About

Clock Man is a stop-motion animated Czech short which aired on Nickelodeon’s Pinwheel show. This short follows the story of a girl who is taken on an unpleasant trip by a mysterious “clock man”, but is returned to her room just before sunrise.For years, discussions about the film circulated online despite no official record of its existence, with some dismissing the story as a creepypasta.. In mid-December 2017, the film was discovered by The Lost Media Wiki as the short animated film About Dressy Sally.

Origin

In 2012, The Flood Forums member Commander Santa submitted a thread about his search for a short film aired on Nickelodeon’s Pinwheel show he remembered from his childhood that continued to haunt him for years to come. Commander Santa described the short as follows:

“This short animation was terrifying as a child. The scene is still burned into my mind (28 years later). It’s of a young boy sleeping in his bed. Above his bed is a ticking clock. All the lights in the room are off and it is very dark. Suddenly the clock begins to slow down it’s ticking and eventually it stops…on midnight. When the clock stops a Greenish/Bluish man climbs out of the clock. The boy wakes up just in time to see this man dressed in black grab him out of bed and kidnap him by carrying him through a window. The “Clock Man” takes the boy on some kind of terrifying adventure and brings him back to his bed before sunrise."

Commander Santa also provided a sketch of what he remembered about the short(shown below)

Initially fellow users were skeptical as Commander Santa’s story felt eerily creepypasta-like, especially when compared to Candle Cove. But with Commander Santa being a highly respected member of the forums, many tried to help in any way they could. In the first 24 hours, the thread received over 800 replies and several suggestions to what the animated short could have been.

Spread

Stories about the short film subsequently spread to other online communities, including 4chan’s /x/ (paranormal) board, the World of Warcraft TV Forums, Hippotank, Minecraft Forums, Yahoo Answers and the Bioware Social Network. Commander Santa subsequently consulted various cartoon collectors and universities, including the National Film and Television School, Vancouver Film School, University of California, Arizona State, Cornell and Brigham Young University.

Lost Media Wiki Search

On September 16th, 2016 The Lost Media Wiki, a website associated with the research and seeking of pieces of media considered ‘lost’ due to the difficulty of finding them, announced a shift in focus to the search of Clock Man specifically after the conclusion of its previous main focus, A Day With Spongebob Squarepants. That day, YouTubers BedHead Bernie and Dycate released videos detailing the search up to that point.

That same day, the Lost Media Wiki released an infographic detailing information known about the short (shown below).

Discovery

On December 11th, 2017 the Lost Media Wiki announced that they discovered the short film was a 1976 animation by director Dagmar Doubková. The cartoon had been uploaded to YouTube by the AAA Studio – Animated movies in September (shown below).^[5]

Search Interest

External References

About

Rick and Morty is an animated television series created by Community executive producer Dan Harmon and writer Justin Roiland^[22] and broadcast weekly on Cartoon Network late-night programming block Adult Swim. The series is mainly centered around an alcoholic scientist-and-inventor named “Rick” and his long lost grandson “Morty” as they embark on dangerous and bizarre adventures together throughout space and time.

History

Season One

The show concept for Rick and Morty was first announced during Adult Swim’s Upfront presentation in May 2012, followed by the commencement of the production for 10 half-hour episodes to be aired on Cartoon Network (not including the pilot) in October that year. On November 27th, 2013, the pilot episode of Rick and Morty was leaked via YouTube several days prior to its scheduled broadcast on Adult Swim, which premiered at 10 p.m. (ET) on December 2nd. In the episode, Rick takes his grandson Morty into another dimension to research “mega trees.”

Season Two

Rick and Morty season two premiered on July 26th, 2015 with the episode “A Rickle in time.” The season ran for 10 episodes and concluded on October 4th, 2015.^[20]

Season Three

The third season of Rick and Morty surprised audiences when it aired on April 1st, 2017 on Cartoon Network. Appearing without notice or advertising, the episode played on a loop from 8pm to midnight.^[21] The episode turned a 1998 McDonald’s promotion for the Disney film Mulan, szechuan sauce dipping sauce, into a viral sensation

Fandom

On May 19th, 2012, a few days after the announcement by Adult Swim, a subreddit community titled /r/rickandmorty^[2] was launched, which gained over 16,900 subscribers in the following two years. On November 27th, 2013, Redditor theroboticdan submitted the leaked pilot episode to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 2,100 up votes and 220 comments in the first two months. As the series progressed over the next several months, subsequent episodes reached the front page of Reddit as well. Also on November 27th, a page for the show was created on the trope database website TV Tropes.^[8] On December 10th, a Rick and Morty wiki^[7] was created. On January 21st, 2014, /r/rickandmorty ranked in as the fastest growing non-default subreddit.^[3] As of February 2014, Rick and Morty’s official Facebook page has accumulated more than 10,000 likes.

Rich and Morto

On November 15th, 2016, Redditor TheNiceBiscuit posted a message proclaiming an appreciation for the show “Rich and Morto,” followed by the phrase “wooba looba dick duck” (shown below). Within 72 hours, the post received upwards of 8,700 votes (87% upvoted) and 350 comments on the /r/rickandmorty^[15] subreddit.

That day, Redditor Wyntersun uploaded a “Rich and Morto” illustration to /r/rickandmorty,^[18] where it garnered more than 5,600 votes and 130 comments in three days (shown below, left). On November 16th, Redditor MC_Labs15 posted a traced version of Wynersun’s drawing (shown below, right).^[19]

That day, Redditor ElderCunningham submitted a post asking about the origin of “Rich and Morto” to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[16] where Redditor finnegar cited TheNiceBiscuit’s post. Also on November 16th, the official Rick and Morty Twitter^[17] account posted a tweet referencing the “Rich and Morto” meme (shown below).

Fan Art

On Deviant Art^[10][12] and Tumblr,^[11][13][14] fans of the series have featured original artwork inspired by the series.

What is Rick and Morty?

On December 10th, Twitter user @sadgirlkms^[25] posted a tweet which read “isnt rick and morty that thing you get when you die and your body gets all stiff”. The tweet gained over 68,000 retweets and 181,000 likes (shown below).

This started a lengthy Twitter thread where a person would correct the above poster while offering another definition for Rick and Morty. For example, the top comment to @sadgirlkms, posted by poketrainer7^[26] read "You’re thinking of rigor mortis. Rick and morty is when you get trolled into watching “never gonna give you up”." This continued for dozens of posts. The following day, Twitter user @Matt__nelson^[27] tweeted several screenshots from the thread, saying “I’d like to personally congratulate each and every individual involved,” gaining over 26,000 retweets and 59,000 likes (screenshots shown below).

A thread about the Twitter thread was posted to Reddit’s /r/rickandmorty, gaining over 20,000 upvotes.^[28] The Twitter thread was also covered by Salon^[29] and Twitter Moments.^[30]

Reception

On January 28th, the entertainment news blog Vulture^[4] reported that Rick and Morty had beaten NBC’s late night comedy programs in ratings. On the following day, Rick and Morty was renewed for a second season on Adult Swim.^[5]

After season 2, a 3rd season was released unannounced on April Fool’s Day and then fully released between July 31st 2017 thru Oct 1st 2017.^[23] Deadline magazine published that Rick and Morty Season 3 set record ratings for Adult Swim.^[24]

Search Interest

External References

About

He Protec but He Also Attac is an intentionally misspelled variation of the expression, “He protects, but he also attacks,” which is used online to caption various image macros featuring subjects preparing to defend against or engage an enemy.

Origin

On November 8th, 2016, the @fijichecks^[4] Instagram posted photographs of a nude man wielding a light saber along with the caption “he protec / but he also attac” (shown below).

Spread

On February 5th, 2017, the b3pis Instagram^[1] page posted a picture of a stuff cow toy wielding a knife with the caption “He protec. / but he also attac” (shown below). Within two months, the image received more than 2,800 likes. On February 13th, the sketchymemes Instagram page posted a similar image macro featuring screenshots from the film Cat in the Hat (shown below, right).

On March 15th, a 4chan user posted a Based Stickman variation of the image to a thread on /pol/ (shown below, left).^[4] On March 30th, Redditor MrAdorDeplor submitted a post to /r/MemeEconomy^[5] asking how “he protec” memes were doing “on the market,” along with a version of the image macro featuring comedian Lester Green (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

About

Whomst is a fake word used to signal ironic superior intelligence, similar to the me, an intellectualsnowclone. In early 2017, “whomst” images pairing the word with pictures of people photoshopped to have bright purple eyes a la Gordon Ramsay’s Lamb Sauce grew popular on meme-focused subreddits.

Origin

On June 2nd, 2016, lighting guy submitted a definition of “whomst” to Urban Dictionary^[1] that reads, “For times when you want to ask ‘who or whom’, but need a fancier connotation.”

The earliest known sarcastic use of the word was posted to Instagram on December 27th, 2016, by fkinsnapss,^[2] who used it to caption of a video of a man walking with his pants extremely high up on his waist while the X-files theme music played (shown below).

Spread

On January 21st, 2017, Instagram user b3pis^[3] posted what would become the most popular example of the “whomst” meme. In the image, a boy shows increasingly pleased reactions to variations on “who,” ending with a glowing purple eyed reaction to “whomst’d” (shown below). The post has gained 2,669 likes on Instagram as of February 1st, 2017.

The image set a precedent for “Whomst” memes to be used in a similar vein as the #UpgradeChallenge, where one image compares a small-minded “person who does X” with a comically large-brained “person whomst does Y” (ex: shown below).

Other variations on the meme include making “whomst” even longer and more nonsensical, i.e. “whomst’d’ve.” On Janurary 31st, 2017, redditor Julien2000 posted a comment to /r/MemeEconomy of the original “whomst image” titled, “Whomst’d memes are on the rise! Whomst’d’ve’s’nd would not want to invest this in amazing offer! Buy! Buy! Buy! But beware of demand side inflation!”^[4]

Various Examples

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About

Virgin vs. Chad, also known as Virgin Walk, refers to a series of illustrations comparing various “virgin” men with low self-confidence to their Chad Thundercock counterparts. After an MS Paint depiction of the walk began circulating online in March 2017, other illustrations of “virgin” behaviors began appearing on the /r9k/ board on 4chan.

Origin

On April 23rd, 2016, a 4chan user submitted a post titled “Virgin signs,” listing the “infamous virgin walk” as a way to identify a virgin on the /r9k/ board (shown below).^[8] In the thread, the gait was described as someone walking with “hands in your pockets and always looking down.” On March 25th, 2017, an illustration depicting an example of the “virgin walk” was posted to /r9k/ (shown below).^[7]

Spread

That same day, the “Virgin Walk” illustration was reposted on FunnyJunk.^[3] On June 6th, 2017, a post urging viewers to “post all vi/r/gin memes” was submitted to /r9k/, in which various MS Paint illustrations were submitted depicting various behaviors associated with virgins juxtaposed with their “Chad” and “Wizard” counterparts, including the “virgin walk” image (shown below).

The following day, Redditor PyrusSolus submitted an Imgur gallery containing images from the 4chan thread to /r/4chan.^[5] Meanwhile, a collection of the images were highlighted in a thread on the BodyBuilding Forums. On June 10th, Redditor hardflips submitted an image comparing the “virgin walk” to the “Chad stride” to /r/justneckbeardthings^[4] subreddit.

Various Examples

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External References

About

“Here’s Johnny” is a quote from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which aired from the 1962 to early 1992. At the beginning of each episode, Ed McMahon would introduce Carson with the line, “and now, heeeeeere’s Johnny!” The line was quoted in a famous scene in Stanley Kubrick’sThe Shining (1980) in which actor Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance breaks through a door. That scene has been parodied online in various video remixes and exploitableimage macros.

Origin

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson first aired October 1st, 1962. Prior to Carson’s appearance on each episode, Ed McMahon would announce “and now, heeeeeere’s Johnny!” (example shown below).

The line became well known in pop culture and was famously referenced in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. In the film, Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance hacks down a door with an axe. Once there is a hole large enough for his face, he sticks his head through and sinisterly says “here’s Johnny!” (shown below). The scene would inspire future memes using the phrase.

Spread

The scene became one of the iconic moments of the film, and was widely parodied, both online and in pop culture. Online, an early LEGO parody of the scene was posted May 30th, 2007 by Dan Parks and gained over 1.1 million views (shown below, left). It was also parodied in a series of YouTube Poops. For example, on August 13th, 2008, an edit was posted by iContainFail, gaining over 13,000 views (shown below, right).

The scene has also been parodied in several popular YouTube videos which feature different characters acting out the scene. For example, a Five Nights At Freddy’s animation posted by Crazy Is Crazy gained over 2.2 million views (shown below, left). A Source Filmmaker edit of the scene posted in June of 2015 by zombiller gained over 950,000 views (shown below, right).

Another popular video trend on YouTube finds people reenacting the scene. Some popular versions include a video by YouTuber trentpekkala posted in November of 2009 that gained over 783,000 views (shown below, left). Another by Hive Mind Productions posted in 2014 gained over 142,000 views (shown below, right)

Sparta Remixes

Another popular trend in the late 2000s and early 2010s saw the scene applied to Sparta Remixes. For example, an upload of a Sparta Remix of The Simpsons by zonic19game in October 2010 gained over 139,000 views (shown below, left). A reupload of a Here’s Johnny Sparta Remix was posted by Spartan ReUploader on July 5th, 2012, gaining over 48,000 views (shown below, right).

In Pop Culture

The phrase has been referenced in dozens of pieces of pop culture, including films like Finding Nemo and television shows like Bob’s Burgers. On April 19th, 2017, YouTube channel iiAFX uploaded a compilation of “Here’s Johnny” references in pop culture, gaining over 5.5 million views (shown below).

Various Examples

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About

Ajit Pai is the current Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) who has been widely criticized online for supporting the repeal of Obama-era regulations ensuring the protection of net neutrality.

Career

In February 2001, Pai became the Associate General Counsel at Verizon Communications Inc. In April 2003, Pai left his position at Verizon was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. After the next eight years, Pai served in various positions at the Department of Justice and the FCC’s Office of General Counsel. In May 2012, Pai was appointed to the FCC by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. In January 2017, Pai was appointed as chairman of the commission by President Donald Trump. In April, Pai proposed a repeal net neutrality rules enacted under the Obama administration. In July, protests were held against Pai’s proposal. In mid-November, the FCC revealed plans to hold a vote in December to end the Obama-era net neutrality rules.

Online History

On May 13th, 2017, the Independent Journal Review YouTube channel uploaded a video of Pai reading various insulting tweets directed toward him, mimicking a recurring comedy segment on the talk show

In November, numerous image macros condemning FCC chairman Ajit Pai as greedy and beholden to corporate interests were submitted in the coming days, many of which reached the front page of the /r/dankmemes and /r/memeeconomysubreddits (shown below).

On November 30th, PewDiePie uploaded a video about Pai titled ‘’The Most Hated Person on the Internet’’ (shown below). Within two weeks, the video gained over 3.03 million views and 15,400 comments.

Federal Communications Bar Association Dinner

On December 8th, 2017, a video was leaked online showing Pai’s speech held at the annual Federal Communications Bar Association dinner, in which he made several jokes about the net neutrality controversy and jokingly referred to himself as a “Verizon puppet” (shown below).

The Daily Caller PSA

On December 13th, the conservative news site The Daily Caller^[3] published a video in which Pai performs the “Harlem Shake” after presenting a list titled “7 Things You Can Still Do on the Internet After Net Neutrality” (shown below).

That day, various image macros mocking Pai’s apperance in the video reached the front page of /r/dankmemes (shown below).

Ajit Pai Eating Popcorn

On December 17th, 2017, Redditor Markmeoffended posted a video of Ajit Pai eating popcorn in front of a green screen to /r/MemeEconomy,^[4] where it gathered more than 34,900 points (89% upvoted) and 560 comments within 24 hours. In the comments section, Markmeoffended replied with a Droste effect version of the clip (shown below).

Over the next day, more edited versions of the clip reached the frontpage of /r/dankmemes and /r/MemeEconomy (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Miraculous Ladybug (officially known as Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir in English, Lady Bug in Korea, and Miraculous overall) is a French-Korean CGI-animated action and adventure series created by Thomas Astruc. The series, which follows the exploits of Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste as they protect the city of Paris from evil under their superhero alter egos, Ladybug and Cat Noir, quickly gained a fanbase after the premiere of the English version in December 2015.

Premise

Set in modern day Paris, the show centers around teenagers Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste who, entrusted with the power of the magical jewelry of the Miraculous, become superheroes Ladybug and Cat Noir respectively. The pair capture and purify akumas, corrupted black and purple butterflies created by the mysterious villain Hawk Moth, which are responsible for turning regular people into super villains, while Hawk Moth seeks Ladybug’s and Cat Noir’s Miraculouses and their powers for his own purposes.

History

The original concept of the series was conceived around 2005 by Thomas Astruc^[1], who previously worked on other French animated shows in various production roles such as Code Lyoko and Wakfu^[22], both of which he worked on as a storyboard artist for example, after working with a woman who had a ladybug design on her shirt. After drawing the initial character design on a sticky note (titled “The Mini Menace Ladybug”, shown below, left) and fleshing her out with mock-up fake comic book covers^[30], he would eventually meet producer Jeremy Zag who helped turn it into a TV show. During production, the show would go through a number of revisions, ranging from a darker tone with political stories, similar to the tone of that of the mock-up comic book covers which were suited for more teenage and young adult audiences^[12], to an unused team concept known as the “Quantic Kids.”^[14] (sketch shown below, right)

The concept was eventually first made public on September 5th, 2012 as a short 2D anime proof-of-concept video animated by Toei Animation and produced by Method Animation and Zagtoon^[2] titled “Lady Bug Japanese version” originally uploaded to Youtube on August 30, 2012.^[27] (shown below, left) which garnered notoriety and spread due to its anime aesthetic and comments about and comparisons to existing magical girl anime. The video was made private a few days later due to a mishap that accidentally made the video public, as it was intended for potential investors in the project. The video would later be re-uploaded by a few fans, one of which was titled “Ladybug PV” which has garnered over 6 million views as of September 2016. In October 2013, a new teaser trailer for the show was released, seeing a change from the anime art style that was used in the proof-of-concept video to CGI (shown below, right) animated by South Korean animation studio SAMG Animation.

In late 2015, the show premiered, first in South Korea on September 1st on EBS, then in France on October 19th on TF1, and then in America on December 6th on Nickelodeon. On November 20, producer Jeremy Zag announced through Instagram that 2 more seasons of the show would be produced.^[26] On December 22nd, Jeremy Zag confirmed through Instagram that a 2D OVA is in progress for Japan.^[17] In early February 2017, the show’s first season premiered on Netflix for American audiences, with the show’s upcoming second season to premiere in spring of 2018^[38] alongside a third season later that year^[36]. This was also accompanied with the announcement that airing of the show would be moved from Nickelodeon to Netflix for American audiences only.^[34] On May 17, it was announced that the show would get two more seasons.^[37]

Reception

After the show first premiered in the US, the first episode garnered 1.4 million viewers.^[20] The show has an IMDb rating of 9.0 out of 10 from 374 users as of May 2016.^[3] and a 4 star rating out of 5 from Common Sense Media.^[4] The show was also ranked at number 18 on Tumblr’s 2015 year-end list for “Most Reblogged Animated TV” alongside other animated TV shows.^[13] Tumblr’s official Fandometrics blog also began listing Miraculous on their TV Shows fandom list, debuting at number 19 near the end of September.^[15] before eventually reaching the top spot on the March 14 edition of the list.^[29] As of May 2016, the show is currently ranked third.^[16] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, television critic Robert Lloyd described the show as “clever, romantic, fun, the way some of us prefer our superhero stories.”^[28] The show has also become a number-one animation show on France’s TF1.^[21] Near the end of 2016, the show reached the second place spot for Tumblr’s year-end list for “2016’s Top TV Shows (Animated)”,^[32] while also debuting at number 13 on Tumblr’s year-end list for “2016’s Top Ships” with the Ladynoir ship.^[33]

Online Relevance

The show’s official Facebook page for the show has garnered over 13,700 likes as of May 2016,^[5] while the show’s official Twitter account has accumulated over 10,200 followers.^[6] Dedicated fan accounts for the show in various regions also exist, with the most popular, @Ladybug_Cartoon, having over 65,000 followers.^[35] On March 5th, 2015, a dedicated wiki was created, gathering over 400 pages in the following months.^[8] A Miraculous Ladybugsubreddit was created by user Yatalac on September 4th, 2014 which has garnered over 1,100 subscribers in the following months.^[7] On October 18th, 2015, YouTuber headofporridge uploaded scenes from the show accompanied with the French opening as fanmade trailer, gaining over 360,000 views in the following two months. On December 21st, 2015, YouTuber Lulu uploaded a translated version of a Vocaloid promotional video featuring an alternate universe set in the 1700s, which gained over 34,000 views in the following five days. On September 27, 2016, an official Youtube channel was established, garnering over 27,000 subscribers in the following week.^[31]

Fandom

Quickly after the release of the promotional short, the series gained a niche following that increased since its release, mostly on the microblogging network Tumblr.^[10][11] As of April 8th, 2016, the artist community deviantART has over 12,000 results under the keyword “miraculous ladybug”.^[9] The site Fanfiction.net has over 2,800 submissions for Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir,^[18] and over 4,100 results for fanfiction on the website ArchiveOfOurOwn.^[19] A separate fanon wiki was established on December 30th, 2015 getting 57 pages in the following months.^[25]

Related Memes

Miracusonas / Akumasonas

Miracusonas and Akumasonas refers to fanmade original characters used to represent characters with powers from Miraculouses^[23] and akumas created by Hawk Moth.^[24] Miracusonas are based off of a certain animal, have civilian and superhero identities, have a Miraculous and kwami, a weapon, and a special attack. Akumasonas also have civilian and supervillain identities along with powers and an item possessed by an akuma.

“No Spoiler!”

“No Spoiler!” refers to a phrase usually attributed to the creator of Miraculous Ladybug, Thomas Astruc. The phrase acts as a go-to response for any story related question fans of the show may have for Thomas, with a response usually being an image macro containing the phrase or a reply containing the phrase itself.

Love Square

The Love Square is an informal term given to the potential relationships between the two main characters, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste, and their superhero alter-egos Ladybug and Cat Noir arranged in a square: with Marinette sharing non-mutual feelings for Adrien, Adrien sharing feelings for Ladybug and vice-versa, Cat Noir and Marinette sharing somewhat awkward feelings towards each other, and Cat Noir sharing unreciprocated feelings for Ladybug. The potential relationships from this love square has led to a number of in-jokes, shipping art and permutations with added characters, creating more complex figures such as a proposed “Love Octahedron”.

Interview with Thomas Astruc

3kole5: Can you please present yourself and your work, Thomas Astruc, for the people who may not know you?

Thomas Astruc: I’m Thomas Astruc, 41, creator and director of Miraculous Ladybug. I live in Paris, and I love super-heroes, cats and cooking.

Search Interest

External References

About

Xavier: Renegade Angel was a CGI surrealist dark comedy series on Adult Swim produced by Wonder Showzen creators John Lee, Vernon Chatman, Jim Tozzi and Alyson Levy. The series centers around the absurdist adventures of the protagonist Xavier, a humanoid shaman with a bird beak nose and a sentient snake arm who embarks on various psychedelic, spiritual journeys.

History

On November 4th, 2007, Xavier: Renegade Angel premiered on Adult Swim, with the first episode titled “What Life D-D-Doth” (shown below). The show aired for two seasons, releasing a total of 20 episodes before ending on April 16th, 2009.

Fandom

On December 3rd, 2011, a page for the series was created on TV Tropes.^[8] On September 8th, 2012, the /r/XavierRenegadeAngel^[2] subreddit was created for discussions about the animated television series. In October 2016, a Change.org^[1] petition was created to “Make Fox Broadcasting Air Xavier Renegade Angel Sunday Nights After NFL Football” (shown below).

On May 22nd, Redditor BeauBWan submitted a photograph of a cosplayer dressed as Xavier to /r/adultswim (shown below).

On 4chan

In August 2017, threads about the television show were frequently submitted to various 4chan boards, including /v/,^[4] /tv/,^[6] /tg/^[5] and /co/.^[7] On August 8th, an 4chan user uploaded a photoshopped Virgin Walk comic comparing the show Rick and Morty to Xavier: Renegade Angel to /co/ (shown below).^[3]

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About

Lushsux is a street artist from Melbourne, Australia who is best known for creating large, internet meme-themed murals.

History

In June 2011, the @Lushsux^[4] Twitter feed was created, garnering more than 17,900 followers over the next six years. In July 2014, the @Lushsux^[3] Instagram feed was launched, where the artist began sharing photographs of his murals painted on the side of trucks. On December 9th, the Lushsux Facebook^[2] page was created, which gathered upwards of 36,800 likes within three years. On October 16th, 2015, the first internet meme mural was posted on the feed, featuring Pepe the Frog (shown below, left).^[5] On October 29th, Lushsux posted a photograph of a Why the Fuck You Lyin’ mural (shown below, right).^[6]

On July 24th, 2016, Lushsux posted a photograph of a mural featuring Hillary Clinton wearing a stars and stripes monokini (shown below, left). That week, Instagram temporarily disabled Lushsux’s account. On July 28th, The Daily Mail^[7] published an interview with Lushsux, who speculated that Instagram had censored his feed for posting the mural. On August 1st, the Instagram feed posted an updated version of the Hillary Clinton mural in which she is covered with a burqa (shown below, right). On August 10th, the fashion news site Hypebeast^[1] published an interview with Lushsux.

West Bank Mural

In late July, Lushsux painted a mural on Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Palestine based on an image macro of Donald Trump touching Jerusalem’s Western Wall with the thought bubble “I’m going to build you a brother” (shown below).

Various Examples

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Tails Gets Trolled is a ongoing Sonic the Hedgehogfan artwebcomic series posted to DeviantArt by user lazerbot.^[1] Characters from Sonic the Hedgehog and other popular media like Super Mario Brothers and Warner Brothers Cartoons also appear in the comic. The plot of the comic is centered around an ongoing war between Sonic character “Tails” and the other characters versus a mysterious band of trolls. The comic is notorious for its poor spelling, grammar and gratuitous violent imagery.

History

On October 10th, 2011, DeviantArt user lazerbot uploaded the first page of “Tails Gets Trolled”^[1]

The comic rapidly gained infamy after it was discovered by Something Awful users.^[2] On February 18th, 2012, a post about the comic was posted to the Something Awful forums by user Nunez. There, users began to mock and sarcastically appreciated the comic due to its poor quality. On March 25th, the YouTube channel tailsgetstrolled released a reading of the comic, gaining over 104,000 views (shown below).

Meanwhile, users on the Something Awful forums produced fan art of the comic (examples shown below).^[3]

Online Presence

The comic has been documented on TV Tropes.^[4] The comic also has its own Wiki page^[5] as well as a page on the Bad Webcomics Wiki.^[6] As of January of 2018, lazerbot has written 11 chapters of the series.

Search Interest

External Links

About

Flat Earth Theory is a hypothesis that states that there is no true evidence that the earth is round. While the hypothesis is often dismissed as a weak, easily disproved theory, several different organizations online boast subscribers to the hypothesis, who enjoy discussing whether or not the earth is flat.

Origin

People have believed that the Earth is flat since the beginning of humanity, but the modern Flat Earth hypothesis stemmed from an experiment called the Bedford Level Experiment, conducted in the mid-1800s by a man named Samuel Rowbotham.^[1] Rowbowtham, who wrote a book named Earth Not a Globe, started the modern movement by debating scientists publicly and accumulating followers. In the experiment, Rowbowtham attempted to measure the curvature of the earth by observing the curvatures at a local river. He took his results as disproving the theory of a round earth, but future scientists have said that the results he obtained could be accounted for by the parallax effect.^[2]

A drawing from Rowbowtham’s experiment

In 1956, Samuel Shenton created a more modern version of the Flat Earth Society, to collect a variety of followers of Rowbowtham’s experiments. When the first images of the earth taken from space were released, Shenton claimed that they were false. In the 1970s and 1980s, they released a newsletter called the Flat Earth News, which often debated NASA and other space agencies.

Spread

In 2004, the society was resurrected by a man named Daniel Shenton (no relation to Samuel), who created the Flat Earth Society forum, which as of February 2016 has over 8,200 members and 1.4 million posts.^[3] In addition, the forum runs a Facebook page with over 14,000 likes,^[4]Twitter,^[5]Instagram,^[6] and Tumblr profiles with several thousand followers each, and a Flickr profile^[7] where they advertise a variety of different posters with proofs for why the world is flat. In addition, a variety of independent researchers have attempted to prove that the earth is flat, documenting their work in YouTube videos.^[8]

B.o.B. vs. Neil DeGrasse Tyson

On January 25th, 2016 Atlanta rapper B.o.B., who has self-identified as a member of the Flat Earth Society, tweeted a photograph of himself against a skyline, then tweeted a screenshot from Flat Earth Movement literature that proclaimed that Polaris (the North Star) can be seen 20° south of the Equator. Neil DeGrasse Tyson answered the rapper’s question, writing “Polaris is gone by 1.5 deg S. Latitude. You’ve never been south of Earth’s Equator, or if so, you’ve never looked up.”

Later that day, B.o.B. posted the track “Flatline” to his Soundcloud account dissing the physicist and reinforcing his belief in a flat earth.

Other Celebrity Followers

In January 2016, Tila Tequila posted a series of tweets claiming to believe the Earth is flat.

Search Interest

External References

About

MonkaS is a Better Twitch TV emote featuring an illustration of Pepe the Frog appearing frightened while sweating, which is typically used in Twitch chat during moments of high tension in video game matches to express anxiety.

Origin

The earliest known archived 4chan thread in which the sweating, nervous Pepe the Frog illustration appeared was submitted to the /lit/ (literature) board on July 16th, 2011.^[6] On September 24th, 2016, the emote was added to the FrankerFaceZ Twitch extension (shown below).^[1]

Spread

On February 17th, 2017, Redditor kucykzaglady submitted a picture of the emote to the /r/forsen^[3] subreddit. That month, monkaS was added to the TwitchQuotes^[4] database. On April 1st, Twitter user @nanilul^[7] attempted to place a monkaS emote on Reddit’s /r/placepixel art canvas(shown below). On April 10th, Redditor Rekipp submitted a post asking “What does slang word ‘monkas’ mean?” to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[2]

Search Interest

External References

About

The End of the World (first uploaded as End of Ze World) is a flash animation created by Jason Windsor (a.k.a Fluid). Debuting in 2003, the video has been dubbed by several news publications as “the first viral video.”

Origin

The flash video was first uploaded to Albino Blacksheep on October 30th, 2003 and credited to user Fluid (shown below).^[1]

Spread

The video quickly became a viral hit. It was posted to Funnyjunk and remained atop the trending videos chart for several weeks. It was also popular on eBaum’s World. ^[6] Its script was posted to Roosterteeth in 2005.^[4] It was uploaded to YouTube shortly after the site’s creation and has gained over 16 million views in twelve years.^[2] The video became known for a few notable catchphrases:

• ‘Hokay so here’s the earth
• Damn that is a sweet earth, you might say
• AHHHHHMOTHERLAND
• But I am le tired… Well. Then. Have a nap. THENFIRE ZE MISSILES!
• WTF, Mate?
• Those Chinese sons of a b*tches are goin down

Several of the quotes were added to Urban Dictionary in the mid-2000s.^[5] Twelve years after the video was posted, its creator, James Windsor, revealed himself in an interview with Mic.^[3] There, he mentioned that the video had helped kickstart his career in animation and filmmaking.

End of Ze World Part 2

On January 20th, 2018, Windsor uploaded a sequel video to “End of Ze World.” The video is updated to reflect current events such as the Trump administration and Kim Jong-Un. The video also features a call to action, encouraging viewers to contact their political representatives. In two days, the video gained over 54,000 views (shown below). It was covered by internet-centric media outlets, including Select All,^[7] The Verge,^[8] and Gizmodo.^[9]

Search Interest

External References

About

Hasbro Inc. (the portmanteau of their previous name “Hassenfeld Brothers”) is an American toy, board game, and animation production company. The company has owns several popular franchises such as Transformers and My Little Pony.

Early History

The company was founded as Hassenfeld Brothers and sold mostly school supplies in the mid-1920s.^[3] The company became a toy manufacturing company by the 1930s with the introduction of plastics.

Franchises

Transformers

Transformers is a toy franchise which involves sentient robots who have the ability to change shape. The robots come from the planet Cybertron, which had been ravaged by civil war between two factions, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons.

My Little Pony : Friendship Is Magic

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a Canadian/American cartoon series, developed for television by Lauren Faust with Studio B Productions. Fans outside the show’s target demographic, especially teen and adult male fans, have come to be known as “bronies”. Female fans of the show may also be referred to as “pegasisters.” The shows following has created hundreds of fan-service websites such as My Little Brony, Equestria Daily, /r/MyLittlePony.

Connect Four

Connect Four is a tabletop game created by Milton Bradley and Hasbro in which two players take alternating turns placing a checker into a vertically-suspended grid. The first player to connect four of their checkers vertically, horizontally, or diagonally wins. The game’s cover art has been parodied online in the mid-2010s.

Scrabble

Scrabble is an American board game which involves players attempting to create words using only the wooden letter pieces left on the board by other players and the seven wooden letters they have pulled at random. Popularity of the game has lead to online multi-player versions such as the Zynga owned “Words With Friends” app^[11] or Wordament. DeviantArt also host over 12,000 fan art submissions related to the game.^[12]

Nerf

NERF (Non-Expanding Recreational Foam) is a line of foam toys created by Reyn Guyer. Guyer brought the original foam volleyball to the Parker Brothers in 1969.^[31] Parker Brothers eventually sold NERF to the Tonka Corporation, which was shortly thereafter acquired by Hasbro. NERF also launched a line of water guns and foam guns in the late 80s and early 90s including the Super Soaker the Nerf Blaster.^[32]

DeviantArt^[34] has over 18,000 fan art submissions tagged NERF.^[34]

The term “nerf”^[36] has grown popular with online gamers as well. The phrase can be used to describe the effect on a weapon due to the developers reducing the amount of damage dealt by the weapon. Gamers will complain that the weapon has been “nerfed”^[37] and no longer deals an useful amount of damage.

Magic The Gathering

Magic the Gathering (or MtG for short) is a popular trading card game in which you play as a powerful wizard who casts spells to fight the opposing wizard.

Hasbro and Wizard Of Coast have collaborated on September 1st, 2011,^[5] to launch new comic book series based on Magic The Gathering universe.

G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe is a series of action figures developed by Hasbro in the 1960s.^[10] The term “G.I. Joe” originally was a WWI reference to the US soldiers, and as such the line originally featured the “Action Marine,” the “Action Pilot,” the “Action Sailor,” and the “Action Soldier.”

In 1982, the line was re-imaged to appeal to the international market. The figures were given a backstory through a series of cartoons and comics that helped promote the toy line. This featured an ongoing struggled between the “G.I. Joes” and their evil counterparts “Cobra Command.” At the end of each of the 1980s cartoons was usually a PSA featuring one of the Joes featuring the line “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.”

Mr. Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head was Hasbro’s first successful toy line. The line consisted of a potato shaped plastic figure that could hold multiple parts in its hollow body. These included arms, legs, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. The product became an iconic toddler’s toy and was featured in the 1995 Pixar film Toy Story movie. DeviantArt currently holds over 2,000 submissions tagged Mr Potato Head.^[19]

Risk

Risk is a board game that was released in 1957.^[6] The game is a war game that involves conquering a basic map representation of the world. The game’s popularity later lead to competitor derivatives such as the board game Settlers of Catan^[7] which involves similar gameplay. Popular computer versions of the game have also been released over the years. These include the multi-platform video game series Sid Meier’s Civilization^[8] and the internet-based flash game Warlight.^[9]

Fandom

As of October 2014, Hasbro’s Twitter account^[24] has gained over 63,000 followers and its Facebook page^[20] has gained over 250,000 likes. Deviant Art^[35] has over 470,00 fan art submissions tagged Hasbro.

The Facebook pages for its IPs Monopoly, My Little Pony, and Transformers have 11.5 million,^[21] 794,000,^[22] and 33.8 million^[23] fans respectively as of October 2014. The company currently has 5 different YouTube accounts it maintains which include: HasbroStudiosShorts,^[25] HasbroUK,^[26] Transformers,^[27] HasbroEpisodes,^[28] and HasbroCareers.^[29] These channels collectively obtained thousands of subscribers as well as millions of views. Hasbro also previously assisted in the maintenance of The Hub YouTube channel where it had 51,170 subscribers with 54 million views.^[30]

Search Interest

External References

About

Ugandan Knuckles is the nickname given to a depiction of the character Knuckles from the Sonic franchise created by YouTuber Gregzilla, which is often used as an avatar by players in the multiplayer game VRChat who repeat phrases like “do you know the way” and memes associated with the country Uganda, most notably the film Who Killed Captain Alex? and Zulul. The character is associated with the expression “do you know the way”, which is typically spoken in a mock African accent and phonetically spelled as “do you know de wey.”

Origin

On August 7th, 2016, YouTuber VirtuallyVain uploaded footage of himself roleplaying an African drug lord in the game Call of Duty: Black Ops, saying lines like “Follow me, I know the way” (shown below). Within two years, the video accumulated 10.5 million views and 17,900 comments.

On February 20th, 2017, YouTuber Gregzilla uploaded a review of the 2013 platformer game Sonic Lost World, which featured a parody animation of the character Knuckles (shown below, left). The video subsequently gave rise to the Knuckles Sings remix series.

Fans of the Twitch streamer Forsen commonly reference various jokes related to Ugandan warriors while playing the game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Additionally, viewers have been known to stream snipe his channel while yelling various Uganda-related memes. On September 15th, DeviantArtist^[3] tidiestflyer released a 3D model based on Gregzilla’s Knuckles depiction (shown below).

On December 22nd, YouTuber Stahlsby uploaded a video titled “You Do Not Know the Way,” in which a swarm of VRChat players wearing Ugandan Knuckles avatars troll other players by making clicking noises and saying “You do not know the way” (shown below, right).

The line “you do not know the way” is believed to be inspired by a line in Who Killed Captain Alex? in which a character says “He knows the way of using a gun” (shown below).

Spread

On December 23rd, 2017, YouTuber SoyerCake published another VRChat video of various players wearing Ugandan Knuckles avatars (shown below, left). On December 28th, 2017, YouTuber TanksBlast uploaded a similar VRChat video titled “Ugandan Knuckles Tribe” (shown below, right).

On January 1st, 2018, YouTuber Syrmor uploaded a VRChat video titled “Do You Know the Way” (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video gained over 199,000 views and 170 comments. On January 3rd, Redditor JebusMcAzn submitted TanksBlast’s “Ugandan Knuckles Tribe” video to /r/youtubehaiku,^[1] where it received more than 400 points (93% upvoted) and 25 comments within 12 hours. On January 5th, Ebaumsworld^[4] published an article about the meme titled “Ugandan Knuckles Is A Hilarious Meme That’s Taken Gaming By Storm.”

On January 7th, DeviantArtist tidiestflyer updated the 3D model page with a disclaimer urging viewers to “not use this to bug the users of VRChat.”

“Please do not use this to bug the users of Vrchat. Its community means a lot to me and it would hurt me to see the rights of other users taken away and possibly restricted because of how out of hand it can get. Showing off their creativity and what they are capable of. For me….. I’m in college and don’t have a lot of time to get on like I would like to anymore… I remember making this and thinking… Well it could be funny to show off to my friends and possibly mess with users. But I’ve learned what kind of things I’m really capable of making. Its always fun to be the one with models no one else has access to. Because I can make anything that I want to be. Its like….. Its like that special place for me. To get away from the real world and be someone I’m not….. But right now. Vrchat has become a meme ground and I feel I have helped to dig a grave for Vrchat. Soon enough people are gunna get tired of all the memes that now pollute the servers. And with 500 people trying to just enjoy an event, they cant because there just isnt enough moderation to hold down the rampant amounts of memers. So please…. Think about the users that you’re playing with. Before they are all gone… Don’t let it be a second Second Life.”

The following day, Ebaumsworld^[5] published an article title “Ugandan Knuckles Creator Says The Meme Has Gotten Out Of Hand.” The tidiestflyer update was subsequently removed.

Racism Accusations

The Ugandan Knuckles character has been accused of promoting ethnic and racial stereotypes against Africans, though defenders of the meme have claimed the character is merely based on an appreciation for Who Killed Captain Alex? and Wakaliwood cinema. On January 20th, 2018, YouTuber Drift0r published a video titled “Is Ugandan Knuckles Racist?” (shown below).

On January 24th, 2018, Kotaku^[7] published an article titled “Racist Jokes Keep Showing Up In Overwatch League Broadcasts,” which referred to Ugandan Knuckles as “a meme that became racist for reasons that are excruciating to explain.” The following day, a similar article titled “Racist Ugandan Knuckles Meme Spreads to Overwatch, Esports” was published by The Daily Dot.^[8]

Razer Tweet

On January 27th, 2018, the gaming company Razer tweeted a customer-created image featuring a swarm of Ugandan Knuckles characters accompanied by the caption “Razer is de wey” (shown below).

In response, Twitter users began accusing the company of promoting racism by posting the Ugandan Knuckles meme (shown below). Meanwhile, the tech news site Gizmodo^[6] published an article titled “Does Razer Know It Posted a Racist Meme?”

That day, Razer tweeted that they had removed the post after discovering that “the meme may have negative undertones” (shown below).

Various Examples

In the coming days, numerous image macros and photoshops referencing the Ugandan Knuckles character circulated within various meme-themed internet communities (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Original vs. Un-tumblrized refers to a series of exploitable, photoshopped comparison charts in which one side shows a character, and the other, “un-tumblrized” side shows a sexier artistic interpretation of that character. The word “un-tumblrized” implies that a character was originally designed to appeal to the Tumblr community, which has a reputation for demanding media representation for a diverse array of races, gender expressions and body types. After an image began circulating of a comparison chart between the female character Tank Penny from Fortnite and an “un-tumblrized” version which imagines her skinnier, whiter and in skimpier clothing, people began to create humorous parody versions.

Origin

The original image depicts the character Tank Penny from Fortnite, and an “un-tumblrized” interpretation of the character which makes her white, skinny, and in skimpier clothing (shown below). While it is unclear where it was first posted, the earliest known post of the image was to 4chan’s/v/ board on July 31st, 2017.^[1]

Spread

The image began circulating online following a post by Twitter user @incantatricks^[2] on January 24th, 2018, gaining over 4,800 retweets and 13,000 likes.

The tweet inspired discourse and interpretations that the “un-tumblrized” version was racist, as it gave the character blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin (traditionally Aryan features) and added a necklace with a cross on it.^[3] Others were upset because the “un-tumblrized” version took away many of the unique qualities of the original character. Tumblr user weepycat^[4] uploaded a post with the image the same day @incantatricks, saying “imagine being such a limp-dicked weakling that you remove a female character’s belly fat, tattoo, dyed hair, skin tone, and half of her lips. and then you add a cross necklace for some goddamn reason.” The post gained over 38,000 notes.

In addition to the discourse surrounding the image, internet users also began making humorous variations on the template. Twitter user @milonssecretcat^[5] uploaded a variation that gave a video game character unrealistically large breasts and added a Pepe the Frog sticker, gaining over 280 retweets (shown below, left). Twitter user @Naan_Binary_^[6] uploaded a variation showing Pikachu designs, gaining over 820 retweets (shown below, right). The spread of the meme was covered by Buzzfeed^[7] on January 29th.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References

About

Tide POD Challenge refers to a dare game involving the consumption of Tide PODS laundry detergent capsules, which are often compared to various fruit-flavored snack foods due to their packaging and appearance. Online, the practice of eating Tide PODS is frequently mocked in a similar vein to bleach drinking and the consumption of other poisonous forbidden snacks.

Origin

In February 2012, the multi-national consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble introduced the Tide PODS laundry detergent packs. According to Consumer Reports, there were increased calls to poison control centers due to children consuming the product.^[1] On December 4th, 2013, Straight Dope Forums^[7] member Silvorange submitted a post titled “People eating Tide pods” discussing rumors about people eating the detergent packs.

Spread

On December 8th, 2015, The Onion published an opinion article written from the point of view of a child attempting to eat laundry pods. ^[2]

On May 10, 2016 YouTuber Cyr made a video about eating Tide PODS (shown below).
On March 31th, 2017, humor website CollegeHumor uploaded a Youtube video titled “Don’t Eat The Laundry Pods”, which gained over 2.5 million views by the end of the year.^[9]

On July 10th, Redditor gineralee submitted a post titled “Bite into one of those Tide Pods. Do it.” to /r/intrusivethoughts.^[8] The following day, The Onion published another article satirically describing a new Sour Apple flavor of Tide PODS.^[3] On December 9th, Twitter user @mineifiwildout^[6] tweeted the joke “no more eating Xanax in 2018 we eating tide pods from now on” (shown below). Within two weeks, the tweet gained over 25,600 likes and 7,100 retweets.

On December 11th, Twitter user @littlestwayne tweeted a GIF of Oprah Winfrey munching on stage, joking that it is the feeling of eating forbidden Tide PODS, which gained over 25,000 likes.^[4] A similar tweet by user @fastjellyfish was posted on December 21st and gained over 18,000 likes.^[5]

On December 26th, 2017, Twitter user @nightfilm posted three images along with the message “i really tried and died for the cause” (shown below).^[10]

On July 11th, The Onion^[21] published a satirical article titled “Tide Debuts New Sour Apple Detergent Pods,” which included a photoshopped promotional ad for the parody laundry detergent (shown below).

Tide POD Chan

On January 1st, 2018, Instagram user greenpantsu posted a drawing of an anthropomorphicanime representation of Tide PODS named “Tide Pod Chan” (shown below). In 3 days it got over 5000 likes.

On January 1st, 2018, the Vivian James /v/ Facebook^[11] page posted the image. Within 48 hours, the post gathered upwards of 1,100 reactions and 1,000 shares.

That day, Lushsux posted the illustration on Instagram,^[12] asking viewers if he should create a mural for the character (shown below, left). On January 2nd, cosplayer Azumii posted a photograph of herself dressed as Tide POD Chan (shown below, right).

Tide POD Challenge

The earliest iteration of the Tide POD Challenge, a series of videos in which people eat or pretend to eat Tide PODS was posted on January 7th, 2018 by YouTuber^[14] TheAaronSwan669, who published a video (shown below) entitled “TIDEPODCHALLENGE.” In the video, he pretends to participate in the challenge of eating Tide PODS before saying “just kidding.”

Over the next week, more videos featuring the “Tide POD Challenge” appearing online (example below, left).^[19] Several media outlets, including The Washington Post,^[15]CBS,^[16] The Chicago Tribune^[17] and more, reported on the videos. According to the Washington Post, “Last year, U.S. poison control centers received reports of more than 10,500 children younger than 5 who were exposed to the capsules. The same year, nearly 220 teens were reportedly exposed, and about 25 percent of those cases were intentional, according to data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. So far in 2018, there have been 37 reported cases among teenagers -- half of them intentional, according to the data.”

Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Petra Renck said in a statement, "Laundry pacs are made to clean clothes. They should not be played with, whatever the circumstance, even if meant as a joke. Like all household cleaning products, they must be used properly and stored safely.”

Tide released a new video to help stop the spread of the challenge and disuade people from eating Tide PODS. On January 12th, 2018, the company released a video^[18] featuring NFL star Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski warning people not to eat them. The video (shown below, right) received more than 20,000 views in four days.

The same day, Facebook user Corey B uploaded footage of himself performing the challenge, which gathered upwards of 3.3 million views, 61,000 reactions and 5,900 comments over the next five days. The video has since been removed.

Due to the sudden popularity of the meme, many stores, including Walmart, Walgreen’s and Ralph’s,^[20] have begun locking Tide PODS up, requiring a store employee to retrieve them for customers. On January 13th, Twitter^[21] user @NavidHasan_ tweeted a picture (shown below) of the PODS locked up with the caption "y’all really joked around so much that tide put their tide pods in plastic boxes…smh."

Video Removal

On January 18th, a Google spokesperson announced that YouTube would be removing videos that feature participants of the Tide POD Challenge.^[22] They said, “YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit content that’s intended to encourage dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm. We work to quickly remove flagged videos that violate our policies.”

That day, Facebook made a similar announcement, stating that they would be removing any videos featuring the Tide POD Challenge. A representative said, “We don’t allow the promotion of self-injury and will remove it when we’re made aware of it.”^[22]

Tide POD Foods

Following the popularity of Tide PODs, numerous, privately owned restaurants began offering Tide POD-themed foods.

On January 17th, the Facebook^[25] account for Hurts Donut in Springfield, Missouri posted a picture of a Tide POD-themed donut. They posted it next to a picture of a Tide POD with the work “No” overlayed on the POD and “Yes” over the donut. They added the caption “I thought this might clear up any confusion there might have been but now adults are throwing donuts in the washer.” The post (shown below) received more than 6,100 reactions, 1,300 comments and 7,300 shares in two days.

On January 18th, Vinnie’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York posted about Tide POD pizza on their Instagram account (shown below).^[23] However, due to the removal of content regarding the Tide POD Challenge, the post was removed by Instagram.^[24]

Tide Social Media Response

Since the popularity of the Tide POD Challenge, Tide’s Twitter has been instructing people to contact poison control, if a POD is ingested (examples below). On January 18th, Mashable wrote an article about their response on social media. They wrote, “As teens participate, pretend to participate, and talk about participating in the Tide Pod Challenge, the official Tide Twitter account has assumed the unofficial role of emergency services referral.”

Search Interest

About

Logan Paul’s Suicide Forest Video is a viral video by YouTuber Logan Paul in which he discovers a dead body in the Aokigahara forest in the Chūbu region of Honshu in Japan. After the video was uploaded to YouTube in late December 2017, Paul was widely criticized online for exploiting a man’s suicide for clickbait and video views.

Origin

On December 31st, 2017, Paul uploaded a video to YouTube in which he visited Aokigahara, a forest on Mt. Fuji in Japan colloquially known as the “Suicide Forest” for the unusually high number of suicides that take place there. The video has since been deleted, but received over at least 6.2 million views before then.^[9] In the video, Paul finds a body hanging. Paul went on to say in the video that suicide and depression are serious issues. While the original video has since been deleted, a mirrored version was uploaded to Liveleak on January 2nd, 2018, which garnered more than 919,000 views within 24 hours (shown below).

Spread

The video immediately created a wave of controversy as people saw the video as Paul trivializing suicide for the success of his YouTube channel. Criticism on Twitter focused on the presentation of the suicide. For example, Twitter user @GucciFinn tweeted that Paul’s actions after discovering the body did not excuse his talks about depression being a serious issue in the video (shown below, left). Actor Aaron Paul (no relation) tweeted his disgust at Logan as well (shown below, right).

YouTube posted a statement on Paul’s video, saying their hearts went out to the family of the suicide victim and clarifying their policy on graphic content (shown below).

After a day of backlash, Paul took to Twitter to post screenshots of an apology he’d written on his phone. He stated that he intended to raise awareness about suicide prevention and noted that he made a lot of content every day and was swept up “in the moment” (shown below).

Also on January 2nd, Redditor uniqueUsername18839 posted a screenshot of a 4chan post featuring a green text story from the perspective of the man who killed himself, followed by a Virgin vs. Chad edit based on the controversy (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post gained over 7,000 points (92% upvoted) and 270 comments on /r/4chan.^[1]

Shortly after, Paul posted a video titled “So Sorry,” in which he apologized for posting the video (shown below). Over the next day, the video reached #1 on YouTube’s trending page and received upwards of 17 million views and 762,000 comments.

The same day, YouTuber PewDiePie uploaded a video reacting to the controversy, which garnered more than 8.6 million views and 106,000 comments over the next 24 hours (shown below, left). Also on January 2nd, PewDiePie uploaded a short mashup of the Paul video with YouTuber Keemstar’s “Dollar in the Woods” music video. The video has since been removed.

YouTube’s Response

Open Letter

On January 9th, 2018, the official YouTube Twitter^[4] feed tweeted a series of tweets as an “open letter” to the video-sharing site community, saying they found the video upsetting, that “suicide is not a joke” and that channel was in violation of YouTube’s community guidelines and that the company had acted “accordingly.”

Many criticized YouTube’s response, disputed the claim that the site acted accordingly, noting that it was only removed by Paul and not YouTube itself and that it had been placed on the YouTube trending page (shown below). In the coming days, several internet news sites published articles about YouTube’s response, including UpRoxx and NYMag.

On January 10th, YouTuber Philip DeFranco uploaded a video criticizing YouTube’s open letter, which gained over 1.7 million views and 10,500 comments within 24 hours.

Removal From Google Preferred

On January 10th, 2018, the YouTube news blog Tubefilter^[5] reported that YouTube had removed Paul’s channel from Google Preferred and that Paul would no longer appeared in season 4 of the YouTube Red web series Foursome. A statement from a YouTube spokesperson read as follows:

“In light of recent events, we have decided to remove Logan Paul’s channels from Google Preferred. Additionally, we will not feature Logan in season 4 of ‘Foursome’ and his new Originals are on hold.”

That day, the news was subsequently reported by The Daily Dot,^[6]BuzzFeed^[7] and UpRoxx.^[8] Meanwhile, YouTuber MundaneMatt uploaded a video discussing YouTube’s announcement (shown below).

Paul’s Return to Vlogging

On January 24th, 2018, Logan Paul returned to vlogging with a video called “Suicide: Be Here Tomorrow,” a seven-minute documentary about Paul’s learning to understand suicide by meeting with specialists, doctors and survivors.^[9] Toward the end of the vlog, Paul pledges to donate $1 million to suicide prevention causes. The video (shown below) received more than 9 million views in 24 hours and became the #1 trending video on YouTube.

The response to the video was mixed. On January 24th, Twitter^[10] user @jfwong described the video as a public relations maneuver. They tweeted, “TLDR– Logan Paul finally gave the world a unifying reason so we could all rally against him. His vlog also showed us a very messed up & privileged kid with far too much influence and little wisdom to go with it. Thus, his suicide awareness video is a BANDAID on a BROKENBONE.” The post (shown below, left) received more than 3,300 retweets and 15,000 likes in 24 hours.

That day, Twitter^[11] user @TheLazyKidOfJoy tweeted their support of Paul. They wrote, “Alright. I honestly thought Logan Paul could never come back from what he has done. But I am happy to be proven wrong by him. His new video is incredible and truly shows that he wants to change for the better of the world and himself. @LoganPaul you are not alone. 🙌 #Respect.” The post (shown below, center) received more than 120 retweets and 930 likes in 24 hours.

Twitter^[12] user @TaylorLorenz noted that Paul’s fanbase has not left him in the wake of the controversy. She tweeted, “Worth noting that Logan Paul’s child/teen fan base basically never abandoned him over the suicide forest vid, he only gained subscribers and mainstream notoriety. Now they are all welcoming him back like #wow #brave. He’s being praised by fellow YouTubers too.” The post (shown below, right) received more than 775 retweets and 4,000 likes in 24 hours.

That day, Twitter^[13] published a Moments page on the video and reaction to it.

Logan Paul: Suicide Forest Run

In late January 2018, a platformer video game titled Logan Paul: Suicide Forest Run was uploaded for Android devices to the Google Play store. On January 27th, YouTuber Celebrity Martyr uploaded footage from the game (shown below).

On January 29th, Google removed the app from the Google Play store, where it had been ranked #9 in the United States.

That day, The Daily Dot published an article about the game, which featured an interview with the creator of the game, who identified himself by the pseudonym Simo Mediator.

“The main idea of my game was to show in a sarcastic way the reason Logan Paul went to the suicide forest. The real reason [was] to get views, [and this] was intended to be sort of a meme game. Never thought it would get this much success. I heard it got 9 in U.S. Google Play rank, but I’m not sure. I didn’t set up ranking tools and app analytics, because never thought it would get this popular.”

Cardi B Instagram Comment

On January 31st, rapper and recording artist Cardi B posted a picture of herself on Instagram^[19] with the caption “They trinna crucify me like they did Christ .” The post (shown below) received more than 1.5 million likes in 24 hours.

Shortly after the post was made, Logan Paul, presumably referring to his ongoing “Suicide Forest vlog” controversy, responded to the comment with “lawlz u tellin me.” The comment (shown below, left) received more than 1,900 likes in 18 hours.

This comment was not well-received by Cardi B’s followers, who mostly chastised Paul for his comment. The following day, Mashable^[20] published an article about the backlash to Paul’s comment.

Good Morning America Interview

On February 1st, 2018, Paul appeared on Good Morning America^[14] for an exclusive interview (shown below). In the interview with GMA’s Michael Strahan, Paul discusses his experiences since the infamous video’s release, particularly speaking with the parents of children who watch his show and the violent reaction from people online. He believes this his content is not for children and that parents should be “monitoring” what their children watch. He also discusses his being dropped from Google Preferred, which provides advertisers an easier path to content creators.

Online, people were mixed on the interview. Twitter^[15] user NicoleB1015 tweeted (shown below, left), "LoganPaul the whole world does not hate you there are still people that love you and that will not turn there back on you just because of 1 mistake that you made i don’t hate you at all i still love you no matter what goes on i even bought some of your new merch."

However, Twitter^[16] user @TaylorLorenz took issue with Paul’s perception of his fanbase. She wrote, “Logan: ’It’s odd, because I’m 22 years old, it’s not like I’m making content necessarily for kids.’ Ummm half his fan base is like 8 years old there’s no way he doesn’t recognize that. No 22 year olds watch Logan Paul.” The tweet (shown below, center) received more than 360 retweets and 1,600 likes in 12 hours.

Additionally, Twitter^[17] user @dmburrows tweeted, “He keeps making this all about himself. That’s what got him in trouble in the first place.” The tweet (shown below, right) received more than 115 retweet and 945 likes in 12 hours.

That day, Twitter^[18] published a Moments page dedicated to the reaction to the interview.

Various Examples

In the coming days days, various photoshops and image macros criticizing and mocking Paul reached the frontpage of the /r/dankmemes and /r/memeeconomy subreddits (shown below).

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Search Interest

External References

About

Somebody Toucha My Spaghet is a series of video remixes based on a scene from a 1939 animated cartoon The Three Bears in which a character says the line.

Origin

The Three Bears was released on February 10th, 1939 by Terry Toons.^[1] The cartoon is an animated retelling of the children’s fable “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” However, this version makes several changes to the orginal, giving the bears a stereotypical thick Italian accent, having the bears eat spaghetti instead of porridge, and being welcoming to Goldilocks after she shows that she can play the fiddle. In the cartoon, the titular Three Bears find their home broken into. When they discover their goods have been tampered with, Papa Bear shouts “Somebody toucha my spaghet!” in a stereotypical Italian accent (shown below).

Spread

On December 25th, 2017, Twitter user finnaspertia tweeted the clip from the cartoon, earning over 3.33 million views.^[2] The video was uploaded to YouTube the following day by Darkcode^[3] where it has gained over 600 thousand views.

The earliest found remix of the video was posted as a reply by user StephInkstain on December 26th, 2017, with a slight edit referencing to the song All Star. The video currently has more than 45,200 views.^[4]

Since then, the clip has gained traction and several remixes have been posted. On December 30th, 2017, Twitter user DitzyFlama uploaded a remix of the “‘S’ Stands For?” video featuring the bear (below, left), gaining more than 340,000 views. He posted another video the next day, featuring the bear in the opening scene of Shrek opening scene, acquiring over 550,000 views.

The video has also gained attention and several remixes on YouTube as well. It was also added to the ongoing playlist “Instant Regret Clicking this Playlist (Memes)”, which has more than 2,500 videos.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References