Monthly Review: February 2011

Monthly Review: February 2011

Highlights from this month: Scumbag Steve, everyone's favorite high school douchebag, came out of the dark and embraced his fame; CBS reporter Serene Branson accidentally her live report with an epic case of stutters at the Grammy Awards 2011; A Yemeni protester and a stern looking Egyptian general became internet famous amidst the anti-government protests in the Middle East; Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's music video dance went viral and spawned dub remixes with other recent pop hits. In terms of Google search queries, Serene Branson dominated the keyword interest (as shown on the right):

Serene Branson at Grammy Awards 2011

Serene Branson is a CBS news reporter who experienced a severe bout of stutters during her post-ceremony roundup report at the 53rd Grammy Awards. The on-air incident, which shows Branson fumbling over her lines inaudibly for 20 seconds, gained quite a bit of news media and blogs' attention, as well as a collection of mash-ups and remixes. Must see: Captain Picard Receives a Very Heavy Burtation from Serene Branson.

Thom Yorke's Dance Dubs

Thom Yorke's Dance Dubs are videos that combine the M/V footage of Radiohead’s single “Lotus Flower” and alternative soundtrack to create hybrid music videos. Similar to other dance dub fads like Charleston Dance and Apache remixes, black and white footage of "Lotus Flower" has been since juxtaposed with mainstream pop hits like Beyonce’s “All The Single Ladies” and many more. Must see: Thom Yorke Dance / NOT THE BEES.

Scumbag Steve

Scumbag Steve is an image macro series featuring a young man with a sideways fitted cap standing in a hallway. As the name suggests, the joke illustrates a wide array of "d-bag" stereotypes from high school and college years, like that guy who borrows your lighter and never returns it. In our recent interview with Blake Boston, the 21 year old Bostonite behind the face of Scumbag Steve, it was revealed that the picture was taken sometime in 2006 by his mother. To browse related images, click here.

Bread Helmet Protester

Bread Helmet Guy is an emerging photoshop trend based on a news photo of an extraordinary Yemeni protester spotted at the street demonstrations. After the outbreak of Egyptian street riots, the sentiment quickly spread across the border to Yemen and sparked a nationwide protest known as "Day of Rage." During the protests, many improvised makeshift armor to shield themselves from violent exchanges with the riot police. In the crowd of angry protesters was a middle-aged man with bread loafs wrapped around his head, yelling his heart out with his hands raised up high in the air. To browse related images, click here.

The Guy Behind Omar Soliman

The Guy Behind Omar Soliman (الراجل اللى ورا عمر سليمان) is a Photoshop trend based on now-former Egyptian VP Omar Soliman’s nationally televised address announcing that President Mubarak will be stepping down from his office after 30 years of autocracy. During this speech, an unidentified man behind the vice president stood out as highly irritated and under massive stress, serving lulz for many Egyptians gathered around the TV set. To browse related images, click here.

Macro Round-up: Bear Grylls, Hipster Ariel & Business Cat

Bear Grylls is an image macro series poking fun at all sorts of ridiculous and often excessive tactics demonstrated by Bear Grylls, the host of wildlife documentary series "Man vs. Wild", in order to survive out in the wilderness. The most popular theme of the joke employs imagery of drinking one’s own piss, in reference to Grylls’ demonstration of drinking urine to prevent dehydration in the Australian deserts. Hipster Ariel is yet another trending macro series based on a stillshot of Ariel from Little Mermaid and playful captions portraying the Disney princess as a spoiled, self-righteous hipster. Strikingly reminiscent of Hipster Kitty, this can be seen as a satire of highly superfluous, yet fashionable value system built around the hipster culture. Business Cat is a LOLcat series centered around a serious kitten in business attire saying all sorts of cliches that a boss would say or do, but with a twist of feline-inspired puns. To browse more examples, click on the images above.

Back on the Radar

• Real Life Mario Kart saw a high resurgence with two recently uploaded YouTube shorts, a sequel to his 2008 original skit by Remi Gaillard and an original production by Freddie Wong.

• Dear Sister parodies made a comeback with Justin Bieber edition, following the idol's cameo appearance in a recently aired CSI episode.

• I, For One, Welcome Our New X Overlords was recently referenced during the final round of Jeopardy between IBM supercomputer “Watson” and human contestants, when Ken Jennings wrote "I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords" below one of his written answers.

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