#bottom g

There's a phenomenon I've observed in recent times online, where internet memes appear to coming in and out of fashion at a far higher speed than they used to. With the relatively small internet populous of the late 2000s and the near complete lack of cynicism, everything from Doge to Trollface were downright undying in popularity; today, a new meme can be outright skip the stage of popularity and become revered ironically before it was ever even liked sincerely. I think you can pinpoint 2015-2016 as the main point when the tides began to shift; the period when internet cynicism was at an all-time high just so coincidentally happening at the same time as complete jibberish nonsense memes like Dat Boi and MLG parodies. I've covered both of those examples back on Koopa Street and we are number one but with outdated memes over it, and this post isn't necessarily about nostalgic reminiscence of memes long gone; but rather, that the intensely rapid circulation of today's meme economy have many jokes, like the one featured today on Lagplane, as feeling forgotten about mere months after their prominence.

It should require no disclaimer to clarify that I do not endorse, support or approve of anything that Andrew Tate — the online world's number one loser — says or does. Unfortunately, for as forgotten as today's meme associated with him has become, the man himself still persists in online spaces like a cockroach. Yet there was a very small timeframe back in late 2022, during the highpoint of his obnoxious presence on platforms like TikTok, where knowing about him would inadvertently also make you aware of one of the funniest bits played in recent memory; The legendary "Bottom G".

It began with various users on the app simply taking notice of people on the street with a striking resemblance to Tate's (rather generic) appearance, whilst coincidentally partaking in less-than-hypermasculine behavior. As Mr. Tate is one to desperately obsess over the state of his own — and others' — sense of masculinity, the inherent comedy in seeing a man look exactly like him yet exude openly queer energy became immediately apparent. Soon, these random sightings would escalate into one downright uncanny look-a-like by the name of Brian Michael Hinds taking it upon himself to don the meme's persona single-handedly. Mere days after the joyous news of Tate's online suspension broke in August 2022, Hinds celebrated by busting it down to the sped-up tune of Bambee's Bumble Bee; and thus, Bottom G was officially cast into stardom.

There was something about it all — the outright mocking of an obnoxious internet personality, the use of nightcore'd up music, the outright rejection of hypermasculine societal norms — that has always made me associate Bottom G with a certain flavor of memes from the early 2010s. The easiest comparison to draw, of course, is to the ever-present hatred of Justin Bieber as covered back on Babydansen... only now, that vitriol was not only directed toward someone far more deserving of ridicule, but was also distilled into an anthem, into a whole series of short videos that were and are genuinely entertaining to watch. There's no other way to put it; Brian Michael Hinds absolutely SLAYED in the role of Bottom G across all his various shortform content he'd make to continue mocking the disheveled influencer. All of this, in turn, me oh-so-happy to see that SiIvaGunner team was quick on the straw to start capitalizing on the joke themselves.

I'm aware that a lot of people are a bit mixed on the Tate's Journey rip purely due to just how tied they are to a currently-prominent controversial figure, and it's a viewpoint I can completely understand. Yet almost every rip of the fake game that we received throughout Season 6 and 7 shows just why its such a fun bit to riff on - and rips such as Top G Alert! showed just how fun the actual audio source of Bumble Bee is to boot! It's a high tier SiIvaGunner meme in my eyes for just how varied it ends up being as a result of all that the meme entails, and Lagplane stands as one of the meme's best showings; At once showing the genuine talent to produce great sounding work from its rippers, a great sense of humor in the material used, and a really fun way to spin the "game"'s ongoing presence on the channel. It may well be the last rip the game will ever receive, releasing over 10 months ago as even the SiIvaGunner team themselves have seemingly moved on from the meme, but it's a true highpoint for the meme to go out on.

Lagtrain is a track that's been made explosively iconic in the vocaloid community and one that I feel is just on the precipice to becoming known even far outside of it the same way Bad Apple!! of Through the Bad Apples!! fame is today. It shouldn't be very hard to understand from just the first listen; the lead instrumentation, for one, is incredibly disstinct, almost reminiscent of pan flutes, the employment of which I'm all too sold on as explained back on Wake Up! It's Friday!, all only helped by the fantastic sound of the synthesized vocals and strikingly intense percussion. These qualities alone make the track prime material for use in high quality ripping; yet above all else, what's kept the track etched into the minds of nerds all over is undoubtedly its music video. The scratchy monochrome visuals of a girl in unamused thought upon a train, soon devolving into jittery motions in time to the music's beat; it's a hypnotic watch and immediately identifiable, and we've already had plenty of rips on SiIvaGunner paying genuine tribute to it. Be it Eva "hawk tuah" Twin's fantastic Coconut Mall (JP Version), its repeated appearance on Season 8's agonizing April Fools day event such as through PsychLantern's lagtrain but i made it funnier, or plenty other fantastic riffs played on it: Lagtrain, four years past its initial release, is here to stay on SiIva.

It's befitting, in a sense, that the grand sendoff to Tate's Journey rips would play off of their one common denominator past the Bottom G jokes: the thumbnail, a shitty stock image of Tate aboard a private plane. Replace Lagtrain's train with the plane, and its girl with Mr. Tate, and the joke speaks for itself: Lagplane's visuals, done by contributor Whatvzz, are simple but incredibly effective at selling the joke before the audio even kicks in, their scratchiness capturing Lagtrain's charm perfectly. From there, the joke speaks quite well for itself! It's the distinct sound of Lagtrain used to arrange the Bottom G anthem of Bumble Bee, a joyous, whimsical pop song not too unlike Caramelldansen of Caramariodansen fame. Much like that rip, though, the choice in track to mix Bumble Bee with ends up creating a pretty notably different mood: the heavy percussion, monotone synthesized vocals and pan flute melody give Lagplane a somewhat melancholic vibe despite the pep-and-step carried over from Bumble Bee's melody. It's a pretty funny contrast to the rest of the Tate's Journey rips which almost all feel gleefully maximalist, rainbows-and-sparkles-and-everything-else in vibe, and yet it shows just how fun a song Bumble Bee is to where it's still this catchy even placed in a completely different environment such as this.

Of course, as is always the case in rearrangement rips, and as I always try to highlight with everything from Super Wonderful World to Plasmaseeker: the listening experience highly relies on the ripper's expertise and ear for rearranging. Ever since I first heard the rips he worked on starting at around Season 5 with The expanse of meme in past was split, A fiendish trap has now been set; Behind a tree the villains sit, Terror of sport, the Robbie's Net., I've known that Blookerstein's talent was the real deal, a track record of pretty much nothing but bangers and a genuinely impeccable attention to detail throughout all his work. Even though his contributions tend to stay on the sincere side with works like Outertale, Lagplane goes to show that he still operates at full capacity in a sillier setting. It's a fantastic arrangement of Bumble Bee, of course — I particularly love that even Bumble Bee's vocals are redone through using the exact same vocaloid as Lagtrain — but extends itself to being a tribute to the Bottom G meme in general; a segment midway through the rip uses Brian Michaal Hinds' own "Bottom G cover" of Tourner dans le vide, while a section quickly therafter sees both the audio and visuals reference a particularly iconic image of Tate shared in the fallout of his internet suspensions in late 2022.

It's this level of both quality and detail that, paired with the rip's status as perhaps the last-ever Tate's Journey rip, make Lagplane feel like such a befitting swansong to the Bottom G meme as a whole. SiIvaGunner itself is a channel that loves to keep jokes in endless circulation, but its undeniable that memes on the internet come and go at ever-increasing speeds; leave the internet for a month, and you'll have missed a half dozen jokes each rise in popularity, become utilized by shitposters of all kinds, spread to a degree that becomes obnoxious, and then fall completely out of favor. It's very easy to see why overexposure would make people sick of memes online; yet SiIvaGunner has always felt like a place where these memes are allowed to flourish, maintained and explored only by the hands of extremely talented rippers who know not to circulate them with low-quality slop (unless, of course, if being low quality slop is part of the joke; I would never imply that Snowball Park - Super Mario 3D World is anything less than pure cinema).

In the last few days, I've been slowly chewing my way through Volume Ruby in my free time - its been a really fun way to re-experience Season 7 and uncover a lot of rips I missed out on. I try to always stay up-to-date with the channel, but I'm not perfect: sometimes real life just gets in the way for a week, and I miss out on the big meme for a while until its buried amidst other rips later on. And unfortunately, that meant that I sort of missed the boat on the rips referencing Bottom G, Bumblebee, and the "Top G" himself. The smile on my face when I realized what Top G Alert! was doing was simply magic.

You've likely already heard way too much about everyone's least favorite convicted sigma male - Tate's an "influencer" in the sense that he spews vile and annoying rhetoric to his audience of young men to basically teach them to be assholes in order to succeed in life. His role as an obnoxious asshole is well known in just about every circle that actually follows him, and its led to a bevvy of mockery and parody of the guy: most famous of which being "Bottom G" from TikTok. He's an exceptionally talented dancer who happened to look near identical to Tate, and decided to play into that as a form of parody, performing flamboyant dancing to encourage a far superior "sigma" lifestyle to the world. Its hard not to find his energy infectious, and that carries over to the equally infectious song he's most closely associated with - Bumble bee by Norweigan pop artist Bambee, sped up in an eerily similar fashion to Caramelldansen.

After finally drawing all of these connections together - uncovering the rabbithole of Bottom G and finally getting up to speed with all of Tate's drama - it was oh so fun to realize that the SiIva team had been playing along with it the whole time, particularly with its rips of the fake game "Tate's Journey". Yet Top G Alert! takes the cake for me - Bowser's Inside Story is a game I hold very close to my heart, and I've even covered it on here before with Brothers ~ The finale is afoot!. In all the game's music, there's such a fun bouncy energy to the music, such bizarre yet always fun instrument choices and fun rhythms to go along with - and Top G Alert! mixes that instrumentation with the nightcore-ified Bumble bee song and vocals. Its a banger that I appreciate in the exact same way I do the original Tough Guy Alert!, through being simultaneously fun and silly whilst still having a really commanding percussion and overall progression. It grabs your attention and asks you to dance along, and RHMan did an absolutely incredible job translating that energy over with integrating Bumble Bee into the track.