Taxonomy and history of rage-faces

On Ars Technica, Tom Connor does a great job producing a taxonomy and history of rage-faces, showing how they evolved from a set of proscribed, orthodox uses on 4chan to a wider set of uses and meanings in several online communities.

Rage faces slowly migrated from 4chan into other communities. There, they gained popularity and expanded their numbers as artists introduced new faces, and particularly humorous comics went viral in their communities. Though the faces were no longer exclusive to any single forum, they stayed true to the originals in style.
More people got involved, the cartoons mutated and evolved, and like any successful species, they adapted to fit into a wide variety of habitats. "You can trace back the origins to 4chan so you can say [the faces are 4chan's] baby, but it's evolved on such a wide scale that it's gone beyond anyone's single ownership," Swanson said. "Mostly the original faces are from 4chan, but a lot of the newer faces have come out of F7U12, or other places like FunnyJunk."

Fffuuuuuuuu: The Internet anthropologist's field guide to "rage faces"

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MORE: 4chan • anthropology • Comics • web theory

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EH

…does a great job paraphrasing KnowYourMeme’s rewriting of Encyclopedia Dramatica entries.
Michael_GR

As EH said, all of the data is available on KnowYourMeme with references for first appearences, creators, and evolution of every rage face. Still, a good primer for the uninitiated.
http://hame.ca/one/ Hamish Grant

also handy: redditor ch00f’s rage face timeline:

http://www.reddit.com/r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu/comments/d38tq/im_bored_at_work_and_i_want_to_make_an/
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

I don’t know what it is about those faces, but wow do they perfectly capture the moment/emotion. Very much of the NOW.
Moriarty

Welp, rage face is officially over.
Robert

For Xeni:

Catbox 1
Catbox 2
Catbox 3
Catbox 4
Pedantic Douchebag

“Internet Cancer and You: A Field Guide”.
KanedaJones

I had to click on individual rage faces at KnowYourMeme just 3 weeks ago and NOW somebody gathers them up for me???? -_- non-plus’d
Pliny_the_Elder

Fuck him, fuck you, and fuck rage faces.
bcsizemo

Y U NO HAS this rage face?
- Godfree
  
  : ( Not bad.
phuzz

rage faces are the first meme that I’ve noticed not being exclusively male orientated, which is nice.
- Guest
  
  you’ll notice a lot more when you leave the male orientation at home.