Justin Bieber, 4chan and ‘Know Your Meme’s’ Psychic Powers

The internet scientists at Know Your Meme are getting so good at tapping the juju of online memes, it now seems they can actually predict the future. Last week’s episode, “Troll Bait” (below) opened with a fortuitous intro explaining how some (un)lucky folks make supreme targets for attacks by those increasingly numerous internet trolls. Their prime example? None other than YouTube discovery turned tween-pop heartthrob, Justin Bieber.

They even called out 4chan, the anonymous message board so often the origin of the web’s most popular memes (and pranks)—think LOLcats, Rickrolls and even Tay Zonday’s breakout “Chocolate Rain“—as the most likely assailant. Well, over the weekend the Bieber attack became a reality.

The 4chan ‘/b/tards’ launched a two-pronged attack on Bieber, first by taking advantage of a security hole in YouTube that let them redirect fans searching for Bieber’s music videos to porn sites and even that rumor that the 16 year-old singer had died. Then, in another one of their vote-rigging schemes, inundated a fan voting site to decide which country “wants Bieber the most” to put shadowy hellhole North Korea in the top spot. Well done.

The meat of the Troll Bait episode centers around the 12 year-old YouTube troll bait wunderkind, Scott Parsons, aka ChristianU2uber, who would effectively launch the Angry Homo Kid meme through his insecure homophobic vlogs. Where Know Your Meme nails it calls out JoshU2uber, a supposed “friend” of ChristianU2uber, for the brilliance that was his masterful troll baiting, even sucking in 4chan regulars into believing he was authentic.