social media trends | Lucky Otters Haven

I’ve noticed something a lot of people do on social media: capitalizing random words. There doesn’t seem to be a reason for these words to be capitalized since they are not proper names, place names, or titles. The people who write sentences containing randomly capitalized words seem educated and intelligent otherwise, so I wonder if it’s just some new Meme or trend that’s circulating the web. (See what I did there?)

Many people find the random capitalization annoying, and I can understand why, especially if you’re one of those sticklers for grammar (the politically incorrect term is Grammar Nazis). I appreciate good grammar, but I don’t consider myself a grammar nazi. When it comes to these Randomly capitalized Words, I find it amusing, even hilarious. I really don’t know why. Perhaps it’s the silliness of capitalizing an Unimportant Word that I find so incongruous and therefore funny. After all, humor always arises from the unexpected.

Examples I have seen lately:

My weimeraner* dog tried to eat my Cat.

The Russian Mob that has overtaken the white house* needs to be rounded up and sent to Siberia. (*aside here: another thing I’ve noticed is people NOT capitalizing words that SHOULD be capitalized, and that seems deliberate too).

My therapist tried to put me on Crazy Pills but I refused and walked out. (is ‘Crazy Pills’ a new brand name? Should I ask my Doctor if they are right for me?)

My wife just purchased a Shit ton of new Throw Pillows. What are they good for, except throwing around because they’re always in the way.

I don’t understand why so many people want to act like Sociopaths, like it’s Cool or something?

I have to admit, I’ve been Guilty of capitalizing Random words myself, just because I think it’s Funny and I always wonder if anyone will Notice.

Here’s a thread from the Straight Dope Message Board that delves more deeply into the phenomenon:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=355786

How do you feel about people capitalizing random words?

Example of a single panel Rage comic using many rage faces.

You might have noticed I used a rage face in my last post. In fact, I’ve used rage faces several times in several different posts. I love rage faces.

What the hell is a rage face?

Essentially, it’s a cross between a meme and an emoticon. They are generally crudely executed (but sometimes grossly realistic) line-drawings of faces (usually male) showing exaggerated emotions. Rage is only one of them. By now there are probably hundreds of variations of the different rage faces swimming in the vast ocean of cyberspace, if not thousands.

Rage faces are publicly available and therefore if you use them, there’s no need to credit anyone. You can upload a rage face, combine them, Photoshop them with other images, or add your own text, making a brand new meme or cartoon. There are even special programs that let you do this.

Rage faces have been around awhile. If you spend any time online, most likely you’ve come across Okay Guy, Rage Guy, Troll Guy, the Y U NO guy, the Forever Alone Guy, and many others. The faces are probably most commonly used on social media or forums the same way “reaction” gifs are used (surely you’ve seen the Michael Jackson eating popcorn one–it appears on every forum whenever drama arises). The first rage face appeared on the website 4chan in 2007. A year later, the first four-panel rage comic using various rage faces was created. Now they’re everywhere, but I haven’t grown tired of them yet. I still think they’re hilarious.

Left to right: Okay guy, Y U NO guy, Rage guy, Forever alone guy.