WebProNews

Tag: Memes

  • Leeroy Jenkins Is 10 Years Old Today

    Oh my god, he just ran in.

    One of the most famous videos on the internet turns 10 today.

    On May 11, 2005, a video was uploaded to a World of Warcraft fansite called Warcraft movies. It showed a guild preparing for battle, discussing the strategy they would soon use in combat. About a minute and a half into the clip, one of the members goes rogue, decides to rush in, and with a primal scream, one of the internet’s best-known memes is born.

    LEEEEEROY JENKINS!

    What you’re watching is a reuploaded version of the famous clip. The original, first uploaded to YouTube on August 6, 2006, now has audio problems. The famous Leeroy Jenkins yell is no longer audible. It still boats over 43 million views.

    Know Your Meme has a nice summary of how Leeroy Jenkins spread:

    On November 19th, 2005, the video was uploaded to YouTube[3] for the first time but it was not until a second instance was uploaded on August 6th, 2006, that the video began to gain views on the site. As of May 2012, this version had 30,615,841 views. The first news outlet to cover the site was PC Gamer UK in August 2005, who saw the video The video has been covered by the Guardian, and PC World In 2011, Joystiq published a look back on Leeroy’s legacy as part of a series titled “WoW Archivist,” which focused on major events throughout the history of the game.

    Blizzard recognized Leeroy several times in the game by giving him an official trading card, mini figurine, named an achievement after him in the Rookery where his video took place, added a Hearthstone card based of him, and eventually added him to World of Warcraft as an NPC.

    Some question whether or not the whole thing was staged.

    Either way, Leeroy Jenkins has spent a decade as a deeply-embedded cultural reference. Here’s a look at Ben Schulz, the man behind Leeroy Jenkins:

    Congratulations, Leeroy. You’re an indelible part of internet culture and a perfect metaphor for self-sabotage.

  • Ryan Gosling Finally Eats His Cereal

    In the spring of 2013, Vine user Ryan McHenry started uploading a series of wonderful videos in which actor Ryan Gosling simply refused to take a bite of cereal. McHenry’s creations soon went viral and became one of the web’s classic memes.

    Sadly, McHenry passed away this past Sunday after a two-year battle with bone cancer. He was just 27.

    Now, in honor of McHenry and the meme that made him internet famous, Ryan Gosling has finally decided to eat his cereal.

    First, a compilation of McHenry’s videos for context:

    And now, good guy Ryan Gosling:

    Gosling also tweeted that he felt “lucky to have been apart of his life in some small way.”

    Memes and feels.

    Image via Ryan Gosling, Vine

  • Things Tim Howard Could Save, or Why We All Love the Internet

    As USA goalkeeper continued to make amazing save after amazing save in Tuesday’s World Cup match against Belgium, people started making jokes on Twitter like Tim Howard could’ve saved my parents’ marriage and Tim Howard just saved me 15% on car insurance. Seriously, did you watch the game? The man was incredible. His efforts, combined with a relatively porous US defense led to Man of the Match honors (in a losing effort nonetheless) as well as a new World Cup record – most saves ever recorded.

    Hell, we’re trying to get an airport named after him right now.

    These early Twitter jokes eventually morphed into probably the funniest trending hashtag we’ve seen in some time. Most trending hashtags? Idiotic. This trending hashtag? Absolute gold.

    Here’s the best of #ThingsTimHowardCouldSave

    Goddamnit, this is beautiful.

  • A Big Sex Scandal Involving ‘Anti-Gay’ Republican Is Brewing, According to Some Redditor

    A Big Sex Scandal Involving ‘Anti-Gay’ Republican Is Brewing, According to Some Redditor

    It’s safe to say that the vast majority of the stuff people say on reddit is complete and utter bullshit. That’s because reddit exists on the internet, of which 99.9% is total bullshit. When anonymous users are given fake internet points for saying the most interesting or outrageous thing, why in the world would they stick to their boring lives? Lie away, Karma whores! Until I’m proven otherwise, I’ll remain cynical.

    But it is worth nothing that earlier this week, a redditor said that they’d been in a same-sex relationship with an anti-gay Republican US Senator for three years, and that they planned on going public with the story in about three weeks.

    Immediate reaction?

    The post occurred on r/AdviceAnimals, one of the site’s biggest subreddits. Our OP used the “confession bear” meme to state:

    “I’ve been in a secret same-sex relationship with an anti-gay Republican U.S. Senator for 3 year–I’m going public 3 weeks from today.”

    Both the user and post has been deleted, but you know as well as I do that nothing is ever truly deleted from the internet:

    The user who posted the meme was u/ClostedinKansas. I’ll let you glean from that what you will.

    The list of “things people have confessed to on reddit” is longer than the list of “major political scandals outed by redditors,” but this one is just funny. I’d love nothing more than to see an anti-gay Senator exposed in their hypocrisy, but I don’t think we should hold our breath on this one. Remember, fake internet points.

  • Ashley Wagner Takes Sochi Olympics Internet Memes in Stride

    Ashley Wagner doesn’t seem to be bothered by the internet memes that are circulating about her.

    The American figure skater has become well-known during the Sochi Olympics for her entertaining facial expressions.

    The first Wagner meme surfaced following her February 8 team short skate. Wagner quickly went from all smiles to a shocked and disappointed expression upon seeing her score.

    The score earned her fourth place in the event, behind Russia’s Yulia Lipnitskaya, Italy’s Carolina Kostner, and Japan’s Mao Asada.

    Despite Wagner’s obvious disappointment, she scored the US figure skating team 7 points, which was enough for them to win the bronze medal in the inaugural team figure skating event.

    One meme included a superimposed photo of Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney, who some credit with starting the Olympic meme trend during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Maroney was caught on camera looking less-than-thrilled to receive the silver medal in the women’s vault competition.

    Wagner posted one of the memes on her Instagram feed, calling it the best she’d seen so far:

    The 22-year-old world champion skater took sixth place in the women’s short skate on Wednesday. Judging from the look on her face upon seeing her scores, she once again expected them to be higher, but managed to recover her smile more quickly than she did on February 8.

    Other memes of the Sochi Olympics have poked fun at Russia for its lack of preparedness, and for its president’s dour expressions.

    No one was safe from the memes during this Olympics, from NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, who has suffered an eye infection throughout the games, to little old ladies making flawed attempts at photography:

    Image via Twitter

  • Imgur Launches MemeGen Meme Generator App For iOS

    Imgur Launches MemeGen Meme Generator App For iOS

    Last summer, Imgur launched its meme generator tool. Now it has a standalone mobile app version of it, which launched today.

    The app, for now at least, is only available for iOS, which is interesting considering Imgur launched its main mobile app on Android first (both launched last year).

    In September, Imgur announced that it had reached 100,000,000 monthly unique users. It’s unclear what the exact usage numbers for the meme generator are, though Imgur obviously hosts tons of memes, which are frequently plastered throughout reddit.

    “Since we launched our Meme Generator for the web, its popularity has been growing,” Imgur says in a blog post. “The people have spoken, and they want Courage Wolf on their smartphones. More than 135,000 memes were created in the last 30 days. The MemeGen app will help Imgurians harness their creativity anywhere, anytime.”

    In addition to creating memes with the app, users can browse memes created by others via the Imgur Gallery. Any memes you create will be saved in your Imgur account.

    We assume an Android version will come later, but have yet to confirm. We’ve reached out for comment, and will update accordingly.

    Image via Imgur

  • Nicolas Cage’s Latest Film “Tokarev” Gets An Official Trailer

    If you’re a fan the Nicolas Cage face, you’ll love the trailer for “Tokarev”. If you’re not sure what I mean by this, it’s the face Cage makes whenever he is screaming or showing pain.

    In “Tokarev” Cage plays a reformed criminal who has been living a quiet family oriented life. This all goes down the drain when a Russian kingpin to exact revenge on Maguire (played by Cage). If you’d like a little more information about the film, you can read the official synopsis below:

    “Paul Maguire (Nicolas Cage) is by all accounts, a decent man. A contractor by trade, and a pillar of his community with a loving wife Vanessa (Rachel Nichols) and a young daughter Caitlin (Aubrey Peeples) that adores him. But it wasn’t always this way, Paul is actually a reformed criminal who still keeps in touch with his old associates. One night Paul and Vanessa go out to dinner with some friends, leaving Caitlin at home with her friends. In the middle of their dinner, Detective St. John (Danny Glover) enters the restaurant and tells him that something terrible has happened. Caitlin had been killed by several Russian men seeking a long-overdue retaliation for the crimes from Paul’s youth. Which forces Paul to step back into becoming the killer he once was.”

    “Tokarev” also stars Rachel Nichols, Danny Glover, Peter Stormare, Aubrey Peeples, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, and Max Ryan among others.

    At the time of this writing an official release date for “Tokarev” was not available, but let’s be honest… were you really going to see it in the theater? Let us know in the comments section below.

    (Image: YouTube)

  • Grumpy Cat Gets Its Own Iced Coffee Drink, a Grumppuccino

    If you’re looking to start your day with an iced coffee drink more pessimistic than you are before you’ve had your iced coffee drink, may I suggest a new product that’s set to go on sale August 7th.

    It’s called the Grumppuccino, and it’s a mocha-flavored iced coffee drink the sports the face of Grumpy Cat – the internet’s favorite angry-looking snowshoe.

    (image)

    The Official Grumpy Cat2 days ago

    Coming soon. Seriously. It’s delicious! #GrumpyCat #Grumppuccino www.grumpycatcoffee.com

    Powered by socialditto(image)  1,000+ likes ·  1,000+ comments

    “Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino iced coffee is a delicious and creamy blend of premium Arabica coffee and milk! It’s Awfully Good.”

    At least they’re seemingly embracing the fact that everyone will be making the same joke: “I tried it once. I was awful.”

    You can check out the Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino site here, if you want to sign up for the email list to be notified when it goes on sale. You can also follow Grumppuccino on Twitter. Availability will be limited to online purchases at launch, but they say they’ll expand to stores:

    At least this is better use of the Grumpy Cat meme than this terrible anti-drinking ad.

  • Imgur Launches New Meme Generator

    Imgur Launches New Meme Generator

    It’s been a big week for Imgur, the popular social image sharing service. The company finally launched its first mobile app over a year after hinting that apps were on the way (don’t worry, iOS is on the way), and now, they’ve launched a new Meme Generator.

    Imgur notes that memes are frequently created elsewhere on the Internet, then uploaded to Imgur. It only makes sense to cut out the middle man.

    “Our community has been asking for an Imgur meme generator for a long time, so we hope they’re as excited about this new meme generator as we are to deliver it to them,” says CEO and Founder Alan Schaaf. “It just makes sense that as more content is hosted and shared on Imgur, we continue to hand over content creation tools to our community. We can’t wait to see what they come up with.”

    Imgur Meme Generator

    “A popular meme creation tool was recently banned from Reddit over vote manipulation charges, which escalated the Imgur community’s clamor for the company to release a tool of their own,” Imgur says in its announcement. “Little did the Imgurians know that the company had Meme Generator in the works. In fact, the tool itself had long been finished, and was merely awaiting integration into the larger site. Even amidst its mobile app launch, the Imgur team launched into action over the weekend, pulling an all-nighter Sunday in order to pull it all together.”

    Read our interview with Schaaf from earlier this week here.

  • Overly Attached Girlfriend Takes on PRISM

    Overly Attached Girlfriend Takes on PRISM

    Laina Walker, better known as her internet title Overly Attached Girlfriend, has won meme stardom with her wide-eyed, creepy-as-hell stare that sends the message “I’m watching you – and I always will be.”

    So, who better to dress up as Uncle Sam and take on the NSA’s recently-unearthed surveillance program, PRISM?

    The land of the free…ish?

  • Grumpy Cat Doesn’t Want You to Drink at Prom, Apparently

    Using an internet meme to promote a alcohol-free prom night? No.

    Grumpy Cat would probably not approve of this Grumpy Cat-inspired ad against underage drinking at prom spotted on a highway by an annoyed redditor.

    Redditors crowdsourced the location and determined that the billboard resides on route 51 neat Pittsburgh. If you look closely, you can see that the ad is the work of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, with support from the Elizabeth Forward School District.

    According to the PLCB, underage drinking is actually on the decline in the state:

    “While today there are fewer young people in Pennsylvania participating in underage drinking compared to previous years, there is still much work to be done, as evidenced by a 2011 survey showing that 25 percent of Pennsylvanians aged 12 to 20 used alcohol in the past month,” said board member Robert S. Marcus in a recent release. “The most effective methods of addressing these rates continue to evolve, so the programs communities utilize must adapt as well.”

    April was Alcohol Education Awareness Month.

    I’m not sure that employing Grumpy Cat to sell the message is the way to go. The real life (and often incorrect) use of internet memes almost always backfires.

    Just say no…to bad meme use.

  • 8 Years of Viral History Recounted in Billy Joel-Inspired Song

    Earlier this week, YouTube turned 8 years old. Feel old, don’t you? Me too. In one way, it’s hard to imagine a world without it, but on the other hand I can still remember when it was just starting to grow in popularity. Ah, to be young again…

    In that time, there have been a lot of viral hits. So many that you probably forgot about some of the early ones. Thankfully, there’s now a song based of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” to help you remember the past 8 years in viral madness.

    Check out “We Didn’t Start the Viral” below:

    [Dane Boe]

  • Keyboard Cat & Nyan Cat Creators Sue Warner Bros

    The creators of two popular cat-related internet memes are suing Warner Bros for using their creations in video games dating backt to 2009.

    The plaintiffs in the case, Charles Schmidt and Christopher Orlando Torres*, are the creators of Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat, respectively. They allege that Warner Bros’ use of the characters in various Scribblenauts games amounts to copyright and trademark infringement. The game’s developer, 5th Cell, is also named in the suit.

    Here’s what Schmidt and Torres are accusing Warner Bros of:

    Plaintiffs accuse Warner Bros and 5th Cell of including, without any licenses or authorizations, the Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat characters in their original Scribblenauts videogame released in 2009, the 2010 Super Scribblenauts, 2011 Scribblenauts Remix, and the 2012 Scribblenauts Unlimited. Defendants are accused of shamelessly using identifying “Nyan Cat” and “Keyboard Cat” by name to promote and market their games. Plaintiffs claim that Warner Bros and 5th Cell’s trademark infringement was willful and intentional and are requesting an award of treble damages

    Maybe the best part of this whole thing is the lawyers’ descriptions of the memes. Especially Nyan Cat:

    “Nyan Cat is a cartoon. Nyan cat, a character with a cat’s face and body resembling a horizontal breakfast bar with pink frosting sprinkled with light red dots, flies across the screen, leaving a stram of exhaust in the form of a bright rainbow in its wake.”

    The lawsuit explains hows both videos were viral sensations, Keyboard Cat being named to many “greatest viral videos” lists and Nyan Cat winning the 2012 Webby award for “meme of the year.”

    Both Schmidt and Torres have copyrights for their memes registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Schmidt has two pending trademark applications and Torres has one.

    *It’s important to note that Torres created the Nyan Cat animation, but is not the one to set it to that famously annoying music and throw it up on YouTube.

    [Milord & Associates via Ars Technica]

  • Islamophobic Facebook Post Lands County Commish in Hot Water

    Over the weekend, Coffee County, Tennessee Commissioner Barry West posted a photo on his public Facebook profile that has many in the area and across the country up in arms (no pun intended).

    The image, which is being called a “hate filled post targeted at Muslims,” features an older man in a cowboy hat aiming down the sights of a long-barreled shotgun. “HOW TO WINK AT A MUSLIM,” says the caption. Here’s a screencap of the post, courtesy of The Daily Dot. West has since deleted the post:

    West says that he didn’t actually create the image, but he did share it. He also said that it was meant to be humorous.

    “Why am I being singled out?” he asked.

    “I’m prejudiced against anyone who’s trying to tear down this country, Muslims, Mexicans, anybody,” he told The Tullahoma News. “If you come into this country illegally or harm us or take away benefits, I’m against it”

    “I just showed it to somebody else,” he continued. “If you’re going to harm this country, I’m not in favor of you…I don’t appreciate people trying to tear down this country.”

    Concerned with a recent string of anti-Muslim acts in Middle Tennessee, The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro had this to say:

    “This does not only incite hatred but also violence against law-abiding citizens of our great country. Mr. West obviously lacks in wisdom and judgment and, therefore, cannot be trusted as commissioner. I wonder what would Mr. West’s response would be if the same photo was posted by someone with a caption that says: ‘How to Wink at Mr. West, a Coffee County Commissioner?’”

    West is also drawing criticism from groups on Facebook, like the Christian Left.

    “Coffee County, TN Commissioner Barry West (D) posted this on his facebook page on Saturday. This is a hate filled post targeted at Muslims and is not acceptable from anyone, let alone someone holding a public office!
    Tell Commissioner Barry West this is NOT acceptable and that he needs to apologize to the Muslim community immediately,” they say in a post.

    Coffee County Mayor David Pennington has released a statement distancing himself from West:

    “As the Mayor of Coffee County I apologize to the Muslim people. I have no control over what the commissioners do outside of public meetings. I personally wouldn’t have done it, I have a great relationship with the Muslim community.”

  • Mitch McConnell Celebrates Gun Control Defeat with Flippant Facebook ‘Meme’

    As you’ve probably heard by now, gun control legislation that would ban certain types of military-style assault rifles, limit magazine sizes, and enact more far-reaching background checks for buyers failed in the Senate on Wednesday. We already knew what was going to happen with most of the proposals, but the latter one concerning expanded background checks was up in the air until yesterday.

    Although polls show a substantial (90% according to some) support for this measure among Americans, the Senate was unable to pass it through.

    President Obama called it a “pretty shameful day for Washington.” You know all of that. Ok.

    Well, it appears that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is basking in his victory with Facebook memes.

    Here’s what was posted to the official Mitch McConnell Facebook page in the aftermath of the vote. It shows Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asking for some “gun control,” being denied by McConnell, and in the end hanging his head in defeat.

    “We love the memes you send us! Keep them coming!” reads the post. So it looks like a supporter created the 5-panel graphic and Team McConnell decided to share it with their 32,000+ followers.

    “Shame on you! You have sold out on the children of Newtown,” says one commenter.

    “Shame on every senator who voted against background checks–supported by 90% of Americans. Do you represent us or the NRA?” says another.

    The post is generating a lot of buzz with over 3,000 shares and over 5.600 comments. Team McConnell has a history of using the Facebook page to generate support with memes (just take a look at their past activity), but it seems they may have stepped in it here by posting such a flippant gloat over an issue which many Americans would consider of grave importance.

  • Alison Brie Cements Internet Sweetheart Status by Imitating Popular Memes

    Not only is Alison Brie a great comedic actress (Community) and a great dramatic actress (Mad Men), but it appears that she can also do a really good Grumpy Cat.

    Watch Brie imitate more popular internet memes below, and accept the terrible fact that she’ll never be your girlfriend.

    [MadeManDotCom]

  • Backstreet Boys Finally Get Around to Making a Harlem Shake Video and Your Tween Heart Will Melt

    You thought the Harlem Shake was a dead meme, didn’t you? Well, nothing is really complete until the Backstreet Boys have a crack at it, right?

    No? That’s not a thing? Either way, I’ll be willing to bet that there’s still a fairly large contingent of you out there whose heart still flutters with the mere mention of BSB. You know who you are. And this is for you:

  • Student Hacker Directs FSU Wi-Fi Users to Infamous Meatspin Video (For a Good Cause)

    A 26-year-old Florida State University student has been charged with “offenses against computer users,” a third-degree felony, for hacking the campus’ Wi-Fi network and directing users to an infamous shock site.

    Benjamin Blouin fully admits to hacking the network, but he says that he only did so to illustrate its flaws.

    Anyone trying to access the FSU Wi-Fi on March 1st was redirected from the FSU homepage to a “video of two men having sex.” To denizens of the internet, that redirect led everyone to the infamous shock video known as “Meatspin.”

    Meatspin, a meme from the mid-2000s (SFW), features a close-up of two men having sex with the Dead of Alive song “You Spin Me Round” playing in the background. It actually comes from a porno film from 1985.

    Apparently, Blouin says that he has been trying to bring the issue of network insecurity to the school’s attention for over a year. I guess he just needed something a little more shocking to get it.

    “Anybody’s identity, while they’re logged onto that network, could be at risk,” said our hacktivist.

    According to the report, FSU has shut off public access to the Wi-Fi network to “implement system upgrades.” Apparently, they will not require everyone to login to use the Wi-Fi.

    All I can say is that this is the most successful use of meatspin that I’ve ever seen. And boy, are they some pretty great comedic opportunities associated with meatspin (risky click of the day award goes to…).

    [News Herald via BetaBeat]

  • Miami Heat Do the Harlem Shake, and It’s an Extended Cut

    Yeah, I know. I KNOW, OK? But it’s the Heat and it’s a pretty good one…

    Ah hell, you can send me hate email. Fine.

    [MiamiHeat]

  • Ultimate Taylor Swift ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ Edition Is (Hopefully) the End of a Meme

    It’s a strange a wonderful thing watching a meme work its way across the internet. It twists and turns and morphs in unpredictable ways. Sometimes, it even loops back around on itself, only to shoot off in another direction.

    From what I can tell, here’s how we got to what you’re about to see:

    First, a two-minute compilations of goats screaming like humans went viral a couple of weeks ago. At some time after that, someone stuck a screaming goat into the Taylor Swift song “I Knew You Were Trouble.” That revitalized an older meme – the “goat edition.” After that, people began putting screaming goats into other songs. As of right now, thousands upon thousands of “goat editions” are searchable on YouTube.

    But in the last few days, the attention has turned back on Taylor Swift. People began to replace the screaming goat with other things – like a motion-activated paper towel dispenser or Nicolas Cage’s “not the bees” bit from The Wicker Man.

    Other popular inserts included a screaming bunny and the best cry ever, an old meme from the TV show Intervention.

    All of that leads us to what is hopefully the end of all of this. Watch it and you’ll see why.

    Who am I kidding? It’s the internet – this sh*t is probably just getting started.

    [via reddit]

  • ‘Goat Edition’ Mashups See a Revival, Could Possibly Supplant the Harlem Shake

    ‘Goat Edition’ Mashups See a Revival, Could Possibly Supplant the Harlem Shake

    Move over Harlem Shake, there’s a new YouTube fad brewing.

    It’s the “Goat Edition” mashup, and it’s taking the internet by storm.

    People have been making “Goat Editions” of popular songs and throwing them up on YouTube for a while. For instance, this goat-screaming mashup of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Niggas in Paris” first hit YouTube back in December of 2011. And you can go even further back in the archives to find the same goat singing alongside Usher back in 2009. But ever since the Taylor Swift “I Know You Were Trouble” Goat Edition blew up over the weekend, YouTube has started to fill up with various Goat Editions of popular songs.

    It seems the internet reignited their love for goats yelling like humans nearly two weeks ago when a two-minute long mashup of various screaming goats went viral.

    Thanks to the revived fascination, we have plenty of new Goat Editions to bring you. Here are some of the best: