About

Alignment Charts (also known as Character Alignments) refer to images presenting different categorized subjects -- usually nine -- in a manner that strongly resembles Demotivational Posters. Images within alignment charts usually show characters from a particular subculture (with either a quote or a reasoning below the title of the character’s alignment to reflect why they are in that position), but the chart manages to reach levels of irony that reaction images, inanimate objects, and even food can be grouped and categorized.

Origin

The concept of character alignment as it is typically viewed comes from the game Dungeons and Dragons released on 1974,^[9] wherein players were able to create their very own characters, customizing a variety of different aspects. One of these aspects is the alignment of the character, which basically indicated whether your character was good or evil and whether he followed the law or not.

The system begun operating on two axis by the 1977 release of Dungeons and Dragons^[1], one consisting of “Lawful”, “Neutral”, and “Chaotic”, and the other of “Good”, “Neutral”, and “Evil”; you would combine one of the traits of the first axis with one of the traits of the other, thus resulting in alignments such as “Lawful Good” or “Chaotic Evil”, with nine possible alignments in total.

5×5 Alignment Charts

5×5 Alignment Charts were never designed by the official game. Instead, the additional categories for both axis -- social and rebel; and moral and impure respectively -- are products from the internet. The earliest known instances of a 5×5 Alignment Chart being used dates back to June 5, 2011, when the DeviantArt account DoASpotCheck uploaded their 5 by 5 Alignment Chart comprised of different characters from various subcultures that they feel epitomizes each category.^[6]

Spread

The concept has been implemented by fans in other works of fiction once it has gained traction. The practice of categorizing subjects in forums and image boards has often brought much debate and criticism due to disagreements from all sides.^[3][7]

Alignment as a Meme

This all becomes a meme with the practice of taking images of characters (or concepts, or a variety of other things) and (usually in the form of a demotivational poster) labeling them as one of the nine alignments. This is then expanded upon by editing together such images (usually following a theme) into a chart, thus giving a representation of the conventional nine alignments -- 5×5 charts with a total of 25 alignments exist. Images dealing with just one of the alignments, or just with the subject of alignment itself, also exist. For example, on July 23rd, 2017, Twitter user @tinysubversions^[10] posted an alignment chart of Dungeons and Dragons alignments that gained over 2,000 retweets and 3,800 likes (shown below, left). Another popular joke version was posted on August 10th of that year by @aurelianrabbit which made each space on the chart a way to store bread. The tweet gained over 25,000 retweets and 59,000 likes (shown below, right).

As for the actual origins of this practice, things aren’t very clear, but many demotivationals exist. Such comparisons have been made since the first release of Dungeons and Dragons, though it’s possible that the book Complete Scoundrel, published in 2007, may have popularized the concept.

Many decades after the concept was made famous, Alignment Charts remain a popular subject for discussion and deviation in online communities. By 2012 a crude template for the alignment chart was made available on Polyvore by user ellerigby13. 74 deviations were produced from this template.^[8] A subreddit with 1,537 readers exists that showcases alignment charts submitted by users.^[4] On DeviantArt, there is a considerably large number of around 34,000 deviations under the tag “character alignment.”^[2] A Pinterest gallery dedicated to collecting Alignment Charts has gained 103 followers.^[5]

Templates

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Guess I’ll Die refers to a stock photo of a man in a red sweatshirt shrugging his shoulders. The image grew into a reaction image used in situations where the poster jokingly resigns themselves to death due to a minor inconvenience.

Origin

On October 6th, 2009, the photo was uploaded to iStockphoto^[1] by Ann Baldwin. It would later be revealed that the photo is of her husband, Mike Baldwin.^[2]

Spread

The photo was used as a reaction image as early as April 26th, 2011 in a FARK.com^[3] forum thread on the film Atlas Shrugged. An edit of the image in which the man’s face is replaced with a sloth appeared online on the site herbatka.soup.io^[4] on January 18th, 2013 (shown below).

In 2013, the image began being used as a reaction image more frequently. It appeared in a Funnyjunk^[5] thread on April 20th, 2013, and again in a blog post on markb4.wordpress^[6] on the 25th. It found continued use as a reaction image expressing confusion in the following years. A template for “shrugging old man” was added to Meme Generator on May 22nd, 2015.^[8] In September of 2015, it began going viral on Tumblr. A post by user noxyouraveragefangirl, now cinnamon-swan,^[7] paired it with a text post that gained over 207,000 notes (reblog shown below).

In early 2016, the image began being paired with the text “Guess I’ll Die.” On January 6th of that year, Facebook user Adam Davis posted the image with the text “Guess I’ll Die” along with the caption “When you’re too poor to afford affordable health care” to the Facebook page “Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Memes.”^[9] The post went viral, gaining over 29,000 shares and 9,300 likes and reactions (shown below).

Following that post, several other popular posts appeared online with the “Guess I’ll Die” variation of the image. On April 11th, 2016, Tumblr user funkybug^[10] posted the image alone, gaining over 139,000 notes. This started the post’s popularization on Tumblr where it was used both as a reaction image in popular posts and as an exploitable. Examples of the latter include a post by lesmiserablesbians^[11] posted February 16th, 2017 that referenced Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, gaining over 13,000 notes (shown below, left), and a post by imgayjokes^[12] from April 12th, 2017 that changed the text to “guess i’m gay,” gaining over 14,000 notes (shown below, right).

On July 31st, 2017, Reddit user bloodylipservice posted a screenshot to /r/memes^[2] of Baldwin posting a photo of himself to Facebook wearing a shirt based off his meme that his children got for his birthday. bloodylipservice’s post gained 450 points (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Lie Down / Try Not to Cry / Cry a Lot refers an exploitable comic based around an image featured in a College Humor article titled “Realistic Gym Workout Diagrams,” which featured parody workout posters. The image has been edited in a number of ways to include various characters and express humorously exaggerated sadness at various events, such as a television series ending. The original has also been included as a reaction image in popular posts with a sad or heartwarming image above it.

Origin

On September 10th, 2010, the Internet humor site College Humor^[1] published a post titled “Realistic Gym Workout Diagrams,” which featured parody workout posters for exercising specific muscle groups. In the article one parody poster in particular shows a man holding curling up in a fetal position with the phrase “Lie Down; Try Not to Cry; Cry a Lot” posted above (shown below).

Spread

In late 2012, edits of the image began circulating online. On March 5th, 2013, the male centered entertainment site Mandatory^[2] published an article titled “LIEDOWN. TRYNOT TO CRY. CRY A LOT. AN EMOTIONALMEMECOLLECTION” which collected several of the image edits into a single post. Many of the edits include pop culture references, generally by editing the character in the comic to be a different character from a pop culture series. Other edits include the original post as a reaction image to a heartwarming or sad story (example shown below).

There are over 9,400 “Lie Down Try Not To Cry Cry A Lot” memes on Memecenter^[3] as of August 17th, 2017, though it should be noted that not every meme under the tag includes the comic. The image remains popular on Tumblr as well.^[4]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Mormon Porn or Bubble Porn, also known as “Bubble Collage” (Japanese: 水玉コラ, Mizutama Kora) in Japan, refers to photoshopped pictures of girls in which their clothes are covered by the “bubbling” technique, making it appear as though they’re naked.

Origin

This kind of photoshop technique began to be practiced in the threads in /morningcoffee/, a board for isolating fanatics of Japanese female idol collective Hello! Project,^[2] in the Japanese textboard community 2channel around June of 2007. That board users had been making “10-yen Collages” (10円コラ), another series of photo collages making female idols look like naked by concealing their outfits by 10-yen coins, since the spring of 2004. This technique was one of the derivatives developed in a series for that thread.^[3][4]

Left: 10-yen Collage | Right: Bubble Collage in 2007

In those days, this kind of photoshopped images was called in various names like “Marble Collage” (ビー玉コラ), “Worm-eaten Collage” (虫食いコラ) or “Perforated Collage” (穴あきコラ). However, these had never spread to the outside of the board.

Spread

This kind of photos entered the spotlight by a thread in /news4vip/, one of the meme-generating boards in 2channel, in the end of 2009.^[5] Since this thread was soon summarized and reprinted with uploaded images to many affi-blogs, earning money by summarizing popular 2channel threads, this technique began getting a strong presence on the web. In that time, these kind of photoshopped pictures were called “Looking Like Naked (Photos)” (裸に見える, Hadakani Mieru). Japanese programmers launched image generator services for this technique called “Wormy”^[6] and “Circle Effect”^[7] in the following month.

Bubble Collage in the “Look Like Naked” Era (Before & After)

The name “Bubble Collage” (水玉コラ) appeared around 2011 because affi-blogs had continually reported bubble porn threads with the same name in /ascii/, board for links to photos and videos for adults, in 2channel’s sister community for adult contents BBSPINK since late 2010.

On August 2012, an official idol photo book which enables manual bubbling effect by scissors and cutters was released by a Japanese publisher.^[8]

How to Enjoy the Idol Photo Book “Bubble Collage Girls”

Outside Japan

I Am Board user fancylad^[9] introduced this technique in the entry “How To Make Mormon Porn” on February 9th, 2010.^[10] Then this technique became to be called “Bubbling.” On April 7th, 2014, YouTuber HelloDenizen uploaded a “Bubble Porn” video. Daily Dot^[12] covered the video the following day. Since first growing popular online, the trend has appeared sparingly. Boingboing^[11] posted about Bubble Porn in December of 2016.

Various Examples

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About

The Internet is a system of interconnected computer networks linking billions of machines worldwide using the TCP/IP Internet protocol suite.^[1] Use of the Internet in the West expanded rapidly throughout the 1990s, growing over 100x within two decades.^[2]

History

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, numerous packet switching networks were developed, including Tymnet, Telenet and the eventual forerunner of the Internet, ARPANET.^[3] On October 29th, 1969, the first two connections of ARPANET were made between American engineer Leonard Kleinrock’s Network Measurement Center at UCLA and inventor Douglas Engelbert’s NLS system located in Menlo Park, California.^[4] By 1971, 15 ARPANET sites were connected.^[5] In 1974, the term “internet” was used as a shorthand for “internetworking” in a paper by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine.^[6] In the 1980s, the first Internet service providers were founded.^[7] In 1990, ARPANET was decommissioned and the first web page was posted on the internet.^[28] The Internet became fully commercialized in 1995.^[7] Since its inception, a variety of technologies utilizing the Internet emerged, including email, instant messaging, VoIP, video calling, the World Wide Web, social networking and e-commerce.^[1]

First Internet Memes

Godwin’s Law

Godwin’s Law is an internet adage from 1990 that is derived from one of the earliest bits of Usenet wisdoms, which goes “if you mention Adolf Hitler or Nazis within a discussion thread, you’ve automatically ended whatever discussion you were taking part in.” Mike Godwin coined his observation as a “natural law of Usenet” in 1990 and this observation is credited as the first internet meme. For more information about Godwin’s Law, check out the original FAQ page.

Spam

Spam is a term so ubiquitous that everyone in the internet world takes it for granted, yet it is one of the first ever examples of an internet meme. The Oxford Pocket English Dictionary defines Spam as:

• (noun, trademark) a canned meat product made mainly from ham;
• (noun, internet) an irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of users.
• (verb: to spam, spammed, spamming) to send the same email message indiscriminately to (large numbers of users).

It originates from a Monty Python sketch in which an old lady attempts to order food at a cafe, but does not like spam (shown below). Its online usage began in the early 90s with Usenet netizens who flooded IRC chatrooms and forums with the word “spam” in reference to the repetitive and unwanted presence of Spam in the sketch. One of the earliest examples of “spamming” can be traced back to a mass e-mail^[31] sent out by a Digital Equipment Corporation employee in 1978, which announced the release of a new DEC-20 machine and invited people to the company’s receptions in California. They were chastised for breaking the ARPANET appropriate use policy, and a notice was sent out reminding others of the rule.

The Webby Awards

The Webby Awards is an annual award show first held in 1995 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, with the first “Site of the Year” award given to the episodic online story The Spot. The ceremony recognizes internet websites, applications, interactive advertising and online video. For each category, one winner is selected by popular vote and another is chosen by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The ceremony is known for its short acceptance speeches, which limit winners to saying only five words.

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive^[16] is a site founded in 1996 by American computer engineer and Internet activist Brewster Kahle^[17], who also co-founded the web crawling service Alexa Internet around the same time. It is a digital library and archival site dedicated to permanent documentation of and free public access to a wide variety of digital artifacts, ranging rom websites and music to videos and nearly three million books registered under public domain.

Deep Web

Deep Web is a term coined in 2001, also known as “Deepnet,” the “Invisible Web,” the “Undernet” or the “hidden Web,” are parts of the Internet that are not considered part of the “surface web,” or the portion of the World Wide Web that is indexed by conventional search engines. According to The New York Times,^[8] computer scientist Mike Bergman is credited with coining the term “deep web” in a paper titled “The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value” published in The Journal of Electronic Publishing^[9] in August of 2001. In the paper, Bergman mentions that Internet business author Dr. Jill Ellsworth coined the phrase “invisible Web” in 1994 when referring to websites that were not indexed by common search engines. Many deep web sites are not indexed because they use dynamic databases that are devoid of hyperlinks and can only be found by performing an internal search query.

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is often credited with the open access movement and political activist Lawrence Lessig^[10] as early as 2001;^[11] however, the term was first coined by Columbia law professor Tim Wu in a 2003 paper titled “Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination.”^[12] It is a network design principle and digital rights movement which advocates Internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all Internet traffic equally in order to maintain an “open Internet.” The principle is in opposition to a “closed Internet” in which providers restrict access to content, filter content or use “traffic shaping”^[13] to degrade access to specific web services.

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is an annual online-exclusive shopping event observed by both national and smaller online retailers on the Monday after Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Since its emergence in 2005, Cyber Monday has continuously grown into a major international marketing holiday that serves as a popular alternative to Black Friday, the annual in-store shopping event that takes place on the day after Thanksgiving Day.

Internet Theme Days

Internet Theme Days first appeared in the form of Caturday in 2005 on 4chan’s random board /b/. They are weekly practices within image boards and forums in which special threads are created for the sole purpose of sharing a certain theme of images.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) trade agreement was proposed in 2006 through a series of multi-party negotiations among governments of nations representing Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Singapore. The agreement aimed to establish international conventions on enforcing intellectual property rights. It would establish an international legal framework for national governments to join voluntarily and create a governing body outside existing decision-making bodies such as World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations. In October 2011, the agreement was signed by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States. In July 2012, the European Parliament declined its consent.

Protect IP Act / Stop Online Privacy Act

The Protect IP Act was introduced in May 2011 in the United States Senate, which was designed to provide the government and copyright holders with powers to block access to “rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods,” especially those registered outside the United States. In October that year, a similar bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced in the House. Following many large-scale protests backed by several high profile Internet companies, voting on the bill was postponed indefinitely by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in January 2012.

Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act (CISPA) was introduced in March 2012 in the United States House of Representatives, which was designed to grant the government additional powers and resources to monitor the online activities of U.S. citizens to prevent cybercrimes, namely trafficking in intellectual property and counterfeit goods. On April 18th, 2013, the bill was passed in the House but did not pass the Senate. In July 2014, a similar bill was introduced in the Senate.

Printing Out The Internet

Printing Out The Internet is a conceptual art project orchestrated by Kenneth Goldsmith, the Poet Laureate of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the curator of the literary resource site Ubu Web.^[18] The project was launched in May 2013 as a memorial to the late programmer and activist Aaron Swartz who committed suicide in January 2013. The project was on display at LABOR^[19] art gallery in Mexico City, Mexico from July 26th – August 31st, 2013 and by the end of the project, more than 10 tons of paper^[20] had been sent in from more than 20,000 contributors.

Reception

The Internet has been so well-received that around 40% of the world population has an internet connection as of May 14th, 2016.^[27] Of that percentage, 48.4% of internet users live in Asia.^[27] It is treated as a utility in the United States as of February 26th, 2015.^[24] At least 4.6 billion web pages have been added to the Internet’s world wide web as of May 14th, 2016.^[25] The Internet is presumed to reach a growth-rate of 1 zettabyte (nearly twelve billion gigabytes) per year by the end of 2016 and 2 zettabytes per year by 2019.^[26]

Fandoms

Fandoms are social groups based around a particular interest and comprised of individuals who share that interest. The Internet itself acts as a medium for fandoms to exist on. On the internet, the term is typically used to refer to the fans of media franchises. It is often associated with fanfiction, as well as fan-made art and music.

Related Subcultures

Hacktivism

Hacktivism refers to people, notably Anonymous, acting outside of the criminal justice system to carry out vigilante missions through the subversive use of computers or the Internet.^[29] The alternate term Internet Vigilantism is often used as a synonym though the terms have nuanced differences.^[30]

Net Art

Net Art, also referred to as Internet Art, is a genre of fine art that uses networked interfaces as medium or for distribution. This can include work that is browser-based and created with code, or work that was created with other software or algorithms and is either exhibited or distributed with networked interfaces, often in combination with interactivity. While net art has no defined structure, the capabilities of commercially available computing equipment, network speed, and common software have often helped to define the art genre’s aesthetics.

Online Pornography

Online Pornography (or porn, pr0n) refers to publications, whether in photography, cinematography, or writing, which have the act of sexual intercourse as its subject with the purpose to sexually arouse the viewer.^[14] The abundance of both professional and amateur publications as well as its easy access through online means have made pornography a subject of Internet humor and is sometimes referred to as the purpose of the Internet. Pornography is regarded as “one of the driving forces behind the expansion of the World Wide Web.”^[15]

Online Roleplay

Online Roleplay refers to the practice of altering one’s personality and behaviour in order to fit a particular role or character. When multiple such individuals act out a interaction, scene, or series of scenes, it is frequently known by the noun roleplay. Online, there are communities and parts of fandoms dedicated to roleplaying as a variety of characters. The first well-known online roleplaying community was based around the fantasy roleplaying game MUD1,^[32] which was responsible for spawning the MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) game genre. The game, created and launched in 1978, was inspired by the 1976 single player game Colossal Cave Adventure.^[33]

Related Memes

Internet Slang

Internet Slang consists of a number of different ways of speaking, sub-languages, expressions, spelling techniques and idioms that have obtained most of their meaning on the Internet. These different kinds of language can be either known as chatspeak^[21], SMS speak^[22] or IM language.^[23]

Welcome To the Internet

Welcome to the Internet Is a term used as both a genuine welcome to the Internet and a sarcastic insult used to mock those who aren’t familiar with internet culture.

Rules of the Internet

The Rules of the Internet are a set of protocols and guidelines written to serve as a guide for people who identified themselves with the internet group Anonymous.

First Day on the Internet Kid

First Day on the Internet Kid is an advice animal series depicting a young kid smiling at a computer with a clenched fist. The series is used to poke fun at new and inexperienced users who may be unfamiliar with internet culture.

Grandma Finds the Internet

Grandma Finds the Internet is an advice animal image macro series depicting an elderly woman looking at a laptop with captions expressing bewilderment and shock at what she finds online.

The Internet Is Leaking

The Internet is Leaking is a term used to describe references to internet culture outside of the internet.

The Last Page of the Internet

The Last page of the Internet refers to several web pages claiming to be the final page of the Internet.

The Final boss of the Internet

The Final Boss of the Internet is a mythological character that is supposedly found at the “final level” of the Internet if it were imagined as a video game. The term is generally used to refer to any object, person or place that can be seen as very powerful or difficult to overcome.

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog is an idiom popularized by a cartoon in The New Yorker, which has come to illustrate an understanding about the way privacy an anonymity works on the Internet.

Just Go On The Internet and Tell Lies

You Really Think Someone Would Do That? Just Go On the Internet and Tell Lies? is a rhetorical question used sarcastically to mock another internet user’s gullibility.

Search Interest

External References

About

“breath in Boi” refers to a pair of images of the character SpongeBob from the series SpongeBob SquarePants clasping his hands together and leaning over. The images often feature image corruption similar to Real Nigga Hours, and are commonly used in shitposting. The images are also commonly used as a reaction image to various instances of people making an unwise decision.

Origin

In 2003, Nick.com debuted the Flash game “SpongeBob Kah Rah Tay Contest.” In the game, SpongeBob SquarePants and Sandy the Squirrel spar in a karate match. Before they fight, SpongeBob bow (shown below). The game is the basis for the image in the meme.^[5]

The first known use of the pair of images was in a December 22nd, 2015 post in a 4chan^[1] /fa/ (fashion) thread about a series of modified images of SpongeBob wearing a pair of boots. The post contained the image along with the words “WHODISNIKKA???”.

Spread

On December 26th, 2015, Tumblr user icanmaketheworldhappy shared the image, where it more over 35,000 notes.^[2] The image was also uploadd to iFunny, where it gained over 50 likes.^[3]

Four months later, on March 13th, 2016, YouTuber ExplodingScrotum.png posted a text to speech voice over of the images. As of August 2017, the video (shown below) received more than 123,000 views.

Four months later, on April 1st, 2016, Redditor^[4] Ghastily posted the image in the the subreddit /r/DemomanTwitter. The post (shown below, left) received more than 200 points (100% upvoted) in a year and a half.

The following year, Redditor dank420memes1337 posted the Rogue One: A Star Wars character K-2SO doing the same motion as SpongeBob. The post (shown below, right) received more than 480 points (98% upvoted).

Various Examples

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About

Old Gregg is a fictional merman character from the British comedy television series The Mighty Boosh, who has green skin, webbed hands, seaweed hair and female genitalia.

Origin

On August 23rd, 2005, The Mighty Boosh episode “The Legend of Old Gregg” aired on the United Kingdom-based television network BBC. In the episode, the character Howard (played by Julian Barratt) accidentally pulls a merman named Old Gregg (played by Noel Fielding) out of the water, who flashes Howard his female genitalia and takes him to his cave. After Howard regains consciousness, Old Gregg pressures Howard into staying and tells the story of “The Funk,” an alien creature responsible for the rise of funk music.

“You ever drink Bailey’s from a shoe?”
“You ever go to a club where people wee on each other?”
“I’m Old Gregg! I’ve got a mangina!”

Spread

On March 2nd, 2006, Urban Dictionary^[2] user grep-top submitted an entry for “Old Gregg,” citing the episode of The Mighty Boosh as its origin.

On March 12th, YouTuber sparklemonkey uploaded footage from a live performance by The Mighty Boosh, in which Old Gregg pops of a giant box (shown below, left). In the next nine years, the video received more than 950,000 views and 290 comments. On November 11th, 2007, a page for Old Gregg was createdon the Mighty Boosh Wiki.^[6] On December 8th, YouTuber bryanonfilm uploaded a mashup video featuring clips from the film No Country for Old Men with dubbed audio from the Old Gregg sketch (shown below, right).

On July 2nd, 2008, a Facebook^[1] page titled “Old Gregg” was launched, garnering upwards of 136,200 likes in the next eight years. On November 10th, YouTuber Ashley Ketchum uploaded a video titled “Old Gregg in the Elevator,” in which a man cosplaying as Old Gregg repeats lines from the sketch to strangers in an elevator (shown below, left). On May 27th, 2009, YouTuber Caleb Bollenbacher uploaded a mashup of the Old Gregg sketch with the Lady Gaga music video for the track “Love Game” (shown below, right).

On October 27th, 2012, Redditor nolanoxl uploaded a photograph of an Old Gregg cosplayer to /r/pics,^[3] where it received more than 2,400 votes (87% upvoted and 150 comments prior to being archived (shown below, left). On March 26th, 2014, YouTuber Eddie Moran reuploaded the comedy sketch, gaining over 1.9 million view and 720 comments in the next year. On November 1st, Redditor xxMVRCKxx posted a photograph of himself dressed as Old Gregg to the /r/funny^[4] subreddit, where it gained over 3,900 votes (85% upvoted) and 120 comments in three months (shown below, right).

On October 4th, 2016, XoJane^[5] published a guide for creating an Old Gregg costume. On June 19th, 2017, Redditor JohnnyMrNinja uploaded a GIF combining a scene from the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation with The Mighty Boosh sketch titled “Old Gregg – The Prime Directive” to /r/HighQualityGifs^[7] (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

WTF is This Shit!? is an internet catchphrase, popularly used in various image macros where a character looks confused. It is used to signify disapproval of someone else’s post, when they post something that is either really stupid, badly written, vulgar, or otherwise out of place.

Origin

The first instance of the catchphrase being used in an image macro is supposedly from December 10th, 2006, uploaded on Flickr.^[1] It used a picture of Annoyed Picard from Star Trek, making an exaggerated hand gesture, seeming to point out to something that he doesn’t approve of. This specific hand gesture became one of the defining elements of “WTF is This Shit” image macros, although it isn’t always present.

“WTF is This Shit” can also be considered as a more hostile variant of “What is This I don’t Even”.

Spread

Definition by Urban Dictionary

Urban Dictionary^[2] defines “WTF is This Shit” as follows:

A phrase uttered by a dumbfounded person or persons after witnessing an act committed by an individual that is so incredibly stupid, ridiculous, retarded, moronic, and asinine that no other words can describe the idiocy of this certain individual.

Annoyed Picard

On January 23rd, 2012, a Quickmeme^[3] page for “Annoyed Picard” was created, which featured a screen capture of Picard with an outstretched arm accompanied by captions expressing incredulous frustration (shown below, left). On June 23rd, a new Quickmeme^[4] page was created titled “Annoyed Picard HD”, which featured a higher resolution version of the original Annoyed Picard screen capture. As of July 24th, 2012, the “Annoyed Picard” Quickmeme page has accumulated over 5,500 submissions and the “Annoyed Picard HD” page has received over 2,800 submissions. The same image has been used in the series of image macros using the caption “WTF is This Shit?” (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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About

“Splat Tim the Woomy” (or better known as just “Splat Tim”) is an image of a male Inkling from the Nintendo’s third person shooter Splatoon with a distorted face, typically captioned with the expression “He Does It!”

Origin

On July 6th, 2015, Instagram user @marble.soda posted a picture of a distorted Inkling character wearing a teal shirt with a dog printed on the front (shown below, left). On July 17th, the image was reposted by Twitter user @Cloesy,^[3] along with the caption “it splat tim”, a misspelling of the phrase “It’s splat time” (shown below, right).

Spread

On August 3, 2015, Twitter user @McBedtime tweeted a photoshopped box art mock-up for a “Splat Tim” game (shown below).^[4]

Images of the character subsequently began circulating on Tumblr, often featuring Splat Tim in a variety of other video games. In September, an ask blog for Splat Tim along with various other Splat Tim-themed Tumblr blogs.^[2][5][6][7] On January 12th, 2017, DeviantArtist^[8] Bromighty uploaded a painting of Splat Tim (shown below, left). On August 28th, Redditor tayne_peach posted a photograph of himself cosplaying as Splat Tim to /r/splatoon^[9] (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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About

No Items, Fox Only, Final Destination is a catchphrase parodying the strict and “serious” behavior of competitive players of the video game series Super Smash Bros., or “Tourneyfags,” as they are known. The memetic phrase was turned into a series of MS Paint comics on 4chan in which these players interrupt other events. The phrase is commonly edited through the snowclone“No X, Y Only, Final Destination!”

Origin

In competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee, common tournament tier lists regularly rank the character Fox McCloud as the top rank, currently occupying his own special rank of SS over the 25 other characters.[`] This is commonly attributed to Fox’s high levels of versatility and speed, and is commonly proven to be a “jack of all trades, master of many.” This makes Fox a very popular character among tournament players, making high level tournament play include an overabundance of Fox, oftentimes creating an impression that Fox is the only character allowed to be played.

In competitive tournament play, the focus on skill over random chance and environmental exploitation oftentimes leads players to turn off randomly spawning items and impose self restrictions on many stages that provide any form of significant hazard banned from being played at events due to the unbalanced nature of the game. One of the most balanced stages in the game is Final Destination, which is simply a flat panel. These rules commonly leak into Casual Play, where open Stage Selection and Items are normally welcome, creating tension between the casual and tournament player.

Spread

In early 2007, MS Paint comics appeared on 4chan parodying the “Final Destination” player,
often creating a situation where one character says “No X, No Y, Final Destination” (examples shown below).

On December 18th, 2007 Youtube user Swordsman3003 uploaded the video “Final Destination,” featuring vocal readings of a number of the Final Destination comics. The video gained over 722,000 views. He has since made 2 (and a half) sequels to the video with other Final Destination comics.

For Glory Mode

During the Super Smash Brothers Nintendo Direct, series director Masahiro Sakurai revealed the included online modes for Super Smash Bros 4. One is a For Fun mode, with all stages and items turned on, while the other is For Glory. Drawing inspiration from the meme, For Glory turns Items off by default and limits the players to only playing on Final Destination. Sakurai, feeling that the common tournament play commonly restricted content such as the games soundtrack, added the ability to turn every stage into a flat, simple “Omega” mode that matches Final Destination in flatness and size.

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About

Despacito is a song by Puerto Rican pop artist Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee. The song and a remix version featuring Justin Bieber grew immensely popular and inspired many parodies and remixes.

Origin

“Despacito” was released on January 13th, 2017^[1] along with its music video, which has gained over 3.5 billion views and 20 million likes (as of September 2017), making it the most viewed and liked YouTube video of all time. (shown below)

“Despacito” became the fifty-fourth video to reach 1 billion views on April 20, 2017, doing so in 97 days; the twelfth video to reach 2 billion views on June 16, 2017; and the first video to reach 3 billion views on August 4, 2017, doing so in 204 days.

Spread

The song debuted in the United States at number 2 on the Hot Latin Songs chart. It also debuted at number 88 on the US Billboard Hot 100. On February 18th, 2017, the song hit number 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and remained there for 22 weeks. In the United States, the song has gone 34x Platinum. On April 17th, a part-english remix version featuring Justin Bieber singing in Spanish for the first time in his career was released, contributing to the song growing popular in English-speaking countries. The audio of the song was uploaded to YouTube that day and has gained over 70 million views (shown below).

On May 24th, 2017, TMZ published a video of Bieber attempting to perform the song but instead of singing Spanish, was caught singing “Blah” (shown below). Bieber was harshly criticized for the performance.^[2]

Parodies

The song has inspired numerous popular parodies, with some garnering tens of millions of views on YouTube. The most popular, posted by oRni on January 17th, 2017, gained nearly 27 million views (shown below, left). Another popular parody called “ESEGRINGO,” posted by werevertumurro on February 13th, gained over 24 million views (shown below, right).

The song has also inspired several popular remixes. One of the most popular, posted by the Trap Music channel, has over 4.9 million views (shown below, left). A remix by artist ThatBehavior and posted on the Chill Nation channel gained over 854,000 views (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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About

You vs. The Guy She Told You Not to Worry About is a series of captioned images comparing two male subjects or fictional characters side-by-side, with the one on the right being the more desirable suitor of the two. In August 2016, the meme spawned hundreds of iterations after going viral on Twitter.

Origin

The earliest known instance of this kind of tweet was posted by @AmBlujay^[1] on October 25th, 2015, shown below. As of August 8th, 2016, the tweet has almost 4,000 retweets and 1,550 likes.

Spread

The tweet format was copied a few times in the following month, but became a Twitter fad on August 7th, 2016, when tweets using the joke format featuring pop culture references^[5][6] and meme icons like Harambe^[3]and Guy Fieri^[4] gained thousands of retweets. The spike in the trend made “you vs. the guy she told you not to worry about” a “Twitter moment.”^[2] On August 9th, The Daily Dot^[7] covered it, calling it “fragile masculinity as a meme.”

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About

“It’s Just a Prank!” is an expression often uttered in prank videos when victims react violently when harassed. The phrase is often referenced online when mocking prank video creators for being abusive, threatening or unethical.

Origin

On May 14th, 2014, YouTuber DennisCeeTV uploaded a video titled “Selling Marijuana in the Hood Prank,” in which he says “it’s just a prank” when a victim pushes him for soliciting his table (shown below). In the next 15 months, the video gathered upwards of 1.1 million views and 650 comments.

Spread

On June 26th, 2014, the /r/ItsAPrank^[1] subreddit was launched for prank videos featuring violent confrontations. On September 2nd, 2014, YouTuber DennisCeeTV uploaded a video titled “Stepping on Jordans in the Hood Prank,” in which the pranksters yell “it’s just a prank” when victims react violently to having their feet stepped on (shown below, left). In the next year, the video reached over 4.2 million views and 9,400 comments. On September 6th, YouTuber le sticky man uploaded a clip of the 9/11 WTC terrorist attacks with several audio samples of the phrase “It’s just a prank” playing in the background (shown below, right).

On September 24th, YouTuber JusReign uploaded a parody video in which he pranks people by murdering them (shown below, left). On October 11th, YouTuber TheNaturalRants uploaded a parody video entitled “Just A Prank: Sleeping with Friend’s Girlfriend” (shown below, right).

On December 27th, the /r/JustAPrank^[3] subreddit was launched for violent prank video submissions. On January 29th, 2015, YouTuber moekazool uploaded a video compilation titled “It’s Just a Prank Bro,” highlighting clips of violent reactions in prank videos (shown below, left). On April 12th, 2015, an Urban Dictionary entry was created for “It’s just a prank bro!”^[4] On May 15th, the YouTube comedy group Alpacalypse Productions uploaded a parody lampooning prank video creators (shown below, right).

On December 11th, 2015, popular Youtuber FilthyFrank uploaded a video titled “IT’S JUST A PRANKBRO,” parodying and mocking pranking videos which feature unethical behavior while the prankers expect no backlash; featuring guest appearances of JonTron and h3h3 Productions. In the next 6 weeks, the video managed to gather over 2.6 million views.

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About

But Can It Run Crysis? is a phrase referring to the 2007 Crytek first-person shooter Crysis, underscoring the reputation the game has obtained for it’s steep system requirements at the time of its release. The phrase has slowly evolved into a snowclone as years pass, substituting “But can it run X?” for the most recent and system-demanding title at the time.

Origin

Crysis was released on November 13th, 2007^[1] by Crytek and Electronic Arts, and was developed on the (then) latest version of the CryEngine, which also powered Crytek’s first title, FarCry. It was amongst the first games to ever utilize Microsoft’s Direct X D3D10 API framework, which was exclusive to the Windows Vista operating system at the time, a feat prided by the Crytek developers, also stating that the game has over 1 million lines of code, uses over 1 GB of texture data, has over 85,000 shaders.

Since it’s release, Crysis has received universal acclaim, hailing it as the first true next-gen experience, with a Metacritic^[2] aggregated score of 91 and multiple game of the year awards.
One of the earliest uses of the phrase comes from the bit-tech.net^[3] article on the game posted December 15th, 2009, stating that “The question ‘Yeah, but can it play Crysis?’ [has become] a comical catchphrase addition to most graphics card reviews.” The article also questions the necessity of such taxing features on the game at release, and if this was a step in the right direction for gaming.

Spread

The phrase quickly became synonymous to PC gaming and was popular amongst many gaming outlets, with the phrase seeing use alongside queries of the user’s system specs. The phrase’s memetic status was also recognized by Crytek, inserting the phrase as an achievement in Crysis 2.^[4] The phrase was referenced in several image macros (examples shown below).

Snowclone

“But Can It Run Crysis” has slowly evolved into a snowclone phrase over the years, as PC gaming has become more widespread and accessible thanks to lower priced PC peripherals and graphical advancements plateauing. The phrase has been changed to accommodate for more recent graphical milestones, such as RSI’s Star Citizen , changing into “But can it run X” (Minecraft example shown below).

Various Examples

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External References

^[1]Wikipedia – Crysis

^[2]Metacritic – Crystis

^[3]bit-tech.net – Crysis – Did you upgrade?

^[4]Crysis Wikia – Can It Run Crysis

About

I Have Failed You is an exploitable meme that depicts a scene from the Cartoon Network animated TV series Dexter’s Laboratory^[1] in which the eponymous character looks up to a poster of Albert Einstein in his locker and says “I have failed you.” The picture is photoshopped to change Einstein to a character or person who is held in high regard by some groups.

Origin

In Season 1, Episode 3 titled “Dexter’s Rival,” originally aired on May 12th, 1996,^[2] a new student named Mandark Astronomonov arrives at Dexter’s school and reveals himself to be both academically superior and evil, eventually forcing Dexter to shut down his lab. Shocked, Dexter looks up at a drawing of Albert Einstein taped on his locker’s door and says “I have failed you”.

Spread

The template grew into an exploitable in the early 2010s. Several varieties of the original image have been produced and posted on sites such as DeviantArt and FunnyJunk.. One of the early edits posted to DeviantArt was posted by amamortuum on March 31st, 2013 and featured Dexter saying the line to Adolf Hitler (shown below, left) DeviantArt user ryanthescooterguy posted a template for future exploitables (shown below, right).

“Boner For a Living Human Girl”

In September of 2017, a trend on /r/dankmemes involved taking the exploitable and replacing the picture with an animated female character, adding the caption, “When you accidentally get a boner for a living human girl.” On September 19th, user cravinpineapple^[3] uploaded a version using a character from the film G-Force, gaining over 3,100 points (shown below, left). Another popular edit featured a character from Bionicle and gained over 1,400 points (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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About

Hotel Mario is a puzzle game released for the Philips CD-I console in 1994. Many of the game’s cutscenes have been used in various parodies and remix videos on YouTube.

Origin

In 1994, Hotel Mario was released for the Philips CD-I to largely negative reception, with many mocking the cutscenes featured in the game. On August 28th, 2006, YouTuber Lilac Chicky uploaded a montage of the animated sequences, which gathered upwards of 862,000 views and 2,200 comments over the next nine years (shown below).

Spread

On February 3rd, 2008, YouTuber [ninjaxcad] uploaded a YouTube Poop video titled “This Is Hotel Mario!” (shown below, left). On January 2nd, 2010, YouTuber RedKing920 uploaded another YouTube Poop titled “Hotel Mario Deleted Cutscenes” (shown below, right).

On December 14th, 2011, YouTuber The RealHotelMario uploaded a parody of a Hotel Mario cutscene, in which the characters are dubbed with sexually explicit dialogue (shown below, left). On June 11th, 2012, YouTuber Themysteriouspirate uploaded a parody video titled “Hotel Mario – Ultimate Bloopers” (shown below, right). Over the next five years, the video accumulated over 2.3 million views and 4,400 comments.

On July 25th, 2015, YouTuber SpaceHamster uploaded footage of himself playing the game, which garnered upwards of 1.13 million views and 2,400 comments over the next two years (shown below, left). On December 6th, 2016, YouTuber Charriii5 uploaded a video about the game titled "Everything Wrong With Hotel Mario in 4 Minutes (shown below, right).

Sudden Hotel Mario

On September 21st, 2017, Twitter user @YayCocoa uploaded a clip from a SpongeBob Squarepants episode edited with Mario and Luigi from Hotel Mario walking up to the Krusty Krab restaurant (shown below). Within one week, the tweet received more than 13,000 likes and 7,000 retweets.

On September 25th, Twitter user @MarOhyee tweeted a mashup of a Hotel Mario scene with a scene from Beavis and Butthead (shown below).

On September 26th, Redditor King_of_Connaught submitted a photograph of Nazi Germany with Hotel Mario’s Mario and Luigi superimposed into the frame (shown below). Within four hours, the post gathered more than 8,600 points (89% upvoted) and 90 comments on /r/dankmemes.^[3]

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About

Joseph Stalin was a Soviet revolutionary and political leader known for his dictatorial rule of the communist Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. While his ideals were a blend of Marxism and Leninism, his policies came to be known as Stalinism. Stalin is widely regarded as one of the most notable figures of the 20th century, both for establishing the Soviet Union as a superpower but also for the atrocities he and his government committed, including exiling political enemies and families to labor camps (“gulags”), executions, and repressions. Online, Stalin has been the subject of parodies and satires due to his notoriety and ideology.

History

Joseph Stalin was born December 18th, 1878 in Georgia.^[1] He joined the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labor Party as a young man, and after the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, Stalin helped form the Soviet Union in 1922. That year, he became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After consolidating power, Stalin ushered in a centralized command economy, turning the Soviet Union from an agrarian society to an industrial power. From 1934-1939, Stalin organized “The Great Purge” in which he exiled or executed alleged “enemies of the working class,” including senior political and military officials. The executions numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and Stalin exiled millions. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was able to defeat Adolf Hitler, capturing Berlin in May of 1945 and ending World War II. However, Stalin oversaw the start of the Cold War with America, developing a nuclear weapon as the Soviet Union emerged as a superpower. Stalin died on March 5th, 1953.

Online History

Much like Adolf Hitler, Stalin’s notoriety has led to a number of parodies and satires of him on various internet sites such as 4chan, Reddit, and more in the form of image macros and ironic communist posturing reframing Stalin in a positive light, similar to the Hitler Did Nothing Wrong meme.

Related Memes

Stalin Says

Stalin Says is a template on Meme Generator created on June 25th, 2011.^[2] As of October 3rd, 2017, the template ranks 164th on the site. Memes created in the template generally reference Stalin’s Great Purge in parody or joke about his brand of authoritarian communism.

Dear Diary

Dear Diary… is an image macro series featuring photographs of people scribbling on a page with captions written as if they are penning thoughts in a personal journal. As early as October 2010,^[1] a page was launched on the image macro creator website Meme Generator,^[2] featuring a photograph of Joseph Stalin with captions depicting him writing thoughts in a diary, many of which contain “OP is a faggot” punchlines (shown below).

Rainbow Stalin

Rainbow Stalin is a series of YTMND videos that center around the joke of hearing the lyric “Rainbow styling” from “All This Love” by Swedish pop group The Similou as “Rainbow Stalin.” A Rainbow Stalin YTMND usually consists of “All this Love”, the original or a remix, and an edited Soviet propaganda poster. The posters usually are brightly colored, and depict Joseph Stalin DJ-ing for a rave.

Handsome Stalin

Handsome Stalin refers to a picture of Stalin in 1902 at the age of 23 that grew notable online as people found the photo of Stalin attractive.

One of the earliest known appearances of the photo was on the cover of Der Junge Stalin by German biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore.^[3] The photo has been edited in various ways to emphasize Stalin’s attractiveness (examples shown below).

Your/Our

Your/Our refers to a series of four-panel image macros that jokes about the singular possessive pronouns in company names, such as YouTube and MySpace, by juxtaposing them against angry-looking photographs of historical figures, particularly Stalin, whose political interests lie in community rather than selfish needs. The punchline of the joke comes in the bottom two panels, where a picture of the same figure smiling is shown next to the company’s name changed from a singular possessive pronoun (your) to a plural possessive pronoun (our). Similar to Drakeposting.

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You Know I Have to Do It to Em is a photoshop meme based on a picture of Twitter user LuckyLuciano17k standing on a sidewalk wearing a light-colored shirt and shorts with the caption “You know I had to do it to em.”

Origin

On September 2nd, 2014, Twitter user LuckyLuciano17k posted the photograph of himself with the caption “You know I had to do it to em” (shown below).^[1] Prior to the Twitter account becoming private on December 22nd, 2016, the tweet received more than 1,700 likes and 1,700 retweets.

Spread

The tweet remained relatively unknown until July 1st, 2016, when Twitter user @ExhelonWinter^[4] reposted the photo with a mock caption depicting @LuckyLuciano17k as a snobby hip hop fan (shown below).

On July 7th, Tumblr user zonecassette posted an ad for the candy M&M featuring an M&M version of the television host Dr. Phil standing with his arms crossed along with the caption “You know I had to do it to em,” garnering more than 4,400 notes within six months (shown below, left). On July 26th, Tumblr user queenwhiskey reposted the original photograph.^[6] On December 5th, Tumblr user splooge-mcducc posted a photoshop of LuckyLuciano17k as the character Fred Flintstone from the cartoon The Flintstones (shown below, right). Within three weeks, the post gained over 18,000 notes.

On December 22nd, Tumblr user milkyboyhanzo posted a photoshop featuring the character Zenyatta from Overwatch (shown below, left). The following day, Tumblr user graffitidraws^[7] posted an illustration of the character Stingy from LazyTown based on the original LuckyLuciano17k photo (shown below, right).

The meme continued appearing in various iterations through October of 2017. On October 1st, Twitter user @lujgi posted a photoshop of the character as the twins from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, gaining over 8,400 retweets (shown below, left). The same day, Instagram meme maker adam.the.creator^[8] posted an image including Luciano in a “All the memes of September” collage (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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About

Himouto! Umaru-chan (干物妹!うまるちゃん Himōto! Umaru-chan) is a manga and anime series written by Sankaku Head and published on the magazine Weekly Young Jump. The series follow Umaru Doma, a high school student who appears to be the ideal student with good looks, but when she gets at home she reverts into a layabout where she acts lazy, plays video games and depends on her older brother Taihei, to his dismay.

Premise

The series focus on the exploits of Umaru Doma, a high school student who lives with her older brother Taihei. At school, she appears to be the perfect student, with beautiful looks, top grades and excellence in everything she does; but once she gets home she reverts into a chibi version of herself who spends her time laying arround, eating junk food, playing video games, reading manga and watching anime, along with depending on Taihei for all kind of stuff. Umaru will use different alternate personalities to become friends with some of her classmates: Ebina Nana, an unconfident girl from the country who is in love with Umaru’s brother; Kirie Motoba, a shy girl who develops a yandere relation with Umaru; and Sylphynford Tachibana, a half-japanese overly entusiastic and competitve girl who sees herself as Umaru’s rival; while Umaru tries to balance those personalities in order to mantain her friendships.

From left to right: Kirie Motoba, Umaru Doma, Ebina Nana, Syplhynford Tachibana

History

The series started its serialization in Shueisha’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump on March 13th, 2013. On December 13th, 2014 a television anime adaptation was announced by the animation studio Doga Kobo (known for its works on other adaptations like YuruYuri). The anime officialy premiered on July 9th, 2015.

Reception

The anime series was licenced by the streaming website CrunchyRoll on July 8th, 2015,^[9] and the next day was licensed on North America by the animation company Sentai Filmworks.^[12] As August 3rd, 2015 the manga series has sold over 1,5 milion copies.^[11]

Online Presence

On July 8th, user Shadowflix submited a thread on /r/anime to discuss about the first episode of the anime series, gaining over 360 points (over 97% upvoted) and over 140 comments in a month.^[13] During the following month, several GIFs and fanart from the series was posted on the subreddits /r/awwnime^[14] and /r/animegifs.^[15] On August 4th, 2015 a wikia about the series was created,^[10] and the following day a subreddit dedicated to the series discussion was created.^[1] A MyAnimeList page for the anime series was also created after its announcement.^[5] On 4chan, the series became a hot topic after it became source for shitposting on the site, mostly on the boards /a/, /v/ and /r9k/ with Umaru Doma images, resulting in a growing hatebase over Umaru.^[4]

Fandom

The series gained a huge following online after the anime premiere. As August 8th, 2015 the japanese artist community pixiv leads to over 1000 results under the tag “干物妹!うまるちゃん”,^[2] and over 390 results under the tag “土間うまる”.^[3] The artist community DeviantART leads to over 590 results under the keyword “umaru”.^[7] Fandom presence can also be found on other communities like Tumblr. ^[6]

The anime of the series was well received by the fans and also introduced many newcomers to the series, leading to a significant growth in the fandom. In February 2016, six months after the airing of the anime, the amount of fanworks on Pixiv and DeviantArt had increased to respectively over 4,100, 1,300 and 2,700.

Related Memes

Hamster Hoodie

Hamster Hoodie is the name given to the hamster kimurugi worn by Umaru Doma on her chibi form. As one of the most recognizable parts from her design, it has been featured on multiple crossover arts with some variations, in similar vein to the boob ribbon from Hestia. The official Young Jump site also released a “Umaru Maker”, to create own versions of the character.^[18]

Himouto! Umaru-chan Opening Parodies

Himouto! Umaru-chan Opening Parodiesrefer to a series of fanarts that take inspiration from two scenes from the anime opening: Umaru walking with a group of hamsters and Umaru playing maracas and dancing with her clones.

Umaru x Anzu

Umaru x Anzurefers to a series of crossover media featuring Umaru Doma and Anzu Futaba from THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls, due their similar lazy behavior.^[19]

WHATTHEFUCK IS THATTHING

“WHATTHEFUCK IS THATTHING” is a catchphrase used in response to weird and deformed character images and adopted by Umaru Doma detractors as response to her images, usually accompained with a close-up picture of Ninja Brian from Ninja Sex Party. First used on /a/ post submited on July 23rd, 2015,^[16] soon it grew as a joke between the fanbase.^[17]

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Grape-kun was a penguin at the Tobu Zoo in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, who gained much online notoriety for his perceived interest in a cardboard cutout of the anthropomorphic penguin character Hululu from Kemono Friends after it was placed in his enclosure in late April 2017.

Origin

On April 21st, 2017, Twitter user @sisukaton^[1] tweeted two photographs of Grape-kun staring at a cutout of Hululu placed within his enclosure (shown below). Within 10 days, the tweet gained over 39,000 likes and 30,400

Spread

On April 25th, the Tobu Zoo’s official Twitter account posted a photograph of Grape-kun staring at Hululu, noting that he had been staring at her since earlier that morning (shown below, left).^[4] On April 27th, Twitter user @kyockcho^[3] posted a photograph of Grape-kun placed behind a fence away from the Hululu cutout (shown below, right). That day, Redditor yuriredfox69 posted the tweet to /r/KemonoFriends,^[2] saying “Grape-ojiisan is now isolated from Hululu.”

That day, Twitter user @mitsumotocs posted an illustration of Grape-kun and Hululu along with the caption “I wish they could talk to each other” (shown below). Within four days, the tweet received upwards of 11,900 likes and 6,100 retweets. Also on April 27th, theanime news site Goboiano^[7] published an article titled “Japan Puts Anime in Zoo and Penguin Adopts a Waifu.” On April 29th, Yahoo Japan^[5] published an article about Grape-kun, which contained a statement from zoo staff claiming he was placed behind the fence to prevent him from falling into the pool due to his old age.

That day, the Crunchyroll Facebook page posted a video about the online Grape-kun’s romance with the cardboard cutout, which gathered upwards of 1.5 million views, 30,000 reactions and 8,200 comments within the first 72 hours.

On May 20th, 2017, Grape-kun was visited by Chikuta Ikuko, the voice actress for Hululu in Kemono Friends, who also shared this experience alongside a picture on her Twitter.^[12] Within the next 5 months, the Tweet received over 13,000 retweets and 19,000 likes.

Death

On October 10th, 2017, the Tobu Zoo tweetedan announcement that Grape-kun had been removed from display after noticing changes in his physical condition.^[8] Immediately after, Twitter users replied with well wishes for the penguin’s recovery.

On October 12th, the Tobu Zoo posted a photograph of Grape-kun along with a message revealing that he had passed away the previous day (shown below).^[9] Within 24 hours, the tweet gathered upwards of 118,000 retweets and 92,000 likes.

“The Humboldt penguin Grape-kun passed away yesterday. Sincere thanks to everyone for supporting him until now. Thank you also to Hululu, who watched over him until the very end. And thank you, Grape-kun, for all this time. Rest peacefully in heaven.“

That evening, the tweet was submitted to /r/anime,^[10] where it gained over 8,300 points (99% upvoted) and 620 commentswithin 13 hours. On Twitter, many mourned Grape-kun’s passing by posting fan arts dedicated to the penguin (shown below).

Additionally, Mine Yoshizaki, character designer for Kemono Friends, dedicated an illustration to Tobu Zoo in honor of Grape-kun; which was shared on Twitter by Tobu Zoo.^[11] Within 3 days, the tweet received over 46,000 retweets and 78,000 likes.

Various Examples

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External References