About

“Steamed Hams” is a memorable skit between Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers on the animated sitcom The Simpsons. The scene has been a popular reference point for fans, who have re-contextualized quotes from the skit making it the frequent subject of shitposting on Facebook and YouTube.

Origin

“Steamed Hams” comes from a scene in the Simpsons episode "22 Short Films About Springfield, which first aired on April 14th, 1996.^[1] In the episode, which is an anthology of 22 short scenes about several of the citizens of Springfield, the characters of Principal Skinner has Superintendent over for dinner in a play on the “dinner with the boss” sitcom trope (shown below).^[2] The dinner, as per the trope, does not go according to plan, as Skinner burns dinner, leading him to cover the truth about dinner through elaborate and increasingly unbelievable series of lies. After burning dinner and telling Chalmers that he’s making “steamed clams” for dinner, Skinner attempts to convince Chalmers that what he had prepared “steamed hams” for dinner, an expression for hamburgers, he says, which is native to Albany, New York.^[3]

Principal Skinner: Superintendent, I hope you’re ready for mouth-watering hamburgers.
Superintendent Chalmers: I thought we were having steamed clams.
Principal Skinner: Oh, no, I said, “steamed hams.” That’s what I call hamburgers.
Superintendent Chalmers: You call hamburgers steamed hams.
Principal Skinner: Yes, it’s a regional dialect.
Superintendent Chalmers: Uh-huh. What region?
Principal Skinner: Uh, upstate New York.
Superintendent Chalmers: Really. Well, I’m from Utica and I never heard anyone use the phrase, “steamed hams.”
Principal Skinner: Oh, not in Utica, no; it’s an Albany expression.
Superintendent Chalmers: I see.

While the line has been quoted by fans since the episode aired, one of the earliest examples of it being used online comes from a November 15th, 2007 Urban Dictionary post by user Delaware Mike,^[4] who defines “Steamed Hams” as:

Hamburgers. An Albany, New York expression, its not to be confused with steamed clams.

Spread

On November 8th, 2009, the Facebook group Steamed Hams launched. As of May 2017, the group has amassed more than 7,700 likes and 7,600 followers, despite being mostly defunct.^[5]

Steamed Hams-inspired videos have been especially popular on YouTube. One of the earliest, a 15-second “Text-to-movie” remake of the scene, posted on March 3rd, 2010, has more than 4,900 views.

The line has since become a popular subject of Simpsons Shitposting, which re-contextulizes moments on the show into absurdist non sequiturs. On July 26th, 2015, Facebook user Chris Kanski^[6] posted a challenge to the group to break the world record of reposting a shitpost, a photoshopped image of Homer’s can of “Nuts and Gum” (shown below, left) with the words "Steamed Clams_ in a single thread (shown below, right). The post received more than 240 reactions and has since become an annual event for the Facebook page.^[7]

On June 29th, 2016, the Austrailian supermarket Woolworths posted a Steamed Hams reference (shown below) to their Facebook page, a picture of a sign in a ham grocery display that says “Our apologies, we don’t stock ‘Steamed Hams’ but you can find hamburgers in the beef section.” They also captioned the post “We’ve received a lot of feedback from you all in the last 24 hours about whether we stock ‘Steamed Hams’. Please note that in Australia, we call them Hamburgers. ‘Steamed Hams’ is an Albany, New York expression. Fans of ‘The Simpsons’, this is for you…” The post shares, has been reported on by Buzzfeed.^[8][9]

First Draft

On January 4th, 2018, Bill Oakley, the writer of the “steamed hams” segment, posted the first draft script of “Skinner & The Superintendent” in a series of six tweets.^[10] He captioned the post, “Steamed Hams, but it’s the original first draft in a thread.” The post (shown below) more than 3,200 retweets and 7,900 likes in less than 24 hours.

Following Oakley’s tweet, fans of the segment tweeted their gratitude of the post. Some of them points to the slight changes, while other praised the works as an important document in comedy history (examples below).

Several outlets covered the posting of the script, including NME,^[11] Mashable,^[12] AV Club^[13] and more.

That night, Twitter^[14] published a Moments page, archiving the script and reaction to it.

YouTube Remixes

As Steamed Hams grew popular as a meme, it began appearing on YouTube in Replacement Remixes and other deconstructed YouTube Poop edits (examples shown below).

One particularly popular remix variant involved editing the scene such that it appeared as though it were in a popular video game series. An early variation posted by Bmo Beemo placed the scene in Danganronpa, gaining over 6,500 views (shown below, left). On December 21st, YouTuber Adam Davidson uploaded a variation parodying the scene by applying it to Metal Gear Solid, gaining over 287,000 views (shown below, right).

Other popular edits in this style include an Ace Attorney edit posted by iKiwked that gained over 94,000 views (shown below, left). Another popular edit posted by SeshoCan parodied the video in the style of Nier: Automata, gaining over 16,000 views in three days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

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.

History

Before Connect Four, versions of the game existed by other names, including Captain’s Mistress and Four-in-a-row. It is unclear when these versions originated.^[1] Hasbro/Milton Bradley’s version of Connect Four began selling in February of 1974. Variations on the game include Five-in-a-row, played on a larger grid, and Power Up, in which a player has a “super-powered” checker that can be played once per game. Hasbro has also created a large version of the Connect Four board for outdoor play.^[2]

Related Memes

Box Cover Art Parodies

A popular meme related to the game involves photoshopping the game’s box cover art (shown below) to make a more absurd game.

One of the most popular images features the box photoshopped to read “Connect One.” One of the earliest known posts to feature the image was posted on Hahastop^[3] on December 3rd, 2007 (shown below).

In the ensuing years, several other variations on the cover art appeared. In August of 2009, Buzzfeed^[4] posted an image of a “Connect Fuhrer” photoshop, in which the child on the box was given a Hitler mustache (shown below, left). In March of 2016, a “Connect Flour” photoshop was posted to /r/funny (shown below, right).^[5]

In August of 2017, a Connect Onevideo game was posted to Steam^[6] as a free add-on to Tabletop Simulator. On January 9th, 2018, a collage of Connect Four cover art parodies was posted to /r/memeeconomy,^[7] gaining over 800 upvotes (shown below).

Draw the Squad

Draw the Squad is a fanart trend that involves drawing images with multiple characters in flamboyant, outrageous poses or precarious situations. The trend is usually started with a photograph of people posed uniquely, with the suggestion to artists to replicate with their own choice of characters, either from their OCs or their preferred fandoms. Many of the images in the meme involve characters playing Connect Four (examples shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Deepfakes are videos in which the subject is face-swapped using machine-learning algorithms. The practice was created by Redditor Deepfakes, who launched a dedicated subreddit to share the videos in November 2017. In January 2018, the FakeApp desktop application was released as a tool for creating the digitally altered videos.

History

On November 2nd, 2017, Redditor deepfakes created the /r/deepfakes^[1] subreddit as a place to share his digitally-altered sexually explicit videos in which the subject’s face was swapped with a celebrity or public figure. According to the Redditor, the technology uses open-source libraries Keras and TensorFlow to perform the face-swaps.

Highlights

FakeApp

On January 8th, 2018, the deepfakeapp Reddit account announced the launch of FakeApp, an application described as “a desktop tool for creating deepfakes.”^[2] That month, the /r/fakeapp^[3] subreddit dedicated to discussions about the software gathered upwards of 2,500 subscribers. On January 30th, the /r/facesets^[7] subreddit was launched for users to share sets of face images extracted for the creation of deepfakes.

Nic Cage Videos

On January 25th, 2018 Redditor ^[8] derpfakes posted a video in the /r/deepfakes subreddit, a community where in which people use a deep-learning application called FakeApp to replace the faces of people in videos, of Andy Samberg’s replaced with Nicolas Cage’s. The video (shown below) received more than 600 upvotes (97% upvoted) and 20 comments.

Several days later, derpfakes pasted Cage’s face onto Amy Adam’s from the film Man of Steel. The post (shown below, left) received more than 2,000 points (98% upvoted) and 90 comments. Additionally, on January 26th, derpfakes put Cage’s head on Harrison Ford’s in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (shown below, right).

Reception

On December 11th, 2017, the Vice technology news site Motherboard^[4] published an article titled “AI-Assisted Fake Porn Is Here and We’re All Fucked,” which contained interviews with various experts about the ethical implications of deepfakes technology. On January 24th, Motherboard^[5] published a follow-up article on the FakeApp program titled “We Are Truly Fucked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now.” On January 31st, 2018, YouTuber Philip DeFranco uploaded a video discussing DeepFakes and FakeApp

Gfycat Removal

On January 31st, 2018, the media-hosting site Gfycat began removing all deepfakes-related media. That day, Motherboard published an article about the purge, which included a statement from a Gfycat spokespoerson who revealed the company was “actively removing this content.”

Reddit Ban

On February 7th, 2018, the /r/deepfakes subreddit was banned by Reddit staff for violating the site’s content policy “against involuntary pornography” (shown below). Aidditionaly, Reddit also removed the /r/deepfakensfw, /r/youtubefakes, /r/CelebFakes, /r/doppelbangher, /r/facesets and /r/xray subreddits.

In a statement to the Vice tech news site Motherboard,^[13] a Reddit spokesperson explained the reasoning behind the new site-wide restriction:

“Reddit strives to be a welcoming, open platform for all by trusting our users to maintain an environment that cultivates genuine conversation. As of February 7, 2018, we have made two updates to our site-wide policy regarding involuntary pornography and sexual or suggestive content involving minors. These policies were previously combined in a single rule; they will now be broken out into two distinct ones. Communities focused on this content and users who post such content will be banned from the site.”

That day, a thread about the banning reached the front page of /r/KotakuInAction.^[9] Meanwhile, Redditor admin landoflobsters submitted a post to /r/announcements^[14] about the site-wide rules update. Also on February 7th, several news sites published articles about the ban, including The Verge,^[10] Inverse^[11] and BoingBoing.^[12]

Search Interest

External References

About

“A Potato Flew Around My Room” is a misheard lyric from Frank Ocean’s 2012 R&B song “Thinkin’ Bout You” that became a popular subject of online mockeries on Vine after it was first said by Viner pg bree in a video clip he uploaded in October 2014.

Origin

On October 14th, 2014, Viner pg bree uploaded a video of herself singing a lyric from the song “Thinkin Bout You,” in which he mistakenly sings the word “tornado” as “potato” (shown below). In the first two weeks, the video gained nearly 10 million views, more than 169,000 likes and 147,000 revines.

The Vine has since been removed. However, on November 8th, 2014, YouTuber^[5] TrendingSound uploaded the video, where it has since received more than 2,000 views as of February 2018.

“A potato flew around before you came excuse the…”

Spread

On October 18th, Viner lil syd from the trap^[2] uploaded a video of a potato tied to a spinning ceiling fan and accompanied by the audio track from pg bree’s original video, which garnered upwards of 150,000 likes and 144,000 revines in nine days (shown below, left). On October 23rd, Viner KingJone$^[3] uploaded a video clip of Frank Ocean singing “Thinkin Bout You” with pg bree’s cover rendition dubbed over the original track (shown below, right).

On October 26th, Tumblr user condom^[1] submitted a post containing the phrase “A potato flew around my room before you came,” which accumulated more than 230 notes in the first 24 hours.

As of late October 2014, there are more than 1,400 videos associated with the phrase “a potato flew around” on Vine.^[4]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Cray Cray is an English-language slang term meaning “crazy.” The term, while around for nearly a decade, was popularized in the song Niggas In Paris by Kanye West and Jay Z.

Origin

The earliest known usage and definition of the term “cray cray” was published in the Online Slang Dictionary^[1] on December 24th, 2001. That day, user Jeremy submitted the definition (shown below) “crazy, i.e. strange, insane, or wild.”

Spread

The following year, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Pint-O posted a defintion. They defined the term as “meaning really crazy.” The post (shown below) received more than 1,600 upvotes in 15 years.

Over the next few years, the term slowly made its way into the vernacular of the internet. On July 13th, 2007, YouTuber^[3] pamelaine923 published a video (shown below) called “Mom is Cray Cray.”

Later that year, on October 25th, a Chicagoist^[4] review of the reality television series American’s Next Top Model included the phrase in their review. They wrote, “Congrats, Ty Ty, you’re officially the epitome of cray cray.”

On September 13th, 2011, Kayne West and Jay Z released the first single for their album Watch The Throne. The song “Niggas in Paris” featured the frequent refrain “That shit cray.” The song sold more than 5 million copies digitally in the United States and won two Grammy awards for “Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.”^[5]

Since being uploaded to Kanye West’s Vevo account, the music video for the song has been viewed more than 195 million times.

On November 1st, 2011, Tumblr^[6] user Mia Glenn posted a faux origin of the phrase “That shit kray.” She wrote:

“Is actually not a shortened form of ‘crazy’, nor is it ‘cray’, it’s actually ‘Kray’. It’s in reference to the schizophrenic twins Ronald and Reginald Kray… The Kray twins who were the crime lords of London in the 50’s and 60… The police failed to locate them on numerous occasions, which is where the line “ball so hard, muthafuckas wanna find me, that shit Kray. That shit Kray. That shit Kray.”

The original post has since been deleted. However, on April 11th, 2012, Tumblr user le-mia reblogged “The Origin of ‘That Shit Cray.’” The reblog (shown below) received more than 10,000 notes.

Later that year, Glenn admitted to the history being a troll. She wrote in a since deleted post:^[7]

“I don’t wanna say that the shit was hard because it wasn’t. People are just idiotic, plain and simple. Even though my post (that I made up) sounds intelligent, it has many typos and lyrical fuck-ups that people failed to catch on to except for a few people who KNOW the song and went to the concert. I SINGLEHANDEDLY stopped the world from using CRAY and got them to start using KRAY and slaughter the shit out of Niggas in Paris. The worst part is people still don’t believe that

* I made it up on tumblr
* that i made it up period
* that it’s made up
* that it’s not real
* that it’s fake
* that it’s a troll
* that Ye and JAY really meant CRAY
* that they weren’t referring to the Kray twins

“and i’m sitting back like ‘the fuck’ this is getting way out of hands. There are still dummies on tumblr reblogging the post and dumb fucks on twitter retweeting the pictures and forums and blogsites reporting my troll as NEWS. I won’t be surprised if it didn’t get back to Ye and Jay yet. I take FULL credit for making up that they were talking about the KRAY twins in the song because nobody helped me write the bogus ass post. I wrote it on my own.

People are arguing with me but there’s no post before the 1st November 2011 before 4:52pm because that’s when I wrote it. Of course all tracks are pointing towards me because I did the shit. Everything got out the early morning of 2 November 2011 and people still don’t know it was a hoax so they’re still reporting on it. I’m trying to tell people that it was a hoax but they’re not believing it. Maybe people are as stupid as I thought…’"

On December 18th, 2012, the song was included in the book Words You Should Know 2013.^[8] The book discusses the terms origins and ascension in the common vernacular.

On August 14th, 2014, the phrase “cray” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary,^[9] who defined it as “crazy.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Iridocyclitis is a type of eye inflammation a Vine video remix series featuring a clip of Mississippi-based teenager Dev Jaiswal saying the word “iridocyclitis” during the Scripps Spelling Bee competition in May 2015.

Origin

On May 28th, 2015, the 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. During the competition, Louisville, Mississippi teenager Dev Jaiswall placed 5th after incorrectly spelling the word “iridocyclitis.” The following day, Viner Fails of Vine uploaded a short clip of Jaiswal repeating the word “iridocyclitis” (shown below).

Spread

On June 1st, 2015, YouTuber Conor Crowley reuploaded the Vine. On July 2nd, the Iridocyclitis Vine channel uploaded a warped version of the clip with slowed down audio (shown below). In the next two weeks, the Vine accumulated upwards of 48,000 loops, 1,000 likes and 600 revines.

On July 14th, the ObeseFailTV YouTube channel uploaded a compilation of iridocyclitis Vine videos (shown below). The same day, another compilation was uploaded by the World’s Best Videos YouTube channel (shown below, right).

Various Examples

As of mid July 2015, there are over 500 results for the tag “#iridocyclitis” on Vine.^[1]

Search Interest

External References

[Major rewrite in progress… please stand by.]

Something Awful, commonly referred to as SA, is a comedic website and forum community. Something Awful is notable for being one of the oldest and largest forums in continuous existence, and for the influence it has had on the online community.

History

Begining

Something Awful was originally created by Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka in 1999. ^[1] Kyanka, under the persona “Cranky Steve” was originally the only writer for the site’s commedy section, although in later years additional writers would join him. Early in the site’s history, several advertisers including GameFan ^[2] and eFront ^[3] failed to pay their owed revenue to the site. This prompted Kyanka to begin charging a $9.99 registration fee to forum users in 2001.

The SPEWS Incident

On July 2003, Something Awful was unexpectedly blocked by the Spam Prevention Early Warning System (SPEWS), allegedly due to a spammer sharing the same subnet of SA. SPEWS initially refused to unblock the site upon appeal, despite there being no connection between Something Awful and the alleged spam, cutting off the site’s ability to reach a large swathe of its users. Kyanka and the admins encouraged users to vocalize their support for the site. This backfired, and ended in a wave of trolling, off-topic posting on SPEWS websites (ironically perpetuating the spam SA was trying to distance itself from) and threats of mass DDoS attacks on SPEWS hosts. Something Awful was eventually delisted, and the site returned to normal.

Hurricane Katrina

Something Awful went temporarily offline in 2005 due to its servers, which were located in New Orleans, being shut down by Hurricane Katrina. Because of this, Something Awful users created a fund to donate, via the Red Cross, money to Hurricane Katrina survivors. Kyanka donated $3,000 of his own money to the fund, and promised free merchandize to anyone who donated over $10. In the half-day of the fund’s operation, it raised $27,695 before Paypal shut it down due to suspicion of fraud. After learning that Paypal would only allow the money to be donated to United Way, which users of the site considered rife with corruption, the money was refunded to the donors.

About

A good five minutes on SA, shorthand for somethingawful, will tell everything you need to know. Its main center of lulzy by-products come from its forums. There are four main sections in the forum, the Main, Discussion, The Finer Arts, and Archives. In those sections are smaller subforums which then bring you to the threads. While the Main section only consists of “General Bullshit”, the other sections have a wide variety such as, gaming (let’s play), movies, books, gadgets, comedy, and more.

The forums have helped to perpetuate Internet memes, such as All your base are belong to us and Tourist guy. The forum’s users refer to themselves as “Goons”. A weekly activity is “Photoshop Phriday”, where users will modify existing images to create parodies through the use of image-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. Another periodic activity is “The Blue Ball Machine”, where users create animated images that tile together in such a way as to appear like a seamless whole; these tiles are incorporated into a screensaver which displays them in random order. The feature gained popularity when users on the website YTMND looped the animation to music from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The website also highlights some of what its administrators believe to be exceptional forum threads in the Comedy Goldmine feature. A forum member also launched 4chan.

During Entertainment Weekly’s 2001 “Entertainer of the Year” contest, in which votes are submitted online, forum users quickly found a weakness in the voting system, and scripts were written to vote for Kyanka dozens of times per second, thus ensuring his victory. Kyanka was quickly disqualified when Entertainment Weekly found that many of the votes were coming from very few IP addresses. Kyanka did, however, get his name mentioned on their website.

Online Reputation

Something Awful has a reputation for being a “meme factory”. All Your Base Are Belong To Us is one example of a meme popularized by SA forum Goons. Something Awful also has something of a reputation for griefing. ^[4] 4chan found moot frequented Something Awful forums before he created his own site. ^[5]

External References

^[1]Interview with Richard Kyanka- Hypothermia

^[2]LowEndMac- Something Awful & Express.com

^[3]The Duke of URL- Efront

^[4]Wired.com- Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses

^[5]The Star- Funny how ‘Stupid’ Site is Addictive

About

You’re Not My Dad!, also known by the hashtag #NOODLEHEAD is a phrase uttered by a young child in a viral video on Vine uploaded by user Jessi Lockett. The child yells at the camera, saying “You’re Not My Dad! You always wanna hear something!”, then calls the person holding the camera an “ugly a** f***in’ noodlehead.” Both the initial and last lines of the video have been used in mashup videos on Vine, or videos where the soundbyte is paired with other clips for comedic effect, similar to The “Lebron James” Kid.

Origin

On November 16th, 2014, Vine user Jessi Lockett uploaded a video clip in which a child yells at the cameraperson saying “You’re Not My Dad! You always wanna hear something!” before calling them an “ugly a** f***in’ noodlehead.” As of March 27th, 2015, the video garnered over 24 million loops, 422.7k likes, and 286k reVines, and 20.9k comments.

Spread

In late January and early February of 2015, the video enjoyed a surge in popularity as Vine users re-Vined it, posted it on YouTube, remixed the audio to music, and re-appropriated the child’s soundbytes onto other videos. User JMerks remixed the audio with a trap beat to create a VineTrack on Soundcloud^[3]; this clip has 143k plays as of March 27th, 2015.

Another popular video, by user ClutchChris, transposed the boy’s audio onto a video of Darth Vader telling Luke Skywalker that he’s his father. The ClutchChris watermarked version of the video has been posted by several users, garnering at least 150k loops between February 3rd, 2015 and March 27th, 2015.

There are more than 500 videos tagged with #Noodlehead as of March 27th, 2015.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

^[1]Vine – Search Results: You’re Not My Dad

^[2]Vine – Search Results: #Noodlehead

^[3]Soundcloud – You’re Not My Dad – #VineTrack #FirstToClub – @DJMerks973

About

“Emily Faked Cancer” is a copypasta often repeated in Twitch chats when referring to rumors that Twitch streamer Emily Schröder, better known by her online handle EmilyIsPro, lied about having cancer in order to get donations from fans on the video-streaming site.

Origin

Sometime in 2012, Runescape streamer EmilyIsPro discussed being diagnosed with leukemia in November earlier that year. Within the Runescape community, players began speculating that Schröder had faked having cancer to get donations, leading to the copypasta phrase “Emily faked cancer.” While the original video has not been found, footage of Schröder discussing the incident in 2013 subsequently emerged on YouTube, in which claims she had been “diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia” (shown below).

Spread

On November 10th, 2014, Redditor ClearingTheAir636 submitted a post to /r/2007scape^[1] titled “Clearing the Air About Emilyispro,” which claimed to be Schröder’s ex-boyfriend, David, and saying “she never faked anything.” On January 24th, 2016, YouTuber Jmac uploaded a clip from an EmilyIsPro Counter-Strike livestream in which she is removed from the game after attacking a teammate who calls her a “cancer whore” (shown below).

On March 19th, YouTuber Vexxed uploaded a video discussing the controversy, which gathered upwards of 222,000 views and 680 comments over the next two years (shown below). In the video, Vexxed concludes that there is “no evidence” that Schröder faked cancer, and that it is “just a meme.”

On March 29th, YouTuber Vexxed uploaded an edited stream in which Schröder denies that she faked having cancer (shown below, left). Over the next 17 months, the video received over 70,000 views and 600 comments. That day, YouTuber TriHard Cx uploaded footage from Thebaby123’s stream in which he discussed the cancer speculation (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References

Overview

Alyssa Funke was a student at the University of Wisconsin who committed suicide on her parents’ boat in April 2014 after being targeted by online harassment and insults for having starred in an adult entertainment film earlier that year. Like other teen suicides, such as Amanda Cummings and Mitchell Henderson, her death became the subject of many conversations online about the issue of cyberbullying.

Background

In March 2014, the adult entertainment website CastingCouch-X posted a video starring then 18-year-old Wisconsin resident Alyssa Funke using the pseudonym “Stella Ann.” Following the release of the video, Funke began receiving insulting and threatening messages from former high school classmates on her social networking profiles. On March 4th, Funke posted a Facebook status update about being a victim of online harassment.

Between April 14th and 15th, Funke posted two tweets referencing her adult video. On the following day, Funke was found dead on her parents boat after shooting herself with a shotgun.

Notable Developments

Anti-Cyberbullying Fundraiser

On April 17th, 2014, Minnesota resident Paul Anderson posted a page on the crowdfunding website Fundrazr^[1] titled “The Alyssa Stop Bullying Fund,” asking for money that would be donated to anti-bullying charities. On May 8th, the fundraiser ended with $165 raised of the $1,000 goal.

News Media Coverage

On April 17th, the University of Wisconsin news blog UWRFVoice^[2] reported on Funke’s passing, noting that a cause of death had not been released by authorities. On May 19th, My Fox Twin Cities aired a news segment about Funke’s suicide, noting that she had received harassing messages after the CastingCouch-X video was released (shown below). The segment also contained an interview with social worker Joy Friedman of the non-profit Breaking Free, an organization that assists women in leaving the sex industry.

In the coming days, several news sites, including The Daily Mail,^[3] The Daily Beast,^[4] The Daily Dot,^[5] Metro,^[6] The Huffington Post^[7] and Gawker,^[8] reported on the online discussions surrounding the role that pornography and cyberbullying may have played in Funke’s suicide, with many comparing this case to the harassment received by adult film star Belle Knox. In addition, Jezebel criticized the lack of initiative from the police and school officials who were involved in the case, one of whom reportedly explained that the students at Stillwater High School suspected of cyberbullying will not be facing disciplinary action, because “they’d never been in trouble for cyber harassment before.”

Search Interest

External References

About

The Annoying Thing, more widely known as Crazy Frog, is a 3D-animated character from a commercial for ringtone provider Jamba!, later known as Jamster. The character went viral when paired with an electronic cover of “Axel F” from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack.

Origin

In 1997, Swedish student Daniel Malmedahl recorded himself imitating noises made by a two-stroke engine.^[1] After he posted this on an unknown website, it grabbed the attention of a Swedish television researcher, who invited Malmedahl to perform the engine noises on television.

Spread

Te noises from the TV performance been appeared in various file sharing websites renamed to 2TAKTARE.mp3. The sound has been then adopted to a single serving site called “The Insanity Test” showing a formula one racing car and the rules:

1. Turn on the Speakers and allow the page to load fully
2. Stare at the Picture without laughing for 60 seconds
3. If you start laughing consider yourself legally insane

In 2003, Swedish animator Erik Wernquist created a 3D animation using the LightWave 3D modeling application. The animation is called “The Annoying Thing,” which was the initial name of the frog. The animation was then posted on TurboForce3D.com by him and the animation was download-able as an .avi and an .mpg video file (shown below, left). The background song is called “In Rock 8 Bit” produced by “Bodenständig 2000” (shown below, right).

In 2004 “Jamba!” used this as a ringtone to show this in a commercial and renamed the audio in “The Crazy Frog.” In an interview with Wernquist, he expressed his displeasure at the choice of the name by saying, that it isn’t a frog and is not considered to be crazy.

“Axel F” Cover

In 2005, dance music projects Bass Bumpers and Off-Cast Project created a cover song of Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F” using the Crazy Frog vocals. The song was released as a single titled “Crazy Frog – Axel F.” The same year, the Swedish 3D animation company Kaktus Film and Wernquist made a music video for the song with the title “Axel F” (shown below). It was uploaded to the CrazyFrogVEVO channel on June 16th, 2009. In February of 2018, that video surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube. The track debuted at Number 1 in the UK, where it stayed for four weeks. The success of the track led to three Crazy Frog albums: Crazy Hits (2005), More Crazy Hits (2006) and Everybody Dance Now (2009).

Other Media

In December 2005, Digital Jesters created a video game for Playstation 2 and PC called Crazy Frog Racer.

Crazy Frog Brothers

The Crazy Frog Brothers is a homemade video of two kids dancing around their basement and lip-syncing to the song “Axel F.”

Search Interest

External References

About

Metal Gear Survive is a co-op survival video game spin-off of the Metal Gear_ series developed by Konami for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC platforms. Taking place after the events of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, players take on the role of the MSF soldiers who were sucked into a mysterious wormhole that sent them into an alternate dimension, where they must work together in order to survive and fight against hordes of zombies. The game gained notoriety online for being the first in the series since Hideo Kojima’s departure from Konami.

History

On August 17th, 2016, Metal Gear Survive was announced during Gamescom 2016.^[1] According to the President of Konami Europe Tomotada Tashiro, Metal Gear Survive "will offer a fresh take on the series’ famed stealth elements but within a unique co-op setting that is designed for a truly engrossing multiplayer experience.” On the same day, the game’s reveal trailer was uploaded to the IGN YouTube channel, where it gathered over 2.7 million views and 85,900 dislikes within 72 hours (shown below). The game was originally scheduled for release in 2017 for the Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC but was delayed to February 20th, 2018.

On September 17th, 2016, Konami released demo footage for Metal Gear Survive during TGS 2016 and later to Youtube. Within 5 days, the video gathered over 608,000 views and 18,000 dislikes (shown below).

Reception

Pre-Release

Upon its reveal, Metal Gear Survive was met with backlash from users online. Several YouTube personalities expressed their distaste for the upcoming game, including YongYea, Jim Sterling, ReviewTechUSA and AlphaOmegaSin (shown below).

Meanwhile, Redditor laoxtreme submitted a comic titled “My thinking of Metal Gear Survive trailer,” in which Kojima abandons Konami and the Metal Gear Survive team (shown below). Within five days, the post gathered upwards of 3,000 votes (89% upvoted) and 340 comments on /r/gaming.^[3]

Also on August 17th, a Hideo Kojima parody account tweeted a Brent Rambo-style GIF in which Big Boss shoots himself at his computer with the caption “Watching the Metal Gear Survive trailer” (shown below). In the next five days, the tweet received more than 19.000 likes and 17.900 retweets.

Kojima’s Response

On September 18th, 2016, during Hideo Kojima’s Q&A panel at TGS 2016, when asked about his involvement in Metal Gear Survive, Kojima responded by denying any involvement he had on the title, stating “Metal Gear is about political fiction and espionage. Where do zombies fit in that?”.

Release

Upon release, Metal Gear Survive received mixed reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the game holds a score of 65^[5] for the Playstation 4 version and a score of 60^[6] for the Xbox One version. Writing for PC Gamer, Andy Kelly writes that the game, “has flickers of brilliance, but the painfully slow and gruelling survival simulation routinely snuffs them out.”^[7] Gamespot^[9] wrote the game “stacks stiff, repetitive gameplay atop survival systems that are unforgiving and unrelenting, making the overall experience feel like trying to break out of a chokehold with one arm tied behind your back.” On February 24th, 2018, videogamedunkey reviewed the game very unfavorably, particularly the combat, gaining over 2.6 million views (shown below).

On February 26th, 2018, a question about the negative backlash was posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[8] User More_bort explained that the game’s $30 price-tag for what many said seemed more like a Metal Gear Solid VDLC than a standalone game. On Steam, the game retails for $40.^[10] Additionally, a feature of the game which forces players to pay for extra save slots angered players.

Search Interest

External Reference

About

Patrick Star is a character from the Nickelodeon series Spongebob Squarepants. He is the title character’s best friend and is known for being overweight and dimwitted. Several moments featuring the character were later turned into popular internet memes.

Origin

Patrick first appeared in the pilot episode of Spongebob Squarepants, “Help Wanted,” which aired May 1st, 1999. In the episode, he encourages Spongebob to interview for a job at the Krusty Krab.^[1]

Spread

Patrick has remained a prominent character on the show throughout the program’s 11 seasons as of March, 2018. Patrick has a wide following online. On Facebook,^[2] a page for the character has over 25 million likes. While a page for the character is on Reddit, the most popular subreddit related to Patrick, /r/pictureswithpatrick,^[3] involves users photoshopping the character into other images. It has over 18,000 subscribers. The character’s verified Twitter account has over 546,000 followers.^[4] He also has a Wikia page^[5] as well as a page on TV Tropes. ^[6] In August of 2017, Buzzfeed^[7] posted an article compiling some of Patrick’s funniest moments. On December 8th, 2017, YouTuber Preston Ward Condra uploaded a compilation of all the times Patrick had been arrested in the course of the show, gaining over 1.5 million views (shown below).

Related Memes

Push It Somewhere Else

Push It Somewhere Else Patrick (also known as “Pushing Patrick”) is an image macro series based on a scene from SpongeBob SquarePants. The captions typically use the snowclone template “We should take X and put it Y” or “We should X and Y" to suggest an alternative solution to a given problem. The screen capture used in the image macro comes from the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm,” originally aired on October 12th, 2001. In the episode, the character Patrick Star provides a possible solution for dealing with the threat of an Alaskan Bull Worm, by suggesting they relocate the entire town (shown below).

“We should take Bikini Bottom and push it somewhere else.”

Surprised Patrick

Surprised Patrick is a photoshop meme in which a cut out of the SpongeBob Squarepants character Patrick Star from the animated television series is superimposed onto different base images of various humorous contexts. In the images, Patrick always appears to be in a state of shock or bewilderment with his mouth agape. In a scene from the 2004 animated adventure comedy film The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, the protagonist SpongeBob and his friend Patrick Star are shown sitting next to a ledge wearing exasperated expressions after losing their Patty Mobile car in an abyss. On January 29th, 2008, an animated GIF of the scene was submitted to the graphics website Glitter-Graphics (shown below).

Savage Patrick

Savage Patrick (sometimes referred to as Evil Patrick or Angry Patrick) refers to a still image of Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants looking as though he’s in the midst of a maniacally evil chuckle. The still comes from the Season 1 episode of Spongebob Squarepants, “Nature Pants” (shown below at around 7:10), which aired September 11th, 1999.

The still began becoming a meme in late February of 2018. One of the earliest known posts to use the image was posted February 26th, 2018 by Twitter user @bvercetti__ in a tweet that gained over 4,600 retweets and 18,000 likes.

Patrick Star’s Wallet

Patrick Star’s Wallet refers to a scene from Spongebob Squarepants in which Patrick attempts to teach a lesson about morality to the villainous Man Ray. In the scene, Man Ray role-plays giving back Patrick’s lost wallet. However, Patrick denies the wallet is his despite Man Ray’s logical reasoning, causing Man Ray to revert to anger. The scene has been parodied and turned into an exploitable in which the characters and dialogue are altered to make different kinds of points. The scene appears in the episode “Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III,” which aired November 27th, 2000 (shown below).

An image macro of the scene appeared online in the mid-2010s. An example was posted on Imgur on July 21st, 2013,^[2] though the image had been circulating online prior.

Scared Patrick

Scared Patrick refers to an exploitable template from the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Hall Monitor.” In the template, Patrick Star is being interviewed by police, who show him something which scares him, leading to an exaggerated reaction. On April 24th, 2017, the template image was posted to /r/dankmemes by ariambe, gaining over 3,000 points (shown below).

I Have 3 Dollars

I Have 3 Dollars, occasionally formatted as I Have Three Dollars or I Have $3, is an image macro in which the Spongebob Squarepants character Patrick Star expresses his lack of money. The image became a reaction image used to react to costly scenarios or items. The meme originates from the Spongebob season 3 episode “One Krab’s Trash” aired on February 22 2002, in a scene during which Patrick barters with the character Mr. Krabs and ends up overspending on a toilet plunger. The original line is “I only have seven (dollars)” but as he holds up three physical notes, the meme generally uses the number three.

Leedle Leedle

Leedle Leedle, sometimes written as “Leedle Leedle Lee” or “Leedle Leedle Leedle Lee”, is a quote from the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Shanghaied”. In 2010, the quote began to gain attention online. It is used humorously in a variety of ways. In 2001, the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Shanghaied” aired. In it, the line was first used.

Flying Dutchman: What a night be this! Crew, howl with me so that we might set the Seven Seas ablaze with fear! [howls like a wolf]
SpongeBob: [laughs]
Patrick: Leedle-leedle-leedle-lee!

Search Interest

External References

About

KC Green (b. February, 1987, Oklahoma) is a Massachusetts-based webcomic artist known for his unique brand of self-conscious humor. Strips and panels from many different comics Green has created have gone viral or been turned into memes.

Online History

KC Green first began publishing web comics in 2001, around the age of 14. His first strip was called Sinister and Evil^[2], and featured two characters: a flower with legs and a talking balloon.

Other early strips included Bill the Magician, Advice from Mr. Long Legs, and Cat. The strips often featured two characters having an ironic conversation. Often, they were scans of hand-drawings done on notebook paper.

In 2005, Green began drawing HorribleVille^[3] and Droop, which were his first comics to feature viral memes. He also kept a popular LiveJournal blog. Other comics he’s drawn include Gunshow, Blomix (Blog Comix), Anime Club, and VG Cheats ’N Beatums.

Related Memes (In Chronological Order)

Ghost Blowjob! (2006)

Ghost Blowjob! is a 4-pane comic about a guy getting head from a ghost, enthusiastically expressing his delight by screaming “Gh-ost Blowjob! Woo Woo Woo!” to the point of the last panel showing his roomate angrily failing to get some sleep in the next room because of the noise. It inspired fanarts of the same comic involving well-known characters from different shows.

Dick Butt (2006)

Dick Butt is an illustration of an anthropomorphic phallus with a pair of testicles and a penis protruding from its backside. In multi-pane image macros and animated GIFs, the drawing is often revealed unexpectedly in the final frame.

Mother of God. . . (2008)

Mother of God… is a rage comic character of a man staring intently at something as he takes his sunglasses off. It can be also used outside of rage comics to express astonishment or disbelief in response to a shocking image or a video. Similar to the colloquial usage of the phrase, the reaction face can be used to either indicate approval or disapproval, depending on the context. When used in the context of rage comics, it is usually preceded by a stick-figure drawing of the same man humming and walking with sunglasses still on.

Staredad (2009)

Staredad is a comic strip that features a young boy telling his father something with the last pane of the strip featuring the father staring at the son. Hilarity ensues.

You Dense, Motherfucker! (2009)

You Dense, Motherfucker! is an expression used to insult someone’s intelligence or decision making ability. The phrase is most often iterated in the form of a reaction image based on a panel from KC Green’s webcomic series The Anime Club or alternatively, a screen capture of the villain character Syndrome from the 2005 Pixar short animation film Jack-Jack Attack.

I’m Okay With This (2011)

I’m Okay With This is a colloquial expression and reaction image used to convey one’s mild approval of another individual’s action or statement. On image boards and discussion forums, the phrase can be used to signify to one’s tolerance towards a subject topic that had been previously regarded with reservation or skepticism, similar to the usage of At First I Was Like or Not Bad.

This Is Fine (2013)

This Is Fine. refers to a comic from the series Gunshow where a dog is slowly engulfed in flames while proclaiming that everything is fine. It is used as a reaction image used by forum posters trying to say calm in stressful situations.

Search Interest

External References

About

Cornette Face refers to a photograph of American professional wrestling commentator Jim Cornette wearing a surprised-looking expression, which is often used as a reaction image or as an exploitable photoshop template in wrestling-related communities online.

Origin

While the source of the image has not been found, it is rumored to have come from an interview with Cornette held sometime in 2000.^[2] According to a thread on GameFAQs (as archived on LurkerFAQs)^[2] the reaction image from the interview was originally popularized on the drug enthusiast image board 420 chan (shown below).

Spread

On January 21st, 2010, the face was featured in the audience of episode 114 in the YouTube web series Botchamania (shown below, left). On February 16th, YouTuber Maffew’s 3rd account uploaded photograph of Cornette standing with a fan holding a print out of the Cornette face (shown below, right).

On April 25th, 2011, YouTuber Sorantheman posted a slideshow of various edited Cornette faces (shown below). On August 18th, 2011, GameFAQs member DrDedal posted a thread on the site’s Pro Wrestling: WWE board about the photograph and its origins.^[2] On August 5th, 2013, a page for the “Cornette Face” meme was created on the FWc Wiki.^[1] On February 25th, 2015, Redditor saigern uploaded a post about the meme to the professional wrestling subreddit /r/SquaredCircle.^[3]

Recognition

Jim Cornette has mentioned in various interviews and promos that he is a fan of Botchamania. On October 21st, 2010, the wrestleviewradio YouTube channel posted an interview with Cornette in which he discusses the Cornette face meme, revealing that he got “a kick out of it” (shown below). Cornette first referenced the meme in a tweet about TNA Wrestling’s Victory Road 2011 pay-per-view event, an event widely recognized as one of the worst wrestling events of all time. Cornette tweeted “Just watched #TNA…I have to come up with a new face.”^[4]

In August of 2017, Cornette debuted in TNA (which had since been renamed Impact Wrestling and again into Global Force Wrestling) as a manager and authority figure. During his entry, the Cornette Face made a display in the graphics (shown below). Cornette only spent a brief stint in GFW/Impact before leaving the company again and returning to WWE under a legend’s contract.

WWE Photo Shoot

On March 12th, 2018, Cornette starred in an episode of WWE Photo Shoot, a web series on the WWE Network where WWE personalities are shown various photos from throughout their career and comment on them.^[5] One of the images shocked Cornette and caused him to reproduce his infamous face (shown below). Although the Cornette Face has surfaced on WWE programming in the form of signs displaying it in the crowd, this was the first time that the meme had been officially recognized on WWE programming.

Search Interest

External References

About

Perry the Platypus is a fictional character on the animated television series Phineas and Ferb. He is the pet platypus of Phineas and Ferb and lives a secret life as a agent for the O.W.C.A. (Organization Without a Cool Acronym), an all-animal spy and espionage organization.

Origin

Perry the Platypus first appeared in the pilot of Phineas and Ferb, which first aired on August 17th, 2007.^[1] In the episode, Perry is revealed to be a secret agent who is posing as a domesticated animal (shown below).

Spread

Between 2007 and 2015, Perry the Platypus appeared in every episode of the series.

Agent P Object Labeling

On March 19th, 2018, Redditor^[2] Teo_Manfredi posted a two-panel object labeling image macro featuring Perry the Platypus in the /r/dankmemes. The meme is captioned “When your mom asks if she can use your computer for 5 minutes” and shows Perry standing up right with the Agent P fedora on. The character has a computer folder icon entitled “Hentai” and in his hand is the word “rename.” In the bottom panel, Perry is acting like a normal platypus with the same icon renamed “Homework.” The post (shown below) received more than 5,700 points (99% upvoted) and 100 comments in two days.

That day, iFunny^[3] user iSpicy posted the meme and received more than 56,000 upvotes and 420 comments.

Later that day, Redditor^[4] Teo_Manfredi posted another variation of meme, reversing the panels. In this version, the platypus has a newspaper reading “Hitler Dead” over him and the bottom Agent P panel has a map of South America, where conspiracy theorists believe Hitler fled to after the war. Within two day, the post (shown below, left) received more than 1,800 points (98% upvoted) and 15 comments.

Over the next few days, users posted variations of the meme on the /r/MemeEconomy (example below, center).

On March 20th, Memedroid^[5] user LucasMcain posted Spanish-language variation of the meme. The post (shown below, right) received more than 1,100 votes (91% upvoted),

Search Interest

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About

Gru’s Plan is an exploitable four-panel comic series featuring the Despicable Me protagonist Gru using a presentation board. Edits of the comic typically feature an unexpected third presentation page, followed by a panel of Gru looking back at the board in confusion.

Origin

On July 9th, 2010 the film Despicable Me was released in theaters. In the film, the character Gru presents a plan to steal the moon in front of a man on a television screen and discovers a drawing of him sitting on the toilet hidden within his presentation pages.

On March 9th, 2018, Redditor FieldMarshalSixDans submitted a four-panel version meme using screencaps from the scene in a post to r/deepfriedmemes. ^[1] The image was subsequently posted by /u/dankbob_memepants_ to r/memeeconomy that day, where it gathered over 18,000 upvotes and 250 comments within 24 hours (shown below).^[2]

Spread

On March 11th, 2018 Reddit user very_niceu^[3] uploaded a Nazi parody of the comic to /r/dankmemes, gathering upwards of 21,000 K upvotes within 24 hours (shown below, left).
Meanwhile, user charizard77^[4] posted a edit about daylight savings time sleep schedules to /r/memes gathering more than 4,600 upvotes in the same timeframe (show below, center). Meanwhile, Reddit user 4k60fpsHDR^[7] posted an edit about the education system to r/memes which gathered over 6,000 upvotes in under 24 hours. (Shown below, right)

On March 12th, a Droste effect-themed version of the comic was submitted to /r/MemeEconomy^[5] (shown below, left). That day, Redditor Pawaaar- posted a GIF version of the meme to /r/me_irl,^[6] where it received upwards of 32,000 votes (89% upvoted) and 230 comments within six hours (shown below, right).

Later on March 14th, youtuber Pewdiepie made the 12th episode of his series entitled “Meme Review.” In this episode, Pewdiepie goes over memes such as “Peter Hurts His Knee”, Inkling Girl’s Eye, and Gru’s Plan. This video went on to gain millions of views in it’s first 24 hours alone.

Various Examples

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External References

This came from a couple of Google images quickly slapped together in paint. This is the only variation so far.

About

KnowYourMeme’s AdBlock Pop-Up is a pop-up shown to users of KnowYourMeme who use AdBlock. Since its inception on August 15th, 2017, the pop-up garnered massive backlash from the userbase, who made edits of the image in retaliation. As a result it no longer shows up upon every refresh [citation needed].

Origin

On August 15th, 2017, the website KnowYourMeme updated to include the pop-up shown below. The pop-up has been hated on for numerous reasons, because it appeared every time a new page is opened/refreshed (this was changed a few days later to just appearing once)^[1], but mainly because KnowYourMeme has a negative reputation among the community for containing ads that, at best, cause lag, and at worst, install malware. After the addition, Staff member Brad posted a thread about the popup on the site’s maintenance forums^[2]. The post has since become the most disliked forum post on KnowYourMeme, reaching over -200 karma in the span of a day.

Spread

The first edit of the pop-up was posted on the forum one hour after Brad’s original post by user Triangle Mare^[3]. It has earned over 70 karma in one day (Shown below, left). The second was posted by user Tyranid Warrior five hours after the original post. It has gotten over 20 karma a day later (shown below, right). After this, more edits were made under the KnowYourMeme page gallery.

TestingAnon

WIP

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not Avalible

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

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External References