Umbrella Town

Susanne Jensvold Ruud Assignment 5 Soc 167

Social media assignment #5.

A man by the name Adam Nyerere Bahner who is better known by the pseudonym Tay Zonday posted a video on you tube on April 22. 2007. On the video Tay sing a song called “chocolate rain”. Today the video is viewed over 94 million times. When I searched in Google Insight for “chocolate rain Tay Zonday” it came up that in august 2007 this search was on the top. In the beginning of the video a caption appears that say: “I move away from the mic to breathe in”. This action has been parodied several times. The famous singer John Mayer also made a remix of the song. He sings in a very pitched voice. And Tay Zonday is known for his very dark voice when he sings “chocolate rain”.

I think one of the reasons for why this video became so popular is because you don’t expect this boy to have such a dark voice. When he starts singing I became very surprised by his very dark voice, which made it funny. It is also very random that he moves away from the microphone to breathe in because it wouldn’t make any difference if he breathed in front of the microphone. Since it’s been done many parodies of this (moving away form the microphone to breathe) that’s probably also one of the reasons for why this video became so popular, people find it funny. In lecture we learned that “Humor is often composed of unexpected or socially inappropriate elements”. The thing that makes this video funny is that it’s unexpected that Tay has such a dark voice and that he moves away from the microphone to breathe. This humor is also universally funny because you don’t have to be part of a special group or anything to find Tay’s voice and actions funny.

Sources:

http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=chocoalte+rain#q=chocolate%20rain%20tay%20zonday&cmpt=q

Chocolate rain original:

John Mayer remix:

Chocolate rain parody:

Logan Hwang Assignment 5 Soc 167

Logan Hwang (22026285)

Kim Jong Un – Looking at things

The Kim Jong Un – Looking at Things meme was inspired by an original blog that posted photos of state propaganda of Kim Jong Il, who is the father of Kim Jong Un. This Tumblr blog, “Kim Jong Il Looking At Things”, was launched on October 6^th, 2010. Within hours of Kim Jong Il’s death, announced on December 18^th, 2011, by South Korea’s Yonhap News via North Korean Central News Agency, the Tumblr blog “Kim Jong-un Looking at Things” was created. Ever since the creation of this blog, online-users have used the posted photos as templates for delivering jokes.

It is quite obviously shown from the photos of Kim Jong Un that these pictures gained popularity due to Kim Jong Un’s funny facial expressions in many of the photos, the existence of (usually older) North Korean politicians, generals, or others in most of the photos, and the fact that in all of the photos, Kim Jong Un is seen to be “curiously” looking at things. A less-obvious reason for popularity, from my opinion, is the irony of the “great leader of North Korea” who is rather childish and rather spoiled instead of being know-it-all.

(from http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-kim-jong-un-looking-at-things-meme)

(from http://www.dailydawdle.com/2012/02/kim-jong-un-really-really-wants-cake-7.html)

The meme seemed to have gained popularity rather quickly after the creation of the Tumblr blog, “Kim Jong Un Looking at Things”. The main reason for such quick acknowledgement was due to the original blog, “Kim Jong Il Looking at Things”.

(from http://www.puppiesandflowers.com/?p=5428)

(from http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US#q=kim+jong+un)

The graph above shows the numbers of news headlines related to Kim Jong Un. The first significant peak point is around the time when Kim Jong Il passed away, passing on the leader’s position to his son, Kim Jong Un.

References

http://www.puppiesandflowers.com/?p=5428

http://www.dailydawdle.com/2012/02/kim-jong-un-really-really-wants-cake-7.html

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-kim-jong-un-looking-at-things-meme

http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US#q=kim+jong+un

Melanie Diggs Assignment 5 Soc 167

Laney Diggs

21956066

Assignment 5

Planking can be first seen in the 1990’s used by comedian and former MTV host Tom Green in one of his comedic pranks. Being credited as the first to “plank” Green created this phenomenon by laying face down on a street. However, the planking craze did not get popular until 2011 (Google Insights Search 2004-present) when two bored schoolboys decided to make a game of it. They started laying face down, with their feet together and their arms at their sides, in different locations to view the reactions of the people passing by. It quickly caught fire in popularity after they created the Facebook page for their game and received many followers. It peaked its popularity in July of 2011 before falling drastically by the end of 2011 and steadily declining throughout 2013 (Google Insights Search 2004-Present). It became around the world, but most popular in the Philippines and Paraguay.

Due to its simplicity and humor, planking became a popular phenomenon. Any individual can participate; all you need is a device that will photograph yourself laying facedown at any location. The humor of it can come from viewing the reactions of the people passing by or viewing someone planking in the most random location. In addition, it became a game for many people trying to find the most original locations to “plank”. An example of a planking picture can be seen here:

This planking meme also created spin offs. These spin offs include “owling” and “teapotting” (Wikipedia, 2013). Owling consists of an individual squatting in unusual places specifically for people to see while making owl-screeching noises. Similarly teapotting consists of individuals putting one hand on their hip and the other hand bent to the side to look like a spout. While these spinoffs were popular, nothing can compare to the popularity of the original “planking”.

Sources:

Google Insights Interest, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

Luippold, Ross. "Tom Green Created 'Planking' In 1994 (VIDEO)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 July 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

Meltzer, Tom. "Planking: A Brief History." The Guardian. N.p., 16 May 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

"Planking (fad)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

Oerjan Moy Assignment 5 Soc 167

Social media assignment #5: Meme
Oerjan Moy

The Photoshop meme “Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop” is a based on an event that happened at the University of California Davis on November 18th in 2011 when a police officer (Lt. Pike) ruthlessly pepper sprayed a group of occupy Protestants. I highly quality photo was taken by one of the persons that looked at the incident, and posted it one day later on Reddit, on the November 19^th. Only one day later the two first photoshopped image of the “Pepper Spray Cop” was out on Reddit. The one image was Strutting Leo (another Photoshop meme) photoshopped over the cop (Lt. Pike). The other picture was placing Lt. Pike in the well-known painting by John Trumbull; Declaration of Independence. The meme quickly spread, when photoshoppers began to but Lt. Pike in a large variety of situations such as Zinedine Zidane head-butt on Materazzi in the Soccer World Cup Final, spraying in fashion show, spaying the “Unknown Protester” etc.

I think it became so popular because the quality of the picture that was taken by the spectator was in very good quality and was easy to Photoshop in different situations. The lieutenant has a very uncared attitude that give the photographed mean a very funny picture no matter what the original picture is about. Other reasons that these meme got so popular could be all the attention the event got in the media, and a lot of people reacted to what happened at UC Davis. The internet group Anonymous respondent to what happened by releasing Lt. Pike’s personal information online, which resulted in over 17,000 threatening emails and 10,000 text messages.

Other mean that has emerged from this mean is the mean Megyn Kelly Essentially, which is about the Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly that said that pepper spray was a food product, essentially. Only one day later the video was posted online, and the same day people began to post “advice animal images” on Reddit, featuring Megyn Kelly saying something, and then ending it with “essentially.(Bamboo under fingernails is a manicure, essentially)

When I used Google Insight I had to use “pepper spray cop”, “John Pike” and “UC Davis pepper spray” to get good enough results. It seems that it was very popular in late 2011 right after the incident on November 18th till the early December and the beginning of 2012, and then it almost died out. The incident got alto of media attention right after the spraying of the Protestants.

“Casually pepper spray everything cop” has a own Tumblr site (http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com/) with over 100 different pictures of the “Casually pepper spray everything cop”