Assignment #2 - Memes
Mario Borisov
Meme: ‘All Your Base Are Belong to Us’
1. The meme ‘All Your Base Are Belong to Us’ became popular on the web
as early as 1998, flooding the forums, discussion boards, gaming communities
and even those that are not so tech-savvy by 2004, making it “go viral.” The
reason why it became so widespread and well known comes down to the fact that
the phrase was something that a large enough percentage of the population found
humorous due to its poor, unacceptable grammar (sometimes referred to as
‘Engrish’) even without having a complete understanding and knowledge of its
origin.
2. The meme
originates from the arcade shooter known as Zero
Wing, a Japanese game from 1989. In their rush to release the game to the
English speaking markets, the company overlooks some bugs and more importantly
- makes multiple grammatical errors. The most famous of those poorly translated
English approximations becomes ‘All Your Base Are Belong to Us’, a phrase which
ironically is delivered by the leader of the enemy group – CATS – in the
opening/intro of the game:
3. As
mentioned above, while the game comes out in 1989, the online community only
picks up on the phrase around 1998 (mainly the TribalWar and IGN forums)
and it ‘explodes’ on the national scene and television in the 2000s. Wired is the first mainstream outlet
(outside the internet community) that popularizes on the meme and releases an
article in February of 2001. Later the San
Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian
and The Times pick up on it as well.
According to Google Insights, the highest interest point of the phrase ‘All
Your Base Are Belong to Us’ is reached in March of 2003, slowly declining in
popularity until 2007 and then leveling off. As expected, the two regions in
which the phrase is most popular in are the USA and Canada.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=all%20your%20base%20are%20belong%20to%20us&cmpt=q
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=all%20your%20base%20are%20belong%20to%20us&cmpt=q
4. There
are many things that emerge as a result of the popularization of the phrase
‘All Your Base Are Belong to Us’, the first of them most likely being a
response video by Overclock.org with a dubbed voice over: http://www.overclocked.org/OCzerowing.htm
Soon after
a techno music video is released by one of the TribalWar forum members: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/11940
At about
the same time the Photoshop mania begins, quickly producing over 2000 images at
the http://www.somethingawful.com forum (original thread hacked)
What
fallows is the explosion of the phrase in the mainstream media, allowing it to
go viral on a national level. Perhaps the latest and most note worthy coverage
of the phrase ‘All Your Base Are Belong to Us’ is by Blizzard, a gaming company known for their ‘Easter eggs.’ What they
have done is include the phrase (which was already used by the majority of the
gaming community that played their games) into their latest RTS game –
Starcraft 2 – as a phrase said by one of the units in the game:
5. Sources:
KnowYourMeme, Google Insight, TribalWar forum, IGN forum, Overclocked, NewGround,
SomethingAwful, Inside, Blizzard, Youtube, Wired, San Francisco Chronicle, The
Guardian, The Times and Fox News
Michelle Carney
Meme: 'Nyan Cat'
Nyan Cat, a gif of an 8-bit Russian blue cat, with pink cheeks and a cherry poptart body, running through outer space and being trailed by a rainbow, first became popular in early April 2011. Originally named Marty, Nyan Cat was the byproduct of a Livestream Red Cross charity drawing event on April 2nd, 2011, by Prguitarman. Immediately reblogged on Tumblr, Nyan Cat had over 3,000 notes within the first two weeks of creation. Three days later, on April 5th, 2011, saraj00n posted a loop of the gif onto YouTube to the Japanese Vocaloid song “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya,” and within two week it gained over one million views. Its popularity may be in part to popular sites, such as CollegeHumor and G4TV, reposting, and many reposts on social networking sites like Buzzfeed, Tumblr, and Facebook. Also, it is a simple, friendly, and creative image also made this meme easily transmitted and shared; it was cute enough and it made people feel good, and it was in no way offensive or schadenfreude-istic, unlike many things on the internet.
Nyan Cat, a feel good gif, quickly and easily translated to real life conversation and arts by being so simple, non-controversial, easy to share, and easy to recognize, which again added to its overall success in popularity. Anyone could make their own version of Nyan Cat and it would instantly be recognized, whether it was a cat with a poptart or a dog with a rainbow, it still had the key elements of being Nyan Cat."
"Imma Let You Finish" is a meme from the 2009 VMAs (MTV Video Music Awards. Taylor swift was being awarded the Best Female Video (a category that Beyonce was almost nominated for) of the year for "You Belong with Me" and giving her thank you speech when Kanye West climbed onto the stage and took the mic from her. He yelled into the mic, "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time." Taylor stood there looking like a little lamb, and Kanye was the big bad wolf. MTV cameras also panned to Beyonce in the crowd who looked just as shocked as everyone else. Kanye was booed off the stage and escorted away from the awards. I think it's obvious why this event became famous: 1. the shock and surprise element of the event and 2. Taylor Swift is so easy to paint as a lovable character and Kanye was so easy to paint as the big bad wolf.
The meme was most popular during the end of 2009, peaking in the month (September) that it occurred and died down by the end of the year (January 2010). [Google Insights] It was a very popular meme, seen all over all the Social Media networks and the world wide web. There were memes created that could be called less tasteful than others. [e.g. One meme was of Kanye and a picture of Patrick Swayze/Michael Jackson saying "Imma let you finish but Michael Jackson had the best death of the year." which attracted high criticism from people everywhere.]
Kanye and Rihanna/Dragonball Z:
Kanye and an Old WWII Couple Picture:
Kanye and Descartes:
Kanye and Hurricane Irene/Katrina:
This event got connected to everything. People used it to compare different scientific theories, celebrity hairstyles to cartoon characters, deaths and other deaths. So to top it all off, I'll post the video of the 2009 MTV VMA Awards.
Angela Hseih
Meme: 'Planking'
Griffining: involving sitting on the ground with raised
fingers. Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III fell backwards
while throwing an 88-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon, which later became a
celebration.
Jennifer Lopez
Meme: 'Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop'
Rosa Ortega
Meme: 'Nyan Cat'
Nyan Cat, a gif of an 8-bit Russian blue cat, with pink cheeks and a cherry poptart body, running through outer space and being trailed by a rainbow, first became popular in early April 2011. Originally named Marty, Nyan Cat was the byproduct of a Livestream Red Cross charity drawing event on April 2nd, 2011, by Prguitarman. Immediately reblogged on Tumblr, Nyan Cat had over 3,000 notes within the first two weeks of creation. Three days later, on April 5th, 2011, saraj00n posted a loop of the gif onto YouTube to the Japanese Vocaloid song “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya,” and within two week it gained over one million views. Its popularity may be in part to popular sites, such as CollegeHumor and G4TV, reposting, and many reposts on social networking sites like Buzzfeed, Tumblr, and Facebook. Also, it is a simple, friendly, and creative image also made this meme easily transmitted and shared; it was cute enough and it made people feel good, and it was in no way offensive or schadenfreude-istic, unlike many things on the internet.
As seen in Figure 1, Nyan Cat rapidly became popular in April 2011, with its peak in July 2011, and exhibited almost a linear decay after November 2011, but is still searched for today. Nyan Cat, being a simple 8-bit gif, was quickly made into various other memes to represent holidays and cultures and silly versions, a small sample of which is seen in Figure 2. Nyan Cat was even making cameos nearly everywhere, including in famous blogs and memes, such as Pusheen, meme-comic form, and LOLcats (Figure 3).
Nyan Cat spurred a whole host of covers, from different YouTube versions to guitar covers, and of course, gif based, but it especially sparked a trend of creating real life versions. Nyan Cat, being so straightforward in design, was easily made into knit patterns for scarves and socks, and sewn into plush animals or pressed plastic into earrings and coasters (Figure 4). It was a popular costume in Halloween 2011, and poptart-cat-rainbow accessories could commonly be seen in daily life. Owners of cats took to making their own Nyan cats by placing a poptart on their cat and a rainbow behind them or even making them their own costume (Figure 5).
Nyan Cat, a feel good gif, quickly and easily translated to real life conversation and arts by being so simple, non-controversial, easy to share, and easy to recognize, which again added to its overall success in popularity. Anyone could make their own version of Nyan Cat and it would instantly be recognized, whether it was a cat with a poptart or a dog with a rainbow, it still had the key elements of being Nyan Cat."
Eileen Cheng
Meme: 'Imma Let You Finish'
The meme was most popular during the end of 2009, peaking in the month (September) that it occurred and died down by the end of the year (January 2010). [Google Insights] It was a very popular meme, seen all over all the Social Media networks and the world wide web. There were memes created that could be called less tasteful than others. [e.g. One meme was of Kanye and a picture of Patrick Swayze/Michael Jackson saying "Imma let you finish but Michael Jackson had the best death of the year." which attracted high criticism from people everywhere.]
Kanye and Rihanna/Dragonball Z:
Kanye and an Old WWII Couple Picture:
Kanye and Descartes:
Kanye and Hurricane Irene/Katrina:
This event got connected to everything. People used it to compare different scientific theories, celebrity hairstyles to cartoon characters, deaths and other deaths. So to top it all off, I'll post the video of the 2009 MTV VMA Awards.
Angela Hseih
Meme: 'Planking'
1. When did this begin to become popular/famous on the
Internet and why? Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this
became so popular (if no obvious reason presents itself).
Some say that “planking” links to the 1995 video for the
Radiohead song “Just,
” where a man lies down on a busy London road and a crowd of strangers gather to try to help him. Although different sources provide different information, the following are a few that have been labeled as “founders” of “planking” as well:
” where a man lies down on a busy London road and a crowd of strangers gather to try to help him. Although different sources provide different information, the following are a few that have been labeled as “founders” of “planking” as well:
The term “planking” was reportedly coined in 2008 by Paul
Carran, a New Zealander living in Sydney, Australia. Carran started planking
after hearing about a similar game friends were playing in UK in 2008.
Other episodes have been cited to have caused planking media
attention. In 2009, seven accident-and-emergency staff were suspended for
playing the planking game while on a night shift at the Great Western Hospital
in Swindon. They called themselves “The Secret Swindon Emergency Department
Group” and posted pictures on Facebook.
The phenomenon also gained momentum in March 2011, when the
pro-rugby player David “Wolfman” Williams planked after a try during the
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles vs Newcastle Knights game held on March 27th, 2011.
On 15 May 2011, Acton Beale, a 20-year-old man, plunged to
his death after reportedly "planking" on a seventh-floor balcony in
Brisbane, Australia. This drew worldwide attention to planking. In response,
the prime minister of Australia warned plankers to “focus…on keeping yourself
safe first” therefore promoting “safe” planking. In an article, American
journalist Michelle McMurray named that day, May 13th, 2011, the
First Annual Global Planking Day.
On July 12th, 2011, former MTV host and comedian
Tom Green uploaded a YouTube video titled “Tom Green Created Planking –
1994.” The video was of an early prank from his Canadian local-access TV show
that resembled the “planking” pose. Green’s claim was broadcasted and announced
by several news outlets (such as CNN) and other Internet culture blogs.
Prior to the outbreak of “planking” in Australia, the act of
lying down on the ground and photographing the scene has been documented before
with the Lying Down Game, which became quite popular in the summer of 2010.
Gary Clarkson (15 years old) and his friend Christian Langdon (12 years old),
both from the UK, began planking in public places for fun and to see the
reaction of others. They called it “The Lying Down Game” and created a Facebook
page in 2007 (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Lying-Down-Game/96550134929)
and website (http://www.lyingdowngame.net/ ).
The “planking” game quickly caught on with youths all over the world and had an
official Facebook page gaining over 130,000 fans within the first week.
Then, several single topic blogs started hosting planking images: BestPlank,
iPlanking, PlankingMissions, etc. Planking has also been endorsed by Hollywood
celebrities and pop stars, such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, etc.
2. The details/description of the "meme," person,
event, etc.
Planking is
a photo fad that
involves lying face down with arms to the sides in unusual public spaces,
photographing the scene and sharing the image online. It bears resemblance to
the Lying Down
Game, a similar photo fad that became popular among UK Facebook users in
2010. According to the official Facebook page, these are the following rules of
planking:
1. You must always lay face down, ensuring your face remains
expressionless for the duration of the Plank.
2. Your legs must remain straight, and together with toes pointed.
3. Your arms must be placed by your side, held straight and fingers pointed.
4. You must make it known that you are Planking. Saying ‘I am Planking’ usually get this across. Sternly announcing it will ensure a good result.
5. Your safety should always be considered. Properly thought through Planking procedures should always go to plan. Never put your self at undue risk.
6. Every Plank that is captured must be named.
2. Your legs must remain straight, and together with toes pointed.
3. Your arms must be placed by your side, held straight and fingers pointed.
4. You must make it known that you are Planking. Saying ‘I am Planking’ usually get this across. Sternly announcing it will ensure a good result.
5. Your safety should always be considered. Properly thought through Planking procedures should always go to plan. Never put your self at undue risk.
6. Every Plank that is captured must be named.
This is an example:
3. How popular did it become and over what time span?
(include "Google Insights" interest).
“Planking” was technically created through
the “The Lying down game” Facebook page in 2007. However, even though it was
popular among youths in Australia, New Zealand, and England, it didn’t gain
worldwide popularity till 2011. In the United States, “planking” peaked in July
to the highest mark of 100 in the data of Google insight. In other countries,
“planking” peaked in May 2011.
In the US alone:
All the countries:
4. Include other memes that may have emerged from this or
have been influenced by this.
• Include videos or images when relevant to illustrate your description - please try to avoid posting images or video that may be offensive.
• Include videos or images when relevant to illustrate your description - please try to avoid posting images or video that may be offensive.
Other memes that are variations of “planking” include:
Batmanning: involves hanging upside down by your feet.
Playing Dead: displaying both comical and convincing sight
of death by tactfully staging a disheveled pile of bodies within a given space.
Originated in Korea.
Tebowing: an act of mimicking the propensity
of National Football League and New York Jets quarterback
Tim Tebow by getting down on one knee, resting head in arm and praying,
especially praying in a setting whereby everyone else around is preoccupied
with doing something totally unrelated. It began to spread in October 2011.
Gronking: replacing the football with any inanimate object
and spiking it when Gronkowski made a touchdown. Toucher and Rich, of Boston's
98.5FM sports talk radio station started a trend for New England Patriot fans
to compete with Tebowing during the 2011 NFL season.
Owling: a variation on planking in which a
person squats "like an owl". It was first documented in
July 2011 in a reddit post.
Teapotting: involves bending the arms into the shape of a
teapot, in reference to the children's song "I'm a Little Teapot".
This variation was created by teachers in Mortlake College in an attempt to
create a new 'craze' after noticing the amount of attention planking received.
Horsemanning: involves posing two people so that they appear
to be a single body with a detached head and is a revival of a photography fad
popular in the 1920’s.
Plumbking: involves participants stretching their body out
and sticking their head either in or around a toilet bowl.
Others:
Jennifer Lopez
Meme: 'Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop'
This meme became popular on November 19, 2011 after the
Occupy protest on November 18th at the University of California, Davis. A group
of student held hands creating a human chain. UC Davis police asked the
students to leave, however, the students decided to refuse. And because of that
Lieutenant John pike and another officer sprayed the group of students with
orange pepper spray. This became popular on the Internet because many people
considered this unfair and inhumane; to spray students with pepper spray just
because they were forming a human chain. In the meme you will see the group of
students sitting down on the floor with their heads down, and the police
officer spraying the students. This meme became popular for around 2-3 weeks.
It was all over facebook and on tv news.
Rosa Ortega
Meme: 'Nyan Cat'
• The Nyan Cat
video consists of a cat with the body of a strawberry pop tart and a rainbow
following the cat. The song that plays along with the video is a repetitive,
high-pitched song that sounds like “nyanyanya”
This is the original video:
• Nyan Cat came into the public eye in April 2011 and
its popularity peaked in June of 2011 after which point it slowly lost
popularity.
• Since Nyan Cat various other cats videos have been done in
the same style including different ethnicities and different music genres, such
as Mexican Nyan Cat and Smooth Jazz Nyan Cat. T-shirts and flash games have
also been developed as a result of Nyan Cat.
Will Plummer
Meme: 'King Jong Un Looking At Things'
Original post from GunnieGraves:
Original Quickmeme post:
Other notable examples:
Sources:
Rafael Ramirez
Meme: 'Chuck Norris Facts'
To begin with, the “Chuck Norris Facts” meme was originally
geared towards gathering facts about Vin Diesel, which was requested by Conan
O’Brien, for staring in a ridiculous movie called “The Pacifier.” When the
collection of Vin Diesel facts lost its shine, Conan requested for people to
vote on twelve new candidates. In the summer of 2005, Chuck Norris won the vote
by a landslide, even though he was not one of the candidates.
Furthermore, the “Chuck Norris Facts” meme is a collection
of scenarios and phrases that prove how manly and awesome Chuck Norris is.
These facts cover everything from his physical abilities, strength, endurance,
or anything that makes him look awesome. For example, “Chuck Norris completed a
500 piece puzzle with 300 pieces.” The meme continued strong until one of the
jokes was used in show “Family Guy” in the spring of 2007. Although the meme
lost its luster, the meme did not end with “Family Guy.” In 2008, Mike Hukabee,
who was running for office, used Chuck Norris and the jokes for his campaign.
As a result of all the Chuck Norris Facts fame, there is
now a website dedicated to more than five hundred jokes, and many t-shirts are
being sold as well. Although many would argue that the meme has lost its
luster, I would have to argue that there are still a lot of jokes that can
still elicit a “Chuck-le” here and there.
Links:
The Chuck Norris Facts Collective:
Conan - Chuck Norris youtube video:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/chuck-norris
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/chuck-norrishttp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/chuck-norrishttp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/chuck-norris
Joshua Rosenzweig
Meme: 'Puking Rainbows'
The idea of “puking rainbows” was first released about 6
years ago according to the website knowyourmem.com. The meme didn’t become
popular again until 2009 when the site RainbowPuke.com was revamped and people
started to submit photos of puking rainbows. It is still a highly used memes.
There is a Nyan Cat video where the cat is barfing a rainbow, a part in ASDF
Movie 2 (another viral video series), and recently done in the new Disney
channel cartoon, Gravity Falls, where a gnome is puking a rainbow. My guess for
why it took so long was because the site PukingRainbows.com was taken down for
several years. It seems when it launched in June 2009 everyone hopped on the
rainbow puking train. It is a pretty self-explanatory meme, its people, things,
and objects, puking rainbows. When looking at Google interests, searching for
puking rainbows reached its peak of 100 in both March and April 2012 and in
Spain and the U.S. It first started in about September 2006 and has been
fluctuating ever since. Recently it has been decreasing since April 2012. There
has been a lot of other memes and mediums that have used or connected to puking
rainbows (examples already given early). In all honesty I think it is
absolutely hilarious.
Meme: 'Paula Deen Riding Things'
During the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in February
of 2011, Paula Deen, a notable Food Network chef famous for her rich, decadent
southern cooking, rode on the back of fellow chef Robert Irvine. Thankfully, multiple pictures of this event
(one with Paula holding a glass of wine) were taken and thus, the “Paula Deen
riding things” meme was born. Two
college students, Nick and Robbie, started a Tumblr blog the next day (February
28th) and posted the templates of the photoshopped Paula Deen
(cutting out Robert Irvine and the background) so she could be placed on other
photos. (see below)
The meme and Tumblr gained momentum as various news outlets
and public figure’s posted links and images to the meme/Tumblr. Jimmy Fallon tweeted the link and The
Huffington Post, Food Network Humor, and the Rolling Stone Tumblr all posted
the meme as well. Paula Deen has a very
large and outgoing personality well-known among most fans of not only the Food
Network but other media outlets. She is
infamous in her use of butter and other fattening ingredients in her southern
style cooking and has developed her own unique style of hosting shows on
TV. These all factor in to her meme
becoming very popular in a very short amount of time. Also, because the photoshopped pictures show
her face in a very expressive way and body in a very unusual position, they
make the photoshopped pictures funnier (especially when she is holding a wine
glass.) Once being introduced in
February of 2011, the search of the Paula Deen meme on Google rose very rapidly
and hit its peak in March of 2011, when it started to steadily decline.
Chart:
The Tumblr is still up and running and still gets new submissions by people photoshopping Paula onto photos and GIFs. Also, in October of 2011, a new Tumblr emerged entitled “Kim Jong Il looking at Paula Deen Riding Things” in which the two memes were combined. Paula Deen Riding Things was awarded the number 8 position in Time’s Top 10 Memes of 2011.
Meme: 'LIONCASH'
LIONCASH is any issued banknote which has been altered by the transplantation of the "lion face" emoticon, ">:3", on the subject of the bill. The idea of Operation LIONCASH took off on April 23, 2008 when an Anonymous user on the /b/ board on 4chan posted a picture of a United States dollar bill with the "lion face" on George Washington's portrait. The user drew the "lion face" emoticon onto President Washington's face and the text accompanying the post read, "From now on I’m going to add lions to my bill… I wonder how long it will take for another b-tard to see one…
Conversely, I wonder how long it
would take America to break if every b-tard put lions on bills…". It
appears that the original poster initiated the operation for amusement and to
track the distribution and scattering of the trend. A "b-tard" is a
person who frequents the /b/ board of 4chan, a popular forum which allows
anonymous participants and has postings on a wide variety of topics.
As stated previously, LIONCASH is
based on the emoticon, "lion face" or ">:3". The
emoticon predates LIONCASH by approximately two years, and also rose to
popularity through the /b/ board on 4chan. It represents a sideways face of a
lion and is related to the "Jesus Christ it's a lion get in the car!"
meme.
As LIONCASH grew
in popularity, its purpose transformed from lighthearted fun to a more
idealistic objective and has been organized by Anonymous. Anonymous is a
roughly-defined group of internet users who act collectively in certain
instances and demonstrate the power of the masses on the internet. According to
knowyourmeme.com, the ultimate goal of the alteration of bills became the
conversion of "all regional currencies into the universal LIONCASH, thus
uniting the world by breaking down financial barriers". In other words,
all currencies, not just American notes, are encouraged to be marked with the
"lion face". By promoting the initiative of individuals all over the
world to mark the bills with the emoticon, the collective will promote a global
currency that can be exchanged regardless of national or international laws
regulating their usage. As a result, LIONCASH is another example of the
transformative nature of the internet. The internet has allowed individuals to
collaborate on sometimes common interests, who may not have ever done so
otherwise. In addition, the anonymity of the internet has released people from
the social and legal sanctions that would await them outside of the virtual
world. In the case of LIONCASH, the alteration of currency in many countries is
considered illegal. In the United States, for example, the "'defacement of
currency' is a punishable offense under the jurisdiction of the Secret
Service". Although the creation of LIONCASH is arguably illegal (some
interpretations of the United States Code highlight the "intent to render
such item(s) unfit to be reissued" as legal justification for LIONCASH
because the purpose of the operation is not to prevent the reissuance of bills)
LIONCASH likely grew in popularity due to the anonymous nature of writing on a
bill and the ease of placing it back into circulation without being caught.
Another reason
for its popularity is the icon itself, as it is simple to draw and easy to
remember. As a result, operation LIONCASH spread around the world as evidenced
by the examples below of converted LIONCASH from the currencies of multiple
countries. Many people also post pictures of the LIONCASH they create and
sometimes post videos of their LIONCASH. The following link describes how to
make LIONCASH:
According to
Google Insights, the meme reached its peak search popularity after the initial post
rapidly by May 2008, but interest also dropped soon after by June 2008. There
was moderate interest in January 2009 and March 2010, but the has not regained
its initial popularity. Likely due to its brief popularity, it was not very
influential on later memes.
Sources:
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