a person and shouting “Hax!” evolved in to a popular catchphrase on its own.

Grabbin’ Pills

“Grabbin’ Pills” is a catchphrase commonly associated with the character Louis from Left 4 Dead. In the game, pain pills are an HP boosting item and when a character sees them, he or she exclaims “Pills here!” The catchphrase appears in GMod memes to reference Louis’ apparent constant craving for pills or “peels.”

Intelligent Heavy and Spyper

Intelligent Heavy and Spyper were both made by YouTuber minifett^[7], whose channel was created on February 3rd, 2008 and gets approximately 4500 views a day. Intelligent Heavy is a Heavy who indulges in his intelligence for answers to questions form the other classes, including his best friend Spyper, a hybrid Spy and Sniper. He is depicted with the BLU Spy’s head on the BLU Sniper’s body.

Vagineer

The Vagineer is a GMod character made by using the faceposer tool on a Team Fortress 2 Engineer class character. A Vagineer has reversed speech and growls. It can also remove and regrow its own limbs or spit acid at others. The character appears across several different YouTube series, in which he frequently harasses and eats other TF2 characters.

Painis Cupcake

Painis Cupcake (also known as Penis Cupcake) is a character by YouTuber RubberFruit^[8] based on the Soldier class from Team Fortress 2. The channel was created on October 28th, 2006 with over 19,500 views a day. The character introduces himself by saying “I am Painis Cupcake. I will eat you," made by a voice command in the game. In these videos, the character will introduce himself then proceed to fight and devour the target.

Wanna Dance?

Wanna Dance? is based on a YouTube video series featuring characters from various games grooving to trance music in loop. The original video was submitted to Gzero91’s Project Flail collaboration by YouTuber FineLeatherJackets^[9] featuring a Team Fortress 2 Heavy. It was remixed many times and while the choreography varies slightly from video to video, the hip swinging and up-and-down movement of arms have become closely associated with this series.

Search Interest

Search for Garry’s Mod began in December 2004 when the game was originally released. It peaked in December 2006, right after the Steam release. GMod has had consistently more search, due to it being an abbreviation for several things. Interest peaks in summer months, coinciding with school breaks.

External References

About

“How Did it Get Burned” is a hilarious quote uttered repeatedly by actor Nicolas Cage in the 2006 remake version of the 1973 British horror film The Wicker Man. Well known for its abysmal critical reception, this scene in particular has become a popular source material for video remixes on YouTube. Also see: “Not The Bees!”

Origin

The modern adaptation of British horror film The Wicker Man was directed by Neil Labute, starring Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burnstyn. Released in September 2006, the film generally received poor reviews and yielded disappointing results at the Box Office.

In the film, Nicholas Cage plays the main character of a policeman named Edward Malus. When Malus’ young daughter goes missing, he embarks on an adventure to find her, which eventually leads to him finding a shallow grave holding nothing more than a burned doll. His reaction to this discovery is widely considered the most memorable scene of the entire movie—Nicholas Cage waving the doll in a woman’s face while frantically screaming “HOW DID IT GET BURNED? HOW DID IT GET BURNED?”

Derivatives

The “How Did it Get Burned” scene within Wicker Man quickly became popular after being uploaded onto YouTube, and soon parodies began appearing on websites like YTMND and 4chan.

Parodies

About

F40PH is a diesel-electric locomotive that once served as the standard engine train for Amtrak’s fleets. On 4chan, images of F40PH trains have been primarily used as a counter-response to the contentious Furry Friday threads, which became known as “F40PH Friday.” Among F40PH enthusiasts, the great scale of the locomotive is comparable to that of Chuck Norris or Billy Mays.

Origin

The strange phenomenon of posting train images began in early 2007, largely in reaction to the heavy influx of furry porn threads on 4chan’s /b/ (random) board in honor of Furry Fridays, one of 4chan’s quirky traditions that has been around since 2005.

The Urban Dictionary¹ entry for “F40PH Friday” was first submitted on August 30th, 2007:

What replaced Fur Friday at /b/
“It’s F40ph Friday” Bob cried. Let’s post some trainz!

According to several firsthand accounts¹⁰, the F40PH Friday campaign officially began in early 2008 with intent to replace Furry Friday threads. This effort soon led to a head-to-head clash between those who wanted to retain “Furry Friday” and those who wanted “F40PH Friday” threads to replace the former¹¹.

Spread

While F40PH image threads initially gained prominence through its usage against Furry Friday threads, many users have also come to appreciate the train for its respectable stature in the history of American railroad. Today, images of F40PH still appear on 4chan² and other similar imageboard communities, sometimes in following the custom of F40PH fridays and other times in honor of the train in itself.

Eventually, 4chan’s F40PH enthusiasm spread out across other forums and imageboard sites, most notably on 1chan.net³, an imageboard community built around the common interest of railroads and train-spotting, as well as spawning a number of tribute videos and sites on YouTube⁴ and YTMND.⁵

The phenomenon has been documented on ED⁶ and Wikifur⁷, while the fame of F40PH has also reached other locomotive enthusiast communities and forums, such as Trains.com⁸ and Rail Forums⁹.

Excerpt from Encyclopedia Dramatica:

Some F40PH facts:
# With F40PH you WIN THE GAME
# Most of those Chuck Norris “facts” are really about the Michael Jackson.
# Adding a F40PH to almost anything will make it auto win.

Usage

Typically, F40PH threads can be generated with the aid of a directory dumper software and the obligatory battlecry YIFF IN HELL, FURFAGS. Due to the polarized opinions on furry porn threads and locomotive threads, F40PH train threads may be received differently depending on the culture within each imageboard. For example, any mentions or image uploads of F40PH on Fchan will result in an immediate ban.

Notable Examples

External References

¹ Urban Dictionary – F40PH Friday

² 4chan – F40PH Friday

³ 1chan.net – /rail/ board

⁴ YouTube – Search Results for F40PH

⁵ YTMND – Search Results for F40PH

⁶ Encyclopedia Dramatica – F40PH

⁷ Wikifur – 4chan and Furry

⁸ Trains.com Forum – F40PH is famous?

⁹ Rail Forum – DON’T LOOK AT THIS IF YOU ARE OVER 30…but it deals with F40PH’s

¹⁰ Yotsuba Society – An Ode to the F40PH

¹¹ Blogspot – F40PH Fridays

About

The Family Guy Effect is a postulated phenomenon that claims when an Internet meme is showcased on the show Family Guy, the meme will see a brief burst in popularity, followed by an immediate sharp decline. Prior to being associated with Internet meme exposure, the Family Guy effect was used to describe how a joke becomes less funny when repeated over time.

Origin

The first Urban Dictionary^[1] definition for “The Family Guy effect” was submitted on August 22nd, 2008.

Do something funny. Continue to do so until said activity is no longer funny. Continue to do so until said activity is funny again. Repeat.

On July 27th, 2009, the arts and culture blog Bygone Bureau^[5] posted an interview with writer Nathan Rabin who mentions the Family Guy effect in relation to pop culture references:

“Pop culture references can be such a dead end, too. I think there’s such as thing as the Family Guy effect, where if the reference is random and doesn’t have an emotional center to it, then it becomes very empty.”

The earliest known reference to the Family Guy Effect in the context of Internet memes was posted by former Know Your Meme community manager Chris Menning in the meme research forums on July 30th, 2009. In the thread, researcher TheGhostOfRichieRich questioned how to handle the documentation of memes that have been exposed to mainstream attention, citing the Family Guy episode featuring Chuck Norris as an example. Menning replied to the original post by calling this phenomenon “The Family Guy effect."

Spread

On August 27th, 2010, a TV Tropes^[4] page was created for memes that have fallen out of favor with pop culture called “Discredited Meme”, which mentions the effect. A thread about the phenomenon was posted to the Bungie^[2] video game forums on July 19th, 2011. On September 26th, 2011, a clip from an episode of Family Guy in which Trololol Guy makes an appearance was submitted to FunnyJunk.^[3] User pyrothermal commented to the post saying “Well, that’s another meme dead due to the Family Guy effect.”

Examples

On September 27th, 2005, the first Internet meme to appear on Family Guy was in the episode “Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story” in which Wilford Brimley says “diabeetus”.

On November 20th, 2005, the episode “The Courtship of Stewie’s Father” aired in which the dog character Brian dresses up in a banana costume and performs the song Peanut Butter Jelly Time (shown left). On April 29th, 2007, the episode “Boys Don’t Cry” aired in which Chuck Norris makes a cameo appearance during a Chuck Norris facts joke (shown right).

Other Internet memes that have been referenced on Family Guy include Christian Bale rants, Rickroll, Trololol and Flea Market Montgomery was seen in the Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show.

Search Interest

[unavailable]

External References

About

Butthurt is an online slang term used to describe a strongly negative or overemotional response. It is used to draw attention to a person who shows signs of being irritated due to a perceived insult, an unfavorable situation, or a lack of decent communication. On occasions, it can be also used to describe unreasonable users behaviors without an apparent explanation.

Origin

The term “butthurt” originates from spanking^[1], the act of striking the buttocks of another person, which is often seen as a method of punishing a child. Though some cultures view this as an acceptable form of discipline, it can be interpreted as abusive corporal punishment. Online, one of the earliest archived mentions of “butthurt” appeared in a 1998 comment^[8] posted on the website of Swiss surrealist painter H. R. Giger.^[9]

Hollywood has tossed Giger for more talented artists, and even those artist who can emulate his style, without the tears and the hurt butts. If giger reads this I would be amazed, not only that he can comprehend a bunch of letters placed into groups and spaced randomly to create words which in turn create sentances, but that he can even UNDERSTAND the INTERNET! GIGER is LAME. all he can do is rely on his ALIEN paintings to make him famous! Well I used to be impressed until I read all this BUTTHURT he has been going through. Oh poor baby Giger.

The comment was left by a poster named Doug in responding to Giger’s grievance over not being credited as a designer for sequel titles in the Aliens franchise. In the original 1979 film Alien_, Giger based the extraterrestrial monsters after one of his 1976 paintings, _Necronom IV.

Spread

The term was first added to the Online Slang Dictionary^[10] as a hyphenated word on January 29th, 1999. The original definition stated it was anger caused by “a small slight or friendly insult.” The term was first added to Urban Dictionary^[12] in December 2001, and has since gained a total of 32 definitions^[2] with an additional 9 under “butt-hurt”^[13] and 19 under “butt hurt.”^[14] The term was named the Urban Word of the Day^[16] on May 2nd, 2006. It was added to Wiktionary^[11] in August 2007.

On YouTube, videos related to the term have been uploaded since as early as 2005, which mainly consists of butthurt behaviors found in online gaming or personal messages addressing those who feel that way. As of June 2012, there are more than 7100 video results^[17] for “butthurt." Additionally, a Facebook group titled U Butthurt Bro?^[15] was created in 2011, which has gained more than 5000 likes by June 2012.

Notable Examples

Derivatives

Buttfrustrated

Buttfrustrated^[18] is one of various related terms often applied to extreme butthurt and represented in image macros where the overlaid text exaggerates upon the person’s irritation with a large variety of different phrases in Lolspeak. Many of these can be found on Tumblr tagged as either “#butthurt”^[3] or"#buttfrustrated."^[4]

Butthurt Face

Butthurt Face is an epic face smiley emoticon with a broad smile very similar to that of Trollface. It is commonly used to ridicule or make fun of people being butthurt, but can also be used as to represent a pleased reaction towards rage or after succesful trolling.

Butthurt Form

The Butthurt Form is a form listing certain points that may have caused butthurt, commonly used to mock people who are showing clear signs of butthurt. In the beginning of April 2012, the online group Anonymous used the butthurt form to fight a proposed Internet censorship bill in Arizona that would criminalize digital speech intended to “annoy, offend, terrify, threaten, intimidate, or harass” others. Twitter account @YourAnonNews^[20] encouraged residents to fax a copy of the form to the state’s Governor Jan Brewer in protest of the law’s wording. While the bill was signed into law on May 14th, 2012, it was amended to remove “annoy” and “offend” from the text. This story, and the Butthurt Form protest, was covered by RT.com^[5], the Phoenix New Times^[6] and Techspy.^[7]

Butthurt Dweller

Butthurt Dweller, also known as “Gordo Granudo”, is an image macro series that features a photo of a young adult male with a ponytail and glasses accompanied by overlaid text that involves a smug or judgmental statement. It was later adapted into a rage face, which is commonly combined with stereotypical nerd behavior.

Twitter Feed

Users on Twitter often use the hashtag #butthurt to describe either situations they they have witnessed or times when they have felt pained over small things.

Search Interest

External References

About

Creepypasta is a form of Copypasta and are short scary/horror stories that are regularly posted on message boards or sent via email intended to scare or unnerve the reader. Some are completely made up where as others are derived from old Urban Legends.

Encyclopedia Dramatica has a comprehensive list of the most well known Creepypastas floating around. ED has also split these into seperate creepypasta rankings, including Awesome Creepypasta, Mediocre Creepypasta, Retarded Creepypasta, and Lengthy Creepypasta.

Origin

As of yet unknown. While stories intending to frighten the reader/listener have been around for years the art of creepypasta itself looks to have originated from the 4chan image boards.

Spread

Judging by the Google Insights search results Creepypasta looks to have started becoming popular in late 2007.

Example of a Creepypasta

The Girl in the Photograph

One school day, a boy named Tom was sitting in class and doing math. It was six more minutes until after school. As he was doing his homework, something caught his eye.

His desk was next to the window, and he turned and looked to the grass outside. It looked like a picture. When school was over, he ran to the spot where he saw it. He ran fast so that no one else could grab it.

He picked it up and smiled. It had a picture of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had a dress with tights on and red shoes, and her hand was formed into a peace sign.

She was so beautiful he wanted to meet her, so he ran all over the school and asked everyone if they knew her or have ever seen her before. But everyone he asked said “No.” He was devastated.

When he was home, he asked his older sister if she knew the girl, but unfortunately she also said “No.” It was very late, so Tom walked up the stairs, placed the picture on his bedside table and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night Tom was awakened by a tap on his window. It was like a nail tapping. He got scared. After the tapping he heard a giggle. He saw a shadow near his window, so he got out of his bed, walked toward his window, opened it up and followed the giggling. By the time he reached it, it was gone.

The next day again he asked his neighbors if they knew her. Everybody said, “Sorry, no.” When his mother came home he even asked her if she knew her. She said “No.” He went to his room, placed the picture on his desk and fell asleep.

Once again he was awakened by a tapping. He took the picture and followed the giggling. He walked across the road, when suddenly he got hit by a car. He was dead with the picture in his hand.

The driver got out of the car and tried to help him, but it was too late. Suddenly he saw the picture and picked it up.

He saw a cute girl holding up three fingers.

-Taken from Encyclopedia Dramatica’s “Awesome Creepypasta” page.

Video Creepypasta

A recent trend has occured where creepypasta has couplings or is comepletly represented in YouTube videoes. Notable ones include “Smile.jpg”, “The Grifter”, “Squidward’s Suicide”, and, arguably the most notable one, “suicidemouse.avi”. Creepypasta videoes took the experience of these pastas to a whole new level, letting the viewer experience the horror refrenced in the Creepypasta. Here’s an example of a coupling:

Taken from it’s YouTube Video:

The Scariest Picture on the Internet

The story is this, in Japan shortly before a teenage girl comitted suicide, she drew this picture, scanned it and posted it online. In korea this story broke out and it spread like wildfire. There are various posts around in korean forums that say that the viewer gets drawn to the girls blue eyes, they say they can detect a hint of wraith and sadness within the eyes. Maybe the girl had died with so much sadness and anger that her spirit haunts the image, or maybe the image provoke sadness, similar to the song ‘Gloomy Sunday’.
The freaky bit is this, they say it is hard for a person to stare into the girls eyes for longer than 5 minutes, there are reports that some people have taken their own lives after doing so. People say the picture changes, as you view it there is a hint of a growing taunting smirk appearing on the girls lips or a dark ring grows around the girl or her eyes.
One thing is for sure, the picture has sparked a curiosity in me that I must find out, i do feel a presence when I look at the image, whether it is evil or not I can not judge. I would like to know what the global online community feels and maybe even experts in art would be able to resolve why the eyes of this image can draw the viewer in so deeply?

Notable Creepypastas

Some Creepypasta get more coverage than the normal, causing fervent spamming of the text/videos in question. Here are some notable textual creepypastas:

The Russian Sleep Experiment

The Old Lady

Bad Dream

Candle Cove

Video Creepypastas tend to get bigger, ammassing hundreds of thousands of views, an incredible feat for any and all Creepypasta. Here are some of the biggest Video Creepypastas, including the viral Majora’s Mask Creepypasta:

The Grifter

Smile.jpg

suicidemouse.avi

Majora’s Mask/BEN Creepypasta First Video

Pokemon is also a prime target for Creepypasta, possibly due to it’s nostalgic factor and the overall innocene of the games. Some of the most famous Creepypasta’s are in this category. Some creepypastas are here:

Pokemon Creepy Black

Lavendar Town Suicides

Pokemon Lost Silver

Websites

There are also several sites dedicated to collecting Creepypastas, sites include:

• Creepypasta.com
• Microhorror
• Creepypasta.tumblr.com
• The SCP Foundation
• Creepypasta.net

About

Technologically Impaired Duck is an Advice Animal image macro series featuring a centered image of a white duck with overlaid text conveying technological ignorance or misunderstanding.

Origin

The original image comes from a FreeFoto stock photo of a white mallard from March 31st, 2003.^[1]

The image macros are rumored to have started on Memegenerator^[2] in 2009 before being further popularized on 4chan’s /b/ board. The earliest found images contain the Memegenerator watermark, providing some evidence to support this rumor.

Spread

The earliest known posting comes from the personal blog of Joanne Casey on June 3rd, 2009.^[3] An archived 4chan thread dates back to July 19th, 2009.^[4] A Facebook page^[5] was created in November of 2009, and as of June 2011 has over 1400 ‘likes’.

Derivatives have spread to sites like Tumblr^[6], Memebase^[7], FunnyJunk^[8], and Reddit.^[9]

Search

Search queries had their first spike in June of 2009, the same month that it was posted to Joanne Casey’s blog.

Notable Derivatives

Template

External Links

^[1] FreeFoto – Duck

^[2] Memegenerator – Technologically Impaired Duck

^[3] Blogspot – I have seen the whole internet

^[4] 4chan Archive – Technologically-Impaired-Duck-MY-VIIDEO-DOESNT-PLAY-ITS-AVI

^[5] Tumblr – Technologically Impaired Duck

^[6] Memebase – Technologically Impaired Duck

^[7] FunnyJunk – technologically impaired duck

^[8] Reddit – technologically impaired duck

^[9] Facebook – Technologically Impaired Duck

About

Broccoli Dog is the nickname given to an image of a dog sitting at a table with a plateful of broccoli, in which he takes an understandable disinterest. Oftentimes, this image may be seen with the phrase “Do Not Want,” but it is simply a popular instance of the larger image macro series which started a few months prior. While Broccoli Dog largely became popular through the iteration, it also gave way to a handful of photoshopped variations and other image macros featuring alternate captions.

Origin

The origin of the photo is currently unknown and largely undocumented. The earliest instance we have been able to backtrace so far is a YTMND created November 6th, 2005 by user AnimalChin. The odd part is that this YTMND only has 781 views and only 2.17 stars.

Spread

The “Do not want” dog is referenced on Fark on January 4th, 2007 in a thread entitled, Who’s the Boss Star posts naked pictures of self on web, Sadly is not Alyssa Milano.

wombatsrus

2007-01-04 03:56:39 PM
 
Posting for the “Do Not Want” dog arriving in 3…2…1…

• On January 29th of 2007, we see a variation of the dog on My[confined]space with a story instead of the short phrase.

This dog whined and whined until I gave him some broccoli and now look, do you see him eating it? Do you see this dog eating broccoli? Does’t look like it to me. Stupid dog.”

• Variations of the “Do Not Want” dog image macro from February of 2007 can be found on the Something Awful forums in a thread titled Image Thread 2000.

• In April of 2007, the “Do Not Want” dog is referenced in MentalFloss.

About

Success Kid, sometimes known as I Hate Sandcastles, is a reaction image of a baby at a beach with a smug facial expression. It has been used in image macros to designate either success or frustration. In early 2011, the original image was turned into an advice animal style image macro with captions describing a situation that goes better than expected.

Origin

The original image was taken by photographer Laney Griner of her then 11-month-old son Sammy on August 26th, 2007. She posted it to both her personal Flickr account^[1] and put it up on Getty Images^[6], which has since been removed.

Spread

As early as January 2008, users on social networking sites like MySpace^[3] began incorporating the photo of Sammy into their profiles, either as their avatar or as part of the page’s layout. It was often paired with the phrases “Ima Fuck you up” or “I Hate Sandcastles”

In May 2008, the image was made freely available on image hosting site Pyzam.com^[4] with a second child photoshopped in to the background. It was reposted on humor sites Damn Funny Pictures^[8] and Daily Haha^[9] the next month. This version was part of a photoshop thread on Russian-language social news site Yaplakal.com^[5] on June 4th of that same year.

Advice Animal

One of the earliest Success Kid advice animal style image macros was uploaded to Reddit on January 28th, 2011.^[10] As of February 2011, there are over 66,000 instances of Success Kid on Quickmeme^[11], nearly 300 on MemeGenerator^[12], and over 3000 results on the Advice Animals subreddit.^[13]

In July 2011, the single topic Tumblr Fuck Yeah Success Kid^[14] was started and collections of these images were posted to humor sites Pleated Jeans^[15] in July 2011 and Uproxx^[16] that November. There is also a category for Success Kid images on Ranker^[17] and Memebase^[18] and a Facebook^[19] fan page with over 4000 likes.

Notable Examples

Success Kid in Advertising

In February 2012, British media company Virgin Media recently began running billboards featuring a mirrored version of Sammy’s photo. The advertising campaign was covered by New Rising Media^[20] and the Daily What.^[21]

Griner later confirmed via Flickr that she did get paid for use of the photo and he would also be appearing in Vitamin Water commercials in the United States in 2012.

Success Kid Now

Laney Griner has continued to post photos of Sammy on her Flickr^[7] through the years, who turned four-years-old in 2011. Photos of older Sammy were shared on Reddit^[22], Blame it on The Voices^[23] and the Daily What^[24] in November 2011.

Search Interest

External References

About

Limecat is the nickname given to an image of a scowling cat wearing what appears to be a hat carved out of a lime. Since its emergence in the early 2000s, the image has inspired a mythos portraying the cat as the sovereigns of all cats as well as a LOLcat image macro series known as X is Not Amused.

Origin

The cat’s identity or its origin remain unclear, but the earliest mention of “Limecat” on record can be found in an Urban Dictionary entry^[1] submitted by user Rodri316 on December 12th, 2003. The description furthermore suggests that the cat had become a well-known character on GameFAQ’s LUE discussion forum prior to its submission.

Limecat is the supreme ruler of all cats. His head has a natural beret which strongly resembles a cut-up lime, but is really a symbol of his power. Limecat is usually not pleased with the deeds and words of petty humans, and no one has ever claimed to catch him in a good mood.

The helmet worn by the cat has been long presumed to be made of lime. However, it is most likely a carved pomelo^[2] that is traditionally worn during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinese culture, suggesting that the photograph may have originated on the Chinese Internet.

Spread

Limecat appeared in the form of a single serving site^[3] as early as in March 2004, accompanied by the caption reading “Limecat is not pleased.”

In the following years, the image continued to spread across internet humor hubsites and communities, earning several other nicknames such as “Meloncat,” “General Whiskers” and “Helmet Cat.” The first YTMND^[5] tribute to the cat was created by user SethAechi on April 28th, 2004 and dozens of derivative instances were uploaded thereafter, including Limecat’s cousin Lemoncat (shown below).

On 4chan^[4], images of Limecat emerged as a notable reaction face used to convey one’s disapproval of someone else’s post and spawned the LOLcat expression approves / dispparoves this thread.

Encyclopedia Dramatica^[6] describes Limecat as “the ultimate god of cats.” The site’s successor Oh Internet^[7] highlights Lime Cat as “among the most popular and well-known lolcats.”

From Encyclopedia Dramatica:

The ultimate god of cats everywhere. His head is capped by a natural outgrowth known as the “Mystic Rind”, which originally was a solid lime. During the epic battle with Clock Spider, several gashes were rent into the lime, creating a bang-like effect. Limecat responded by chewing off the Clock Spider’s ninth leg and cast it into the sky, where it became the God of most religions. Limecat is seldom pleased, and only his priests have ever seen him do anything more than frown and glare. He has an illegitimate kitten, Linecat, who is marked by his lack of hair apart from his head and paws.

A reverse image search^[11] for Limecat yields at least 300 matching results, many of which are hosted via non-English websites ranging from Latin American^[13] and European^[14] to Middle Eastern^[10] and East Asian languages.^[9]

Notable Examples

Imitations

Search Interest

External References

About

“Dear Sister” Parody (a.k.a The Shooting, “Mmm Whatcha Say”) is a video parody meme that spawned out of an overly melodramatic shooting scene in the second season finale of popular FOX TV series, The OC. Entitled “The Dearly Beloved,” the episode originally aired in May 2005 and ended up reaching over 7.6 million viewers, according to the Nielsen Ratings.

Origin: SNL Digital Short Parody

The slow-motion scene in which Marissa (played by) shoots Trey was first satirized in a SNL Digital Short called “The Shooting,” which aired in April 2007, nearly two years after the original episode was run. Following the SNL parody, similar parodies of the OC episode quickly followed suit on YouTube and other internet humor websites. The parodies also became popularly known as “Mmm Whatcha Say” after the song that was featured during the shooting scene, “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap.

Justin Bieber Parody

On February 17th, 2011, Justin Bieber appeared on CSI, and his character was killed during the episode. It was promptly turned into a dear sister parody the following day:

Online Derivatives

• The short aired just days before the Virginia Tech massacre and was never uploaded to NBC’s website for sensitivity reasons. However, variations of the video became extremely popular on Youtube. The original video itself cannot be found on Youtube for copyright reasons, but can be found with a Google search. Because of this, a subset of this meme is the uploading of “remakes” of the video released under the same title, with the intent of annoying those looking for the original.

• Most of the variations of the meme involve people using clips from other TV shows or movies and adding the song when a gun is fired, usually playing the video in slow-motion after the gunshot.

About

I Believe You Have My Stapler is a catchphrase originally uttered by the character Milton in the movie Office Space. It is often featured in YTMNDs, image macros, and remix videos.

Origin

Office Space was a 1999 comedy by Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge, about a group of employees who hate their jobs, and decide to rebel against their greedy boss.

Milton Waddams (played by actor Stephen Root) is an eccentric character that has an emotional attachment to his stapler.

The character Milton originally came from a short cartoon from the early 90s MTV show Liquid Television.

The “Excuse-me, I believe you have my stapler ?” catchphrase was featured in a YTMND page in 2004.
According to the YTMND wiki, it became one of the first big hits on the site.

Search

Variations and spread

Following the YTMND popularity, others YTMND fads were made, starring Milton’s incredibly funny face and his famous lines:

http://iwantstapler.ytmnd.com/
http://spreadmystaplerandflyaway.ytmnd.com/
http://staplercalledlove.ytmnd.com/
http://astaplerisforever.ytmnd.com/
http://punchthestapler.ytmnd.com/

An Urban dictionary entry was created on June 18, 2004.

The most famous line from the 1999 hit “Office Space” starring Ron Livingston and directed by Mike Judge. Milton Waddams utters the phrase right after Bill Lumbergh takes his stapler from his desk. The phrase has become a hit amongst internet pop culture.
I believe you have my stapler

Numerous image macros as well as youtube parodies ensued: