About

Press [A] to Let Go is a reaction image featuring a close-up screenshot of the protagonist Link in the video game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker along with instructions for the player to “Press [A] to let go.”

Origin

On April 10th, 2014, Redditor dogHD submitted a screenshot looking up at the character Link in the game The Wind Waker with the caption “A to let go” to /r/gaming^[6] (shown below). Before the post was archived, it garnered more than 3,500 votes (90% upvoted) and 140 comments.

Spread

On June 6th, 2014, Know Your Meme user Gippo Dudee posted the reaction image to Reaction Images photo gallery, where it received upwards of 280 upvotes and 160 favorites over the next two years. On September 21st, Twitter user @Linkstagram^[2] posted a cropped version of the reaction image with the caption “when u accidentally switch to ur front camera” (shown below). Over the next two years, the tweet gathered upwards of 8,600 likes and 6,700 retweets.

On October 11th, Redditor JamesMcSam submitted the reaction image to the /r/gaming^[3] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 4,100 votes (89% upvoted) and 290 comments prior to being archived. In November 2015, the online retailer RedBubble^[1] began selling merchandise printed with the reaction image (shown below).

On March 19th, 2016, Instagram^[4] user nintendotho posted two screenshots of Link with the “A to Let Go” instructions with a joke about getting “upset”: about a past event (shown below). On May 8th, Redditor seakladoom reposted the image to the /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[5] subreddit, where it gained over 6,100 votes (91% upvoted) and 70 comments in the first 24 hours.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

“Techno Interests Me” is a memorable quote uttered by Finnish DJ Antii Salonen while being photographed by photographer Liisa Jokinen in Helsinki, Finland. After the photograph was posted online in late 2011, it subsequently circulated as an in-joke among electronic music enthusiasts on various communities online.

Origin

On October 26th, 2011, Jokinen posted a picture of Salonen wearing all black on the photography website Hel-Looks.^[5] In the sidebar of the page, the quote “Techno interests me” was placed directly under Salonen’s name (shown below).

Spread

On October 30th, the Hel-looks Tumblr^[4] blog reposted the photograph. On January 25th, 2012, Redditor patrickgun posted the photograph page on the /r/electronicmusic^[6] subreddit. On February 16th, 2015, a “I Wish I Was At Home” comic featuring a parody of the Salonen photograph was submitted to the /r/Techno^[1] subreddit (shown below).

On July 11th, 2014, a Matrix Morpheus image macro with the caption “What if I told you / techno interests me” was created on Meme Generator^[7] (shown below, left). In November, an OKCupid^[8] account named antti25 was created, which featured the photograph of Salonen along with various references to techno music in the profile sections (shown below, right).

In March 2015, a Facebook^[2] page for an event titled “Techno Interests Me” in Helsinki, Finland was launched. On May 9th, 2016, the Vice music site Thump^[3] published an interview with Salonen, who discussed his taste in music and revealed that he found the meme “very funny.”

Search Interest

External References

About

TechCrunch is a technology industry news blog and online publisher owned by AOL, which hosts several annual Disrupt conferences and maintains the startup ecosystem database CrunchBase.

History

On June 11th, 2005, founders Michael Arrington and Keith Teare launched TechCrunch.com.^[3] On September 28th, 2010, AOL announced it had acquired TechCrunch for an undisclosed sum. That day, Business Insider^[1] reported that an “AOL insider” claimed the site had been purchased for $25 million.

Social Media Presence

In March 2007, the @TechCrunch^[4] Twitter feed was created, garnering upwards of 6.77 million followers within 10 years. In June 2009, the TechCrunch official Facebook^[13] page was launched, which gathered more than 2.1 million likes over the next seven years.

Features

CrunchBase

In 2007, Arrington launched CrunchBase^[11] as a “simple crowd sourced database to track startups.”^[10] Since its foundation, Crunchbase has grown into a comprehensive start-up industry database comprised of around 500,000 entries profiling a wide range of companies, people, investment funds and events, largely powered by a user base of more than 50,000 active contributors and moderated by an editorial staff. In November 2013, the CrunchBase^[5] blog disclosed that the database was receiving two million users per month.

Crunchie Awards

In 2007, the first Crunchies award ceremony was held, which honors notable startups and tech innovations of the year. On January 10th, 2010, FacebookCEO Mark Zuckerburg was interviewed by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington at the 4th Annual Crunchies Awards (shown below, left). In 2012, the Crunchies were hosted by comedian John Oliver (shown below, right).

In February 2016, the 9th Annual Crunchies were held, during which comedian Chelsea Peretti performed an opening stand-up comedy set (shown below).

Disrupt Conferences

TechCrunch Disrupt is an annual conference where technology startups present themselves to an audience of potential investors, media and other industry professionals. In 2011, the first conference was held in San Francisco, California and subsequent conference have been held in New York City, London and Beijing. During each conference, a different start-up company is declared that year’s “winner,” which has included the companies Qwiki (2010), Getaround (2011), Shaker (2011), YourMechanic (2012), Layer (2013), Enigma.io (2013), Alfred (2014) and Agrilyst (2015).

2016

On May 8th, 2016, Disrupt NY held a hackathon contest, which granted the winner AlexaSite a prize of $5,000 (shown below, left).^[6] The following day, the official Disrupt NY event began in Brooklyn, New York. During the conference, the team behind Apple’s Siri software presented a “next-gen” artificial intelligence assistant named “Viv” (shown below). The 2016 Disrupt San Francisco^[8] conference is slated to be held from September 12th to the 14th and the 2016 Disrupt London^[9] event is scheduled for December 5th to the 6th.

Controversies

Crunchgate

In 2011, TechCrunch was criticized for publishing positive news coverage about startups that the publisher’s CrunchFund had invested in. In September, Arrington resigned from TechCrunch amid the controversy.^[12]

Traffic

As of May 2016, TechCrunch.com has a global rank of 727 and a United States rank of 533 on the traffic analytics site Alexa.^[2]

Search Interest

External References

W.I.P.

About

A Meme Lord is an internet slang term used to refer to someone who shows a strong passion for memes.^[2] The alternate term Meme Master is often used as a synonym.

Spread

On December 14th, 2014, a video titled COTW– PRETEENMEMEMASTER was uploaded to the TooDamnFilthy YouTube channel in which YouTube celebrity Filthy Frank rants about a cringe-worthy kid he refers to as the ‘meme master’ who gets into an argument about memes (shown below, left). As of May 11th, 2016, the video has received 1.1 million views and 36k likes.^[3] On August 13th, 2015, a video titled DON’T LETYOURMEMES BE DREAMS | Shia LaBeouf Meme Master Dating Sim was uploaded to the jacksepticeye YouTube channel in which YouTube celebrity Sean McLoughlin commentates a Let’s Play and mentions the term ‘meme master’ several times throughout the video (shown below, right). As of May 11th, 2016, the video has received 2.1 million views and 60k likes.^[5]

On December 4th, 2015, a video titled Undertale Repainted, omega memelord battle was uploaded to the SuperWiiBros08 YouTube channel in which an Omega Flowey Edit made entirely of meme references is shown battling the player (shown below, left). As of May 11th, 2016, the video has received 305k views and 3.7k likes.^[4] On May 10th, 2016, a video titled Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse: Breaking Stuff – PART 8 – Grumpcade (Ft. Ray Narvaez Jr.) was uploaded to the GameGrumps YouTube channel in which Ross says “Ray’s a fuckin’ meme lord” to his co-host Ray Narvaez (shown below, right at 2:00). As of May 11th, 2016, the video has received 41k views and 2k likes.^[1]

Search Interest

External References

About

Life is dandy in Bikini Bottom for SpongeBob Squarepants and his friends Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs and Sandy . However, when the top-secret recipe for Krabby Patties is stolen, SpongeBob finds that he must join forces with perpetual adversary Plankton and come ashore to battle a fiendish pirate named Burger Beard , who has his own plans for the delicious delicacies.

History

W.I.P.

Spread

W.I.P.

Rated Memes

Teamwork

People use fan art on deviant art for the song “Teamwork”. Spongebob and Plankton team with some deleted scenes of them.

In a thread remotely linked to sex, someone posts DAILY, someone else posts SAX, and a third person posts THREAD

About

Bernie Sanders Glowsticks is a viral hoax image aimed at tricking supporters of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders into making chlorine bombs by providing false instructions for making homemade glowing bottles.

Origin

On March 8th, 2016, Tumblr^[4] user defense-of-the-gathering posted an image purportedly offering instructions to make “Bernie Sanders Glowsticks,” along with a warning that it would “release chlorine gas which can kill you” (shown below). The image falsely advises readers to combine alcohol and chlorine tablets in plastic bottles to make a glowing liquid, which would actually cause an explosive reaction when mixed together. While the it is unclear where the image originally surfaced, the Tumblr post contained a tag suggesting that it was discovered on Facebook. Within two months, the post gained over 89,600 notes.

Spread

On March 10th, 2016, the image was posted on the /pol/ (politics) board on 4chan.^[2] The same day, the image was reposted on the imageboard Ponychan (shown below, left). On May 6th, another thread featuring the image titled “Feel The Literal Bern” was posted on /pol/^[3] (shown below, right).

On May 10th, Snopes^[1] published an article about the viral image titled “Bernie’s Blow Sticks,” which highlighted several YouTube videos demonstrating the explosive reaction between chlorine and alcohol (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

#StarringJohnCho is a photoshop meme featuring various movie posters edited with actor John Cho added to the cast, which is aimed at promoting the casting of Asian and Asian-American actors for lead roles in Hollywood films.

Origin

On April 28th, 2016, the @StarringJohnCho^[1] Twitter feed was launched, which posted a photoshopped poster for the 2012 superhero film The Avengers with Cho’s face superimposed on to Captain America (shown below).

Spread

On May 5th, 2016, StarringJohnCho.com^[5] was launched to promote the photoshop meme and Asian diversity in film.

The following day, the @Fusion Twitter feed posted a video about the Twitter hashtag and photoshop meme.

On May 7th, actor Ki Hong Lee retweeted the hashtag along with an article about the photoshop meme (shown below, left).^[3] The following day, Redditor TheWallClock submitted a post about #StarringJohnCho to the /r/AsianMasculinity^[2] subreddit, highlighting several notable photoshop examples. On May 9th, Cho posted a heart emoji in a tweet directed toward the @StarringJohnCho feed (shown below, right).^[4]

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the photoshop meme, including Refinery 29,^[6] The Hollywood Reporter,^[7]Jezebel,^[8] The New York Times^[9] and CNN.^[10]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Stunned Paul Allen is a reaction image featuring the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers and co-founder of Microsoft looking dumbfounded with his mouth agape on the sidelines during the team’s semifinal match against the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Playoffs.

Origin

During Game 4 of the Portland Trail Blazer’s NBA Playoff semifinals against the Golden State Warriors on May 9th, 2016, Paul Allen was captured on camera with his mouth open in astonishment as the opponent team’s star point guard Steph Curry scored a three-pointer during the overtime portion of the match (shown below). The game resulted in the victory of the Golden State Warriors (132 – 125).

Spread

Later that evening, ESPN2 host Jemele Hill tweeted^[1] a photograph of a television screen showing Paul Allen seated at the game, along with the caption “When they said he was doubtful one day then he basically ended your season the next day” (shown below). Within 48 hours, the tweet gained over 3,200 retweets and 3,000 likes. Meanwhile, Twiter user @cjzero^[2] posted an animated GIF of Allen’s reaction titled “Stunned Paul Allen in slo-mo,” garnering more than 1,400 retweets and 1,300 likes over the two days (shown below, right).

On May 10th, The Daily What^[6] published a post about the event, highlighting photoshopped images of Allen as Crying Michael Jordan (shown below, left) and the character Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants (shown below, right). In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the reaction image, including UpRoxx,^[3] TechInsider^[4] and SB Nation.^[5]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References

About

Lost Pause, also known as Noble, is a YoutubeAnime centric gaming channel run by Noble, who frequently posts videos daily, which mainly focus on reaction videos, stream highlights, video game playthroughs centered around anime, and other miscellaneous video types. He on occasion does collabs with friends such as The Anime Man, Misty Chronexia, Einshine, Nyansai, and Akidearest.

Online History

Early Career

Noble first created his channel under the name of “Lost Pause” on December 29th, 2013^[1], his first video being “New Super Mario Bros. Wii – Part 1 (AKA Lost Pauses First Episode),” which is now deleted^[2], and his earliest available video (as of May 5th, 2016) was uploaded on February 6th, 2014, under the title of “Noble Sh!T: Man Mode Hearthstone,” which consists of Noble playing the game Hearthstone

He later uploaded on July 10th, 2014 a video titled “Sakura Spirit – Ep 1 – Sack of Potatoes,” which focused on Noble playing the Visual Novel “Sakura Spirit” being his first video centered around Anime, and quickly began to focus on that specific topic, while also giving breaths of fresh air with other video games not focused upon the topic.

“Hey, Guess What?”

At the beginning of Noble’s Video “FUNNYMONTAGE #9” we see Noble (#2) barging into his room while saying “Hey, guess what?” and then see another Noble at his computer, and upon closer inspection see that he was watching the hentai “Boku no Pico,” which is heavily regarded as being very gross and disturbing, and then see Noble (#2) slowly close the door to exit the awkward situation. This small scene has then been spoofed a lot by either changing the image on the monitor, or both the monitor and faces of both Nobles^[3].

Lily the Mechanic

On February 7th, 2016, Noble revealed that Winged Cloud (famous for creating the Sakura series) drew for Noble 3 avatars, two being himself with and without headphones, and the other being Lily (as shown above), and one large CG of Lily working on the underside of an unidentifiable machine, hence the name “Lily the Mechanic.”

Fans then almost instantly began to make fan art of Lily, with constant new drawings being made every day.

One thing that Noble has been known to do in his videos is quote himself on the various sentences he states while recording by editing in the sentence of what he said, followed by “-Noble (year stated, i.e. 2016),” and he has even made an entire video called “100 FUNNYOUT-OF-CONTEXTNOBLEQUOTES” dedicated to 100 of his various, out-of-context, quotes, which was uploaded on March 6th, 2016 on his second channel, Lost Pause 2.

Some examples of these quotes could be, for example:^[4]

• “That’s how I read my books…..fuck clothes.”
• “I wouldn’t mind suckin’ up to somethin’ if ya know what I’m sayin’…but the cat beat me to it.”
• “I’d say this is a 100 accurate super % realist portrayal of me. Jiggle physics included.”
• “It’s been on my mind for thousands of years…..yes, I’m over 1,000 years old.”
• “I thought you were a boy…YOU’RE NOT A BOY!”
• “What is Bill Cosby doing with that magical wiener?”
  
  
  Search Interest

External References

^[1]Youtube – Lost Pause – About / Posted on 12-29-2013

^[2]Lost Pause Wiki – Noble / Posted on n.d.

^[3]Meme Center – Always Make Sure The Monitor Is Facing Away From The Door / n.d.

^[4]Wikitubia – Lost Pause / n.d.

About

Civilization (officially known as Sid Meier’s Civilization) is a franich of turn-based strategy 4X video games and tabletop board games mainly produced by Canadian designer and developer Sid Meier. In all titles within the franchise, the player must explore uncharted territories, train and utilize a wide range of units, construct a network of cities, research new technologies and compete against or forge alliances with other civilizations through different times of history on a macro-scale, from the prehistoric era up to the near future. The end objective of most games in the series is to win by military conquest, cultural dominance, scientific breakthrough in interstellar exploration and other achievements of supremacy.

History

In 1980, Francis Tresham designed the Civilization board game and published it through his company Hartland Trefoil, and in 1981, Avalon Hill obtained from Hartland Trefoil a license to sell the Civilization board game in the United States. In 1991, MicroProse, a video game publishing company founded by Canadian developers Sid Meier and Bill Stealey, obtained the license from Avalon Hill to use the name “Civilization” for their game.

Civilization

Civilization, a turn-based single- and multiplayer strategy video game and the original title in the franchise, was created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley and published by MicroProse in 1991, initially for DOS on PC and subsequently ported to various platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, PlayStation and Super NES, among others. The game was designed with an objective to “build an empire to stand the test of time,” with its arc and mechanics of gameplay heavily influenced by history of civilization spanning from the ancient times in 4000 BC to modern and near-future eras in the post-21st century.

[researching]

Reception

[researching]

Highlights

[researching]’

Related Memes

Nuclear Ghandi

Nuclear Gandhi is the nickname given to the Indian historical figure Mahatma Gandhi as portrayed in the Civilization franchise. Among the fans of the games, Gandhi has gained much notoriety for his obsessive nuclear warmongering, in stark contrast to the pacifist reputation of the real life counterpart.

Search Interest

External References

About

Whitewashing refers to the practice of casting White actors in historically non-White character roles in television and film.

Origin

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary,^[4] the term “whitewash” was originally coined in the late 1500s to describe the process of washing a surface with a white liquid. The entry lists the earliest figurative use of the term in 1762 as “to cover up, conceal” or “give a false appearance of cleanness.” The first examples of whitewashing in film are often cited as the blackface and yellowface caricatures of Black and Asian minorities portrayed by White actors in Hollywood films throughout the 1930s.

Spread

On March 29th, 2006, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Ten10am submitted an entry for “white wash,” defining the term as description of a non-white person who is perceived as “neglecting their culture and assimilating to a white, western culture.” On January 2nd, 2009, the CommentaryTheMusical YouTube channel uploaded a song titled “Nobody’s Asian in the Movies” (shown below).

On October 6th, 2015, the BBC^[3] published an article titled “When White Actors Play Other Races,” which explored possible causes of the continued prevalence of whitewashing in Hollywood. On February 23rd, 2016, the television show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver aired a segment on whitewashing in Hollywood films (shown below, left). On April 24th, YouTuber That Japanese Man Yuta uploaded a video in which he asks Japanese people what they think of White actors portraying Japanese fictional characters (shown below, right). On April 28th, the photoshop meme #StarringJohnCho was launched in protest of whitewashing and promoting the casting of Asian and Asian-American actors in film.

Controversies

The Last Airbender Casting

In December 2008, Entertainment Weekly released the list of the cast members for the 2010 film adaptation of Nickelodeon’s animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which drew much ire from the fans of the show for casting white actors in the leading roles that were of East Asian and Inuit descent in canon. The backlash led to the coinage of the satirical term “racebending,”, playing off on the Avatar characters’ ability to manipulate, "or “bend,” the classical elements of water, earth, fire, and air.

Dragonball Evolution Casting

In April 2009, Dragonball Evolution, the live-action film adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Japanese manga and anime series Dragon Ball, premiered in North America. In the months leading up to its box office release, many fans of the series criticized the casting of Caucasian actor Justin Chatwin for the leading protagonist role of Goku, who is assumed to be of Japanese descent in canon, as random and untrue to the spirit of the original work.

Ghost in the Shell Casting

In January 2015, the casting of Scarlett Johansson as the lead role in the 2017 live-action film adaptation of the Japanese manga Ghost in the Shell was met with accusations of whitewashing. On April 14th, the first photograph of Johansson portrayal of the film’s protagonist was released online (shown below).

That day, actress Ming-Na Wen tweeted^[6] she was “against this whitewashing of Asian role,” gaining over 13,800 likes and 12,700 retweets in the following month (shown below). On April 15th, the blog ScreenCrush^[5] reported that various sources involved in the film claimed that the studio had “commissioned visual effects tests” in post-production to make Johansson appear more Asian.

Steven Universe Whitewashing

On August 27th, 2015, a thread was submitted to 4chan which called for viewers to “make Tumblr explode” by digitally altering fan art of Steven Universe characters to “make everybody white” (shown below).

On September 3rd, Imgur user FLCrox posted a collection of whitewashed Steven Universe characters along with angry Tumblr reactions (shown below). On May 11th, 2016, Redditor ManPlan78 submitted the image gallery to /r/TumblrInAction,^[1] which gained over 6,900 votes *88% upvoted) and 1,700 comments in the next 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References

About

Azealia Banks is an American rapper best known for her 2012 debut extended play (EP) 1991. Online, Banks has been involved in several controversies on Twitter, where she has drawn criticism for defending Bill Cosby, attacking various celebrities and posting racial and homophobic slurs.

Online History

In May 2010, Banks launched the @azealiabanks^[3] Twitter feed, garnering upwards of 564,000 followers in the next six years. On September 12th, 2011, the music video for the song “212” was uploaded to the Azealia Banks YouTube channel, where it garnered upwards of 113 million views and 67,000 comments in the next five years. In December, the track was released as the lead single for her EP 1991. The song received critical acclaim, and subsequently ranked on various “best tracks of 2011” lists published that year.

On August 8th, 2012, Banks released the music video for the song “Liquorice” on the AzealiaBanksVEVO YouTube channel, receiving more than 13 million views and 12,800 comments in four years (shown below, left). On November 14th, 2014, she released the video for the song “Chasing Time” (shown below, right). Over the next two years, the video accumulated over 5.2 million views and 7,800 comments.

On March 27th, 2015, Banks released the music video for her track “Yung Rapunxel” (shown below, left). Later that week, she released the video for her single “Ice Princess” (shown below, right). Over the next 14 months, the videos received upwards of 1.47 million and 3.7 million views respectively.

Controversies

Homophobic Statements

In January 2013, Banks engaged in a Twitter dispute with entertainment blogger Perez Hilton, during which she referred to him as a “messy faggot” and subsequently told him to “gobble a dick” and commit suicide.^[6] On January 2nd, 2015, Vice^[7] published an article by staff writer Mitchell Sunderland titled “My Bizarre Twitter Beef with Azealia Banks and Her Homophobia,” which highlighted an insulting Twitter exchange between Sunderland and Banks. In September, Banks purportedly called a Delta Air Lines flight attendant a “fucking faggot” during a confrontation on a flight to Los Angeles, California.

Bill Cosby Defense

On December 4th, 2014, Banks posted a tweet commenting on the Bill Cosy rape allegations, stating “them bitches frontin’ like they wasn’t trying to get some of the pudding pop!” (shown below).^[4] Many subsequently criticized Banks for the tweet, accusing her of victim blaming.^[5]

Donald Trump Endorsement

On February 1st, 2016, Banks tweeted that she planned to vote for 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, subsequently adding that “Trump is the only one who truly has the balls to bust up big business” and that “Donald Trump is evil like America is evil and in order for America to keep up with itself it needs him.”^[2]

Zayn Malik Twitter Rant

On May 9th, 2016, pop singer Zayn Malik from One Direction released the music video for his song “Like I Would” on YouTube (shown below). Within three days, the video gained over 3.4 million views and 22,100 comments.

The following day, Banks posted a multi-pane image comparings stills from the “Like I Would” to her 2015 music video for the song “Yung Rapunxel,” along with the caption “I’m not mad about this though. Zayn is a cutie pie” (shown below).

Following the Instagram post, Malik posted two tweets which some speculated were responding to Banks Instagram post (shown below).

That same day, Banks posted a series of tweets attacking Malik, referring to him as a “curry scented bitch,” “sand nigger” and “faggot.” Meanwhile, Banks began arguing with Skai Jackson as well, during which she called the Disney actress as “little black bitch.” That day, her Twitter account was suspended and her Instagram page was made private.

Personal Life

Banks was born on May 31st, 1991 in Manhattan, New York. In a 2012 Q&A with Rolling Stone,^[1] Banks revealed she identifies as bisexual. In December 2014, Banks publicly declared support for $100 trillion to be paid to African Americans as financial reparations for slavery in the United States.

Search Interest

External References

About
Rabb refers to an image featuring a hand-drawn rabbit with its face severely distorted in a manner making it appear stretched to one side, a condition referred to as “advanced”. Thus, it is referred to as Advanced Rabb,

Origin
In mid May 2016, the first instance of Rabb was posted on the Facebook meme page “Fresh” (https://www.facebook.com/freshmemesandotherproducts/) featuring a drawing of a rabbit on the top, with plain text saying “This is Rabb.”, and at the bottom, the same rabbit with its head stretched, captioned “This is ADVANCEDRABB.” The meme appears to have no inspiration, nor does it currently have any traceable creator (although it is assumed one of the admins of Fresh at the time is responsible for the idea)."

(Work in Progress)

About

It’s High Noon or simply High Noon is a quote spoken from a hero from Overwatch named “McCree” whenever he initiates his ultimate named High Noon.

Origin

Spread

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

About

Missed The Point refers to a series of exploitable 4-panel comics featuring a character preaching positivity and tolerance before becoming enraged by another character’s opinion.

Origin

On May 11th, 2016, artist Shenanigansen published a new webcomic in his Owl Turd series, which featured a character wearing a heart sweater attempting to convince a protester to identify himself by the stuff he likes, rather than what he hates. After the protester reveals that he likes 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the man in the sweater is shown being restrained to prevent him from attacking the protester (shown below). Within 48 hours, the Tumblr post gained over 78,000 notes.

Spread

The same day, Shenanigansen reposted the comic in Imgur, where it gathered upwards over 29,000 points and 315,000 views in the following two days.^[2] Several hours later, Imgur^[3][4] user EternalSession posted a template of the comic (shown below).

That day, several edited versions of the comic were submitted to Imgur. On May 12th, user Shining1 posted a version mocking the idea of safe space in colleges, garnering more than 120,000 views and 870 points in 24 hours.^[5] Meanwhile, Redditor boldfilter reposted the original comic to the /r/The_Donald^[7] subreddit, where it received upwards of 1,300 votes (86% upvoted) in over the next day. On May 13th, user Odinn uploaded a version featuring a grandma asking her grandson if he wanted more food, gaining over 1,400 points and 140,000 views over the next few hours.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not avaliable

External References

About

Prom Night Dumpster Baby is a nickname given to the newborn who was found dead in a garbage can in the bathroom of a high school in New Jersey after being discarded by its teenage mother on the night of the senior prom in June 1997. Upon the discovery of the baby, the case of infanticide became a subject of intense scrutiny in the news media and it remains a recurring topic of discussions in popular culture and online to this day, due to the heinous nature of the crime.

Origin

On June 6th, 1997, New Jersey teenager Melissa Drexler gave birth to a child in a bathroom stall at Lacey Township High School, then strangled the newborn and disposed of the corpse in a plastic bag before returning to her senior prom to dance with her boyfriend. Following the discovery of the incident, Drexler pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. On November 26th, 2001, she was released on parole after serving 37 months.^[4]

Spread

In 2000, the horror film Dumpster Baby was released, in which a drug addict gives birth to a pre-mature infant and abandons it in a nearby dumpster, who subsequently embarks on an adventure (shown below).

On March 4th, 2007, Season 5 Episode 12 of Family Guy was broadcast, which featured a song performed by several abandoned newborn babies titled “Prom Night Dumpster Baby” (shown below).

On September 2nd, Urban Dictionary^[3] user UpperGreens submitted an entry for “Prom Night Dumpster Baby,” defining the term as “a baby which is disposed of quickly on prom night.” In November 2010, the question “What is a prom night dumpster baby?” was submitted to Yahoo! Answers.^[5] On May 12th, 2016, Redditor jasonianfootsoldier submitted a post titled “What the hell is a ‘Prom Dumpster Baby’ and where did it originate?” to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[2] subreddit, where many cited the 1997 Melissa Drexler incident as the origin. Within 24 hours, the post gained over 2,200 votes (86% upvoted) and 370 comments.

Search Interest

External References

About

John Romero is a Video Game Designer, Programmer, and Developer renowned for being the co-founder of id Software and designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Hexen, Commander Keen, Doom and Quake.

History

Career

John Romero has been developing games since 1982, his first game being “Scout Search”, developed on Apple II. Romero is well known for being the co-founder of id Software, and also for his work on the video game franchise Doom.

id Software

Romero worked at id Software from its incorporation in 1991 until 1996. During his incorporation he worked on several milestone games, like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, and Quake.

During the development of Quake, Romero clashed with John Carmack, co-founder of id Software, over the future direction of id. Romero wanted the game to follow his demanding vision without compromise, but Carmack insisted that the project had to make steady progress toward completion and accused Romero of not working as much as the other developers. Although Romero relented on his vision and joined a months-long death march effort to finish the game, this did not resolve the tensions within the company, and Romero was forced to resign.

His work on id Software established his place in the Video Game Industry and made him as one of the most inspirational game devs in the industry.

Ion Storm

On November 15th, 1996, John Romero co-founded Ion Storm in Dallas, Texas with id co-worker Tom Hall, Todd Porter, and Jerry O’Flaherty with the slogan: “Design is Law”.

During his incorporation on Ion Storm, Romero designed and produced his most infamous game: Daikatana.

The Daikatana Controversy

In the year of 1997, John Romero announced his shooter game Daikatana with a advertisement boasting: “John Romero’s About To Make You His Bitch…..Suck it down”, which caused controversy amongst gamers and gaming press. The massive pre-hype and subsequent delays were compounded by poor reviews when it was finally released in 2000. Daikatana was critically panned with negative reviews and appeared on numerous “top 10 worst games” listings.

According to many reviews the game had bad controls, unsatisfying gameplay, bad AI, and bad looking graphics from its time.

Recognition

John Romero is considered to be one of the most influential game designers and programmers in the video game industry. His work on FPS games like Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake have redefined the FPS genre, giving a massive popularization to the genre in the 90’s. He was also credited for coining the famous multiplayer term “Deathmatch”.

Personal Life

John Romero was born in October 28th, 1967, on Colorado Springs, Colorado, he is of Yaqui and cherokee heritage.

In January 2004, John Romero married with Raluca Alexandra Pleșca, from Bucharest, Romania. They divorced in 2011.

John Romero and game dev. Brenda Brathwaite founded social game development company Loot Drop in November 2010, and worked on Cloudforest Expedition and Ghost Recon Commander together.

Romero and Brenda became engaged on March 24th, 2012, and married on October 27th, 2012. The couple worked together on Ravenwood Fair, a Facebook game, with Romero as Lead Designer and Brathwaite as Creative Director and Game Designer.

Romero has three children from two previous marriages: Michael, born in 1988, Steven born in 1989, and Lillia Antoinette, born in 1998.

Online Presence

John Romero has announced his new video game he’s been working on with Adrian Carmack on Kickstarter in April 25th of this year, Blackroom.

Blackroom has its official website and is predicted to be released on December 2018.

Search Interest

External References

Facebook – Main Page

Twitter – Main Page

Youtube – John Romero

Wikipedia – John Romero

About

“Guitar Face” refers to the humorous involuntary facial expressions often made by guitarists while performing in front of an audience.

Origin

In 1997, a webpage was launched on Angelfire^[3] titled “Guitar Face: A Horrible, Disfiguring Condition,” which humorously described guitarist facial expressions as a medical condition afflicting blues players around the world.

Spread

On January 11th, 2001, The Straight Dope Forums^[6] member PeterN submitted a thread titled “Why do guitarists make those odd faces?”, in which user cornflakes replied with a link to the Angelfire website. In October 2004, a guitar face contest was held by the guitar magazine Guitar Xpress, which awarded the winner with an Epiphone guitar.^[5] On November 22nd, 2005, Urban Dictionary^[2] user kingnuthin posted an entry for “guitar face,” which defined the term as “making an unusual face while playing the guitar.”

On February 19th, 2012, YouTuber Jesse Phillips uploaded a video titled “That Guitar Face Video,” in which he demonstrates how to properly perform a guitar face (shown below). On March 5th, he posted a follow-up video providing specific examples of various guitar faces (shown below, right).

On November 12th, YouTuber WreckroomRecords uploaded a video titled “Faces of Rock,” demonstrating various guitarists facial expressions associated with certain rock and roll genres (shown below).

On July 16th, 2014, the Tumblr blog Slug Solos^[7] was launched, featuring photoshopped pictures of guitarists holding large gastropod molluscs to fit their facial expression (shown below). On February 5th, 2015, Phillips’ second guitar face video reached the front page of the /r/videos^[4] subreddit, accumulating upwards of 6,000 votes (93% upvoted) and 800 comments prior to being archived. On March 6th, Imgur^[8] user TheCrispyDuck reposted the Slug Solos photoshops in a gallery titled “Guitar Solo Faces Make A Lot More Sense When Guitars Are Replaced With Giant Slugs.”

On July 21st, Billboard^[1] published a listicle titled “The 22 Funniest Guitar Faces.” On May 12th, 2016, the Consequence of Sound Facebook page posted a montage of guitarist John Mayer making various pained facial expressions while playing the guitar (shown below).

Search Interest

External References

About

Wolfenstein is a video game franchise originally created by Muse Software. In the game the player assumes the role of B.J. Blazkowicz, a WWII Green Beret Infiltrator who fights against Nazi Powers.

History

The first two titles of the franchise, Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, were released on 1981 and 1984 respectively by Muse Software. The titles are a stealth-based action-adventure shooter set in WWII.

The third title, Wolfenstein 3D, was developed by id Software and was released in 1992. It became known as the Godfather of FPS gaming for being the very first First Person Shooter title.

The series was rebooted with the release of the title Return to Castle Wolfenstein, released on November 19, 2001. It was praised by critics for bringing first class Multiplayer content.

The most recent title, Wolfenstein: The New Order is a sequel and a soft reboot of the franchise. It was developed by MachineGames and released on 20th May, 2014. It assumes a Alternative History theme, taking place on 1960 in a dystopian Berlin where the Nazis won WWII and dominated the world.

A standalone expansion pack has been released on 5th May 2015, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. It’s a remake of the title Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and a prequel to The New Order.

Reception

The Wolfenstein franchise always received a mixed ammount of positive and negative criticism for bringing Nazi reference.

Although the franchise isn’t as inspirational as Doom, Wolfenstein is considered to be the “Godfather of FPS”, for estabilishing the genre and popularizing it in the 90s.

Controversy

Critics panned the franchise for using Nazi reference, such as the Nazi Party symbol, Hitler portraits and Swastikas as the main artistical theme.

Censorship

Wolfenstein 3D received backlash for having the Nazi Party’s anthem “Horst-Wessel-Lied” and Nazi symbols over the levels. It received a censored version for Germany after initial release but the sales was later withdrawn due to national stigma.

Wolfenstein: The New Order received a censored version in Germany on initial release as the public display of Nazi symbols is illegal and is a national stigma in Germany.

Search Interest

External Reference

Urban Dictionary – Wolfenstein

Wikipedia – Wolfenstein

Wolfenstein: The New Order – Official Website

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – Official Website

Wolfenstein 3D – 20 Years Celebration