This is a collection of every 4chan meme that I come across in my 2006-2008 /b/ archive. Some may have notes/explanations and links to first known appearance that I get directly from the archive, some may not. I will only get information about these memes directly from the archive. This is not for Copypasta, that belongs on the designated Copypasta page. It is also not for tans/chans that aren't related to chansites. If you see anything that isn't a meme and is actually Terminology, please email me at 4chansociety@gmail.com.
Spider Man/How do I shot web? - A common way to derail threads is to post spiderman images. How do I shot web is completely meaningless but very exploitable. More information about this is available here or here.
Bridget - More information about this is available here.
WRYYYYYYYYYYY (with the Y's extending farther from this point at varying lengths) - A 2chan flash animation based on an anime called JoJo's Bizarre Adventure that got popular on 4chan. More information about this is available here.
4chan Party Van - A FBI van that will arrest you for having CP. First known appearance here. More information about this is available here.
~desu/DESU/Suiseiseki - Suiseiseki is a character from the anime Rozen Maden, which had a cult following on 4chan. She ended every sentence with the copula 'desu'. This became a popular spamming tool on /b/, and memes of her and desu became widespread. She was even referred to as desu by those ignorant about the meme (or those just trolling). Many sub-memes were created, such as the posting of desu.edu (an actual website, apparently the page for the Delaware State University) or the Ascii versions of different desu-related words. There were many explanations of the phenomena, but it continued to confound most of /b/ with how widespread and spammed in became in such a short amount of time. Even mods joined in on the fun and stickied a desu thread during its heyday (mid-2006), although the OP was banned later on. First known appearance here. More information about this is available here.
2) ???? 3) Profit! - More information about this is available here.
Snacks/W.T. Snacks - W.T. Snacks was an admin/coder until moot decided to remove his privileges for internal reasons. He is known for banning many people and is loved/hated on /b/. First known appearance here. More information about this is available here.
A huge gaping vagina the size of a hallway - Was the phrase that "mordor" was wordfiltered to when posted, leading to some humorous accidental posts ("one does not simply walk into a huge gaping vagina the size of a hallway").
Furry - People who like/are animal humans. Absolutely hated on 4chan. More information about this is available here.
PENIS Wordfilter - For years, the word "penis" had a wordfilter that filtered it to PENIS (displayed in wacky font and background colours). It was one of the most beloved wordfilters.
420chan - A shitty 4chan rival with a focus on weed. More information about this is available here.
Gaston - The Disney Villain from Beauty and the Beast, seen as a symbol of strength and masculinity on /b/, although pictures of him making a silly face have been posted. First known appearance here, more information here.
Moonman/Moonmeme - More information about this is available here.
Happy Negro - Described by an anonymous /b/ user as "A PICTURE OF A BLACK PORN ACTOR WITH A FUNNY EXPRESSION IN HIS FACE KNEADING THE TITS OF SOME CHEAP WHORE". More information about this is available here and here.
Battletoads/Combat Frogs - It was popular in ~2006 to call your local Gamestop and annoy the employees by asking if they had Battlestoads, an old TMNT knock-off. More information about this is available here.
No Girls on the Internet - Not a single one. More information about this is available here.
Gaia Online - An anime-themed forum and gaming site, although there is a bunch more shit that can be done on it. Its users are mostly underage pre-teens (known as gaiafags), and the site was the target of many /b/ raids and is actually one of the few sites that retaliated, also raiding /b/ on several occasions, although they mostly failed. More information about this is available here.
Pedobear - A cartoon bear representing pedophilia. The source of many photoshops. A popular sub-meme was "Pedrobear", Pedobear's mexican cousin. One of the most beloved /b/ memes during the olden pre-2012 days. More information about this is available here. A large collection of images relating to him is available here.
Cockmongler/Grinman - A photo of a redheaded man with a toothy grin and bulging eyes who will "mongle" (suck) your cock, entailing unpleasant results. More information about this is available here.
Waha - More information about this is available here.
O RLY Owl - A photo of a owl with a funny face saying "O RLY?". Was once on the front page of FileShare. More information about this is available here.
Bucky O'Hare -
CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL - One of the rules of the internet that specifies that the Caps Lock key on most standard keyboard layouts (used for toggling uppercase text) is an automatic method to become cool, hence the cruise control metaphor.
HABEEB IT - A phrase uttered on /b/ that means nothing. The few times it does mean something it means "I can't believe it". More information about this is available here.
Penis Goes Where/Cock goes where - Randomly, this message (either of them) will be overlayed over an image of someone/thing with a suprised face. More information about this is available here.
Rules of the Internet - The idea that the internet has a set of rules. Many different rules have been made for it (the most well know being Rule #34), and a collection of them can be viewed here.
Love is over - A phrase often accompanying an image of something sad or unfortunate happening. A small collection of images relating to this is available here.
Bix Nood - A catchphrase that stems from a racist cartoon by the artist A. Wyatt Mann, and is mostly used in discussions about black people and minorities. A small gallery of memes relating to this is available here. More definitions are available here.
Disregard That, I Suck Cocks - A phrase commonly put under another post in a thread to seem that it is the same person both disavowing their original post and that they suck cocks. More information is available here.
Tits or GTFO - (see No Girls on Internet) This is commonly said whenever a girl makes her presence known on the internet (specifically 4chan). More information about this is available here and here.
Hahaha, Oh wow - A phrase that sarcastically expresses astonishment. More information about this is available here.
I Herd U Liek Mudkips - A common identifer and phrase to identify 4chan users outside of the site. More information about this is available here and here.
DENTAL PLAN! - A famous scene from The Simpsons and popular catchphrase. More information about this is available here.
A Cat Is Fine Too (among other variations) - A line from a doujin in which a man goes on a murderous rampage to get a loli, who turns into a cat once confronted. However, this does not stop the man, who begins unzipping his pants while saying the line. Has taken various meanings on /b/, sometimes used to describe something unexpected. Example: In response to a Desu sticky, one might say "A DESU IS FINE TOO". Sometimes typed vertically. Can also be used as a alternative to a subject (poster may get something completely different than what they asked and would respond with "a ____ is fine too"). More information/images is available here.
Bosnian - Originally a terminology that quickly turned into a meme. Emo used to wordfilter to bosnian, confusing many newfags and people who were unintentionally calling themselves bosnian. Arguably the second most beloved/well-known wordfilter in /b/ history. A collection of images relating to the filter is available here.
Serious Business - A joke saying, sarcastically saying that something is very serious regardless of whether it is (Example: "The Internet is Serious Business"). Meant to show not everything should be taken 100% seriously, used ironically most of the time because of this.
Diabeetus/DIAHBEEDUS - More information about this is available here.
Nice Work - Very little information is known about the meme, one said that Desu-chan (not referring to Suiseiseki) looks similar to the "the original Nice Work guy", but all that is known about Desu-chan is that he looks similar to the Nice Work guy (other than the fact he was once described as a "cute guy"). The same user said "a million points to whoever knows where & when the Nice Work meme was popular", pointing to it being an old meme.
Zoom/ZOOM - Involves pointing out an obvious grammatical or spelling error in a post by screencapping the post, and posting images that slowly zoom into the error in question. Can also be used on just about any image, making it funnier if used correctly. First reference was "ZOOM is perhaps the best /b/ effect ever. gtfo!". An example is here.
Blue Screen of Death - A screen your computer will show when its fried. More information about this is available here.
KILL IT WITH FIRE - Exactly what it says. Usually used when something unfavorable or something frightening (like a picture of a spider on /b/ or a picture of Blender on /3/). More information about this is available here.
Alabama Leprechaun/Crichton Leprechaun - A viral video of people looking for Leprechauns in Mobile, Alabama, on Saint Patrick's Day (in order to get a pot of gold). The video, as well as several follow-ups and spin-offs, were collected and put on Ebaumsworld. This link was soon posted onto /b/, which discussed the video (as well as some racial arguments) in this thread here. More information about this is available here.
Picard/Facepalm - These are Co-Memes. The most popular facepalm image posted when someone posts something stupid is a picture of picard (available here) while Picard has some other sub-memes. A popular sub-meme is to post a picture of Picard in a CP thread (one of these posts even got the 7.7M GET on /b/), as the initialism of Captain Picard is CP. More information about Facepalm is available here, while more about Picard is available here.
Sleepcat - Presumably, a sleeping cat. Not much is currently known about the meme, but one anon said that "Sleepcat is a better meme than this Desu faggotry" while another made an entire thread about the meme (which ultimately received no replies) saying "ITT we show appreciation for Sleepcat. And other cats of this nature.".
CAUTION: - A meme in which you warn of what you are about to be requesting or what is currently in the thread. All of the ones I find in the 2006-2008 4chan archive can be found here. The text would be some sort of unicode symbol above and below the text of "CAUTION:", with the following caution being directly after. Unfortunately, the unicode used above and below the caution text did not translate clearly during the 2006-2008 4chan archival and onlys shows as "????????????????????", meaning what was originally there is now lost.
George Zimmer - A textual meme where one pretends they are businessman George Zimmer while posting about some absurd event/scenario in all caps. This piece of text always begins with "HI, I’M GEORGE ZIMMER, FOUNDER AND CEO OF THE MEN’S WEARHOUSE." (unless they are posing as someone else in the same style as this) and always ends with "I GUARANTEE IT". A collection of these stories are available here, while more information is available here.
Stick It In Pooper/general Pooper-related jokes - "It" is most of the time referring to the penis while "pooper" is referring to one's (most likely a girl's) asshole. This is basically referring to anal sex. Most of the time posted in sex/relationship-related threads, but can attributed to a wide array of things, and is sometimes used by furries/other fags when certain animals/things with holes of any kind are posted. More information is available here.
GNAA - The Gay Nigger Association of America. A troll/hacking group known for making malware sites and the occasional spam flood on 4chan, among other things. More information is available here.
No, I am Fred Gallagher - Completely meaningless. Refers to the artist behind Megatokyo Fred Gallagher, but is posted completely randomly, mostly in response to the OP (regardless of whether the OP post was in the form of a question or not), although in one thread it was spammed in response to random people posting four times. Spammed on April 9 2006 and is listed on the spam/flood page.
Are You A Bad Enough ___ to ___? - Referencing a screen from the classic NES game Bad Dudes that had the text "Are You a Bad Enough Dude to save Ronnie?" The meme itself is the photoshopping of the image and the textual variations of it. The text can preface any challenge showing "badness" or bravery, or it could be just a joke, such as "Are you a bad enough dude to block Jesus?". More information is available here and a collection of images are available here.
Serious Business/The Internet is Serious Business - Almost always said in a sarcastic, humorous way. Coveys that not everything on the Internet should be taken 100% seriously and that the Internet is a carefree place. More information is available here
Nigra - An internet race of suit-wearing and afro-adorned black people, "nigras", as that is a bastardization of Nigga. It is mostly known in the context of Habbo raids, but the actual term existing months prior (at least by April of 2006). After its use in the Habbo raids, it became seen as a term meaning /b/tard on Habbo/doing raids. More information is available here.
What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets! - A quote by Dracula in the video game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The absurdity of the line contributed to its popularity as it became a popular catchphrase on /b/, capable of being expressed in any format (although it remained a mainly textual meme). It didn't have any explicit meaning, simply a funny thing to say. More information is available here.
ATARI DUMBLEDORE FROM PORKSLOPE TURKEYHANDLE - A meme originating from this 2005 thread (screenshot only). Arguably a mod meme, the phrase is a bastardization of Arcueid Brunestud from Tsukihime, which was very popular at the time. Makes pretty much no sense but is still the source of many parodies, like "Nintendo Snape from Hamplane Chickenflange". More information is available here.
Dividing by Zero - In math, it is impossible to divide by zero - it is undefined. Inputing any number divided by 0 (but preferably just 0÷0) on any calculator would either result in an error or "Infinity". Therefore, the idea is that dividing by zero is some earth-shattering event destroying the universe or causing some sort of disaster. It is very popular in motivationals and the text "OH SHI-" is associated with the meme as it represents someone cut off mid-sentence by whatever disaster is caused by dividing by zero. More information is available here.
ILLEGAL IN CANADA - Part of the Lolikon-CP debate. In 2005 a Canadian man was arrested for owning lolikon hentai and sentenced to 18 months without internet. News of this spread to /b/ and the phrase "ILLEGAL IN CANADA" became a popular stock reply to lolikon posted as the child pornography arrest was the first in the world (or at least Canada) to have been completely manga-based. First known appearance here. More information is available here.
Emo/Emo kids - The name given to people (mostly teenagers) following a certain social trend in the 90s to the late 2000s, like goth but with more a focus on sadness and depression than just teenage angst. Emo is short for "Emotional". There are several bands associated with it (Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, etc.) and on 4chan it's more known for the emo kids sometimes on the site whose posts are mostly overly depressive and appealing for pity/sympathy. "Cheer up, emo kid!" is a popular stock reply to these type of posts and has become a popular sub-meme. More information is available here and here. (see "Bosnian").
GMask - An image masking tool used for attaching files to images, most of the time used to attach CP. More information is available here.
Lens flare - Also known by its bastardization "lenzflair". More information about this is available here.
That Fucking Cat - A common exploitable image, also known as "Cover-Tom" due to the nature of the image. It is known as one of the "oldfag" memes due to it being spammed on 4chan repeatedly during 2005-2006, inspiring the textual sub-meme "IF I SEE THAT FUCKING CAT ONE MORE TIME...", (where the name later derived) which could easily be exploited to say other things. More information about this is available here and here.
Emo Duck -
Hard Gay - Most likely referring to this Japanese Wrestler. One user posted that "I am saddened to see that Hard Gay never caught on as a meme on /b/." before posting his only three memes. Some claimed that "hard gay is a CELEBRITY on 4chan", but this is thought to be untrue since it is so rarely mentioned in the archive. It was pretty much a mod meme as a css hack was done on /b/ less than a month prior with Hard Gay stickied, screenshot here. Although it failed as a meme on 4chan, it received its own Encyclopedia Dramatica page available here with more information.
Innocent Townsmen - One poster replied to the OP of the "Hard Gay" thread above with "well fuck you, neither did the innocent townsman >:(". Nothing else is known.
AXÖDDöH123 - Spawned in this desu sticky - this anon here began complaining about the desu spamming and asked for desu to be wordfiltered to "AXÖDDöH123 or some shit". Another anon jokingly posted how AXÖDDöH123 would be more annoying than desu in terms of spamming, and AXÖDDöH123 was spammed in the thread infrequently until its death. AXÖDDöH123 was later posted in a revival of a gay thread, but other than that there are no other references of it.
This is for everything that I am not sure if is a meme as it is currently an isolated case.
IS THIS THEODORE ROOSEVELT? - First known appearance here.
