Break Your Own News

Submission 20,086

Part of a series on Breaking News Parodies. [View Related Entries]

About

Break Your Own News is a web generator that allows users to create breaking news parody headlines about anything. It has been popular to create images of breaking news tied to WorldWarBot 2020 updates, Suicide Rate Drops to 0% memes and Despacito 2, and many more.

History

On September 4th, 2014, Jonathan Cresswell launched Breaking News Generator on his blog^[1], now mainly known as breakyourownnews.com^[2] and on his Twitter^[3] @JonathanEx. His tweet only received 4 retweets and 2 likes in 7 years (shown below).

Features

The site offers users to create their own "breaking news" headline. First, users type out their own text for the headline and chyron, then upload the image as a thumbnail. Then, users can choose three options about how they want to upload the image: downloading it to their computer, uploading to Facebook, or uploading it to Imgur (shown below). The generator was at one point available for Android in Google Play Store, but the application was removed^[4].

Spread

The site and generator did not receive much attention until on December 12th, 2017, HUGELOL^[9] user WasteofBreath uploaded an image of a group of NASA engineers cheering. The image featured a "Despacito 2 Confirmed by NASA," and a mock chyron which said: 'Despacito will receive a sequel' states former administrator of NASA.' The post received more than 50 points (shown below).^[15]

Years later, it became popular to use the generator to create various updates about what happened on the WorldWarBot 2020 page. For example on May 3rd, 2021, Facebook^[5] user Maco Atienza uploaded an image with the headline "Tax Haven Conquered Tax Haven" on a WorldWarBot 2020^[6] page post about Liechtenstein conquering Switzerland (shown below, left). On a different post, Facebook^[7] user Kirk Jacinto uploaded an image with the headline "Holy Roman Empire Reforming" on a WorldWarBot 2020 post about Luxembourg conquering Austria^[8] (shown below, right).

The generator also gained popularity among Indonesian users who, inspired by the WorldWarBot 2020 page, created a similar project named Indonesia Civil War Bot 2030. For example on May 2nd, 2021, Facebook^[10] user Iannugrah Pandung Wibowo uploaded an image of Indonesian singer JRX with headline "JRX Pimpin Penaklukan NTB" (English: JRX leads the conquest of NTB) (shown below, left) in post about Bali Island conquering Nusa Tenggara Barat Province^[11]. In another post, Facebook^[12] user Aldy Purwanto uploaded an image of 2019 Jakarta Governor, Anies Baswedan with headline "Jabar Takluk Dari Jakarta" (English: Jakarta Conquers West Java) on post about how Jakarta conquered West Java Province in Indonesia Civil War Bot 2030^[13] (shown below, right).
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According to Alexa^[14] breakyourownnews.com was ranked 393,015 among websites in terms of traffic..

Despacito 2

Despacito 2 refers to a series of images and videos that revolve around a sequel to the song Despacito. The meme generally takes the form of a "breaking news" parody, in which a cultural or historical figure of authority either confirms the release or announces a delay of the song.

Man Literally Too Angry to Die

Man Literally Too Angry to Die refers to an exploitable Breaking News Parody meme in which various pop culture characters are paired with the chyron "Man Literally Too Angry to Die" or a variant thereof depending on the character.

Severe Back Pain

Severe Back Pain refers to a Breaking News Parody snowclone reading "BREAKING NEWS: (X Celebrity) has been hospitalized for severe back pain after carrying (X subculture) on their back.

Suicide Rate Drops to 0%

Suicide Rate Drops to 0% refers to exploitable Breaking News Parodies image macros where a user pairs a screenshot of real or imaginary news and pairs it with a graph saying the titular phrase. The memes are generally deep fried.