Sociology 167 Blog: Team Pudding! Pudding! We love pudding!

“ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US”

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/000/999/AllYourBaseAnimated.gif

History:

“All your base are belong to us” or AYBABTU, as it is commonly abbreviated, is popular catchphrase/internet meme that emerged on various (now deleted) internet forums as early as 1998. The phrase comes from a poorly translated 16-bit Japanese video game called, Zero Wing, originally released in 1989 on the Sega Mega Drive game system in Japan. When the game was adapted for European and American gamers, the poorly translated opening dialogue manifested itself as what has become to be known as “Engrish”—broken English used by native East Asian language speakers. The original dialogue in the Japanese version accurately translated states: “With the cooperation of Federation Forces, all of your bases now belong to us”, but the “Engrish” translation played out much differently and hilarity ensued:

Captain: What happen ?

Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.

Operator: We get signal.

Captain: What !

Operator: Main screen turn on.

Captain: It’s you !!

CATS: How are you gentlemen !!

CATS: All your base are belong to us.

CATS: You are on the way to destruction.

In June 2000, Overclock.org posted their Zero Wing Dub Project, featuring a dubbed version of the introduction, this occurrence is believed to be the first “response video” to AYBABTU, and one of the earliest response videos on the internet period. From 2000 to 2001, the popularity of AYBABTU began to explode across the web, with two main events generally regarded as the catalysts for the memes emergence into popular culture. First, Something Awful forums, a community well known for the users with photoshoping skills, hosted a photoshop contest to create images with “AYBABTU” photoshoped into them. The discussion thread exploded, growing to over 30 pages, creating more than 2000 images.

Then Secondly, in Spring of 2001, the viral catchphrase hit mainstream news coverage on CNET, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Register, and the Daily Mirror, which was one of the first instances of a web meme being recognized by major news organizations. This mainstream exposure caused the meme to spawn YouTube remixes where creators would take the intro to Zero Wing remix with other popular Memes, news stories, or movie/TV references.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP4uUnOJL2M&feature=player_embedded

All Your Bases Are Belong To Us ORLY? Remix

The AYBABTU Meme peaked in popularity in 2004 and has been in steady decline ever since. The catchphrase still has real world emergence and relevance as it is a common graffiti and catchphrase on shirts, but it is losing popularity across the web, as do most memes over time. The main cultural significance of AYBABTU is its emergence as one of the first mainstream memes recognized in the media, as well as its roll in helping to inspire the remix genre on YouTube, and its proliferation of the “Engrish” genre across the web as well.

Related:

YouTube video featuring original translated Zero Wing intro and various photoshoped images/memes from the early 2000’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg&feature=player_embedded

“All Your Base Are Belong To Us” written on interstate 50 in Nevada

Google Insight graph showing web relevance declining since 2004

Planking is the art of a person lying horizontally across any object or the ground with their arms touching their sides, mimicking the look of a wooden plank. The more unique or dangerous the place the person is planking, the better it is. One belief of where the planking sensation came from is the 1993 movie “The Program”, where a quarterback lies down in the middle of the highway as cars drive by. Another belief of where planking came from is in 2006 when two British students posted pictures of themselves on the Internet playing the “Lying Down Game”. I think planking became such a craze because of the widespread photos being posted onto Facebook, which in turn made peoples friends want to join in on the craze. Also planking began to get a lot of media attention, which contributed to its growth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZOgF4EbWO8- video of football team planking

Another story that brought upon publicity for the fad of planking was the death of Australian native Acton Beale, age 20, who died from planking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_rvHgQ6tw- video of man dying from planking

In March of 2011 professional rugby player David Williams planked after converting a try, which led to the craze of planking to grow even more. Planking hit its peak of popularity in July of 2011.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=planking- Google Insights of planking

After planking became very popular, many other poses started to become more prevalent on the Internet.

Other fads that came from planking: