Monthly Review: January 2011

Monthly Review: Dec 2010 – Jan 2011

For this month's issue of round-up review, we have some serious catching up to do with memes that have emerged and re-surged since December 2010. As you can see in the chart below, "Tiger Mom" macro series stood out in terms of search query volumes (shown on left), though with January's viral sensation "Ted Williams" plugged into the equation, the graph looks a bit different (shown on right):

Troll Quotes

Troll Quotes are image macros that consist of a portrait, a quote and its attribution, though none of the three elements match up with each other. The purpose of forging "troll quotes," as the name suggests, is to incite rage within fandom communities using such highly mis-attributed factoids.

Ted Williams' Golden Voice

Ted Williams (a.k.a The Golden Voice) is a Brooklyn-born drifter from Columbus, Ohio who became a YouTube sensation after getting filmed on the street by Columbus Dispatch reporter Kevin Joy on January 3rd, 2011. The footage begins with Williams panhandling on the highway, holding a sign reading:

"I have a God given gift of voice. I am an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times. Please! Any help will be greatfully appreciated. Thank you and God bless you / Happy Holidays"

In the video, Williams humbly responds to Joy's performance request, unleashing his "gifted voice" to recite various radio promo segments in the most soothing manner of a radio announcer. Within first 48 hours of upload, the clip gained 7 million views and Mr. Williams was called in for interviews across major TV networks and offered a number of high-profile gigs as the voiceover narrator, not to mention his reunion with his mother in Brooklyn, NY, after nearly twenty years of life spent apart from each other.

This is Dog Fort, Do You Copy?

Dog Fort is a multi-pane comic series centered around a reconnaissance team of dog dressed as lobsters, led by team leader "Red Lobster", checking in with a communications officer named "Dog Fort" for further instructions. Since its original post in an online contest called "What Your Pets Are Doing When You're Not Home" circa June 2009, the series has blown up in epic scale of proportion with a solid storyline involving dogs and cats fighting over the ownership of living room couches.

All Hail Inglip, the King of Trathira!

Inglip is an internet comic series that spawned out of an enigmatic RECAPTCHA message that read "Inglip summoned," originally posted via Reddit on January 8th, 2011. Soon enough, the joke quickly caught on like a faux-cult with many other Reddit users, who responded with similar RECAPTCHA cartoons depicting Inglip's comedic and non-sensical conversations with his online acolytes. Other canonical terms of Inglip folklore have been established through CAPTCHA generator as well, including "Gropagas," the official name of Inglip's followers, and "Dectrip," the official name of Inglipian religion.

Tiger Mom, Vengeance Dad & Scumbag Steve

Tiger Mom is an image macro series embodying the popular stereotypes of Asian American mothers as uber-strict and overzealous parents. In similar vein to High Expectations Asian Father, the joke usually takes on the first-person perspective of an elite-minded Asian mom, such as nagging her children to excel in school. Vengeance Dad is another macro series based on a digital family photograph featuring a blading father on the far right side and the rest of his nuclear family superimposed on the left side. In similar style to PTSD Clarinet Kid, Vengeance Dad images are captioned with first-person style confessions as if he is recounting a terrible event that happened to his family to his own fault or intent. Scumbag Steve is an image macro series featuring a young, perhaps college aged, man with a sideways fitted cap standing in a hallway. The overlaid text generally centers around unethical behavior regarding drugs, partying, and other hedonistic behaviors.

Back on the Radar

• 241543903 / Heads In Freezers experienced its highest peak yet when the same instruction was posted again via Tumblr, which scored over 2,000 likes and reblogs within days.
• Boxxy returned onto YouTube with her second video evar on January 10th; YouTubers and /b/tards hail the return of the Queen.
• CopperCab also made his return on his one year anniversary of "Gingers Have Souls" breakout, rambling slash apologizing for the sufferings of African Americans under slavery in memorial of Martin Luther King Day.
• Birthday Dog aka Riley enjoyed his second birthday, this time without the birthday hat.
• Keanu Reeves gave his two cents on his internet fame during a BBC interview aired on January 18, 2011, quoted as saying: "Do I wish that I didn’t get my picture taken while I was eating a sandwich on the streets of New York? Yeah."

Past Issues

• KYM Monthly Review – Complete Listing of Past Issues