#memes explained

[absolutebl]

Hey ABL,

Why do we trust in strongberry?

CMS was good. (I think Long time no see was Strongberry but I could be wrong.) And they are good and I've seen the Live the CEO did. Like I get it, kinda, but why again?

(Sorry, I'm all over the place)

Ah, in simple terms, quality and happy endings. Sometimes they get odd, but they have never betrayed our trust. Here's my blog post on them (tumblr flagged it for XR content, it isn't).

For YEARS Strongberry was the only studio reliably producing BL content out of Korea. And, sometimes the kisses were even good! For real... there was a time, not so long ago, when all we really got was KBL shorts and most of those from Strongberry.

Dark days. Except for Strongberry shining one bright light of BL content.

The origin of the hash tag #in strongberry we trust is explained here:

Welcome to Tumblr BL Fandom - Here’s Your Primer

memes, insider trading & obsession meta post The Death Stairs They haunt us. These same stairs constantly pop up in Thai BLs and we worry

[yeppthisismylife]

yes, my friend actually bothered to make these to explain the world of today

[useless-catalanfacts]

Bueno, pues molt bé, pues adiós

#buenopuesmoltbépuesadiós has become the 2nd worldwide trending topic on Twitter and people are making memes with this sentence. Here’s why.

After the terrorist attack in Barcelona, journalists from outisde Catalonia have come to our country to report about it. The Catalan government and police realease all their statements and posts in social media accounts in Catalan (our local language), Spanish (the language of the state), and English, and sometimes in French as well.

So here comes the meme

Major Trapero (or Traphero, as some people call him now), chief of the Catalan police, was doing a press conference and was answering the journalists’ questions when a Spanish journalist demanded that he answers only in Spanish. Trapero said “When they ask me in Catalan, I answer in Catalan, when they ask me in Spanish, I answer in Spanish”. The Spanish journalist got mad and threatened to leave the room if he didn’t answer it all in Spanish, and Trapero, very calmly, said “bueno, pues molt bé, pues adiós” which is a sentence mixing both languages that means “well then, very well, bye, then”.

We’ve finally found the perfect answer when they tell us we don’t have the right to speak our language in our own country.

[memedocumentation]

Explained: there in the 5th row stands meme

This meme is primarily a text-based meme.

It involves describing a scene in which one states a claim into a microphone. The crowd boos, but then a voice speaks up and says that the claim is right. It then so turns out that the one who spoke up, standing there in the fifth row, is someone who has authority on the matter.

This meme was popularised in part by a tweet published on 19 December 2017 by Twitter user fastjellyfish. The text of the tweet is reproduced below.

"Big time rush is better than those shitty Beatles," I say into the mic.

The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room.

"He's right," they say. I look for the owner of the voice. There in the 5th row stands: Mozart himself.

This tweet proved to be quite popular, gaining more than 35,000 retweets.

CORRECTION (24 Dec 2017): We have been informed that the meme actually came from a tweet from 18 December 2017 by Twitter user hisnameiscarter, not the tweet mentioned above. (Language above has been edited to reflect this.) The text of the tweet is reproduced below. Interestingly, this original tweet mentioned the 3rd row, not the 5th. We sincerely regret the error.

"Lorde is better than those shitty Beatles," I say into the mic. 

The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room. 

 "He's right," they say. I look for the owner of the voice. There in the 3rd row stands: Whitney Houston.

Soon after, a meme was born. The meme typically involves changing the text of the original tweet such that the initial claim made is different and the person of authority at the end is changed accordingly.

The meme has been popular on Twitter and Tumblr in December 2017.

Click here to see examples of the there in the 5th row stands meme.

[memedocumentation]

Explained: tsuchinoko real meme

Tsuchinoko is a mythological Japanese snake-like creature, with a short and wide body. (For more information, Wikipedia has an entry.)

This meme involves claiming that tsuchinoko is real with the phrase “tsuchinoko real,” often alongside photos of animals that look like tsuchinoko, or alongside tsuchinoko fanart.

This meme originated on Tumblr on 26 July 2017, when user @moonlandingwasfaked added the caption “tsuchinoko real” to an image of three cats playing with a reptile. (This photo post was originally published on Tumblr on or around 9 February 2013 by Tumblr user @nise3kawan, now deactivated.)

Subsequently, other users also started reblogging the photo and adding the caption “tsuchinoko real”.

Later, starting around August 2017, some users started making their own “tsuchinoko real” memes. For example, this post from 4 August 2017 captioned a photo of a cat that looks like a tsuchinoko with the caption “tsuchinoko real”.

However, it was not until December 2017 that “tsuchinoko real” crystallised into a meme with the start of the Tumblr @picsthatmakeyougotsuchinokoreal, which became active on 17 December 2017. This blog seems to have inspired increased popularity of the meme across Tumblr.

Click here to see examples of the tsuchinoko real meme.

[memedocumentation]

Explained: small but knowing clown meme

On 7 November 2016, Tumblr user @lymphonodge posted a photo of a clown doll and captioned it “me when im a small but knowing clown”.

This post became quite popular, garnering more than 17,000 notes.

However, it was not until little more than a year later that this became a meme.

Tumblr user @egowave has been a prominent user in popularising the image and caption as a meme.

On 18 December 2017, the user replied to an ask message, stating, “i am just a small but knowing clown”.

Later on in the month, the user started posting fan art (such as this post from 25 December 2017) and manipulations of the original clown image.

EDIT (1 Jan 2018): We have been informed that the original clown image actually is not from @lymphonodge. Tumblr user @g00 is actually the source of the image, having posted it on 6 November 2016.

Click here to see examples of the small but knowing clown meme.

[memedocumentation]

Explained: the sound this image makes meme

This meme is an image- and audio-based meme. It involves posting an image along with an accompanying audio clip, which represents the sound of the image.

The origins of this meme are murky since the concept of making audio based on images has been around for a while. This post from 5 May 2017, though, titled the track “the sound this image makes”.

One of the popular instances of the meme is a 30 July 2017 post that features an image of a SpongeBob SquarePants popsicle that only has one eye. The accompanying audio is of a wailing sound. This post garnered more than 33,000 notes.

Subsequently, the concept became popular in the following months, especially in December 2017.

On 20 December 2017, the Tumblr @thesoundthisimagemakes started posting, helping in the spread of the meme.

Click here to see examples of the sound this image makes meme.

[memedocumentation]

Explained: elf practice meme

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a TV special originally released in 1964 about the story of the titular reindeer. It is typically aired on television in the United States during Christmas time.

In one scene, an elf named Hermey receives the reprimand, “Why weren’t you at elf practice?”

This scene has received attention in part because of its humorous nature. Users of the Internet, for example, have posted clips of the scene online (such as this YouTube video posted in 2010 which plays the scene on loop).

This scene received attention on Tumblr after the user @iguanamouth posted a clip featuring the scene. (This post was published on 3 December 2017.)

Soon after (also on 3 December 2017), @mgsotacon posted a “deep-fried” screenshot from the scene along with the caption, “WHY WERENT YOU AT ELF PRACTICE”. This post proved to be quite popular, garnering more than 25,000 notes.

Subsequently, many users started making posts making reference to elf practice.

Click here to see examples of the elf practice meme.