a 4chan revelation
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John haz sum revelashunz. Tehy frum teh Bebeh Jebus, but wuz furst frum Ceiling Cat, an tehy to show what iz comin. Teh Ceiling Cat sended hiz angel to John to give revelashunz. John sez iz all totally troof, zactly what teh Ceiling Cat and Bebeh Jebus sayed. He no lie. Srsly.
The Book of Revelations translated into lolcat
On April 1st, I noticed a ton of rickrollin’ – the front page of youtube was sending people to the youtube link of the music video, CNN was talking about it, it was on PerezHilton.com, and people swarmed together to vote on an online poll put on by the NY Mets to have Never Gonna Give You Up played after the eighth inning at Shea stadium. A lot of the trends that become popularized in mainstream culture seem to be spawning from internet websites like 4chan – most circulating on these sites a few months to a year before.
Among the most notorious of forums is one called 4chan, an anarchic, entirely anonymous bulletin board where people are encouraged to post pictures. It is variously credited with fostering not just Rick Rolling, but the LOLCATS craze of cats speaking like hacker kids, and the “Anonymous” anti-Scientology movement that has been harassing the organization with leaked videos and live protests. In this instance, it appears that the original in-joke among the denizens of 4chan was to trick each other into clicking links that led to a picture of a mallard duck on wheels, above the caption “DUCK ROLL” (get it?). Eventually, Rick Astley was substituted for the duck, and the Rick Roll was born. (If you are interested in the article and need some context)
4chan has been gaining a lot of spotlight and heat in the past few weeks. I used to look for articles in google and basically find nothing. Not that many people knew what it was or even heard about it before – and now it’s referenced often and not in a positive light.
According to a Time report, “emo bashing†has become a genuine problem in Mexico. Gangs of “anti-emos†organized on blogs and, I can only assume, 4chan.org have taken to the streets, savagely beating any and all “emos†(yeah, I know, it’s not a noun in that sense) they find. Time’s got videos, and they’re pretty freaking brutal. There’s even been a march
in support of the victims, sponsored by a local LGBT organization who justify their involvement by claiming that the emo kids are being targeted for their effeminate dress. (Read the full article)
And another…
For example, look at the Internet phenomena that is Anonymous, the collective formed by some visitors to image-sharing Web sites where users are typically listed as anonymous. Imageboards like 4chan.org (which a friend once described as being where the worst people on the Internet hang out) provided a vehicle for a loose association of people who decided to take on one of the scariest organizations to target: the Church of Scientology (sometimes pejoratively called “Co$” online just like Microsoft is sometimes called “M$.”) (Read full article here)
Why no love for 4chan? I am often disgusted by the irrational, sexist, and racist comments post on to the site. Then again in other situations, I can often appreciate the brutal honesty of what a lot of people are saying. I’m not sure what to think of 4chan, but it was definitely interesting to observe over the past few weeks. I also don’t think it’s the end of 4chan – but for me, I think it represents a lot of what is to come: positive or negative.
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