Fred Scarf
Stephanie KarlssonCrystal Chan
Mimisioluwa Oloye
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Memes
Stephanie Karlsson - Kim Jong Un Looking at Things
This meme emerged from the blog Kim Jong Il Looking at
Things, which featured the former North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il
doing just what the meme suggests: looking at things. The photos used were
originally published by the North Korean state to depict the dictator as a nice
dictator, doing ordinary things to maintain a positive public image. The
pictures are often set in peculiar settings, with the former leader looking at
things surrounded by security staff. The blog illustrates the irony of depicting
a dictator doing ordinary things.
Kim Jong Il: Looking at Glass
The North Korean dictator Kim Jon Il deceased in
December 2011. The power of supreme leadership was inherent to his son, Kim
Jong Un, and so was the meme. This became the tumbler Kim Jong Un Looking at Things featured the former dictators son,
now the current leader of North Korea
Kim Jong Un: Looking at Slide
Kim Jong Un Looking at
Things did the same thing as the blog it
emerged from: included photos of this political figure looking at ordinary
things. This becomes funny because it is unexpected and taken out of its
context. We do not picture a strict political leader looking concentrated and
engaged focusing his attention to ordinary things/objects surrounded by other
authority figures.
Sarah Zou - Imma Let You Finish...
At the September 13, 2009 MTV music
video awards, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s Best Female Video
acceptance speech. He ran up on stage while Taylor Swift was thanking the
audience and proclaimed “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for ya, and imma let you
finish but…Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” He then left the
stage - as quickly as he had jumped onto it - abandoning the dumbstruck Taylor
Swift. Already known for his arrogance, Kanye West and his bold, rude stunt
quickly became an Internet sensation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0y2xuQmcAgNikola RadnovicLeeroy Jenkins meme first became popular in 2005 when it was mentioned in the game show “Jeopardy!” although no one knew the answer. It was further popularized when a US military captain wrote an article about the war in Iraq, comparing the way US behaves with Leeroy Jenkins meme.
The “Imma Let You Finish” meme originated soon after that night. At the time of the incident, Twitter immediately blew up with 293,024 related tweets the following hour (knowyourmeme.com). Similar to other Internet phenomenon based off current events, Kanye GIFs and memes went viral overnight. The memes contain a Kanye photoshop on top of existing photos with the “yo___, Imma let you finnish but…” caption. It became popular because Kanye was already infamous for being an arrogant, narcissistic ass. The meme served as a mechanism for users to humorously expose other people’s arrogance and narcissism. Today, people still reference the incident from time to time.
Fred Scarf - Cinnamon Challenge
Fred Scarf - Cinnamon Challenge
• How popular did it become and over what time span?
Emily Idell - Gingers Do Have Souls
Mimisioluwa Oloye - Scarlett Johansson Falling
Jennifer Lee - Planking
Jennifer Lee - Planking
This meme represents a really funny
situation in the World of Warcraft game where there are a bunch of characters
joined in a group and are making a strategy of how to overcome a big opponent
that is on the way. While they are still making the plan, one of the characters
just jumps in the battle yelling: “Leeroy Jenkins!!!” The other characters had
no other choice but to jump in the battle as well, and of course, they all get
killed pretty fast. During the unexpected battle, you can hear other players
yelling at Leeroy and his response was: “at least I have chicken” which was
also used in a lot of funny contexts.
The meme
started becoming widely popular in 2005, but after the article mentioned above
came out, it received big attention from many sides. The makers of World of
Warcraft eventually made an achievement in the game named after Leeroy, making
him an urban hero of this game and someone every player knows about. It has
been mentioned in many movies, TV shows, games, like: Jon Stewart’s The Daily
Show, NBC’s Community, Workaholics, How I Met Your Mother, Wreck-It Ralph and
so on.
Concept of Leeroy’s act has been
observed as his way of making fun of the nerdy game players, which always plan
out how to act in the game, but then also further translated into every day
situations. Furthermore, a doctoral student used Leeroy Jenkins video to teach
game theory to his students, which is just one example of how many different
interpretations this funny situation has brought to the Internet world. Ben
Schultz created the character of Leeroy Jenkins, and he along gained
significant popularity, due to his unexpectedly funny move, which brought a lot
of laughter to all of us.
Sources
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeroy_Jenkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Leeroy%20Jenkins
http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/1853937/Leeroy
http://etgeekera.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/leeroy-jenkins-civil-war-wallpaper.jpg
• 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).
The cinnamon challenge was around in 2001, however, it
gained traction in 2007. I think it became famous because of the rise of social
networking sites like YouTube, myspace, and Facebook.
• The details/description of the "meme," person,
event, etc.
A person is challenged to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon
in less than 60 seconds. This person cannot have water and must not spit out
the cinnamon.
The Cinnamon challenge has become very popular and is still
going! It is also weaved into pop culture—many tv shows have referenced the
meme.
• Include other memes that may have emerged from this or
have been influenced by this.
Other memes that are similar to the cinnamon challenge are
the saltine cracker, banana sprite, and gallon challenges.
On November 9th, 2005, South Park aired an episode titled “Ginger Kids” which asserted that those with red hair, gingers, “have no soul.” This episode led to many controversies inspiring many red-haired children throughout the US and Canada to be bullied. “National Kick a Ginger Day” became a fear for many young kids.
On January 14th, 2010, Coppercab uploaded this emotional rant to YouTube about being bullied because of the South Park episode and his red hair. The phrase “Gingers Do Have Souls” originates with this YouTube rant:
Coppercab’s video reached over 3.1 Million views with over 600 responses in the first month of being uploaded. This YouTube video has led to many similar rants about being a ginger, along with remixes and parodies. As a promotional clip for South Park‘s 14th season, a ginger-haired Eric Cartman spoofed Coppercab’s Youtube Video:
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/user/
This Meme became popular around
October 2013. One day in 2012 Scarlett Johansson fell and it was caught on
camera. The meme consists of Scarlett Johansson falling in different places and
with different objects. The meme became pretty popular because it was featured
on websites like Reddit, Buzzfeed, and Tumblr, which all have a large
communities that shares posts with one another. I think it become popular
because we don’t see many pictures of celebrities that humanize them, so people
took the opportunity to make this shot funnier than the original. Google Insights cannot show how popular the
meme became and no other memes have emerged from this.
Google Forecast:
<script type="text/javascript"
src="//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US&q=scarlett+johansson+falling&cmpt=q&content=1&cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0&export=5&w=500&h=330"></script>
Reference
Know Your Meme. 2013. Kanye Interrupts / Imma Let You Finish | Know Your Meme. [online] Available at: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/kanye-interrupts-imma-let-you-finish [Accessed: 28 Nov 2013].
Planking, also known as the “lying-down game” is an activity
in which people find unusual places to lay on the ground face down with arms
and hands touching the sides of the body. Those who plank compete with one
another to find the most unique areas to mimic a wooden plank. These “plankers”
take pictures of themselves and compete with one another through social media.
In 2008, Sam Weckert was the first to create a Facebook
group in which users posted ridiculous planking photos. After these photos were
broadcasted in Australian media, planking became a global trend. This meme’s
popularity lasted approximately a year and has died down since.
There have been many notable incidences since this
phenomenon, which included seven doctors, and nurses working at the Great
Western Hospital in England were suspended because they were planking during
their nightshift.
Here is an article on that: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/16/planking-a-brief-history
Planking was even seen on national broadcast on the hit
comedy show The Office. The main actors were taped planking in parking
lots, restrooms, desks, and on top of filing cabinets in the fall 2011 season
premiere.
Here are photos of people planking in ridiculous places:
Crystal Chan- Nyan Cat
Popularity: Nyan Cat became popular in April 2011. The reason for its popularity is due to the cute cartoon/pop-tart animation cat and the catchy tune of the song. Also, as we have learned in class, people love cats, so pop-tart cat with a catchy, mindless song leads to popularity.
Description of Nyan Cat: Original YouTube video is a video of the pop-tart cat flying across a sky with a rainbow trail coming out of it’s behind. The song in the background repeats “nyanyanyanyan” over and over again. Here is the link to the original YouTube video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Span of popularity: Nyan Cat was most popular in April 2011, as it placed ninth in Business Insider’s Top 10 Viral Videos with 7.2 million views. The original video currently has 103,985,826 views, so it is visible that Nyan Cat is still a popular meme.
Other memes influenced by Nyan Cat: http://fc00.deviantart.net/
Youngki Jang - Kanye Interrupts
Kanye West Interrupts
occurred as Taylor Swift made an acceptance speech after being awarded in the
category of the Best Female Video in the MTV Video Music Awards, 2009 edition.
He, unexpectedly went up to the stage, grabbed the microphone from Taylor and
declared that Beyonce had the best music video. The Awards ceremony had been
broadcast live on Radio City Music Hall and it is when Taylor Swift’s song,
‘You Belong With Me’ was declared to have had the best video production that
Kanye West decided to dispute by stating, ‘Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you,
Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time…one of
the best videos of all time! (Know Your Meme, 2013).This did not go down well
with the audience who booed him prompting the organizers to interrupt the live
broadcast with a commercial. Owing to the embarrassment caused to Taylor Swift
and the disgrace to the entire event, Kanye was ordered to leave and it is
later that evening that he, via a blog post offered an apology but the damage
was done.
When Kanye had left, Beyonce, as if to console Taylor, invited her to finish her acceptance speech that had earlier on been interrupted, when her song, “Single Ladies” won an award for the Video of the Year category (Know Your Meme, 2013). Pinky, Katy Perry among other celebrities commented on Kanye’s actions and this provided juicy vibes for media houses and bloggers. Kanye West was trending on twitter between 14th and 15 September 2009. From Kanye’s Meme arose a report that the US President had referred to him as a jackass and even though the reporter’s news on twitter was quickly deleted before it spread to many people, TMZ had posted an audio link of the same. On the 14th day of September, Kanye West made an official apology on Jay Leno’s talk show that was aired during prime time.
When Kanye had left, Beyonce, as if to console Taylor, invited her to finish her acceptance speech that had earlier on been interrupted, when her song, “Single Ladies” won an award for the Video of the Year category (Know Your Meme, 2013). Pinky, Katy Perry among other celebrities commented on Kanye’s actions and this provided juicy vibes for media houses and bloggers. Kanye West was trending on twitter between 14th and 15 September 2009. From Kanye’s Meme arose a report that the US President had referred to him as a jackass and even though the reporter’s news on twitter was quickly deleted before it spread to many people, TMZ had posted an audio link of the same. On the 14th day of September, Kanye West made an official apology on Jay Leno’s talk show that was aired during prime time.
Reference
Know Your Meme. 2013. Kanye Interrupts / Imma Let You Finish | Know Your Meme. [online] Available at: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/kanye-interrupts-imma-let-you-finish [Accessed: 28 Nov 2013].
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