Forums / Meme Research

I’ve seen a lot of YTPMV’s (if that’s the right term) with this sound effect, of someone saying “BONK” over and over again to the tune of the music. Just search “bonk” on YouTube. I think the original SFX might be from one of the Orange Box games, but I’m not sure. Anyone care to shed some light on the subject?

its slang for intercourse

It’s the Scoot from TF2, and it’s amazing.

I wonder if Bonk remixes have become popular enough to be considered a meme?

TF2 is a great game. I play it myself.

But I’m going to vote “no” and here’s why.

Every TF2 fan knows every catchphrase by heart. Good catchphrases help to enhance the player’s enjoyment but they are constructed for the sole purpose of giving the player’s some game-related jokes. This is all part of the game.

A direct catchphrase from mainstream pop-culture (aka TV, videogames, movies) is generally quoted directly or used within the same originally intended context.
That is, unless the catchprase becomes formulaic, the phrase mutated or corrupted, or some sort of specific format is found recurring in each instance of the meme, then it hasn’t really “mutated” yet, and the whole memes-genes analogy is lost.

If the so-called meme only consists of image macros which may or may not include someone getting hit in the head, with the word “BONK” superimposed, then this isn’t an internet meme becase it hasn’t became a corruption or mutation of anything yet.

“Gentlemen” however, is more about repurposing someone’s MS-Paint drawing than it is about TF2, and is therefore a strong meme. See what I’m saying?

True, but I was referring to the “Bonk” remixes that the OP mentioned. They’re sorta like Ran Ran Ruu.

Gotcha. In the context of Youtube Poops, a couple of Bonks could be added to the existing Youtube Poop article. Ran Ran Ruu got a meme entry of it’s own mainly for two reasons:

#1. We hadn’t created a Youtube Poop meme entry yet, but were getting a lot of demand to explain what this Ran Ran Ruu thing was all about.
#2. Ran Ran Ruu started as a video-mashup from Japan prior to becoming part of Youtube Poop. International crossover is usually a mark of noteworthiness, or at least interest.

I’m thinking that most Youtube Poop-related memes should be simply added to the existing entry. It’s a similar situation as the “Advice Dog” variants. We’ve let a few go trough, but at this time we’re not accepting new advice dog variants.

When a meme mutates into a million and one variants, or becomes a memeplex, it really deserves it’s own “master entry.”

Now hold on just a minute Chris, I don’t believe “Bonk” and sometimes “Boink” are Youtube Poop, sure they are remixes sometimes, but not mainly, the most I’ve seen of the slang is in music, usually involving a popular song and replacing all the words and sound effects with “Bonk” and “Boink”, I’ve seen hundreds of these, so I do not believe it belongs in the Youtube Poop category.

Alright. I’m going to look up some examples of this and see what I find. In the meantime, feel free to post any examples and derivatives that you can so that we can judge it from the content of the meme itself.

Okay, the viewcounts aren’t bad. There isn’t any singular one that has greater than 300,000 views. But collectively they’re not bad.

157,000 views

About 75,000 views

Here’s a whole playlist of them.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7D06BB95A935BA3B

All together, added up, there are 2,083,369 views across 20 derivatives.

That’s pretty strong.

But as it is, there isn’t much that makes it interesting by itself. There’s not really any backstory, there’s no central figure in the story, there’s no character of unknown origin. But I base those opinions off of the idea of limiting this just to the bonk/boink. But this same style of video isn’t limited just to bonk/boink but has been applied to a number of TF2 videos.
Take this one with the Heavy, for instance.

The Heavy Sings Soviet Antehm

The Pyro Sings Portal Theme

I’m thinking if we do an article, it ought to be one master article that attempts to cover all of the different types of fan-created derivatives, from Singing to Sample Remixes to whatever you can think of. The main point behind this is because there is so much material that the MemeDB could quickly fill up with nothing but TF2 and Portal.

While on the topic of TF2

whats this i don’t even?

You Hear It When The Scout Uses His Force-A-Nature.

is that a euphemism?

No, In Fact, It Isn’t.

I dont really feel memetism in TF2 or Portal. There is just not really anything to build out of to begin with. These remixes are derivitives, yes. However they don’t seem to be reinforcing anything, if you get what I mean. Kinda like the Christian Bale rant, however I personally do not call that a meme.

I did it for the lulz: You can hear it when he taunts too.

screw bonk. its all about donk.

Just confirm the submission already….it’s just getting more popular everyday.

I’m going to wait until we have more valuable discussion about how fanboys and otaku relate to memes.