Castle Magus

"What foundational internet words have to do with 4chan."

I would say something like "why does everything on the Internet always seem to originate (or, at least, is accused of originating) on 4chan?" However, in this particular case, it tracks. (And, yeah, as one of the comments pointed out, the term "troll" did not fucking originate from 4chan.)

Blessedly, around 99% of the terms used in this article were and still are gobbledygook to me, because I don't swim in the pools where such things have ostensibly become "normalized" (e.g. Tiktok), and the few that weren't, like "blackpilled" or whatever, just inspire hard eye rolls and heavy, weary sighs.

4chan has never been about anything but "teh lulz," and it will never not be about anything but "teh lulz." I'm sure they have a field day over there every time some "scholarly" article (or, in this case, a book shill thinly disguised as a scholarly article) like this about their bullshit hits the Internet. I mean, don't get me wrong, it is an interesting article (I wouldn't have posted a link to it here if I didn't think that), but... it's still an article about 4chan bullshit, all the same. (Though it's not so interesting that I have any intention to buy this guy's book.)

Also, people are writing entire books of their own in the comments of this article, some of which are about as interesting as the article itself.

I mean, I guess. But this isn't some new phenomenon. The Internet at large has been and becoming more and more like this for the past two decades or more. Which, if my math is right, and Google isn't lying to me, is at or before the midpoint of the birth range of Gen Z (1997-2012), so people have been making shitty memes about topics both unserious and serious since before some Gen Z babies were even born. I have long lamented the fact that far too many people in blogs or comments or forums or (I'm sure, though not speaking from personal exposure) on Discord or such have wrongly, mistakenly, embarrassingly believed that they were comedians when what they really were was just tediously banal copycats and johnny-come-latelies (or should that be "johnnies-come-lately"?).

Obligatory Youtube embeds for whenever this topic comes up:

What very little I know about this whole "Kendrick vs Drake" thing has come almost entirely from CSB clips like the above, and from general (unwanted) Internet osmosis. Anyway, Kendrick at the Superb Owl is basically the "Rick Astley at the Macy's Parade" moment of this whole thing, at least for me. It's a completely dead meme now. Stick a fork in it; it's done.

I'll say this much, though. Despite how very little I ever cared about "Kendrick vs Drake," I care way more about "Kendrick vs Drake" than I do about the Superb Owl itself, or any other sportsball thing in general.

This could've been one of those 7-minutes long (at 2x speed) Castle Super Beast clips that I just watched and let pass without a post here. But then they had to bring up the Karen meme. So, I just want to take this opportunity, once again, to say how much I fucking loathe the Karen meme[1], specifically, and the ability for the Internet to potentially randomly ruin any name via asinine meme bullshit, just in general. (Just to note, I have a first cousin a year older than me whose name is Karen, and every single time I hear anything about that shitlicking "Karen" meme, I can't help but think about her.)

Also, they talk about whether or not there's a boy's name that has been ruined like the name "Karen" has been ruined. I would definitely agree that "Adolf" and maybe "Chad" are up there (for wildly varying reasons)... but I would also put forward that "Donald" has been potentially ruined for a good long while, for what should be obvious reasons. Seriously, just think about it. Probably the only people[2] willingly and happily naming their kids "Donald" now are those who are currently Trumpanzee assholes, who will almost invariably raise their kids to grow up to be Trumpanzee assholes (or whatever that type of person ends up being called in the future, because Trump isn't going to live forever [thank goodness]). So, yeah, get ready for an entire generation of shitbag kids growing up to be shitbag adults named "Donald" in the relatively near future.

(EDIT)

The Game of Thrones (or, more accurately, A Song of Ice and Fire) character in question isn't even named "Khaleesi." That's just a title. Her actual name is Daenerys, sometimes called Dany (the latter of which is completely acceptable as an actual baby name). I mean, what's next? Naming your kid "Slayer of Lies" or "Mother of Dragons" or "Dragon Queen" or "Daughter of Death" or "Bride of Fire" or "The Unburnt" or whatever the fuck? I mean those all are also titles put upon Daenerys Targaryen over the course of the story, same as "Khaleesi," so why not, huh?

That said, I personally think that "Khaleesi" itself or any variant spelling of that, like the one in the video thumbnail above, is probably okay as a girl's name, since it's mostly just a nonsense sound, rather than an actual phrase like "Dragon Queen" or whatever. Not a name that I'd personally choose, in the incredibly unlikely event that I was ever in a position to name a kid, but still. Probably better than naming a kid literally "Queen," anyway, given that's what "Khaleesi" means in the lore. (That said, I could definitely see some kook naming their kid "Dragon Queen <insert last name here>" or some shit, especially in a world where people with names like Moon Unit Zappa exist.) (EDIT 2) I mean, just look at the shit-stupid names of, like, half or more of Elon Musk's kids, for more examples of that. (/EDIT 2)

(/EDIT)

[1] - Seriously, preschool-aged kids laughing at the name "Karen," because their parents just used it as a "bad word" like "asshole" or something. And those airport people openly mocking the kid's name right in front of her and her parents. They literally ended up legally changing the child's name, apparently. Like, really, fuck everything about this.

[2] - Outside of a rare few who may still want to use the name for legacy reasons, like because a grandpa was named that or something, despite current events.

...is that stupid "If I had a nickel for every time <thing> happened, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it happened twice."

If I had a nickel for every time I've seen that banal meme, I'd probably have at least a dollar or two by this point in time, which isn't a lot, but it's still goddamned annoying that I've seen it at least 20 or 40 times now. -_-

Full headline: "The GameStop memelord returns, stonks spike, market panics—and all he's done so far is post a bunch of mid memes"

I don't give a single, solitary shit about any of that meme dumbfuckery or stock market asininity in the slightest.

I just want to make the claim that GameStop has not, in fact, been "beloved" for at least a decade or two now, if it ever was.

(Posted via my phone, so any editing/formatting errors can be blamed on that.)

It's fucking banal and goddamned tiresome. Please stop.

Link to comic

Some of the off-panel books on that shelf are probably titled "FOX News" and "Breitbart" and "InfoWars." ¬_¬

Of course, "man selling nutritional supplements" already counts for Alex Jones (and others like Glenn Beck and Ben Shapiro).

"Remember when 'epic bacon' was the height of comedy?"

Um, no, actually? I don't? Because prior to seeing that article, I'd never even heard the phrase "epic bacon" before. Kind of glad I never did. I mean, sure, I've heard of rage comics and lolcats and advice animals and dogespeak and whatever (though I've never liked any of it, even when it was "popular"), but I've never once heard of all of that stuff being collectively referred to as "epic bacon." Nor have I ever once in my entire life, either online or not, encountered the extremely asinine phrase "the narwhal bacons at midnight," before seeing it in that article there. I would have regarded that as fucking shitty and stupid even way back in 2009 or whenever, and I definitely do now.

Honestly though, I have to say that by far the most offensive thing for me about this entire article is the author's repeated, unironic use of the word "cringe" to describe all that other stuff.

Also, "the last gasp of what humor on the internet looked like before it became impossible to keep up with it"? Sorry, but we already passed that point a long time ago.


And they always have been. Shaka, when the walls fell.

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Yet another reason I'm glad I never got into Youtubeing/Twitching or whatever: I never have to worry about dumb bullshit like this even a little bit.

(EDIT) Oh, and I was wondering if/when it would ever happen, but it apparently already has: my real name is a meme. At least it's a very, very niche thing, and not some goddamned asinine horseshit like that "Karen" dumbfuckery that is every-fucking-where and needs to fucking die, like, two years ago. (/EDIT)