First noted in 2019, fortniteburget.net is a bizarre shock site featuring Wreck-it-Ralph, Disney’s villain-turned-hero. Why did it gain so much notoriety?
The meme spread across Twitter, Instagram and Reddit, causing chaos with every click.
What is a shock site?
A shock site is a website that is designed purely to, well, shock or offend the user.
Users are often tricked into visiting these websites and are usually met with offensive, violent or risky content – occasionally even viruses that could damage the user’s computer.
It’s unknown when this sort of media initially came into play, but it is believed to be the mid to late 1990s.
What is fortniteburger.net?
Fortniteburger.net refers a user to a disturbing rule 34 image of Disney’s Wreck-it-Ralph.
For reference, a rule 34 image is usually illustrated through fictional characters demonstrating sexual behaviours or crude activities.
Currently, the website is displaying an indecent picture of Disney’s Ralph, complete with a blue face-covering – fitting for COVID-19.
The author of the image is still unknown to this day. Though, we do know that the fortniteburger.net domain was registered in late 2018 and the name of the site refers to the Fortnite burger.
How did the meme spread?
The domain initially began appearing on Reddit via memes which essentially baited other users towards the shock site.
The memes were typically images of cartoon characters or animals with text above, instructing users to visit fortniteburger.net. For hoaxing purposes, the occasional meme would tell the user to stay away from the website – basically reverse psychology.
Hoax memes telling users to visit fortniteburger.net quickly spread across major platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, rapidly gaining popularity.
Incredibly randomly, a few weeks after the frenzy began in 2019, the image on the website changed to a picture of a prom-posal. No one can confirm why this happened, but, sure enough, it was soon reverted back to an indecent image of Wreck-it-Ralph.
Have you ever been tricked onto a shock site?