The Internet is an in-joke

Shoop da Whoop

2008-11-11T17:11:00.002+02:00

Here’s another meme (like Over 9000) that started with a Dragonball Z character - Cell is one of the main villains in Dragonball Z (specifically 'Imperfect Cell').

Someone on 4chan’s /b/ board used the very basic paint program, MS Paint, to alter Cell’s face into what is now known as Shoop da Whoop.

Cell's face has been blacked out and big eyes and red lips have been painted in amateurishly. A picture of ‘Shoop’ is usually accompanied by a phrase like 'IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER’

But Shoop da Whoop has a dark side – apparently, the Shoop da Whoop character was intended as a parody of early comics and thetre shows that featured black people in a stereotypical way, with bright red lips and very dark faces. (Like the 'Blackface' theatre characters seen on the American stage in the 1830's.) Even the ‘Shoop da Whoop’ wording and the phrases ‘IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER’ or ‘FIRIN’ MAH LAZER’ are meant to imply a typical African-American Southern drawl. The 'Imperfect' Cell character and another Dragon Ball Z character called Mr. Popo both caused some controversy for their resemblance to 'Blackface characters.

Pictures of the Shoop character generally appear in succession. Shoop usually starts by charging his laser, then shooting it out his mouth, then swallowing it.

Since the meme's introduction, numerous spinoff images have also been created, featuring various characters painted with the Shoop face. Check out many YouTube videos featuring Shoop.

Here's a YouTube video, featuring the 'Firing my laser' phenomenon.

The US Elections as a World of Warcraft campaign

2008-10-23T16:22:00.004+02:00

McCain: [talking to his Campaign advisers] OK guys, this Obama character has given us a lot of trouble in the past, so here’s what we’ll do:

I'll run in, and use Intimidating Shout, to kinda get everyone’s attention. Then I’ll try a couple of Mocking Blows and a Demoralizing Shout. That should do it.

I’m hoping for some Divine Intervention, because if we can’t bring these guys in quick we'll be in trouble. Uhh, I think this is a pretty good plan, we should be able to pull it off this time. Uhh, what do you think Weaver? Can you give me a number crunch real quick?

Weaver: Yeah gimme a sec... I'm coming up with sixty-two point six six uh, repeating of course, percentage, of winning.

McCain: Well, that’s great. Uhh, alright, you think we're ready guys? [interrupted]

Palin: Alright, chums, let's do this... SAAAARRRRRRRRRAAHHHH PAAALLLLLLLLLLLIIIINNN! [runs into room full of press]

-Short pause-

Schmidt: ... Oh my God she just ran in.

McCain: Oh jeez, who knows what she’s going to say. Stick to the plan guys. Stick to the plan!

Palin: I can see Russia from my house!

McCain: What the—what the hell?

Palin: Bail out? Health care reform! Tax payers... Job creation!

Salter: Shut up – backfire has been cast; you’re just hurting yourself!

Palin: We got em, we got em! I got it, I got it. I'm going to be VP - I own this place!

Schmidt: Shut her up! Someone!

McCain: Goddamnit Sarah! Goddamn it...

[Various others]: Yeah, Sarah you moron, Sarah!

McCain: Listen, this is ridiculous.

Salter: You dumbass.

McCain: I'm down, McCain down. I’m down 5 points Goddamnit. Why do you do this shit, Sarah?

Palin [crying]: It's not my fault!

McCain: Oh for - Great job! Sarah, you are just stupid as hell.

Palin: At least I have a new $150 000 wardrobe.

Cakes: no lie

2008-10-20T13:38:00.016+02:00

Previously I blogged about a Rickroll cake that was hidden beneath a 'cake that was a lie'...

Well, here’s yet another Rickroll cake.

It’s not too surprising though. It seems that the Internet memes and in-jokes have long been the inspiration for some fantastic cake ideas. It all goes to show, if it exists, there is cake of it.

Check out some of these geeky masterpieces:

The perfect Portal cake, baked using the recipe found hidden in the Portal game. (Instructions via instructables)

The AYBABTU cake from Flickr

The Mudkip cake made by Clever Cake Studio. Here's another.

The Domo cake found on Deviant Art and instructions on how to make your own.

The Dramatic Hamster/Prairie Dog cake (via Flickr)

The Lolrus cake... made of fish!

Two 1337 cakes

Pirates vs Ninja cake from Scienceblogs

The Chuck Norris cake

The Hypnotoad inspired Hypnocake.

And here's a bonus: a FAIL cake - they asked for it to read "Best Wishes Suzanne" and underneath that, "We will miss you".

For more Internet-inspired cakes, see Gizmodo’s cake gallery and this geekcake blog.

And while we’re on the subject of baked goods, here’s a Pi Pie.

Domo

2008-10-20T12:29:00.003+02:00

Domo-kun (or just Domo) is the mascot for the Japan's NHK television station. The station made various 30-second stop-motion promo spots for their channel featuring Domo. They are rather strange to say the least…

Domo spends most of his time hanging out in a cave with the wise rabbit Mr. Usaji and watching TV. Apparently, "his body is stout, but his heart is pure". The clips also feature a bunch of bats (one of which has a drinking problem), a hungry bear and a girl-weasel.

For more on the Domo characters, check out their official website.

Without ever being shown outside of Japan, Domo-kun became an Internet hit. And while the strange-but-endearing movie clips had something to do with his fame, it’s mostly thanks to Domo’s ability to be Photoshopped into some amazing situations that made him the Internet star he is today.

A lot of his original fame can probably be attributed to this image of kittens running from Domo-kun.

The image was created by a Fark user, who used this student magazine front page as his inspiration.

More recently, this Domo-kan image has found its way onto forums and boards, and is used after a noob has made a stupid comment…

A quick search on Flickr and Deviant Art will show you just how widespread Domo-kun’s fame has become, especially amongst Anime fans. Domo plush toys, t-shirts and other merchandise are all the rage.

Domo’s popularity continues to grow – he’s now appearing in the UK on Nicktoons (part of Nickelodeon) in short 2-minute spots.

He’s also being used as the theme of Target’s 2008 Halloween promotions.

If you're looking for a Halloween costume, here's a Domo-costume how-to.

And just in case you haven’t had enough Domo for today, go check out the Domo-Kun’s Angry Smash Fest flash game.

Upsidedown Dogs

2008-10-15T12:42:00.001+02:00

It's not quite a meme yet... but who knows. This could take off.

Upsidedown dogs are just like regular dogs, except they are upside down...

I can see Russia from my house...

2008-10-13T11:17:00.006+02:00

As the American elections draw closer, you can’t help but feel a little sorry for Sarah Palin, the current governor of Alaska and the running mate of Republican John McCain. The woman is just totally out of her depth.

As John McCain is the oldest man to ever run for office, the Republicans probably wanted to soften their campaign with a young, female face. A face they hoped ‘your average American woman’ would associate with.

Problem is, Palin has provided the Internet with far too much funny (and controversial) material to poke fun at.

Palin describes herself as a Hockey Mom, a cliché that many women feel insulted to be associated with. Matt Damon had a really good go at this one. He said in an interview… “There’s a really good chance Sarah Palin could become president… It's like a really bad Disney movie: the hockey mom, you know, 'Oh, I'm just a hockey mom'... and she's facing down [Russian] President Putin... It's totally absurd... It's a really terrifying possibility.”

Comedy site CollegeHumor.com even created a mock trailer for this ‘really bad Disney movie’ movie featuring a Palin look-alike.

Then there are the strange names of her kids: Track, Trig, Bristol, Piper, and Willow. Check out this Sarah Palin baby name generator.

Then there are her policies: Palin has stated that abortion should be banned in nearly all cases, including rape and incest, except if the life of the mother is endangered.

She has just had her latest baby – Trig – who was diagnosed with Down syndrome. Controversially, Palin was attending a conference in Texas when her water broke. She was in labour but continued to give her speech then got on a plane and flew for 12 hours before delivering her baby.

Although Palin preaches abstinence, her oldest daughter, who’s only 17, recently fell pregnant by mistake, and so mother and daughter will have children round about the same age. For a laugh, check out the blog: Teen Moms for Palin.

She’s also not very pro-environment – she’s trying to get Polar Bears off the endangered species list and is opposed to listing beluga whales as endangered. Apparently she believed that humans were around when dinosaurs roamed the earth. And she keeps changing her view on global warming.

When Sarah Palin appeared in an interview with Katie Couric of CBS News, her lack of experience really showed. The interview was widely criticised, and was parodied on Saturday Night Live, the late-night sketch comedy/variety show.

When asked about financial bail-out deal, Sarah Palin proved she had no idea what she was talking about. Confused by Couric’s question, she started throwing in key-words like healthcare and education.

When Saturday Night Live got hold of this they created a brilliant parody. Ironically, they didn’t need to write too much of a script – they used Palin’s own words to show her ineptitude.

Then Palin went on to talk about her foreign policy experience. Palin has very little foreign policy experience – but she sited the fact that Alaska is close to Russia as her ‘experience’ in dealing with superpowers of the world. In the Couric interview, Palin tries to explain her position, but again the Saturday Night Live Parody took this to a whole new level.

In the SNL parody, Tina Fey (playing Palin) again makes Sarah's comments look ridiculous.

But the meme that's going around at the moment all started when Tina Fey first parodied Sarah Palin on SNL... Together with Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton. Fey delivered the line: "I can see Russia from my house" (again based on Palin's assertion that she is so close to Russia) which has now become a meme.

This brilliant poster held up at a political rally reads: "Hey Sarah, I can see the end of your political career... From my house!"

Stay tuned... because my feeling is that we haven't heard the last from Sarah - something crazy is going to happen. And the Internet will be all over it.

Like, who knows, maybe someone will make a Porn Movie featuring hr life story perhaps?

For more great Sarah moments, check out Red Green and Blue's take on Sarah and her policies.

F40PH Fridays

2008-10-13T08:56:00.000+02:00

Yet another 4chan meme. On Fridays, the 4chan /b/ board used to get flooded with ‘Furry’ hentai posts – in honour of Furry Friday. These images feature anthropomorphic animals in a sexually explicit way. To counter this ‘scourge’, the guys at /b/ created F40PH Friday.

The F40PH is – well, it’s a train.

According to Wikipedia, the General Motors Electro-Motive Division model F40PH is a 3000 horsepower B-B diesel-electric locomotive built from 1976 onwards. Supposedly, it's quite a train - equipped with a turbocharged 16 cylinder, two-stroke, water-cooled "Vee" diesel engine.

Anytime anyone started a ‘Furry Friday’ thread, it would be flooded with pictures of the great F40PH. Often 4channers use a directory dumper to mass-dump pictures of the train into the thread, taking it over.

Here's a video featuring some of the F40PH pictures used on F40ph Friday:

LOLcats vs Metallica

2008-10-03T09:02:00.005+02:00

A stroke of brilliance from the 4chan guys - take the lyrics to Metallic's Enter Sandman and add fitting LOLcat pictures and you've got a recipe for greatness.

Click here to see the full post.

I highly recommend playing the Metallica music video in the background while scrolling through the pictures…

Two memes: one idea - the Rickroll cake!

2008-10-02T14:45:00.001+02:00

Instructables.com is a cool site where people share their ideas and instructions for making crafts, artworks, and other fun things (like inverted bookshelves and dyed pasta).

One of the contributes to the site came up with an amazing idea.

She wrote "Every year I make a birthday cake for my wonderfully geeky boyfriend. The past two years I made him a Cthulhu themed cake, so this year it was time for something different. His birthday fell on D&D night, so the whole geek crew would be gathered together. The crew has been bitten by the Rick Astley bug, and so it seemed fitting that I should Rickroll them all."

She created a fake cake - made to look like the Portal 'Cake is a lie' Cake. And of course, in this case, the cake really was a lie - it was actually made out of an old hatbox. Under the fake cake is the real cake... in all it's Rickrolling glory.

She described the reveal, when she yanked the fake hat-box cake off:"They all looked horrified as I seemed to destroy the cake. Then the wave of recognition washed over all their faces as they realized that the cake had been a lie and they had just been Rickrolled... by a cake."

Brilliant. Check out the instructions here.

Of course, a great idea like this one is sure to spread. This journalist from the Miami New Times writes about how he Rickrolled his office co-worker as well.

The Large Hadron Collider Rap

2008-09-29T14:02:00.003+02:00

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex in the world. It was built as an experiment to see the effects of colliding opposing beams of protons with very high kinetic energy. Wikipedia has more detail…

It caused quite a stir earlier this year because some people actually feared that the Collider could possibly cause a Black Hole. One thing is for certain, though: not many people understand just what this 27km long super-science-experiment is meant to do.

Kate McAlpine made it her mission to change all that.

Kate is a 23-year-old Michigan State University graduate and science writer who created a very funny rap video about the groundbreaking collider.

McAlpine received permission to film herself and friends dancing in the caverns and tunnels where the experiments will take place.

"We love the rap, and the science is spot-on," CERN spokesman James Gillies said.

Top science magazine New Scientist wrote: “Hats off to Kate McAlpine and crew, who took to the tunnels under CERN to bring us the most entertaining explanation of physics we've seen since Schoolhouse Rock. Backup dancing aside, it's a completely respectable description of what scientists hope to learn when they first flip the switch on the Large Hadron Collider—a massive particle accelerator located near Geneva—sometime later this month.”

So, finally an Internet meme with an educational angle! Check it out:

I'm F*%&ing Matt Damon...

2008-09-26T11:11:00.001+02:00

Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a later night American talk show has always made Matt Damon the butt of his jokes.

A bit of history:

Frequently at the end of his show, Kimmel thanks the audience and then adds, "Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time."

When Matt Damon did actually appear on the show, Jimmy Kimmel started with a montage of clips showing the numerous times he had said those words, and then gave a very lengthy introduction. When Damon finally appeared on stage, Kimmel apologised and said (you guessed it) “sorry, the show is out of time.” This running joke continued for years on the Kimmel show.

Matt gets revenge.

In January 2008, Kimmel's long-time girlfriend (and fellow comedian) Sarah Silverman announced, via a music video, that she had been "f*%$g Matt Damon." Damon brought up Kimmel's long running gag by telling Kimmel at the end of the video, "Jimmy, we're out of time. Sorry."

This brilliantly catchy tune and very funny music video, won Sarah Silverman an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics.

Kimmel’s revenge

As Kimmel rightly stated himself, the ‘I’m F%$ing Matt Damon song became an instant Internet hit. Kimmel jokes that it was “bigger than that fat kid with the light saber”

After the 2008 Oscars, Kimmel got his ‘revenge’ on Sarah, by showing off his own music video: “I’m F$%ing Ben Affleck”

In addition to Ben Affleck, the video stars some of holiwoods biggest names including Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Cameron Diaz and even Brad Pitt (as the Pizza Delivery guy). Also look out for Christina Applegate, Don Cheadle, Dominic Monaghan (the guy from Lost), Meat Loaf, Macy Gray, and Josh Groban.

Pandora Mix

2008-09-25T13:56:00.000+02:00

Here's a quick one, a new video that's fast becoming a video phenomenon. It's really simple - a remix of a little girl making funny faces and noises on camera, edited into a catchy tune and captivating music video.

Garfield

2008-09-16T19:05:00.007+02:00

Lets face it; Garfield comics can be decidedly unfunny a lot of the time. Personally, Garfield was ruined for me as a kid when I saw the TV shows where they gave Garfield a voice – he just shouldn’t sound like that! But I digress – Garfield comics – not really funny. But with a little help from the Internets, we can change all that. Introducing the Garfield meme!

By Photoshopping or rearranging Garfield comics in different ways, a new meme was born.

Here are just a few of the different ways Garfield comics have been changed:

First – the Garfield Randomiser.
This website lets you randomly rearrange Garfield comic strips – often with great results.

Then, put new words in their mouth
By changing the words in the speech bubbles, the comics take on a whole new meaning.

Then there’s ‘crazy-eyes’ technique
By simply changing Garfield and Jon’s eyes in Photoshop, the comic strip tells a different story. The basic idea is that whenever Jon says something stupid, Garfield makes crazy-eyes – which causes Jon to go all crazy-eyed - which shuts him up!

Realfield
Replace Garfield with a real-looking cat and see the results:

Make Jon seem crazy

Someone figured out that if you simply take out Garfield’s thoughts the cartoons suddenly seem a lot funnier – Jon plays the role of crazy man who talks to his cat far too much.

Then some real genius realised that if you take out Garfield altogether, and it’s even funnier!

Check out this blog dedicated to Garfield – minus Garfield!

It turns out that Jim Davis, Garfield’s original creator, reads Garfield Minus Garfield and enjoys it.

Taking it too far
Removing all the characters... one step too far.

All Glory To The Hypnotoad!

2008-09-16T11:49:00.002+02:00

Futurama (in case you’ve been living under a rock) is an animated sitcom created by Matt Groening (the man famous for creating the Simpsons). The series follows the adventures of a pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, who gets frozen just before the new millennium and is then revived a thousand years in the future.

One of the recurring characters in Futurama is the Hypnotoad - a large brown frog with spinning eyes, who emits a low, buzzing sound.

The Hypnotoad has the power to hypnotize almost any living thing at will – and he has his own TV show, called ‘Everybody Loves Hypnotoad’ in which it hypnotizes the audience. He’s also been known to show up in TV commercials endorsing products.

The Hypnotoad became a meme on 4chan when people began ending their forum post with ‘ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD’ – the Hypnotoad supposedly hypnotises the poster, so he cannot finish his original thought and instead honours the Hypnotoad. The next poster will continue the trend, until the whole thread is filled with ‘ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD’.

Click to enlarge

The Hypnotoad meme is often used to end a thread that someone considers boring, because after the Hypnotoad is introduced… it takes over.

The Bel Air

2008-08-22T12:53:00.004+02:00

The other day I caught a few minutes of a “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” repeat on some dodgy TV channel. It was so strange to see the “I am Legend” star in this crazy, silly, carefree role, so different from his recent movies.

One of the memes on 4chan involves Will Smith’s famous rap that opens the Fresh Prince sitcom. I swear I could sing that whole song word for word when I was younger…

So, to perform a ‘Bel Air’, a person on 4chan will post a story (normally with some risqué story line) and just as it reaches a climax, it suddenly devolves into the ending lyrics of the Fresh Prince song. Generally, the story ends and the song starts with ‘and then my mom got scared, and said, “you’re moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air”’

Check this Google Answers page to see a Bel Air in action (posted by Mantrid, about half way down). Also see this IRL example (IRL = In Real Life):

Some Bel Air stories have become ‘copypasta’ and are repeated ad-nauseam on the boards.

To perform a reverse Bel Air, you actually start with Fresh Prince song, and then change half way through to a real conversation. XKCD demonstrates:

Tron Guy

2008-08-19T17:37:00.004+02:00

Now here’s a guy who’s not afraid to make fun of himself.

Jay Maynard is a computer programmer and system administrator. But he’s most famous for the hand-painted spandex costume he created, which was inspired by the movie TRON.

He wore the suit at Penguicon 2.0, a science-fiction and Linux convention he attended. After some positive feedback from his fellow conventioneers, Jay decided to add a link his site, Tronguy.net, on the popular tech blog Slashdot.

He received hundreds of comments – most of them negative. "Ahhh! Fat guy in spandex!" Initially, Maynard was hurt by the comments, but he soon realised that there were a few people who saluted his fanaticism and maybe even empathized with him.

"I finally decided that if somebody's got a problem, too bad," Maynard says. "I'm going to have fun my way."

He also started receiving interview requests from radio shows and TV programmes. "They were approaching it strictly from the angle of 'Let's make fun of the geek,' " Maynard says. "But I think I won them over."

He appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and was such a hit that Kimmel hired him as a temporary on-air correspondent. As Tron Guy, Maynard interviewed people at a bodybuilding contest, a pit bull show and a screening of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11. Each time, he brought the conversation back to Tron.

"The biggest thing I've learned," he admits, "is that no matter what the opinions of the big, unwashed masses are, I'm going to have fun my way."

Jay registered the domain Tronguy.net and keeps a LiveJournal. Tron guy has appeared at many conventions and other public appearances in full costume, he’s stood up in support of issues like net neutrality and he’s done many interviews about his Internet fame.

He’s also been parodied on South Park, along with a whole bunch of other memes. Because he sees the funny side of his Internet fame, and plays it up, Tron Guy has actually become a well-liked character, with many people commending him for his courage for being himself.

Mudkips: you liek?

2008-08-19T10:34:00.004+02:00

A bit of background:

Pokémon, in case you’ve never heard of it, is the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world (behind the Mario series, which is also made by Nintendo). In the Pokémon game, a Trainer captures a wild Pokémon creature and trains it up to battle other Pokémon.

One of the Pokémon creatures is the Mudkip – a small but strong water-type creature.

DeviantArt is an international online community for artists. They aim to provide a place for artists to exhibit and discuss their work. With over 8 million members, over 62 million submissions, and 36 million visitors a year, DeviantArt is quite a site. It was launched in 2000 – long before Flickr came into existence.

Within the DeviantArt website, different types of artwork are organised into different categories, like photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash and filmmaking. One of the popular sections of DeviantArt is dedicated to Fan Art where people display artwork devoted to their favourite TV shows and computer games.

A meme is born:

When one Pokémon-fan commented on another Pokémon-fan’s picture, inviting him to join his Pokémon fan group, he began with the now-famous words: "So I herd u liek mudkipz”.

This little phrase found it’s way to the 4chan boards where it was developed into a popular piece of copypasta.

Copypasta is basically a body of text (often a story or narrative) that gets copied and pasted over and over in different posts by different people.

The copypasta story involving Mudkips can be found here, but I warn you, like many things on 4chan, it’s not pretty…

DeviantArt is still flooded with people creating art around the Mudkip meme, and YouTube has a growing collection of Mudkip-related videos.

On April Fools Day this year, DeviantArt turned the all of the avatars on DeviantArt to a picture of a Mudkip.

I leave you with a little YouTube mudkip-mashup:

Leave Britney Alone!

2008-08-01T11:05:00.011+02:00

Chris Crocker is a 21-year-old Internet celebrity most famous for his ‘Leave Britney Alone’ rant.

Crocker has a YouTube video channel where he posts videos which are really "monologues about life" and often deal with what it’s like being an openly gay and effeminate teen in a "small-minded town" in the Bible Belt.

He lives with his grandparents who home-school him after he was bullied too much at school. His grandmother occasionally appears in his videos.

His videos have received over 153 million views on YouTube alone. Although he has produced dozens of videos, Crocker gained the most fame from his viral video tearfully defending Britney Spears.

The video received international media attention, hundreds of parodies, criticism and even death threats.

His strange, over-the-top rant is bizarrely captivating. Mascara runs down his cheeks, and he looks totally distraught as he yells “You’re lucky she even performed for you” He also lashes out at gossip columnists such as Perez Hilton, and reality TV star Simon Cowell, who criticized Britney Spears' onstage music performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas.

Fame!

The video received worldwide attention and earned Crocker interviews on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Today Show, Maury, The Howard Stern Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM morning show. YouTube named it one of the top videos of 2007 and Wired magazine named it their top video of 2007.

Nearly 2000 people have posted video responses and parodies, including ones by Perez Hilton, Jimmy Kimmel, National Lampoon Inc., Rove McManus, Joe Cartoon and Charles Firth.

Actor Seth Green made a parody to promote his she Robot Chicken. He calls for people to "leave Chris Crocker alone!" Other parodies include one of a George W. Bush impersonator begging people "to leave General Petraeus alone" (a reference to the Iraq War).

Spot the Memes in this Weezer music video

2008-07-24T11:19:00.007+02:00

This new Weezer video for the band's latest single 'Pork and Beans' features a number of YouTube in-jokes. Check out the video and see how many you can spot.

(Here's the YouTube link)

You should recognise Peanut Butter Jelly Time, Dramatic Hamster, Chocolate Rain, AYBABTU, Star Wars Kid, Numa Numa and many more.

If you're not familiar with Chris Crocker of 'Leave Britney Alone' fame, Mentos and Diet Coke or Afro Ninja - stay tuned, I'll get to them.

But of course - like most great ideas - this one has been done before. The Barenaked Ladies also made a music video featuring internet memes and celebs. But their video just isn't as good, so it didn't have the same appeal. Check it out:

Remember these? A list of memes and in-jokes.

2008-07-22T09:46:00.005+02:00

Here's a list of the internet phenomenon covered thus far. How many of these memes do you remember? How many made you laugh, and how many drove you crazy?

1. LOLcats
2. AYBABTU
3. Stuff on my cat
4. The cake is a lie
5. Fail
6. The Hampster Dance
7. I love horses
8. Rickrolling
9. Demotivational Posters
10. Numa Numa
11. Chuck Norris
12. The Hoff
13. Post Secret
14. A Series of Tubes
15. Leeeroy Jeenkins
16. Tourist Guy
17. Dramatic Hamster
18. Techno Viking
19. The Dancing Baby
20. Badger Badger Badger
21. Chocolate Rain
22. Over 9000!
23. Pirates
24. Ninjas
25. Ninjas vs Pirates
26. McCain Old Jokes
27. Peanut Butter Jelly Time
28. Do not want!
29. The Star Wars kid
30. In Soviet Russia
31. Crazy Frog
32. L33t
33. I'm in your base...
34. Lolrus
35. The Internets

The Internets

2008-07-17T14:58:00.007+02:00

‘Internets’ is a Bushism – a great quote straight from the mouth of George Dubya.

It’s now a general Internet in-joke (often used to joke about the ignorance of an Internet user, but often just for fun).

United States President George W. Bush first used the word publicly during the 2000 election campaign.

And as if once wasn’t enough, he repeated the term in the second 2004 presidential election debate on October 8, 2004.

Like similar memes, many image macros have appeared featuring the phrase.

Just for the record, here’s an extract from the 2000 debate:

JOYCE CLEAMER, AUDIENCE MEMBER:
“I'm very concerned about the morality of our country now. TV, movies, the music that our children are, you know, barraged with every day. And I want to know if there's anything that can be worked out with the—Hollywood, or whoever, to help get rid of some of this bad language and whatever, you know.”

BUSH:
“We can have filters on Internets where public money is spent. There ought to be filters in public libraries and filters in public schools so if kids get on the Internet, there is not going to be pornography or violence coming in.”

And here’s the second debate:

DANIEL FARLEY, AUDIENCE MEMBER:
“Mr. President, since we continue to police the world, how do you intend to maintain our military presence without reinstituting a draft?”

BUSH:
“Yes, that's a great question. Thanks. I hear there's rumors on the, uh, Internets [pause] that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period....”

The bucket saga continues

2008-07-16T12:40:00.004+02:00

One of the most famous spin-offs of from the LOLcat meme is the LOLrus. The original LOLrus image showed a walrus who had his bucket forcibly taken from him. The ide of the LOLrus and his missing bucket has been adopted by the internet, and many have added new chapters to the ‘missing bucket’ saga. Someone has now compiled the pictures into a full story… see it here.

Three memes - one picture

2008-07-16T11:15:00.003+02:00

I'm in ur base...

2008-07-16T10:47:00.015+02:00

Loosely defined, “In your base, killing your d00ds” is a catchphrase that basically means “right now, I’m pwning you, and you don’t even know it."

The phrase originally came about when a ‘N00b’ player, playing multiplayer Starcraft online typed in a message asking his opponent “dude, where are you?” At the time, the more experienced player had managed to rush into the N00b’s base and had started destroying everything in sight. His response is now famous: “I’m in you’re your base, killing your d00dz.”

Screenshots of this famous exchange were posted on imageboards, and the meme spread from there.

Initially, people took the phrase and placed it on a number of different pictures. But as the meme grew, the phrase took on a life of it’s own.

The formula: take a picture and add any variation of "Im in ur (noun), (verb-ing) ur (noun)".

During the height of the LOLcat meme, it became very popular to put an “im in ur” phrase together with a cat picture.

Political images were also very popular at one point. The meme is quite old now, but you still do see references to it popping up from time to time.

SETI finally gets a signal from somewhere in outerspace...

2008-07-05T11:09:00.007+02:00

A little language called leet

2008-07-03T17:36:00.004+02:00

I’m going to digress from talking about memes and take some time to explore the Internet ‘language’ known as Leet.

The Leet ‘language’ is actually an alternative alphabet system with uses a combination of numbers and other keyboard characters to replace normal letters. So for example, Leet is spelled 1337 (1=L, 3=E and 7=T).

It was originally developed on bulletin board systems way back in the 1980s. One theory is that Leet actually came about so that people chatting on the boards could get around the text filters which picked up ‘forbidden’ topics like hacking and cracking.

It developed from there and then became a way to show off your knowledge of the in-joke. Lately though, Leet has become a part of ‘mainstream’ Internet culture and slang, and is even considered cheesy by ‘those in the know’. It is now also used to mock newbies (N00BZ), or newcomers, on web sites, or in gaming communities.

Why did they call it ‘Leet’?

Leet comes from ‘Eleet’ – which originated from ‘Elite status’ on Bulletin Board systems. Initially, the word leet was used as an adjective, to primarily describe ‘elite’ accomplishments.

Hax0rs Pwn

Besides simply replacing letters with numbers, Leet also has it’s own vocabulary.

Haxors or Haxorz is a common term meaning ‘hacker’ (and often it’s actually used in a self deprecating way or to insult someone).

Pwn is derived from ‘own’ and means the domination or humiliation of a rival (in an argument or video game, for example), or the successful hacking of a website or computer.

A lot of Leet words contain deliberate misspellings – and pwn is a prime example. The letter P is right next to the letter O on the keyboard, and so it might have originally been a common misspelling, which became an in-joke, and then eventually a standard word that everyone used.

LOL teh N00b Suxorz!!!!111one11!

If you don’t know that LOL stands for ‘Laugh Out Loud’, you should really get out more. LOL is considered to be part of Leet, but really this term has become so mainstream its practically a part of the English language by now.

Again, teh is deliberate misspelling which originated from people typing ‘the’ fast and making the error. It has been adopted as a part of Leet speak, and people deliberately type it incorrectly.

Noob or N00b is derived from, newbie (as in new and inexperienced or uninformed). Apparently, there is a widely accepted separation of the definitions of newb and n00b: a newb is merely new to something (usually the person also wants to learn more), which is forgivable, while a n00b continues to engage in "newb" behaviours long after they should know better (and usually refuses to learn). Generally the term N00b is insulting!

Suxxors or suxorz means to suck. The opposite of Suxxor is roxxor (to rock, basically) and both can be used as a verb or a noun.

Over exclamation is another common feature of Leet. When chatting in chat rooms or playing games online, people would often overemphasise, ending their sentences with many exclamation marks (so for example “Pwnage!!!!!”). Of course, people would end typing ‘1’ instead of ‘!’ (because they haven’t pressed the shift key down). As this was such a common mistake, people started making it on purpose, as a joke. The joke has evolved, and now people actually type out the number (for example: “I pwn!!11one!1!” or in the case of extreme sarcasm: “OMG!!!!111!11shiftone1!11shift1!!1111capslock1!one12131”)

That Ugly Crazy Frog

2008-06-27T12:14:00.006+02:00

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!

In Soviet Russia…

2008-06-25T17:24:00.005+02:00

Introducing a meme inspired by a comedian.

Yakov Smirnoff is a Ukrainian-born American comedian who became famous for contrasting life in ‘Soviet Russia’ with that of the USA. For example:

In America, you can always find a party.
In Soviet Russia, Party finds you!

In America, you watch television.
In Soviet Union, television watches you!

(all pronounced in a thick Russian accent, of course).

This simple comedic formula spawned a meme which started on technology website Slashdot.

Sometimes called ‘The Russian Reversal’, the basic idea is to take an accepted idea, and turn it on its head:

“In Soviet Russia, Waldo finds YOU!!”

“In Soviet Russia, remote controls YOU!”

Many of the ‘Russian Reversals’ are decidedly unfunny, but part of the humour of this meme is the simple stupidity of the phrases created.

The Star Wars Kid

2008-06-10T15:34:00.004+02:00

Welcome to the Dark Side of the meme.

When Ghyslain Raza was just 15, he became world famous – but he probably could have lived without all the attention.

In 2002, Ghyslain took a video of himself clowning around, swinging a golf ball retriever around as if it were a weapon (presumably, a lightsaber). The video tape was forgotten about, until someone stumbled upon it and thought it would be funny to post the video online.

Initially, the video was shared on the Kazaa network (a peer-to-peer file sharing network). The original was then edited to include text, sound effects music and even a lightsaber effect on the golf ball retriever.

Gaming and Star Wars sites began posting the newly edited video, so that it spread quickly. Other people made their own remixes and edits until the Star Wars Kid was relatively famous. Here’s a selection of some of the best star wars videos.

But Ghyslain Raza wasn’t enjoying the attention. He was teased so badly at school, that he dropped out and finished the semester at a children's psychiatric ward.

Now his parents are suing the families of the four classmates who digitized and published the video. Ghyslain's parents say their son was so humiliated that he may be marked for life by the experience.

But not everyone was tormenting the poor kid: an internet petition to get Raza a cameo role in Star Wars Episode III received more than 140,000 "signatures." (However, although George Lucas sympathised with the young man's plight, he was not include in the movie.) And almost $5000 USD was raised to buy Ghyslain an iPod.

Do Not Want

2008-06-10T14:25:00.014+02:00

You gotta love bad Engrish translations. ‘Engrish’ is loosely defined as the humorous mistakes that come from translating Chinese or Japanese into English.

Previously I blogged about the AYBABTU meme which developed because of the strange translation of Japanese text into English.

DO NOT WANT is also a meme that developed from a strange translation:

A pirated version of Star Wars Episode III appeared for sale in the US soon after the movie release. This version had subtitles that had been translated into Chinese and then back into English – with some strange results.

Even the opening credits, where the English words appear on the screen have been mistranslated.
(The backstroke of the West?)

But the scene that started the meme appears right at the end of the movie when Darth Vader screams “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Darth Vader’s cry appears in subtitles as “Do Not Want”.

And the rest is history.

The phrase has been used to create hundreds of Image Macros (many feature LOLcats, but the meme is certainly not limited to pictures of cats).

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

2008-05-27T16:29:00.006+02:00

This Dancing Banana animated GIF started it’s life as an emoticon (an icon denoting an emotion, like a smiley face ☺) on message boards.

But the Banana made its real leap to internet stardom when Ryan Etrata had a brain wave. He created a flash animation featuring the Banana dancing to an incredibly catchy song called ‘Peanut Butter Jelly Time’ (written by The Buckwheat Boyz). Watch it here.

Fame!
The Dancing Banana soon made its way to television shows and began to appear as an icon in American Pop Culture. In an episode of the TV show, The Family Guy, Brian tries to cheer up Peter by performing "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" dressed as the Dancing Banana. The Banana and phrase ‘It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time’ also appears in a Weezer music video Pork and Beans.

As the popularity of the Dancing Banana grew, hundreds of variations of the image were created including dancing strawberries, carrots and video game characters. This site features an updated 2006 version of Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

He’s so old… he farts mummy dust

2008-05-26T10:57:00.003+02:00

Here’s a new meme that’s just emerging in the US.

As the US elections draw nearer, a couple of Left Wing supporters have come up with a meme ripping off republican candidate, John McCain.

John McCain is 72 years old, and if elected he will be the oldest person ever inaugurated as president of the USA.

The new meme plays with this idea, listing things younger than John McCain. For example, Scrabble is younger than John McCain, so is the shopping cart... not to mention peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and duct tape.

Check out thingsyoungerthanmccain.com – a collection of - you guessed it - thigs younger than the presidential hopeful. The site is gaining popularity and was recently featured on the Jimmy Kimmel show. Also check out this site that features WORDS younger than McCain - like 'bicep' and 'addiction'.

Also see this page from RollingStone.com which features John McCain ‘old jokes’.

More Pirates vs Ninjas

2008-05-26T10:55:00.003+02:00

And here's a Facebook app.

Pirates vs Ninjas

2008-05-26T10:35:00.002+02:00

It’s a debate that has raged on for centuries (or at least since 2002)… If a ninja and a pirate fought a battle – who would win?

If you haven’t picked a side yet – you better hurry up.

This wide-spread internet meme has crossed over into many other forms of media including several short films (like Pirate-Ninja Battle and Pirates Vs. Ninjas: The Movie) and comic books. Xbox launched a game called Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball

Hundreds of Pirate vs. Ninja themed websites have appeared, many allow you to join a side and compete for control of the site. Check out: piratevninja, piratesversusninjas.net, ninjapirate.com, and convinceme.net

Ninjas are everywhere.

2008-05-12T16:56:00.001+02:00

Next up... Ninjas vs. Pirates - the age-old debate.

Ninjas are totally sweet...

2008-05-12T15:00:00.007+02:00

Ninjas are also pretty awesome.

And they too have a huge internet phenomenon behind them.

The very popular ‘Ask A Ninja’ series describes what it is to be a ninja by answering questions posed to him by mere mortals.

Uncyclopedia lists a few of the weapons used by ninjas: “swords, kantanas, shuriken, sticks, knives, shuriken, kunai,a banana, ... a really sharp pencil, a really dull pencil, pudding, an easter egg, rolled up newspapers, bubble gum, ferrets, numbers, kunai, hp deskjet 970Cse color printers, a trombone, a travel size websters dictionary, a lamp shade, 1950's porno flicks, a wiimote, a Guitar Hero Guitar, a pikmin, your arm, a pokeball, a rabid rabbit, another ninja, tree trunks, chainsaws, pimp canes, pies, a soup spoon, your face (after they ripped it off), the guitar solo from Metallica's Seek and Destroy, laser vision bears, peoples social lives that Blizzard stole with World of Warcraft, a cereal box, and Axl Rose - pretty much anything except a gun (actually, a ninja could use a gun, but they find throwing the bullets to be more deadly and visually appealing; or they might just kill you by throwing the gun at you)."

The Ninja phenomenon may have started with the website ‘Real Ultimate Power’ – this humour site was created by Robert Hamburger (as a fictional, 13-year-old character with the same name)

According to Hamburger, there are three Ninja facts:

1. Ninjas are mammals.
2. Ninjas fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.

Not to be outdone by the pirates, the ninjas have started an online movement to celebrate International Creep Like a Ninja Day on 5 December.

ARGH!

2008-05-12T14:47:00.004+02:00

Pirates are cool.

They are so cool in fact that they have become an Internet phenomenon in their own right.

Q: Why are Pirates called Pirates?
A: Because they Arrrrrrr!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day (celebrated on the 19th of September) is the day to "let out their inner pirate". The day has been gaining popularity through the Internet since its founders set up a website, which instructs visitors in "pirate slang."

Check out this Flickr page to see some crazy people dressed up to celebrate the holiday.

According to Uncyclopedia, a pirate’s main priorities are:
1. Rum (but none of that Light, Clear Bacardi stuff)
2. Lots of booty (of both the "gold" and "female" varieties)
3. Whiskey
4. Poor Hygiene
5. Beer (etc.)

But if there’s one thing a pirate can’t stand… it’s a ninja.

Over 9000!

2008-05-06T14:52:00.005+02:00

Dragonball Z is an animated Japanese TV show (an anime), which has been dubbed into many languages and has become popular in many countries around the world. The English translation of the show can be somewhat clumsy and comical.

The ‘Over 9000’ meme originally came from an episode of the Dragonball Z in which Vegeta (one of the show’s ‘bad guys’) is asked "Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?" and Vegeta responds "It's over 9000!". This rather nonsensical statement gained internet fame when the clip was ‘remixed’ and placed on YouTube by a fan.

‘Over 9000’ has become a phrase used to describe impressive power or skill or something that’s really awesome (or 'made of win'). For example – “That game is over 9000” or “My level of awesomeness is over 9000!”

And of course, many YouTube Videos have sprung up featuring the catchphrase in different ways including a Southpark and Myst parody.

Interestingly, in the original Japanese version, Vegeta actually says "Over 8000" but the American dubbers chose 9000 because it worked better with the lip movement of the characters on screen.

A similar clip from Dragonball Z features the character Piccolo saying "The balls are inert".

Chocolate Rain

2008-04-18T10:35:00.004+02:00

Hypnotic, catchy and memorizing are just some of the words used to describe ‘Chocolate Rain’, a song written and performed by 25 year old Tay Zonday.

Tay posted this song he wrote on YouTube in April 2007 – the song became very popular, and has been watched over 15 million times.

‘Chocolate Rain’ is perhaps so famous because of Tay Zonday’s surprisingly deep voice, or his strange mannerisms while singing. But like many other Internet Phenomenon, Chocolate Rain more than likely initially gained momentum because it spread as a joke on 4chan.org.

‘Chocolate Rain’ is the subject of numerous parodies, tributes, remixes and covers on the Internet. Major musical artists, such as singer John Mayer and Green Day drummer Tré Cool have spoofed the song, along with many others.

Some of my favorite spoofs include this one, by Chad Vader (that’s Darth Vader’s younger brother and grocery store manager) and of course, Dramatic Chipmunk.

And now – the remix!

Tay got together with the guys from Dr Pepper to make a remix version of his song – ‘Cherry Chocolate Rain’ to promote Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper. T-A-Y to the Z almost looks at home in the music video featuring bright lights and scantily clad girls. The video also guest stars rapper Mista Johnson.

Memes covered so far

2008-04-10T15:51:00.004+02:00

Heres a list of the internet phenomenon covered thus far:

1. LOLcats
2. AYBABTU
3. Stuff on my cat
4. The cake is a lie
5. Fail
6. The Hampster Dance
7. I love horses
8. Rickrolling
9. Demotivational Posters
10. Numa Numa
11. Chuck Norris
12. The Hoff
13. Post Secret
14. A Series of Tubes
15. Leeeroy Jeenkins
16. Tourist Guy
17. Dramatic Hamster
18. Techno Viking
19. The Dancing Baby
20. Badger Badger Badger

Badger, Badger, Badger…

2008-04-10T15:32:00.003+02:00

Badger Badger Badger is a Flash cartoon created by Jonti Picking in 2003.

It consists of images of badgers jumping up and down, combined with the odd picture of a toadstool and a snake. Add a strange (and strangely catchy) tune and you’ve got an instant Internet hit. The site where Badger Badger first appeared also features other Flash animations created by Jonti "Weebl" Picking including the popular Weebl and Bob series.

Interesting Fact: amongst the many parodies of Badger, Badger, Badger, the most controversial was actually made by PETA (the organisation promoting the ethical treatment of animals). PETA basically ripped off the Badger animation, using it to promote their organisation. This immediately created a huge outcry from the internet and the video was quickly taken down.

That Damn Dancing Baby

2008-04-10T15:16:00.005+02:00

The dancing baby (also known as “baby cha-cha”) was one of the first Internet memes, originating in 1996. The dancing baby was originally a demo animation for the 3D modelling animation package 3D Studio Max.

Fame
The baby dances to music and appeared frequently on the television programme Ally McBeal - symbolising her ticking biological clock. It sometimes dances to the intro of Blue Swede's cover of the song "Hooked on a Feeling (Ooga Chaka).” Ironically, this same song was also covered by David Hasselhoff, another internet meme.

Several edited versions and parodies of the animation were created, including a drunken baby and a Rasta Baby. A parody of the dancing baby appeared on The Simpsons and in the sitcoms Unhappily Ever After and 3rd Rock from the Sun.

My opinion - kinda freaky

April Fools!

2008-04-01T10:02:00.001+02:00

To celebrate April Fools Day, Google announced a partnership with Virgin called 'Virgle' - apparently a joint venture with the goal of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars! If you want to be chosen as one of the first settlers to join the Mars colony, check out the blog:

Official Google Blog: Announcing Project Virgle

Also in the Google stable, YouTube celebrated April Fools day by rickrolling all their featured videos...
Go see!!

Three memes, one picture

2008-03-25T15:24:00.002+02:00

The Techno Viking

2008-03-25T15:18:00.006+02:00

Practically a real life superhero, the Techo Viking is strong, bold and mysterious.

This video was captured at the F**k Parade in Berlin. This techno parade through the streets is actually a protest march, demonstrating against the Love parade... but that’s another story.

As ravers dance down the streets, a video was taken of the 'Techo Viking' coming to the rescue of a girl who is accosted by a passerby. The video has been remixed with different soundtracks including Michael Jackson’s 'Beat it'.

My opinion - you can't help but find this guy interesting, good to watch

The Dramatic Hamster

2008-03-19T14:17:00.003+02:00

The dramatic hamster is actually a dramatic prairie dog.

This simple five-second clip of a prairie dog turning his head to face the camera paired with dramatic music took the net by storm. Many people have made spoof videos and tributes to the funny clip. Visit dramaticprairiedog.com to see some of them.

The clip comes from a Japanese TV show called 'Hello! Morning'.

My opinion - brilliant - short and sweet!

More Rickrolling

2008-03-14T09:41:00.007+02:00

Cartoon from xkcd.com entitled 'The Ring'

See Rickrolling for more.

The accidental tourist

2008-03-14T09:17:00.008+02:00

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a picture of a tourist on the observation deck of the World Trade Centre started circulating the net.

The picture was supposedly taken moments before the attack – Tourist Guy stands in the foreground, as a hijacked plane approached the tower from behind.

While it was claimed that the picture came from a camera found in the debris at Ground Zero, many people found fault with the photo – pointing out:

• The weather on that day was too hot for the clothes Tourist Guy is wearing.
• The picture was taken on the South Tower. The North Tower was hit first.
• The jet is remarkably clear - a plane traveling at that speed would be blurred.
• The jet is a Boeing 757. Flights 11 and 175 were both Boeing 767s.
• The digital date stamp looks phony.

After the original ‘Tourist Guy’ pic did its rounds, people began photoshopping him into other situations, including the sinking of the Titanic and the shooting of JFK.

Who is Tourist Guy?

Initially, Brazilian businessman José Roberto Penteado came forward claiming to be the man in the photos. But when he started getting a lot of media attention, a 25-year-old Hungarian man named Péter Guzli came forward as the real tourist. Guzli took the photo on November 28, 1997, and was also responsible for the initial edit. He never imagined the stir the picture would cause.

My opinion - good initial impact, got old quickly

Leeeeroy Jeeenkins

2008-03-06T15:11:00.007+02:00

Leeroy Jenkins is the name of the World of Warcraft character of Ben Schultz. He became famous after the release of a video clip featuring Leeroy and his Clan preparing for a raid on the Rookery room in Upper Blackrock Spire.

The video shows the players strategising before the battle, using audio teleconferencing. They meticulously plan and strategise, even calculating their chances of survival. But all the while, Leeroy Jenkins (Ben Schulz) is away from his computer, apparently making himself some chicken.

When he returns, he unexpectedly charges into the Rookery, yelling, "Alright, time's up, let's do this! LEEROOOOY JENKINS!"

The rest of the group stands around shocked for a second, then decide they have to follow him into battle. They try to hastily execute the plan, but it’s no use – soon they are all killed. They hurl insults at Leeroy… to which he responds "At least I have chicken."

The video clip is a form of 'machinima' an emerging kind of filmmaking in which movies are created entirely inside video games. The video was initially released on the World of Warcraft forums, but you can now find Leeroy Jenkins references all over. Within WOW, there are very few people who don’t know about Leeroy Jenkins, and his fame has spread amoungst non-gamers as well.

Fame!
A Jeopardy episode features a question relating to Leeroy Jenkins. Blizzard Entertainment made a trading game card featuring Leeroy. Toyota Tacoma made a TV ad parody of the Leeroy Jenkins incident and an advert for the Video Game Awards spoofed Leeroy Jenkins in a lift and business meeting. There are also numerous Leeroy-inspired works all over the Internet. Leeroy even had a stalker for a while. A character named "Leeroy's Apprentice" wanted to hang out with Leeroy in the game and followed him everywhere.

Check out this page for more links.

My opinion - this guy is legend

A series of tubes

2008-03-04T14:40:00.008+02:00

The Internet is a bunch of tubes…

Well, that’s according to US Senator Ted Stevens anyway. He gave a speech criticizing a proposed amendment to a US bill concerning Network Neutrality, and basically showed his complete lack of understanding of how the Internet works.

Boing Boing had this to say about the senator: “This man is so far away from having a coherent picture of the Internet's functionality, it's like hearing a caveman expound on the future of silver-birds-from-sky and why we need to keep them from flying so high they anger the gods.”

Here’s a taste of what he had to say:

“I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially...

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.”

Here’s the speech on YouTube.

In true Internet in-joke fashion, many Internet-users make oblique references to the 'series of tubes' (and the truck) – crossing into many memes including LOLcats and demotivational posters.

MySpace user Andrew Raff sang the senator's words over a folksy ditty and anonymously posted it to MySpace.com.

Comedian Jon Stewart aired part of Steven's speech on The Daily Show, complete with a helpful diagram illustrating how a tube-based internet might work.

My opinion - great fun, some clever humor

Top Secrets

2008-03-03T17:16:00.006+02:00

It started as a work of art and it’s now one of the top blogs on the Internet.

Postsecret is “a community arts project” that invites everyone and anyone to submit a secret to the site.

It’s a beautifully simple idea: make a handmade postcard with your secret on it, and mail it to Postsecret. Every Sunday, new postcards are published on the site.

Secrets range from whimsical one-liners to private hopes and dreams to serious admissions of guilt. PostSecret is not a business.

Frank Warren, the creator of the site forgoes profit on what is the largest advertisement-free site on the web. Frank does compile the secrets he collects into books, which are published and sold.

In 2005, the band “The All-American Rejects’ used Postsecret cards in their music video for their hit ‘Dirty Little Secret’.

The Postsecret site has remained within the top 10 blogs on the internet for years. Frank Warren has now started a French and German Postsecret.

The Hoff

2008-03-03T15:40:00.008+02:00

You can’t talk about the Chuck Norris Internet phenomenon, without touching on ‘The Hoff’ – David Hasselhoff.

Hasselhoff was best known for his lead roles in Knight Rider and Baywatch. He also became a pop icon in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

His music videos are so scary, you would be forgiven for thinking they were fakes.

Check it out:

In the late 90s, Hasselhoff started to become something of an Internet phenomenon, mostly as a subject of fun. Much like the Chuck Norris meme, ‘the Hoff facts’ started circulating, along with images of David Hasselhoff photoshopped into movie posters and other pictures.

David Hasselhoff didn’t shy away from the fun, instead he embraced it, even agreeing to take part in an advert, where he proclaimed himself ‘King of the Internet’.

His Internet fame also landed him a role as judge on America’s Got Talent, where he often uses the catchphrase that the Internet created for him: "Don't Hassel the Hoff!"

Rick Astley would never...

2008-02-29T15:47:00.003+02:00

Go see...

Chuck Norris – the man, the myth, the ledged.

2008-02-27T18:43:00.004+02:00

Chuck Norris, star of the TV show ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ is pretty tough. In fact, he’s so tough, he spawned his own internet phenomenon.

Chuck Norris facts started spreading across the internet in late 2005, proclaiming Chuck as the ultimate power in the universe.

A few examples:
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
• Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open.
• Chuck Norris beat the Sun in a staring contest.
• Guns don't kill people. Chuck Norris kills People.

Many of the facts centre on his trademark Roundhouse Kick. For example, “Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean.”

Norris has written his own response to the parody on his website, stating that he does not feel offended by them, and finds some of them funny. He appeared on TV to read his top 10 facts. He stated that his favorite was “They once tried to carve Chuck Norris's face into Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn't hard enough for his beard.”

You’ll find many sites dedicated to the craze including:

http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/
http://www.thechucknorrisfacts.com/
http://chucknorrisisgod.com/

Also, try this:

Go to Google.com.
Type in “find chuck norris”.
Click the “I’m feeling lucky” button.

World of Warcraft players adopted the phenomenon, often forming Chuck Norris guilds, and converting others to the Norris ‘religion’.

The phenomenon lead to many spin-offs, including Mr T facts, Vin Diesel facts and ‘The Hoff’ facts.

Numa Numa

2008-02-25T15:23:00.011+02:00

The Romanian pop band O-Zone can thank one man for much of their success in the USA. Gary Brolsma made an amateur video of himself singing along to the O-Zone song "Dragostea din tei". This video became known as the Numa Numa video or the Numa Numa dance. This name came from the song's chorus "nu mă, nu mă iei," meaning, roughly, "you won't take, won't take me."

The video of Gary lip-synching to the song was released on the Newgrounds site in 2004 - since then it's been seen more than 13 million times and copied to hundreds of websites and blogs!

Other Numa Numa fans have made their own dance video.
Check out the cool LEGO version here.

Fame!
Gary's video was shown on many US TV channels, including ABC's Good Morning America to NBC's The Tonight Show and VH1's Best Week Ever.

Demotivational posters

2008-02-21T14:51:00.007+02:00

I'm sure you've seen those terrible motivational posters that were a big craze for a while.

You know the ones: they feature an athlete silhouetted against a sunset, crossing a finish line and celebrating, or a gazelle leaping across an African plain... Below the picture a strong line focuses on a motivational topic like 'Leadership' or 'Success'. And below that, advice on how to 'be better'.

It's not really surprising that many people found these posters the perfect material to rip off. Demotivational posters (often called Demotivators or MotiFakes) are just that - an image, together with funny copy mocking real motivational posters. The sarcastic messages cover everything from work issues to getting a girlfriend and gaming references.

Check out Macrofolio and the burning biscuit for some great posters.

This meme continues to spread and evolve. Posters cover just about every conceivable topic - and some are just plain strange. Here's a site where you can make your own.

Rickrolling

2008-02-20T16:36:00.008+02:00

Rick Astley... British singer/songwriter, boyish looks, cheesy songs... who ever would have thought that one of his hits 'Never gonna give you up' would spark and Internet phenomenon?

The campy music video for this song became the basis for an phenomenon known as "rickrolling".

The joke originated on internet message boards like 4chan. People would post a link on the message board, claiming it is relevant to the topic at hand - but it actually takes the reader to the Rick Astley video.

The phenomenon spread to spread rapidly onto other message boards and onto email. Emails with a promising-looking link (like 'Check out these hot babes at the topless carwash') would actually lead to the Rick Astley video, with the taunt 'You've been Rickrolled'

Click here to be 'Rickroll'd'

And now the follow-up phenomenon: Click here to be 'Flick Rolled'

"I love horses - best of all the animals"

2008-02-20T10:44:00.003+02:00

When a series of children's magazines were launched for horse-mad girls, the advertisers couldn't have guessed just how popular their catchy jingle would become.

The simple song promoting the magazines goes: "I love horses Best of all the animals I love horses They’re my friends."

You can hear the original here on the magazine's website.

This little tune became so popular, it was remixed as a dance track and sold as a mobile phone ringtone. Check out the YouTube video:

Dancing Hampsters...

2008-02-19T15:03:00.005+02:00

The Hampster Dance is one of the earliest examples of an Internet meme.

It's a very basic animated GIF of hamsters and bunnies dancing to a sped up music track.

Interestingly, it was created by a Canadian art student, Deidre LaCarte, who was competing with her best friend and sister to see who could create a site that would generate the most internet traffic.

Deidre originally posted the dancing hamsters on Geocities, a site that offers free web hosting. It was a homage to her pet hamster 'Hampton'. She used four simple animated GIFs and repeated them dozens of times. She embedded background music in the site which she got from the opening credits to the Walt Disney version of Robin Hood, called 'Whistle Stop'. The tune was sped up and modified. But because this was technically a copyright infringement, she eventually had to take the song down.

Initially, the site only had about 4 visitors a day, but without warning it suddenly jumped to 15,000 per day. The website spread by e-mail, newsgroups and bumper stickers.

Click here to see the original dancinghampster animated GIF.

Fame!
The dancing hamsters eventually featured in a television commercial.
A couple of CDs were released featuring the Hampster Hits. You can also buy t-shirts and other merchandise featuring the dancing critters. The Hampsterdance song even climbed the Canadian and Australian Top 40 charts for a while.

Fans of the site created variations on the original dance, using everything from mushrooms to Cheeseburgers to Pez dispensers.

Fail! Another internet meme.

2008-02-19T13:23:00.008+02:00

A meme is a catchphrase or concept that spreads via the internet, quickly gaining popularity, like a fad.

Another image macros meme, like LOLcats and Stuff on my cat, is the 'Fail' meme.

It's pretty self explanatory... funny picture (often of someone hurting them self or failing in some way) with the text 'FAIL' written over the image.

The FAIL blog and Shipment of Fail both offer a growing collection of 'Fail' images.

The cake is a lie!

2008-02-12T17:45:00.004+02:00

‘Portal ’ is a game that was released together with Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 in a special bundle pack called The Orange Box. In the game, you are challenged to make your way through various ‘test chambers’ using a portal gun. The game’s originality and dry sense of humour meant that Portal became an instant hit. At varoius points in the game, you are promised a cake as a reward for completing all the chambers. But as the levels progress, the initially helpful AI voice becomes more and more suspiciously sinister.

On one level, it is possible to find a hidden room, filled with graffiti, including the phrase: ‘the cake is a lie’.

This phrase became a shared joke amoungst Portal players all over the net.

Is the cake a lie?

While the final sequence of the game does show a chocolate cake, your character doesn’t necessarily ever get to enjoy it.

A further in-joke:
The Portal game takes place within the "Aperture Science Enrichment Center". Aperture science are the Portal Gun manufacturers. Gamers soon discovered the website www.aperturescience.com . This viral marketing device is basically a mini ARG (Alternative Reality Game). When you login to the system, you are given a chance Apply to aperture science by taking a bizarre 50 question test.

If you play portal, look out for the Username and Password to enter the site. (If you don’t have any DOS knowledge, you need to know that to enter the username and password, you will need to type ‘login’. To find out what's on the drive, type DIR)

If you haven’t played the game, but you’d still like to take a look, you can enter the site by typing any user name using the password ‘PORTAL’ – but this will give you access to less information. Andrew Neo gives a good breakdown of what happens and what to do on this site.

More cats?!

2008-02-07T10:05:00.002+02:00

For some reason, cats really seem to resonate with online communities.

LOLcats are not the only kitty internet phenomenon. Enter stuffonmycat.com. Their tagline is ‘stuff + cats = awesome’. The concept is incredibly simple – pictures of cats with stuff on them.

One thing stuffonmycat does very well is their merchandising. You can buy the latest calendar, books, postcards, personalised t-shirts – and …(wait for it)… cat apparel – so you can dress up your cat and take pictures.

And just in case you dog lovers are feeling left out, they've also created stuffonmymutt.com

All your base are belong to us!

2008-01-30T11:04:00.003+02:00

What is it?

“All your base are belong to us" is a broken English phrase taken from the opening cut scene of a 1989 video game called Zero Wing. It sparked an Internet phenomenon in 2001 and 2002 that was incredibly popular amongst gamers.

The year is 2101, and a war has started. The scene is the interior of the command deck of some form of battle cruiser, in which a captain is stood watching an explosion rip around the ship. The captain enquires 'What happen?', to which the ship's mechanic replies 'Someone set up us the bomb.' Next, the ship's operator states 'We get signal' and 'Main screen turn on', revealing to the captain that the perpetrator is none other than the dastardly, borg-like CATS! CATS asks 'How are you gentlemen!!' and then tells the captain of his impending downfall - 'All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.' Finding it hard to take this news, the captain replies 'What you say!!', but CATS simply replies 'You have no chance to survive make your time', following which he laughs rather maniacally and then disappears. Resolving to win despite the odds, the captain orders the operator to 'Take off every Zig.' The captain instructs the Zig pilots, 'You know what you doing', then repeats to them to 'Move Zig' and states that he fights 'For great justice'.

Huh?
The intense popularity of this clip derived from it’s poor – and therefore humorous – translation from Japanese into English. After an animated GIF of the opening sequence was posted on a gaming site, the craze started to catch on. Altered images of road signs, cereal packets and other photographs containing the words 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us' had started to appear. Techno remixes of T-shirts featuring the line were sold by enterprising online stores. The story was picked up by newspapers and TV-stations around the world.

But as more and more TV channels, newspapers, websites and 'celebrities' began to jump on the bandwagon, it became important for those who wanted to remain credible to reject the craze as old news.

Soon it died out, although new parodies pop up every now and then. These include 'All your Iraq belong to U.S.' and the techno remix of the video clip.

LOLcats

2008-01-30T09:44:00.004+02:00

What are they?
LOLcats are images that combining a cute cat photograph captioned with a humorous phrase in broken English. They are a form of ‘image macros’ and originated on Internet message boards.

LOLcats are a form of 'meme' - an internet phenomenon that spreads rapidly like a fad.

How they began:
Not so long ago, message boards contained text-only conversations. As they developed to include images, message board users started adopting their own ‘language’. For example, message board users would post a picture of a snowy owl with the caption ‘O RLY?’ (Oh really?) to indicate that a previous person’s comment was really obvious. As this language developed, cutesy cat pictures became the flavour of the month. The first LOLcats appeared on the 4chan imageboards as the Caturday internet phenomenon. The name 'LOLcats' " is a compound word of "lol" (an abreviation of Laugh Out Loud, a term frequently used in chat rooms) and "cat".

I can has cheezburger?
www.icanhascheezburger.com was the first site to gather, organise and tag the lolcats. The site now features a lolcat builder, so you can create your own.

Their own language:
The wording on LOLcat images is written in a form of baby-talk, which has been called Kitty Pidgin, Kitteh, or lolspeak. The wording is meant to be the direct speech of the pictured cat.

Sub-groups within the meme:
As the in-joke grows, contributors veer off on a tangent, creating their own form of in-joke - they may, for example, employ different grammatical patterns or use different contexts. For example, within the LOLcats meme, you get an 'invisible' sub-group featuring pictures of cats eating invisible sandwiches or dancing with invisible tango partners.

Another sub-group involves another Internet in-joke that was started by computer gamers. The "I'm in ur X, doing Y" construction originates from an old video game taunt: "I am in your base, killing your d00ds."

Extending the in-joke
Why stop at kittens? Other captioned creatures have made an appearance – notably the walrus whose bucket was stolen. But don’t think it ends there - a new LOL-spinoff is created every week. The Lolpresident series pokes fun at Bush, using humorous pictures with the same baby-like talk.

Fame!
LOLcats gained international attention when they were covered by Time magazine, which wrote that non-commercialised phenomena of the sort are increasingly rare, stating that lolcats have "a distinctly old-school, early 1990s, Usenet feel to [them]."