The Internet Meme and You

The Internet Meme and You By John Patrick Cayaban This guy wanna keep his mystery and left no self introduction ^ ^ ~

One fine Caturday, you log onto your favorite MMO.  After a few seconds happily spent staring at a loading screen that you have probably seen a couple million times, you see the magical world of your choosing materialize before your eyes.

 As you wait for the lag to subside, your eyes glance down to the chatbox.  You are greeted by a barrage of lines that seem to make no sense, but for some reason, people seem to understand… like some kind of private joke you don't know.  Wait… they're not talking about you, are they?

"so i heard you like mudkipz?" uhh… I guess they're okay. Cute in a tadpole with hydrocephalus kinda way.

"Ceiling Cat is watching!" Watching what? Who? Is there a new GM?

"The cake is a lie."  I don't even like cake.

"Dude, Gary Oak was here."

"AYBABTU!" dude, I don't swing that way… sorry…

There is nothing wrong with your computer screen.  Do not attempt to adjust the picture. They are now controlling the interwebz.   Welcome to the world of internet memes. 

Internet Meme?

If you think of your favorite MMO as world in and of itself, then the internet is the Universe.  It is the infinite expanse that connects people from all over the world.  When you put a bunch of bored people together, interesting things sometimes happen.  This is as true in life as it is in the internet.  The internet meme (pronounced "meem", rhymes with cream) is one such byproduct of said gathering of bored people's minds.  Think of it as a trend… a fad that takes a hold of a small number of people somewhere in the internet then gets virally transmitted, like some digital version of the cooties, until nearly every denizen of the internet is aware of its existence.

Tracking down the origins of these sub cultural tidbits can be a very rewarding experience… You'd be surprised at how many people use them every day in their daily gaming adventures without actually knowing where they came from, or what they mean.  Imagine using a word you don't know in a real life conversation.  The results can be pretty hilarious.

The mudkip

Common form:  "so i heard you liek mudkipz?"  The first internet meme I wish to expose to those new in the game is one of the most common ones.  What is a mudkip?  It is one of the BAJILLION new species of Pokémon introduced after the first 150 from Pokémon red and blue.  It is an innocent looking tadpole like humanoid water Pokémon that everybody seems to be fond of.  Apparently, it can break rocks.

While this meme might sound innocent and innocuous, it is far from it.  It is deeply rooted in petty and sadistic behavior.  This seemingly inoffensive meme is a product of one of the most culturally accepted forms of cultural sadism in the human social spectrum:  High School.

The widely accepted origin of this meme is a sad story involving a mentally challenged boy and his favorite Pokémon.  The story begins when a student approaches the boy (who was dressed as Ash Ketchum) during Halloween with a mudkip plush toy and says "So I heard you like mudkips?"  To which the boy exclaims "I LUUUUUURRVEEEE MUDKIPZZZ!!"

The story ends with the handicapped boy taking the mudkip plushie and sodomizing it right there in the hall for everyone to see.  Yes.  He "did it" with a plushie.  The full story can be easily found by crafty Googlers.  Be warned, though.  It is pretty bad.

 Every time I see some foolish person exclaim in a chat that he likes mudkips, I knowingly shake my head and walk away.  When somebody asks you in game if you like mudkips, there is a good chance that you are being insulted.  Do not take it as a literal question.  I have had many lulz at others expense because they used this meme without fully knowing its implications.

What's up with all these cats?

 
[Caption: Ceiling Cat is watching]

The cat memes are numerous.  To name a few, there's keyboard cat, long cat, happy cat, and ceiling cat.  I believe I have not even scratched the surface to the sheer amount of cat memes out there.

There is a whole mythology in the internet regarding these special cats and the end of the world, often referred to as Catnarock.  There is even a special day of the week, called Caturday, which is shrouded in mystery.  It is ostensibly for the sharing of cat related funnies.

In games, I have encountered two cat memes fairly commonly:  Keyboard Cat, and Ceiling Cat.

"Play him off, Keyboard Cat!"  

Keyboard cat is a video that shows a cat wearing a t-shirt playing the piano.  It is strangely entertaining to watch in and of itself.  What truly caught on fire, however, was when this keyboard playing cat is coupled with a moment of fail, following the formula:  FAIL + Keyboard Cat + "Play him off, Keyboard Cat!"

Usually used in YouTube videos, this has spread to moments of failure in game… like chat deaths and getting scammed by a scammer.  If you do something stupid, Keyboard cat plays you off, and this is where people tend to allude to keyboard cat.

"Ceiling Cat is watching."

A now famous picture of a can sticking its head from a hole in the ceiling is the origin of Ceiling Cat.  In the mythologies mentioned before, he is the main divine being, the cat meme version of God.  In his picture, Ceiling Cat is peering out of his hole, seemingly watching your every move… judging you.

In game, references to ceiling cat usually mean "somebody is watching".  Ceiling cat is like Santa clause.  He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. Ceiling cat is a reminder of karma:  A warning for you to tread lightly, and beware the consequences of your actions.

Like a lot of these memes, "Ceiling Cat is watching" got its start as a dirty joke. One of the most-wide spread Ceiling Cat pictures boasts the caption:  "Ceiling Cat is watching you masturbate."