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!

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!

Attack of the Supernatural Fandom: Tumblr’s Adventures in Liveblogging

A popular event among the fandom side of Tumblr is liveblogging new episodes of TV shows. The entire fandom uses common hashtags that specify the fandom and the episode title in an attempt to keep their followers from seeing unwanted spoilers. I usually make the mistake of not bothering to block these tags, so I know most of the episode’s content before I watch it.

On Tuesday night I followed the tag “spn spoilers” and watched the Supernatural fandom liveblog season 10 episode 2, “Reichenbach.” This blog post does include spoilers, so if you haven’t watched that episode yet and don’t want to be spoiled, read no further. I won’t be linking the actual posts to the pictures this time since I made screenshots of several posts at once, but feel free to check out this episode’s tag for yourself if you want to see other reactions.

The episode aired at 8:00 p.m. CT. I started glancing at the tags around 7:40 p.m. and followed them until the episode was complete.

Here is my liveblogging experience:

7:39 p.m. – Those in the Supernatural fandom begin to panic. Will I be able to livestream the episode? Will my Internet connection fail me? Will this episode be particularly suspenseful? 7:48 p.m. – We reach the 12-minute countdown. The excitement has reached a point where correct spelling is simply impossible.

7:59 p.m. – Tumblr users begin to warn their followers to block the tags they’ll be using to follow the episode. It’s considered a common courtesy to tag your liveblogging so your followers can avoid spoilers. You also don’t want to drive off followers who aren’t in the fandom and who may get annoyed with your constant posts.

8:02 p.m. – As the episode officially begins, there is general confusion. Often liveblog posts don’t contain many details but simply reactions to what is happening in the show. If you’re not watching the episode, you get very confused. Those who are watching feel like they’re “in the know.” Tumblr user winchesterdelight told me, “I feel like when I liveblog, I’m having a very fun party with others in the fandom as we watch the episode.”

8:14 p.m. – The crack begins. The fandom version of “crack,” according to Urban Dictionary, is a theory/concept that is so crazy, one would only be able to think of it while on crack. On Tumblr it also refers to any silly manipulation of content. In this first post, a user changes the dialogue of the episode so it supports one of their favorite romantic pairings, Dean/Castiel. Tumblr users also talk about how hot the character of Dean Winchester is, a common topic among Supernatural fans.

8:15 p.m. – I love when everyone blogs about the exact same thing at the exact same time. Tumblr user onlyonethatrocksmyworld agrees. She said, “When you scroll through the spn tag when the episode is airing chances are you’re going to see a lot of people reacting in the same way to the same thing, and that’s a very rewarding feeling as a fan. It’s cool to share that ‘DUDE SAME’ moment with people from around the world.” Here’s a good example:

8:30 p.m. – The episode twist occurs as Dean Winchester rebels against his demon companion Crowley. People react to the surprising power shift by quoting the episode.

8:40 p.m. – One of the main cliffhangers before the commercial break occurs. People understandably freak out about having to wait to see the anticipated Sam/Dean brotherly reunion.

8:43 p.m. – No one calms down when the show returns. General panic ensues. As onlyonethatrocksmyworld observes, liveblogging “[is] very therapeutic. I’m glad that this platform exists for us to share our emotions with each other.”

8:50 p.m. – THE CLIMAX OF THE EPISODE CAUSES EVERYONE TO SUDDENLY REVERT TO CAPS LOCK TO EXPRESS THEIR EMOTIONS. THINGS ARE GETTING VERY INTENSE. PEOPLE ALSO LOSE THE ABILITY TO TYPE WORDS AND INSTEAD EXPRESS THEMSELVES BY MASHING RANDOM KEYS.

8:57 p.m. – Everyone, literally everyone, in the Supernatural fandom knows about Dean Winchester’s obsession with his car. So when Demon!Dean tells his brother, “It’s just a car,” the fandom does not react well and everyone is heartbroken.

I do mean everyone.

9:00 p.m. – The episode finally comes to an end and the promotion for the next episode airs. People speculate about the snippets in the promo.

9:02 p.m. – By this time, the shock of the cliffhanger has mostly worn off. The panicked posts die down and people realize that the show has ended for another week.

9:07 p.m. – Some users take this time to make a list of their reactions and thoughts for their followers. They’ll recap their favorite parts and ask for clarifications on points they missed or didn’t quite understand. Sometimes an episode is praised, and sometimes the entire fandom agrees it was terrible. “Reichenbach” was, by general consensus, a great episode. 

About 10-15 minutes after an episode has ended, the use of the episode tag dies down. The “Spn spoiler” related tags, however, will be used throughout the week as people begin to post GIFs of their favorite moments from the episodes. Next Tuesday, these tags are used again for episode 10×03.

Winchesterdelight believes that “liveblogging might not be unique to Tumblr, but … the way that liveblogging occurs on Tumblr is unique.  Like, I’ve attempted live tweeting the episodes on Twitter, but it’s much more disjointed and not nearly as fun.  Tumblr makes it easier to find those who are watching and communicate with them about it, in my opinion.” Onlyonethatrocksmyworld agrees. She believes the 140 character limit on Twitter limits the liveblogging experience. On Tumblr, you’re able to tag multiple things without wasting space and you can post your full reaction.

The next time you’re watching your favorite geeky show alone (because literally no one else you know watches it), considering logging on to Tumblr as you watch the show and following the spoiler tag. It has always made my viewing experience more enjoyable.

Let’s Get Spoopy: Tumblr’s Weird Obsession with Halloween

It’s October 1st–which means it’s officially Halloween? That’s what Tumblr (and, admittedly, every single store that sells Halloween candy/decorations) seems to think. I’ve actually been seeing October/Halloween-related posts on my dash since the beginning of September, though, so the Halloween obsession gets pretty intense.

The arrival of October brings back well-loved memes such as the impending skeleton war, Halloween-related puns and various “spoopy” and “creppy” posts. This is a time of year when Tumblr users flaunt the many inside jokes they have which often confuse the rest of the Internet. You know, same old Tumblr.

The spoopy meme originated on Flickr, but the most popular post it’s associated with on Tumblr is this one:

Tumblr took that and ran with it. Countless posts exist about how “spoopy” and “creppy” Halloween is. For at least the two years that I’ve experienced Tumblr on Halloween, the spoopy tag has been used to identify people’s Halloween posts in all seriousness.

Another one of my favorite Tumblr memes is the impending skeleton war which will apparently begin after the apocalypse or just, you know, whenever. It’s always best to be prepared.

Finally, here’s a compilation of my favorite skeleton Halloween puns. These cartoons have been on my dash pretty much the entire summer and I literally never get tired of them. They’re all part of the same post and I even left one or two out due to foul language, so take a look at the complete post if you like. Happy October!!