Cursed Image Compilations

About

Cursed Image Compilations are slideshow videos of cursed images set to one song or more that often sync image transitions with a song's beat. The compilations gained prominence in early 2018 as they were combined with musical artist Elijah Who's remix of Childish Gambino's song "Bonfire".

Origin

From late 2017 to early 2018, the trend and concept of cursed images became popularized online around the same time as blessed images, which serve as their counterpart. The earliest found cursed image compilation was uploaded to YouTube^[1] on November 5th, 2017, by Exody (shown below). Using the song "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra, it received over 45,000 views, 1,600 likes and 260 comments in almost three years.

Spread

From late 2017 to January 2018, cursed image compilations remained relatively obscure until they began to be paired with a remix of the song "Bonfire" by Childish Gambino. These compilation videos later went on to spawn other derivations and trends over the years, many of which pulled examples of such imagery from the subreddit /r/cursedimages^[18] that has over 1.5 million members as of January 2021.

Don’t Forget To Feed Your Neopets

On August 1st, 2017, musical artist Elijah Who released a remix of Childish Gambino’s "Bonfire" on SoundCloud titled "don’t forget to feed your neopets" (shown below).^[2] The remix received over 2.4 million plays and 41,000 likes in three years while numerous reuploads have collectively amassed more than 3.2 million plays.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

On February 25th, 2018, YouTuber and Instagram user turbo.mp4 uploaded the earliest found cursed image compilation using Elijah Who’s "Bonfire" remix (shown below, left).^[9] In two and a half years, the video gained over 340,000 views. On March 3rd, a similar compilation with the same song but bass boosted towards the end was uploaded by YouTuber^[10] BlackSparks. It amassed more than 600,0000 views in two years (shown below, right). Soon, numerous cursed image compilations with the "Bonfire" remix began appearing on YouTube.^[11][12][13]

On April 19th, 2018, a YouTube reupload of Elijah Who’s remix titled "bonfire/cursed images meme" gained over 9.1 million views in two years (shown below, left).^[14] A compilation uploaded to YouTube by VIRTUAL ESSENCE accompanied by cursed images on June 13th, 2018, then garnered more than 5.2 million views in a similar period (shown below, right).^[15]

Eventually, the song choice for cursed image compilations diversified as they gained popularity. An April 26th compilation by YouTuber パン featuring a remix of the Wii’s Mii Channel theme accumulated over 640,000 views in two and a half years (shown below, left).^[16] Another compilation posted by YouTuber silly boy on August 3rd with the Daft Punk song "Robot Rock" then gained over 1.2 million views in two years (shown below, right).^[17]

Various Examples

External References