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Grumpy Cat's upcoming Christmas special could be the death of cinema
Scene: a theater full of people, laughing at images of butts with farting noises played as a soundtrack. It's satire from the world of Idiocracy, but we may not be that far off -- Lifetime has decided to make an actual motion picture out of a cat-meme. Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever, due out this holiday, is ushering us into an era of cinema where image-macros and animals with comical bone structure are considered legitimate foundations for motion pictures. It's bound to be a terrible age, but we shouldn't be surprised: we live in a world where crypto-currencies and media empires hail from similar beginnings. Lifetime president Arturo Interian expects the film to bring a "fun and irreverence" to the channel that its heartfelt programming typically lacks, explaining the film will a mash up between "Home Alone" and "Die Hard." Oh, and the script is being penned by one of the names behind Spongebob Squarepants: the Movie. Joy.
Twitch Plays Pokemon: Its history, highlights and Bird Jesus
The Internet is a bizarre, confusing and sometimes wonderful place. Nowhere and no-when has that been more evident than now, as the world watches Twitch Plays Pokemon. For those not yet swept up in the madness, Twitch Plays Pokemon is the 1998 GameBoy game Pokemon Red being emulated on a computer, streamed to the masses. Those who tune in can enter the game's commands – up, down, left, right, A, B, start – in the Twitch channel chat, and said commands will be translated into in-game results. You type "up," the main character moves up. Simple, right? Not quite when you have 70,000 people typing out often-contradictory commands. The infinite monkey theorem – a mathematical principle that has existed in some form or interpretation since Aristotle – has often been taken to mean, "If an infinite number of monkeys were to use an infinite number of typewriters, sooner or later you get Shakespeare." Well brother, this ain't that. This is 70,000 monkeys wrestling for control of one typewriter, while another group of monkeys interprets the words printed as holy gospel. And no, the religious imagery is not an exaggeration, as you'll soon see. Like a Rattata in Team Rocket Headquarters, we've dug our way through Twitch Plays Pokemon to bring you some of the best, the funniest, the weirdest memes and moments created by this intriguing display of unbridled creativity.
Imgur launches meme generator, fuels your procrastination even more
Good Guy Greg or Scumbag Steve -- you decide which one Imgur is now that its new meme generator is ready to suck up more of your time. The tool comes with a bunch of popular templates, although you can upload a picture if you've always dreamt of following in Overly Attached Girlfriend's footsteps. It's similar to services like I Can Has Cheezburger and Quickmeme -- simply drop text boxes onto the images to showcase your own brand of humor and wit. Unsure how to create your own viral sensation? Browse the generator's gallery to check out past hits and maybe try remixing a few first. Between this and Imgur's new Android app, we wouldn't be surprised if some of you are kissing your afternoon productivity goodbye.
Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat creators file lawsuit over Scribblenauts cameos
Nyan Cat creator Christopher Orlando Torres and Keyboard Cat's owner Charles Schmidt have filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit against Warner Bros. and 5th Cell over their creations' appearances in the Scribblenauts series. The complaint, filed on April 22nd, alleges that developer 5th Cell did not seek permission to include either copyrighted character in their published products or in related promotional material. The original Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat videos have each been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube, making them "extremely valuable for commercial uses," according to the complaint. "Plaintiffs claim that Warner Bros and 5th Cell's trademark infringement was willful and intentional and are requesting an award of treble damages and requesting the case be deemed exception under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a), thereby entitling Plaintiffs to an award of reasonable attorneys' fees," intellectual property-focused attorney blog Milord & Associates notes. Plaintiffs Schmidt and Torres additionally seek an injunction against the sale of Scribblenauts products until the matter is resolved. The Scribblenauts series allows players to summon a wide variety of memes during gameplay, for both practical purposes and comedic effect. Keyboard Cat has appeared in every series entry to date, while Nyan Cat is a more recent addition, appearing only in Scribblenauts Unlimited.
The Daily Grind: Do you like when developers try to be funny?
For most game developers, being seen as funny is a good thing. It makes the game's development team seem more likable and human. It also shows that the team is paying attention to the various in-jokes of the community. On the other hand, when a developer tries at affable humor and fails, it comes off like your octogenarian grandmother quoting Family Guy. Some developers are excellent at getting a sense of community humor, something Blizzard has done well with World of Warcraft. Some developers are good at cracking jokes, like Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida. And some developers, like Carbine Studios, just seem to have the whole comedy thing built into their very structure. But it's not like any of the aforementioned need to be funny to sell their games. It really comes down to what the players want. So do you like it when developers try to be funny? Or would you prefer they just work on the game instead of engaging the community? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
YouTube searches are now on Google Trends
Remember that day when you first discovered YouTube, and you wasted approximately 100 percent of your working hours just clicking around? Now, Google's making it even easier to see what was popular back then, all the way back to 2008. Starting now, YouTube searches are surfacing on Google Trends, and some of the top memes are crafting some unsurprising charts. Turns out, Rebecca Black's only known song peaks on a very specific day of the week, while searches for "turkey" videos tend to jump during November. Searches for "Krispy Kreme" and "Froggy Fresh," however, are quite simply off of the charts -- but would you honestly expect anything different from the self-proclaimed Baddest Of Them All?
WoW Archivist: Many memes, handle it
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Last week, Archivist celebrated the Ulduar raid, including Thorim's famous IN THE MOUNTAINS speech -- one of Wrath's most memorable memes. In its eight years, World of Warcraft and its players have spawned dozens of memes. Today, Archivist remembers some of the best and most enduring. If you've ever wondered where some of these memes come from, read on! The earliest memes WoW memes began almost instantly after the game's release. One of the first was Mankrik's wife. For an early Horde quest in the Barrens, the orc Mankrik sent you to locate her. His directions were rather vague, so many players had trouble locating her. It didn't help that she wasn't an upright and alive NPC, but rather a dead body laying on the ground -- killed by marauding quilboars. Confused players asked where they could find her in the zone's chat. Many, many players. Because the massive zone spanned 15 levels, everyone leveling through it saw that same question asked over and over again. It got to the point where people would ask just to troll the chat channel. The quest is no longer in the game, but players can now visit her grave near Grol'dom Farm. Trolling Barrens chat became something of a hobby for early players. Many in the Horde didn't know about the other leveling zones across the ocean. Some who did ran up against the ongoing Tarren Mill/Southshore lagfest wars and took the first boat back to Kalimdor. The combination of a captive audience and a high saturation of new players made the Barrens the perfect zone to troll. In time, Barrens chat became its own meme, even inspiring T shirts.
Moonbase offers up a visual editor for creating HTML5 animations, memes
HTML5 holds great potential for creating interactive in-browser experiences, but wielding its power typically requires assorted web design skills and a good handle on JavaScript. However, Jake Lodwick -- who had a hand in creating Vimeo and College Humor -- is making an effort to lower the barriers holding back internet denizens from crafting web-based animations. Moonbase, the first project of Lodwick's new company, Elepath, replaces hand coding with a visual editor that enables users to create animations with custom text, images, colors, movements and more. Results vary based on a user's prowess with the tool, but the founder envisions the service as a fertile spawning ground for memes. Moonbase even has support for sharing animations, and the option to fork existing creations, allowing users to put their own spin on works of art. The service is free in its current state, but Elepath is contemplating charging for tools aimed at pros. Hit the jump for a video of the service in action or click the neighboring source link to give Moonbase a go.
The drama! The suspense! The Leeroy!
It may be the "all your base" of the WoW world, but the Leeroy Jenkins meme will always be with us. Recently, the Worldwide Film Festival asked three directors to reimagine some of the world's most notorious viral videos as short films, and Finn O'Hara chose the Leeroy Jenkins video for his. O'Hara's version of Leeroy Jenkins, featuring the raid members as bank robbers and Leeroy as, well, a Leeroy, is certainly faithful to the dialogue of the original. Sadly, O'Hara chose to leave out "At least I have chicken," but one could see how it wouldn't really fit in with the rest of the film. Another entrant of note is Jeff Chan's Charlie Bit My Finger, which will result in flashbacks for anyone who's ever been overrun by zombies in a first-person shooter and totally ruined the cuteness of the original. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Google springs for .lol, .youtube domains, we wonder if it's going TLD .crazy
Google just can't wait until ICANN reveals custom domain name bids in mid-June to say what it's trying to buy -- and it's clear that Mountain View went on a shopping spree. Some of the top-level domains in the land grab are ones you'd expect safeguarding Google's prized possessions, such as .google, .youtube and .docs. Others make us fear for the future of Internet memes. Google claims that it's bidding for TLDs such as .lol to explore their "interesting and creative potential,' but we have a hunch it's just taking the addition of LOL to the dictionary a little too seriously. The company does assuage our fears with a promise to prevent TLD abuse. If we ever see omgwtf.lol become a reality, though, we'll know Google has gone off the .deepend.
PBS traces the history of animated GIFs: deal with it (video)
PBS's Off Book has a new short doc available online called Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium which, as you may have guessed, traces the history and evolution of the animated GIF over the course of a very informative six and a half minutes. The makers don't settle the dispute over pronunciation (and, really, who could), but they do mine its origins as relic of internet eras past to a post-modern staple of web 2.0 culture. We could tell you more, but that would just ruin the fun. Head on after the break to watch the episode in full.
YouTube extends movie rental service to the UK
YouTube -- no longer the favorite repository for cats playing pianos -- has launched its movie rental service for folks across the pond. Previously available in North America only, web denizens in Ol' Blighty will now have access to brand new flicks for 24-hours at $3.99 a pop. Looks like all Mountain View needs now is Hulu to fully control the play-shifted portal.
Expensive corn dogs, plus 10 other things that are totally Apple's fault
Seattle Times columnist Brier Dudley speculates that we should expect the price of corn dogs to skyrocket from US$0.99 to $1.50 each. Since Dudley's report, U.S. financial markets have been in a tailspin over the news. Who does financial speculator Dudley say we should blame for the rising price of corn dogs? Steve Jobs. Of course. It all fits. You see, according to Dudley, small business owners enamored with the iPad will use any excuse they can find to justify owning one. "It'll help my business be more productive," corn dog vendors will say, but Dudley says this is a trap: These hapless souls will be snared into Apple's annual cycle of iPad upgrades, forcing them to shell out thousands of dollars in costs per year. Following basic economic principles, Dudley therefore expects those rising operating costs to be passed on to consumers. Therefore, you'll be paying half again as much for your corn dogs as you were last year, and it's all because Apple has hypnotized everyone into buying iPads whether they need them or not. I know you want seconds on the corn dogs, but there's no reason to shout. Dudley has no idea how deep the rabbit hole really goes. Corn dogs are only the beginning. Put on your aluminum thinking caps and follow along as I unveil the true extent of Apple's nefarious plans for world domination. We're through the looking glass here, people. 1. Brain cancer Did you know the iPhone is the most dangerous cell phone ever? Dr. Joseph Mercola sounded the warning two years ago, but nobody listened. Now, every time you send your Angry Birds high score to Game Center or FaceTime with your grandparents, you're not just getting a dose of endorphins from your brain's pleasure center -- you're also soaking up neuron-killing microwaves! Everybody panic! 2. Hearing loss iPod use causes deaf- I SAID, IPOD USE CAUSES DEAFNESS. Those white earbuds are basically the aural equivalent of staring directly at the sun during an eclipse; experts all say don't do it, but you just couldn't listen, could you? I SAID, YOU JUST COULDN'T- oh, forget it. 3. Unemployment The iPad is a job killer! You know it has to be true, because a Congressman said so. Those guys know how to kill jobs. Digital downloads are causing stores like Borders to shut down, and it's all Apple's fault! Damn its wildly popular iBookstore! But there's another underhanded scheme behind U.S. unemployment at work here... 4. Underage Chinese labor Apple uses child labor! They admitted it! Hundreds of thousands (11) of tiny (15-year-old) hands built your iPhone in terrible factory conditions. Next time you unlock your iPhone, think about how all eleven of those 15-year-old Chinese workers were unable to unlock themselves from Foxconn's chain gang (until Apple found out about them, anyway). And as we all know, no one else makes products at Foxconn's doom factories; once again, it's all Apple's fault. 5. Addiction Frankly, it wouldn't matter if Apple's products were manufactured by bipedal, enslaved factory-worker kittens genetically engineered to be as sympathetically cute (and productive) as possible. Why? Because Apple has us all addicted to the iPhone. That's the core of the company's grand scheme right there: create products so compelling that we can't put them -- hang on, checking my Twitter stream -- down. Apple purposefully designed the device to be compelling for only 12-14 months, however, which means by the time the next one comes out, the iPhone you have will feel like a useless piece of junk. All part of Apple's plans to keep you in... 6. Poverty Apple doesn't give away software upgrades like Snow Leopard or Lion for free to people running older operating systems. And you know what that means? Well, it means you have to pay for them! That's money that could've gone toward rent or getting braces for little Suzie, but nooooo... greedy old Apple insists on charging money for its products! It doesn't help matters that Apple intentionally breaks its older products to get you to buy new ones, then purposefully engineers basic flaws in its newer products in order to force you to buy accessories! Where does it all end? To the mines with you! 7. Crime Four years ago, the NY Daily News determined that the iPod was singlehandedly responsible for a nationwide crime wave. But did we listen? Of course not! And four years later, now that Apple makes products even more desirable than the iPods of old, crime is higher than ever. 8. Climate change Apple's leading the charge into cloud-based computing, but as Greenpeace wisely pointed out last year, clouds cause shifts in climate! All those data centers have to get their power from somewhere. Apple hasn't yet figured out how to transmute cash directly into electricity, which I suppose is lucky for coal plants run by people who turn electricity into cash. It's unlucky for the rest of us, though -- those of you in coastal cities had better buy waterproof cases for your iPhones. You know what's craziest about this? Al Gore is on Apple's board of directors! The guy who brought the whole climate change thing into the limelight! It really IS a conspiracy! 9. Espionage "Big Brother is watching you." It's more than a line from George Orwell's 1984, it's the literal truth. Underground bunkers buried deeply beneath Cupertino monitor your every move via the iPhone in your pocket. From atop his throne built entirely from $1000 bills, Steve Jobs sits before a bank of 10,000 Apple Cinema Displays that let him know, at any moment of his choosing, exactly when you start playing Flight Control in the bathroom. Oh sure, Apple says they never used that data for anything, and they say they've fixed the "bug," but that's exactly what you'd expect them to say, isn't it? 10. War Apple has declared war on everything. War on Flash. War on Google. War on Amazon. War on Samsung. War on Microsoft. War on Nintendo and Sony. War on publishers. War on developers. War on users. War on Porn! An entity willing to go to war with so many combatants, simultaneously, can only have one goal in mind: total, global domination. We've grown so used to reading the headline snippet, "Apple declares war on (x)," that it's unlikely we'll notice at all when (x) turns out to be "humanity." And how are we supposed to stop Apple when it rises, gargantuan, monolithic, from its long slumber beneath Cupertino's bedrock to enslave us all? How can we battle against Apple and its legions of underaged factory workers when we're all addled with brain cancer, deaf, unemployed, poor, terrified of crime, swimming for high ground, and so addicted to our iDevices that we don't even notice when they report our locations to the Thought Police? How, dear comrades, can we win the day without corn dogs?
Global Agenda video highlights the game's new flair
If there's one thing Hi-Rez Studios loves to do -- aside from actually developing Global Agenda, anyway -- it's making humorous videos centered around the game. And while the latest one pulls out a couple of memes whose days may have come and gone, it does serve a practical purpose as well -- showing off the new pieces of flair and several dyes that players can expect from the game with today's patch. Even if you're not on-board for the humor, you can still appreciate the new flair pieces, ranging from the somewhat silly (dinosaur heads) to some rather robotic appearances. Or you can take a look at the comparative dye animations at the end, which show exactly how the coloration affects armors in a uniform pattern. Or you can just enjoy a bit of Global Agenda humor. The video gives you a variety of options in that regard.
The Daily Grind: How do you feel about zoomorphs?
A recent ArcheAge video and our subsequent coverage of it brought to light a curious phenomenon. Many viewers of XL Games' latest teaser were struck by the potential awesomeness of the company's new sandpark title, but just as many took the time to express their displeasure with the game's feline bipeds. Zoomorphic characters are nothing new in the MMO space, of course, as cat- and dog-like humanoids show up in everything from Aion (above) to EverQuest II to Final Fantasy XIV and many other titles. Furry-fandom extends beyond gaming, too, and Know Your Meme traces the phenomenon at least as far back as Aesop's Fables. For this edition of The Daily Grind, we'd like to get your take on zoomorphic characters and the people who feel strongly about them one way or the other. Do you like playing animal-themed characters? Why or why not? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Free for All: Three trends that need to go away in 2011
You know what? I hate geek memes. Heck, I hate the word meme. I generally will not support any term or phrase that was made popular in the last 10 years and mainly through the use of the internet. If it was made popular in programming circles in the early days of BBS (whatever that means) or if it was lovingly crafted during the great internet bubble of the '90s, I will avoid its use. Most of the time, I do not want to use someone else's words to support my own. You will never see the following sentence coming out of my virtual mouth: "Oh, hai! >.< All your base are belong to pedo bear! O.o Angry writer is angry!" The worst of the worst has got to be "die in a fire." Yes, I know you are a geek. I get it -- you are using a term that, I am sure, qualifies you as a socially awkward individual, as someone who simply must say the most inappropriate thing at the most inappropriate times (such as during a developer chat with developers who had almost lost their lives to recent wildfires -- I am not kidding). But I will not wear that badge of geek cred. Until now. These practices that I am about to list to you after the cut can, you know, die in a fire.
UK voice choir sings Please Retweet Me song for charity, probably has no idea what it means (video)
So here's the deal: the UK Meningitis Trust wants to help raise awareness about the disease it's dedicated to battling and has a 30-strong male voice choir at its disposal to do it with. How does it reach the widest possible audience? If your ideas include namedropping every major social media site set up over the last decade, a nod to the iPhone versus Android dichotomy, and the use of Yahoo as a bad pun, then you must be the guy responsible for putting together the video after the break. Congratulations, it's awesome. The behind-the-scenes footage with these old crooners isn't too terrible either.
The Lawbringer: 5 ways trade chat can get you in trouble
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? There's this place downtown that I know. You've probably been warned about it -- a seedy place of corruption, danger, intrigue, questionable math, and Tempest Keep runs where the Ashes of Al'ar are on reserve. You'll never be able to link Thunderfury last. This article is not for the faint of heart, so if you are easily offended, I would advise turning around 180 degrees and walking away. We're talking trade chat. This week, we talk about five ways trade chat can get you into some trouble with Blizzard. From naming violations to impersonating and scamming players, you can strand yourself out on some pretty thin ice with the GMs at Blizzard by violating the Terms of Use. For the sake of everyone else in game, don't.
Keanu Reeves gets a URL shortener in his honor, can stop being sad and get back to being excellent
Remember the day that this photo showed up and Keanu Reeves, famous actor and musician (and the star of one of our all-time favorites, Johnny Mnemonic) changed the internet forever by becoming a very clever meme? Well, something else good has come out of it: a URL shortener, kea.nu. Created by Shane Snow, the money earned from the temporary ads served on the shortened URLs goes to cancer research, and we can continue to keep this meme at the forefront of our minds as we move into the fall. One of our favorite products of the "Sad Keanu Reeves" phenomena is below, and for the record: we're pretty sure the guy was just enjoying his sandwich.
EVE Online and 'the places I've been' meme
The game world of EVE Online is called New Eden, a vast setting of over 5000 mapped solar systems and more than 2000 uncharted systems that can be found through wormhole exploration. The game has an interactive 3D map of the galaxy where solar systems can be color-coded according to the filters a player chooses. Pair that with a feature of the client that keeps track of each solar system you've visited, and you've got a colorful visual representation of how much of New Eden you've seen. EVE player Kirith Kodachi created a meme of sorts where players take a star map screenshot showing where they've been in New Eden and share it with others on their sites (or Kodachi's own, Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah blog). You can check out where it started with Kirith Kodachi and follow the 'links to this post' at the bottom to see where it leads.
