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: 
Although "fail" has been used sparingly in the past as a noun (e.g. "without fail"), there is evidence that the word is creeping toward ordinary usage as a noun to replace the word "failure." I just read the following headline in Bloomberg Businessweek (6/6/11-6/12/11 issue): "How Stephen Elop is trying to lead Nokia past its epic fail." My first reaction was that perhaps the word is only used to draw attention in headlines, but that it would not breach the body of the article. Well, the word did appear once inside the piece. 

"Fail" (as an ordinary noun) is coming into our campsite, ladies & gents. Hey, compared to "refudiate," it's a gem!
The correct answer is....
The exact date when the explosion of FAILs noun usage began probably cant be pin pointed. But where and why is absolutely and unquestionably.......
The online game WORLD OF WARCRAFT.
And more specifically it applied to RAIDs in WOW. In a raid you gather 15 or 30 online players at a specific location in the game. You all then enter a special area where your group must conquer a series of Bosses to compete the raid. They were a pivotal part of the game.
Before a raid would start the most knowledgeable players in the RAID would assess the 15 or 30 man partys likelyhood of completing the entire raid. Many fators were considered.
After assessing the party's strength the leaders of the raid would declare whether or not
"This RAID party is a FAIL"
Meaning it is ununlikley the party is strong enough to complete the entire raid.
Exactly when or who started using FAIL in this fashion in WOW we'll never know. But i started playing WOW shortly after its release. I remember the first time I saw FAIL used in this fashion. I'm thinking it was right before; or shortly after, the release of the first expansion pack. I also remember how it went from being used periodically to becoming a staple word used in the game vernacular. From there it spread like Corona-virus to the rest of the planet.
The release date of the first expansion pack for World of Warcraft is Nov 13, 2008.
At the time it was the #1 online PC game with about 100 million players.
I've read about the Japanese Arcade game meme and do remember it. But I dont remember a focus on FAIL. the entire poor translation was the joke. And its popularity was short lived.
It was the forcing of FAIL into the massive WOW community's vocabulary that gave it the traction it needed.