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"A delightfully bizarre, endearing, hilarious running joke seemingly sprang out of nowhere among Major League Baseball fans this week. The meme took on a life of its own, and now won't die. More surprisingly still, it keeps being funny. \nThis is the story of \"Hunter Pence signs,\" a made-for-the-Internet baseball trolling phenomenon that's now sweeping ballparks wherever Pence's San Francisco Giants play. \nSee also: Facebook's Newest 'Intern' Is a 6-Foot-8 NBA Star\nPence, if you're unfamiliar, isn't the Giants' biggest star by any means \u2014 but he's a good player. He's seen as a humble, down-to-earth guy with a solid sense of humor, not some kind of Chris Pratt-level media darling. \nSo it was random and funny when, last Friday, a pair of New York Mets fans decided to troll Pence in New York with some off-the-wall digs. \u201CHunter Pence puts ketchup on his hot dog,\" read one sign. \u201CHunter Pence eats pizza with a fork,\u201D jabbed the other. \n\nOh, man. They got him! http://t.co/9PEDUz0Ah7\n\u2014 MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) August 2, 2014\n\nFunny little joke, right? Then Sunday in New York, more signs appeared, disparaging Pence's apparent lack of taste in movies and inferior skill at parking cars.  \n\n\nJust when @hunterpence thought he was out, they pulled him back in. http://t.co/5UmRn9ei3t\n\u2014 MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) August 3, 2014\n\nOn Monday, Mets fans went after him again in equally bizarre fashion. \n\nMore @hunterpence signs. pic.twitter.com/cJ6meeFR0O\n\u2014 MLB Fan Cave (@MLBFanCave) August 4, 2014\n\nWhen the Giants-Mets series ended, that appeared to be that \u2014 nothing more than a blip on the radar. \nBut when the Giants got to Milwaukee on Tuesday for their next road series, against the Brewers, the signs had apparently followed. \n\nMore Hunter Pence troll signs! This time in Milwaukee!h/t @baseballreddit pic.twitter.com/E8trZDTeTJ\n\u2014 MLB Memes (@MLBMeme) August 6, 2014\n\n\nSign of the times? Looks like Hunter Pence isn't safe in Milwaukee either. #Brewers #MILvsSF pic.twitter.com/ByEVWqC7W7\n\u2014 Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) August 6, 2014\n\nNot all were negative, though.\n\nAs the joke wore on, Pence himself got in on the action, posting these riffs to his own Twitter account. \n\n#HunterPenceSigns pic.twitter.com/Ri7GrWFbE4\n\u2014 Hunter Pence (@hunterpence) August 6, 2014\n\n\nShe's the best! \u201C@LetsGetLexi: #HunterPenceSigns pic.twitter.com/nbKGEOIQuW\u201D\n\u2014 Hunter Pence (@hunterpence) August 6, 2014\n\nIf this sounds like just the kind of thing the Internet would eat up, you're right. On Twitter, the #HunterPenceSigns hashtag has been tweeted 11,000 times over the past week, a convenient social hub for people who don't want to go to the trouble of putting marker to cardboard. \n\nHunter Pence fell down a stair climber #HunterPenceSigns\n\u2014 joe malone (@joemalone9) August 8, 2014\n\n\nHunter Pence invented planking. #HunterPenceSigns\n\u2014 Brandon Pennington (@BrandonCantStop) August 8, 2014\n\n\nHunter Pence wears a snuggie #HunterPenceSigns\n\u2014 joe malone (@joemalone9) August 8, 2014\n\nPence's name has been mentioned on Twitter 23,000 times over the past week, according to Topsy. To give an idea of the uptick in Pence-centric conversation, it was only mentioned on Twitter less than 13,000 times in the preceding three weeks. \nThen this Friday night when the Giants arrived in Kansas City to open up a road series against the Royals, guess what? Yup, more Hunter Pence signs. \n\n#HunterPenceSigns Kansas City edition. #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/dWx3Uyz5gt\n\u2014 San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) August 8, 2014\n\nWhat a time to be alive! Especially if you're Hunter Pence.\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/08/09/mlb-hunter-pence-troll/>