Local NYC band Anamanaguchi has released a new single, called “Meow,” off of their upcoming album Endless Fantasy. The video is replete with anime, a Japanese crawl and some technicolor laser tag, but at the end Betabeat spotted a familiar face. Read More
A few weeks ago we reported that 4chan, the Internet’s favorite underbelly, was galvanizing to vote North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the top of Time’s person of the year reader poll. It seems it has been successful in its pursuit, as Time just announced that Kim Jong-un won the spot. This, of course, doesn’t mean that he will certainly be the Time editors’ person of the year pick, but it demonstrates the immense online voting power of 4chan. Read More
That didn’t take long: A week after Time opened an annual online poll allowing readers to vote their choice for the magazine’s Person of the Year, 4chan has succeeded in pushing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the top of the list. By a long shot. Read More
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is having the best week ever. After being nominated by The Onion as 2012′s sexiest man alive–and having the announcement subsequently spread across papers in China as if The Onion is a legitimate news source–the meme-friendly leader now has 4chan gunning for him. Like it did for the site’s founder Moot back in 2009, The Daily Dot reports that 4chan’s /b/ board is assembling to affect the outcome of Time‘s Person of the Year award. Read More
4Chan founder Chris Poole, who has gone by the username Moot since 2003, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Oregon-based startup Moot.It, a yet-to-launch company that promises to reimagine forums and commenting. We initially suspected the letter might be a prank from /b/, but confirmed with Mr. Poole’s lawyer, Martin Schwimmer, that it is indeed real.
Mr. Schwimmer, a partner at White Plains law firm Leason Ellis, writes that because Mr. Poole is so closely aligned with the username Moot, any attempt by Moot.It to use the name could result in confusion from users who may wrongfully believe Mr. Poole is associated with the company. Read More
It’s not often that we feel the desire to head over to Patriot Voices, the website of former Presidential candidate and uber-conservative Rick Santorum that serves up partisan vitriol with every click. But a post on Reddit about Mr. Santorum caught our eye and the claim checks out. Read More
Michael Gallagher just wanted to tap into the zeitgeist.
The 23-year-old filmmaker–known for his popular YouTube series, Totally Sketch–is about to release his first full-length feature film, a low budge horror flick called Smiley. But what should amount to buzzy excitement leading up to the film’s launch has been eclipsed by personal attacks on Mr. Gallagher made by notorious message board 4chan and hacktivist collective Anonymous.
The reason? Mr. Gallagher painted both 4chan and Anonymous as the villains of Smiley. Obviously, this didn’t sit well with either group. Read More
Shimmery fairydust composite Taylor Swift, who floats instead of walks and subsists entirely on a nutritional diet of rainbows, has decided not to let the trolls ruin a good contest.
Back in August, Reddit and 4chan galvanized for the all-important cause of gaming a VH1 competition that would send Ms. Swift to perform at a school that received the highest amount of votes. Soon, a hoard of trolls began liking Ms. Swift on Facebook and voting to send her to the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston.
(Get it? Sending a musician to a school for kids who can’t hear music? “Lulz.”) Read More
You may remember Jessi Slaughter, the outgoing Florida teenager whose attention-seeking YouTube videos earned her the scorn and mass rage of the 4chan army. An intense online battle ensued between Ms. Slaughter and 4chan; her family famously got involved, with that now-notorious video of her father shouting “Ya dun goof’d,” which became a meme in itself. Now, it looks like 4chan is going after another woman who has dared to challenge them. Her name is Lacey Vicich.
“Two years ago there was a girl names Jessi Slaughter,” reads an anonymous email sent by “The Cyber Police” that landed in Betabeat’s inbox today. “People brought that girl to tears but we intend to bring Lacey Vicich to her knees.” Read More
