Ghost Shark
Scissors king v Ghost shark - picture by elzaban
Ghost Shark is a forced meme character largely started and perpetuated by the user Groomble. Like its name implies, it is a deceased, non-corporeal shark, often represented either by a blue, x_x eyed shark with or without a halo, or a small white pacman ghost with a prominent dorsal fin sticking out to one side.
Ghost Shark first appeared in game 4562 and subsequently normally appeared in games started by Groomble, said games often consisting entirely of a single, very short sentence about Ghost Shark undertaking some specific activity. In more recent games (as of around game 5000), Ghost Shark starters have largely disappeared, and Ghost Shark tends to appear in response to captions that speak of memes but do not specify which ones. Ghost shark has appeared in over one hundred games.
The community is somewhat split over Ghost Shark, some liking it and some utterly detesting it. A common tactic among the anti-Ghost Shark cadre is to substitute a different sea creature and/or magical state for ghost shark in their sentences. E.g. "Spectral Sailfin", or "Radioactive Ray"
Over time ghost shark has come to be largely accepted and met with amiability, In many ways ghost shark is the quintessential meme straddling the boundry between forced (his origin) and natural (his current day to day appearances). Ghost shark, along with scissors king, has become ... in terms of TSG ... synonymous with "meme" and where that word appears ghost shark is soon to follow.
Examples