Tumblr Humor At Its Finest, Part Two

In a previous blog post, I talked about the warped sense of humor that Tumblr users have. In this post I continue my investigation of Tumblr humor and what exactly people who use this social network find funny.

One thing that must be considered is Tumblr’s main audience. According to Business Insider, Tumblr “is strong with teens and young adults interested in self-expression” with 46% of its audience between the ages of 16 and 24. The type of humor generated thus caters to people who are currently in or just left the awkward stage of adolescence and are merging into adulthood.

The post above brings to light a dark past that I myself have experienced. Our generation began to embrace social media around seventh and eighth grade, a time that nearly everyone remembers as awkward. I remember sending many texts that proclaimed how random I was, and I also used the “xD” emoticon much more than should have been allowed.

Tumblr’s demographic also collectively remembers the same cartoons, movies, and music from their younger days. A few posts became popular in part because everyone knows the characters from the cartoon which got its start in the 90’s, Spongebob Squarepants.

Both “stepping on the beach” and the-groundskeeper’s caption “what i did in graphic design class today is” refer to popular Spongebob episodes. The picture itself imitates an older meme which takes The Perks of Being a Wallflower’s quote, “And in that moment, I swear we were infinite” and applies it to ridiculous situations like this one.

This next post kind of terrifies me.

By itself, the picture is pretty funny. The character of Spongebob is oddly distorted and the accompanying text is nonsensical. But Tumblr, as usual, takes it further with these pieces of artwork by moopdrea and pentecost, respectively.

These rather terrifying additions turn a funny post into a hysterical one.

Tumblr users are also fans of defying expectations…

…being somewhat rude…

…and using puns wherever humanly possible.

Of course my favorite types of Tumblr humor are the completely odd and unexpected posts that just kind of jolt you.

The staff of Tumblr understands its demographic and the type of humor its users have. So every once in a while, they get in on the fun as well. The following pictures are all a part of one post.

 

My Favorite 2014 Tumblr Memes

It’s been a great year for memes in 2014.

I absolutely love Internet memes. From rickrolling to doge, the fact that a widely distributed group of people can laugh about the same thing and find endlessly unique ways to change it to enhance the humor demonstrates a type of communication and creativity that humanity has never really experienced before.

Tumblr has its own unique meme culture which often leaks to other platforms like Twitter and Reddit. Usually there’s one original post which people find funny or unexpected. The concept in this post is then twisted, changed, or combined with other memes to make it even funnier.

A very recent example surfaced on Tumblr just this month: Goats craving minerals. Here’s the original post:

According to Business Insider, the post originally surfaced on Reddit, but the addition of sixpenceee’s caption made Tumblr go crazy. Soon, every Tumblr user was craving that mineral. These pages have more great examples of this meme. Of course, “they crave that mineral” is only one of the most recent Tumblr memes in 2014. Here’s a list of some of my favorites from this year, including links to where you can find more examples of them:

Selfie Olympics

The Selfie Olympics started to grow in popularity in December 2013 and became Internet popular in January 2014. Tumblr and Twitter accounts were created to showcase the best and most challenging selfies people had ever taken. A few notable examples:

This BuzzFeed article also has some examples of the best Selfie Olympic challengers of 2014.

It’s a Metaphor

John Green’s young adult novel The Fault in Our Stars was released as a movie in June 2014. One of the most memorable lines comes from the character Augustus Waters, who carries the same pack of cigarettes around but never lights one. In the teaser trailer of the movie, released in April 2014, Augustus tells another character, Hazel Grace, “It’s a metaphor, see. You put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth, but you never give it the power to kill you.”

This is the meme that resulted from the trailer:

More examples of popular “It’s a metaphor” posts can be found here and here.

Free Him

This meme started with a post by transboyscout. He posted a picture of a Pikachu bouncy ball with the caption, “Free him.”

The resulting meme:

Fortunately, the widespread campaign to free Pikachu was eventually successful, thanks to Tumblr user ruinedchildhood:

I came out to have a good time and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now.

This meme seemed endless. According to Know Your Meme, it originated with a post by Tumblr user chardonnaymami in June:

Photo via Know Your Meme

However, some people thought it came from Nick Jonas, who supposedly tweeted the phrase soon after:

In any case, the meme became very widespread and kept reappearing over the course of the summer.

DashCon/The Ball Pit

In March 2013, a few Tumblr users decided that they wanted to create a fan convention specifically for Tumblr users. After Tumblr told them they couldn’t use the name “Tumbl-Con USA” (since it was not officially affiliated with Tumblr), the event was named “DashCon” after Tumblr’s dashboard. It was held July 11-13, 2014 in the Schaumburg Renaissance Convention Center in Illinois.

These are some great articles about the many failures of the event, but the main things that went wrong were that the hotel supposedly demanded $17,000 upfront to keep the convention running and the main speakers (Welcome to Night Vale) cancelled their appearance because they weren’t paid on time. In recompense for those who had bought tickets for Night Vale, DashCon personnel supposedly offered ticket holders “an extra hour in the ball pit” that was available at the convention:

The strangest part is that this offer was not meant as a joke. Those in charge of DashCon seriously offered patrons an extra hour in this tiny ball pit for the loss of their tickets. It was perhaps inevitable that the ball pit became its own meme.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Tumblr if memes didn’t collide at every opportunity.

These are just a few of my favorite Tumblr memes from 2014. My Halloween post shows an example of a few memes from later in the year. Let me know what your favorite memes were in the comments!

Come Together: When Tumblr Collaboration Becomes Awesome

One of Tumblr’s main features is that any user can add to any post. They can add comments, sources, pictures, reaction GIFs, anything that will supplement the original post’s message, prove it wrong, make it funnier, etc.

A lot of the time, Tumblr users create art based off of a text post to add an element of visualization, such as in the following examples:

Tumblr user hauriret was inspired by nonbinaryeldritchhorror‘s post to create a piece of art and cited it as the stimulus for the artwork.

The vision of the original user came to life with a work of art done by a different Tumblr user. The same thing happened in the next post. Suncalf created the text post, and dorirosa added the art to go along with it, uploading it directly to the original post.

While some Tumblr collaborations result in amazing fanart, others add just the right touch of humor or wit to make the original post much funnier than it originally was.

One of the most well-known examples of adding to a Tumblr post to make it hilarious is Tumblr user perchu’s addition to the “Moreos” post. His addition to shslvalkyrie‘s post made him Tumblr-famous and he in essence became his own meme.

The original post can be found by clicking the screenshot below. It featured a fake advertisement for “Moreos,” which separates the cream and cookie segments of Oreo cookies and allows the consumer to combine them in whatever quantity they want. Perchu’s reaction to this idea is interesting to say the least.

Perchu’s intense use of profanity was part of what made his rant so hilarious. Completely overreacting to a post about Moreos made perchu extremely well-known on Tumblr, and to this day his username is tagged in multiple Oreo-related posts.

Finally, there have been some amazing audio posts created based off of text posts. On Tumblr these appear as audio files, but unfortunately I can’t transfer the audio files to WordPress. I’ve included links to Youtube videos which contain the full audio, and you can also click on the screenshots to see the original Tumblr posts.

This one makes me cry laughing. The original text post makes fun of the style of A-Ha’s song “Take On Me,” and the audio makes fun of the text’s posts interpretation of the style. It turns into a hilarious manipulation of the song.

This post is one of my favorite examples of Tumblr users’ creativity. It started with a simple yet brilliant manipulation of FUN’s “Some Nights.” Lovelyklaine changed the lyrics to make the song apply to Tumblr users, and merryblangstmas (now found at the username brickshack) took the one verse and created a Tumblr-themed version of the entire song.

 

The lyrics and merryblangstmas’ addition can be found here. If anyone ever asks you what Tumblr is about, this song is actually a pretty good description of the life of a Tumblr user.

Let me know if you have found any other examples of Tumblr collaborations!

Men-Haters or Rights Activists? Views on Tumblr Feminists

Feminism is a hugely controversial issue today, especially on the web. The Twitter campaign #YesAllWomen, Emma Watson’s speech at the HeForShe Campaign, and Time Magazine’s inclusion of “feminist” in its list of words to ban in the new year are a few of the recent feminism-related topics that have gone viral this year.

The users I follow are largely pro-feminism. Just like with social justice bloggers, there are feminists who treat the issues fairly, cite their sources, and attempt to raise awareness, and there are feminists who aggressively attack opposing views and express hate toward men and anti-feminists. 

Recently, a Twitter campaign related to feminism has spread to Tumblr as well. According to this Huffington Post article, a Canadian writer named Anne Thériault was inspired to  give lines from the classic movie “The Princess Bride” a feminist twist using #feministprincessbride. Here are some examples:

"I smell nothing." "What you do not smell is called misogyny. It is among the more deadlier poisons known to mankind" #feministprincessbride

— Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault) November 12, 2014

"Never go against a feminist when equal rights are on the line!" #feministprincessbride

— Hope Cimenski (@HopeCim) November 16, 2014

Good night, misogyny. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning. #feministprincessbride

— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) November 13, 2014

"I always think everything is a tool of the patriarchy until proven otherwise. Which is why I'm still alive." #feministprincessbride

— Emmy Bengtson (@EmmyA2) November 12, 2014

While many Tumblr users loved this campaign and came up with their own examples of feminist Princess Bride quotes, others complained that feminists were ruining a great classic.

There are two general views regarding Tumblr feminists, and both are represented in these two videos. The first represents the negative view of Tumblr feminists, the second the positive view. Both of them contain swearing, so view at your discretion.

As is often the case on Tumblr, users create humorous posts to make a point about controversial issues. This Twitter account mocking anti-feminist views has been circulating Tumblr recently. Here are some of examples of tweets from this account.

I don’t need fimeisns there are some things i NEED men for, like lifting heavy things or making me feel uncomfortable at bus stops

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 14, 2014

I don’t need femism because there is WOMEN’S STUDIES at colleges but where is the MEN’S STUDIES besides in every history book ever written??

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 13, 2014

i don’t need fesimes i believe in TRADITIONAL VALUES like men being men, women being women, and people ignoring domestic violence

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 6, 2014

I don’t need femismm it makes sense we warn WOMEN not to get too drunk in public because men never do anything violent or bad when drunk!!!

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 5, 2014

This comic, from dorkly.com, makes a point about what often happens when women reveal their gender on Xbox Live… and the consequences of misunderstanding what the male players are trying to tell them. It still comes up on my Tumblr dashboard every once in a while. 

Check out the feminism tag on Tumblr, and you’ll start to get a sense of the opposing views people have on Tumblr feminists and what being a “feminist” is actually about. Let me know where you stand on this topic!

Raising Awareness: The Positive Side of Social Justice on Tumblr

When I first joined Tumblr, I expected to find a lot of posts related to my favorite TV shows, movies, and books, and I did. But I, like this Tumblr user, also ended up gaining awareness of extremely significant social issues as a result of “social justice bloggers.“ While this term has both positive and negative connotations on Tumblr, in this post I’m going to focus on the positive side.

Although not all Tumblr posts are 100% accurate, and not all online sources can be trusted, several social justice posts have simply made me more aware that certain issues exist when I would not have known about them otherwise. Here is a good example of one social issue those with disabilities face:

The picture leads to a post by Tumblr user neecygrace. Neecygrace’s friend has an invisible illness, or one which is not physically noticeable. This is one of around 30 handwritten notes this user’s friend has received. The writer of the note believed the friend was misusing a handicapped sign simply because the writer could not see any obvious visible handicaps when the woman left her car, such as a wheelchair or a crutch. But invisible illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are not obvious handicaps. This post was one which educated me on invisible illness, something I had never thought about before.

This somewhat humorous post was taken from the YouTube channel College Humor. Tumblr user jonsnowflakes posted a link to their video “Diet Racism:”

The video is presented in a humorous light, but it is a critical commentary on the more subtle forms of racism in our culture today. This video has over 100,000 notes on Tumblr. Jonsnowflakes’ posted the video and added that “Collegehumors’ new video is on point as always.”

The official Huffington Post Tumblr page also recognizes Tumblr’s attitude toward raising awareness of social issues. The page used GIFs from a video sponsored by FCKH8 to advocate for awareness of racism today, particularly in respect to the issues in Ferguson. Click the post to see the full version with GIFs.

This post is a good example of a news organization using Tumblr’s unique features (such as GIFs) to promote one of their stories as well as recognizing the topics Tumblr users generally care about. Posts updating users on the current situation in Ferguson continue to appear today, a few months after the events occurred.

There are several other examples of Tumblr users positively raising awareness of social issues such as cultural appropriation, feminism, and sexuality. These topics will be discussed in later posts. While social justice bloggers often go too far, as discussed in one of my earlier posts, I do know that I have learned a lot about societal issues from browsing Tumblr of which I would have remained ignorant had I never joined the site.

It’s Time for a Revolution: Staff Changed the Tumblr Layout (Again)

When I was on Facebook throughout middle and high school, every few months there would be some huge update which would completely change the layout and style of the site. One of the biggest changes was the addition of Facebook’s timeline in September of 2011. When the changes were implemented, everyone went crazy. The people I followed on Facebook hated the change, and it took a long time to get used to it.

This happens on Tumblr as well. One of the running jokes in the past year or so was that, every time the staff made a minor change, Tumblr would rally for the real change they needed: improving the video player, which took a ridiculously long time to buffer videos. Recently, the video player was changed, but Tumblr still isn’t satisfied; the new player starts videos automatically, much like Facebook’s video player, although you need to click for sound.

The most recent change came last Thursday, October 30. Here’s an example of what the new layout looks like:

I scrolled down my dash, but one of the differences is that the top bar now stays on the page as you scroll. On that Thursday, the staff sent out a post explaining the “li’l” changes they had made:

The post from staff.tumblr.com

This article explains one of the main problems with the wider posts: user’s graphic images are now distorted and most of them have to be updated, which takes a lot of work. The sticky header is more of an irritation which users will likely grow accustomed to very soon, just as Facebook users eventually got used to the timeline feature.

However, other Tumblr users have taken advantage of the fact that they can now make the background of posts the same color as Tumblr’s background rather than have a white border around it. I’ve included some examples below. You can still click the links for the original posts, but unfortunately they are best appreciated on one’s dashboard. Let me know if you see any more examples of these great new posts!

It’s good to know that even an awful layout change won’t affect Tumblr users’ sense of humor. If you’re curious about what Tumblr looked like in previous years, check out the screenshots on this post. 

Hidden Geniuses: Tumblr’s Brilliant Fanart

One of my absolute favorite things about being a part of the Tumblr community is seeing spectacular works of art on a daily basis.

Tumblr’s artists post fanart to the site very freely, sharing their gorgeous works with the communities who will love them the most. These original works can be crossovers with other TV shows or movies, cartoon panels giving the artist’s take on the newest episode, and countless other variations. I myself have a fanart tag on my Tumblr page where I reblog great artwork. In this post, I’ve included a few of my favorite examples of Tumblr fanart.

One of the most well-known Tumblr artists is Alice Zhang. She has posted her art for years and often sells her pieces at conventions. This is her interpretation of Starlord, the main character of the recent movie “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Click the picture for the original post.

Some pieces combine fandoms and historical artwork. This fanart by yamiswift places Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the role of Rosie the Riveter.

This fantastic crossover combines the characters from Marvel Studio’s “Thor” with the popular Broadway musical “Wicked.” With fanart, there are no limitations. Any genre, any book, any movie can be combined with anything to make a great original work. I absolutely love Tumblr users’ endless creativity. This piece was done by velvet-toucher. (Warning: Some of the art featured on the page is NSFW).

Here’s a picture of the original Wicked poster that the user imitated.

Photo via Frank Gumola on Flickr

Euclase is another popular Tumblr fanartist. She creates pieces of art on Photoshop based on her favorite fictional characters. This one depicts Tom Hiddleston’s character Henry in his recent film “Henry V.”

This fanart by natalaze shows Dean Winchester, one of the main characters of “Supernatural.”

Some art is based off of text posts. The post serves as the inspiration for a truly brilliant or comedic piece. This work by not-a-comedian, ironically, is hilarious. The text post combines Gotye’s song “Somebody That I Used To Know” with Dr. Suess’ “Horton Hears a Who.” Not-a-comedian’s addition combines them artistically, putting the Seuss characters in the style of Gotye’s music video.

For more amazing examples of fanart, you can check out the Tumblr tag. I’ll also link to some great art collections: This Spongebob anime fanart, an artist’s portrayal of Disney characters as real women, pompeii77’s lifelike artwork, and some awesome money art. Enjoy!