About

Paranoid Parrot is an advice animal image macro series featuring a blue and yellow parrot looking over its shoulder. The captions often relay a mundane scenario or an everyday situation (ex: “save game file”) followed by an irrational response driven by paranoia.

Origin

While the photographer is unknown, the original photo of the bird was seen on the Internet as early as 2004, when it was entered as part of a Photoshop contest on Worth1000.^[1]

In 2007, the same image was used to illustrate how to use filters on a Japanese OpenCV 1.0 reference site.^[2] The picture of the parrot was also freely distributed during the 2000s as a wallpaper labeled “Amazon parrot.”^[3] The bird has been identified as a Hyacinth Macaw^[4], which is the largest macaw and the largest flying parrot species. They are native to central and eastern South America, where they are currently endangered due to habitat loss and trapping.

Spread

The image macro stemmed from 4chan but did not become popular until August 2010. The single topic Tumblr blog F Yeah Paranoid Parrot^[5] made its first post on August 10th, 2010. That month, Buzzfeed^[6] featured a series of 40 Paranoid Parrot images.

On November 9th, 2010, the Chive^[7] highlighted 27 macros. Ten days later, the earliest instance of Paranoid Parrot was added to Memebase.^[8]

ParanoidParrot.com^[9] was registered on December 4th, 2010. A companion Twitter account, paranoidxparrot^[10], was created the next day.

It also has been a popular tag on Tumblr, not only for instances of the image, but to accompany stories of paranoia.^[11]

Notable Examples

Template

Search Interest

Search for Paranoid Parrot peaked in August 2010 with the advent of the single topic Tumblr.

External References

About

Tourette’s Guy is an alleged Tourette’s Syndrome sufferer named Danny who usually wears a neckbrace, constantly shouts ridiculous phrases like “fuck salt”, “don’t talk shit about Total”, and uses “Oh Bob Saget” as a euphemism. It is unclear whether he actually has Tourette’s syndrome.

Origin

In September of 2004, the website tourettesguy.com was launched that featured Danny’s videos. The website is now defunct, but has a new home at thetourettesguy.tv.¹

Spread

The first series of Tourette’s Guy YTMND’s were uploaded by user maikeyboy in April of 2005.² It became a popular YTMND fad, and spawned several derivatives.⁵ Danny’s videos spread through ebaumsworld in 2004, and finally made it to YouTube when uploaded by user strenliz on December 8th, 2005.³

Death Rumors

According to the YTMND wiki, The official Tourette’s Guy website claimed that Danny died in 2007:

On August 4th, 2007, Tourettesguy.com released a statement, saying that Danny, the Tourettes Guy had passed away a couple of days after being released out of the hospital, from a car accident. It was later claimed that he was just in prison.

However, a video was posted to YouTube claiming to be from 2008 shows Danny clearly alive.

A thread in the Facepunch forums dicusses evidence that the death was faked.⁴ The site thetourettesguy.tv has released videos since his death that they claim are new, indicating that he is alive and well.

Tourette’s Syndrome

The official Tourette’s Guy website claims that Danny has been diagnosed with the disorder:

Although The Tourettes Guy HAS been diagnosed as having Tourettes Syndrome, the name “The Tourettes Guy” is simply a nick name that internet fans have given him and this is NOT a documentary about Tourettes Syndrome. As a matter of fact, the fact that he has Tourettes Syndrome has only been mentioned once in the entire series of videos. (In one of the interview scenes the person interviewing him mentions that he has had Tourettes Syndrome for over 30 years.) Not everything that The Tourettes Guy says or does is necessarily due to him having Tourettes Syndrome and it’s important to note that not everyone with Tourettes Syndrome cusses and wears a neckbrace and a Tony The Tiger T-Shirt. He is holding a beer in most of the scenes, so it is highly likely that alcohol has a strong influence over his behavior.¹

Popularity

According To Google Insights, search queries for “tourette’s guy” spiked August of 2007.

Best Of Tourette’s Guy

More can be found in the video gallery.

Derivatives

Tourette’s guy is also fairly popular among YouTube Poop creators such as Temeku and DreamToNightmare.

External Links

¹ thetourettesguy.tv

² YTMND – maikeyboy

³ YouTube – sistrenliz

⁴ Facepunch – Tracking down the tourettes guy

⁵ YTMNDs:

• http://unsolvedtourettes.ytmnd.com
• http://lazytourettes.ytmnd.com
• http://sonictourettesguy.ytmnd.com
• http://tourettesguydeathstar.ytmnd.com
• http://tourettesandlexagain.ytmnd.com
• http://cosbytourettesinterview.ytmnd.com
• http://tourettesualue.ytmnd.com
• http://whatistourettesguy2.ytmnd.com
• http://tourettesguyforbreakfast.ytmnd.com

About

Pokepuns are an image macro series illustrating various puns and wordplay based on the character names of the Nintendo anime and video game franchise Pokémon.

Origin

The image macros labeled “Pokepun” did not appear until January 2009 with a picture of Raichu and a caption that read “I’m going to Raichu a love song” (I’m going to write you a love song"). An image macro version was posted by DeviantArt user ~its-Will-yo^[3] on January 17th and a photoshopped version was posted via Digg^[4] on January 29th.

Some fans also assert that the official names of Pokemon monsters in Japanese were inspired by puns involving their physical traits and characteristics. Prior to the release of Pokemon Black and White in 2011, the NewsBot on the Project Pokemon forum posted a list^[1] of speculated reasons behind the official names of each monster in the game.

Precursors

The idea of using Pokémon names as puns has been explored as early as on June 30th, 2007 in a thread posted via 4chan’s /b/ (random) board. In the thread, some began photoshopping Pokemon characters into book covers^[5] with titles altered to include their names. Months later on September 8th, 2007^[2], a Slowpoke thread was derailed by textual puns accompanied by images of Pokemon characters.

Meanwhile, the concept of a word puzzle using pictures in place of words originates from Rebus, an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or syllables. The technique was heavily used in heraldry artworks such as Canting arms^[18] to cleverly hint surnames during the Middle Ages.

Spread

One of the earliest text-only Pokepun threads outside of 4chan was posted on the Gamespot^[6] forums on May 30th, 2008. By June 24th, 2009, an image macro thread was posted on the Miscellaneous section of the BodyBuilding.com^[7] forums. Over the course of 2009, collections of these image macros appeared on the RWP forums^[8], a single topic Tumblr^[9] and Urban Dictionary.^[10]

In 2010, Pokepun image macros were extensively covered by single topic blogs on MemeBase^[17] and Blogspot^[14], in addition to instances appearing on FunnyJunk^[11], the Escapist^[12] and Smosh.^[13] Currently As of November 2011, there are two active Tumblr tags for these image macros, Pokemon Puns^[15] and Pokepuns.^[16]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Search queries for both “Pokemon Puns” and “Pokepuns” began in February 2009, a month after the image macros began appearing. They both peaked in December 2009 and December 2010 possibly coinciding with the holiday season and people receiving Pokemon games as presents.

External References

About

“You forgot Poland” is a popular catchphrase adopted by George W. Bush’s detractors to poke fun at his tactless rebuttal during the first debate of US Presidential elections in 2004. Since the rise of Bushism and related jokes in the mid-2000s, “You forgot Poland” has become one of the most recognizable quotes uttered by the former US president.

Origin

The first round of Bush-Kerry Presidential debate was held at the University of Miami on the evening of September 30th, 2004. One of the more interesting questions prompted by the moderator Jim Lehrer was “Are Americans now dying in Iraq for a mistake?”, referring to the declining public approval of US military operations in Iraq that began in March 2003.

In answering the question, Senator John Kerry (D) essentially advocated the presence of US troops in Iraq, but also accused the incumbent president of failing to round up adequate international support and lacking necessary skills in diplomacy.

Sen. John Kerry: “Secondly, when we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That’s not a grand coalition. We can do better.”

Moderator: Thirty seconds, Mr. President.

President Bush: “Well, actually, he forgot Poland.” And now there’s 30 nations involved, standing side by side with our American troops.

In response to Senator Kerry’s sharp criticism, President Bush began his rebuttal by pointing out that Kerry forgot to mention “Poland” as part of the Iraqi invasion coalition. Indeed, Poland was technically credited as one of the four countries that helped van-guarding the invasion, but in the context of the debate, it seemed largely irrelevant whether the coalition consisted of three or four nations, as neither scenario fit the description of “grand coalition” headlined by the Bush administration in the early phase of the war.

Spread

Less than two hours after the debate, photographer Michael James sought to profit from this by creating Youforgotpoland.org and a Cafepress Store.

Although the search queries for “you forgot Poland” died down soon after the event, it went on to become a long-lived YTMND meme spanning years.

YTMND Sites

Excerpt from YTMND Wiki:

The You forgot Poland YTMNDs from 2004 were satirical references to George W. Bush’s unanticipated retort to John Kerry during the 2004 Presidential Electoral Debate. John Kerry had omitted Poland as a member of the coalition participating on the War on Terror (whether or not this was intentional is debated) and Bush took it upon himself to enlighten Kerry.

The newer Forgot Poland sites contain no real world political message. This type of YTMND is quickly becoming popular, though it has very little to do with the original “forgot poland” political fad. The original YTMND was posted by deevo in October of 2004 (which is now deleted). Since then, “Forgot Poland” sites merged with the influences of DaltonofZeal2, Kassius, and AegisReflector to pull away from lame political jokes and pushed more towards its own unique realm

The first “You Forgot Poland” YTMND that shows up in a search was created on October 3rd, 2004 by Stevesbored and currently has 29,000 views.

• I believe you forgot Poland

The YTMND satirizes Bush’s insistance that Poland played an important part, but equating it with Melvin’s Stapler, a running joke in the film Office Space that is popular amongst YTMNDers.

The most viewed “You Forgot Poland” YTMND was created on October 5th, 2004 by zachbg and has over 46,000 views. The YTMND mashes the meme together with Eminem’s “Forgot About Dre.”

• Forgot About Poland

The highest rated of these YTMNDs is a more skilled mashup of Poland with “Forgot about Dre” created by Nitesky on April 27th, 2008.

• Dr Dre Ft. Grand Coalition: Forgot about Poland

There are a total of 286 “forgot poland” YTMNDs that have been produced steadily from 2004 through 2009. See the YTMND search results for the most up to date stats.

Another theme of many of these YTMNDS is low quality sound (the aforementioned Bush quote – and other clips from the same context like “30 seconds” – “KHAAAN!!”, “NOOOO!!” etc., see YTMND Wiki for a more complete listing), extreme sound volume, messy visuals and the message “VOTE 5” inserted in one way or another

“Polend” (as the word is often intentionally misspelled) sites form the most notable subcategory (along with KHANTMNDs) of noise sites (not a term in general use), which share the characteristics of noisiness and intentional sloppiness. All noise sites sharply divide the YTMND public (the YTMNDrs who hate Poland sites are referred frequently to as “Poland forgetters”)

Makers of Poland sites are “organized” as Forgot Poland Army (FPA), the “official” board of which is found here

Some notable examples:

believepoland.ytmnd.com

youtouchmypolendandvotefiveok.ytmnd.com

vote5journeytothepoland.ytmnd.com

polandtoolkit.ytmnd.com

About

RTFM is internet slang which stands for “Read The Fucking Manual,” typically used in response to a question from a newbie that may be deemed unnecessary or redundant, had that individual done some basic research on the subject beforehand. The antithesis of RTFM is TL;DR, which stands for “too long; didn’t read.”

Origin

Although largely unsubstantiated, usage of RTFM may have begun as a military lingo during World War II, when the phrase “Read The Field Manual” became a staple expression among American soldiers in response to basic questions asked by new enlistees. First introduced in 1939, US Army Field Manuals instructed all the vital, necessary skills for a soldier, from how to fold your clothes properly to how to toss a grenade inside the enemy’s tank.

The earliest confirmed instance of RTFM was printed in 1979 LINPACK Users’ Guide¹, the manual for using the LINPACK linear algebra software library written for Fortran programming language. In the table of contents section, the text appears as a quote attributed to Anonymous:

Table of Contents
“R.T.F.M.” --Anonymous

PREFACE ……………………………………………………..v
INTRODUCTION
1.Overview……………………………………1.1
2.Usage…………………………………………1.2
…

The first Urban Dictionary² entry for RTFM was submitted on November 13th, 2003, although its usage has been documented in Slashdot comments as early as in March 1999.

Read The Fucking Manual
Skilless15: what’s rtfm
Skilless15: i forgot
@avaxx: read the fucking manual.
Skilless15: why
Skilless15: you could just tell me

Spread

Beyond its early adoption by military personnel, electronic engineers and technicians, the principle of “helping oneself to knowledge” became more commonplace in other occupation fields, most notably in programming and customer support.

Parodies

The popularity of “RTFM” eventually gave way to image macros featuring various political posters with thematic emphasis on a particular book or a script, re-contextualized to symbolize the effin’ manual.

Usage

RTFM is commonly used in online communities to advise people to try to help themselves before seeking assistance from others. For instance, in massive multi-player online games:

Newbie Player: How do I shoot flame throwers?
Experienced Player: RTFM dude.

However, some critics assert that frequent users of the term are simply expressing elitism against the newcomers, thus driving them away without providing any tips or helpful suggestions. This is especially true when RTFM is used without even specifying which manual their correspondent should be reading. In the absence of a manual, one may be advised to Lurk Moar.

Derivatives

There are also derivative terms used in different types of online forums and communities:

RTFA: Read the F*cking Article
WTFV: Watch the F*cking Video
GIYF: Google is Your Friend
STFW: Search The Fucking Web
RTFSC: Read Your Fucking Source Code
LMGTFY: Let Me Google That For You

RTFA

RTFA (“Read the Fuckin’ Article”) and TFA (“The Fuckin’ Article”) have been commonly used on Slashdot³, Fark⁴, Digg⁵, and other social news aggregators. One of the earliest mentions of RTFA can be found in a comment⁶ posted by user Obi-Juan on August 20th, 2003:

Damn that’s a good headline!

/hasn’t RTFA

L.M.G.T.F.Y.

LMGTFY, or “Let Me Google That For You,” is a sarcastic variant of RTFM, which seemingly offers a helping hand for the confused user, but also pokes fun at him/her by demonstrating how easily one can find self-help through comprehensive search engines like Google. LMGTFY.com⁷ was registered in November of 2008, providing newbies with an idiot-proof tutorial tool for Google search.

User A: How do we know that Fox News isn’t fair and balanced?
User B: LMGTFY.

External References

¹ Google Books – LINPACK Users Guide

² Urban Dictionary – RTFM / Posted on 11-19-2003

³ Slashdot – Ask Slashdot: Is There a PGP Key Repository? / Posted on 3-16-1999

⁴ Fark – The new Battlestar Galactica sucks -- just ask the guy in it

⁵ Digg – How To Get Users to RTFM

⁶ Fark – FDA drops warnings from products containing olestra, saying they don’t give a crap / August 20th, 2003

⁷ LMGTFY – Let Me Google That For You / Launched in November 2008

Graph 1-A: Example of LOLgraph in Usage

About

LOLgraphs are statistical representations and visual aids typically designed to explain a wide range of non-academic and mostly trivial topics for humorous effect. In similar vein to Demotivational Posters, the format and concept of LOLgraphs has since become a unique genre of internet humor.

Origins

Graph 2-B: Jamphat Graph on Kelis’ Milkshake (2003)

While the exact origin of using “silly graphs” remains debatable and may even precede the Internet, Jamphat.com/rap is widely cited as the first online project devoted to making graphs & charts about popular hip hop lyrics.

As early as in November 2007, a series of Microsoft Powerpoint and Excel charts breaking down the semantics of hip hop & rap lyrics began to surface on a single webpage operated under the domain of Jamphat.com¹. Despite being hosted on a sub-domain web page, it has attracted nearly a million visits in two years via forwarded links, popular blogs and social news aggregators.

Spread

The popularity of Jamphat.com and its LOL graphs eventually gave way to the launch of several other spin-off projects, including Jay-Z Powerpoint Album² (Jay-Z’s Black Album explained through LOLgraphs), RapGraph³ (a concept blog featuring similar user-generated graphs on hip hop lyrics; the site is currently defunct), GraphJam⁴ (the most active single topic blog hosting user-generated LOLgraphs on a wide range of topic subjects; it also offers LOLgraph generator) and This Is Indexed⁵ (a personal blog run by Jessica Hagy showcasing s her collection of humorous visual diagrams and graphs).

Notable Examples

In Mainstream Media

Comedian Demetri Martin’s popular stand-up routines often involve usage of visual aids and LOLgraphs:

External References

¹ JamPhat – Rap Represented in Mathematical Charts and Graphs

² Jay-Z Powerpoint Album – Slide 1

³ Rapgraph – Rap Graph.comm Mathematical Charts and Graphs [now defunct]

⁴ Graphjam – GraphJam: Music and Pop Culture in Charts and Graphs

⁵ ThisIsIndexed – This is Indexed

About

Maru (まる, Japanese: circle or round) is a male Scottish Fold cat from Japan, who’s become well-known in the YouTube community for the videos of him playing in a childlike fashion, such as lying around, jumping into small cardboard boxes and sliding across his owner’s wooden floor.

Origin

Beginning in July 2008, YouTube user mugumogu has been posting videos of Maru the cat’s daily adventures. His owner has also kept a blog, I am Maru., to chronicle Maru’s life in photos as well.

As of August 2010, mugumogu’s channel has over 60,000,000 total upload views and is the 8th Most Subscribed channel and 11th Most Viewed channel of all time in Japan.

Spread

Maru’s exploits spread across the internet in 2008 on BoingBoing, Neatorama, EW PopWatch and Urlesque.

In 2008 and 2009, Maru won YouTube Japan video awards in the Pet/Animal category.

In 2009, Maru’s videos began to spread to hubs like I Can Has Cheezburger, CuteOverload, and Ebaum’s World. His videos also appeared on Sundance Channel’s SUNfiltered blog and Laughing Squid.

On September 1, 2009 the first Maru photobook was published in Japan. About a year later in August 2010, a second book and compilation DVD was released.

Coverage of Maru did not stop in 2010, when his videos were featured on the L.A. Times Unleashed blog, New York Times Television section, and the Ellen Degeneres show. He was also interviewed by the cat blog, LoveMeow.

Maru was voted the Internet’s Favorite Feline in Urlesque’s August 2010 “Catfight,” beating Ceiling Cat in the final round.

Derivatives

Maru the employee (September 2009) 124,000+ views

Google Insights results for web material related to Maru:

Sub-meme: “X sliding in”

Starting the 21st of July 2009 on Nico Nico Douga, the trend of using characters drawn with cat ears and tails sliding into cardboard boxes emerged, inspired by the Maru videos. It was then called すべりこむちぇん (Chen sliding in) and featured a well-known catgirl character from the Touhou series. It also used the soundtrack from the squeak! squeak! squeak! meow! dance, the “meow!” sound being the moment when the character can be seen sliding into the box.

The trend is now known as すべりこむ○○シリーズ (X sliding in) and has led to more than 170 video creations on Nico Nico Douga.

About

Zerg Rush is a popular online gaming term used to describe an overwhelming scale of attack carried out by one player against another in real time strategy (RTS) games. The term originates from the popular RTS game Starcraft, in which the “Zerg” race is notoriously known for its ability to mass-produce offensive units within a short time frame, thus allowing the player to overpower the opponent by sheer number.

Origin

Background

Similar to You must construct additional pylons! and In Ur Base, Zerg Rush came from StarCraft, a military science real time strategy game originally released on March 31st, 1998. In the game, each player can choose to play as one of the three species: Terran (humans), Protoss (humanoids) or Zerg (insectoids).

In RTS genre, “rush” is a type of fast-attack strategy that involves mass mobilizing one or a combination of different unit types as rapidly as possible in order to overrun the opponent’s base and inflict most serious damage:

This strategy is especially conducive to Zerg players, whose average unit build time is significantly shorter in comparison to the other two species. As a result, it became common for players to set “no rush in x minutes” rules in online matches.

The first infantry units of Zergs are Zerglings. They are small and inexpensive Zerg units which can be produced quickly. A Zergling rush is the tactic of attacking an opponent with 6 or more Zergling units as early as permissible. The Zerg race is gladly favored concerning speed and power in the earliest moments of the game and the “Zerg Rush” strategy caught on really quick in wide scale, when gamers realized that one decisive Zergling attack could finalize a game in less than 5 minutes.

Origin of Meme

The meme in itself apparently stems from a multiplayer match involving Koreans, who represent a significant portion of Starcraft’s international fanbase. During the match, one of the Korean players launched an early Zergling rush attack against an opponent player, who exclaimed “OMG ZERG RUSH.” In response, the Zerg player replied “KEKEKE,” a popular Korean phrase that is comparable to “lolololol” in English. This conversation has been frequently cited as the origin, however, no visual evidence has been found to support the anecdote.

While the romanized Korean expression “KEKEKE” (ㅋㅋㅋ) usually conveys a mischievous snicker, it also perfectly embodied the sound of Zerglings (Zerg’s basic infantry unit) in attack mode. Due to the prevalence of Korean players who are extremely skilled in this tactic and lack of Korean input support in multiplayer until February 2005, “KEKEKE” quickly became associated with Zerg rush among English-speaking players.

Spread

On YTMND, the earliest instance referencing “Zerg Rush” (http://keke.ytmnd.com/) was created by thecombatwombat on May 17th, 2004. Although it remained stagnant with 6,000 views, another YTMND page (http://zurgrush.ytmnd.com/) was created by CheezWhizWario a month later, which became the viral instance of “Zerg Rush” YTMND sites. It eventually led to more than 40 YTMND variations based on similar themes, the most popular instance being LOLzergrush by GoldBean, dating from 2006 with more than 50,000 views.

The first definition of Zerg Rush was registered via Urban Dictionary on December 25th, 2004. Encyclopedia Dramatica offers several other situations in which “Zerg Rush” can be used:

* In a debate, if someone throws a pile of links or facts around, reply with “OMG ZERG RUSH!!!oneoneone”
* A horde of Kids leaving school grounds can also be considered a Zerg Rush [etc…]

In addition, a single serving website called OMGzergrush.com was also created in honor of the meme.

Notable Examples

While “Zerg Rush” and “KEKEKEKE” spawned dozens of derivatives on YTMND, the phrase also evolved into a series of image macros, instilling a new, more generic meaning. No longer bound within the context of Zerg race or even Starcraft, people began using the term in a broad sense to describe any situation where one is surrounded and outnumbered by a swarming crowd.

Videos

IRL Zerg Rush at the Wold Cyber Game 2007

Zerg Rush the Energy Drink

Zerg Megarush

Brick Rush

About

What 4chan Cries Out During Sex is an exploitable image macro series featuring a man and a woman in bed with an empty speech bubble over the man’s head. Many of the captions allude to other internet memes, sometimes focusing on topics related to specific 4chan boards, that would be considered off-beat during intercourse.

Origin

The original comic was drawn in 2005 by artist Mark Stivers^[1] and featured via his blog on November 3rd.^[2] The original instance featured the male character ecstatically yelling “Oh Buddha!” during sex and the follow-up instance posted four days later depicted the same character as an atheist yelling “Scientific Method!” The earliest archived thread featuring the exploitable on 4chan’s /b/ (random) board took place on December 7th, 2006.^[3]

Spread

One of the first compilations of the variations from 4chan was featured via internet culture blog Hush^[6] in August 2006. Some of these images were later shared on FunnyJunk^[11] and Reddit.^[12] In March 2009, an xkcd comic titled “Density”^[13] about meme overload also alluded to the exploitable.^[14]

The exploitable has been further modified through threads on other forums including men’s humor site What Boys Want^[4] in 2007, the Body Building Forums^[5], music forum FiveEight^[7] and gaming forum OnRPG^[8] in 2008, and sports forum The Mainboard^[9] in 2010. As of May 2012, Macrochan^[10] has 240 4chan-specific instances.

Notable Examples

Related: Internet Husband

In May 2011, Reddit’s counterpart to the “What 4chan Cries” series emerged with the image macro series Internet Husband, an advice animal character portrayed as a helpless Internet addict very fond of using internet slang when talking to his wife, especially during intercourse.

External References

Disclaimer: If you are epileptic or prone to having seizures, then you may want to avoid clicking on the images at the bottom of this page.

About

Speedycat is a yellow cat that initially appeared as a flash animated drawing. She is often paired with the Longcat-inspired tagline “Speedycat is speedy” and can presumably travel at the speed of light.

Origin

According to Urban Dictionary^[1], The name “Speedycat” came from a typo that occurred in late 2005 in a 4chan IRC chat room nicknamed “speedychat” for its excessive volume of spams. After an anonymous user misspelled the name of the chatroom as “Speedycat,” another user created a flash animation^[3] of a yellow cat travelling through space and posted it to 4chan. The animation was paired with the Engrish song “Speedycat” by Y&Co from the 2004 Playstation 2 music video game Beatmania IIDX11: IIDXRED.^[2]

In the original flash animation, the viewer could click on the moon, which triggered Speedycat to accelerate at “Warp Speed” with flashing lights and the song to play twice as fast.

Spread

The flash animation was reposted on several media hosting sites including Dagobah^[4], Photobucket^[5], Sheepa.org^[6], and SWFchan.^[7] The cat also appeared in a May 2006 flash music video titled 4chan City^[8], a parody of well-known Newgrounds animation Nightmare City^[9] by animator NCH.^[10] On November 3rd, 2006, the first Speedycat YTMND was created.^[11] That year, the cat was mentioned on gaming forums as well, including The Helix Community^[14] and Kingdom Hearts Insider.^[15] In 2007, Speedycat appeared in at least three^[16][17] 4chan threads on /b/ (random), including one declaring her a forgotten meme.^[18] The cat also has a small following on deviantArt^[12] and Tumblr.^[13]

Fan Art

Search Interest

External References

About

Crabcore is a joke music term where bands are strictly defined by the body contortion of the band’s guitarist(s) during performance. Also known as the “CrabHammer” or “C*ck Duster,” the term describes a guitarist’s ridiculously low (and quite uncomfortable looking) stance while playing guitar during heavy break sections of songs.

Bands that follow the term usually play an amalgamated style of modern “metalcore”, “deathcore”, “post-hardcore”, and pop music.

Origin

The Crabcore movement was popularized by the Ohio metalcore band Attack Attack!, who introduced the “crab-like” dance in their music video for the 2008 single “Stick Stickly.”

The characteristic pose can be traced back to extreme metal bands that influenced it years before the popularization.

Guitarists (especially some with extreme guitar designs) would play vertically and simply separate their legs while headbanging for added effect. This less exaggerated form is meant to compliment the heaviness of a song.

• Suffocation – The History Channel promo of “The Dark Ages” special*

• Behemoth – Slaves Shall Serve*

Metalcore and deathcore bands would later adopt the pose where it becomes associated during “breakdown” sequences; usually a slow tempo movement where the guitars’ lowest string is played in repetition and the vocalist shouts or growls a short phrase. Here are two examples of deathcore bands doing a slightly ridiculous form:

• Whitechapel – This is Exile*

• Winds of Plague – The Impaler*

Spread

Although it began as an inside joke among popular music forums such as Absolutepunk and Ultimatemetal, the culture shock it released on the internet helped it gain widespread noteriety.

Eventually Guardian.co.uk caught hold of the trend, and introduced the ideal to an even larger audience. Since then, multiple websites have been dedicated to the spread of the meme, as well as FaceBook page, a Last.fm page, and even leading users to edit Attack Attack!’s genre on Wikipedia to an “American CrabCore Band.”

Google trends shows a sharp increase in the searches for “Stick Stickly” when the term “Crabcore” was coined.

Notable Examples

Additional Links/Information:

• The vocalist of Attack Attack! was asked about crabcore in Hardtimes, and said that the band has embraced the meme as a publicity stunt.

• YTMND

• Metallica’s bassist has been known to do the stance onstage, leading to the nickname “Crabtallica”.

About

“Kitler” is a nickname used to describe white cats with black markings under their noses that resemble German dictator Adolf Hitler’s toothbrush mustache.^[1] Cats with these coats were popularized in June 2006 by the single topic site Cats that Look Like Hitler.

Origin

In May 2006, Dutch journalist Koos Plegt^[2] set up a blog^[7] to showcase photos of cats with black fur under their noses, resembling Adolf Hitler’s famous moustache^[6] after seeing a cat with this coat pattern in his hometown of Zwolle, Holland.^[3] A month after the site’s inception, Plegt was contacted by British web developer Paul Neve^[4] about turning the blog into a collaborative website. Cats That Look Like Hitler^[5] was launched on June 26th, 2006. Users can rate and comment on the cat photos as well as submit their own.

Spread

Plegt’s original blog was linked on the Geek Culture Forums^[13], MetaFilter^[8], I Am Bored^[10] and Fresh Pics^[11] as well as personal blogs like Dvorak^[9] and Kitten Fluff.^[12] After the domain had been set up, the new link was shared on art blog Meathaus^[14], StumbleUpon^[15] and web culture blog The Churning.^[16] In January 2007, PopMatters^[17] linked to the blog as well. “Kitler” was first defined on Urban Dictionary^[19] on July 20th, 2006.

In 2009, Cats That Look Like Hitler was featured on the BBC talk show The Graham Norton Show, during which Norton browsed through the site with his guests and showcased some of his favorite cats. The site hit American television in July 2010 with a mention on The Colbert Report^[18] followed by a CNN segment broadcasted the next day.

Kitler in England

On July 29th, 2011, British newspaper the Telegraph^[20] reported that an animal shelter in Godmanchester was having trouble finding a home for an abandoned kitten due to its black nose markings. Luminus, who was six weeks old at the time, was given the nickname Kitler by staff at the shelter. Within hours, news of the kitten’s predicament spread across the Huffington Post^[21], Uproxx^[22], Buzzfeed^[23] and Best Week Ever.^[24] Later that day, the shelter announced^[25] that Luminus had found a home thanks to all the attention from the web, which was covered by the Metro UK^[26] and the Daily What.^[27]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

Search for the phrase “cats that look like Hitler” started picking up in June 2006, peaking in July 2006. Searches for Kitler tend to follow similar patterns.

External References

About

Halflife: Full Life Consequences is a short fan fiction written by Fanfiction.net author squirrelking, featuring the protagonist character of Half-Life videogame franchise. The poorly written prose was subsequently introduced to a broader audience through YouTuber Djy1991’s Garry’s Mod adaptation.

Origin

Halflife: Full Life Consequences was originally submitted to the fanfic community Fanfiction.net by user squirrelking on May 18th, 2006. Apart from Full-Life Consequences, Squirrelking^[2] has written numerous other fanfictions like Metal Gear Solid: Fight of Metal Gears, Halo: Halos in Space, and Final Fantasy VII: Story of Rain Strife. A self-claimed ESL (English-as-second-language) speaker, Squirrelking’s works have been characterized by their abundance of grammatical and spelling errors.

John Freeman who was Gordon Freemans brother was one day in an office typing on a computer. He got an email from his brother that said that aliens and monsters were attacking his place and aksed him for help so he went.

On the same day Half-Life: Full Life Consequences^[1] was submitted to Fanfiction.net, YTMND user blind51de posted a dramatic reading of the original text.^[3] The site featuring a screenshot of the manuscript and a narration was well-received by the community, generating more than 130,000 views as of May 2012.

Spread

Throughout early 2007, a handful of flash-based adaptations of the story were submitted to Halflife2.net forum^[5] and Newgrounds^[6][7][8] by user Vegeta897. On February 24th, 2007, another flash rendition was posted on Newgrounds by user Snesman64^[9].

Garry’s Mod Adaptation

Eventually on January 23rd, 2008, YouTuber Djy1991^[4] would bring the fan fiction and blind51de’s dramatic narration to another stage of life through his Garry’s Mod machinima adaptation (shown left). In the following month of February 2008, the second story of the series titled Full Life Consequences 2: WhatHasTobeDone (shown right) was also adapted by Djy1991 as a Garry’s Mod short film featuring the voice of another narrator, Cannon590A.

After the viral rise of YouTuber Djy1991’s Garry’s Mod edition, the notorious fan fiction continued to spread across other familiar territories such as 4chan, as well as gaming news sites like Joystiq^[10], Gamefront^[11] and WeGame^[12] among others.

Sequels

In February 2009, Squirrelking wrote the third chapter in his Full-Life Consequences series titled “Halflife: Hero Beggining” in fulfilling the fans’ requests. In March, YouTuber Djy1991 followed up with a Garry’s Mod adaptation of the sequel, featuring a dramatic reading narrated by Dwarfio. Despite the popularity of the original copy, some speculated that the sequel went largely underexposed due to the absence of “Full Life Consequences” in the title.

The conclusion of Squirrelking’s saga titled Halflife: Fulllife Consequences: Free Man was posted two months later in April 2008, generating nearly as much buzz and feedback as his original work did. Once again, YouTuber Djy1991 completed and uploaded a 20-minute long Garry’s Mod adaptation of the third installment featuring the voice of LordTeisel, as well as a music video of Renard’s John Freeman remix (shown below).

Notable Examples

There are numerous other interpretations of the notorious story, including live-action re-enactments and machinima-based short films.

YouTube Poop Remixes

Some of the most memorable lines from the series were parodied in forms of images, YouTube Poop remixes and other music video adaptations, the most notable instance of remix being “Furries in a Blender” uploaded by FurAffinity user Renard_V on October 8th, 2008.

“Wepon”

After the third installment Free Man was released, additional parody videos and images quickly surfaced on YouTube, many of which referencing the misspelled pronunciation of “wepon” from Renard’s remix.

Notable Quotes

From Full Life Consequences:

• “…normal people close because he was in his office lab coat.”
• “its time for me to live up to my family name and face full life consequences”
• “its a good day to do what has to be done by me and help my brother to defeat the enemys”
• “The contrysides were nice and the plants were singing and the birds and the sun was almost down from the top of the sky.”
• “zombie goasts” / “wepon”
• “…the pants were dead…”
• “Its time to end this ones and for all!”

  From What Has Tobe Done:

• “…left behind the bad place behind him.”
• “Gordon Freeman is now these hands… i must kill the next boss and live up to full-life consequences!”
• “I WILL KILL THE BOSS AND GORDON FREEMAN WILL BE HAPPY SOUL!”
• “…and shot a rocket at him since that was his weakness.”
• “He walked over to the dead bosses and put them under the ground and planted pants on them so instead of messy dirt and dark there was pretty things there now to be happy.”

From Hero Beggining:

• “Combines were robot things that werent robots with ugly faces and sometimes glowing eyes and slaved people in the city and made them angry and sad.”
• “Henry Freeman Combines are from science and outter space and hate humens.”
• “…when Henry Freeman killed them it gave them hop.”
• “Henry Freeman saw the dead going on all around.”
• “You are surounded prepair to die”

  From Free Man:

• “Dad mom has dead”
• “I loved wife like sun raise… DARK MAN YOU WILL SUFFAR!”
• “its time I have to kill the enemys and make evil go away from here forrest of time!”
• “Dad humens have to fight for freedome!”
• “John Freeman got quiet then dropped wepon and said ‘I have to kill fast and bullets too slow’ and started killing Combines with bear hands.”
• “It will explod!”
• “Then Combines started coming out of the hug tower to stop the humens.”
• “‘I know bro but you are hero’ John Freeman said back to comfart Gordon.”
  
  
  

Impact

The popularity of YouTuber Djy1991’s Garry’s Mod adaptations led to a series of other machinima adaptations based on other stories written by Squirrelking, including Halo: Halos in Space (shown below, left) and Metal Gear Solid: Fight of Metal Gears, as well as Peter Chimaera’s DOOM: Repercussions of Evil.

Search Interest

External References

About

Tabby is an Internet celebrity that rose to fame on 4chan’s /b/ board. She is currently a YouTube partner, and makes videos on the Tabbs24x7¹ and Tabbs24x7Official YouTube channels.²

Origin

On September 24th 2009, several months after her “I gotta ferret” video was posted to 4chan. It was originally uploaded to YouTube several months prior by Tabby’s original account “TabithaRidiman”. The video showed random clips of a 15 year old Tabby talking about her ferret, singing along to Gunther’s Ooh, You Touch My Tra La La, and putting things up her nose.

Reception

Like Boxxy (although on a smaller scale), there were some who quickly named her the new “queen of /b/”. There were also Boxxy fanboys, upset by the declaration of a new queen, and there were also many who couldn’t seem to care less about any supposed queens of /b/.

Her personal info was found rather quickly, including the YouTube, Myspace and Twitter accounts of Tabby, her mother, sister and a guy named Tony who she claims was not a boyfriend, but a stalker. Over 200 pictures were found and put up on a Photobucket (now deleted).

Account Controversy

On September 25th 2009, Tabby removed all her Youtube videos and her Myspace, but someone made a new Youtube account under the username TabbyRidiman, mirroring all of her videos. Eventually Tabby’s mother posted a comment on the mirrored video threatening to take down the videos and that she had contacted the KY State Police. Many of the mirrored accounts have been shut down.

YouTube Return

On September 29th 2009, Tabby created a new video addressing all of the mixed reactions.

On her new Youtube channel “tabs24x7”, she reposted some of the videos from her old channel, including the ferret video.

On December 5th 2009, Tabby posted a new video in the same style as her ferret video but clearly meant for Anonymous. This time she incorporated some popular memes in her video, for example she sings along with Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up, nom nom nom and SPARTAAAAA. She says that she’s back and here to stay and will continue to make new videos. “Score!” has become her catchphrase.

SCORE

On January 4th 2010, Tabby posted a new video with some references to known memes such as Star Wars kid and Loituma Girl. She sings along with Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction and Loituma’s levan Polkka.

Tabby wants to be a Charizard!

After a few months of absence, Tabby returned to Youtube somewhere in March 2010 and regularly posted videos, most of them showing her playing around with her friends and the many animals she has on her farm.
More videos can be seen in the video gallery below.

Record Deal

On May 2nd, 2011 Tabby uploaded a video saying she would be going to Sweden on May 18th for 5 days to record an album.

External Links

¹ YouTube – Tabs24x7

² YouTube – Tabs24x7Official

About

“Wat” is a variant of the English word “what” that is often used to express confusion or disgust, much like its better known acronym “WTF,” short for “what the fuck.” Although the term “wat” is most frequently used as an interjection without a question mark, it is sometimes used to caption reaction face images or peculiar images that would evoke similar responses.

Origin

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary^[8], the interrogative word “what” stems from the Old English “Hwæt”, an exclamation that roughly translates to “so.” The term is also used in the opening line of Old English epic poem Beowolf: "Hwæt! We Gardena " || “in gear-dagum.” (“So! The Spear-Danes in days gone by.”)

One of the first relevant Urban Dictionary^[1] definitions was submitted by user Age on April 21st, 2003:

A variation of the word “what”. The word what is purposely misspelt to show dyslexia and stupidity. It can also be used as a lazy form of the word “what.”

Accordin to Encyclopedia Dramatica, colloquial use of the term “wat” originated from the Something Awful forums, specifically in the FYAD (F**k You and Die) sub-community. However, this notion has not been verified.

Spread

Over a dozen entries defining the term “wat” were submitted throughout the decade, leading up to the currently top voted definition of the word, which was was submitted on September 4th, 2008 by user watwat.^[2]

The only proper response to something that makes absolutely no sense.

Encyclopedia Dramatica^[3] defines the word as a response to the most confusing of statements or attempts at non-sequitur humor, as well as overly lengthy explanations in comments or posts similar to the usage of tl;dr.

On 4chan

On 4chan, “wat” is most commonly used as a response to image posts containing bizarre or incoherent media^[6], but it has been also incorporated into a variety of recurring discussion topics, such as You Wat You Lose threads, Wat Do threads^[7] and wat-inducing greentext stories among others.

In Rage Comic

On Reddit, a rage comic character often referred to as “wat” is used to express a confused or suspicious reaction. It is often found in the f7u12^[4] subreddit, and is commonly used in discussion threads as a comment face.^[5]

Variations

The term’s association with confusion or bewilderment can be also found in other similar expressions like lolwut, “what is this I don’t even” and “I’m 12 and what is This?”.

In addition, there are alternately spelled iterations of the term:

• What: The proper form of “what”; denotes confusion, surprise, excitement or rage.

• WHAT: Although similar in meaning, the capitalization adds more urgency or emphasis.

• Wait, what: – Denotes confusion; used when the thread or conversation shifts topic too quickly.

• Wat: Used when something is so absurd or incoherent that the typist cannot spell properly.

• Wat ¯\(°_o)/¯: Same as “wat,” but with an extra emphasis placed by the shrugging emoticon.

• Lolwut: A reference to an image macro with the same name; denotes confusion at something ridiculous.

• Wut: Denotes confusion and sluggish response.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

[not available]

External Links

About

Dick Butt, also referred to the more google search friendly Dickbutt, is the name of a character who resembles a phallus with legs and a face. But what makes Dick Butt a truly interesting character is that his testicles are themselves a butt with yet another phallus protruding out of the crack.

Origin

Dick Butt originated in a webcomic by K.C. Green on the website www.horribleville.com in a comic of the same name.

In the comic, a child is depicted who is confronted by the environmentalist Lorax from Dr. Seuss, who encourages him to be environmentalist even more than before. However, after proclaiming an oath to never waste a piece of the tree’s paper produced post-mortem, we see he indeed wastes it on a humorous drawing of Dick Butt.

This character would quickly make his way around the internet and ended up on websites like 4chan. The majority of posts related to Dick Butt can be grouped into three categories:

1. A simple image depicting the character.
2. An image wherein a character usually expects something and is disappointed when he finds out it is only a picture of Dick Butt.
3. Trolling the words “DICK BUTT” repeatedly en masse in order to annoy other lurkers.

Search

Derivatives

About

Kodomo no Jikan Ending Parodies (Japanese: こじかEDパロ, Kojika ED Paro) are hand-drawn animated videos padoying the ending theme from the first season finale of Japanese TV anime series Kodomono Jikan(こどものじかん)^[1], which became quite controversial in the United States for its suggestive portrayal of young women. Similar to Caramelldansen, the Caipirinha Dance, and the smooooch ・∀・, there are dozens of parodies and tributes available on Nico Nico Douga (NND)and YouTube.

Origin

This ending movie was for the first season of the TV anime series which was aired from October 2007 to December, 2007. The song used in the movie is “Hanamaru Sensation” (ハナマル☆センセイション) by a J-pop band Little Non.^[2] The video that led to a substantial increase in popularity of the series was uploaded to NND on October 26th, 2007^[3], which featured characters from a murder-mystery video game Higurashi When They Cry^[4] by hand drawn animation.

Spread

The ending movie was well received favorably among amateur illustrators/animators in spite of the criticism to the song. Many hand-drawn animated videos mimicking the movie by various kind of characters are uploaded to NND by them. As of January 2011, the amount of videos in this series is more than 120.^[7]

Plagiarism Controversy

On the other hand of its popularity, the song “Hanamaru Sensation” was also famous for its dishonorable reputation for its plagiarism suspicion because its hook-line was exactly the same to the song “One Fine Day” which was released in 2000 by the American punk band The Offspring.^[5] In this controversy, some Japanese internet users claimed that the Offspring’s song plagiarized from the song “Suiminbusoku” (スイミン不足) which was the opening theme song for Japanese popular TV anime series Kiteretsu Daihyakka^[6] from 1990 to 1992.

Left: The Offspiring’s “One Fine Day” / Right: “Suiminbusoku”

Little Non and its Record label had never responded to this criticism. Little Non suddenly broke up in February, 2011. The record label explained their breakup was for various reasons.

Notable Examples

For more videos, check out the videos section in this entry.

Left: Vocaloid^[8] / Right: Yume Nikki^[9]

Left: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney^[10] / Right: Megami Tensei – Persona^[11]

Search Interest

[not available]

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.

About

GentleMentleMen (not to be confused with Gentlemen) is a Youtube Poop series derived from the “Meet the Spy” trailer of the FPS game Team Fortress 2, typically edited to the song AGEHA by Ryu from the soundtrack of beatmania IIDX: IIDX RED. A clip from the CD-I videogame Link: Faces of Evil, is also used.

The video got over 60 responses in one week, but it went down after Maplemaniac was suspended. Fortunately, the video was reuploaded after the creator came back with a new acount called Maplemaniac9003.

Original Song

YouChewPoop Forums

GentleMentleMen has been mentioned in a handful of threads in the YouChewPoop Forums

• GentleMentleMen
• GentleGen
• Poop Fads That You Hate

Other Forums

GentleMentleMen has been mentioned in the following forums, although there is rarely much discussion.

• Roblox Forums
• Oddworld Forums
• Gaia Online
• WoW Forums

Derivatives

About

Kirby’s Gourmet Race Remixes (Japanese : グルメレース) refers to a style of MAD videos that utilize the audio track from the Gourmet Race mini-game included in Nintendo’s 1996 game Kirby Super Star.^[1] The theme has been widely used as a popular source material for various remixes on YTMND on the English-speaking web, as well on the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

This song was written by Japanese composer Jun Ishikawa for Kirby Super Star and later featured in a second game in the series, _ Kirby Super Star Ultra_ as well as in the Super Smash Bros. series. One of the earliest mashups^[2] paired the Gourmet Race theme with rapper Snoop Dogg’s 2004 hit rap single ““Drop It Like it’s Hot,” which was uploaded by YTMND user Barf on September 24th, 2006. Another YTMND site^[3] with a more intricate graphic was created by the same author on October 11th, 2006. A month later, the second version was re-uploaded to YouTube, where it earned more than 2.7 million views in just under six years. This instance also went on to inspire a series of YouTubePoop remixes combining video game footage and rap songs by Snoop Dogg.

Spread

The Gourmet Race theme was first used on Nico Nico Douga on November 30th, 2007, in a video titled “Masami Hisamoto seems to have exploded her head.”^[4] This video was the catalyst for another MAD series, Hissu Amoto San / Airmoto.

Over the next several months, the Gourmet Race theme was incorporated into mashups with other NND fads, before it began appearing in YTPMVs made outside of Japan in 2008. In September of that year, a template video was uploaded to YouTube for people to easily make mashups of their own. Other notable remixes have been featured on Go Nintendo^[12], Overclocked Remix forums^[13] and Unreality Magazine.^[14]

Wazukana Jikan wo Mitsukete

On Nico Nico Douga, many Gourmet Race remixes use the snowclone “Wazukana Jikan wo Mitsukete Y Suru X San” (X doing Y whenever he/she finds a short amount time) in the middle of the video. This is a homage to the line “Wazukana Jikan wo Mitsukete My Revolution Suru Hisamoto San” featured in the original Hissu Amoto San remix. MAD editors challenge themselves to reproduce this line using only the audio resources from the source they are using in the mashup. In the Falcon Punch themed remix below, the line heard is “Wazukana Jikan wo Mitsukete PK Fire Suru Kirby San."

Notable Examples

As of May 2012, there are 4310 results for Gourmet Race on YouTube^[7] and 2293 results on Nico Nico Douga.^[6]Videos also are shared on Tumblr^[11] with the tag “Gourmet Race.”

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.

About

This Looks Shopped is an image macro series that typically consists of someone pointing at a computer, or a picture that looks obviously photoshopped, with a caption that reads:

“THIS LOOKS SHOPPED / I CAN TELL FROM SOME OF THE PIXELS AND FROM SEEING QUITE A FEW SHOPS IN MY TIME.”

An interesting mix of both subtle & obvious shoops, variants of “This Looks Shopped” image macros have been regularly posted on 4chan and other internet humor forums like FARK and Something Awful.

Origins

While the precise origin of such captioned images remains unclear (and the search is ongoing), the earliest reference made to “This Looks Shopped” can be found in an article posted and cached in 2003 at Metaeducation.com.¹ As it became more and more popular, a graphic designer from New England founded a single topic blog called Thislooksshopped.com in July of 2008.²

Another rumor is that the meme started back in 1999, back when Paint Shop was the big image editor. Saying “shopped” meant that it was in Paint Shop Pro from Corel. (Credit to RonUMSC for this information)

Usage in Comment Threads

Since becoming a staple of internet memes, “This Looks Shopped” has been also used as a popular catchphrase under comment threads, typically in response to an image post that looks obviously manipulated. Though to a lesser extent, the phrase is sometimes abused for trolling purposes.

Photoshopped Osama Corpse

After the announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death, a faked photo of his corpse began being circulating around the web, and various media outlets. Photographer Kenna Lindsay was questioned by CNN about the photo, and referenced “this looks shopped” in the following quote:

“I have seen a great number of poorly Photoshopped images in my time as a photographer and I can tell by the pixels that it is a fake,” said Kenna Lindsay, a New York-based photographer who works with composite images.³

Search

Search queries for “this looks shopped” picked up in October of 2008, and reached their highest peak in February of 2010.

Examples

External Links

¹ Google webcache – metaeducation.com

² ThisLooksShopped.com

³ CNN – Widely distributed death photo of Osama bin Laden is fake / 5/3/2011