"Y U NO" Guy. About “Y U NO” Guy (also known as “Y U No [X]?”) Is an image macro series using SMS shorthands and carefree grammar as a way to bring someone’s attention on a particular subject or issue. The unique facial expression worn by stick-figure character is believed to have been traced from the Japanese sci-fi manga / anime series Gantz. Origin The character’s facial expression, full of frustration and rage, can be found in Gantz’ Chapter 55: Naked King (裸の王様), originally released in February 2002 and the English translation in June 2009. Since the release of English translation, the Gantz image have been reportedly traced by fans and circulating around 4chan imageboards prior to its adaptation in the “Y U NO” series.
Original Instance However, the original instance with the “Y U NO” phrasal template was first posted via LOLTumblrWallpapers, which gained over 10,000 reblogs & likes on Tumblr. Exploitable Spread & Popularity The meme has been also referred to as “TXT BAK” or “Y U NO?” Socially Awkward Penguin. About Socially Awkward Penguin is an advice animal image macro series featuring a penguin lacking both social skills and self esteem.
The text typically narrates uncomfortable life situations, highlighting an exceptionally clumsy or inelegant response. Origin The original image was taken by nature photographer George F. Mobley and posted to illustrate a fact sheet on Adéli penguins for National Geographic’s Wild Animals site. The Socially Awkward Penguin image macros began appearing on 4chan as early as May 2009, following the explosion of either series like Advice Dog and Courage Wolf. Spread On August 30th, 2009, the single topic blog Fuck Yeah Socially Awkward Penguin was created. In July 2010, Buzzfeed featured a series of Socially Awkward Penguin images, followed by Smosh that November.
Notable Examples Jiffy Cabs Advertisement Reverse Memes Some Socially Awesome Penguin macros were created as direct reversals of Socially Awkward Penguin derivatives. Socially Awesome Penguin Hybrid. Advice Dog. About Advice Dog is a popular image macro series that that features a picture of the head of a smiling puppy on a multicolored color wheel background split into 6 colors. Usual derivatives are often accompanied by two lines of text written in a guidance / advising format with the advice given usually being very poor, unethical or deplorable.
Since its debut, the series has spawned dozens of spin-offs referred to as Advice Animals of an animal’s head on a color wheel background or merely just an animal (including humans) with their own archetype personalities using the same two line image macro formula. Origin The original blank template originates from a Mario fan-site, The Mushroom Kingdom , forum thread titled “Guide to Kissing” . Among several replies citing each of the poster’s poor experience with relationships, user TEM , real name; Evan Herrington, posted the first reply of “Just do it, man.”. Spread Notable Examples External References. Rich Raven. About Rich Raven, also known as Carnegie Crow, is an Advice Animal image macro series featuring a raven with seemingly immense wealth. The text first references a luxury or highly desired item or situation, which then Rich Raven scoffs desdainfully. Another variation refers an everyday item, but then presenting a ridiculously luxurious version.
Origin The original image is (ironically) of a Common Raven (Corvus Corax) taken by photographer Timothy Blackmore and posted in his zezero.com website on 1997. Original image: Early derivatives: Spread In 2010, a tumblr page “Fuck Yeah Rich Raven” was created, with 22 pages containing Rich Raven derivatives. Notable Examples Template Search Interest External References. Foul Bachelor Frog. About Foul Bachelor Frog is an advice animal image macro series featuring a frog’s face in front of a color wheel background containing various shades of green. The images captions often depict lazy, disgusting and hedonistic behaviors associated with single men. Origin The original photo of the frog, filename frog-freckles-sore-throat-worst-home-remedies.jpg, first appeared in a post on the now defunct site remedicated.com titled “10 Bizarre and Ineffective Home Treatments” published sometime in June of 2008.
Spread The image macro with the colour-wheel background, first began to surface in June 2009. Other advice animal generator sites such as QuickMeme and DIYLOL contain generators for Foul Bachelor Frog. Foul Bachelor Frog gave inspiration for other related Advice Animal image macros such as Foul Bachelorette Frog Judging by search volume alone, Foul Bachelor Frog’s popularity is comparable to that of some of the earliest advice animals. Notable Examples External References. Philosoraptor. About Philosoraptor is an image macro series featuring a clip art of Velociraptor deeply immersed in metaphysical inquiries or unraveling quirky paradoxes. One of the more thoughtful (and successful) Advice Dog variations, Philosoraptor challenges the reader with his deep, existential, Paleolithic questions. See also: Raptor Jesus Origin LonelyDinosaur T-Shirt The original Philosoraptor was originally created as a T-shirt design on LonelyDinosaur by Sam Smith, who registered the copyright for his design on October 8th, 2008.
In a recent e-mail exchange, Smith revealed that the idea for “Philosoraptor” image was conceived sometime in the early of summer of 2008. The image itself was a mix of several images of velociraptors I got online, which I compressed to one-color images, then mixed together. On 4chan The earliest known depiction of Philosoraptor, a photoshopped image of the The Jurassic Park velociraptor holding a copy of Plato’s complete works, was posted via YTMND on March 30th, 2007. Hipster Kitty. About Hipster Kitty (a.k.a Hipster Cat) is an advice animal image macro series featuring a fashion-conscious kitten wearing a lavender hoodie and a pair of thick-framed glasses.
The image macros are typically paired with tongue-in-cheek sayings to poke fun at the self-righteous lifestyles of vintage-loving, cheap beer-sipping, Bukowski-quoting urban demographic. To a certain extent, Hipster Kitty can be seen as a self-parody phenomenon. Origin The original acrylic painting “Allison” was created and uploaded via Flickr by Portland-based artist Craig Wheat in early 2009.
Etymology of Hipster “Hipster” is a media stereotype commonly associated with young middle-class adults who share certain interests or values in alternative cultures, mainly independent label music, film and art. Spread The image macro template was made available via Memegenerator on November 22nd, 2009. The earliest known instance of Hipster Kitty on Reddit was submitted by user absolutecero on March 15th. Artist’s Approval.
Musically Oblivious 8th Grader. About Musically Oblivious 8th Grader (also abbreviated as “MO8G”) featuring a photo of a young girl with captions that are blatantly misinformed about a well-known artist, band or a song. The top caption introduces the name of the band, artist or song and the bottom caption implies one’s complete lack of knowledge about music in similar vein to Idiot Nerd Girl or Technologically Impaired Duck. Origin Musically Oblivious 8th Grader was created by Grace Spelman, who posted it to her since-deleted Tumblr in 2009. Spelman used a photo of her friend and fellow Tumblr user Emilie Ferreira from her eighth grade graduation. Spread The single topic blog Musically Oblivious Eighth Grader was launched by Spelman on December 13, 2009.
Notable Examples Search Interest External References. Courage Wolf. About Courage Wolf is an image macro series derived from the original Advice Dog series. In contrast to Advice Dog, who might unknowingly lead you to do something you’ll regret, Courage Wolf will help you achieve greatness with often extreme, overwhelming advice. Origin Entitled “Snarling Gray Wolf,” the original photograph was taken by nature photographer Jeff Vanuga in Montana and uploaded to Corbis Images. The exact date of upload remains unknown, but Google Insights data shows that the meme began to gain traction beginning sometime in December 2008.
According to various accounts including MemeBase and Encyclopedia Dramatica, the Courage Wolf macro series was reportedly picked up by 4chan’s /b/ (random) board, the birthplace of Advice Dog macro series. Spread The Urban Dictionary entry for “Courage Wolf” was submitted on January 8th, 2009, defined as: Your only life coach. On July 18th, 2009, single topic blog Fuck Yeah Courage Wolf Tumblr was launched to document the meme. Characteristics. Paranoid Parrot. About Paranoid Parrot is an advice animal image macro series featuring a blue and yellow parrot looking over its shoulder. The captions often relay a mundane scenario or an everyday situation (ex: “save game file”) followed by an irrational response driven by paranoia. Origin While the photographer is unknown, the original photo of the bird was seen on the Internet as early as 2004, when it was entered as part of a Photoshop contest on Worth1000.
In 2007, the same image was used to illustrate how to use filters on a Japanese OpenCV 1.0 reference site. Spread The image macro stemmed from 4chan but did not become popular until August 2010. On November 9th, 2010, the Chive highlighted 27 macros. ParanoidParrot.com was registered on December 4th, 2010. It also has been a popular tag on Tumblr, not only for instances of the image, but to accompany stories of paranoia. Notable Examples Template Search Interest External References. Insanity Wolf. WARNING: The text in the following image macros contain extreme profanity. About Insanity Wolf is like the mentally disturbed cousin of Courage Wolf and is placed in theGod Tier category on Memegenerator.net. While Courage Wolf often encourages people to overcome life’s obstacles, Insanity wolf tells his viewers to rape, kill, and commit other acts of insanity. There is even a Facebook app for Insanity Wolf. Before Memegenerator Although the Insanity Wolf meme began in 2009, the wolf image from which this meme is derived has been appearing online since at least 2006.
On October 21st, 2006, YTMND user deathtoll5000x created OMGWTFHOLYSHI-! The image also appears on vivcam6300’s Flickr image stream, posted October 21st, 2007 and labeled “inter net pic” The image has also been used in a 1999 printing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. A TinEye Image Search shows that this fierce wolf has been used as a popular forum avatar for a number of years. External References Memebase. Technologically Impaired Duck. About Technologically Impaired Duck is an Advice Animal image macro series featuring a centered image of a white duck with overlaid text conveying technological ignorance or misunderstanding. Origin The original image comes from a FreeFoto stock photo of a white mallard from March 31st, 2003. The image macros are rumored to have started on Memegenerator in 2009 before being further popularized on 4chan’s /b/ board. The earliest found images contain the Memegenerator watermark, providing some evidence to support this rumor.
Spread The earliest known posting comes from the personal blog of Joanne Casey on June 3rd, 2009. Derivatives have spread to sites like Tumblr, Memebase, FunnyJunk, and Reddit. Search Search queries had their first spike in June of 2009, the same month that it was posted to Joanne Casey’s blog. Notable Derivatives Template External Links.