Gondola: A Meme of Unexpected Sincerity

*For the character of the same name, see Gondola (character).*

Manon discovers a meme that Cybermare finds very suspicious.

**Gondola: A Meme of Unexpected Sincerity** is the second episode for *LOVEWEB*.

## Plot

Manon and Cybermare discovers a meme with strange origins before meeting it.

### ARG

At the end of the episode, a Pastebin link is seen flashing at the very last moment, containing the binary code "01101001 01101101 01100111 01110101 01110010 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100011 01101110 00110101 01111000 01100111 00111000 00110100 01110000 01101110 01100111". Upon translating the binary code, it leads to a dark
Imgur image. Brightening up the Imgur image reveals the letters "UHBpgrZYEu". Putting them into the Discord invite link leads to the server SOFTMARE\_0720.

## Characters

* Manon
* Cybermare
* Gondola

## Transcript

*(Intro plays as normal, with Manon surfing past screenshots of the RFCK episode and the future events of the current episode before landing in their room)*

*(cut to a shot of Manon and Gondola in the spaceweb, sitting on a cloud)*

**Manon:** So I was all like, OMG, then Cybermare came back as a spoopy ghost, which was pretty epic. I kept all of our slime, and then we left the game with all of it. We managed to fill her phone back to full, and then I did my *LOVEWEB* researches for the episode. It was really spoopy, but also so cool and hype! So, do you like vibing here, in the spaceweb?
*(window opens into the Manon and Cybermare's room, Cybermare leaning out)*

**Cybermare:** Yo Manon, you got another lollipop for me? *(Squinting at the gondola)* I don't wanna ...download... another one. Is that fucking Pedobear?

**Manon:** Wait, no no, hang on that's not who you're thinking of!

*(Manon is whisked away from the gondola and face to face with Cybermare by her psychic pull)*

**Cybermare:** Are you out of your fucking mind? There's no way you don't know who that is.

**Manon:** No no, he's not that guy! He's the best meme evah: Gondola! He's just a funny looking boy that inserts himself in pictures or videos and vibes, he doesn't talk at all, he just looks at nice things!

**Cybermare:** Why does he look so much like Pedobear then?

**Manon:** Well, hm, I can explain. Oh! You know what? That'd be the perfect excuse for a *LOVEWEB* on Gondola and his origins!

**Cybermare:** Fuck.

*(cut to black, Manon is now sitting on their pillow, monitor in frame.)*

**Manon:** Hello Webbies! Welcome to a new *LOVEWEB* on Gondola! But first, before we talk about this little fella, we're going to go all the way back to his origins; back in the early 2000's! Because Gondola is actually at the end of a long evolution line.

*(zoom into montior, flashing from Gondola, to Spurdo Spärde, to Pedobear, and then to a drawn version of the Kuma bear.)*

**Manon:** It all begins on 2channel, a Japanese text board created in 1999. 2channel, even if it was just text, it managed to create its own world of emoticons, memes, and Shift\_JIS art; Shift\_JIS beeing an ASCII encoding intended for Japanese. Those memes and characters were mostly cats.

**Cybermare:** Uhhhh, they all kinda look like you in a way.

**Manon:** Oh? Hummmm. Let's instead focus on the bear right here. In 2003, a thread begins with the "Kuma Kuma !!!", which means "Bear Bear", for now it's just a tiny Kaomoji, it's a popular style of emoticon using Japanese characters. Kuma would soon take shape through different attempts at designing the bear, and this is the form that would stick around for the next year! *(Referring to the form on screen, which is what the Pedobear was based off of.)*

**Cybermare:** I see he looks pretty familiar already.

**Manon:** Yes, but he has nothing to do with what you're thinking right now! Kuma here is presented running into the thread to catch a bait, he seems to call out people posting fake threads or responses just trying to grab attention.

**Cybermare:** That's kind of a brainlet move since the dude is posting in a bait thread, you're still getting baited and feeding the troll.

**Manon:** Exactly!! But Kuma was more than just a troll exposer, he also was a fighter! He'd punch anything coming his way: twins, a mascot of the Japanese police force, and he even had an epic fight against Nuke-do, a Ronald McDonald variation. Kuma was a legendary meme! But then around 2004, 2005, Kuma started getting shared on 4chan and Kuma here would mutate into his most popular and controvertial form.

**Cybermare:** Ah yes, of course it's the internet hate machine that did that.

**Manon:** 4chan is the english equivilant of 2channel, this time being an image board instead of a text board, and it started in 2003, so the now Kuma is now tied to 4chan's early history. Now, it's kinda hard to research on all that, as 4chan used to be very much about not archiving anything. Here's the earliest thing I could find; this drawing posted in October, 2004 with the bear's new name used, we also recognize the new redesign, which is missing the white chest fur cresent. It's not a lot since both bears look almost identical, but this DeviantArt drawing kind of looks closer to the redesign than the older Kuma. It's also hard to track down the first appearance of the redesign. On Danbooru, it's archived in 2007, but already in 2006 you can see him appearing in artwork featuring a collection of 4chan memes. He's already deeply rooted in 4chan's culture by that time. Anyway, how did Kuma get corrupted? Again, archives are hard to find so--

**Cybermare:** Ahem, Manon, come on. Like, come on... It's pretty obvious.

**Manon:** Yeah... 4chan was a lot less regulated back then.

**Cybermare:** No, it's still bad.

**Manon:** It also didn't help that there was ASCII arts of Kuma with a little girl, even if it was totally inoffensive and unintentional, 4chan being 4chan thought otherwise. Now, I won't go all in depth about this iteration of Kuma because there is so much to talk about that he could get his very own episode.

**Cybermare:** No. Don't.

**Manon:** The following years, he would grow more and more popular, peaking in 2011/2012, his next corruption is caused by being overused by oblivious users.

**Cybermare:** Like, normies?

**Manon:** I guess that'd be the correct term. It's like, uncultured outsiders; lots of them. It all begins on Jonnewe/b/, a finnish website. It's mostly known for its Flash games, but also for its community mostly composed of young teenagers who are reffered as 'Jonnes', at least it's what my researches are telling.

One day, in 2008, one of the administrators of Jonneweb starting sharing links to Kuvalauta, a finnish image board. This adminstrator shared the image board saying it's a website where you talk about bears and fishes. So Jonnes started posting a lot of meme bear pictures on Kuvalauta so much so the bear became associated with Jonnes by the Kuvalauta community.

The Kuvalauta community began ironically posting as Jonnes, alongside badly drawn meme bears to mock them. The bear would use poor grammar, talk in all caps and drink energy drinks, his way of talking is called the Spurdish. A thread just dedicated to bad bear drawings started in late 2009, overtime Spurdo would slowly take his final form just like Kuma on 2channel. The association with the annoying Finnish kid would also persist on 4chan and other image boards, where Spurdos were spammed as a raid maneuver! Spurdo would give birth to a lot of different characters over the years, but in 2015, all those mutations would lead to a miracle!

This mutation alledgedly happens on Ylilauta, a successor to the now closed Kuvalauta. There are no archives of the threads Gondola was born in. In his infancy, he still used Spurdish, but it will be established later that he doesn't talk, he only looks at things! Here, things stopped being ironic and everything took a very genuine turn. It wasn't about making fun of Finnish kids anymore; it was about vibing. The gondola is just an observer, he's placed in pictures, videos, drawings, and is only here to exist. Gondola doesn't do anything, Gondola is a vessel for the viewer to immerse themselves in the scenery, which is why Gondola is mostly in a state of passivity.

He is used to try to trigger an emotional reaction from the viewer, and it's usually more effective with music along the picture. Gondola is fascinating not only because he's a very genuine meme in an environment full of ironic ones, but also because of how far he has come. He went from being a fighter to, a big creep, to a parody of Jonneweb user, and finally, just a melancholic observer!

See, Cybermare? Gondola is its own meme, unrelated to whatever those pre-evolutions were.

**Cybermare:** Uh, despite looking stupid, I guess he's kinda based.

**Manon:** Oh really? I'm so glad you like him. See, I told you he's the best!

*(Gondola taps Manon on the shoulder.)*

**Manon:** Oh right, I was trying to find a new place for you to vibe in, was the cyberspace not good enough for you?
*(Gondola shakes his head.)*

**Manon:** 'kay! We can search until you find a picky one to immerse yourself in.

*(all three walk over to a wall which Manon has put a window up on, they scroll through landscapes)*

**Manon:** This one? What about this one? This one? Aw, this one is already occupied. This one-- hm, I don't know about this one--

**Cybermare:** *(stopping Manon's scroll)* Wait a sec.

*(the two look over to the Gondola, who is welling up with tears, before all three jump through the window into the delapidated theatre shown in it.)*

**Manon:** *(visibly afraid)* Mmm, Cybermare! This room too sad! I don't like it at all.

**Cybermare:** Well, I like the sad kind of vibe.

**Manon:** Oh, hum, come on Gondola, we're leaving.

**Cybermare:** I think he likes it too.

**Manon:** Ugggh, you two have fun here, I'll just go find another Gondola.

*(Manon leaves, leaving Cybermare and the Gondola vibin)*

*(Credits roll)*

**Manon:** Don't forget to support the show on Patreon to get epic benefits like progress updates, see concept art, and the episodes before everyone else!

**Cybermare:** In other words, give us your money or it's your fault if the show is over.

## Music

* Michael Guy Bowman - We're riding on the internet (LOVEWEB Remix)
* yuuneey - What The Internet Sounds Like
* yuuneey - LOVEWEB Theme 2 [Dial-Up]
* Anonymous - Child Abduction (dead flash remix)
* yuuneey - LOVEWEB Theme 3 [Search Engine]
* anonymousgondola - The Fantastic Adventures of Gondola Theme
* yuuneey - LOVEWEB Theme 4 [Web Service Serenade]
* Yume Nikki (Kikiyama) - Aerial Garden
* Yume 2kki (oudn) - Seagull
* Minecraft (C418) - Mice on Venus
* EarthBound (Suzuki & Tanaka) - Winters
* Cate Wurtz - Crow Cillers Theme I
* Yume 2kki (Mosenite) - The Ceiling [Reversed]

## Patreon Supporters

### Lurker Tier

* Kanny
* Bug Friend
* Sharoki
* Sadi Makara

### Leaker Tier

* Ben Saint
* Starkuss
* ACSPlays!
* Jibachu Laloutre

### Low Tier

* Nick Cotrais
* Dooter!

### Channel Members

* "My wife"
* Fluffete
* Collin
* Tired Eddie
* Darth Vader
* Pablo Ivan González Orrantia
* nicowo\_420

## Fanart Credits

* dooter
* Kibun
* peacefulpanda
* Pepsijuan666
* VeryCherryCola
* EnderIsaacCore
* facu

## Trivia

* Gondola was briefly referenced as one of the future topics in "Welcome to LOVEWEB" before it got its episode a year later.