Question: Does anyone know when and how *fail* became a noun? I'd love to see one of those charts that shows the date of origin and subsequent growth of this usage.

Answer: 
"Fail" has existed as a noun and has been part of our lexicon [for a long time](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fail), such as in the phrase "without fail." However, it gained a new meaning in the recent years with the fail Internet meme, where it started as an interjection first, capable of standing on alone in a sentence. 

In fact, the first entry for "fail" to arrive [on Urban Dictionary](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fail) described fail as "an interjection used when one disapproves of something, or a verb" and one of the two examples cited was:

> 
> You actually bought that? FAIL. 
> 
> 
> 

If the "FAIL" above was a noun, that sentence would not be syntactically correct. Nouns cannot be used in that manner. It would be like saying:

> 
> You positioned your lips to form an upward curve? SMILE.
> 
> 
> 

We understand what is meant but it's not syntactically correct. No one with a good command of English would ever say such a sentence. A correct way to articulate the thought while keeping "smile" as a noun would be to say:

> 
> You positioned your lips to form an upward curve? That's a smile.
> 
> 
> 

Therefore, the fail in the Urban Dictionary example is an interjection.

It's only afterward, probably through misinterpretation of the meme, that it came to be used as a noun. When you look at an image with only "FAIL" written on it, it's impossible to tell whether fail is being used as a noun or an interjection:

![alt text](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NGMVo.jpg) 

From that point on, the meme evolved - as memes often do - and started to be used [as a noun](https://i.stack.imgur.com/btSNh.jpg), [as an adjective](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YYNQj.jpg), and [as a noun modified by as an adjective](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZLRSr.jpg).

As for the origin of the meme itself, which I assume is your original question, the origin most often given (by [Know Your Meme](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/fail), [Slate](http://www.slate.com/id/2202262/pagenum/all/), and [the New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/magazine/09FOB-onlanguage-t.html)) is that it comes from a poor Japanese-to-English translation of the game Blazing Star. 

Ben Zimmer of the New York Time says:

> 
> This punchy stand-alone fail most likely originated as a shortened form of “You fail” or, more fully, “You fail it,” the taunting “game over” message in the late-’90s Japanese video game Blazing Star, notorious for its fractured English.
> 
> 
> 

For reference, here's Blazing Star's game over message:

![alt text](https://i.stack.imgur.com/W97uv.png)
The recent uprise in incidences of non-verb *fail* is due to its being an internet meme, possibly from a Japanese video game with poor translation to English. [Know your meme](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/fail).