Spot the Memes in this Weezer music video

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:

The Star Wars Kid

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

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).