About

Cool Cat Saves the Kids is a children’s anti-bullying movie written and directed by Derek Savage, based on his children’s book series titled Cool Cat. The film has become infamous for its alleged lack of quality, and is often grouped together along with other panned movies such as The Room and Birdemic. The film became popular online after being reviewed by YouTube based film critic and entertainer YourMovieSucks, and gained a resurgence in interest after Savage filed copyright claims on several reviews of the film, most notably that of reviewer I Hate Everything.

History

Derek Savage created the concept of the Cool Cat character as an imaginary friend during his childhood, and eventually used the character for a series of children’s books which began publication in 2010. Over the next several years, several short live-action films featuring Cool Cat were released.^[1] On June 11th, 2014, the Cool Cat YouTube channel uploaded the trailer for the upcoming live-action film Cool Cat Saves The Kids,starring Vivica Fox and Eric Estrada (shown below).

Online Relevance

On July 26th, 2014, the Everything is Terrible Facebook^[2] page posted a link to Cool Cat Saves The Kids trailer. On February 1st, 2015, the film was officially released. On February 28th, YouTuber YourMovieSucks (YMS) uploaded a two part review of the movie to his YouTube channel (Part 1 shown below, left). Following in suit of YMS, several other YouTubers uploaded their own reviews of the film, including YouTuber I Hate Everything (shown below, right).

On March 1st, 2015, YMS uploaded a video titled “Cat Grips,” featuring the Death Grips song “I Want it I Need it (Death Heated)” playing in the background of Cool Cat footage (shown below, left). On March 8th, YMS uploaded a second clip titled “To Cat a Predator,” which contained clips from the reality television series To Catch a Predator edited to appear as if host Chris Hansen is conversing with Cool Cat (shown below, right).

Derek Savage’s Response

Derek Savage initially responded positively to reviews of the film and released an edited version of the film removing errors discovered by YMS. Both versions have been made available on Ebay.^[3][4] In early November 2015, the review uploaded by I Hate Everything was removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim by Savage. On November 9th, I Hate Everything posted a follow up video titled “THANKSDADDYDEREK (For Ruining The Search For The Worst),,” in which he discusses the video takedown (shown below, left). On November 16th, Savage uploaded a video in which he explains the difference between copyright infringement and the fair use clause.^[7] In response, YMS uploaded a video refuting Savage’s copyright claims (shown below, right).

On November 28th, IHE uploaded a video detailing the events that had transpired between him and Savage since his last video (shown below). According to IHE, Savage had impersonated attorneys from a law firm in order to manipulate him into removing several videos from his channel.

Fan Art

Related Memes

There He Is

“There He Is” is a phrase from the film Cool Cat Saves the Kids in which Erik Estrada points and notices Cool Cat arriving, and shouts “There he is!”. The phrase has become notable amongst YourMovieSucks’ fanbase, who has taken the phrase and said it on numerous occasions.

Search Interest

External References

About

Man-Faye is the moniker given to Damon Evans, a cosplayer who dresses up as the character Faye Valentine from the 1998 Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop. His skimpy outfit, hairy body and zany antics made him an early Internet icon, and influenced the style of cosplay known as “crossplay”.^[1]

History

In an interview by the Anime News Network^[2] from 2005, Damon Evans claimed he started cosplaying as Faye Valentine sometime in 2000 after a friend introduced him to the anime series, and began attending conventions as far back as 2001. After becoming somewhat of a famous character at various conventions, some members of the cosplay community criticized him for giving cosplayers a bad name. A Cosplay.com^[5] forum thread from September 2003 shows many members of the community expressing this sentiment. An Urban Dictionary^[3] entry was submitted on September 23rd, 2003:

“A male cosplayer famous for it’s trauma-inducing representation of Faye Valentine
I saw Man-Faye and my eyes started to bleed.”

The same month, software developer Jon Bailey created a page on his website^[4] featuring Man-Faye related photos and animated GIFs accompanied by the 1994 single “I like to move it!” by Reel 2 Real. The webpage was a mirror of the now defunct website http://man-faye.mooniidx.com/ which featured the first animated gifs of Man-Faye, allegedly made around July 2003 by “Moondabor”,^[9] a cosplayer and webmaster considered famous for his Man-Faye shrine.

Ban

During Anime Expo 2004, Evans accidentally flashed a non-convention attendant and was subsequently banned from the convention.^[6] It wasn’t until 2006 that he was allowed to return to the convention.

Media Appearances

Man-Faye first appeared on television during a segment for the TechTV show Unscrewed on September 25th, 2003. In 2006, Man-Faye auditioned for the SciFi channel reality series Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, and demonstrated his “ass wave” superpower.^[7] The segment caught the attention of The Tonight Show where Evans made an appearance on April 19th, 2006.^[8]

Search

Search queries for “man faye” peaked in July of 2004, the same month the Anime Expo convention took place that year.

External References

About

Solaire of Astora is a character from the 2011 video game Dark Souls. The character has gain a fan following due to his personality and quotes, the latter popularizing the phrase Praise The Sun and Jolly Cooperation.

Origin

In October of 2011, the RPG (Role-Playing Game) Dark Souls was released by From Software. In the game, there is an NPC named Solaire of Astora who is revealed to have an obsession with the sun and set the goal for himself of finding his own sun. Solaire Is part of the covenant of the Warriors of Sunlight in the game.

Spread

Solaire’s memorable quotes and overall naive personality garnered massive attention from fans of Dark Souls. There are several popular Tumblr tags involving Solaire including sunbro,^[1] jollycooperation,^[2] solaireofastora,^[3] and praisethesun.^[4] There is also a Facebook page of Solaire with nearly 2,000 likes as of March 2014 known as WarriorofSunlight^[5].There are nearly 3,000 posts tagged as “solaire” on deviantART as of March 2014.^[6]

Related Memes

Praise the Sun

Praise the Sun is a sarcastic phrase playing off of Solaire’s naivety as seen by his fans and his unnatural obsession with the sun. The saying is usually paired with images of Solaire himself.

Sunbros / Jolly Cooperation

Jolly Cooperation is a phrase taken from Solaire’s most notable and popular quote. (shown below)

“But, use this, to summon one another as spirits, cross the gaps between the worlds, and engage in jolly co-operation!”

“Jolly Cooperation” refers to Solaire and his overall friendliness and ability to work with a team. In the original game, the player is allowed to join Solaire in his covenant of the Warriors of Sunlight in “jolly cooperation”. This phrase is quoted by fans and is sometimes paired up with images of Solaire working together with the player or another member of the Warriors of Sunlight. The members of the Warriors of Sunlight covenant are also called sunbros by many fans.

External References

About

GiantDad, also known as The Legend, is a custom-built playable character often used by griefers in the player-vs-player (PVP) mode of the dark fantasy action-RPG video game series Dark Souls.

How It Works

The Giantdad build is created with the basis of mini-maxing in an RPG. This means getting the best results with the fewest points. This is especially useful due to the fact that Dark Souls’ PvP meta is staying at SL (Soul Level) 125. The Giantdad build only requires reaching SL99 if the player character starts off as the Bandit class. This means the player will be free to invest 26 more points.

With the stats of the Giantdad, players are able to have the fastest movement speed, fastest roll, and have high amounts of health and stamina. The weapon of the Giantdad is the Chaos Zweihander (otherwise known as the Bass Cannon). This weapon puts opponents into stun-lock resulting in victory.

Origin

The backstory behind the creation of GiantDad is little known, but many early adopters^[8][9] of the character have credited professional video gamer OnlyAfro for custom-designing the character build. The earliest known illustration of the character was uploaded to DeviantArt^[7]by user MenasLG on April 8th, 2012, showing a GiantDad character getting his hands cut off by an enemy (shown below). The character build is distinguished by the following equipments and items: Mask of the Father, Giant Armor, Giant Gauntlets, Giant Leggings, Ring of Favor and Protection and Havel’s Ring.

Spread

On October 31st, 2012, YouTuber OnlyAfro uploaded a video titled “He’s Back,” featuring Dark Souls gameplay footage of a GiantDad character (shown below). In the next three years, the video gained over 2.1 million views and 5,800 comments.

On March 24th, 2013, YouTuber Ken Ashcorp uploaded a GiantDad-inspired song titled “The Legend Never Dies” (shown below). On April 5th, a Facebook^[2] page titled “Giant Dad” was launched. On July 6th, Redditor ninja703 submitted a GiantDad OKCupid^[6] dating profile to /r/darksouls.^[5]

On November 3rd, Redditor Lefuf submitted a post to the /r/darksouls^[1] subreddit asking for an explanation of the “Giant Dad” character build. On June 15th, 2014, a page for “Giant Dad 2.0” was created on the Dark Souls 2 Wiki.^[3] On August 15th, YouTuber DaveControlLive uploaded a video titled “The Legend – Dark Souls Lore: Giant Dad,” explaining the lore and customization for the Giant Dad build (shown below).

On January 2nd, 2015, FanFiction.net^[4] user Hammer n’ Nail submitted a fanfic titled “Class 118: How to be Legend,” which contains an account of GiantDad’s origins.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Nutted But She Still Sucking is a reaction image series featuring pictures and animated GIFs of people appearing surprised or uncomfortable. The caption “nutted but she still sucking” indicates that the image is meant to represent someone who is receiving fellatio after they have already ejaculated.

Origin

The earliest known reaction image featuring the “nutted but she still suckin” caption was posted on the Body Building Forums^[1] on December 8th, 2013, featuring a clip of the fictional cyborg character RoboCop (shown below)

Spread

On February 1st, 2014, YouTuber Traviz Mercer uploaded a video titled “That feeling you get when you cum and she’s still sucking,” featuring a clip from the 1990 children’s comedy film Home Alone (shown below).

On March 2nd, Redditor davematts reposted the RoboCop GIF to the /r/whitepeoplegifs subreddit. Prior to being archived, the post gathered upwards of 1,400 votes (90% upvoted). On April 21st, the /r/shestillsucking^[2] subreddit was launched for the reaction image series. On December 17th, Body Building Forums^[4] member OGodPlsNo submitted a thread about the meme. On December 5th, 2015, Redditor Nicky_and_Skittles uploaded a gameplay clip from the game Just Cause 3, in which the player connects a grappling hook between a woman’s face and a man’s crotch to /r/gaming^[3] (shown below). In the comments section, the top voted reply captioned the GIF with “nutted but she still sucking.”

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Beautiful Cinnamon Roll Too Good For This World, Too Pure is the headline for a satirical article published by The Onion in early 2014, which subsequently became an exploitable catchphrase used on Tumblr to describe adorable, charismatic or otherwise sympathetic fictional characters.

Origin

On January 23rd, 2014, The Onion^[1] published an article titled “Beautiful Cinnamon Roll Too Good For This World, Too Pure,” featuring a picture of a cinnamon roll pastry followed by a description praising its perfection (shown below).

Spread

On January 2nd, 2015, Tumblr user renmorris^[4] posted a photograph of the character Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachan) from the television series Twin Peaks juxtaposed with a screenshot of The Onion’s cinnamon roll article (shown below).

On February 1st, Tumblr user needlekind published a post remarking that the “beautiful cinnamon roll” meme was so good that it didn’t “feel right calling it a meme.” That day, Tumblr user stillnotalterego reblogged the post with the message "beautiful cinnamon meme too good to be a meme, garnering upwards of 28,000 notes in the next three months (shown below).^[3] On April 13th, Tumblr^[5] user pearlthedestroyeroftheworld posted a video clip from the animated television series Steven Universe along with a message describing the character Greg as a “beautiful cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure.” In the following month, the post garnered upwards of 14,300 notes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

“I Have Drawn You” is a catchphrase expression typically used to highlight crudely drawn portraits of celebrities and fictional characters. The meme is often iterated as a series of multi-pane image macros illustrating a conversation between two notable actors or fictional characters.

Origin

On May 20th, 2011, the earliest known instance of the multi-pane comic strip was featured on the Tumblr humor blog The Sochill Network,^[1] though the watermark indicates that it had been previously submitted to 9gag.

The Format

1. “Hey [character’s name]…”
2. “What?”
3. “I have drawn you.” – A crude fan-drawn sketch of the character replaces the original photo)
4. “Oh, cool bro!” (the original photo is morphed with the drawing creating a humorous image)

Spread

Throughout 2011 and 2012, the Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort comic strip was featured on several internet humor sites, including 9GAG^[6], Cheezburger^[4], FunnyJunk^[2], WeKnowMemes^[8], ISeeAHappyFace^[3] and MemeCenter^[10], as well as on Tumblr^[8], Twitter^[9] and Reddit.^[5] On March 10th, 2014, BuzzFeed UK writer Jamie Jones tweeted an image compilation of celebrity photos that have been photoshopped to reflect their poorly drawn fan art illustrations (shown below), garnering over 8,000 retweets and 7,700 favorites. That same day, Redditor Adamic6 re-submitted Jamie Jones’ photoshopped compilation to /r/funny, where it accrued over 2,697 points and subsequently reached the front page.

/r/BadlyDrawnCelebrities

Following the viral take off of Jones’ image on /r/funny, Redditor llamas1355 promptly followed up with the creation of /r/badlydrawncelebrities^[13], a subreddit dedicated to curating poorly drawn fan art illustrations of celebrities and their corresponding photoshopped parodies. As of May 2016, the subreddit has 1,400 subscribed readers.

Badly Drawn Celebrities

On April 1st, 2015, Etsy artist @Sean launched an Instagram account^[14] and an Etsy store^[15] to showcase and sell his original pencil drawings of celebrities that are poorly drawn on intention. As of May 2016, the artist has sold 1,787 copies of his artworks via Etsy and garnered 7,000 followers on Instagram.
h2. Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Steve Rambo Videos are clips starring the American pornographic actor Steve Rambo, who gained much online notoriety for appearing in a scene from the 2002 homoerotic film Boy Band. In a similar vain to the Gachimuchi videos, Rambo’s scenes have gained prominence online for their awkward acting and poorly-written dialogue.

Origin

On October 4th, 2010, YouTuber ROvideos uploaded a clip from the 2002 adult film Boy Band titled “Bad Gay Porn Acting 4,” in which actor Steve Rambo encounters actor Brad McGuire masturbating in the forest and offers to perform fellatio on him (shown below). In the next five years, the video gained over 830,000 views and 990 comments.

Spread

On December 19th, 2011, YouTuber rawrderder uploaded a remix of the scene titled “Pushing Gaywards” (shown below). In the next four years, the video garnered more than 737,000 views and 1,700 comments.

On April 19th, 2012, YouTuber Nyanners uploaded a dubbed version of the Boy Band scene (shown below, left), gaining over 440,000 views and 1,300 comments within three years. On May 26th, rawrderder uploaded the entire Boy Band film with the sexually explicit scenes removed (shown below).

On February 7th, 2013, the Steve Rambo YouTube^[4] channel was launched, which features videos of Rambo and clips from homoerotic films with the sexually explicit scenes removed. On September 15th, Redditor Treop posted YouTuber ROvideos Boy Band clip to the /r/NotTimAndEric^[3] subreddit. On October 26th, 2014, YouTuber FNAkun uploaded a video titled “Party Time,” in which Rambo utters the line “without further interruption, let’s celebrate and suck some dick” (shown below). On April 24th, 2015, the video was submitted to the /r/youtubehaiku^[1] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 1,200 votes (94% upvoted) and 40 comments in the first week.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Little Einsteins Theme is the opening theme song for the Disney animated TV series with the same name.^[1] On Vine, many users have shared video clips of themselves dancing to a trap remix version of the song.

Origin

From October 9th, 2005 to December 22nd, 2009, the animated series Little Einsteins was broadcast on the Disney Junior television network. The series featured the characters Leo, Annie, June and Quincy, who went on various educational adventures, in a similar vein to the Magic School Bus and Dora the Explorer children’s shows. On January 18th, 2014, YouTuber 886Beatz uploaded a trap remix of the Little Einsteins theme song to YouTube, where it received more than 5.3 million views and 3,400 comments over the next month.

On February 18th, 2015, Viner Nike Boi^[3] uploaded a clip from the music video “I Don’t Like ft. Lil Reese”^[2] by rapper Chief Keef with the Little Einsteins theme song playing in the background (shown below). In the first two weeks, the video gained over 12 million loops, 355,000 likes and 248,000 revines (shown below).

Spread

On the same day, Viner chocolate vanilla swirl #bbqb uploaded a video of several men dancing to the Little Einsteins 886Beatz trap remix, garnering upwards of 1.5 million loops, 3,000 likes and 2,400 revines in nine days (shown below, left). Also on February 18th, Viner sha•kor•re•awn uploaded a video of a young boy performing a dance to the trap remix (shown below, right).

On February 20th, the Vine Bomb YouTube channel posted a montage of notable Little Einstein Vines (shown below, left), followed by YouTuber Vine Beast the following day (shown below, right). In the first week, the videos garnered upwards of 670,000 and 430,000 views respectively.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Doom is a first-person shooter video game series created by id Software. In the game, the player assumes the role of a space marine who fights against hordes of demons to thwart an invasion from Hell.

History

The first title in the Doom series, Doom, was released on December 10, 1993.^[1] On September 30th, 1994, a second installment, Doom II: Hell on Earth, was released.^[1] On August 3rd, 2004, Doom 3 was released, which takes place in a separate story arc from the previous titles.^[1] On October 20th, 2005, the motion picture Doom was released. On October 12th, 2012, a remake of Doom 3 titled Doom 3: BFG Edition was released.

Doom 4

In May 2008, Doom 4 was officially announced as being in production by id Software, though without any detailed information on the scheduled release date of the title. Since the initial announcement, the production of the game has reportedly faced numerous setbacks, with Bethesda Softworks stepping in as the new publisher of the game in 2011. On February 19th, 2014, after several rounds of sweeping changes in the development team and the concept for the game, Bethesda Softworks announced its plans to release a multiplayer-only limited alpha of the game for select participants under the revised title Doom. On June 10th, 2014, an extended teaser trailer of Doom was simultaneously unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2014 and on the newly launched official website for the title. On May 18th, 2015, another teaser trailer was unveiled on YouTube, which garnered more than 1.4 million views and 1,600 comments within the first month (shown below, left). On June 14th, the first trailer featuring actual gameplay footage of the game was shown at E3 2015, which was met by generally positive reception (shown below, right).

On December 3rd, 2015, Bethesda opened up a limited, multiplayer-only alpha version of Doom for select participants, which ran for three days and ended on December 6th. On March 31st, 2016, the first closed beta of the game was released for a three-day period, followed by an open beta which took place between April 15th and April 17th, 2016. After years of a long build-up in anticipation, Doom was released for PC on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 13th, 2016.

Online Presence

On June 15th, 1995, the domain Doom.com^[11] was registered, which currently displays the teaser trailer for Doom 4. On January 3rd, 1998, the fan site DoomWorld^[8] was launched as a resource for information about the video game franchise. On June 6th, 2009, the /r/Doom^[9] subreddit was launched for discussions about the series. On February 17th, 2012, the official Doom Facebook^[10] page was launched, which gained over 340,000 likes over the next four years.

Reception

Fandom

Doom has a large fanbase on the internet, stretching back to the release of the first title in 1993. Because of the game’s easily modifiable nature, players have created level editors and forums for sharing modified content. Custom content is downloaded and added into game files through PWADS, custom patch files that could be acquired through downloading from a ‘bulletin board system’^[3] and purchasing on CDs at game stores. Later on, players could download files directly from id Software’s FTP servers. The idgames archive^[12] currently houses more than 14,500 PWADS created over the years. On February 9th, 2013, YouTuber TJ Townsend uploaded a speed art video creating a high resolution digital recreation of a Doom screenshot (shown below).

Controversies

While Doom was widely praised for its innovation, its intense focus on Satanic imagery and graphic depiction of violence drew strong criticism. Many religious organizations denounced the game for its portrayal of demons and related imagery, and was even referred to as a “mass murder simulator” by Killology research group founder David Grossman^[4].

Columbine High School Massacre

On April 20th, 1999, two students attending Columbine High School in Jefferson Country, Colorado carried out large scale mass murder at their high school. The students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were avid players of the Doom series, which led to speculation that they used the games as “training”. Eric designed several levels, sometimes placing messages in the text files of his PWADS asking for praise and recognition.^[5][6] One particular rumor surrounding the shooting was that Eric had designed levels based off of his school’s floor plans, with enemies representing Columbine’s student body, a rumor that was later discovered to be false.^[6][7]

Related Memes

IDDQD

IDDQD is the god-mode cheat code in the original Doom title. It has found a fair amount of use as an internet slang term, typically used when explaining how a seemingly impossible task was accomplished. It also finds use as a caption on images depicting people such as Chuck Norris, and others renowned online for their herculean abilities.

BFG

The BFG (short for “Blast Frequency Gun”) is a fictional plasma weapon featured in a wide range of first-person shooter video games, most notably in the Doom and Quake series. Since making its first appearance in 1993, the weapon has spawned a number of reiterations in other games under the fan given nickname “Big Fucking Gun,” as well as a growing collection of fan-made replicas modeled after the original design.

DOOM: Repercussions of Evil

DOOM: Repercussions of Evil is a fanfiction set in the Doom universe. It has garnered cult status due to its abysmal grammar and style, much like My Immortal. As with My Immortal, Repercussions of Evil has spawned a great deal of fanart, and several dramatic readings. There have even been a number of fan dramatizations of the fic. Arguably the best-known phrase from the fic is “The radio said “No, John. You are the demons” // And then John was a zombie.”; it has been used in a variety of image captions and macros relating to the fic.

“Rip and Tear”

“Rip and Tear” is a popular catchphrase from the 1996 comic book adaptation of Doom which was released exclusively as a free gift at select gaming convention. In the book, the phrase is uttered by the protagonist while under the influence of a “berserker power up,” a physical performance booster that provides the player with full health and extra strength when attacking enemies, during a confrontation against Cyberdemon, one of the more major enemies featured in the game. On forums and image boards, both the quote and the illustration have been used to express intense hatred towards any given subject.

Doom Cover Art Parodies

Doom Cover Art Parodies are photoshopped renditions of the official box art for the 2016 reboot of Doom in which the logo and the title are replaced with those of other popular video games to mock the underwhelmingly cliche aesthetics of the package design that has been overused in many other modern first-person shooters.

Search Interest

Since 2004, Google search queries for “Doom” soared in June 2004 after the release of _Doom 3, followed by another spike in October 2005 with the box office premiere of the live-action film adaptation.

External References

About

Aw Shit Nigga is a catchphrase, normally related to an image of the Clannad character, Ibuki Fuuko. The images are usually preceded by a conversation or another image to show that someone is in a trouble and in a situation to say “Oh Shit”.

Origin

The original picture comes from a scene from the ninth episode of Clannad. In the scene, Nagisa puts a party hat into Fuuko’s head.

While the phrase itself may have predated internet history, The first recorded use of the image macro was on February 24th, 2011, on 4chan’s /a/ board during a discussion about the character Fuuko^[1].

Spread

On March 1st, 2013, Urban Dictionary user RocEgg123 submitted an entry regarding the phrase “Shit Nigga”^[2] which he describes as “When something happens unexpectedly and you believe that saying this will help cope with the situation.” Around the year 2013, Imgur user Derilz uploaded an edited gif version of the image. As of April, 2015, the post has gained more than 57.000 views and 40 points^[3].

Search Interest

External References

About

Slide Into Your DMs (permutations are common and may include: Slide Into Her DMs, Slide Into Yo DMs, Slide Into the DMs, often with the word “like” after the phrase) is a catchphrase which refers to the act of direct messaging another person on a social media platform, usually for romantic reasons, in a smooth or cool way. While the phrase can be used literally, it is often parodied by being attached to videos or photographs of people engaging in awkward behavior.

Origin

It’s currently unknown where the term originated. The first online examples, including some GIFS with the tag and a Yahoo answers post, seem to appear in November 2013.^[1] At that point, the only social media platforms that allowed direct messaging were Twitter and Facebook; Instagram introduced direct messaging in December of 2013,^[2] and Vine premiered the feature in April of 2014.^[3]

One of the first popular examples of the term was this hip hop single by M-Boy titled “Slide Into Your DMs,” which was released on January 8th, 2014. The video has over 23,000 views as of July 2015.

Spread

In January of 2014, the term skyrocketed in popularity; however, due to the phrase’s common permutations, exact numbers are difficult to gather. On January 24th 2014, a Meme Generator was created of a boy going down a slide.^[4] The phrase was first defined by Urban Dictionary on March 24rd, 2014, as “When you send a Direct message to someone on twitter confidently and smoothly.”^[5] A reddit /r/outoftheloop post was created on April 27th, 2014; a user responded that Sliding into the DMs meant, “… basically like, being slick and starting a DM conversation with someone (of the opposite sex), and be smooth at the same time.”^[6]

Searches for the phrase on Vine return over 8,000 results as of July 29th, 2015, and the hashtag #SlideIntoYourDMsLike is used on over 500 posts.^[7][8] Collected searches for various permutations of the phrase, used as hashtags, return over 5,000 results on Instagram as of July 29th, 2015.^[9] In addition, the phrase was tweeted over 78,000 times in the 30 days prior to July 29th, 2015, with and without parody.^[10][11]

Various Examples

Because social media platforms focus on different means of communication, the act of direct messaging someone is different on each. On Twitter, the message can only be text; therefore, sliding into the DMs on Twitter consists of a text conversation which can be screenshot. On Instagram, sliding into the DMs is a photo message with a caption, often expressed as an image macro or a GIF. On Vine, the direct message is a video message; however, the hashtag #SlideIntoYourDMsLike is consistently trending, and therefore these examples refer to that.

Vine

Twitter Conversations

Image Macros and GIFs

Search Interest

External References

About

“Bitch I Might Be” is an ambiguous retort falsely attributed to Atlanta-based rapper Gucci Mane in a photoshopped image posted to Reddit in April of 2013. The phrase is often used in text posts and image macro captions shared on the microblogging site Tumblr.

Origin

On April 10th, 2013, Gucci Mane appeared in court where he was indicted for assaulting a military soldier with a champagne bottle.^[3] On April 17th, Redditor hellpony submitted a photoshopped screenshot of a local news report to the /r/Funny^[2] subreddit, which changed the on-screen text to read “Rapper Gucci Mane responds with ‘bitch I might be’ when asked if guilty” (shown below), referencing a lyric from his 2006 single Pillz."^[1] Within one month, the post accrued more than 10,300 upvotes and 360 comments.

Spread

The same day, many blogs reposted the photoshopped image trying to diffuse the truth behind the image including Hollywood.com^[4], E! Online^[5], The Drop^[6], Buzzfeed^[7] and MTV.^[8] Also on April 17th, the phrase was used on Twitter^[9] more than 10,000 times.^[10] By April 30th, Tumblr users were discussing^[19] the popularity of the catchphrase on the microblogging site (shown below, left) and within several days began adding the phrase “bitch I might be” into quotes attributed to historical figures (shown below, right).

On May 3rd, TumblTrends2013^[17] noted that the phrase was beginning to pick up steam throughout the site. Two days later, the Twitter account @BitchIMightBe^[16] began posting tweets made to look like multiple choice questions with the answers “yes,” “no” and “bitch I might be.” Within 12 days, the account gained nearly 60,000 followers. On May 6th, there were over 12,500 tweets containing the phrase “bitch I might be” according to the Twitter analytics site Topsy^[10] (shown below).

Notable Examples

Additional instances can be found via the Tumblr tag #Bitch I Might Be^[18], where it is also used as a descriptive tag for text posts.

Search Interest

External References

About

Carter the Banana Boy is a photoshop meme based on a picture of a young boy in sunglasses and looking at the camera while eating a banana. In this series, an exploitable cutout of the boy is photoshopped into a variety of base images to portray him as the star of an action film, in somewhat similar vein to The Action Movie Kid.

Origin

On May 12th, 2014, Redditor Theone211 submitted a photograph of a little boy eating a banana in a post titled “This is Carter. He knocked on my door to ask if he could have a banana then left” to the /r/funny^[1] subreddit (shown below). In the first 24 hours, the post gained over 73,100 upvotes and 2,600 comments.

In the comments section, Redditor FuriousGeorge06 suggested someone should “photoshop an explosion behind him,” which was promptly followed up by a set of three “explosive” photoshopped parodies from Redditor Saurongetti, along with a blank template of the boy eating the banana (shown below, far right).

Spread

That same day, Reddit sodelll posted an image macro of the photo with the caption “I’m here to fuck bitches and eat bananas / and I’m almost done with my banana” to /r/funny^[2] (shown below, left). Meanwhile, Redditor dayofgreed submitted the picture of Carter to the /r/photoshopbattles^[3] subreddit, where several Redditors posted images with Carter superimposed into the backgrounds of film posters (shown below, right).

Also on May 12th, 2014, other photoshopped images featuring Carter reached the front page of Reddit,^[4][5][6] many of which earned upwards of 10,000 upvotes in 24 hours (shown below). Later that day, compilations of notable examples were subsequently posted on BuzzFeed^[7] and Mashable.^[8]

On May 13th, actor Wil Wheaton tweeted that Carter was his “favorite person on the Internet today,” receiving over 240 favorites and 85 retweets in less than 12 hours.

3D-Printed Figurine

On May 23rd, a 3D-printed figurine of Carter was added to the 3D printing marketplace Shapeways^[9] (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Lauren Mayberry “Leave a Trace” Controversy is a debate in which posters of the music board of 4chan, /mu/ attacked Lauren Mayberry, lead singer of the band Chvrches, for her appearance in a music video for the band’s 2015 single “Leave a Trace.” The controversy spread to Twitter when a board poster invited Mayberry to join.

Origin

On August 17th, 2015 the official Chvrches Vevo uploaded a music video to the song “Leave A Trace,” the second single off their album Every Open Eye.

On the same day, a thread on /mu/^[2] was created showcasing the video. Much of the comments in the thread focused on two criticisms: firstly, that Lauren Mayberry was being sexually provocative in how she was clothed and styled in the video, and secondly, that the other Chvrches members Iain Cook and Martin Doherty were barely featured in the video, despite Mayberry’s previous claims that she was intent on not focusing on being a female figurehead for the band.^[8] Before it was archived, the post received 819 replies.

A few hours after the post went up, after it had accumulated several hundred replies, one poster tweeted a link to the thread to Mayberry(the account who did this has now been banned due to multiple reports from users). She responded by blocking the user who sent it, retweeting the link and writing: “Dear anyone who thinks misogyny isn’t real. It is and this is what it looks like.”

Spread

After Mayberry tweeted the thread, multiple news outlets, including the Mirror^[3], Music.mic^[4], Daily Records^[5], The Sidney Morning Herald ^[6] and The Independent^[7] wrote opinion articles commenting on the misogyny and abuse of the 4chan users, as well as their sexual objectification of Mayberry. The official Chvrches Twitter tweeted in support of Mayberry on the same day, along with fellow Chvrches member Martin Doherty, and Stuart Braithwaite, the lead guitarist of the post-rock band Mogwai.

External References

About

Make America Great Again is a slogan adopted by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for his 2016 United States presidential campaign. The phrase first gained online fame in July 2015 after Trump was photographed wearing a hat bearing the slogan during a visit to the Mexican border, and since then, it has been used by both Trump supporters and critics in various discussions about the candidate.

Origin

Donald Trump adopted “Make America Great Again”^[1] as his official campaign slogan and simultaneously launched merchandise bearing the phrase in June 2015, shortly after announcing his bid for the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2016 United States presidential election. However, the slogan went largely unnoticed until Trump donned a hat during a visit to Laredo, Texas near the Mexican border in July 2015.

Precursor

“Let’s Make America Great Again” was first used as a campaign slogan by Ronald Reagan during his 1980 election campaign. Since then, it has often been used as a GOP refrain, most recently as part of the title of the 2011 book on Tea Party politics by Christine O’Donnell.^[2] Trump has claimed to have authored the phrase, but has not produced any proof.^[3]

Spread

Soon after photographs of Trump wearing the hat appeared in the mainstream media, users both began photoshopping new text onto the front of the hat, as well as ordering the hat in droves and using it in photographs, either ironically or not. The Washington Post reported on July 28th that the official hat had sold out from the retail location authorized to sell it; many bootleg versions became available online. ^[4][5]

Users on Instagram and Twitter began photographing themselves in the hat, often tagging the photo with the hashtag #MakeAmericaGreatAgain, which had over 7,600 posts as of August 10th, 2015 on Instagram.^[6][7] In addition, Funny or Die published a collection on July 24th, 2015, of other slogans photoshopped onto the hat, which inspired similar photoshops to become popular on Tumblr.^[8][9] On Reddit, user iamclaytonbigsby posted an image of Trump wearing the hat to /r/photoshopbattles, where it received 28 points.^[10]

The trend of people wearing the hat as a photo fad was covered in The Hollywood Reporter, and the Sun Times, while the photoshop editing was written about in E! Online and Bloomberg News.^{[11][12][13][14]} The hat itself has spawned two separate parody Twitter accounts, @trumphat, and @Donaldtrumphat, neither of which have more than a couple hundred followers as of August 10th, 2015.^[15]

Various Examples

People Wearing the Hat

Hat Photoshops

Search Interest

External References

About

I Wish I Could Talk to Ponies is an exploitable 4-panel webcomic featuring a young girl who wishes that she could speak to a pony, but upon its fulfillment, the talking animal blurts out a blunt or insensitive statement that leaves her disappointed and upset.

Origin

On February 21st, 2014, illustrator Jim Benton^[7] posted an original comic on Reddit in which a young girl is granted the power to speak with ponies by a magical fairy. In the final panel, a pony is shown tormenting the girl by asking her “why are you so ugly all the time” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 2,000 votes (95% upvoted) on the /r/funny^[1] subreddit.

On November 8th, Redditor CloudCollapse posted an Imgur gallery featuring an exploitable template of the comic (shown below) along with several customized examples, purportedly collected from the /b/ (random) board on 4chan. In two months, the post accumulated upwards of 1,600 votes (90% upvoted) and 40 comments on the /4/chan^[4] subreddit.

Spread

The same day, Redditor Sir-SmokesALot submitted a version of the webcomic titled “Things a pony would say,” in which the horse informs the girl that “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” in reference to an argument made by conspiracy theorists who claim that the September 11th, 2001 attacks were orchestrated by the United States government (shown below, left).^[2] On November 16th, Redditor Corruptacy posted a version in which the pony says “Hitler did bring up some pretty valid points” (shown below, right).^[3] In two months, the posts gathered more than 4,400 votes (92% upvoted) and 1,200 votes (82% upvoted) on /r/funny respectively.

On July 27th, Redditor Nodebunny posted another version in an /r/funny^[6] post titled “Be Careful What You Wish For” (shown below, left). On December 13th, IGN Forums^[5] member SkywardNord submitted a comic in which the pony says the Islamic Arabic expression “Allahu Akbar” (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Crack Kid is the nickname given to Viner Brady Hartwig^[2] after several video clips of the young boy squealing and pulling other antics went viral on the the mobile video-sharing platform in June 2014.

Origin

On June 5th, 2014, Viner Nathan Moszyk^[3] uploaded a video of his little brother Brady making high-pitched squealing noises while being hit in the head with a basketball (shown below). In the first week, the Vine gained over 233,000 revines and 225,000 likes.

Spread

On the same day, Viner MilesHRLY^[4] uploaded a new video of Hartwig yelling while banging a basketball with his forehead, accumulating more than 30,000 revines and 26,000 likes in the next week (shown below, left). On June 9th, Moszyk uploaded a new video of his brother performing a twerk dance (shown below, right).

The same day Viner Duke Thurston uploaded a remix video combining the original Crack Kid video with the 2012 hip hop song “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” by Kendrick Lamar (shown below, left). In the next 72 hours, the vines garnered over 5,900 and 36,000 revines respectively. On June 10th, Viner Demontz uploaded a version of the Crack Kid clip edited to appear as if he were throwing a basketball at Hartwig’s head while babysitting him (shown below, right). In 48 hours, the video received more than 252,000 likes and 195,000 revines.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Be Like Bill is an exploitable stick figure illustration of a man named “Bill” using a desktop computer, accompanied by a parable praising Bill’s choice to simply carry on after being provoked by a trigger while browsing the Internet. Since its emergence through English-language humor websites in late 2015, the single-pane comic has gone globally viral and spawned a large volume of derivative illustrations with similar messages highlighting other socially intelligent behaviors on the web and in real life.

Origin

The origin of the drawing is unknown, but it began showing up on forums like Funnyjunk^[1] and Reddit^[2] in October of 2015. The earliest instance of the image was in English, and was meant as an ironic jab at social justice warriors.

Precursor

On March 30th, 2010, JoyReactor user Anon uploaded a stick figure illustration of a character named “Tim” and a public service announcement (PSA) message praising his indifferent reaction to seeing offensive content while browsing the Internet.

In September 2011, this particular style of illustrations went viral with the launch of Australia’s Queensland Rail PSA posters designed to educate the public on passenger etiquettes, which quickly became a subject of dozens of parodies (shown below).

Spread

On December 21st, 2015, an Italian Facebook page was created called Sii come Bill (Be like Bill).^[3] The page, devoted to posted Italian version of the Be Like Bill meme, has received more than 226,000 likes in less than three weeks. A Spanish-language page, called Sé como José, was launched on January 2nd, and in less than four days has received more than 405,000 followers. Sé como José has received the most attention in the Spanish-speaking press, who have deemed it one of the first “virales” (memes) of 2016. In an interview with BuzzFeed, the anonymous administrator of the Spanish-speaking page said he decided to translate the Bill meme from Italian after seeing its popularity there.

Various Examples

Top row: Italian examples. Bottom row: Spanish examples, some of which are translations of the Italian examples.

Search Interest

External References

About

Logical Fallacy Ref is an image macro series featuring photographs of sports referees with captions calling out the use of logically invalid arguments used in online debate.

Origin

On July 11th, 2015, a gallery was uploaded to Imgur^[1] containing 32 image macros of sports referees calling out various logical fallacies, which credited film critic Glen Welch as the creator of the series. Within two weeks, the gallery received more than 230,000 views.

Precursor: Your Logical Fallacy Is

On September 24th, 2011, the website YourLogicalFallacyIs.com^[6] was launched, which features explanations of many formal and informal fallacies often used in discussions on the Internet.

Spread

On July 12th, 2015, Redditor rtphokie submitted the Imgur gallery to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 4,600 votes (88% upvoted) and 480 comments in the first two weeks. The following day, a Logical Fallacy Referee image about the “strawman” fallacy was reposted on 9gag.^[4] On July 15th, the political news site Dangerous Minds^[8] published an interview with Welch about the creation of the series. On July 16th, the “Fallacy Ref” Facebook^[7] page was launched, which highlights notable examples of the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References