NYC Cardstand Earthcam Trolling / "I'll Be There in 30 Minutes"

Background

"I'll Be There in 30 Minutes" is a catchphrase used to troll others on 4chan's /b/ (random) board using the live feed of Earthcam 2 located in Times Square in New York City, showing a souvenir postcard stand in front of a gift shop.^[1]

Although Earthcam trolling schemes have been brought up on 4chan prior, "I'll be there in 30 minutes" comments first surfaced on February 10th, 2011, after a postcard stand on Times Square was knocked down by two pedestrians on January 20th. Others who witnessed the event via Earthcam started making empty claims to head over to Time Square and knock it down again "in the next 30 minutes."

History

January 20th: Card Stand Gets Knocked Down

On January 20th, 2011, a card stand on the corner of 46th St. & Broadway in NYC was knocked down by two pedestrians walking by (shown at 3:45 in the video). The recorded footage shows a man shoving another man into a storefront, causing a nearby card stand display to fall over the sidewalk.

Soon after, threads about knocking down the same card stand started to appear on 4chan's /b/ (random) board. After countless failed attempts (except for one), the threads got flooded with trolls claiming they don't live very far away from the spot and that they'll go knock it down again. Others chimed in with their own devious threads to once again witness the fall of card stand at the exact same location.

Notable Developments

February 10th: "Give Me 30 Minutes"

On the night of February 10th, 2011, a thread was posted on 4chan's /b/ board in which the original poster claimed he either would knock down the card stand again or an hero, accompanying his post with an image that was also captioned with "Give me 30 minutes" (shown below).

"FUCK IT /B/ROS, I AM TIRED OF THIS CARDSTAND BULLSHIT. I AM GOING TO FUCK THAT CARDSTAND. GIVE ME 30 MINUTES. IF IT DOESN'T FALL IN 30 MINUTES, I WILL AN HERO MYSELF IN 30 MINUTES…"

Although the original poster never actually knocked over the card stand, several board users began copying his post in that thread in the form of an exploitable phrase (shown below), to either deter the efforts of others or for fun.

February 11th: Operation Cardstand

After countless trolls copied the original text from this thread, many variations were born. The time period of "30 minutes" soon evolved on the /b/ board as a euphemism for infinity, of which OP & Anon will never deliver. Newcomers unexperienced with 4chan's culture (also known as newfags) would however still fall for the phrase, a scheme that was later also dubbed by some Anons as Operation Cardstand.

As older threads got deleted and new threads were created, many /b/ users continuously tried to put an end to the cardstand threads by linking to the original video from January 20th; while others would deter their efforts by linking to videos a YouTube video of "30 Minutes", a song by the Russian music duo t.A.T.u. "I'll be there in 30 minutes" also made it onto YouTube^[2] comments as early as on February 11th, 2011. By the next day, Card stand-related threads waned and most discussions had evolved into "30 minute" in-jokes and references.

February 16th: The Day Anon Delivered

On February 16th, 8:20 pm, an Anon posted "Fuck it /b/ros, be there in the 30 minutes." Being a copypasta of the original OP post, many /b/ users showed disbelief and called the poster a troll, but regardless some ended up watching nonetheless. 30 Minutes later, however, the original poster did appear on the Livestream as he collides with the Cardstand, scattering cards over the entire sidewalk. This event was later dubbed "The Day Anon Delivared". By 1:30 pm (EST), the store's shopkeeper had put away the Cardstand for the night.

April 22nd and Later: Cardstand Falls Again

On April 22nd, 2011, 8:26 pm (EST), the card stand fell again. Since then, various /b/ users had created and attempted to knock over the cards and again; although some of them succeeded, nearly all of these resulted in failure or were troll threads. Other board users instead approached the card stand differently, posing alongside it or holding up a signs.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Earthcam – Times Square, New York

^[2] YouTube – Earthcam Trolling