Upworthy Headlines

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Part of a series on Clickbait. [View Related Entries]

About

Upworthy Headlines are parody titles that mock those used for content highlighted on the viral media site Upworthy,^[1] which are often criticized for using the "clickbait" technique to grab the attention of viewers to increase pageviews.

Origin

On September 21st, 2013, the @UpWorthIt Twitter feed was launched, which posts parody Upworthy-style headlines. In the first three months, the feed gained over 6,800 followers.

When a blind kitten sees it's first rainbow, you won't be able to hold back your tears.
— Up Worth It (@UpWorthIt) September 21, 2013

Spread

On October 4th, 2013, the Internet humor site CollegeHumor^[3] published several mock Upworthy titles for various historical events, including Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, the crucifixion of Jesus and the extinction of the dinosaurs (shown below).

On November 12th, the "Upworthy Springfield" Tumblr^[7] blog was created, featuring screen captures from episodes of the animated television show The Simpsons accompanied by mock Upworthy-style captions (shown below, left). On November 17th, Funny or Die^[2] highlighted several mock movie posters with titles written as if they were featured on Upworthy (shown below, right).

The same day, the Upworthy Generator^[6] web app was launched, which creates randomly-generated Upworthy-style headlines (shown below, left). On December 5th, Upworthy^[5] published a blog post defending the headlines and content featured on the site. On December 20th, the Tumblr blog "SFFworthy"^[4] was launched, which highlights screen captures from science fiction and fantasy fims with Upworthy-style headlines (shown below, right).