Friday, November 29, 2013

Assignment #5- Dora Heideman

Dora Heideman
Fall 2013
Sociology 167
Assignment #5: “Meme’s” and Diffusion of Internet Trends

            “Grumpy Cat” is the hilarious meme that made its way into the online world in September 2012, that uses of a picture of a mixed breed female cat named Tardar Sauce (shortened to “Tard”), who has an unmistakable permanently grumpy face due to feline dwarfism in addition to an under bite, and then individuals create their own general or specific “complaints” and hilarious texts and ideas of what they believe the grumpy cat is “thinking” and write it in text over the picture of this grumpy looking cat. For example, “I WATCHED A VAMPIRE MOVIE ONCE.--------[GRUMPY CAT FACE]-------- MY FAVORITE CHARACTER WAS THE SUN.” (http://imageshack.com/a/img689/2778/egfi.jpg ). Or, one of my personal favorites, on top, a photo of an adorably innocent looking kitten saying “…Santa’s not real?”, and right below grumpy cat is pictured with the simple text beside her face, “NO.” (http://imageshack.com/a/img801/1410/v0yz.jpg ).
            The history of the now widely famous Grumpy Cat meme begins on September 22, 2012 when Bryan Bundesen, brother of Tardar Sauce’s owner Tabatha Budensen, posted a picture of the cat to the website Reddit (original Grumpy Cat image: http://imageshack.com/a/img138/2637/tsi6.png ). The post on Reddit quickly gained popularity within the first 24 hours with users creating photoshopped parodies and image macros of the grumpy cat photo, placing it on the front page of Reddit with more than 25,000 upvotes. The same day, Bundesen added three additional video clips of Tard playing indoors onto YouTube, proving wrong the claims that were being made that the cat was not real and was photoshopped. Meanwhile, the image spread to popular image-sharing website Imgur, gaining nearly 1,030,000 views within the just first 48 hours. Grumpy Cat’s instant viral status seems to have been a streak of luck for Tardar’s owners, as Bundesen explained in an interview with CNN, “‘It was an accident,’ said Bryan Bundesen of the viral stardom that followed [the original photo posted on Reddit]. ‘We thought it would get some laughs, with the Internet liking cats. And it just kept going.’” And it really did. Even though it was posted and gained quick popularity in September 2012, Grumpy Cat maintained it’s viral status online throughout the following year being featured on the cover of WSJ on May 30, 2013 as well as the cover of the October 7th, 2013 issue of New York Magazine, and the popular cat even won Buzzfeed’s “Meme of the Year Award” at the 2013 Webby Awards. (See Google Insights chart below.)
<script type="text/javascript" src="//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US&q=grumpy+cat&cmpt=q&content=1&cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0&export=5&w=500&h=330"></script>
            Grumpy Cat gained her quick and lasting popularity due to her overtly hilarious grumpy face, the Internet’s liking of cats (as mentioned by Bundesen above), and, as pointed out by Grumpy Cat fan Mason Peatross in an interview for a FoxNews article, “‘There's this great universal quality that Grumpy Cat captures,’ explained Mason Peatross, who waited in line more than 90 minutes for his 30 seconds with the snoozing kitty. ‘Everybody's got that grumpy moment where they just hate things. The cat just makes me laugh every time.’” As he perfectly explains it, this is why the grumpy faced cat became an instant hit in the day and age of Web 2.0 and inserting one’s own idea over a popular image to make it into a meme; in this case usually using text over the image to write what they feel should be said along said one of many hilarious photos of Tard (or what they feel Tard might be “thinking”).
            The popular meme also had a favorable precursor of presence the online public arena from the popular “so-and-so is not impressed” memes (which stemmed from a photo that went viral of Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney) and other pictures of a variety of grumpy looking cats. However, nothing quite compared to the competitive edge behind the Tardar Sauce’s viral meme capacity, as his natural face was ridiculous and hilarious on its own, whereas other hilarious cat photos and videos were typically captured just at the “right” moment, depicting a face that was just a result of good timing rather than natural ridiculousness. “Grumpy Grandma” emerged on the Internet in January 2012 (9 months before grumpy cat), but only became viral and an Internet meme after the success and infatuation the Internet world had developed with grumpy cat and the simple hilarity behind grumpy memes.

SOURCES:



MORE OF MY FAVORITE GRUMPY CAT IMAGES/MEMES:

Grumpy Cat would prefer not to co-exist with vampires… - http://imageshack.com/a/img689/2778/egfi.jpg

How Grumpy Cat handles laptop over-the-shoulder lurkers. - http://imageshack.com/a/img811/1979/7trv.jpg

Grumpy Cat stars in the new hit movie… - http://imageshack.com/a/img40/9628/3lc3.jpg


Grumpy Cat crushes children’s dreams… - http://imageshack.com/a/img801/1410/v0yz.jpg

Grumpy Cat is not impressed with Jon Snow. - http://imageshack.com/a/img19/5061/zoi5.jpg

The Grumpiest place on earth… - http://imageshack.com/a/img203/3538/4ez8.jpg

High School tries to utilize Grumpy Cat’s popularity to spread a Prom anti-drinking message via billboard… - http://imageshack.com/a/img850/8707/ekz2.png

The worst thing about waking up for Grumpy Cat… - http://imageshack.com/a/img689/3360/drwp.jpg

Description of the perfect meme. - http://imageshack.com/a/img713/4284/72e6.jpg

Grumpy Cat isn’t a fan of spring time…“A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME IT WAS SPRING…I ATE HIM.” - http://imageshack.com/a/img713/4677/04bl.jpg



Thursday, November 28, 2013

Assignment #5- Fatima Nasiyr

Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop
Fatima Nasiyr


The "Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop" meme originated from a video from November 18, 2011 that showed ten UC Davis students being pepper sprayed by UC Davis police officers, and it particular Lieutenant John Pike. The students were sitting on the ground with their arms linked in protest for the Occupy Movement. A photo was also taken of Lt. Pike walking down the line of the peacefully protesting students and pepper spraying them. This photo was uploaded onto the popular social news site Reddit the day after the incident where it gained popularity. Users quickly began to photoshop the image of Lt. Pike peppers spraying into many famous paintings, such as the one below. The image was photoshopped into various historical and famous artworks or events, especially those that had to with any type of human rights.

The Occupy Movement was widespread around the country at this point, and so was the news of the police brutality against the Occupy protesters. This led to the news of the pepper spraying, as well as the image, to be covered by many news outlets as well as it to be heavily circulated among people through various social media and social networking sites. Another meme, or technically a macro, was spawned from this meme when news reporter Megyn Kelly from Fox news tried to downplay the seriousness of being pepper sprayed by saying, "[i]t is like a derivative of actual pepper... it's a food product, essentially." 

The the meme as the image of Lt. Pike pepper spraying first came into use on November 19, 2011 when it was uploaded onto Reddit. Although searches for "pepper spray cop" began in September 2011 because of the rise of the Occupy Movement, the actually meme did not exist until the incident that took place on November 18, 2011. I believe the meme became so popular because it clearly showcased the brutality that the Occupy protesters were receiving for their peaceful protests, which was a big topic of discussion but often debated. Some people believed the police were acting within their rights in handling the protesters, but the pepper spraying at UC Davis obviously showed an intrusion on our right to protest. 




References (for information as well as pictures):

Assignment #5- Haksung Kim

Haksung kim
Sociology 167
Assignment

The Cinnamon challenge

l  Description
-          The “cinnamon challenge” is one of most popular game and viral internet challenge. The goal of this challenge is to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon and inhaling powder without any drinking or vomiting in 60 seconds. Subsequently, upload the video including whole process to the internet.

l  popularity & famous
-          Since this challenge is extremely difficult and low percentage of success, over thousand peoples attempted to this challenge and have been uploaded on Youtube. This phenomenon became a viral on Youtube moreover, this challenge has chosen as a one of contents of reality television show and radio program in United Kingdom. Furthermore, some celebrities attempts and posted with this challenge. Due to this, “cinnamon challenge” became more catch on with the public. this challenge has been traced in 2001 by Michael Buffington and increased in popularity in 2007. Many people had not only posted Youtube, but also had posted other social networking websites by 2010. In particularly 2012, people’s posting and interesting peaked.



l  Influence on other meme
-           In my opinion, “the cooking challenge” and “the salt and Ice challenge” have emerged and directly influenced by “the cinnamon challenge” because this challenge is able to appeal people’s curiosity.


l  Picture & video

(Picture 1. Pipe attempts the cinnamon challenge)-the origin of “cinnamon challenge”




(Examples video clip of cinnamon challenge)
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P__Ws3Pj3xk



l  Work cited
-          Know Your Meme (Cinnamon challenge)
-          Wikipedia (cinnamon challenge)


Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Assignment #5- Hanshu Zhang

                                                      Hanshu Zhang
SOC 167
Memes and Diffusion of Internet

Meme: Nyan Cat                   
Description:
            Nyan Cat, also known as Pop tart Cat, is an 8-bit GIF depicting a cat with a cherry Pop tart as its torso, flying through outer space with a rainbow trail behind it. The figure was inspired by the creator’s own Russian Blue cat.
The popular video (http://youtu.be/QH2-TGUlwu4) stemming from its likeness had a loop of the Japanese Vocaloid song Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya set to its background.

Rise to popularity: 

Nyan cat was created by the account “PRguitarman” on LOL-Comics on April 2nd, 2011(PRguitarman). The GIFs received over 3,000 notes on Tumblr after being reblogged on the same day(battosaix2l84u).
Three days later, the account “saraj00n” posted a video of the Nyan Cat on YouTube, set to the Japanese song Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya looping in the background. The video received more than 1 million views in its first two weeks(battosaix2l84u).
After the initial wave of attention, various popular blogs and social networking sites, such as Memebase, Tosh.0 blog and CollegeHumour etc. began reposting the Nyan Cat video(battosaix2l84u).

Dissemination:
The meme shot to almost instant, if not ephemeral popularity, as can been seen with the diagram below. According to Google Trends, the search interest for “Nyan Cat” reached its peak 3 months after its initial release, in July 2011, keeping a relatively high search rate up until November of the same year.

By April 13th, 2011, the Nyan.cat website was set up and another single-serving website featuring multiple Nyan Cats gliding across the webpage, called Slowbro.org was set up the next day. Subsequently, game developers began to create Nyan Cat themed games or variations of already available games such as “Nyan Cat Lost in Space, Snake Nyan Cat, Nyanicorn (Robot Unicorn Attack variant), and Nyan Cat Fly”. A comprehensive list of such games can be found at nyan-cat.com.

Reason of popularity:
            Before the Nyan Cat, the Internet has always displayed affection for cats (i.e. Maru the Cat), other domestic pets, and cuteness in general. The Nyan Cat meme incorporates the elements of cuteness and 8-bit art, which effectively addresses a wider audience. The 70’s and 80’s generation can relate to the nostalgic look of the Cat and younger generations can relate to the surreal humor(battosaix2l84u) and the cuteness of the figure. In addition, the loop video is also a good way to kill time for all the YouTube “addicts” online.

Influences on other memes:
            The Nyan Cat meme has inspired a number of parody memes, the most impactful yet being the taC nayN, which is a black cat with a Belgian Waffle body, flying with a trail of gray rainbow behind it. It was created in the same year as the Nyan Cat by SenorGIF blogger Frankie Crescioni(Crescioni).
            While this meme has yet to obtain consensus on its independent status, another meme inspired by Nyan Cat, called Catception, has caught on with the online community fairly well. This meme features videos of cats watching the Nyan Cat video, and has since developed into a recursive chain of videos of cat watching cats watching the original video(Brad).


Work Cited
battosaix2l84u. “Know Your Meme: Nyan Cat.” N. p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Brad. “Know Your Meme: Catception.” N. p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
Crescioni, Frankie. “TACNYAN: Destroyer of Worlds!” Cheezburger. N. p., 21 Apr. 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
PRguitarman. “Nyan Cat!” LOL_COMICS. N. p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.


Assingment #5- Meghna Grover

Meghna Grover
Sociology 167

The “Imma Let You Finish” meme featuring Kanye West came about after the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Taylor Swift won the Best Female Video award for one of her songs, but Kanye West came up on stage and took the microphone from her. He infamously said, “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you. Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” Because so many people watch the MTV Video Music Awards and were tweeting about it, it is no wonder that it became a meme.
Google Insight says that the Kanye West Meme became the most popular in September-October 2009, which makes sense because the MTV Video Music Awards were on September 13th that year (Know Your Meme). Also, it shows a search of 100 (which is the highest) on Google Insight. It also became a trending topic on Twitter the night of the awards. It went viral, and many memes came about from it (from areas of politics to entertainment). 


The meme itself features the image of Kanye West with the microphone from the music awards. It is usually combined with another picture, of whoever he is “interrupting.” The text is usually “Yo (person he is interrupting), Imma let you finish but (another person) had the best (whatever connects the two).” 

Example images:

Sources (for all information):

Assingment #5- Michael Cao

The "Nyan Cat" is a YouTube video of a cartoon cat with a poptart body with a rainbow being left behind in its trail. The background is of stars to show that the cat is flying and there is a track of a Japanese pop song being played. The video was uploaded on April 5, 2011 and soon became viral. The video itself is a bit ridiculous, but that is what makes it so special. It is cute, but annoying at the same time. Cats are very popular with internet memes and adding the body of a poptart just furthers this absurdness. The song completely tops off the video by having a vocaloid repeating "nyan" (the Japanese version of "meow"). The "Google Insights" interest kept rising until June 2011, and gradually began to drop. There is a small spike that occurs from 9/2011 - 10/2011, but then begins to gradually drop again up to this day. There are other very miniscule spikes at random times, but are not as noticeable compared to the 9/2011 - 10/2011 spike. 

The "Nyan Cat" meme did not particularly influence any other memes (directly at least), but of course there were soon numerous remixes spawning from this. Although, there was a free version of a side-scrolling game called "Techno Kitten Adventure" soon released after (eventually coming to Facebook games). This was originally created in 2010, but it began releasing free versions of this game less than a week after the upload of "Nyan Cat". This game features a flying kitten requiring its player to avoid obstacles (siimilar to Robot Unicorn Attack that arose in early 2010). 

Assignment #4 Video Competition: "Hot Girls With 'Talent'"