ZOMGWTFBBQ

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Codes Codes Codes

People are place near each other based on similarities.

Chi Ho (Most Unique)
I 2 I d D 1

B. Chen
J 2 III e Q 1/7

A. Owyoung
A 2 III e H/O 1/2/8/9

Eric Forter
A 2 III i Q 1

Steven Bass
A 2 II E H 6

Maria A Garcia (WINNER WINNER! Maria is the person with most common codes with others!)
A/H 2 II D G 10

Joseph Minter
A/H 2 II c G 4

Sandra Sequeira
A/H 1 II d G 1/10

Diana Ochoa
A/h 1 II a G 1

Ryan De Anda
A/C 2 III e G 11

Monday, October 31, 2011

Blue Team Members Contact Me

Hey,

I don't know how to contact any of the other blue teams. If you happen to be a blue team and are viewing our blog, email me. That way we can begin to work on the Flash Mob thing!

Eric Forter

ericforter@yahoo.com

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Where do YOU like to do it?

We asked UC Berkeley students where they like to do it!

This video was made for Sociology 167, which studies virtual communities,
humor, and social phenomena that arose with the expansion of the internet.
The intent of the video is to be an example of internet humor, which rests
on the cusp of socially acceptable and socially unacceptable. We are also
hoping to show the great publishing power of freely posting on the
internet because it allows the rapid spread of information and media.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Leeeeroy Jenkins!!!!!!

According to the Urban Dictionary, Leeroy Jenkins can be used to describe an act that is so reckless that you “do something so bloody wild that you’ll be talked about for months because it was bloody insane.” In which case you would be doing it Leeeeroy Jenkins style. Alternately it can also illustrate the idiocy of an action while maintain the redeeming qualities of such an action as in “is apparently stupid as hell, but at least possesses chicken.”

The official version of the origins of this web phenomenon is traceable back to a session of the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft. During an episode, a guild (Pals for Life) was making meticulous plans to attack their enemy. During the proceedings one player, Ben Schulz, whose avatar is named Leeroy Jenkins steps out for chicken and beer. Upon returning, Leeroy arbitrarily rushes the enemy, ignorant and heedless of his guilds strategy. As he rushes he screams his name “LEEEEEEROY JENKINS”. His actions cause the absolute decimation of his guild in the ensuing battle. Afterward, in response to the admonitions of his peers he responds “I least I have chicken.

Another version of the origin is similar but revolves around a funeral for a fallen comrade. In this instance, the guild members are planning a funeral for their fellow soldier, when, unexpectedly, Leeroy Jenkins bursts in and slaughters the mourners as he screams his screen name. This tactic eventually caught on with other players and became a widespread phenomenon for players.

Leeroy Jenkins began to receive meme status on May 11, 2005 when Pals for Life uploaded a video of the incident to Warcraft Movies with a request for ‘constructive criticism’ on the Blizzard forum. This was done with tongue in cheek seriousness. Subsequently a You Tube posting on November 19^th of that year garnered approximately 350K hits. A later posting around a year later received 19 million hits and both Leeroy Jenkins and Ben Schulz were propelled into internet infamy.

The popularity of Leeroy Jenkins as an incitement to “bloody wild action” and as an indication of absolute buffoonery has rocketed both Schulz and Jenkins to stardom both within the online community and in ‘real life’. A World of Warcraft Trading Card with artwork by Mike Krahulik was introduced. While ultimately draining power from the holder and his comrades, the card holds positive value in that, under certain circumstances, Jenkins’ attack holds a relatively high value. Also a figurinebearing Jenkins’ features was introduced with a line of World of Warcraft characters in 2008. Jenkins distinguished by holding a chicken leg in his left hand.

In the ‘real world’ Ben Schulz presented the keynote address at ROFLCon in 2008 and appeared at Blizzcon in 2007. He has also been interviewed on NPR and a local Denver site Westword. Jenkins popularity may have led to reference in a World of Warcraft based Toyota Tacoma commercial. The game show Jeopardy featured a question referenced toward Jenkins during the run of its college series in 2008. Jenkins has also been mentioned in the Guardian and on The Howard Stern. However the measure of Jenkins’ indoctrination into American culture is illustrated by the US Military’s article entitled "Let's Do This!: Leeroy Jenkins and the American Way of Advising" (Armed Forces Journal 2009). This apparently links Jenkins to the war effort in Iraq. Furthermore, University of California doctoral candidate Tanner Higgin utilizes the Jenkins video to teach gaming strategy and the gamic race.

Jenkins’ cult status can be observed in South Park’s “Make Love Not Warcraft”. This episode parodies Warcraft in general and specifically portrays Jenkins as a ‘griefer’, one who purposefully aggravates his fellow players. Also, a deleted scene from the Movie ‘Year One’ features a Jenkins Skit and a sketch scene for the movie ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ was produced featuring Jenkins. However, the scene was never developed and all that exists is the animation.

Doing a search of the Leroy Jenkins meme can bring about all sorts of information on how it began and examples of how it has caught on with the rest of society other than just World of Warcraft. It’s compelling to see that there are all sorts of ways that the Leroy Jenkins phenomenon has incorporated itself into everyday realms of society. However our view of perception of a society is only that of our own, but what about other societies? In a search for other societies versions or translations it’s hard to come upon something that directly correlates with the incident. Even those which thoroughly translate the video on YouTube the effect no longer is the same. This in a way goes to show that even though what we in American society find funny or amusing is based on ideas that tie into our culture and different aspects of society. Things that to us are funny or catch attention may insult or offend others or the way a situation is handled may be different than we’d expect it to be done. What would have happened with the Leroy Jenkins phenomena had it been in a different country? Would we even consider it a phenomena?

The double meaning of Leeroy Jenkins, as either a summons of courage just before a daring feat such as skydiving or as the designation of an act of absolute buffoonery as when someone ruins a surprise party by showing up at the same time as the person being surprised, is similar to the dual meaning of nimrod. Until the mid-1940’s nimrod was typically used to connote a great hunter or an extremely brave person. Nimrod was actually the son of Cush and grandson of Noah according to the biblical books of Genesis and Chronicles. Traditionally he is cited as having led the building of the Tower of Babel. Throughout history, Nimrod has always been associated with bravery especially in the context of hunting.

However, in a Bugs Bunny cartoon circa 1942, the word took on the opposite meaning. Bugs Bunny, on seeing Elmer Fudd throw a tantrum in response to his continued humiliation at the hands of Bugs remarks “Poor little Nimrod”. From that point on nimrod came to connote an absurdly idiotic bumbling moron rather than a daring adventurer. Although nimrod was used in a demeaning fashion prior to the Bugs Bunny incident, it did not gain wide spread popularity until Bugs’ famous quip. This not only illustrates how a word can change meaning over time but it also shows how popular culture (first TV, then the Internet) has a huge influence on the language we speak. So whether you are a brazen Leeroy Jenkins or a bumbling nimrod, remember that at least you’ve got chicken!!!

Double Rainbow all the way (and what does this mean?!)

Double Rainbow refers to a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI)
that went viral in early 2010. The video, titled "Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10," was posted by Paul Vasquez (also known as YosemiteBear or Bear) under the username Hungrybear9562 on January 8, 2010. In the video, Vasquez focuses his camera on two concentric rainbows, hence a "double rainbow," that he saw at Yosemite National Park. In his excitement, Vasquez oohs and ahhs at the double rainbow, and he can even be heard crying because he is so awestruck by its beauty. Popular quotes from the video include, "Oh my God, it's full on double rainbow across the sky!," "What does this mean?" and "It's so intense!” Many believe that Vasquez was under the influence of a drug substance at the time of the double rainbow, explaining his enthusiastic outburst, but Vasquez has never officially stated what that drug might be. As of now, it has been viewed 30,344,054 times and has accumulated 141,507 likes and 5,239 dislikes by YouTube users.

It was posted on January 8, 2010, but did not become popular until 6 months later. From January to July, the video had virtually no activity. On July 3, 2010, Jimmy Kimmel was the first to tweet about the video to his 90K twitter followers, which led to the explosion of the video. Only an hour afterwards, Bill Simmons (a sports columnist and former Jimmy Kimmel Live writer) re-tweeted the video, and it began to pick up momentum. The Double Rainbow video's popularity was skyrocketed in a matter of days.
It was enhanced by the Double Rainbow song, which takes auto-tuned clips of Vasquez's original audio and makes it into a song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA&feature=sh_e_se&list=SL) Another YouTube user, Schmoyoho, released the Double Rainbow song on iTunes on July 6, 2010. This was quickly followed by an interview with CBS News by Shira Lazar on July 8, 2010 and an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on July 22, 2010. During the interview with Kimmel, he admitted he has taken some substance that day prior to shooting the video. And the drug has made him cry and laugh at the same time in the video.

According to Google Insight, the peak interest for the double rainbow video was in July 2010. Searches for Double Rainbow began to decline quickly. Google Insight shows that Double Rainbow video hits were down to 71% of its peak in August 2010, dropped to 46% of its peak in October 2010, and finally, searches leveled off to about 10% of its peak in March 2011. The last attempts to keep Double Rainbow popular were in the Fall of 2010. Vasquez was featured on a Microsoft Commercial released on September 1, 2010 for the Windows Live Photo Gallery (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jXz7NrfzsI&list=UUVGOyzms_XJNk_DHqrffXCw&index=99) . The commercial demonstrated how to add a double rainbow to an image. And lastly, the Double Rainbow iPhone app, which adds double rainbows to your pictures, was released on August 26, 2010 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXogeq9U78M). It now has roughly over 26 million hits. However this did not deter the decline of the video's popularity, as noted above.

Another meme that followed in the footsteps of Double Rainbow was the Bed Intruder Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw). An NBC newsclip interview of Kevin Antoine Dodson, whose sister was victim of home intrusion and attempted sexual assault, was also turned into an autotuned song by Youtube user Schmoyoho as a “Songify this” video and became viral. The Bed Intruder Song has 89,681,130 Youtube hits, and Dodson has also appeared on the television show Tosh.0, on which Daniel Tosh jokes about current internet phenomenon.

There is also a trail of parodies inspired by the Double Rainbow phenomenon that can be viewed at http://socialtimes.com/top-10-double-rainbow-parodies-omg-so-intense_b17417. Jokes about “double cheeseburger” and “KFC double down” that became popular in the wake of the original “double rainbow.” The video has also expanded into parts of other memes, such as the “Hitler reacts to …” series, found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcpxa8gS9g8&feature=player_embedded.

This video is relevant because it shows the kind of humor that could only evolve on the internet. Even though the video did not become viral until months after it was posted, the free access and publishing on YouTube and link sharing by celebrities and friends brought a lot of attention to a video that, aside from being funny, is an unproductive use of time. The internet can make something arbitrary a legend if enough people view it, whereas something like this would not have a medium to become popular before the internet. The Double Rainbow meme became popular during the beginning of Twitter’s prime, so the rise and decline of the Double Rainbow video's popularity is an example of how rapidly the internet can turn something into an internet sensation (within a few days), and how easily internet phenomenon are forgotten as people move on to the next meme trends.