Most memes I quite enjoy. Some can get a bit much. But there’s one meme that drives me absolutely crazy. It’s the sound of a man pretending to be a motorbike combined with a not-so-cute animation of a crazy frog.The Crazy Frog is an incredibly annoying animated character which was actually created to market a ring tone.
In 1994, a young Swedish student Daniel Malmedahl recorded himself mimicking the sound of a two-stroke combustion engine and posted it on a website. It became an instant hit – and a meme in it’s own right. People added the sound to flash animations and spread them virally. Click here to see the famous ‘Insanity Test’ featuring the sound effect.
Daniel got to perform his sound effect live on Swedish TV, further spreading the popularity of the sound.
Then another Swede, Erik Wernquist, had a brain wave – he created a 3D frog animation, aptly named ‘The Annoying Thing’, to accompany the sound track.
But it was some genius at a German ringtone company called Jamba! who really ruined it for the rest of us. He saw the animation and just knew it would make him a lot of money as a downloadable ringtone. The ‘Crazy Frog’ ringtone was advertised on TV quickly earned approximately £14 million from download sales.
But it didn’t stop there – unfortunately, someone decided to turn it into a dance track.
The Crazy Frog spawned a worldwide hit single with a remix of ‘Axel F’, which reached the number one spot in the United Kingdom, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia and most of Europe. The subsequent album Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Hits and second single ‘Popcorn’ also enjoyed worldwide chart success, and a second album entitled Crazy Frog Presents More Crazy Hits was released in 2006. (Aagghh!)
Not surprisingly, you can also kit yourself out with Crazy Frog merchandise, including toys, and Playstation 2 video games.
Luckily, the Crazy Frog craze has died down for now. But you never know when that little frog may rear his ugly head again.
Of course, if you don't like the little guy as much as me, you'll enjoy this site!
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5 comments:
Got to be the most obnoious thing on the web! Hate it.
The flash in ‘Insanity Test’ was actually funny and awesome - mean while Crazy frog is not. Its just something you cant explain.
I also remember the legendary instanity test years before Jamba stole and copyrighted it.
Funny how public domain can be converted into copyrighted commercial material.
Where it is possible to buy this toy that on a photo ???
Crazy Frog is awesome!
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