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Internet memes. Its seemingly improperly rendered or glitched-out characters make it prevalent amongst memes intended to make the reader's device appear to be malfunctioning. Zalgo text has become popular in the world of "surreal memes", which are intended to come across as bizarre or absurd. A
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Though the most influential aspect of the original Zalgo creepypasta is the modified text characters, other aspects of the story have been popular as well. Fans of the story have conceptualized Zalgo as "either an unseen supernatural force, a secret cabal, or perhaps even an evil demigod" and
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of glitched or distorted cartoon characters exclaiming "Zalgo!" The text in the images was often distorted, and the style of the distortion became popularised as "Zalgo text". The characters were often depicted bleeding from their eyes, and forum members interpreted Zalgo as an unimaginable,
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creator submitted the word "hamburger" in Zalgo text for his school yearbook caption; when the yearbook was printed, the text overlapped his photograph and that of the student below him.
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app are unable to properly handle Zalgo text, and will crash if they try to render a message that contains such text. This behavior has been used to perform
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common signifier of surreal memes, Zalgo text ties in with an overall aesthetic sensibility of the strange and impossible that includes elements such as
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In addition to legitimate uses, Zalgo text has been used maliciously to crash or overwhelm messaging apps. Some versions of the Apple
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Laimonas Zakas was inspired by Zalgo text to create
Glitchr, a Facebook page that intentionally modifies and glitches Facebook code.
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and strange-looking recurring characters but refuses to represent real-world elements such as real people or brands.
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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents
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Zalgo text has also been used or alluded to outside of
Internet memes. A fan-made campaign logo for the
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492:"iMessage denial of service 'prank' spams users rapidly with messages, crashes iOS Messages app"
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305:"Slenderman, Candle Cove & The Rake: Here Are The Spookiest Stories Born On The Internet"
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570:"Facebook Page Performance Art Glitchr Purposefully Tries To Activate Code Glitches"
331:"How Does Zalgo Text Work?: A Guide to Using and Misusing Unicode Diacritical Marks"
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due to the nature of its use, is digital text that has been modified with numerous
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544:"Italian researcher discovered that Gmail shutdown after sending a Zalgo text"
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466:"Teen's bizarre yearbook photo draws concern: 'Someone's getting in trouble'"
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253:"Surreal, Terrifying Garfield Comics Are Suddenly Everywhere"
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of digital text. Historically, it has primarily been used in
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deity, Zalgo text has become a significant component of many
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depictions of Zalgo have included drawings and short films.
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Zalgo text has led to the creation of other
Internet-based
440:"Mike Bloomberg "campaign logo" reminiscent of ZALGO text"
596:"This Footage Allegedly Has the Power to Summon 'ZALGO'"
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against iOS users. Similarly, Zalgo messages sent over
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Zalgo text is generated by excessively adding various
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Digital text modified to appear frightening or glitchy
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A Zalgo-text effect applied to the words "ZALGO TEXT"
414:"Surreal memes deserve their own internet dimension"
50:above or below letters, to appear frightening or
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362:"What is Zalgo Text and How to Use It"
94:Zalgo text was pioneered in 2004 by a
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278:"Le parole di Internet: Zalgo text"
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360:Kumar, Sumit (14 September 2018).
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632:Internet memes introduced in 2004
518:"'Text bomb' is latest Apple bug"
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464:Weekman, Kelsey (9 June 2020).
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388:"Is This Surreal Life?"
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180:have caused crashes.
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232:List of creepypastas
137:to the letters in a
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109:apocalyptic figure.
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647:Creepypasta
470:Yahoo! News
444:Boing Boing
366:The Broodle
257:Cracked.com
147:creepypasta
59:creepypasta
36:glitch text
32:cursed text
28:Zalgo text,
652:Diacritics
626:Categories
574:TechCrunch
262:2024-06-02
238:References
227:Glitch art
190:glitch art
48:diacritics
309:The Music
282:Zeus News
184:Influence
610:13 March
579:13 March
553:13 March
527:13 March
522:BBC News
501:13 March
475:13 March
449:13 March
423:13 March
418:Mashable
397:13 March
371:13 March
314:13 March
288:13 March
216:See also
170:Messages
152:clip art
107:eldritch
88:Garfield
63:eldritch
642:Unicode
210:Fan art
73:History
52:glitchy
44:Unicode
163:TikTok
143:horror
139:string
392:Slate
345:4 May
178:Gmail
113:Usage
612:2021
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555:2021
529:2021
503:2021
477:2021
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