There have been huge phenomena on the internet over the years. Many enjoy huge popularity and then, as ever, familiarity breeds contempt: some we just hate from the word go. Here are just a selection – is your own personal virtual bete noir here?
The internet meme is no longer a new phenomena. For those of you not in the know, an internet meme is when a hyperlink or file is spread from person to persons – using the “new” means of dissemination that the internet offers. A meme has as many faces as your average politician – it can be a website in its own right, a joke, an image, a video, a weird and wonderful news story – or even an unexpected link.
A hugely popular commercial website is not referred to as a meme as these are spread though organized channels of distribution. However, it has been known to happen! The one thing they all have in common is that the distribution of a meme is voluntary. The typical meme is disorganized, anarchic and organically spread. As such an average meme can have a life span of hours, days or months. Some even longer. Here we take a trip down memory lane and visit a few of the memes that took the world by storm but which many ended up hating with a vengeance.
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The Dancing Baby
The stuff of nightmares, indeed! Stand up and take the blame, the development team of the Character Studio software, from Autodesk. This nightmare vision of babyhood was originally simply meant to test files and data but when it was released as a product sample in 1996 it went around the then burgeoning internet in about two seconds flat. Not that it stopped there – such was the phenomenon that it soon began making appearances on TV shows and music videos. The not-lamented Ally McBeal had one, and the band Blue Swede featured on in a promo video (their reward, the abyss of anonymity!). We had all the variations on the theme as well – the drunk baby, the rasta baby, the samurai baby. Get it away from me now!
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The Bill Gates Beta Email
The name of Pearlas Sandborn must go down in net history as one of the most reviled! The above is one of the originals messages from 1997, where people were promised huge amounts of cash because AOL and Microsoft were running a beta test for email. All people had to do was to send the message on to everyone in their address book and they would be rewarded beyond the dreams of avarice. Of course, no financial reward transpired for any of the hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – who forwarded the email. This is still considered a lively jape amongst pubescent males, who simply change the names of the companies and cause bandwidth stretching to this day. Grrr.
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Bert Is Evil
Let’s start with a real golden oldie. Bert is Evil was founded by Dino Ignacio is 1996 and it featured the popular children’s TV character Bert (from Sesame Street) in a variety of manipulated images which connected him with some of the worst and most terrible episodes in human history. This was presented as “proof” that Bert was in fact much more than the harmless puppet he pretended to be. The site became so popular that Ignacio could no longer afford to run it.
So, what the clever chap did was to offer anyone who wanted to mirror (ie copy) his idea the hosting opportunity they wanted. This lead to lots of mirror sites which only added to the mime effect. In a moment of life imitating art, an Islamic protestor in Bangladesh copied the image of Bert with Osama Bin Laden, and used it in a protest collage. This image spread around Western news media with alacrity, much to Ignacio’s chagrin. However, this being very much a one joke joke, the idea can wear thin rapidly. Very rapidly.
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Line Rider: The Game
There is joy to be had in simplicity and this is almost its epitome – unless you are the employer who discovers that this is what your employees have been doing all day. This game spreads like wildfire and it only needs one person in an organization to email the link to a few others, then they forward it and the result? Zero productivity!
The idea, like is said, is simplicity itself. You draw a line, squiggly, straight or otherwise that represents a hillside covered in snow. Then you press play and a flash animated boy on a sled tries to navigate the hillside you have drawn. It’s as simple as that but proved to be an enormous internet phenomenon.
The game was designed by “fsk” – the alter ego of Slovak student Bosjan Cadez. It made its first appearance on the DeviantArt website in 2006 it quickly gained popularity (and notoriety among the office managers of this world!). It was quickly followed up by Linerider 2: Unbound. In 2007 it was made available for portable devices where a Bluetooth connection enables users to share their Line Rider “adventures” with others! A Wii game version is expected out this September.
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The LOLcats
This really is one that you either love or hate. No, hate is too kind a word: despise, loathe, abhor, abominate, execrate. The list can go on and on. Put simply, a Lolcat is a combination of text and image. The picture is usually one of a cat in any one of a million funny or humorous situations. The text is a caption, meant to make the graphic even funnier. To make matters worse, the text is usually in “lolspeak” (sometimes known as “kitteh” for Pete’s sake). For lolspeak read baby talk. This aside, these remain almost unstoppable internet phenomena.
Who to blame, though? It is thought that they came about in 2005 on the imageboard 4chan (the owner of which remains anonymous today – no doubt to preserve his own safety). The lolcat phenomenon took off with I Can Has Cheeseburger in 2007 and the rest is history. The world has suffered since.
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Canon Rock by Jerry Chang
Sometimes a star is born when no one who is “supposed” to birth them is looking. Such was the case with Jerry Chang – mostly known by his internet name “funtwo”. His arrangement of Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel launched him to fame when it was posted online. 46 million hits can’t be wrong – or so goes the argument. Being the seventeenth most watched YouTube video ever, as you can image in has inspired – or should that be spawned? – a host of copycat artist all trying to emulate Jerry’s fame. Shame, boys and girls, someone got there before you!
This drove people crazy not so much for the originator but for the copycats who have very little talent but insisted that everyone shared that fact. Kind of “The World’s Not Got Talent”, as it were.
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The “Straightforward” Self Promotion: Aleksey Vayner
In 2006 a thrusting young Yale Undergraduate decided to disseminate his CV to employers. One of the organizations he applied to was UBS AG and employee or employees unknown were so astonished by Vayner’s hubris that they sent his application around to friends at other investment banks. Within days the video was on YouTube and a host of blogs across the net. This spread to traditional media, both as a human interest story and as a meme. Take a look at the original, below and remember one thing. Blowing your own trumpet when it is only a penny whistle you should be playing will be discovered and with the internet, nothing and no-one is safe!
People soon began to remember the bane Aleksey Vayner as much for the amount of irritating reminders of his existence as for his existence itself. Put this one on the back burner!
The funniest videos clips are here
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Rickrolling
Rickrolling has its origins in a far older internet phenomenon, called duck rolling. This involved placing a blind link in an online discussion. The unaware user, keen to follow a strand on their subject of choice would click the link and end up visiting a page that had nothing to do with the subject at all. In fact, the link would generally lead to a page the contents of which would be literally a rolling duck. This became known quickly among internet wags as duckrolling.
So, things evolve. Instead of seeing a rolling duck, those who are now “rickrolled” find themselves on YouTube. Rick’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You up” has now received more than twelve million hits. Not quite the revival he was looking for, I would guess.
It started on the day that “Grand Theft Auto 4” had its web premier. The traffic to the host website was so heavy that most people trying could not watch the trailer. An anonymous prankster took it upon himself to link everyone elsewhere. Under the guise of redirecting people to a leak of the trailer on YouTube, Mr (for it surely has to be a male!) Anonymous instead linked the Grand Theft Auto gamers to Mr Astley and his chirpy 20 year old hit. Why he chose Rick Astley will remain a mystery forever, or until the culprit is brought to justice and forced to sit in a darkened room listening to Barry Manillow for several months.
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The Corporate Meme: A Glass and a Half Full Productions
Internet advertising, possibly at its best and a great example of an internet meme going viral with little or no help from its corporate base. However, after a while this hairy ape drove people crazy!
Cadbury’s surprised and delighted netizens in the UK with their “Studio” advert which will never let you think of Phil Collins in the same way again. An advert that became viral almost immediately on its release, the website offers you eight remixes from some of your favorite bands. Also featured is the newer ad featuring a variety of airport vehicles having fun to a Queen soundtrack. There is very little to do with the product in the content but you will not forget who the ads are for quickly, so it does it job quite cleverly. -
Please Put Your Own Suggestion Below
This list is not exhaustive and it only reflects the particular likes, dislikes and hates of the author. There are omissions aplenty. So, to make this a more complete list, please enter your own choice of irritating internet phenomena that drove you crazy! Thanks!
July 28th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Any email from people claiming you are the sole living family member pf a deceased billionaire and would you knidly send your bank details so that they can transfer the funds!
July 28th, 2008 at 8:35 am
How about flash based sites that take an hour to open?
July 28th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Kudoes RJ. Very well done.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:10 am
funny thing about rickrolling is that Astely was number one on the day of my birth.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:58 am
All your base are belong to us
milliondollarhomepage
July 28th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
namaste RJ another great article. Well done my friend.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Tay Zonday has already gone from Youtube sensation to hated commercial money grubber. Perhaps not an immense meme, but quite like a thunderbolt: Loud, short, and irritating.
Also, beware of mentioning (four)chan, as Anon has a nasty habit of destroying the lives of those who annoy them. I doubt your mention will earn any ire, but I certainly try to avoid ever speaking of them.
Well done sir, I had forgotten some of those memes.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:41 am
A funny list, but HOW CAN YOU HATE TEH KITTEHS?!?!?! *criez* Lol. Anywho, cute list, and I agree with Tim Walt about (four)chan. Anon will find you. (Help! I hang out with too many teenage males!)
https://www.triond.com/users/Autumnrose
July 31st, 2008 at 2:12 am
I got a couple of these. My sister totally believed that Bill Gates was sharing his fortune and sent me that one. Of course I promptly deleted it.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:01 am
People who put backslashes all through their comments like Anon.
July 31st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Rickrolling was way before GTA4. Seriously.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
goatse
August 1st, 2008 at 12:54 am
what about the infernal hamster dance!?
August 1st, 2008 at 4:42 am
Its peanut butter jelly time.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:59 am
Star Wars Kid? That fat douche swinging a pole around kept many of us entertained for months – especially the Matrix, Indiana Jones and countless other edits into ricockulous scenarios.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:23 am
This page.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:55 am
rick rolling is much, much older than GTA4. It was old in ‘07 :
August 1st, 2008 at 10:07 am
What about the sparta funtime remix and all the sparta images?
August 1st, 2008 at 10:37 am
What about… All your base are belong to us?
August 1st, 2008 at 10:44 am
Don’t forget the most annoying of them all – Mahir. “I kiss you!”
Also “It’s over 9000!!!!!!!!” and also the whole camgirl craze.
I spend way too much time online.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:14 am
All Your Base Are Bolong to Us!
August 1st, 2008 at 11:49 am
Wait! I still love that one… and the kitties too!
August 1st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
LonelyGirl15
Get an iPod/Xbox/PS2/etc Free!!
August 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
The owner of 4chan hasn’t been anonymous for some time. There’s even an article including him in today’s New York Times (online).
August 1st, 2008 at 2:15 pm
What – no love for Tubgirl, 2 Girls 1 Cup, or Goatse.cx?
August 1st, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Screamers.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Chuck norris plz, bad list
August 1st, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Jerry C is not Funtwo. Different people.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
there was the “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” phenomenon too.
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:39 am
Hey Donkey,
Use Firefox (Mozzila) and get ‘flashblock’ you might also want no-script and ad block as well. in their ad-ons section.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 am
All Your Base Belong To Us… I totally forgot about that but it was everywhere I clicked at one point. Good one.
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I say Tay Zonday as well.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
How can any list be complete without charlie the uniciorn
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Very entertaining Article
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I haven’t heard of half of these but then again I’ve only had the internet for like 4 years. T_T (A turning point in my life indeed…MMOs kept me going)
Don’t forget Chocolate Rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA
and the Laughing Baby!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk
And Chris Crocker…Who could forget!!! (LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc
August 4th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Cute =)
August 4th, 2008 at 3:26 am
nice article….
August 4th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Great Article, but the scary part is the Bill Gates letter is “Still” making the rounds with people “Still” believing in it???? What the %$^#^#??? No wonder virus’s, worms, Trojans, etc, are able to proliferate, but that’s another article for you RJ eh?
August 5th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
wheres the crazy frog!?
August 9th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I absolutely love your articles. I remember the baby from Ally Mcbeal. So annoying! I’m glad that’s over.
Check out mine when you have a chance. I am new to this so it’s nice to have a fresh eye.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
That flipping dancing hamster.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Photoshopped.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:59 am
most annoing thing: all this stupid “buy my ebook and get rich” pages. some wannabe who claims to earn $200/hour, but he has to sell a lousy ebook for $30….
August 16th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Nice article, I’d forgotten just how much I hated that dancing baby
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I was really surprised that effing Hamster Dance wasn’t on your list. Some of these I’d never heard of, but no hamsters??
And a second vote for the ads that promise a Free* (coveted electronic item) – but only if you spend more than the item costs as you complete these special offers. Argh!