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This looks shopped
"This Looks Shopped" is the appropriate response to images that display elements which look artifactual or generally manipulated.
- Date Discovered: Early 2000s
- Discovered On: The Internet in General, Popularized in it's current form and expanded on 4chan
Summary
With sophisticated image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop easily accessible, doctored ('shopped') images doctored to either provoke drama or to support dubious claims (sometimes both) are widely prevalent on the interwebs. This has predictably led to a surge of internet scepticism, with many people beginning to doubt their own existence.
The term 'shopped' is a contraction of "This looks shopped. I can tell from the pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in my time."
Origins
"Shopped" has been used since the 90s with the rise of 'Paint Shop Pro' by Corel and Adobe's 'Photoshop', the obvious reference being that 'shop' is in both names of the most popular image editors commonly used.
The earliest documented use of the term 'This Looks Shopped' is from a 2003 article which showed the picture at the top of this article. The picture had 'made some rounds around the internet' and thus the term was becoming ingrained, but it did not explode as a meme until it ended up on 4chan.
About 2005, with 4chan's image boards gaining popularity, images across the spectrum of validity and acceptability were purged onto the boards. Among them was the original "this looks shopped" image. Users were quick to criticize much of the outrageous content and one user, upon viewing a questionable piece, commented "This looks shopped. I can tell from the pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in my time." This became a joke in the thread and quickly developed into a meme, including a series of obviously shopped pictures with the caption.
Current status
While the claim "this looks shopped" won't die out any time soon (due to the continued use and popularity of Photoshop and the strength and longevity of the term), it has evolved into a series of other memes, uses and spellings from the years of simmering in the bowels of the internet hate machine.
The Shoop da Whoop meme has encouraged users to replace "shop' with 'shoop", leading to "This Looks Shooped" and "Check out this Shoop". Other distortions include "Shoped", "Chopped" and "Photochopped".
On 5/3/2010 it was quoted almost word for word as expert advice by CNN regarding a shooped image of a deceased Osama Bin Laden.
Facts
- Derived from the word 'Shop' in the 'Paint Shop Pro' and 'PhotoShop' software suites.
- One of the oldest surviving terms/memes from the dawn of Web 2.0.
- Two step creation, used loosely through the late 90s and early 2000s and then popularized as a meme on imageboards, primarily 4chan, in the mid 2000s.
- Often used and abused for trolling or to show dissatisfaction for a picture or even just an idea.
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Related Pages
External Links
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