Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s 2014 State of the Internet series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events, subcultures, sites, apps and people that made their mark online this past year.
P
lenty of television shows, video games and films gained significance online this year, with many growing substantial fan bases across various community sites.
In film, Star Wars nerds rejoiced with the release of the trailer for the upcoming Disney film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which inspired a slew of parody videos and a photoshop meme mocking the newly revealed crossguard lightsaber. Last year's animated musical Frozen remained culturally relevant with a relentless onslaught of parodies and covers of the film's hit song "Let it Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
On the video game front, the new releases in the Super Smash Bros. franchise provided a slew of new Internet memes related to game's growing roster of playable characters. Donkey Kong continues to remain an Internet culture staple with this year's resurgence in Lankyposting on 4chan. Meanwhile, Pokémon became the focus of the biggest livestreaming event in history as an estimated 1.16 million people joined together to play a co-op version of the 1996 Gameboy game Pokémon Red on Twitch.
In serials, podcasts made a huge comeback this year, most notably with the juggernaut Serial by the producers of This American Life, which manages to suck in nearly anyone who listens to it like a black hole. In television, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson wowed audiences with their performances in the crime drama series True Detective,
| | - Type: Survival Horror Game
- Profile: Players assume the role of an underpaid nighttime security guard at a pizza restaurant inhabited by homicidal animatronic animals in this point-and-click single player video game..
- Highlights: After a successful release on Valve's Steam distribution service in August, the sequel Five Nights at Freddy's II was released on the platform in November.
- Figures: On Steam, the original Five Nights at Freddy's is averaging at 257 concurrent players and the sequel is averaging at 379 players. (SteamCharts)
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| | - Type: Animal
- Profile: These domesticated mammals managed to bleat out the rest as the year's most discussed animal online.
- Highlights: Goats were the protagonists of several video games, including Let it Goat, Goat Simulator and Goat MMO Simulator. Australian comedian James Dezamaulds gained online fame with his pet Gary the Goat and, sadly, this year marked the passing of the beloved baby snow goat Frostie from the Australian Edgar Mission Farm Sanctuary.
- Figures: February this year marked the highest Google Trends spike in searches for the keyword "goat," correlating with the release of Goat Simulator.
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| | - Type: Cryptocurrency
- Profile: A virtual currency treated like cash that is regulated by a peer-to-peer network.
- Highlights: This year bitcoin got off to a rough start with the controversial shutdown of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, in which 744,000 bitcoins went missing. Additionally, a slew of new altcoins hit the market, many of which referenced various inside jokes and Internet memes, including Coinye, Dogecoin, RonPaulCoin and NyanCoin.
- Figures: As of December 16th, 2014, bitcoins are valued at $335.63 with a market cap of $4,569,363,230.
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| | - Type: Socio-political Movement
- Profile: Feminism centers around improving the living standards and cultural opinion of women through a variety of means.
- Highlights: Feminism was a hot-button topic this year in the online gender war, with battles being waged against the manosphere, men's rights activists, GamerGate and self-proclaimed "equity" feminist Christina Hoff Sommers. Time magazine initially included "feminism" in its annual word banishment poll but removed it after a substantial backlash.
- Figures: 2014 saw a significant upswing in Google searches for the keyword "feminist".
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| | - Type: Television Series
- Profile: The sketch comedy show stars comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele.
- Highlights: Numerous Key and Peele skits have been widely circulated on sites like Reddit, many of which have gained millions of views. Additionally, the show developed notable fan communities on DeviantArt and Tumblr.
- Figures: The Comedy Central "Key and Peele" YouTube playlist has accumulated upwards of 47 million views.
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Films
Serials
Games
Technologies
Mad Dictator
Read The Mango
well, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is underrated…..like always…..and it must be like that
good job people, see you next year to get
….erradicated
….emancipated
.
elmashojaldra
I'm really sad that Gravity Falls didn't make it in this end year review, 'cause this goddamn show is getting better.
Γ Da Count Γ
Five Nights at Freddy's is undoubtedly the biggest subculture of the year. To get all these fans, pieces of fanart and other kind of fanwork (Over 4000 images in the KYM gallary alone!) in only 4-5 months is simply amazing.
Snowfield
FNaF reminds me on Silent Hill in a way, like you have to read in between the lines and pay attention to everything that happens in order to understand what's going on, is that kind of mystery in games that make a lot of people create/use websites where they can discuss theories and such.
Props to Scott for creating such a good game
winton overwat
>Serials
>Guardians of the Galaxy
MaysJedi
I feel like MLP is going through what Pokemon 3rd gen went through. Its getting rid of the people who are tired of it, while many will still remain true to liking it.
Doctapony
MLP is between seasons, yo.
But yeah, it's waning down a bit from the season 2 storm
xTommyChief343x
So, you're saying that when Season 5 starts again this Spring, the pony gallery will probably skyrocket to FNaF levels, but probably not back at the top where it used to be every day.
Doctapony
League of Legends was ENORMOUS this year
Teddy Sadcat
>tfw brones are confirmed ded
MaysJedi
not really dead, we just got out of the fad phase like 3rd gen Pokemon.
Baluh the Alchemist Horse
Am i a zombie?
xTommyChief343x
I never said Bronies were dead. I'm sure that when Season 5 starts again this Spring, the pony gallery will probably skyrocket to FNaF levels, but probably not back at the top where it used to be almost every day from 2011, until the first half of 2014.
I, however, agree with MaysJedi that bronies passed through a fad phase, just like Pokemon gen 3. I can pinpoint that the fad phase started when 4chan saw it in late 2010, then it grew and became well-known in 2011, and finally, it peaked when Derpy's appearance in the show happened, and bronies everywhere were fanboying over it on the morning of January 21st, 2012.
The fall began with the massive drama-fest with Derpy's removal about a month later. A grim specter for things to come. As we said goodbye to 2012, and hello to 2013, rumors about Twilight becoming an alicorn, which was later confirmed to be official and permanent. And when you add Equestria Girls to the mix, the biggest drama-fest of all time happened, and the fandom took a big hit, from both people mad about the change, and people mad about the complainers.
Now, as we are about to say goodbye to 2014, bronies have stabilized on the Internet, and they've become a normal part of it, and most people have accepted their new race of netizens after four years.
P.S. Thank you all for top comment!