☻/ This is bob. Copy and paste him so he can take over youtube.
/▌
/\

This or some variation of this is how a Bob comment would normally go on Youtube. Bob seemed innocent at first, but soon began appearing everywhere in no time at all.

Origin

It is near impossible to find to find the very first Bob comment ever posted, however we can gain an insight as to around what time Bob started appearing in Youtube comments based on threads from forums and Yahoo Answers. These sources indicate that Bob started appearing sometime in early 2009 (possibly in April). Here are some examples (note the date).

2029 Forums
Bungie Forums
Yahoo Answers
Youtube Community Help Forums

What is Bob?

Basically, Bob was a chainmail/spam seen only on Youtube that involved a stickman named Bob and a message about how he was going to “take over Youtube”. The idea was that Bob could do this by being copied and pasted as much times as possible, however it never really succeeded fully in achieving this. However, Bob was able to spread quite fast, so in a way, Bob did achieve his goal, at least for a while.

How to make bob

Alt + 2 = ☻
Add a slash ☻/, then press enter and add another
Alt + 221 = ▌
Finally press enter and add another couple of slashes
Now you have Bob.

/▌
/\

Youtube’s reaction

Like with most chainmails or spam, most people didn’t like it. However, in order for this to spread, there had to be some people that did, which there were plenty of.

Yahoo Answers 1
Yahoo Answers 2
Yahoo Answers 3
Yahoo Answers 4
Yahoo Answers 5
Yahoo Answers 6
Yahoo Answers 7
Yahoo Answers 8
Yahoo Answers 9
Yahoo Answers Search

This quickly gained more popularity and begin spreading so much that it was almost impossible to go on any video without seeing this. Unfortunately, since Bob is now a rare occurence, it is extremely hard to find any evidence of Bob comments on non Bob related videos. However there is still a good deal of evidence of Bob.

They Fight Back

In an attempt to combat Bob, (ironically with more spam) Youtubers began creating their own versions and variations, as well as variations that tried to help Bob. Some are shown below.

/▌ /▌
/\ /\ ☻ Bob Slayer

(\__/)
(=‘.’=)
(“)_(”) Tom

☚▼☛
▲
/\ Bob 2

{o,o}
|)__)
-""-- Owly

(\(\
( – -)
((‘) (’) Fluffy (the best candidate for defeating Bob, as it was spammed almost as much)

/[]
/\ KKK Bob

(● ≥⌂≤)● Hikari

[ •_•]
/(__)\ Rory

┌∩┐ ◣_◢ ┌∩┐ Bob Anti-virus

o 0

/¯/_______________________/

| BLAAAAAAAAAAARARARARAR

\_\¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯ \

/▌/

/ \ Shoop Da Whoop Bob

‘̿̿\̵͇̿̿\=(•̪●)=/̵͇̿̿/’̿̿ ̿ ̿ ̿ Bob Terminator

and more. These did not help, as they only continued to fuel the spam war.

Videos

Bob is dead! DasBoSchitt said so!

Some people claiming to have created Bob

Where is Bob now?

At some point, Bob stopped appearing everywhere. The problem is, that when this actually occured and any evidence of it happening is near impossible to find.

So, unless you visit one of the many Bob related videos, you will most likely not see him. Sometimes, new Bob comments are posted on the Bob related videos, though not too often.

Although Bob is rarely seen now on Youtube, he is reappearing on Facebook.

Have You Ever Been Bobbed?
Profile Page
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