About

True Capitalist Radio is a podcast radio show airing on Blog Talk Radio, hosted by a Texan pundit known as Ghost. The show was originally titled True Conservative Radio but was changed to its current name in 2011. The radio show covers a variety of topics including markets and current politics.

Online History

The politically right-leaning radio show True Capitalist Radio mainly consists of the host giving his opinions on current topics, giving stock and investment advice, and a call in segment called Radio Graffiti. The show gained most of its popularity when a large group of 4chan users stared a raid on the call in segments of the show in an attempt to troll him. The prank calls generally play soundboards or YouTube videos, and accuse him of racism and homophobia. One of the earliest known raids took place on December 3rd, 2009 and a recording was uploaded to YouTube by user KinetiK001.

These raids continued, and before long the radio show became famous for the neverending stream of trolling attempts that would unfailingly drive Ghost to incoherent rage.

First Hiatus

The show’s final episode aired on May, 15, 2012. The exact reason for the termination for the show was never made clear, but Ghost’s Twitter was hacked and rumors spread that the man was doxxed.

Ghost made an official goodbye stream for a few private users in his “capitalist army”. He goes on to talk about how he will focus more on his personal life and the entire stream was done out of character.

Ghost Returns

On November 13th, 2015 after 3 years of his hiatus ghost returned to the internet for an “emergency broadcast” originally uploaded on his Youtube channel

After this broadcast Ghost again went dark for another 4 months until March, 20, 2016 Ghost returned again to blog talk radio with a 30 minute show. At the end of this broadcast Ghost says he will return in April with full shows, a promise he fulfilled. This began the show’s second major run.

Second Hiatus and Possible Finale

The return of True Capitalist Radio lasted for approximately one year. On May 8th, 2017, Ghost officially terminated the show again, this time citing the large influx of fetishists in his listener base as the reason alongside a desire to rein in his alcoholism (A goal which hosting the radio show was obviously not conducive toward).

Ghost expressed a desire to eventually return, but any and all plans toward that have fallen through and the show remains on indefinite hiatus.

Notable Broadcasts

Fandom

Remixes

Those with musical talent will make remixes of songs with Ghosts voice or references to the show.

Images

Related Memes

Melting Pot of Friendship

One of the most notable raids occurred on June 17th, 2011 and a recording of the event was uploaded to YouTube by user DarkRazorZ on June 19th. This raid featured Ghost proclaiming “I’m a melting pot of friendship!” (shown below).

The clip was posted to Reddit on June 19th in the /r/4chan subreddit and has received 1,452 up votes as of September 8th, 2011. It was subsequently posted to the Facepunch^[3] forums on June 22nd, and the Niketalk^[4] forums on June 24th. As of September 8th, 2011, the clip has received 207,611 views making it the most viewed Ghost raid recording on YouTube.

cans.wav

cans.wav is the fan nickname for the sound effect accompanying Ghost’s rages. Often, when Ghost becomes angered, the sound of empty cans being knocked around and against each other can be heard amidst the yelling, generally assumed to be a collection of beer cans on Ghost’s desk. Ghost has occasionally denied this, claiming it’s “just crap on [his] desk”, but one piece of merchandise sold by Ghost was autographed beer cans “used in cans.wav”, confirming their nature.

Often, trolls treat each successfully-induced instance of cans.wav as points in a scoring system. The True Capitalist Wiki includes a page documenting the highest scoring episodes in the show’s run.^[5]

Ghost’s Catchphrases

Ghost commonly responds to prank callers by calling them all manner of derogatory terms, often racist or homophobic in nature (fruit bowls, g’damn Mexicans, internet buttstalker, the po’ (his term for black people or once every blue moon hippies)) the prank calls usually involve playing a sound clip from someone/something he hates; be it My Little Pony or the left wing politician du jour, remixing his voice clips into songs or self flagellating sentences, occasionally even sung live on the show and general trolling, derailing, insulting etc. When confronted with people that call him racist he usually flips out often time even resorting to “Guess the minority” if he believes they are “ethnic”, his little game that he swears isn’t racist. When he is particularly upset, a massive shuffling of cans can often be heard in the background. Ghost has spawned several catchphrases including “I’m an alcoholic”, “I’M A CAPITALIST!”, “Pooptickler? What kind of a name is Pooptickler?”, “I’m shooting pearls”, “TROLLTERRORISTS”, “You people will RUE the day…”, “I’m taking the necessary steps to ensure that… …PUNITIVEDAMAGESOUT OF YOURASS” and almost always before he rage quits during Radio Graffiti “Stick a fork in me, I’m done”.

Regular Callers, Trolls, And Characters

Ghost has many regular guests on his radio graffiti show. A lot of his trolls put on a persona or play exaggerated versions of themselves to make him angry. Ghost refers to many of these people as “Troll Terrorists” Some note worthy callers include:

Ghetto Capitalist

Ghetto Capitalist– Ghetto Capitalist normally calls Ghost with the sound of a crying baby in the background. As his name suggests, he makes his living by scamming welfare programs such as food stamps and government assistance checks, to agitate Ghost’s capitalistic ideals.
h6. Tub Guy

Tub Guy– A caller who initially attempted to troll Ghost with a George Takei impression, but after Ghost mistook some background noise for the sound of bathtub water sloshing around, the character of Tub Guy was born. He will almost always call the show with a sexual remark followed by his catchphrase “OOOOH, MYYYY”.

Tri$ha

Tri$ha- Tri$ha is a transsexual (or “trans-testicle”, a term Ghost coined) female who calls in with a very high raspy voice. She will often make sexual advances toward Ghost or talk about her post-op surgery which will usually get ghost ganging over the mic.

Asho

Asho– Asho (at the time) was a 14 year old kid who would call into the show with fake child abuse stories, which often set Ghost off into ranting about single mothers. After Ghost’s return in 2016, Asho developed a new trolling tactic of bootlegging True Capitalist Radio merchandise, much to Ghost’s frustration.

Internet Buttstalker

Internet Buttstalker– Often called up with sexual advancements toward Ghost, and was one of the first major trolls. Ghost gave him the nickname Internet Buttstalker after repeated calls.

Suck Mah Dick Guy

Suck Mah Dick Guy– His pranks started with him calling up and just repeating “suck mah dick”, but over time his troll tactics got more elaborate. Occasionally he would call in pretending to have a serious conversation with Ghost, only to revert to his catchphrase once Ghost’s guard was lowered. On other occasions he would impersonate other callers for a while before yelling for Ghost to suck his dick.

Xarahox

Xarahox- Also known as The Piano Man, calls into play a short song on his digital keyboard nearly every show. Though initially on Ghost’s good side, Xarahox eventually started playing songs that would set off Ghost, such as playing the Inspector Gadget theme the day after a particularly infuriating Inspector Gadget-themed audio splice.

Coodoo17

Coodoo17– Calls up and sings parody songs to Ghost. Coodoo started trolling Ghost toward the end of the show’s original run, and would often cause Ghost to end the show early in sheer rage. After Ghost’s return, Coodoo developed the character of “Germit the Gay Frog”, a parody of Kermit the Frog who would, again, make unwanted sexual advances on Ghost.

Tzeki

Tzeki- Tzeki claims to be a part of Anonymous, and is known for being British, very calm and somewhat intellectual. Tzeki calls the show into the show to antagonize and insult other callers like GOOFY_BONE.

GOOFY_BONE

GOOFY_BONE -GOOFY_BONE is a long-time caller that claims he has been persuaded by Ghost’s broadcasts to identify himself as a capitalist, and has produced several rap music videos that are available on his YouTube channel STR8LOCRec . At one time GOOFY had his own podcast show on Blog Talk Radio where he would take calls and play pre recorded sound files of The Engineer pretending as if he was in the room with him.

The African Booty Scratcher

The African Booty Scratcher is a caller ostensibly from central Africa (actually from Ukraine) who primarily trolls Ghost by agitating his racial biases and making unwanted sexual advances upon both Ghost and his wife.

The Engineer

The Engineer is a character that can be heard in the background of the show who is supposed to screen Ghost’s calls for him and manage all of the technical aspects of the show. The Engineer’s voice is an unintelligible mumble. Notably, the Engineer and Ghost have never been heard speaking at the same time, leading most fans to speculate that the Engineer is just Ghost. Fans of the show coined the term “The Engineer is a spy” in reference to Team Fortress 2 and also because The Engineer sometimes takes part in trolling Ghost by allowing blocked numbers to be put on the air or playing unfavorable music on the broadcast. On some occasions, the Engineer has even taken over the show by taking calls after Ghost leaves the room for one reason or another.

Trolling Tools

Soundboards and remixes using clips of Ghost are often used to troll the show. Trolls will play songs over the microphone in order to anger Ghost. The most notable songs are Fuck You Texas,Boss Nigger,The My Little Pony theme song,My EBT, Various Eminem songs and many more. Trolls will often take audio clips of him talking and play them out of context. Trolls have made faked clips of him beating his children or saying racist remarks. Some examples:

Search Interest

External References

About

Dedotated Wam is a mispronunciation of the phrase “dedicated RAM,” which was originally mispronounced by a young fan during a panel at the Minecon 2013 Minecraft conference. The video clip of the mispronunciation inspired many remixes on YouTube.

Origin

On November 2nd, 2013, YouTuber ZodiaxEU^[1] uploaded a video titled “Dedotated Wam?” which features a young boy, identified as Superkai64^[2], attending Minecon 2013 on November 2nd, 2013. He asks a panel what the “dedotated wam” is required for his Minecraft server, obviously mispronouncing “dedicated RAM.” As of July 2014, the video has gained over 51,000 views.

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On December 13th, 2013, YouTuber mudkipsservant^[3] uploaded a video titled “The Horrors of Dedotated Wam” which features the original clip edited so Superkai64 appears demonic. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 44,000 views.

On February 22nd, 2014, a Facebook page^[4] titled Dedotated Wam was created.

On March 2nd, 2014, YouTuber Will Murray^[5] uploaded a video titled " Dedotated Wam Dubstep Remix." As of July 2014, the video has gained over 18,000 views.

On June 21st, 2014, YouTuber PancakePvP^[6] uploaded a video featuring an interview with Superkai64. Within a month the video gained over 6,000 views. The video has since been no longer available due to unknown reasons. However, many interviews with SuperKai64 have been conducted since.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“It’s a Meme, You Dip” is a phrase from a viral YouTube video which has been adopted online as a response to someone who shows confusion towards a typically well known internet meme. The phrase is used both in a serious and satirical manner.

Origin

The phrase originated from the YouTube video “Kid has major freak out at school” (shown below), which was posted by YouTuber PatrickBobo29 on January 26th, 2013. In the video a middle-schooler is seen arguing with the camera man over Hello? Yes this is dog. The phrase was initially seen in a cringeworthy light. The boy argues about Internet culture, primarily the merits of 4chan, /b/, Reddit, Apple and more. The video has since been rmoved, but as of its final archiving^[6] on October 1st, 2014, it had been viewed more than 793,000 times.

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On August 9th, 2014, an anonymous 4chan^[1] user linked the video on the site’s /b/ board. The thread entitled “So this is your average /b/tard? I am cringing so bad.” received more than 300 comments before being deleted.

Several months later, on December 14, 2014, youtuber Filthy Frank discussed the video on his “Cringe of the Week” series on his alternate account TooDamnFilthy^[2].

Following Filthy Frank’s video, on December 26th, 2014, a Facebook page^[3] dedicated to showcasing individual image edits of the phrase was created. The page has since been deleted.

On January 2nd, 2015 the original video was submitted to the /r/montageparodies^[4] subreddit. Five months later, the video was posted to the /r/4chan subreddit, receiving more than 300 points (87% upvoted) in two and a half years. The following year, on January 27th, 2016, Redditor^[7] McDodley posted it on the subreddit /r/CringeAnarchy.

Notable Examples

References

About

“Activated Almonds” is a line from a food diary written by Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans, which was originally published in an issue of the Australian magazine Sunday Age in November 2012. The diary was widely mocked online for its bizarre descriptions of food items, including “alkalised water” and “activated almonds.”

Origin

On November 4th, 2012, the Melbourne, Australia newspaper The Sunday Age published a food diary by chef Peter Evans, in which he lists several bizarre food items eaten throughout the day, including “alkalised water,” “cultured vegetables,” “homemade coconut” and “activated almonds.” That day, Australian television host Marc Fennell posted a photograph of the dairy to his Instagram^[6] and Twitter^[5] feeds, where many mocked the foods listed within (shown below).

“7am: Two glasses of alkalised water with apple cider vinegar, then a smoothie of alkalised water, organic spirulina, activated almonds, maca, blueberries, stevia, coconut keffir and two organic, free-range eggs.
8.30am: Sprouted millet, sorghum, chia and buckwheat bread with liver pate, avocado, cultured vegetables plus ginger and liquorice root tea.
12.30pm: Fresh fish, sauteed kale and broccoli, spinach and avocado salad, cultured vegies.
3pm: Activated almonds, coconut chips, cacao nibs, plus green tea.
6.30pm: Emu meatballs, sauteed vegetables, cultured vegetables plus a cup of ginger and liquorice root tea.”

According to the website AustralianAlmonds,^[3]“activated almonds” are almonds that have been soaked in water for 12 hours.

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The same day, Evans posted a response to the social media backlash on his Facebook^[8] page.

“I’m occasionally ridiculed because I choose to eat a nutrient dense diet, and I find it so bizarre as to why people sometimes find my food choice’s so offensive? All I know is that I’m well aware of the consequences of eating ‘dead’ food, and also I’m a father, and I take that privilege very seriously, so for me striving for optimum health whenever I can so that I can be a responsible role model for my daughters, and still be able to surf right up until the end, is the obvious choice for me."

In the coming days, many Twitter users continued to mock the terms used in Evans’ diary along with the hashtag “#activatedalmonds”^[7] (shown below).

On December 30th, 2013, Redditor thayguydan01 submitted a screenshot of a /fit/ post about the article to the /r/4chan^[1] subreddit, where it garnered more than 1,200 votes (93% upvoted) and 140 comments prior to being archived.

On February 1st, 2014, BodyBuilding Forums^[4] member GodsParticle submitted the article photo to the “Misc” board, where many joked about the use of the term “activated almonds.” On May 13th, The Guardian^[2] published an article titled “Activated almonds? Well yes, eating them might make you a pretentious git.” On August 30th, Redditor wsgy111 submitted a post titled “Have you activated your almonds today?”, featuring a montage of 4chan comments mocking the activated almonds article (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gathered upwards of 3,800 votes (94% upvoted) and 270 comments on /r/4chan.^[9]

On June 25th, 2015, the Waking Up With Lisa Wilkinson YouTube channel uploaded footage from the Australian morning talk show Today, in which host the host asks if his cohost Lisa Wilkinson prepared “activated almonds” (shown below). On November 6th, 2017, Redditor SevenSixTwoZeroSeven submitted a post asking why commenters on Reddit and Steam say “that really activates my almonds” to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[10]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Mocking SpongeBob, also known as Spongemock, refers to an image macro featuring cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants in which people use a picture of SpongeBob to indicate a mocking tone towards an opinion or point of view.

Origin

The image of SpongeBob used for this series comes from the episode of the animated comedy series SpongeBob SquarePants called “Little Yellow Book,” which first aired on November 25th, 2012.^[1] In the episode, Squidward reads SpongeBob’s diary, where he discovers that whenever SpongeBob sees plaid, he acts like a chicken.

The earliest iteration of the scene being used as a meme occurred on May 4th, 2017. Twitter user @OGBEARD^[2] posted a screenshot of the scene where SpongeBob acts like a chicken with the caption “How i stare back at little kids when they stare for too long.” The tweet (shown below) has received more than 73,000 retweets and 147,300 likes in five days.

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On May 5th, Twitter user @lexysaeyang^[4] posted the same screenshot (shown below), adding a call-and-response element to the meme, creating the effect that SpongeBob’s face and the alternation of uppercase and lowercase text represents a mocking tone. The tweet, which put the SpongeBob picture next to a picture of a bird with arms, received more than 37,100 retweets and 86,600 likes.

On May 6th, Twitter user @DaniLevyyy^[3] posted a variation on the meme (shown below), which removed the second picture, and made a single image macro with the caption “Americans: I need healthcare because I have cancer and I’m dying. Republicans: I NeEd hEaLtHcArE bEcAuSe I hAvE caNcEr aNd iM dYinG.” The tweet received more than 86,900 retweets and 208,400 likes.

In the coming days, Several news sites published pieces on the meme, including The Daily Dot^[5] and Mashable.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Net Neutrality is a network design principle and digital rights movement which advocates Internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all Internet traffic equally in order to maintain an “open Internet.” The principle is in opposition to a “closed Internet” in which providers restrict access to content, filter content or use “traffic shaping”^[3] to degrade access to specific web services.

Online History

Although the basic concept of net neutrality is often credited with the open access movement and political activist Lawrence Lessig^[4] as early as 2001,^[2] the term was first coined by Columbia law professor Tim Wu in a 2003 paper titled “Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination.”^[1] The paper proposed that legislation be drafted to ensure ISPs allow unfettered communication between network applications and Quality of Service (QoS) traffic.

Principles of Network Freedom

In February 2004, United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael Powell announced a list of “Network Freedom” principles, stating that consumers be given four freedoms, including “freedom to access content,” “freedom to run applications,” “freedom to attach devices” and “freedom to obtain service plan information.”^[6] On November 8th, 2005, Google^[8] published a blog post containing a letter to Congress promoting net neutrality by computer scientist Vinton Cerf.^[9]

Dear Chairman Barton and Ranking Member Dingell,

I appreciate the inquiries by your staff about my availability to appear before the Committee and to share Google’s views about draft telecommunications legislation and the issues related to “network neutrality.” These are matters of great importance to the Internet and Google welcomes the Committee’s hard work and attention. The hearing unfortunately conflicts with another obligation, and I am sorry I will not be able to attend. (Along with my colleague Robert Kahn, I am honored to be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Wednesday at the White House for our work in creating the Internet protocol TCP/IP.)

Save The Internet

In April 2006, the Save the Internet^[5] online activist organization was formed by the Free Press advocacy group, which includes a coalition of businesses and non-profit organizations aiming to protect net neutrality with a proposed “First Amendment” for Internet rights. On May 11th, YouTuber Ask A Ninja posted a video in which a man dressed in a ninja costume humorously explains the basics of net neutrality, gathering more than 1.1 million views and 600 comments in eight years (shown below, left). On June 5th, the YouTube channel Politicstv uploaded a video titled “Save the Internets,” in which the electronic musician Moby attempts to confront uninterested people on the street about net neutrality (shown below, right).

Net Neutrality Squad

On November 5th, 2007, the Net Neutrality Squad^[10] activist group was formed to enlist Internet users to report any actions by ISPs deemed threatening to net neutrality. On November 14th, president Barack Obama gave an address at Google announcing his commitment to preserving network neutrality (shown below, left). On June 8th, 2008, YouTuber AtheneWins uploaded a video promoting the protection of net neutrality, gaining upwards of 3.06 million views and 4,200 comments in the first four years (shown below, right).

Proposed Internet “Fast Lane”

On September 23rd, 2011, the FCC released rules stating that ISPs must disclose all network management practices, refrain from blocking any lawful content or discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic.^[15] On April 23rd, 2014, the FCC announced their proposal to change net neutrality rules to allow content companies to pay Internet service providers for special “fast lanes” that would deliver content at increased speeds.^[17] The following day, a petition was created on the White House website We the People^[19] urging the Obama administration to reject the FCC’s plans to allow preferential treatment to content providers (shown below).

On May 3rd, Redditor dydorn submitted a post urging viewers to sign the petition and contact the FCC to fight the “fast lane” proposal to /r/technology,^[18] where it received upwards of 12,000 upvotes and 560 comments in the first 48 hours. On May 5th, YouTuber CGP Grey uploaded a video titled “Internet Citizens: Defend Net Neutrality,” which explained the basics of net neutrality and urged viewers to contact the FCC to reclassify broadband Internet as a “title II common carrier telecommunications service.” That day, Redditor Igore34 posted the video to the /r/videos^[7] subreddit, where it accumulated over 22,100 upvotes and 790 comments within 10 hours.

Barack Obama’s Endorsement

On November 10th, 2014, The White House YouTube channel uploaded a video in which President Barack Obama urged the Federal Communications Commission to “do everything they can to protect net neutrality” and classify home Internet as a public utility (shown below).

That day, Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas posted a tweet^[20] calling net neutrality “Obamacare for the Internet” (shown below). In the first 24 hours, the tweet gained over 2,700 retweets and 1,200 favorites. Many Twitter users mocked Ted Cruz for the tweet, arguing that the comparison made little sense.

Also on November 10th, The Oatmeal webcomic posted an explanation of net neutrality directed at Cruz (shown below).

Reclassification of Broadband Access in the U.S.

On February 26th, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)^[21] voted 3-2 in favor of reclassifying broadband access as a "telecommunications service under Title II, thus recognizing high-speed Internet as a public utility and enabling the implementation of new federal regulations that strictly prohibit the ISPs from pursuing paid prioritization agreements for the so-called “fast-lane Internet” and give the governing body more regulatory powers over business activities of the broadband industry in the United States. Among many other legal implications of the ruling, the new rules explicitly ban the following practices:

• No Blocking: broadband providers may not block access to legal content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.

• No Throttling: broadband providers may not impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.

• No Paid Prioritization: broadband providers may not favor some lawful Internet traffic over other lawful traffic in exchange for consideration -- in other words, no ‘fast lanes.’ This rule also bans ISPs from prioritizing content and services of their affiliates."
  

The FCC’s decision, which broke down on party lines with all three Democratic commissioners voting in favor and two Republicans voting in opposition, was immediately met with ecstatic responses and cheers from the Open Internet Coalition and other supporters of net neutrality on Twitter and elsewhere in the social media.

John Oliver Segments

On June 1st, 2014, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver devoted roughly 13 minutes of his show to explaining net neutrality. At the end of the segment, he encouraged viewers to visit the FCC’s commenting site and voice their concerns. Oliver’s call to action was so successful that the FCC reportedly received more than 4 million responses and their website crashed.^[26] As of May 2017, the segment (shown below) has over 12.8 million views on YouTube.

Following the appointment of Ajit Pai to chairman of the FCC, concerns about the future of net neutrality again arose. Within months, he had unveiled plans to reverse the net neutrality rulings and re-classify it legally, thus removing it from Title II.^[31]

On May 7th, 2017, John Oliver again devoted a majority of his show to explaining the fight over net neutrality, as well as the plans Pai has for the future of the internet. Oliver instructed his viewers to comment on the FCC’s website, however, because the commission had made it more complicated than in the past, he bought the domain GoFCCYourself.com,^[27] which redirects visitors directly to the comment site. According to The Washington Post,^[28] within 12 hours of segment’s airing, “the page to leave a comment on the website loaded intermittently -- sometimes not at all, sometimes just slowly.” Within the first 24 hours, the video had over 700,000 views on YouTube.

On May 8th, Redditor bitbybitbybitcoin posted the TIME article “NeutralityJohn Oliver Is Calling on You to Save Net Neutrality, Again” to the subreddit /r/Technology. Within five hours the post had more than 31,000 points (81% upvoted) and 1,200 comments.^[29][30]

Internet Protests

On June 6, 2017, it was announced that there would be a major protest by major internet companies similar to the ones against SOPA but this time in support of Net Neutrality on July 12th, 2017.^[33] Among the notable firms protesting in favor of Net Neutrality included Amazon, Reddit, Mozilla, and the ACLU.^[33][34]

Trump Administration Policies

In January 2017, Ajit Varadaraj Pai was appointed the new FCC commissioner by the Trump administration. In April, Pai proposed a repeal net neutrality rules enacted under the Obama administration. In July, protests were held against Pai’s proposal. In mid-November, the FCC revealed plans to hold a vote in December to end the Obama-era net neutrality rules. On November 17th, Slate^[37] reported that more than 22 million comments were sent to the FCC regarding the removal of net neutrality restrictions. On November 18th, Redditor hornuser submitted a post urging viewers to call Congress to vote against the repeal to /r/listentothis,^[38] where it gathered upwards of 112,000 points (89% upvoted) and 3,000 comments in 48 hours. On November 19th, The Young Turks uploaded a video about the upcoming vote titled "R.I.P. The Internet, 1983-2017 (shown below, left). On November 20th, YouTuber Internet Comment Etiquette uploaded a video about Net Neutrality in response to the proposed changes (shown below, right).

Meanwhile, YouTuber Cr1tikal uploaded a video criticizing the FCC’s planned repeal, which called for “half of the attention” from the Electronic Art’s Star Wars Battlefront II controversy to be driven toward preserving net neutrality (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video gathered upwards of 200,000 views and 2,600 comments.

On November 21st, the FCC published a press released titled “Chairman Pai Circulates Draft Order to Restore Internet Freedom and Eliminate Heavy-Handed Internet Regulations,” officially announcing a proposal to repeal the Obama-era restrictions:^[43]

“Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet. Instead, the FCC would simply require Internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them and entrepreneurs and other small businesses can have the technical information they need to innovate.”

Battle for Net Neutrality

In response to the FCC’s planned repeal, Battle for Net Neutrality^[44] launched a campaign urging internet users in the United States to call their congressional representatives to vote in favor of net neutrality.

On November 21st, posts linking to the Battle for Net Neutrality website reached the front page of /r/xboxone,^[39] /r/NintendoSwitch,^[40] /r/PUBATTLEGROUNDS^[41] and /r/PS4.^[42] Over the next day, posts promoting the Battle for Net Neutrality campaign dominated the front page of /r/all (shown below).

Ajit Pai Memes

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

Verizon Protests

Meanwhile, the VerizonProtests.com website was launched to organize nationwide demonstrations outside of Verizon stores to protest the telecommunications company’s lobbying erfforts to kill net neutrality regulations.

Online Presence

On September 30th, 2009, the /r/netneutrality^[11] subreddit was launched for discussions related to the controversial topic. On December 22nd, 2010, designer Mike Ciarlo^[12] created the website The Open Internet,^[13] containing an animated presentation arguing the case for net neutrality. Two days later, Redditor rednightmare submitted the site to the /r/technology^[14] subreddit, where it gathered over 2,500 upvotes and 370 comments prior to being archived. On April 3rd, 2013, the website WhatIsNetNeutrality.org^[16] was created, which contains an interactive timeline outlining the history of net neutrality.

Notable Issues

Data Discrimination

One of the most frequently debated issues in network neutrality concerns data discrimination, or the selective filtering of information by an Internet service provider. Proponents of the net neutrality assert that one class of customers should not be favored over another in treatment of traffic, as such prioritization would constitute a form of censorship and inequality in access to the Internet.

Consumer Rights

Yet another major point of debate in network neutrality addresses the issue of “double-dipping” by network owners, or the act of charging consumers twice for Internet access, at first by charging individual consumers for access to the network and then incurring additional costs by charging the service providers with a separate fee for their Internet access, the burden of which is usually passed onto the consumers in the form of price hikes.

Innovation

The issue of innovation has often been brought up in discussions of net neutrality, as proponents of the principle argue that startups and small-time entrepreneurs would have to face higher entry barriers and costs under the framework of tiered-networks, which would ensure big companies and service providers to monopolize the “fast lanes” of the Internet.

Privacy

Infringement of privacy has been another growing concern among the proponents of network neutrality. Because the current lack of legal safeguards enables the Internet service providers to directly control a user’s Internet connections and access the devices, some speculate that the profit-driven network providers could easily analyze what their subscribers are viewing and sell that information to the highest bidder.

Related Memes

A Series of Tubes

On June 28th, 2006, former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens told the world, “The internet is not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes,” among other odd choices of wording while trying to criticize an amendment that would have prohibited ISP’s from charging for a tiered Internet structure.

Search Interest

External References

About

Deep Web, also known as “Deepnet,” the “Invisible Web,” the “Undernet” or the “hidden Web,” are parts of the Internet that are not considered part of the “surface web,” or the portion of the World Wide Web that is indexed by conventional search engines. Many deep web sites are not indexed because they use dynamic databases that are devoid of hyperlinks and can only be found by performing an internal search query.

Origin

According to The New York Times,^[1] computer scientist Mike Bergman is credited with coining the term “deep web” in a paper titled “The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value” published in The Journal of Electronic Publishing^[2] in August of 2001. In the paper, Bergman mentions that Internet business author Dr. Jill Ellsworth coined the phrase “invisible Web” in 1994 when referring to websites that were not indexed by common search engines. The paper also estimated that at the time of publication, information on the deep Web was “400 to 550 times larger than the commonly defined World Wide Web,” or approximately 7,500 terabytes of data.

Spread

On May 29th, 2001, librarian Robert Lackie launched the website Those Dark Hiding Places^[7] as a directory for sites that assist in navigating the deep Web. On January 16th, 2002, the website for Deep Web Technologies was launched, which provides the proprietary “Explorit” client for deep web searching. On March 25th, 2003, the tech news blog Campus Technology^[8] published an article with links to resources for finding information on the deep Web. On March 9th, 2004, Salon^[9] published an article which argued that deep Web search engines have the potential to “give the electorate a powerful lens into the public record.” On June 16th, 2005, Wired^[10] reported that Yahoo’s “Search Subscription” service would allow users to search some subscription sites in the deep Web. On December 18th, 2006, the Online Education Database^[11]published an “Ultimate Guide to the Invisible Web,” providing background information and tips for navigating deep Web content. On September 25th, 2008, the DeepPeep^[4] search engine was started as a project at the University of Utah, which aimed to crawl and index every database on the Internet, including the deep Web. As of January, 2012, the search engine is not available. On February 22nd, 2009, The New York Times^[1] published an article about the challenges facing the Google search engine in crawling deep Web content.

Operation Darknet

In October 2011, a group of Anonymous hacktivists launched Operation Darknet (also known as #OpDarknet), which launched a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Lolita City, a deep Web child pornography website that is only accessible via the TOR anonymous web browser.

Freedom Hosting Network

On August 1st, 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) arrested Eric Eoin Marques, a 28-year-old Irishman who owns and operates Freedom Hosting on Tor network, on charges of distributing and promoting child abuse material online. On the following day, approximately half of Freedom Hosting’s hidden services reportedly suffered from malware attacks and taken offline, many of which were suspected to host illegal activities, including the criminal hacking site HackBB, money laundering services and a vast portion of online child pornography.

[researching]

Related Concepts

TOR

The Onion Router (TOR) is an anonymous browsing client, which allows its users to browse the Internet anonymously by separating identification and routing, thus concealing network activity from surveillance. Some websites on the deep Web can only be accessed via the TOR client.

Silk Road

The Silk Road is an online black market which can only be accessed via the TOR browsing client. Many sellers on the site specialize in trading illegal drugs for Bitcoins, a peer-to-peer digital currency.

Hidden Wiki

The Hidden Wiki^[14] is a wiki database that can only be accessed via the TOR browsing client and contains articles and links to other deep Web sites, the Silk Road, assassin markets and child pornography sites.

Bitcoins

A type of currency often used in deep Web black markets is the Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency that regulates itself according to network software, with no more than 21 million Bitcoins issued in total by 2140. Bitcoins can be purchased and current exchange rates can be viewed on the MT Gox^[15] Bitcoin exchange.

Search Interest

External References

About

Tor Anonymous Browsing is free software^[1] maintained by The Tor Project non-profit organization which allows users to browse the Internet anonymously to protect online privacy and bypass online censorship using a middle-man encryption method.^[2]Tor is widely known as one of the most accessible methods for browsing the deep web. The browsing software works by using a network of relays which transports users to routers at high speeds to ensure the original machine cannot be detected. The software is maintained by the non-profit organization The Tor Project, which had a budget of about $2 million dollars in 2012. 80% of this amount was provided by US government organizations.^[3]

History

Tor was initially created as a new routing technology by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory who were concerned with protecting government communications. The alpha version of the TOR software was announced via FreeHaven.net^[4] mailing list on September 20th, 2002, followed by its presentation at the 13th USENIX Security Symposium on August 13th, 2004. Eventually, the software was released for home use on December 2006 by “The Tor Project”. Tor was originally an acronym for “The Onion Router”, but it is now referred to as simply “Tor”. The “Onion” part of the name referred to the way in which data packets were encrypted before being sent over the web. Each node would unencrypted a part of the packet, making the packet similar to the layers of an onion. The final layer would then reveal the packets destination.

Silk Road

The Silk Road was a deep web marketplace could only be accessed with the Tor browser, which facilitated Bitcoin transactions for sellers specializing in drugs. Concern over the security of Tor began to take place when the founder of Silk Road, Ross William Ulbricht was arrested in connection with running the marketplace.

NSA Concerns

Concern of the security of Tor users began to take place when it was revealed in documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden that the United States National Security Agency had been using a security bug to de-anonymize Tor users. Documents noting an attack codenamed “Egotistical Giraffe” showed that the NSA was using software vulnerabilities to monitor Tor traffic.^[5]

Search Interest

External References

About

The Internet Archive is a digital library and archival site dedicated to permanent documentation of and free public access to a wide variety of digital artifacts, ranging rom websites and music to videos and nearly three million books registered under public domain.

History

The Internet Archive^[1] was founded in 1996 by American computer engineer and Internet activist Brewster Kahle^[2], who also co-founded the web crawling service Alexa Internet around the same time. It initially began as Kahle’s personal project to archive the World Wide Web, Netnews Bulletin Board System and other publicly available software and webpages, but by late 1999, its scope had been expanded to include other worthy archive collections like the Prelinger Archives and the NASA Images Archive. Kahle’s collection was largely kept private on digital tape throughout the 1990s, only allowing researchers and scientists to access the database on special occasions. Despite its lack of public access, the Internet Archives was met by press coverage from several U.S. news publications upon its launch, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wired Magazine and National Public Radio (NPR).

The database eventually became available for public access on the fifth anniversary of the project in 2001 with the launch of The Wayback Machine^[3], a digital time capsule that allows its users to browse multiple versions of web pages archived over time. According to Kahle^[4], he was inspired to create the Machine after visting the offices of now-defunct search engine service Alta Vista and witnessing the company’s ambitious plan to store and index everything that was on the web. Throughout the 2000s, the Internet Archive continued to expand its collection by merging pre-existing databases as well as building new ones.

SOPA / PIPA Protest

On January 18th, 2012, the Internet Archives blacked out its website for twelve hours in protest of the controversial U.S. Internet bills Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, similar to many other resource websites and databases like Wikipedia.

10 Petabytes Milestone

In mid-October 2012, the project reached an important milestone^[5] of 10 petabytes (10,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) worth of digital materials in preservation, including millions of digital books, music, movies and webpages.

San Francisco Office Fire

On November 5th, 2013, Internet Archive’s office in San Francisco, California, caught fire, destroying approximately $600,000 worth of digital scanning equipment and damaging an adjacent apartment complex (shown below). According to the official blog post^[19], no injuries were reported from the scene and the scope of damage was mostly limited to equipments, albeit costly, with some losses of “physical materials” that were being digitized in the scanning room.

In the blog post, the Internet Archive also announced an emergency fund drive^[20] to rebuild its scanning capabilities and called on digitization services to help the group continue its archiving process throughout the recovery.

Features

The Internet Archives is mainly comprised of its free online services Wayback Machine and Archive-It, in addition to a number of specialized media collections that have been acquired over time, most notably the Prelinger Archives, NASA Image Archives, Open Library and Live Music Archive. ^{[this section is currently being researched]}

The Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine is the Internet Archive’s “three-dimensional index” service that allows its user to search, browse and access snapshots of the World Wide Web archived through its database over time. Since its launch in 2001, millions of websites and their associated data and media have been archived by the service, which can be used to learn more about what previous versions of certain websites used to look like, to grab source code that have disappeared from websites or to visit websites that no longer exist on the web. Often considered a crucial academic research tool in studying the history of the Internet, its popularity has also led to the synonymous usage of the terms “Wayback Machine” and “Internet Archive” in some online communities.

Archive-It

Archive-It is a web archiving service that enables individuals and organizations to harvest, catalog and preserve specialized collectons of digital media content in the archive format. All of Archive-It partners’ collectons are also made publicly available with full-text search and some of them may be periodically indexed into the Internet Archive’s general archive. As of mid-2011, the service had reached more than 180 partner institutions in 44 U.S. states and 14 countries with over 2.7 billion URLs and 1,534 public collections.

Open Library

The Open Library is a free, open-source software project which can be used to create a web-based database for every book ever published and archived. It holds at least 23 million catalog records of books and approximately 1.6 million fully-readable and downloadable books in the public domain.

Software Museum

On April 13th, 2013, TextFiles founder and archivist Jason Scott announced the launch of the Internet Archive’s Software Museum^[9] on his blog.^[8] According to Scott, the world’s largest software repository will serve as the host of smaller collections including shareware CDs^[10], emulators for a number of old-school gaming consoles and computers^[11], classic PC games^[12] a mirror of the now-defunct gaming site FilePlanet^[13], and the Tucows Software Library^[14], which boasts more than 33,000 files in its collection. Scott also noted that the Museum’s work is not completed, as it still lacks the necessary metadata needed to easily browse through the archive. The launch of the Software Museum was subsequently picked up by a number of tech news blogs such as Engadget^[15], Tuaw^[16] and VentureBeat.^[17]

The Console Living Room

On December 26th, the Internet Archive launched The Console Living Room^[21] archive for console games from several different consoles from the 1970s and 1980s, including the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Magnavox Odyssey and Astrocade systems. In a blog post announcement,^[22] archivist Jason Scott revealed that additional classic games would be added to the library in coming months.

On the following day, the BBC^[23] published an article about the new console game library, which was subsequently posted to the /r/technology^[24] subreddit. In the first six hours, the post gained over 6,000 up votes and 350 comments. In the coming days, several other news sites reported on the collection, including Mashable,^[25] Engadget,^[26] BoingBoing^[27] and ArsTechnica.^[28]

Traffic

According to its FAQ page and Alexa, the Internet Archives receives approximately 2.5 million daily unique visits and currently stands at the 278th place in U.S. rank and 222nd place in Global Rank.

External References

About

The Ting Goes, also known as Man’s Not Hot, refers to a viral video by English comedian Michael Dapaah from his web series #SWIL. In the video, Dapaah plays as rappers named MC Quakez and Roadman Shaq, who during his most infamous verse of the song “Man’s Not Hot”, says “The ting goes…” followed by him making a series of absurd gunshot sound effects with his mouth. Online, people have captioned the “ting goes” moment, using the sounds Dapaah makes as the punchline to a joke. People have also dubbed the song over other footage.

Origin

On August 29th, 2017, YouTuber^[1] CharlieSloth released the video “MC Quakez – Fire in the Booth.” The post features a scene in which the character MC Quakez performs on the BBC Radio show 1Xtra for a “Fire In The Booth” session. During the session, as the character raps the song “Man’s Not Hot,” he says the line “The ting goes,” and then performs a series of sound effects with his mouth. Within a week, the video (shown below) has received more than 500,000 views.

Spread

That day, Michael Dapaah posted a the clip of “The ting goes” on his person Twitter^[2] account. The post received more than 2,300 retweets and 5,000 likes within a week.

Later that day, Twitter^[3] user @faceinthenews posted an isolated version of “the ting goes” moment with the caption “Where the hell does this guy get his ting from please.” The post (shown below) received more than 23,700 retweets and 36,620 likes in less than a week.

Over the next week, people began tweeting jokes about the “mans not hot” line of the song. On August 30th, Twitter^[4] user @Krieg_La_Flare posted the lyrics to a picture of Jon and Dany from Game of Thrones. They captioned the post (shown below, left) “Danny: Jon its 97 degrees in the middle of June. Take off the jacket Jon: Babes……… MANSNOTHOT,” received more than 12,900 retweets and 20,600 likes within six days.

Two days later, Twitter^[5] user @KubrickJr’s tweeted a picture of a man wearing a snow suit with the caption “The Girl: Take off your jacket Skepta: Babes… Mans not hot.” The post (shown below, center) received more than 11,600 retweets and 25,600 likes within three days.

The next day, Twitter^[6] user SantanJ_ posted a parody of the I’m a Man / Woman Looking For meme with the “mans not hot” line. The post (shown below, right) received more than 2,600 retweets and 5,700 likes in less than three days.

Additionally, people began dubbing the rap over other footage. On September 2nd, Twitter user @DolanDark^[12] posted a video of Big Ben’s final chimes with the song. The tweet (shown below) received more than 80,000 retweets and 139,000 likes within three days.

On September 3rd, Twitter^[7] user @lilbabycurl posted the video with the caption “me: gently adds fries into the pot the oil: 🍎🍏..” The post (shown below) received more than 149,000 reweets and 237,000 likes within two days.

On September 4th, Twitter^[8] published a Moments page about the video, which received more than 2,500 likes in less than a day. Several media outlets covered the popularity of the meme, including The Fader,^[9] Complex,^[10]BuzzFeed^[11] and more.

On September 22nd, following the viral spread of his song, Dapaah decided to make an official release of Man’s Not Hot; listing himself as the composer, but this time using a Big Shaq persona as the performer.

Quick Maths

Quick Maths refers to a lyric from Dapaah in which he says “2 plus 2 is 4 minus 3 is 1, quick maths!” The moment was posted by itself by jay op op on September 14th, 2017 (shown below).

In the following weeks, the clip would be inserted into various other moments for humorous effect. One of the most popular videos features the line inserted into a scene from the anime Shinryaku! Ika Musume . It was uploaded by YouTuber Minyuun and has gained over 37,000 views (shown below, left). Another popular edit, uploaded by Big Money, put the line in a scene from Family Guy, gaining over 23,000 views (shown below, right).

Feud with Shaquille O’Neal

On October 11th, Shaquille O’Neal appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and Fallon’s house band, the Roots, performed “Man’s Not Hot” as Shaq’s entrance music. After hearing the song, Shaq laughed and said, “No.” The clip (video below, left) of Shaq’s entrance received more than 1.3 million views in three weeks.

Two days later, Shaq released a disstrack set to the same beat as “Man’s Not Hot” and aimed at Roadman. The song (shown below, left) received more than 59,000 views in three weeks. On October 24th, Big Man Shaq responded, in character in a Bleacher Report video (shown below, right). The clip received more than 990,000 views in less than two weeks.

Two weeks later, on October 30th, Dapaah appeared on The Breakfast Club radio program, where he discussed O’Neal’s diss track, and proclaimed his respect and admiration for Shaquille O’Neal, inferring that the disagreement is not real. The video (shown below, left) received more than 1.2 million views in one week.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

Warning: This entry contains spoilers.

About

Doki Doki Literature Club is a free-to-play anime-style psychological horror game presented as a romance visual novel, which was released for Windows and Mac systems by the game development studio Team Salvato in late September 2017.

History

On February 12th, 2017, Team Salvato founder Dan Salvato posted an “ask me anything” thread to the /r/smashbros subreddit, where he hinted about the game, saying “I’m also doing some stuff for a literature club.”^[1] On September 8th, 2017, Salvato tweeted that he would “reveal information” regarding his “never-before-seen next big project” the following week (shown below).^[3]

The following week, the Team Salvato Twitter feed was launched.^[4] On September 22nd, Doki Doki Literature Club was released for download on the website DDLC.moe^[7] and Steam. Additionally, the trailer for the game was uploaded to the Team Salvato YouTube channel (shown below).

Premise

In the game, the player is invited by their childhood friend Sayori to join a literature club at school. There, he meets Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika, the club president. All the girls seem to express some romantic interest in the player-character. By “creating poems,” a mechanic in which players select words that either resonate more with either Sayori, Yuki, or Natsuki, leading the player down their “route.” Monika does not have a route.

The game is presented in three acts.

Alternate Reality Game

On September 23rd, 2017, Redditor Mithost submitted a post to the /r/arg^[10] subreddit about files contained in the game’s program folder, which revealed that several .chr files contained secret QR codes, images and messages as part of an alternate reality game.

Online Presence

Fandom

On September 24th, 2017, the /r/DDLC^[5] subreddit was created for discussions about the video game. On September 26th, YouTube ManlyBadassHero uploaded the first in a series of “Let’s Play” videos of the game (shown below).

On October 6th, the Doki Doki Literature Club Wiki was launched.^[2] On Twitch,^[6] a directory was created for streams of the game.

Related Memes

Just Monika

WARNING: Spoilers

In the game’s second act, it becomes clear to the player that a force is trying to drive the player to choosing Monika in the dating sim. At one point, Natsuki’s dialogue is seemingly taken over and the face on her character art erased as she suggests she and Yuri are no good for the player and the player should focus their attention on Monika. The game then requires you to click on a button which says “Just Monika” (scene shown below).

The line became a meme within the game’s fandom as a cryptic reference to the game’s final reveal. Artwork and humorous remixes depicting Monika as a yandere for comedic effect have grown popular online. On October 6th, 2017, YouTuber Pengu uploaded an edit of Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 that changed all the women’s names in the song to Monika, gaining over 44,000 views (shown below, left). On October 14th, YouTuber ANGELILYworks uploaded a clip from Family Guy which also poked fun at Monika’s attraction to the player.

Additionally, the meme has spread online in various ways without directly addressing the game’s ending. There is an /r/justmonika^[12] subreddit with over 600 followers, as well as a Twitter account for the character,^[13] which was launched several months before the game’s release.

Search Interest

External References

About

Cuphead is a run and gun platform video game with graphics illustrated in the style of rubber hose animation. The game is scheduled for release on PC and Xbox platforms in late September 2017.

Gameplay

In the game, players control the titular protagonist Cuphead, who uses various weapons to destroy enemies and bosses while progressing through levels entered through an overworld screen. Additionally, a two-player cooperative mode allows a second player to join the game as Mugman.

History

In 2010, brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer began development for Cuphead with animation contributed by Jared Clark, using 1930’s cartoons as inspiration for the game’s aesthetic. In 2014, the gameplay for Cuphead was shown during the Xbox press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). On June 15th, 2015, a trailer for Cuphead was released at E3. On June 11th, 2017, a new trailer was released (shown below, right). The game is scheduled for release for Xbox and Microsoft Windows on September 29th, 2017, though it may be ported to Mac and Linux platforms at a later date.

Online Presence

On June 9th, 2014, the /r/Cuphead^[5] subreddit was created for discussions about the game. On September 2nd, 2015, the Cuphead Facebook page was launched.^[4]

Fandom

On June 12th, 2017, Redditor Karma_Kurva submitted a GIF featuring various scenes from the game titled “Cuphead = 💗” to /r/gaming,^[2] where it received more than 4,600 points (93% upvoted) and 250 comments within three months.

On July 3rd, Redditor Kzandor posted a Legend of Zelda fanart inspired by Cuphead to /r/zelda, where it gained over 7,200 points (93% upvoted) and 140 comments within two months.^[3]

Controversies

Dean Takahashi’s Gameplay Video

On August 24th, 2017, the VentureBeat YouTube channel uploaded footage of GamesBeat journalist Dean Takahashi struggling to complete the Cuphead tutorial level. Within two weeks, the video received upwards of 300,000 views and 2,100 comments, many of which mocked Takahashi. That day, VentureBeat^[6] released an article written by Takahashi about the video titled “Cuphead hands on: My 26 minutes of shame with an old-time cartoon game.”

On September 2nd, journalist Ian Miles Cheong posted a clip from the video, saying “Game journalists are incredibly bad at video games” (shown below). Within four days, the tweet received more than 25,000 likes and 11,600 retweets.

On September 4th, the video game news blog GameRevolution published an article about the video titled “Cuphead Reignites the ‘Game Journalists Should Be Good at Games’ Debate.” On September 5th, the video reached the front page of /r/pcgaming,^[1] where it was compared to a Doom gameplay by Polygon.

Reception

Cuphead was very well received by critics. As of October 2nd, 2017, the game has a score of 85/100 on Metacritic.^[7] Reviewers praised the game’s beautiful art-style and challenging but rewarding gameplay. At the time of the game’s release, an article published by GamesRader+^[8] two months prior to the game’s release began recirculating around social media. Social media users commented on the article’s headline: “‘We quit our jobs, remortgaged our houses’ – how relentless passion made Cuphead a reality.” On September 30th, Tumblr, user FourPointStars^[9] used the title to encourage users to not pirate Cuphead, gaining over 17,000 notes (shown below, left). On Twitter, user @Juliemuncy23^[10] commented of the headline, “how a lack of social safety nets makes independent art a near-suicidal venture,” gaining over 8,000 retweets and 18,000 likes (shown below, right).

Meanwhile, memes related to the actual Cuphead game began appearing online (examples shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

“To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty” is a copypasta that fans and detractors of the animated television series Rick and Morty use to respond to criticisms of the show. The text, which may have been originally posted sincerely, refers to the high-falutin and self-congratulatory way people talk the show.

Origin

On July 29th, 2017, Redditor Niekisch submitted the earliest known variation of the copypasta in the comments section of a post on /r/CringeAnarchy:^[1]

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Rick’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick’s existential catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎

Spread

The following day, Redditor^[2] trinityjadex posted the entired text in the /r/copypasta subreddit. Within a month, it received more than 870 points (97% upvoted) and 100 comments.

Within the thread, another Redditor credits an Instagram^[3] comment on a @h3h3productions as the source. The post (shown below), which received more than 150,000 likes in six weeks, however, was posted after the /r/CringeAnarchy comment.

Also, on July 30th, the Facebook account dankmemesformillennialteens posted an anti-Rick and Morty meme of the Powerpuff Girls intro with the words “shit storyline,” “no originality,” shit animation," and shit character development." The post (shown below, left) received more than 3,600 reactions, 1,200 comments and 723 shares. Facebook user Ben Smylie responded to the post with copypasta, received more than 160 reactions.

The following day, Facebook^[4] account Difficulty II posted the copypasta (shown below, right), receiving more than 780 reactions, 122 shares and 175 comments.

On September 7th, the Instagram^[5] meme account @dabmoms posted a picture of an elderly man clutching his chest with the caption “Lady: He’s having a heart attack. Is anyone here a doctor? Rick and Morty fan: it actually takes a certain level of intelligence to appreciate the subtle genius of Dan Harmon’s humor.” The post (shown below) received more than 12,000 likes in 16 hours.

Search Interest

External References

About

Distracted Boyfriend, also known as Man Looking at Other Woman, is a captioned stock photo series in which a man looks at the backside of a woman walking by while another woman, presumably his romantic partner, looks on disapprovingly.

Origin

The source image is a stock photograph taken by photograper Antonion Guillem, which was posted on the stock photo database iStock^[1] under the description “Disloyal man with his girlfriend looking at another girl” (shown below, left). According to a post published on the Meme Documentation^[14] Tumblr blog, the earliest known captioned version of the photo was submitted to a Turkish Facebook group at an unknown date. On January 30th, 2017, the Prog Düşmanlarına Verilen Müthiş Cevaplar Facebook^[13] page posted the image with captions identiying the man as Phil Collins peering pop music while prog music looks on (shown below, right).

Spread

On February 23rd, 2017, Instagram user @_dekhbai_^[2] posted the image with the caption “Tag That Friend / Who Falls in Love Every Month” (shown below, left). Within seven months, the post gained over 28,500 likes. On August 19th, Twitter user @n1m161 posted the stock depicting the man staring longingly at “socialism” while “capitalism” looks on (shown below, right).

On August 21st, Redditor danikger submitted a captioned version of the photo in which the man looks back at the 2017 solar eclipse while being stared at by “scientific evidence supporting the dangers of staring at the sun” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post gained over 31,200 points (93% upvoted) and 130 comments on /r/me_irl.^[3] In the coming days, several posts about the meme format were submitted to /r/MemeEconomy.^[5][6][7][8]

Photo Series Compilations

As the popularity of the stock photo started to spread, people discovered similar stock photos in the series with the same actors in various scenarios. On August 22nd, Tumblr user klubbhead posted a compilation of similar photos from the series, featuring the man looking at the same woman at various instances with at the end showing his romantic partner in disstress and questioning why she didn’t dump him.^[9]

Klubbhead added a reply to his post the next day, showing a photo of the man annoyed at his partner’s shopping habits; alongside 2 series of stock photos from the set with the first showing the initial man and woman being a happy couple once (shown below, left) and the latter showing them all 3 being together with the implication that they all had intercourse together eventually (shown below, right).^[10] As of August 25th, the post gathered over 47,500 notes.

On August 24th, Twitter user @akfamilyhomeak^[11] posted a tweet featuring a similar scenario, but instead showing the two women from the series getting closer to each other with the man being blurry in the background. Later that day, Twitter user @oranforest^[12] added a photo to the same series as @akfamilyhomeak, featuring the two women being together with the implication that they got together (shown below).

Interviews

In late August, photographer Antonio Guillem gave several interviews about the photograph to various news sites, including Wired^[17] and The Guardian,^[16] in which he revealed he didn’t known what a meme was until recently. On August 29th, NY Mag^[15] published an interview conducted by Guillem with the models from the photo.

Distracted Girlfriend

In late October 2017, another photograph by Antonion Guillem was discovered on Shuttstock^[18] in which the roles were reversed, depicting a man’s girlfriend looking lustfully at a man passing by (shown below).

On October 29th, 2017, Redditor toastr submitted an image featuring the new stock photo placed underneath the original Distracted Boyfriend picture, along with the caption “The tables have turned.” Within 24 hours, the post gained over 25,600 points (92% upvoted) and 240 comments. That day, Redditor J0Aco777 reposted the image macro to /r/dankmemes,^[19] where it garnered upwards of 8,400 points (91% upvoted) and 110 comments over the next day.

Meanwhile, a photoshopped variation of the image was submitted by Redditor SteW- to /r/me_irl, featuring the original Distracted Boyfriend as the jealous boyfriend (shown below).^[10] On October 30th, The Daily Dot^[21] published an article about the new stock photo titled “Distracted girlfriend brings gender equality to the meme world.”

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Buenos Dias Mandy refers to a line of dialogue in a pornographic comic book adaptation of the children’s animated TV series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Images and lines from the comic have inspired image macros, photoshops and YouTube videos.

Origin

On June 12th, 2016, e-hentai.org user caglioro2016 posted a pornographic adaptation of the children’s animated television series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.^[1] The first page of the comic, which inspired the memes, features the character Billy walking up to Mandy, spanking her on the buttocks and saying, “Buenos dias Mandy” (“Good morning Mandy”). Mandy turns, punches in the face and says, “Imbecil!” (“Moron!”) The force of the punch knocks Billy onto the street, where a car runs over his hands.

Spread

While references to the comic date back to 2016, the earliest available example of the comic being shared occurred on January 18th, 2017, when Twitter user “Dankest_Memes” shared the first page on Twitter.^[2]

About a month later, on February 16th, YouTuber Caleb posted an ear rape video version of the comic to YouTube. The video (shown below) received more than 47,000 views in five months.

The following day, Instagram user @tippitytopkek posted the first page, garnering more than 1,500 likes.^[3]

On February 20th, Instagram user @owen_kung posted a photoshopped version of the comic with Daniel from the Damn Daniel video’s head superimposed over Mandy. The post (shown below) received more than 350 likes within three months.

On February 22nd, YouTuber Ringabel produced a "Behind the Meme video for the comic (shown below). The video, which described the origins of the meme, received more than 7,500 views in five months.

On June 20th, an anonymous 4chan user posted the comic and YouTuber Caleb’s video on the /co/ board, garnering more than 55 comments before archiving.^[4]

Various Examples

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About

Boruto’s Dad is a comical way of referring to Naruto Uzumaki, the lead character in the Manga and Anime series Naruto& Naruto Shippūden, as Naruto is the father of Boruto Uzumaki, the lead character in Boruto: Naruto the Movie and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

Origin

On Aug 12th, 2017, Crunchyroll Tweeted out a message^[1] saying:

We’ve expanded availability for the original Naruto series!! Users in more countries around the 🌏 can enjoy the early days of BORUTO’S DAD🍥

The message refers to a spin-off anime called Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is currently airing. It’s possible Crunchyroll believed fans of this show would be more familiar with Boruto than Naruto.

Spread

Shortly after that post, many fans bristled at the idea that Naruto and all his accomplishments were for nothing more than to be known as Boruto’s Dad. One of the top responses to Crunchyroll’s tweet comes from @that_kiddo,^[2] who tweeted "Naruto did not go through all that he did just be known as ’Boruto’s dad’, along with a Drew Scanlon ReactionGIF, gaining over 670 retweets (shown below).

This led to various jokes within the fandom about the “Boruto’s Dad” slight in which scenes from Naruto are edited to have characters call Naruto “Boruto’s Dad.” Other users replied to Crunchyroll’s tweet with jokes in this manner; one of the most popular, posted by @xDPDx^[4] features such a joke, and gained over 1,300 retweets (shown below).

On August 15th, a thread on /r/Naruto^[3] posted by erraticcat quoted Crunchyroll’s tweet and offered alternative titles to Naruto series, such as “Boruto’s dad shippudden, boruto’s dad the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, the last: boruto’s dad the movie, boruto: boruto’s dad the movie.” The post gained 299 points. On August 16th, Crunchyroll appeared to poke fun at the controversy in a tweet advertising a new episode (shown below).

The jokes were covered by comicbook.com.^[5] A thread was also posted to /r/OutoftheLoop^[6] asking about the spread of “Boruto’s Dad.”

Various Examples

External References

About

Right In Front of My Salad? is a quote said by a character in a gay pornographic film after she discovers that the two leads are having sex behind a kitchen counter upon which she’s eating a bowl of salad. The quote led to parodies and tributes online following its discovery in late July of 2017. It is used in various situations where one is indignant.

Origin

The quote is from the gay pornographic film Private Lessons 3, which was uploaded to Men.com on July 23rd, 2017. In the scene, two men are having sex behind a counter while attempting to converse with a girl on the other side of the counter. The girl slowly realizes what is going on, and indignantly asks “Are you two fucking? Are you serious? Right in front of my salad?!” The scene did not begin circulating online until July 29th, 2017. On that day, Tumblr user boymercuryx^[1] uploaded GIFs of the relevant clip to the site in a post that gained over 51,000 notes (quote shown below). The following morning, user baghdadgaybar^[2] uploaded the clip.

Spread

The video spread to Twitter shortly thereafter. Late on July 30th, Twitter user @ineedahitta^[3] posted the video there, where it gained over 12,900 retweets and 25,000 likes. Meanwhile, the video quickly inspired parodies on Tumblr. On the 31st, user firstknivesclub^[4] posted a It’s More Likely Than You Think edit with the phrase, gaining over 19,000 notes (shown below, left). On August 1st, Tumblr user theperksofbeingameme^[5] added the quote to a GIF of reality television star Tiffany “New York” Pollard, gaining 600 notes (shown below, right).

On both sites, the quote began seeing use as a reaction to any situation in which one might feel indignant. For example, a post by Tumblr user tbhhhhhhhhh^[6] used the quote in response to Professional Wrestler Sami Zayn losing on Smackdown on the night of August 1st (shown below, left). On August 2nd, Twitter user @tedromeda^[7] used the quote in response to people disrespecting Rihanna (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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About

Wario is a fictional character from the Nintendo video game franchise Super Mario. Designed by Hiroji Hiyotake, Wario was designed to be Mario’s rival, a villainous inverse of the hero with similar clothes and certain characteristics. He was voiced by Charles Martinet. After appearing in the Super Mario Land series as a boss enemy, he later went on to become a Nintendo icon, spawning two of his own series, Wario Land and WarioWare.

History

Wario made his first appearance as the main villain in Super Mario Land 2: Legend of the Six Golden Coins in 1992.^[1]

Two years later, Wario starred in his own series of platforming games known as Wario Land. The game went on to become a hit on the Game Boy system and spawned many successful sequels, including Wario Land II, Wario Land III, Wario Land IV,Wario World,Wario Master Disguise, and Wario Land: Shake It!

In 2003 a new franchise based around Wario’s character was released for the Game Boy Advanced titled WarioWare: Mega Microgame$! Instead of being a traditional Wario Land platformer, the game was instead a rapid series a mini games which the player had to solve in a short amount of time. The game was later on released for the GameCube in 2003 retitled WarioWare: Mega Party Game$! Just like the Wario Land franchise, the game was a commercial success and it went on to produce many sequels.

Other Appearances

Outside of Wario Land and WarioWare, Wario has appeared in many Nintendo games which feature many Nintendo characters in competition, such as MarioKart, Mario Party, Super Smash Brothers, and the Mario sports games. Wario also appeared in Wario Blast: Featuring Bomber-Man!, essentially a Bomber-Man game with the added ability to play as Wario. Wario also appeared in 1994 NES title, Wario’s Woods, a puzzle game in which you play as Toad trying to stop Wario by playing Tetris-like puzzle games.

Online Presence

Wario started in popularity online when he was featured as a new character in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. On January 14, 2008, The WarioWiki was created,^[2] gathering over 172 articles since it’s creation. Wario has also been widely parodied by YouTubers in sketches and in Let’s Plays. For example, on April 16, 2013, YouTuber PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "MOST RANDOMGAMEEVER! – Wario Smooth Moves, the video involved PewDiePie and his girlfriend attempting to play WarioWare: Smooth Moves. The video has received over 13 million views since it’s upload (shown below, left). On January 31, 2013, YouTube channel Random Encounters uploaded a video titled “The Wario Rap.” The video was a song based around Wario explaining his daily life, while making references to his past game appearances, gaining over 602,000 views (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Doh I missed!

“Doh I missed!” is a quote from Wario as he appeared in the original Mario Party. Wario is heard speaking this either when losing a star to Bowser, or losing a mini game. The quote started to spread, mainly being used as a reaction. The voice actor who said this line was not Charles Martinet, but in fact it was Thomas Spindler.

Waluigi

Waluigi is a character that also appeared in the Super Mario. series. He made his first appearance in 2000 with the release of Mario Tennis where Waluigi was featured as a partner character with Wario. Waluigi is based off of Mario’s brother Luigi, with his design over-exaggerating Luigi’s features such as his height and scrawniness. Waluigi is presumed to be Wario’s brother due to their similar genetic features, but Nintendo never confirmed that Waluigi is related to Wario, and even Waluigi’s voice actor Charles Martinet said that he didn’t know if Waluigi was related to Wario.

Ashley’s Song

“Ashley’s Song” is a song in the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii that is a remix of Ashley’s Song from WarioWare: Touched! The song was praised for it’s Disney-esque tone and it’s upbeat and catchy lyrics. The song is what made Ashley an iconic WarioWare character, later appearing as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS.

Obey Wario, Destroy Mario!

“Obey Wario, Destroy Mario!” is a quote spoken by Wario in the commercial for the Game Boy title Super Mario Land 2: Legend of the Six Golden Coins. In the commercial Wario stares at the screen with a spiraling background while speaking the famous quote as if he’s trying to brainwash you. The quote became popular after it was used to parody other memes and subcultures, such as Dinkleburg and Weegee.

Fanmade Games

On December 12, 2014 YouTube user Wwwwario uploaded a trailer for a fan made game titled “Five Nights at Wario’s” a parody of the popular Five Nights at Freddy’s. The game started trending when YouTube user Markiplier uploaded his reaction to it.

Search Interest

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About

Internet Slang consists of a number of different ways of speaking, sub-languages, expressions, spelling techniques and idioms that have obtained most of their meaning on the Internet. These different kinds of language can be either known as chatspeak^[15], SMS speak^[16] or IM language.^[17]

Types

Intentional Misspellings

Intentional misspellings may have stemmed from space restriction on instant messaging and SMS services, including Twitter. However, some of these mispellings have come from accidental typographical errors that have been embraced by the community. One example of this is “Teh,” an error when typing “The.” Deliberate usage of Teh dates back to the late 1990s in real-time gaming chats and IRC channels and was later popularized as a term in LOLspeak.

Phonetic Translation

Coming straight from SMS language, this is a way of replacing entire words or bits of words by their phonetic equivalent embodied into single letters or figures and it is often found in 1337speak. Many memes tend to reuse these terms on their own, as can be seen by examples such as In Ur base or LOLcats.

Disemvoweling

Disemvoweling^[19] is the practice of removing all vowels from a token word and is also found in SMS/IM language.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

would, after being disemvowelled, look like this:

Th qck brwn fx jmps vr th lzy dg

Leetspeak

1337speak consists of replacing a letter by its closest figure’s look-alike, or by using various keyboard signs such as “+”, “(”, “[”, “/”, “_” and more to recreate that letter. A Russian form of 1337speak known as Padonkaffsky jargon or Olbanian^[18] also exists and a Filipino equivalent known as Jejemon emerged in 2010.

Letter Repetition

More than a slang, it symbolizes a type of language, often pointed as being used by teenagers, consisting of the same letter in a word repeated several times for emphasis. Other spelling phenomena has been derived from it such as !!!111oneeleven as an ironic way to replace an exclamation mark or FUUUUUU to express great frustration, and coming directly from Rageguy.

Acronyms and Initialisms

Acronyms^[20], the art of creating a neology through the association of letters and initials between them, exist on the Internet since the late 1980s.
Starting with LOL, from laughing out loud and used to convey great hilarity, hundreds of others have been made since then. Among them can be found : OMG, BRB, RTFM or also tl;dr.

Idioms

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

Academic Research

[researching]

Dictionary Recognition

On August 28th, 2013, Oxford Dictionaries Online announced^[1] they would be adding 43 new words, many of which were internet slang terms including “Bitcoin,” “Derp,” “Selfie,” “Twerk” and “tl;dr.” Between Twitter and Facebook, the announcement was shared more than 750 times. That day, dozens of news media outlets and internet culture blogs reported on the additions including Business Insider^[2], Chicago Tribune^[3], Forbes^[4], Time NewsFeed^[5], Mashable^[6], TechCrunch^[7], NPR^[8] and the Huffington Post.^[9] The Atlantic^[10] also shared a satirical piece highlighting the use of every new word disguised as a memo from the Oxford Dictionary’s Word Selection Committee (shown below).

That day, the additions were discussed at length on Twitter with more than 25,000 mentions^[11] of “Twerk Dictionary”^[12] and more than 42,000 mentions^[13] of “Selfie Dictionary.”^[14] Also on the 28th, actor Morgan Freeman was asked to read the day’s headlines, including the dictionary additions, during an interview on Headline News Morning Express (shown below). After reading the definition for “twerking” aloud, he admitted he had never heard the word before.

Search Interest

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About

The Undertaker Threw Mankind Off Hell in a Cell is a copypasta often seen on Reddit and Facebook, which is typically altered to fit the context of the post it is responding to. Redditor shittymorph is often credited with popularizing the message within various subreddits.

Origin

The exact origin of the copypasta is unknown. While many cite Redditor shittymorph with creating the copypasta, the earliest examples were found in a post on the NFL Memes Facebook page published on January 8th, 2017.^[7]

Spread

On January 19th, 2017, Redditor shittymorph replied to a post on /r/pics^[6] highlighting a portrait of Salt Bae made out of salt, urging readers:

“don’t let this man distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.”

On February 6th, 2017, Redditor ScienceLivesInsideMe replied to a photograph of a dog on the /r/aww^[1] subreddit with Scooby Doo-themed variation of the copypasta. In response, Redditor shittymorph replied explaining that the message was something he had been posting for weeks:

It is something I have been posting for a few weeks – I usually adjust the statement to whatever the post is related to. I have been getting a laugh out of doing it and other people have seemed to enjoy it too – Anyway – since this is my post and I have been going around making variations of this comment people are now showing up here on my post with their own variations of the comment. I hope that clarifies things…. but please do not let this extensive clarification distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table."^[2]

The following day, Redditor pujolsrox11 submitted a post asking about the copypasta meme to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[4]

On Februrary 11th, shittymorph replied with a “Cash Me Ousside” variation of the copypasta in response to a post highlighting her second appearance on Dr. Phil submitted to /r/videos.^[3] On February 15th, Redditor MadDrewOB submitted video of The Undertaker throwing Mankind off the top of the Hell in a Cell from WWE to /r/videos^[5] (shown below).

On February 12th, a subreddit dedicated to the copypasta was created, gaining over 1,500 subscribers in less than two months.^[8] On March 28th, shittymorph posted on r/shittymorph a gif version of a man reacting to the copypasta, originally created by reddit user ohyouresilly, gaining over 490 points in less than two days.^[10] The next day, an edited version of the gif was uploaded to Imgur, gaining over 2.3 million views in less than 24 hours (shown below).^[9]

Search Interest

External References