Arsenal is a massive football club, but there's one thing even bigger than it: #WengerOut. The hashtag has become something of a global meme since it began as a way for fans to show displeasure towards their long standing manager's, Arsene Wenger, tactics. Hell, it even has a Know Your Meme page, and has been spotted at protests (including those against former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe last year). While Wenger finally left the club before the 2018/19 season began, he was replaced by Spanish manager Unai Emery. But it seems that Arsenal fans just can't find a manager they like. Because memes...
It seems that when the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, isn't investigating downed aircraft, it's begging people not to jump out of their cars while they're moving. Even if it is for the #InMyFeelingsChallenge. "Here’s a reminder we thought we’d never have to give: Don’t jump out of a moving vehicle to dance in the street," the board tells participants of the internet's latest dance challenge. Said challenge was started on Instagram by comedian @TheShiggyShow who published a clip of himself dancing along to Drake's latest hit "In My Feelings". While the song itself is a Drake cut -- one of...
Drake's 25-track album Scorpion may not be as revolutionary as some of his earlier work, but there's no doubt its as popular as sliced bread. It's his eighth chart-topping album and racked up over a billion streams in its first week on the internet. But there's another reason why this album is so popular, and it's got to do with one song in particular. "In My Feelings" is typically Drake, meshing R&B and hip-hop seamlessly to create one head-bobbing summer banger. But it's also spurned an entirely new dance phenomenon. Initially dubbed the #DoTheShiggy challenge, the fad was created by Instagram comedian...
You just can't keep US President Donald Trump out of the meme world for too long. Well, at least him and German chancellor Angela Merkel. On Friday, Merkel's social media team published the image to Instagram, where it received more than 65 000 likes and 4700 comments. From there, it found its way onto Twitter, where users highlighted the indifferent expressions of the world leaders. The scene itself is straight out of a baroque painting. Angela Merkel's office has released this photo taken today at the G7, which tells you a lot about how things went. pic.twitter.com/IXX6K3ayys — David Mack (@davidmackau) June 9,...
Like movies and music, fashion is a cyclical internet culture phenomenon. As the online world influences it, fashion itself fuels sentiment online. And as more netizens focus on their physical attire on a daily basis thanks to the boom of image-heavy social media, trends are often made, or in this case, revived on the internet. The latest example is straight from the 1980s: fanny packs. And no, it doesn't seem to be an ironic Weird Al Yankovic style revival either. Google Trends data notes an uptick in search traffic for these waist-secured utilitarian satchels, spiking massively since the beginning of the year....
Chances are, if you're a little kid and you ask your parents incessantly for a chocolate chip cookie, they'll give it to you. Now, imagine in this scenario that Weezer is the adult, Twitter the kid, and Toto's "Africa" the chocolate chip cookie. After one of the bands' fans on the social network urged it to remake the earworm and now cultural stalwart for kicks and giggles, the band obliged. And has arguably made the song even better. Sorry Toto. And thank you @weezerafrica. Although we did have to wait a while. @RiversCuomo it's about time you bless the rains down...
This past Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa demonstrated that the State of the Nation Address (SONA) can go on without Jacob Zuma. And South Africa's meme game (like its currency) was stronger than ever. So what were some of the gems that were inspired by this year's address? Sit back and enjoy the five best memes from this year's SONA. SONA 2018 meme #5: Ministers of Unemployment Widely believed to be replaced as the Minister of Twitter Minister of Police in the coming days, Fikile Mbalula took to Twitter Friday to rubbish claims he was afraid of Ramaphosa's potential plans. But instead of opposing...
Many South Africans may not think of American Football as a valid sport (I mean, we have rugby after all), but we most certainly recognise a good meme when we see one. Dubbed #SelfieKid by Twitter, a 13-year-old boy looking completely nonplussed after taking a selfie with Justin Timberlake mid-Superbowl performance, may just be the meme we needed to kick off the month. Buh-bye Ugandan Knuckles. Reddit's MemeEconomy sub -- basically the Dow Jones of the meme world (without the financial volatility) -- announced a screenshot of the kid as an excellent format for investment Sunday. But later, its value dropped...
Bless Google's little heart. It tries so hard to not be evil, but still develops AI that pretends it knows what it's doing (and gathers a slew of selfies in the process for its facial recognition savvy). What am I talking about? Google Arts & Culture, of course. The app is only available in parts of the United States for now, but has nonetheless seen something of a viral boom on Twitter this past weekend. Thanks everyone for sharing your awesome #GoogleArts #selfie matches!🤳 This mobile experiment (accessible at https://t.co/DUuzxlMKCd) is currently available in parts of the US. Stay tuned as...
The internet is an odd and confusing place, and the gaming world's latest meme is solid proof of this. If you haven't yet heard of VRChat, Sonic The Hedgehog's marsupial friend Knuckles, and his insulting Ugandan-accented equivalent, take a seat, because there's a lot to explain. All in all, throw these into a casserole dish, simmer for a few months on the internet, season liberally with shares, likes and overuse, and you have yourself the Ugandan Knuckles meme. VRChat Let's begin with what has become the meme's primary vehicle thus far -- VRChat. It's a free-to-play game that lets users interact in a virtual...
In the midst of student protests, the University of Cape Town (UCT) has confirmed that exams will go ahead as scheduled. But perhaps not in the venues previously decided. "The university management has had to take the extraordinary step of arranging an examination venue on the upper campus rugby field," the institution's registrar wrote in a statement. "It is a decision that has not been taken lightly. It was an outcome of an assessment of what arrangements would offer the best chance of conducting and successfully concluding the examination programme in the current circumstances of threats of disruption." The venue, pictured in...
The remnants of Hurricane Ophelia is currently battering the south-western coastline of Ireland, but much of the country doesn't seem to be taking it very seriously. #Ophelia is currently trending worldwide on Twitter at present, and obviously in Ireland. But while that hashtag does include updates on the storm, alerts and citizen reports, it also includes a healthy dosage of memes. The snarky comments emanating from the emerald isle is as humourous as it is worrying, considering that Ex-Ophelia (as the UK Met Office is calling her) is still packing wind gusts in excess of 170km/h. This must be a the strongest...
Amid the talk of possible nuclear war, state capture and under-performing local sports teams, we understand that you -- the internet -- need a break from all that is glum in the world. @MonkeyHaircut has seemingly become that break for over 12 000 people. The Twitter account lists examples and derivatives of the world's latest cute meme, featuring a macaque getting a haircut and seemingly loving it (warning: the below video also features Alice Deejay). pic.twitter.com/2G386dasfq — Monkey Haircut (@MonkeyHaircut) September 26, 2017 The original video was first uploaded to Facebook back in February, but only became viral after a still from the clip...
Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie has long been fighting the appropriation of his character by the US far right, and he just won a minor battle, Motherboard reports. A children's book that touted Islamophobic and anti-immigration views has been pulled from Amazon after Furie sued him for copyright infringement, and the profits (US$1521) will be donated to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim-American advocacy group. The book, written by former Texan assistant principal Eric Hauser, told the story of two friends -- Pepe and Pede -- who fought to keep evil alligator Alkah out of their home, Wishington Farm. Alkah -- just...
It's Monday. But instead of throwing that alarm clock out of the window and cowering beneath the covers, why not take some time to bitch about how short the weekend was? And where better to do just that than Twitter. Feeling the bone-chilling embrace of the new work week, South African Twitter is today talking about the little things that annoy them to no end. #101ThingsIFindAnnoying began trending countrywide late morning, thanks to an initial tweet by Twitter user Sheldon Cameron. #101ThingsIFindAnnoying Stores advertising things and when you get there dololo stock. pic.twitter.com/eYTDW39ngC — Sheldon Cameron (@Sheldon_Cameron) July 24, 2017 Soon enough, the rest of...
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