The Internet: Explain it to Meme?

[side_show]

I thought I'd make a thread where we can post about things we are having trouble interpreting on the internet, or just things we are maybe enjoying having a WTF feeling about.  A place where we can be all WTF and IDK without fearing wrath and judgement.  Because 4Chan sort of scares me in an inexplicable way, and yeah, sure I can look things up on knowyourmeme.com if I know what I'm looking for, but what if I don't know the name of the thing?  Or if the explanation doesn't actually get at the main question I always find myself asking:  why?

One thing I've come across that I just can't comprehend is the use of rage comics.  No matter how much explanation, my brain just can't compute them.  I'm thinking maybe they appeal to a subset of people who are challenged by subtle human expressions or something?  Any way, I don't get the appeal.  They "why" of the "what."

On the flip-side the recent increase in My Little Pony memes on the web is something I really welcome.  I guess, really, like all good meme's things that catch on do because they're already out there in the cultural zeitgeist, and well, for me Pretty Ponies have a strong base because back when I was working in sexual health a few years ago, when a fem lesbian I knew mentioned she was into pretty ponies and then I sort of ran with it and started basically referring almost everything back to pretty ponies as a sort of coded way of making jokes that only a small circle of my coworkers got.  I'd sing the Pretty Pony theme swapping out certain lyrics to express frustration or annoyance or a sense of the crazy going on around us.  Pretty Ponies are a good way of talking about gender identity too, or maybe identity in general.  Anyway, this all escalated to where one of my coworkers brought in a bunch of Pretty Ponies he found in a discount bin.  At some point on a break I transformed my pretty pony using a Sharpie and some scissors into a tattooed, pierced and mulleted "Sexual Health Pony" which became a sort of mascot.  So jump to this year, and I'm seeing pretty ponies everywhere and sending off links to all my old buds from that job and just feeling like somehow, out there, there is an order to the universe.  

[pmcd9]

Your use of rage comics link doesn't work and I don't know how to fix it because I have no idea what that is.

Other than that I heartily approve of this thread. 

[wombat]

The only place I've ever seen rage comics are in places that explain what rage comics are.

[side_show]

The only place I've ever seen rage comics are in places that explain what rage comics are.

I've seen rage comics around, though I can't exactly recall where.  Troll Face was the first one I saw around that had me irked enough to try figure it out.  Mostly what it's taught me is that some people are dicks on the internet, which I already knew.

Another meme I really like is Sad Keanu that's some fun times.

[jay-ell]

I used the "laughing guy" face in one of my blogs one time. I like some of the stock rage comic images, I think the "WTF?" expressions are spot-on. But actual rage guy bothers me.

[Nabubrush]

For some reason all the "X"-comics are much funnier to me than I feel they ought to be (in the aggregate).

[Doc]

For me the joke with rage guy etc is that the response is so disproportionate, or when it's a real story the opposite to what actually happened. In reality the idiot at burger king got your order wrong but by the time you noticed you were home so you sucked it up and moved on but on the Internet, Rage Guy because hyperbole is funnier.
This is a similar type of joke to me.

[pmcd9]

I'm still not sure I understand Rage Guy.

[side_show]

Me neither, not really.  Or Troll Face/Cool Face for that matter.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Rage Guy is just shorthand for "This really pisses me off."

Troll Face is kind of stupid. Half the time he's deployed, I think it's because the "troller" is losing the argument or what have you, and falls back on "I was trolling you the whole time! Ha ha! I am cleverer than you!" No, you're just a dick.

[side_show]

Yes, it's something I tend to see as "this arguement is over, and I won because [troll face].  I've not seen it used for legit trolling, mostly just in childish breakdowns in communication, which is what makes it more puzzling. 

[pmcd9]

I'm glad I don't hang out in places where that sort of behavior is acceptable.  God Bless TOUAMB.

[Jaded Tersk]

I'm old enough to know better, but I do really enjoy the rage comic format, including troll face (or 'cool face' as he is "officially" known).

This one has been my long-standing favourite:   http://imgur.com/pSdIX

[Nabubrush]

Canned. I've never seen that one, and I quite enjoyed it.

[theinevitable]

yeah, I like those comics way too much. Unfortunately, I cannot find any of the ones I like anywhere. Hm.