Video: Daily Dot Originals https://www.dailydot.com/topics/video/ The Daily Dot | Your Internet. Your Internet news. Sun, 28 Jul 2024 16:28:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 Meme History: Travis Scott Fish https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-travis-scott-fish/ Sun, 28 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1633396 Travis Scott Fish Meme

Cheilinus undulatus. Napoleon wrasse. Humphead wrasse. Whatever name you know it by, if you know it at all, it's probably because of this guy.

Travis Scott Fish meme

In late 2019 and early 2020, redditors in hip-hop, rap, and Travis Scott-specific subreddits began posting images of fish, stylized to look like Travis Scott

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gknr1cZk9VQ&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

Some of them called it Trafish Scott, while others made SpongeBob Squarepants references, or photoshops and drawings of this coral reef-dweller—the Humphead Wrasse

The most famous image of the fish was one which photoshopped it adding human hair and a chain necklace

Travis Scott Fish meme

As you can see, the wrasse really does have human-like lips and teeth, but does it look like Travis Scott specifically? It's too funny for that to really matter

In July of 2020, Facebook page SKRT posted a fake tweet in which Scott himself says “Stop sending me This s***.” It resulted in tens of thousands of reactions and shares over the next few years.

Ultimately, TikTokers took notice of the meme. Posted in the spring of 2022, one user’s video received 2.2 million views, and another over 200,000 views.

This wasn’t the first time the internet had made Travis Scott into a meme.

In 2017, a photo taken during a show was posted to Instagram in which the rapper was shown yelling, with a mic and stand held over his head

It’s now emblematic of utter chaos all over the internet, with at least one user comparing it to DoodleBob.

Travis Scott Fish meme

And after the release of Scott’s 2018 record “Astroworld,” a slough of incidents prompted just as many discrete meme moments

Following the album’s release, Scott, and mother-of-his-child Kylie Jenner, threw their daughter Stormi a birthday party featuring a giant inflatable version of her head, which was an obvious riff on the “Astroworld’s” album cover.

Internet goers pretty much immediately began posting a myriad of spoof images—mostly riffing on the idea of a conspicuous giant head somewhere. 

Scott soon followed the release of “Astroworld” with an annual music festival held in Houston, Texas. On November 5th, 2021, during the festival’s third run (they skipped it in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), 10 concertgoers were crushed in the audience, and died from suffocation.

Darkly, this prompted its own set of memes, which said, “I survived.”

Travis Scott Fish meme

In response, Scott posted a video to his Instagram, not apologizing for what happened, but expressing empathy and remorse, which was itself memed.

And in 2023, what seemed to be a flash-bang was set off at one of his shows, prompting even more criticism, and snark. 

No matter which unprompted, unprovoked, and debased Travis Scott moment most tickles your funny bone, it's hard to deny that Travis Scott has a talent for getting himself into trouble.

The humphead wrasse are endangered due to overfishing and habitat loss. And for worse or for worse, it seems like attendees of Travis Scott’s shows have felt just as in trouble.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

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The post Meme History: Travis Scott Fish appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Travis Scott Fish Meme

Cheilinus undulatus. Napoleon wrasse. Humphead wrasse. Whatever name you know it by, if you know it at all, it's probably because of this guy.

Travis Scott Fish meme

In late 2019 and early 2020, redditors in hip-hop, rap, and Travis Scott-specific subreddits began posting images of fish, stylized to look like Travis Scott

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gknr1cZk9VQ&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

Some of them called it Trafish Scott, while others made SpongeBob Squarepants references, or photoshops and drawings of this coral reef-dweller—the Humphead Wrasse

The most famous image of the fish was one which photoshopped it adding human hair and a chain necklace

Travis Scott Fish meme

As you can see, the wrasse really does have human-like lips and teeth, but does it look like Travis Scott specifically? It's too funny for that to really matter

In July of 2020, Facebook page SKRT posted a fake tweet in which Scott himself says “Stop sending me This s***.” It resulted in tens of thousands of reactions and shares over the next few years.

Ultimately, TikTokers took notice of the meme. Posted in the spring of 2022, one user’s video received 2.2 million views, and another over 200,000 views.

This wasn’t the first time the internet had made Travis Scott into a meme.

In 2017, a photo taken during a show was posted to Instagram in which the rapper was shown yelling, with a mic and stand held over his head

It’s now emblematic of utter chaos all over the internet, with at least one user comparing it to DoodleBob.

Travis Scott Fish meme

And after the release of Scott’s 2018 record “Astroworld,” a slough of incidents prompted just as many discrete meme moments

Following the album’s release, Scott, and mother-of-his-child Kylie Jenner, threw their daughter Stormi a birthday party featuring a giant inflatable version of her head, which was an obvious riff on the “Astroworld’s” album cover.

Internet goers pretty much immediately began posting a myriad of spoof images—mostly riffing on the idea of a conspicuous giant head somewhere. 

Scott soon followed the release of “Astroworld” with an annual music festival held in Houston, Texas. On November 5th, 2021, during the festival’s third run (they skipped it in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), 10 concertgoers were crushed in the audience, and died from suffocation.

Darkly, this prompted its own set of memes, which said, “I survived.”

Travis Scott Fish meme

In response, Scott posted a video to his Instagram, not apologizing for what happened, but expressing empathy and remorse, which was itself memed.

And in 2023, what seemed to be a flash-bang was set off at one of his shows, prompting even more criticism, and snark. 

No matter which unprompted, unprovoked, and debased Travis Scott moment most tickles your funny bone, it's hard to deny that Travis Scott has a talent for getting himself into trouble.

The humphead wrasse are endangered due to overfishing and habitat loss. And for worse or for worse, it seems like attendees of Travis Scott’s shows have felt just as in trouble.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Travis Scott Fish appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Meme History: Thanks Obama https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-thanks-obama/ Sun, 21 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1627626 Thanks Obama meme

The term “Thanks Obama” appeared as an online trend at least on Twitter as early as late 2008—even before he was inaugurated president. And in those early days, users set the rules for how it would be used as a meme—unsurprisingly, his supporters use it with sincerity, and his detractors with sarcasm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMgGx6qBtik&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

But it might have stayed small scale had it not been for an independent conservative political blog in December of 2009. In what may have been the original “Thanks Obama” meme, the blog “Authentic Connecticut Republican” turned it into an image macro for the first time.

Use of the word “thanks” in this case was obviously sarcastic because in the post, the author claims that the 44th president spent people’s lunch moneyallowanceinheritancepaychecks, and retirement savings

This gave it more visibility, ultimately gaining more traction over time, and ultimately, it was used as a punch line of sorts in a short comedy sketch by YouTube channel “FilmCow” a year and a half later, in March of 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RjA1bEt7VQ

By August of that year, it was trending on quickmeme, and it went on to become as popular as other memes of the day including Scumbag SteveFirst World ProblemsBusiness Cat, and more.

As you might expect, the popularity of “Thanks Obama” peaks at moments related to his presidency

The last week of January 2013 was a busy one for the White House because it included two mass shootings, while almost simultaneously Obama outlined a new vision for immigration reform.

In October of that year, the United States federal government shut down due to a political standoff around Obamacare, and in January 2017, he left office after 8 years and two terms.

But the highest peak ever in search interest for “Thanks Obama” had to do with a video and associated article posted to BuzzFeed. In a February 2015 segment called “Things People Do and Doesn’t Talk About,” Obama himself appeared on-camera, promoting Healthcare.gov. They too got in on the joke.

After Donald Trump's first State of the Union address, Twitter users began un-ironically saying “Thanks, Obama” en masse, in a rebrand of sorts. They pointed out that a lot of the things Trump took credit for in the speech actually happened as a result of the Obama administration.

Over the years, Thanks Obama has gotten its own Tumblr blog and subreddit. It also sparked a spin-off hashtag, #ThanksMichelleObama, in which people complain about the low quality of school lunches

While not “Thanks Obama” verbatim, though in the same spirit, it also got a spoof of John Cleese’s famous “What have the Romans ever done for us?” speech. Posted to Imgur in April of 2020, it ultimately gained over 11.8 million views.

No matter which side of the aisle you fall on, you’ve got to admit Thanks Obama is a pretty catchy phrase. It's a pretty natural tendency to look for a scapegoat, and maybe even more so to want to vindicate someone we adore and admire. As for all the fun this meme has created, maybe the best thing we can say is “Thanks Obama.”


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Thanks Obama appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Thanks Obama meme

The term “Thanks Obama” appeared as an online trend at least on Twitter as early as late 2008—even before he was inaugurated president. And in those early days, users set the rules for how it would be used as a meme—unsurprisingly, his supporters use it with sincerity, and his detractors with sarcasm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMgGx6qBtik&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

But it might have stayed small scale had it not been for an independent conservative political blog in December of 2009. In what may have been the original “Thanks Obama” meme, the blog “Authentic Connecticut Republican” turned it into an image macro for the first time.

Use of the word “thanks” in this case was obviously sarcastic because in the post, the author claims that the 44th president spent people’s lunch moneyallowanceinheritancepaychecks, and retirement savings

This gave it more visibility, ultimately gaining more traction over time, and ultimately, it was used as a punch line of sorts in a short comedy sketch by YouTube channel “FilmCow” a year and a half later, in March of 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RjA1bEt7VQ

By August of that year, it was trending on quickmeme, and it went on to become as popular as other memes of the day including Scumbag SteveFirst World ProblemsBusiness Cat, and more.

As you might expect, the popularity of “Thanks Obama” peaks at moments related to his presidency

The last week of January 2013 was a busy one for the White House because it included two mass shootings, while almost simultaneously Obama outlined a new vision for immigration reform.

In October of that year, the United States federal government shut down due to a political standoff around Obamacare, and in January 2017, he left office after 8 years and two terms.

But the highest peak ever in search interest for “Thanks Obama” had to do with a video and associated article posted to BuzzFeed. In a February 2015 segment called “Things People Do and Doesn’t Talk About,” Obama himself appeared on-camera, promoting Healthcare.gov. They too got in on the joke.

After Donald Trump's first State of the Union address, Twitter users began un-ironically saying “Thanks, Obama” en masse, in a rebrand of sorts. They pointed out that a lot of the things Trump took credit for in the speech actually happened as a result of the Obama administration.

Over the years, Thanks Obama has gotten its own Tumblr blog and subreddit. It also sparked a spin-off hashtag, #ThanksMichelleObama, in which people complain about the low quality of school lunches

While not “Thanks Obama” verbatim, though in the same spirit, it also got a spoof of John Cleese’s famous “What have the Romans ever done for us?” speech. Posted to Imgur in April of 2020, it ultimately gained over 11.8 million views.

No matter which side of the aisle you fall on, you’ve got to admit Thanks Obama is a pretty catchy phrase. It's a pretty natural tendency to look for a scapegoat, and maybe even more so to want to vindicate someone we adore and admire. As for all the fun this meme has created, maybe the best thing we can say is “Thanks Obama.”


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Thanks Obama appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Meme History: Mike Wazowski memes https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-mike-wazowski/ Sun, 14 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1620796 Mike Wazowski memes

Children's TV and movies are a trove of meme materials, and oftentimes the smaller and more earnest the character the better. The 2001 instant classic Monster’s Inc. is no exceptionMike Wazowski feels what he feels so intensely, and wears his heart on his sleeve so clearly that it's no wonder he’s become any number of different memes a generation later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw2ElGLw6Qg&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

Disney and Pixar are known for parodying other moments from pop culture, so when they chose to recreate the music video for Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out of My Life,” it was pretty in character for the studio.

In-universe, the scene is from a play inspired by the events of the movie itself, and at Mike Wazowski’s character’s nadir, he really puts everything he has into his performance, channeling his fellow Michael.

Fourteen years after the movie’s release, this screenshot was taken and posted to Funnyjunk.

Mike Wazowski memes

Later, it was reposted by Twitter user “c0mic_sans” as an image macro. The caption? “Me drunk telling my life story even though no one asked."

Mike Wazowski memes

Eventually migrating to Tumblr and Reddit, “Mike Wazowski Singing” is mostly used to punctuate a moment when someone is going on and on about a thing they’re really passionate about—but no one else is having it. 

Alternatively, it's just used to exclaim how much a poster is obsessed with a particular artist or song.

Another Mike Wazowski moment is the famous Wazowski-Sulley face swap. In July of 2019 a Facebook Page titled “Sulley – Core” uploaded a different still from the movie, but with Mike Wazowski and Sulley’s faces swapped.

Originally spreading in largely Spanish-speaking circles, users eventually cropped out Sulley altogether, focusing only on Mike Wazowski's body. 

They fashioned it into a reaction image standing in for someone’s utter disappointment, feelings of falling flat, or ugliness.

Mike Wazowski memes

There’s also “Mike Wazowski Crying”—a meme that explores the fair question of how exactly Mike Wazowski would cry.

Mike Wazowski memes

But there are so many more Mike Wazowski memes. 

There’s also “Do you Know Mike Wazowski?”  

Mostly on TikTok, this is a prank in which someone is asked if they know Mike Wazowski—like he’s a real person. 

Believe it or not, most are afraid to to admit that they don’t know who he is, or genuinely believe he sounds familiar. 

Kid Mike Wazowski is another one, which makes fun of how things might—or might not—degrade over time.

And not about Mike Wazowski specifically but certainly related, we also have “Crying Boo”—used for when the world is just too much to handle.

The Monsters universe is jam-packed full of meme-able moments, and with good reason.

Cartoon-y moments make for easy jokes. It’d be a disservice to Mike’s many moods to turn him into just one meme, so it's good that we get to use him over and over again, for whatever reason feels best in the moment.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Mike Wazowski memes appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Mike Wazowski memes

Children's TV and movies are a trove of meme materials, and oftentimes the smaller and more earnest the character the better. The 2001 instant classic Monster’s Inc. is no exceptionMike Wazowski feels what he feels so intensely, and wears his heart on his sleeve so clearly that it's no wonder he’s become any number of different memes a generation later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw2ElGLw6Qg&ab_channel=TheDailyDot


Disney and Pixar are known for parodying other moments from pop culture, so when they chose to recreate the music video for Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out of My Life,” it was pretty in character for the studio.

In-universe, the scene is from a play inspired by the events of the movie itself, and at Mike Wazowski’s character’s nadir, he really puts everything he has into his performance, channeling his fellow Michael.

Fourteen years after the movie’s release, this screenshot was taken and posted to Funnyjunk.

Mike Wazowski memes

Later, it was reposted by Twitter user “c0mic_sans” as an image macro. The caption? “Me drunk telling my life story even though no one asked."

Mike Wazowski memes

Eventually migrating to Tumblr and Reddit, “Mike Wazowski Singing” is mostly used to punctuate a moment when someone is going on and on about a thing they’re really passionate about—but no one else is having it. 

Alternatively, it's just used to exclaim how much a poster is obsessed with a particular artist or song.

Another Mike Wazowski moment is the famous Wazowski-Sulley face swap. In July of 2019 a Facebook Page titled “Sulley – Core” uploaded a different still from the movie, but with Mike Wazowski and Sulley’s faces swapped.

Originally spreading in largely Spanish-speaking circles, users eventually cropped out Sulley altogether, focusing only on Mike Wazowski's body. 

They fashioned it into a reaction image standing in for someone’s utter disappointment, feelings of falling flat, or ugliness.

Mike Wazowski memes

There’s also “Mike Wazowski Crying”—a meme that explores the fair question of how exactly Mike Wazowski would cry.

Mike Wazowski memes

But there are so many more Mike Wazowski memes. 

There’s also “Do you Know Mike Wazowski?”  

Mostly on TikTok, this is a prank in which someone is asked if they know Mike Wazowski—like he’s a real person. 

Believe it or not, most are afraid to to admit that they don’t know who he is, or genuinely believe he sounds familiar. 

Kid Mike Wazowski is another one, which makes fun of how things might—or might not—degrade over time.

And not about Mike Wazowski specifically but certainly related, we also have “Crying Boo”—used for when the world is just too much to handle.

The Monsters universe is jam-packed full of meme-able moments, and with good reason.

Cartoon-y moments make for easy jokes. It’d be a disservice to Mike’s many moods to turn him into just one meme, so it's good that we get to use him over and over again, for whatever reason feels best in the moment.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Mike Wazowski memes appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Meme History: Disappointed Cillian Murphy https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-disappointed-cillian-murphy/ Sun, 07 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1615862 Disappointed Cillian Murphy meme

In the summer of 2023, the Barbenheimer phenomenon gave us both the most sugary sweet story ever told about an inanimate object, as well as a bump to one of the saltiest internet memes in recent history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClOSJhKjz8M&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

Not mad, just disappointed. We’re talking of course about the most disinterested actor ever to grace a press junket, Cillian Murphy.

In 2015, during the press tour for Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea, Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland took turns fielding questions from a variety of interviewers, But in On Demand Entertainment’s video specifically, Cillian looked like he was really struggling emotionally to hang in there.

The comments on this video are true gems because the best ones didn’t even talk about the film at all—mostly just Cillian’s dark countenance, and the intensity of his blank stare.

By July of 2017, the community was beginning to realize that this wasn’t an isolated incident. A Tumblr page called InColors posted a grid of images of Cillian Murphy from press junkets promoting different films, in which he looks miserable on a repeated basis—but the top image is still from the same YouTube video promoting In the Heart of the Sea.

In five years, this Tumblr post reached 42,000 notes. By the following October, it wasn’t just individual bloggers who were latching onto all of this. NME posted a video leveraging the meme’s popularity as a hook, tilting it, “Cillian Murphy & Timothy Spall react to ‘disappointed Cillian Murphy meme’.

As of the writing of this article, it has 735,000 views. But when asked what he thought about it, Cillian was—true to form—nonplussed. His first reaction was “What’s a meme?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na50RF68TR4&t=249s

In a newer interview in 2023, he explained that he does now know what a meme is—he has two teenage boys after all. But his explanation at the time for why he might look disappointed was actually pretty reasonable.

“You've got to talk about these things and generally it's a film that you’re very proud of and excited by, which I am of this, but it can be wearing if you do three days of it, and sometimes you have a little dream about, I don't know.”

But despite whatever might actually be going on in Murphy’s mind, the meme had already reached a critical mass.

One of the most epic moments was when a YouTuber posted a supercut of a bunch of junkets with Cillian, captioning it in a super dramatic way. This video went viral on its own, ultimately reaching 4.2 million views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty1IeUz_YcA

On TikTokTwitter, Reddit, and everywhere else memes are shared, Disappointed Cillian Murphy is a symbol of being superior, standoffish, depressed, disinterested, or just baffled.

And to drive the point home, on TikTok specifically, it often features this sad music.

https://www.tiktok.com/@baloosilly/video/7360016360480509227?q=dissapointed%20cillian%20murphy&t=1719585633591

Disappointed Cillian Murphy is far from the first disappointed meme to grace the internet, but in the wake of Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie out-earning Murphy’s Oppenheimer by nearly half a billion dollars, it’s certainly the most visible in today’s day and age.

Other older, and now lesser-known disappointed memes include Disappointed HerculesDisappointed Cricket Fan, and Facepalm, to name a few.

Whatever the use case, Cillian seems unbothered and uninterested in these shenanigans. If you feel uncomfortable with his piercing gaze seeing into your soul all the way from the other side of your screen, just remember he’s only there to talk about his project. 

He can't truly be disappointed if he's not thinking about you at all.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Disappointed Cillian Murphy appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Disappointed Cillian Murphy meme

In the summer of 2023, the Barbenheimer phenomenon gave us both the most sugary sweet story ever told about an inanimate object, as well as a bump to one of the saltiest internet memes in recent history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClOSJhKjz8M&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

Not mad, just disappointed. We’re talking of course about the most disinterested actor ever to grace a press junket, Cillian Murphy.

In 2015, during the press tour for Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea, Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland took turns fielding questions from a variety of interviewers, But in On Demand Entertainment’s video specifically, Cillian looked like he was really struggling emotionally to hang in there.

The comments on this video are true gems because the best ones didn’t even talk about the film at all—mostly just Cillian’s dark countenance, and the intensity of his blank stare.

By July of 2017, the community was beginning to realize that this wasn’t an isolated incident. A Tumblr page called InColors posted a grid of images of Cillian Murphy from press junkets promoting different films, in which he looks miserable on a repeated basis—but the top image is still from the same YouTube video promoting In the Heart of the Sea.

In five years, this Tumblr post reached 42,000 notes. By the following October, it wasn’t just individual bloggers who were latching onto all of this. NME posted a video leveraging the meme’s popularity as a hook, tilting it, “Cillian Murphy & Timothy Spall react to ‘disappointed Cillian Murphy meme’.

As of the writing of this article, it has 735,000 views. But when asked what he thought about it, Cillian was—true to form—nonplussed. His first reaction was “What’s a meme?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na50RF68TR4&t=249s

In a newer interview in 2023, he explained that he does now know what a meme is—he has two teenage boys after all. But his explanation at the time for why he might look disappointed was actually pretty reasonable.

“You've got to talk about these things and generally it's a film that you’re very proud of and excited by, which I am of this, but it can be wearing if you do three days of it, and sometimes you have a little dream about, I don't know.”

But despite whatever might actually be going on in Murphy’s mind, the meme had already reached a critical mass.

One of the most epic moments was when a YouTuber posted a supercut of a bunch of junkets with Cillian, captioning it in a super dramatic way. This video went viral on its own, ultimately reaching 4.2 million views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty1IeUz_YcA

On TikTokTwitter, Reddit, and everywhere else memes are shared, Disappointed Cillian Murphy is a symbol of being superior, standoffish, depressed, disinterested, or just baffled.

And to drive the point home, on TikTok specifically, it often features this sad music.

https://www.tiktok.com/@baloosilly/video/7360016360480509227?q=dissapointed%20cillian%20murphy&t=1719585633591

Disappointed Cillian Murphy is far from the first disappointed meme to grace the internet, but in the wake of Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie out-earning Murphy’s Oppenheimer by nearly half a billion dollars, it’s certainly the most visible in today’s day and age.

Other older, and now lesser-known disappointed memes include Disappointed HerculesDisappointed Cricket Fan, and Facepalm, to name a few.

Whatever the use case, Cillian seems unbothered and uninterested in these shenanigans. If you feel uncomfortable with his piercing gaze seeing into your soul all the way from the other side of your screen, just remember he’s only there to talk about his project. 

He can't truly be disappointed if he's not thinking about you at all.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

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The post Meme History: Disappointed Cillian Murphy appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Meme History: Pepe Silvia  https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-pepe-silvia/ Sun, 30 Jun 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1611528 Pepe Silvia meme

The driving force behind It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s ”Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack,” is that Mac and Charlie need a job—any job—in order to get health insurance. To that end, they end up in an office mail room, where Charlie becomes obsessed with someone called “Pepe Silvia” who he believes doesn’t exist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOfJzeJIuDo&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

It's Charlie’s third scene in the office. The first features him acting fairly normally, joking around with his new coworkers. In the second, he’s taken up burning mail in order to look like he can keep up with the apparently enormous demand, and smoking cigarettes to cope with the stress. But here, he convinces himself that there are people in the office who don’t exist, and that he’s being used as a pawn in some conspiracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NBfZcNU4O0

This is a reference to the 2001 Russel Crowe film A Beautiful Mind, in which the main character John Nash hallucinates that he’s been recruited as a secret government agent by a man-in-black that doesn’t exist, and builds a literal web connecting all the clues to solving his supposed mission.

Russel Crowe’s character is based on a real person whose hallucinations were a result of his schizophrenia, whereas Charlie’s stems from plain old stress and heroic doses of both nicotine and caffeine. In any case, the scene was an instant classic. Ever since its airing, it's been referred to as one of the best moments ever from the show.

And the meme community obviously agrees. Often using this specific screen grab as the image for the post, “Pepe Silvia” is easily the most famous takeaway from the episode, and one of the most iconic moments from the show. Got your own conspiracy theory? How about a joke making fun of someone overcomplicating a thing? Charlie has got you.

Over the years, fans have made the “Pepe Silvia” screenshot into merch for sale, fan art, renders, and even viral YouTube videos.

In one, drummer David Dockery played along to the scene, interpreting the pacing of the action and the dialog via his drum kit, and in another, posted around the same time, an animated version of the scene was created. In the years following, it reached 4.8 million views on YouTube. These videos coincided with search interest in Pepe Silvia skyrocketing over anything previous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InbaU387Wl8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peUe-82Qgs4

More often than not Pepe Silvia is posted as a fun joke, but it's worth noting that in the years since, the highest peaks for search interest all happen at the same time as noteworthy moments in the American news cycle.

And conceivably, someone who is spending too much time in a windowless room like Charlie, who is losing their grip on reality, could spin some of these moments up into their own crazy conspiracies.

“Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack” is, among other things, a comment on the insanity of the American healthcare system. Charlie recommends stimulants in order to calm down, Dee and Dennis inject themselves with chemicals rather than exercise, and Frank escapes from a mental hospital by getting someone to break a window for him. But we all watch because it’s really funny.

In the same way, Pepe Silvia the meme tempers the insanity of any given conspiracy (or just plain dumb moment), with its own hilarity. Squint hard enough and it’s possible to find intrigue and trickery in the most straightforward of moments—even if it’s not actually there. Post a meme about it, and maybe someone will wake up, or at least leave you an upvote.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

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The post Meme History: Pepe Silvia  appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Pepe Silvia meme

The driving force behind It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s ”Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack,” is that Mac and Charlie need a job—any job—in order to get health insurance. To that end, they end up in an office mail room, where Charlie becomes obsessed with someone called “Pepe Silvia” who he believes doesn’t exist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOfJzeJIuDo&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

It's Charlie’s third scene in the office. The first features him acting fairly normally, joking around with his new coworkers. In the second, he’s taken up burning mail in order to look like he can keep up with the apparently enormous demand, and smoking cigarettes to cope with the stress. But here, he convinces himself that there are people in the office who don’t exist, and that he’s being used as a pawn in some conspiracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NBfZcNU4O0

This is a reference to the 2001 Russel Crowe film A Beautiful Mind, in which the main character John Nash hallucinates that he’s been recruited as a secret government agent by a man-in-black that doesn’t exist, and builds a literal web connecting all the clues to solving his supposed mission.

Russel Crowe’s character is based on a real person whose hallucinations were a result of his schizophrenia, whereas Charlie’s stems from plain old stress and heroic doses of both nicotine and caffeine. In any case, the scene was an instant classic. Ever since its airing, it's been referred to as one of the best moments ever from the show.

And the meme community obviously agrees. Often using this specific screen grab as the image for the post, “Pepe Silvia” is easily the most famous takeaway from the episode, and one of the most iconic moments from the show. Got your own conspiracy theory? How about a joke making fun of someone overcomplicating a thing? Charlie has got you.

Over the years, fans have made the “Pepe Silvia” screenshot into merch for sale, fan art, renders, and even viral YouTube videos.

In one, drummer David Dockery played along to the scene, interpreting the pacing of the action and the dialog via his drum kit, and in another, posted around the same time, an animated version of the scene was created. In the years following, it reached 4.8 million views on YouTube. These videos coincided with search interest in Pepe Silvia skyrocketing over anything previous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InbaU387Wl8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peUe-82Qgs4

More often than not Pepe Silvia is posted as a fun joke, but it's worth noting that in the years since, the highest peaks for search interest all happen at the same time as noteworthy moments in the American news cycle.

And conceivably, someone who is spending too much time in a windowless room like Charlie, who is losing their grip on reality, could spin some of these moments up into their own crazy conspiracies.

“Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack” is, among other things, a comment on the insanity of the American healthcare system. Charlie recommends stimulants in order to calm down, Dee and Dennis inject themselves with chemicals rather than exercise, and Frank escapes from a mental hospital by getting someone to break a window for him. But we all watch because it’s really funny.

In the same way, Pepe Silvia the meme tempers the insanity of any given conspiracy (or just plain dumb moment), with its own hilarity. Squint hard enough and it’s possible to find intrigue and trickery in the most straightforward of moments—even if it’s not actually there. Post a meme about it, and maybe someone will wake up, or at least leave you an upvote.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Pepe Silvia  appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Meme History: Hide The Pain Harold https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-hide-the-pain-harold/ Sun, 23 Jun 2024 16:02:06 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1605610 Hide The Pain Harold Meme

Do you ever feel like you’re just barely hanging on? Like the inescapable weight of the universe is so big that it might physically crush you? Do you feel that behind your quietly simpering eyes, there is a bruised soul within, near to his or her utter, most absolute, and truest breaking point?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSR4g2CkwQA&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

When András Arató went on vacation with his wife in Turkey, like anyone he posted a few pictures to social media, but this one in particular happened to be seen not by a friend, but by a local stock photographer.

The two began working together, and ultimately ended up taking hundreds of photos of András. In September of 2011, the first known forum thread compiling András’ images, was posted to facepunch. com. It called him “the pain harold” thinking it would be a great wrestling name for a guy with András’ likeness. But rather than getting tough guy wrestling vibes, most users instead looked into András’ eyes and saw something closer to quiet desperation than anything.

In recognition, pretty quickly a number of Facebook groups were created dubbing him “Hide the Pain Harold.” Around the same time, and perhaps more importantly, this new meme also spread across Reddit and 4chan.

Bad luck? Want to make fun of the Boomers? Find yourself in a situation where you’re just barely hanging in there, but you’re still trying to somehow be positive? These are all good moments for Hide the Pain Harold.

In a few years, users on 4chan were making up backstories for the character, ironically, or maybe appropriately detailing Harold’s life as a stock photography model.

In it, almost every image has an appropriate caption, but they’re ordered so they almost tell an actual story of Harold's life. By the fall of 2014, an Imgur user posted a large compilation of Hide the Pain Harold images and their accompanying captions, which gained 880,000 views in three weeks. And on YouTube, someone created a video of the original 4chan backstory, narrated via text-to-speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eusqf33568

He was a big deal. Around this time, search interest for Hide the Pain Harold was right on par with other famous internet images of the time, like That’s None of my BusinessCondescending Wonka, or Galaxy Brain, to name a few. 

For András’ part, he first realized he was a meme after reverse image searching himself, and quickly decided to identify himself in order to humanize the meme.

In an interview with the Daily Dot, András was quoted saying “People recognized that I’m a human being and not a Photoshop creation,” he said. “The rude or disobliging memes have completely disappeared. For the most part, the memes are funny.”

By 2018, András had long accepted his meme fame and used it to book actual appearances in real life. People had fun using his face for their jokes, and they wanted to see more of him. András appeared in a video for Dugout.com promoting football generally and the city of Manchester specifically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc5qmQqA4jU

he gave his own TEDx talk detailing his rise to fame,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScfGU7rQaM&t=1s

and he even appeared in a music video for Hungarian rock band Cloud 9+.

András noted that the memes haven’t made him rich, but it seems like he’s having a good time with it. He told the Daily Dot, “I don’t get paid when my photos are used in memes…However, I have gained a great fanbase!”

So it's good to see András finally embrace Harold because we only mean it as a joke. András’ likeness is one that on its face represents pain and a kind of holding it together, but for those of us who were there for Harold’s peak, it's really more about actual fun.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Hide The Pain Harold appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Hide The Pain Harold Meme

Do you ever feel like you’re just barely hanging on? Like the inescapable weight of the universe is so big that it might physically crush you? Do you feel that behind your quietly simpering eyes, there is a bruised soul within, near to his or her utter, most absolute, and truest breaking point?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSR4g2CkwQA&ab_channel=TheDailyDot


When András Arató went on vacation with his wife in Turkey, like anyone he posted a few pictures to social media, but this one in particular happened to be seen not by a friend, but by a local stock photographer.

The two began working together, and ultimately ended up taking hundreds of photos of András. In September of 2011, the first known forum thread compiling András’ images, was posted to facepunch. com. It called him “the pain harold” thinking it would be a great wrestling name for a guy with András’ likeness. But rather than getting tough guy wrestling vibes, most users instead looked into András’ eyes and saw something closer to quiet desperation than anything.

In recognition, pretty quickly a number of Facebook groups were created dubbing him “Hide the Pain Harold.” Around the same time, and perhaps more importantly, this new meme also spread across Reddit and 4chan.

Bad luck? Want to make fun of the Boomers? Find yourself in a situation where you’re just barely hanging in there, but you’re still trying to somehow be positive? These are all good moments for Hide the Pain Harold.

In a few years, users on 4chan were making up backstories for the character, ironically, or maybe appropriately detailing Harold’s life as a stock photography model.

In it, almost every image has an appropriate caption, but they’re ordered so they almost tell an actual story of Harold's life. By the fall of 2014, an Imgur user posted a large compilation of Hide the Pain Harold images and their accompanying captions, which gained 880,000 views in three weeks. And on YouTube, someone created a video of the original 4chan backstory, narrated via text-to-speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eusqf33568

He was a big deal. Around this time, search interest for Hide the Pain Harold was right on par with other famous internet images of the time, like That’s None of my BusinessCondescending Wonka, or Galaxy Brain, to name a few. 

For András’ part, he first realized he was a meme after reverse image searching himself, and quickly decided to identify himself in order to humanize the meme.

In an interview with the Daily Dot, András was quoted saying “People recognized that I’m a human being and not a Photoshop creation,” he said. “The rude or disobliging memes have completely disappeared. For the most part, the memes are funny.”

By 2018, András had long accepted his meme fame and used it to book actual appearances in real life. People had fun using his face for their jokes, and they wanted to see more of him. András appeared in a video for Dugout.com promoting football generally and the city of Manchester specifically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc5qmQqA4jU

he gave his own TEDx talk detailing his rise to fame,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScfGU7rQaM&t=1s

and he even appeared in a music video for Hungarian rock band Cloud 9+.

András noted that the memes haven’t made him rich, but it seems like he’s having a good time with it. He told the Daily Dot, “I don’t get paid when my photos are used in memes…However, I have gained a great fanbase!”

So it's good to see András finally embrace Harold because we only mean it as a joke. András’ likeness is one that on its face represents pain and a kind of holding it together, but for those of us who were there for Harold’s peak, it's really more about actual fun.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Hide The Pain Harold appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Meme History: Poot Lovato https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-poot-lovato/ Sun, 16 Jun 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1599183 Poot meme

This is a picture of Demi Lovato ahead of her Royal Variety Performance at London’s Palladium Theater.

Here’s another one

And if you were to take the Tumblr meme world at face value, here’s Demi’s ugly twin sister Poot finally seeing the light of day after a life in the basement.

The Royal Variety Performance is an annual variety show in London, whose proceeds go to the Royal Variety Charity, and is famously attended by the British royal family every year. 

In 2014, Demi Lovato performed, and on her way into the event, a fan was able to take this photo on their cell phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNA6gCzl7sI&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

At some point in the next year, the original image was both warped and reposted to Tumblr. But the spread and title of the meme didn’t come until a little later.

In October of 2015, a Tumblr user reposted the image with the caption “Demi’s twin sister. She was locked in a basement her whole life. This picture was taken the first time she went outside. Her name is Poot.”

Before the post was deleted it reached almost 6 figures in notes.

Almost immediately following, the Twitter account @Official_Poot launched, tweeting in-character as Demi’s sister, followed by @itmepootpoot, and a host of other fan accounts.

The following week, a Poot fan began to create a 24-part backstory for the character, titled appropriately “The Secret Life of Poot Lovato.”

Poot is commonly posted as little more than a funny ugly picture, but it's also often juxtaposed with a “real” photo of Demi, creating a two-part joke about how something has deteriorated. On that level, it's like a lot of other memes, fun, and cheeky, a little derisive, but dismissed quickly and without much thought.

But it's also faced criticism. Many users find it to be ableist—especially when considering the Poot’s backstory—not to mention the fact that people actually do get trafficked, and locked in basements. And that’s not something to joke about.

At first, Demi herself was not amused whatsoever—tweeting sarcastically, “cool to see a shitty angle turn into a meme that circulates the internet for people’s amusement…”

But ultimately she came around to it, posting a gif version of it a few years later, and apparently celebrating her 31st birthday with Poot cupcakes

https://twitter.com/ddlovato/status/849037826553294848

https://www.tiktok.com/@ddlovato/video/7269497683612634399?embed_source=121374463%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C72248227%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.teenvogue.com%2Fstory%2Fdemi-lovato-poot-lovato-birthday-cake&referer_video_id=7269497683612634399

So if you’re a student of the more bizarre things the internet has on offer for entertainment, Poot Lovato is a good moment to be aware of.

The more you think about it, the easier it is to be upset by it, sure. But if you want to enjoy Poot, a way to go might be to just not overthink it.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Poot Lovato appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Poot meme

This is a picture of Demi Lovato ahead of her Royal Variety Performance at London’s Palladium Theater.

Here’s another one

And if you were to take the Tumblr meme world at face value, here’s Demi’s ugly twin sister Poot finally seeing the light of day after a life in the basement.

The Royal Variety Performance is an annual variety show in London, whose proceeds go to the Royal Variety Charity, and is famously attended by the British royal family every year. 

In 2014, Demi Lovato performed, and on her way into the event, a fan was able to take this photo on their cell phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNA6gCzl7sI&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

At some point in the next year, the original image was both warped and reposted to Tumblr. But the spread and title of the meme didn’t come until a little later.

In October of 2015, a Tumblr user reposted the image with the caption “Demi’s twin sister. She was locked in a basement her whole life. This picture was taken the first time she went outside. Her name is Poot.”

Before the post was deleted it reached almost 6 figures in notes.

Almost immediately following, the Twitter account @Official_Poot launched, tweeting in-character as Demi’s sister, followed by @itmepootpoot, and a host of other fan accounts.

The following week, a Poot fan began to create a 24-part backstory for the character, titled appropriately “The Secret Life of Poot Lovato.”

Poot is commonly posted as little more than a funny ugly picture, but it's also often juxtaposed with a “real” photo of Demi, creating a two-part joke about how something has deteriorated. On that level, it's like a lot of other memes, fun, and cheeky, a little derisive, but dismissed quickly and without much thought.

But it's also faced criticism. Many users find it to be ableist—especially when considering the Poot’s backstory—not to mention the fact that people actually do get trafficked, and locked in basements. And that’s not something to joke about.

At first, Demi herself was not amused whatsoever—tweeting sarcastically, “cool to see a shitty angle turn into a meme that circulates the internet for people’s amusement…”

But ultimately she came around to it, posting a gif version of it a few years later, and apparently celebrating her 31st birthday with Poot cupcakes

https://twitter.com/ddlovato/status/849037826553294848
https://www.tiktok.com/@ddlovato/video/7269497683612634399?embed_source=121374463%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C72248227%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.teenvogue.com%2Fstory%2Fdemi-lovato-poot-lovato-birthday-cake&referer_video_id=7269497683612634399

So if you’re a student of the more bizarre things the internet has on offer for entertainment, Poot Lovato is a good moment to be aware of.

The more you think about it, the easier it is to be upset by it, sure. But if you want to enjoy Poot, a way to go might be to just not overthink it.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Poot Lovato appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Meme History: Elmo On Fire https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-elmo-on-fire/ Sun, 09 Jun 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1594776 Elmo on Fire meme

Poor Elmo.

Whether he’s being attacked by aging comedianstrauma dumped on by all of Twitter, or repeatedly immolated for nothing more than the likes, it feels like we could all do better by the little guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEYWjsxTKP4&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

He was once appropriately dubbed “our dark lord of the internet.” His kingdom is the internet, and his power is his ability to be the muppet we all need, and not the one we deserve.

If you’ve never heard of cakewrecks.com, you really should go give it a look through sometime because there are some true gems on there. Perhaps none more so than what ultimately became one of the most popular Sesame Street memes ever—Hellmo.

On November 1st 2012, beside strange looking Dora the Explorer, Cookie Monster, and Scooby Doo-themed desserts, an Elmo 1st birthday cake was posted to the blog

Shortly thereafter, he was reposted to Tumblr—twice. First simply as a reblog of the original image, then with Elmo superimposed on a gif of flames

The caption? “All hail Hellmo, our dark lord of the internet.”

“Hellmo” aka “Elmo on Fire,” aka “Elmo Rise” is not the first time the muppet became a meme. Because of the inherent cartoonishness of the character, his meme fame extends through an array of other images.

Of note, we have Elmo sitting on the toilet,

Elmo dancing,

Elmo screaming,

and Elmo Shrugging—all with their own use cases.

But more than a decade after the original postings of Hellmo, this one specifically has been recreated everywhere, for many different reasons. 

TikTokers have recreated it on Fortnite, or as friendship bracelets, shoppers can buy Hellmo merch in any shape and size they want, and countless Elmo toys have actually been set on fire for all the internet to see. Someone on YouTube even crucified a Tickle Me Elmo doll and lit it up using a jet engine.

https://www.tiktok.com/@knychill/video/7124917689423826222

https://www.tiktok.com/@mustard_plays/video/7167051857616194862

https://www.tiktok.com/@izknots/video/6819110456188259589

In the wake of the George Floyd murder, a Black Lives Matter protester in Philadelphia dressed as Elmo, apparently to underscore how insane things were getting.

https://twitter.com/BRWednesday/status/1267243160763277313

But on a lighter note, we’ve also seen people simply carve him into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, or make dark—if ultimately just silly—songs posted to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta5Mv4b4lyg

So, to state the obvious, this image could and often is used as a stand-in for any number of things—dark joy, pyrrhic triumph, plain old exhaustion, or any combination of the above. 

But if you want anything close to a definitive answer for what this meme actually means, a quick Google Trends search may be a good place to start.

Search interest for “hellmo” peaked sharply on November 16th, 2020, after which the chart almost never dips back down to previously normal levels.

That was the day after Donald Trump finally acknowledged that Joe Biden won that year’s presidential election. It was also the same day that COVID-19 cases in the United States first surpassed 11 million.

So, therein might lie the real take: Tumblr called Elmo “our dark lord,” and at some level, we can all feel our world burning every day

If someone is going to have to preside over the charred remnants, it had better be someone we all love, or at least wouldn’t mind smashing into a pulp. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZARc4TGjL7A


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Elmo On Fire appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Elmo on Fire meme

Poor Elmo.

Whether he’s being attacked by aging comedianstrauma dumped on by all of Twitter, or repeatedly immolated for nothing more than the likes, it feels like we could all do better by the little guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEYWjsxTKP4&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

He was once appropriately dubbed “our dark lord of the internet.” His kingdom is the internet, and his power is his ability to be the muppet we all need, and not the one we deserve.

If you’ve never heard of cakewrecks.com, you really should go give it a look through sometime because there are some true gems on there. Perhaps none more so than what ultimately became one of the most popular Sesame Street memes ever—Hellmo.

On November 1st 2012, beside strange looking Dora the Explorer, Cookie Monster, and Scooby Doo-themed desserts, an Elmo 1st birthday cake was posted to the blog

Shortly thereafter, he was reposted to Tumblr—twice. First simply as a reblog of the original image, then with Elmo superimposed on a gif of flames

The caption? “All hail Hellmo, our dark lord of the internet.”

“Hellmo” aka “Elmo on Fire,” aka “Elmo Rise” is not the first time the muppet became a meme. Because of the inherent cartoonishness of the character, his meme fame extends through an array of other images.

Of note, we have Elmo sitting on the toilet,

Elmo dancing,

Elmo screaming,

and Elmo Shrugging—all with their own use cases.

But more than a decade after the original postings of Hellmo, this one specifically has been recreated everywhere, for many different reasons. 

TikTokers have recreated it on Fortnite, or as friendship bracelets, shoppers can buy Hellmo merch in any shape and size they want, and countless Elmo toys have actually been set on fire for all the internet to see. Someone on YouTube even crucified a Tickle Me Elmo doll and lit it up using a jet engine.

https://www.tiktok.com/@knychill/video/7124917689423826222
https://www.tiktok.com/@mustard_plays/video/7167051857616194862
https://www.tiktok.com/@izknots/video/6819110456188259589

In the wake of the George Floyd murder, a Black Lives Matter protester in Philadelphia dressed as Elmo, apparently to underscore how insane things were getting.

https://twitter.com/BRWednesday/status/1267243160763277313

But on a lighter note, we’ve also seen people simply carve him into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, or make dark—if ultimately just silly—songs posted to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta5Mv4b4lyg

So, to state the obvious, this image could and often is used as a stand-in for any number of things—dark joy, pyrrhic triumph, plain old exhaustion, or any combination of the above. 

But if you want anything close to a definitive answer for what this meme actually means, a quick Google Trends search may be a good place to start.

Search interest for “hellmo” peaked sharply on November 16th, 2020, after which the chart almost never dips back down to previously normal levels.

That was the day after Donald Trump finally acknowledged that Joe Biden won that year’s presidential election. It was also the same day that COVID-19 cases in the United States first surpassed 11 million.

So, therein might lie the real take: Tumblr called Elmo “our dark lord,” and at some level, we can all feel our world burning every day

If someone is going to have to preside over the charred remnants, it had better be someone we all love, or at least wouldn’t mind smashing into a pulp. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZARc4TGjL7A


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The post Meme History: Elmo On Fire appeared first on The Daily Dot.

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Meme History: Drake memes  https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-drake-memes/ Sun, 02 Jun 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1589304 Drake memes

Few pop stars are more internet-famous than Drake, and when you think of a Drake Meme, chances are you’re thinking of this one.

His boo used to call him on his cell phone, and in the mid-2010s, the whole of the internet used to call him the hottest thing wherever memes are shared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDyd2eEKIlI&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

The video for “Hotline Bling,” off of Drake’s 4th album Views, dropped on October 19, 2015. Shot on a pretty minimal set that was easy to replicate, and featuring dance moves that were described as both “eccentric” and “dorky,” this video was perfect meme-fodder, and immediately caused parodies and spin-offs—notably on Saturday Night Live two weeks after the video’s release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxpDa-c-4Mc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjeORm4LMDk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tjpPxX9x-c

On the internet, the usage of screenshots from the video, also known as “Drakeposting,” began mostly on 4Chan and niche forums, but spread to basically everywhere else on the internet by January and February of the following year.

The most common iteration is a 2-panel reaction meme where the first features a still of Drake dancing, looking like he dislikes something, and the second is him in another pose, liking something else quite a bit.

It's simple, and immediate, and great for use as an innocent joke, or social commentary, or both.

And whether it's his perceived sensitivity, or mere proclivity to get himself in weird memeable situations, Drake is one of the most widely memed people on the internet, and has been for a long time.

The closest other template to Drakeposting, is the obvious “Cat Drake”—which chronicles the pickiness of our feline overlords:

But there’s also a version of Galaxy Brain, which features screenshots from a 2010 Sprite commercial that the R&B star starred in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6vHoyBs58

There’s “Drake is the type of guy”—an older, largely text-based meme where people talk about how nice and sensitive he is. Kind of like an inverse Chuck Norris joke.

https://twitter.com/kirawillmissit/status/1750049777075859732

https://twitter.com/LimesOnlyFriend/status/1740883326922289325

https://twitter.com/marksnotnice/status/1445194446618902530

https://twitter.com/Alynch_7/status/1444804749509935106

And, not a meme per se, but while all these were growing throughout the 2010s, Drake was also in a long-running feud with Kendrick Lamar, who was once quoted dissing Drake and J Cole by saying “mother f** the big three n*** it's just big me” In May of 2024, all of this escalated with Kendrick’s new diss track, “Not Like Us.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9bKBAA22Go

Like any self-respecting rapper, Drake is not without the occasional controversy. But by and large, he’s earned himself a reputation as a relatively wholesome beacon for what pop R&B can be. Which is kind of the same idea as a Drakepost.

The internet doesn’t always have to be vitriol. Sometimes it can just be fun.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Drake memes  appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Drake memes

Few pop stars are more internet-famous than Drake, and when you think of a Drake Meme, chances are you’re thinking of this one.

His boo used to call him on his cell phone, and in the mid-2010s, the whole of the internet used to call him the hottest thing wherever memes are shared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDyd2eEKIlI&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

The video for “Hotline Bling,” off of Drake’s 4th album Views, dropped on October 19, 2015. Shot on a pretty minimal set that was easy to replicate, and featuring dance moves that were described as both “eccentric” and “dorky,” this video was perfect meme-fodder, and immediately caused parodies and spin-offs—notably on Saturday Night Live two weeks after the video’s release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxpDa-c-4Mc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjeORm4LMDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tjpPxX9x-c

On the internet, the usage of screenshots from the video, also known as “Drakeposting,” began mostly on 4Chan and niche forums, but spread to basically everywhere else on the internet by January and February of the following year.

The most common iteration is a 2-panel reaction meme where the first features a still of Drake dancing, looking like he dislikes something, and the second is him in another pose, liking something else quite a bit.

It's simple, and immediate, and great for use as an innocent joke, or social commentary, or both.

And whether it's his perceived sensitivity, or mere proclivity to get himself in weird memeable situations, Drake is one of the most widely memed people on the internet, and has been for a long time.

The closest other template to Drakeposting, is the obvious “Cat Drake”—which chronicles the pickiness of our feline overlords:

But there’s also a version of Galaxy Brain, which features screenshots from a 2010 Sprite commercial that the R&B star starred in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6vHoyBs58

There’s “Drake is the type of guy”—an older, largely text-based meme where people talk about how nice and sensitive he is. Kind of like an inverse Chuck Norris joke.

https://twitter.com/kirawillmissit/status/1750049777075859732
https://twitter.com/LimesOnlyFriend/status/1740883326922289325
https://twitter.com/marksnotnice/status/1445194446618902530
https://twitter.com/Alynch_7/status/1444804749509935106

And, not a meme per se, but while all these were growing throughout the 2010s, Drake was also in a long-running feud with Kendrick Lamar, who was once quoted dissing Drake and J Cole by saying “mother f** the big three n*** it's just big me” In May of 2024, all of this escalated with Kendrick’s new diss track, “Not Like Us.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9bKBAA22Go

Like any self-respecting rapper, Drake is not without the occasional controversy. But by and large, he’s earned himself a reputation as a relatively wholesome beacon for what pop R&B can be. Which is kind of the same idea as a Drakepost.

The internet doesn’t always have to be vitriol. Sometimes it can just be fun.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Drake memes  appeared first on The Daily Dot.

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Meme History: Mocking Spongebob https://www.dailydot.com/video/meme-history-mocking-spongebob/ Sun, 26 May 2024 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.dailydot.com/?p=1584714 Mocking Spongebob meme

It’s a credit to the patrons of the Krusty Krab that despite their roaring laughter at their humble fry cook, once they knew Squidward was weaponizing his diary, they came to their senses and told him to apologize.

The internet appears to have no such mercy. Taking a moment of nautical nonsense and fashioning it into a cudgel, Twitter, Reddit, and the web writ large yet again took a children’s cartoon and used it to poke holes in each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Bw_R3H1Xc&ab_channel=TheDailyDot

Season 9 episode 4a of Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants was titled “Little Yellow Book”, because in it, Squidward finds and reads Spongebob’s diary. 

Reading it aloud to a Krusty Krab customer, it’s revealed that when Spongebob sees plaid he gets an uncontrollable urge to cluck like a chicken. This is demonstrated moments later when Mr. Krabs shows off his new kilt. 

In May of 2017, this moment was immortalized on Twitter by user @OGBEARD, who posted a screenshot from the episode, and captioned it: ”How I stare back at kids when they stare for too long.”

The following day another Twitter user posted the same screenshot, but used it to mock her boyfriend.

This introduced the final component of the meme—a reiteration of the first sentence in sticky caps.

On the internet, the use of alternating or “sticky” caps denotes a high level of sarcasm and condescension. If Sponges had spines, Spongebob’s would need to break to contort himself into this chicken pose. By the same token, the idea is that someone’s brain would need to be broken in order to truly believe a sentiment attributed to them via sticky caps.

Someone’s brain would need to be broken if someone else is putting words in their mouth via sticky caps. In other words, the celebrity of Mocking Spongebob has a lot to do with the fact that the image is just as bent out of shape as the way the text reads, and just as stupid looking as the idea each meme is insulting.

As Mocking Spongebob took the internet by storm, on Reddit's /r/MemeEconomy, user /u/jacobdotexe urged fellow redditors to “BUY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN”—suggesting it was about to be the next hottest thing in the meme world. Which it arguably was.

It reached the attention of mainstream media outlets, and for a moment was inescapable on social media.

This is probably the most well-known Spongebob meme, but it’s hardly the first and certainly not the last. It’d be hard to create a comprehensive list but, others include a version of Let Him Cook,

Push It Somewhere Else Patrick,

Increasingly Buff SpongeBob,

Caveman Spongebob,

and is Mayonnaise an Instrument.

Shortly after the initial spread of Mocking Spongebob, A photo later titled, “Human Mocking SpongeBob” was posted to a Facebook page called “Corporate Bro.”

Eventually, Nickelodeon even acknowledged the meme, using it as the animation for the Spongebob character’s taunt move in their platform fighting video game “Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFlvvl8hD1k&t=341s

“Little Yellow Book” ends with Squidward immobilized in a medieval pillory, punished by the citizens of Bikini Bottom for his unprovoked ridicule of poor Spongebob. He pickpockets our absorbent yellow friend, and in the final moments of the episode continues reading his diary, stating between belly laughs “I don’t care, this is so worth it.”

It’s a good thing for us that it’s all a work of fiction, because if the success of Mocking Spongebob is anything to go by, it seems like the internet would agree with him.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Mocking Spongebob appeared first on The Daily Dot.

]]>
Mocking Spongebob meme

It’s a credit to the patrons of the Krusty Krab that despite their roaring laughter at their humble fry cook, once they knew Squidward was weaponizing his diary, they came to their senses and told him to apologize.

The internet appears to have no such mercy. Taking a moment of nautical nonsense and fashioning it into a cudgel, Twitter, Reddit, and the web writ large yet again took a children’s cartoon and used it to poke holes in each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Bw_R3H1Xc&ab_channel=TheDailyDot


Season 9 episode 4a of Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants was titled “Little Yellow Book”, because in it, Squidward finds and reads Spongebob’s diary. 

Reading it aloud to a Krusty Krab customer, it’s revealed that when Spongebob sees plaid he gets an uncontrollable urge to cluck like a chicken. This is demonstrated moments later when Mr. Krabs shows off his new kilt. 

In May of 2017, this moment was immortalized on Twitter by user @OGBEARD, who posted a screenshot from the episode, and captioned it: ”How I stare back at kids when they stare for too long.”

The following day another Twitter user posted the same screenshot, but used it to mock her boyfriend.

This introduced the final component of the meme—a reiteration of the first sentence in sticky caps.

On the internet, the use of alternating or “sticky” caps denotes a high level of sarcasm and condescension. If Sponges had spines, Spongebob’s would need to break to contort himself into this chicken pose. By the same token, the idea is that someone’s brain would need to be broken in order to truly believe a sentiment attributed to them via sticky caps.

Someone’s brain would need to be broken if someone else is putting words in their mouth via sticky caps. In other words, the celebrity of Mocking Spongebob has a lot to do with the fact that the image is just as bent out of shape as the way the text reads, and just as stupid looking as the idea each meme is insulting.

As Mocking Spongebob took the internet by storm, on Reddit's /r/MemeEconomy, user /u/jacobdotexe urged fellow redditors to “BUY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN”—suggesting it was about to be the next hottest thing in the meme world. Which it arguably was.

It reached the attention of mainstream media outlets, and for a moment was inescapable on social media.

This is probably the most well-known Spongebob meme, but it’s hardly the first and certainly not the last. It’d be hard to create a comprehensive list but, others include a version of Let Him Cook,

Push It Somewhere Else Patrick,

Increasingly Buff SpongeBob,

Caveman Spongebob,

and is Mayonnaise an Instrument.

Shortly after the initial spread of Mocking Spongebob, A photo later titled, “Human Mocking SpongeBob” was posted to a Facebook page called “Corporate Bro.”

Eventually, Nickelodeon even acknowledged the meme, using it as the animation for the Spongebob character’s taunt move in their platform fighting video game “Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFlvvl8hD1k&t=341s


“Little Yellow Book” ends with Squidward immobilized in a medieval pillory, punished by the citizens of Bikini Bottom for his unprovoked ridicule of poor Spongebob. He pickpockets our absorbent yellow friend, and in the final moments of the episode continues reading his diary, stating between belly laughs “I don’t care, this is so worth it.”

It’s a good thing for us that it’s all a work of fiction, because if the success of Mocking Spongebob is anything to go by, it seems like the internet would agree with him.


The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Meme History: Mocking Spongebob appeared first on The Daily Dot.

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