Casey Epps: Imma Let You Finish

The “Imma let you finish” meme, which depicts rapper Kanye West interrupting quite literally anything and everything, originated from an incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where West stormed on stage and interrupted singer Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video. West exclaimed “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you. Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time…one of the best videos of all time!”

The video is shown below:

http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/436578/kanye-west-crashes-the-stage.jhtml

Shortly after the show, a video arose on the internet, dubbing the audio of West’s interruption into a video of Barack Obama being interrupted by Representative Joe Wilson: 

This set off an outburst of “Imma let you finish” videos, and eventually transformed into a photoshopped meme. West has been pictured interrupting practically everything, from famous people to inanimate objects to video game characters, following the format of “Yo (person/object), I’m really happy for you. Imma let you finish but (other person/object) had one of the best (somethings) of all time!” Some examples follow:

The graph below depicts the spike in search results matching “Kanye West” and “Taylor Swift”

Tiffany Le: Casually Pepper Spray Cop

• When did this begin to become popular/famous on the Internet and why? Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this became so popular (if no obvious reason presents itself).

The “casually pepper spraying everything cop” meme became popular/famous on the internet in November of 2011 during the Occupy Wall Street movement. A group of students at UC Davis were protesting during the Occupy movement and when they refused to move, an officer shot pepper spray through the line of students, stunning onlookers and the entire nation. I think that this meme became so popular because a lot of people had fun inserting the casually spraying cop into a variety of situations in which he pepper sprayed things from kittens to historic photos such as the signing of the constitution. However, I think that the meme also received a lot of publicity because of the context of the situation. The actions of the cop who pepper sprayed innocent college students outraged the nation. Pepper spray can be extremely harmful and the students were simply peacefully protesting. In light of the Occupy movement which was gaining momentum across the United States, this was something that they used to point out the injustice against people.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/647/320665_309085722453433_100000560234460_1161317_489395404_n.jpg

http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/pepper-spray-cop-03.jpg

• The details/description of the "meme," person, event, etc. 

The casually pepper spraying everything cop is takes the cop from the UC Davis Occupy Movement and photoshops it into other backgrounds in which the cop “casually pepper sprays” other things. The meme is based off of the pepper spray event that took place in UC Davis on November 19, 2011 in which a group of students were a part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. They sat on the pavement and linked arms, forming a human chain. When they refusd to leave, an officer walked through the line of innocent students and pepper sprayed them all in the face. The event was seen as outrageous and wrong to use such a harmful weapon on innocent students that were peacefully protesting.

http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/bloguploads/pepper-spray-UCD.jpg

• How popular did it become and over what time span? (include "Google Insights" interest). 

The meme became extremely popular in light of the Occupy movement and was talked about on various news channels, and featured on facebook, BoingBoing, the Washington Post, ABC News, the Metro, Gawker, and Buzzfeed. According to Google Insights, the peak of its popularity was on November 22, 2011. The time span that the meme was popular was from the November 18^th incident into January 2012.

• Include other memes that may have emerged from this or have been influenced by this. 

Another meme that has emerged from this is that of Megyn Kelly, the news anchor, on the Bill O’Reilly show in which she addresses the incident. When referring to the pepper spray, she states “It’s a food product, essentially.” The video of Megyn Kelly aired on November 21^st and on November 22^nd the video was posted on youtube. That same day, a meme of Megyn Kelly with the caption X (phrase), Essentially was created and became popular. The captions included dismissive statements about abuse, crimes, etc. which were downplayed by her quote “essentially.”

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/204/842/35c5qw.jpg

http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2011/11/22/194422-megyn-kelly.jpg

Kenji Ueki: Planking

Planking

The term planking refers to the act of laying down on a surface where you hold your body still with your arms and legs straight like a wooden plank. The picture below illustrates the act of “planking.”                        

Tom Green – a comedian known for his pranks – claims to be the person who invented planking where he first did it in 1994 and was caught by a video camera. However washingtonpost claims that the beginnings of planking may come from a scene from the movie The Program. It first became popular in the North East region of England and this game has spread throughout the rest of the world with different terms such as “playing dead” and “facedowns.” According to the website “knowyourmeme.com”, the planking fad started in 2006 when two British students posted pictures of them planking.

            I believe this fad became so popular because it is easy to do – all you need is their body and someone else to take a picture of you doing it. Moreover, the rise of social media sites allowed for this “game” to spread at quicker pace. This game caught on  because people would upload these pictures and then everyone else would try to outdo each other by planking in more innovative places. However, planking has received some backlash since it has caused several injuries and at least one death.

            According to google trends, planking started to gain popularity over the web right after 2011 and hitting a peak search volume in mid-2011. Since then it has decline dramatically and now is not nearly as popular as it once was with a search volume of around 5. The lifespan of planking during its popularity was around one year, the year 2011.

            Several variations have evolved off planking, which include teapotting, owling, horsemanning, batmanning,  tebowing, and leisure diving. My personal favorite variation is leisure diving where one dives into a pool with their body as parallel as possible to the surface doing something casual such as pretending to sleep. As leisure diving became a little more popular it got a lot more creative to the point where people would use props. Pictures of leisure diving are included below.

Andrew McLoon: Casually Pepper Spray Anything Cop

Casually Pepper Spray Anything Cop Examples:

 The “Casually Pepper Spray Anything Cop” is a Photoshop meme showing a policeman superimposed in a painting or picture pepper spraying people or various items. The image is based on a real life event in which John Pike, a police officer for the UC Davis Police Department, pepper sprayed a group of Occupy Davis protestors who refused to disperse. Louise Macabitas took the picture of John Pike that serves as the basis of the meme on November 18, 2011. Macabitas would later post the image onto the popular social forum website Reddit. The original image is below.

 This image received a lot of attention from the national media as the event sparked public outcry at the overly aggressive response from the police. The only thing the students did was sit together while linking arms, not posing any threat other than civil disobedience. With the national spotlight shining on this event, someone on the Internet came up with the idea that since this cop is so willing to casually pepper spray sitting students, he would probably pepper spray anything. Thus, the first memes of the pepper-spraying cop appeared on Reddit a few days later. The first two instances of this meme involved Officer Pike in Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat1, pictured below:

 I think this meme became so popular because it started in the few days after the event occurred and was still highly relevant in the media. According to Google Trends, searches for “pepper spray cop” reached a peak search volume in late November of 20112. Its popularity has declined through 2012 and 2013, however. It seems that the most logical explanation for it’s decrease in popularity could be attributed to both the issue being almost non-existent in news media today and because the Occupy Protests are largely over. The event became a symbolic action for the Occupy protesters since it appealed to their anti-establishment roots.
 Additionally, the pepper spray incident is credited for creating the “Megyn Kelly Essentially” meme3. While being interviewed on The O’Rielly Factor about the event, Kelly, an anchor for Fox News, was whether pepper spray’s only effect was burning the eyes. She responded by saying that pepper spray is “like a derivative of actual pepper. It’s a food product, essentially4.” This poor logic led to a meme of her in which she describes some type of harmful thing or event as essentially something completely harmless, such as:

 Citations:
 1. Knowyourmeme.com “Casually Spray Everything Cop” http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop
 2. Google Trends “pepper spray cop” http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US#q=%22pepper+spray%22+uc+davis,%22pepper+spray+cop%22,lt.+john+pike
 3. Knowyourmeme.com “Casually Spray Everything Cop” 
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrx6DDgTH_w&feature=player_embedded

James Kollar: Epic Beard Man

James Kollar: EPIC BEARD MAN

• The details/description of the "meme," person, event, etc. 

“Epic Beard Man” is a meme whose name was derived from a video titled, “AC TRANSIT BUS FIGHT I AM A MOTHERF***ER.” The “Epic Beard Man” is the nickname given for the main figure of the video, a man named Thomas Bruso. The video centers around Bruso getting into a reacial altercation with a black male on an AC Transit bus (Bruso is wearing a shirt saying “I AM A MOTHERF***ER which is where the video’s name came from.) In the video, Bruso is confronted by the black man after a heated confrontation, and Bruso begins to violently attack the man until he has been beaten into submission. I would post the video here, but it is far too violent and obscene to be put on this blog. However, here is the transcript of the video depicting the heated exchange between the two men (courtesy of knowyourmeme.com)

Black man: …AC Transit
Bruso: Let’s get back to business. How much you charge me for a spit-shine?
Black man: what?
Bruso: How much you charge me for my Stacy Adams? I’m going to a funeral on Friday…You said you… [note: Stacy Adams are a brand of shoe.]
Black man: Did you get what I said just now?
Bruso: Yes
Black man: Why a brother gotta spit-shine your shoes?
Bruso: You offered!
Black man: I didn’t offer you s**t.

Follow up videos were made such as news interviews of what happened and user response videos on YouTube poured in. The video’s creator, a woman named Lyanna came under heavy criticism for her background commentary in the video, calling Bruso “pinky” after what was probably the color of his skin, and also stealing Bruso’s bag which he left on the bus after he stormed off. This lead to a response by the internet group Anonymous, which began Operation: I AM A MOTHERF***ER to harass Lyanna for her actions. She immediately made a response video apologizing for her actions.

There have been continuous video responses since the incident where “the thing they all have in common is that most enjoy watching Epic Beard Man’s retaliation against the black man” (know your meme.) Here is an example of a user response video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dz3KIBj59uI

Another spinoff of the video became a phenomena known as “Amber Lamps,” which is what the black man is heard to be yelling after Bruso had his way with him. The man’s intentions was to call for an “ambulance,” however after being beat down his pronunciation of the word came off as “Amber Lamps.” The word Amber Lamps took on a life of its own, and viewers began associating it as the name of a girl in the video who sits on the bus and completely ignores the vicious fight happening. Her calm composure created a new meme centered around her:

The “Epic Beard Guy” meme also led to documentaries about Bruso’s life, and even a mock feature film intending to reenact Bruso’s interesting life story.

• When did this begin to become popular/famous on the Internet and why? Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this became so popular (if no obvious reason presents itself).

I personally feel that this video became so rapidly popular on the internet due to how quickly the situation escalates between Bruso and the man. It becomes extremely violent very fast, and its unexpectedness is what makes it such a crazy and appealing video, which is perfect for internet sharing. The video also is funny because of Bruso himself, wearing his “I AM A MOTHERF***ER” shirt and coming off as incredibly insane. There is a common enjoyment of watching a man give such a dominating physical assault, especially when his age and looks resemble that of Santa Clause.

Also, since the video only shows Bruso acting in response to the black man’s aggression, many see his actions as self-defense, making the video seem all the more interesting that the old man had such ability.

• How popular did it become and over what time span? (include "Google Insights" interest). 

Here is the “Google Insights” interest for the search term “Epic Beard Man”

241543903

Kenji Ueki

Andrew McLoon

Casey Epps

James Kollar