(Redirected from Internet phenomenon)
'List of Internet phenomena' is a partial list of representative phenomena specific to
Internet, such as
internet memes, but not restricted to. Only a sampling of Internet phenomena which have achieved recognition in a context wider than that of the Internet, such as coverage in the mainstream media, are present here.
People
★ '
Star Wars kid' — A
Québécois teenager became known as the "Star Wars Kid" after a video appeared on the Internet showing him swinging a
golf ball retriever as if it were a
lightsaber. Many parodies of the video were made and distributed through video sharing sites, and peer-to-peer sharing programs like
Kazaa.
[1]
★ '
Chuck Norris facts' — Archetypal
joke, parodying the action-film
actor as the ultimate hard man with incredible attributes.
[2]
★ '
The Bus Uncle' — As the name suggests, the incident took place on a bus. A
Hong Kong middle-aged man reacted furiously after the young man seated behind him tapped his shoulder and asked him to lower his voice while speaking on the phone. His outburst spawned catchphrases in Hong Kong and Chinese communities around the world.
[3]
Bands
★ '
OK Go' — An American rock band whose video for the single "
Here It Goes Again" featured the band members performing an elaborate dance on
treadmills. The video was taken in one shot. It has been viewed a total of 21 million times on YouTube. This internet success led them to be featured on the
Colbert Report and the video won the 2006
Grammy for best Short-Form Music Video.
[4]
★ '
Hurra Torpedo' — A Norwegian band that became part of a viral ad campaign by going on a coast to coast tour in the US that was paid for by Ford in order to promote the
Ford Fusion car. As part of the ad campaign, a mockumentary movie called "The Crushing Blow" is being made. By the end of November 2005 a clip from The Crushing Blow was viewed more than 500,000 times in a couple of days from the web site iFilm.
[4]
★ '
Lemon Demon' — A one-man band by
Neil Cicierega, most famous for ''
Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny'' (see below). Cicierega's "Hyakugojyuuichi"
animutation was a web animation hit.
[Salon.com, All hail Neil Cicierega, April 26 2001] Neil is also the creator of the popular two series hit
Potter Puppet Pals.
★ '
JerryC' — Taiwanese guitarist and composer who wrote "
Canon Rock", a rock arrangement of
Pachelbel's
Canon in D.
[4]
★ '
Jeong-Hyun Lim' (a.k.a. '''funtwo''') — Guitar player from South Korea, who first played JerryC's Canon Rock and post on YouTube.
[4]
★ '
Group X' — Faux Arabian rock band, who first became popular when their song, 'Mario Twins' was made into a
Flash video. Many other songs followed suit, but none of the videos were actually made by Group X.
[8]
Games
★ '
All Your Base Are Belong To Us' —
Engrish from the opening
cut scene of the video game
Zero Wing, which has become a catchphrase, inspiring videos and other derivative works.
[9]
★ '
Leeroy Jenkins' — A ''
World Of Warcraft'' player charges into a high-level dungeon with a distinctive cry of "Leeeeeeeerooooy... Jeeenkins!", ruining the meticulous attack plans of his group and getting them all killed.
[ The Ballad of Leeroy Jenkins Craig Pearson ]
★ '
Line Rider' — A Flash game where the player draws lines that act as ramps and hills for a small rider on a sled.
[4]
Videos
★ '''
Thriller'' performed by prison inmates in the
Philippines' — features a recreation of
Michael Jackson's hit
music video, performed by prison inmates.
[11]
★ 'Boom goes the dynamite' — Brian Collins, a nervous and extremely awkward sports anchor attempts to call highlights for his college's news show, fumbling through most of the segment until finally uttering this now-famous catch phrase.
[4]
★ '''Brokeback Mountain'' parodies' — The movie ''
Brokeback Mountain'' inspired many online parody trailers and has since been removed from the site.
[4]
★ '
Impossible Is Nothing' — ambitious
video resume by
Yale student Aleksey Vayner.
[14]
★ '
Numa Numa' —
Gary Brolsma sings along to a
Romanian language dance song ("
Dragostea din tei" by
O-Zone).
[15]
★ '
Evolution of Dance' — A six minute video showing
Judson Laipply performing various popular dances to music ranging from the early 1950s to present day. The video currently has over 57 million views on
Youtube, ranking it as the most viewed video of all time on
Youtube.
★ '
Drama Prairie Dog' (also inaccurately known as "Dramatic Chipmunk") — A brief
GIF turned into a video from the website
4chan.org of a standing
prairie dog turning its head suddenly toward the camera, with a quick zoom-in on its face. The clip was excerpted from an 2001 appearance by
J-pop group
MiniMoni on the Japanese TV show ''
Hello! Morning''.
[16][17] Various spoofs have been made of the prairie dog in different situations.
[4]
★ '
Chocolate Rain' - Original composition from the Minnesota singer and songwriter Tay Zonday, who has been noted for his unusually deep voice and "inimitable style."
[4]
Animation-based
★ '
Badger Badger Badger' — A Flash animation looping while playing repeatedly "Badger badger badger...".
★ '
Dancing baby' — A 3D-rendered dancing baby first appeared in
1997 by the creators of 3-D Studio Max, and became something of a late-'90s
cultural icon, featured many times in the
TV show ''
Ally McBeal''.
20
★ '
Hampster Dance' — A page filled with animated
GIFs of hamsters dancing, linking to other animated pages. It spawned a
fictional band complete with its own CD album release.
[20]
★ '
Loituma Girl' (also known as
Leekspin).
[21]
★ '
Peanut Butter Jelly Time' — A
Flash animation that emerged in the early 2000s featuring the
Dancing Banana and a song (based upon a song of the same name recorded by the
Buckwheat Boyz). It was referenced in
an episode of the TV series ''
Family Guy''.
[22]
★ '
Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny' — A flash animation of a battle royale between many notable characters from fact and fiction, based on one of Lemon Demon's songs.
[23]
Images
★ '"Little Fatty"' — Beginning in 2003, a
Chinese high school student from Shanghai had his face
superimposed onto various other images, creating an Internet fad.
[24][25]
★ "'Lootie'" is an
Associated Press photo taken in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, under the caption ''"A looter carries a bucket of beer out of a grocery store in New Orleans...''"
[4] The picture features a smiling,
African-American male in waist deep waters carrying a large plastic tub of bottles of
beer. Many Photoshop variants of the original were created.
[27][28]
★ '
The Saugeen Stripper' — An 18-year-old female resident of
Saugeen-Maitland Hall at the
University of Western Ontario performed a striptease at a birthday party, and dozens of digital images of the party ended up on the Internet. The incident briefly attracted widespread media attention and was the subject of articles by a number of
Canadian and
American media outlets. The controversy sparked a discussion about just how much control that institutions of higher learning have over what goes on in their residences.
[29]
★ '
Goatse.cx' — A website that featured a shock image called 'hello.jpg'.
[30]
★ '
The "O RLY?" Owl' — An owl originally posted on the
Something Awful forums but later Photoshopped by an anonymous user on
4chan's random board
★ '
lolcats' —
image macros featuring cats with humorous captions, typically in
netspeak or
leetspeak.
[31]
★ '
lolruses' - image macros featuring sea mammals and their relationship to buckets
[32]
Films
★ '''
The Blair Witch Project''' — The first film to notably use the internet for
astroturfing, its makers spread rumors the material they shot was authentic and that the three protagonists really disappeared in
Burkittsville,
Maryland, which caused problems for the police department of Frederick County.
[33] In addition, many websites began to feature "stolen" clips of the film later discovered to be supplied by Artisan and the filmmakers, as well as "planted" fake reviews of the film, taking pains to disguise their work through intentional spelling mistakes and poor Web design.
[34] Many other filmmakers and studios accused the producers of creating a fake fan buzz to generate a real one, stating "That was an organized effort. What happened is that they tricked the press."
[35]
★ '''
Snakes on a Plane''' — This 2006 film starring
Samuel L. Jackson became an Internet phenomenon due to the film's title and premise a year before its planned release, and before any promotional material was released. Producers of the film responded to the Internet buzz by adding several scenes which catered to the fans.
[36]
★ '''
300''' - This 2007 film featuring
Gerard Butler inspired a meme involving digitally altering photos by juxtaposing the face of
Leonidas over the face of another person, often accompanied with a (occasionally somewhat modified) quote from the film. Examples of this can be found at http://community.livejournal.com/randompictures/2209617.html?page=1 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHmiAtY_d9I .
Web sites
★ '
2channel' — A Japanese
Internet forum (the largest in the world). The site has significant influence on Japanese culture and popular opinion.
[37]
★ '
MySpace' — One of the most popular worldwide social networking websites, which offers an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos.
[38][39][40]
★ '
Real Ultimate Power' — upon which a fictional 13 year old boy obsesses about
ninjas.
★ '
YouTube' — a popular website where people can view videos submitted by users.
Personal sites
★ '
Mahir Çağrı' (i kiss you) — A resident of
İzmir,
Turkey, Çağrı became an
Internet celebrity in
1999, when his picture-laden homepage, which exclaimed in broken
English his love of the
accordion and travel, was visited by millions and spawned numerous fansites and parodies, one featured on Fox's ''
MADtv'' (season 4, episode 20).
20
★ '
Randy Constan' — He posted pictures of himself on his website wearing self-made
Peter Pan costumes.
[41]
Politics
★ '
You forgot Poland' - a
catch phrase based on a statement by
United States President
George W. Bush concerning
Poland's involvement in the
Iraq War during the
first presidential election debate on
September 30,
2004.
[42]
Audio
★ 'I Want My Western Barbecue Burger!' — An irate woman places a
9-1-1 call demanding the police enter a
Laguna Niguel,
California-area
Burger King and force the employees to make her and her kids a "Western Barbecue Burger".
[43][44]
See also
★
Meme — A unit of cultural information that propagates from one mind to another as a theoretical unit of cultural evolution and diffusion.
References
1. Star Wars Kid is top viral video
2. People Rebecca Winters Keegan
3. Grumpy man on a bus becomes star of the internet
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
★ Merz "Group X - Taking Over the World One Flash Video at a Time", ''Associated Content'', May 2 2007. Accessed July 5 2007.
9. When Gamer Humor Attacks Benner, Jeffrey
10.
11. Cebu inmates going for another YouTube hit
12.
13.
14. Aleksey the Great
15. Internet Fame Is Cruel Mistress for a Dancer of the Numa Numa
16. BREAKING: Dramatic Chipmunk - From Japanese TV Show Hello! Morning
17. Origin of the "Chipmunk" Clip Langdon Alger
18.
19.
20. Top 10 Web Fads Wood, Molly
21. Global Hit
22. New Chorus Lines; As Old-Time Chatter Disappears, Centennial Creates Its Own
23. Copy, paste, animate
24. The new cultural revolution: How Little Fatty made it big
25. A fat chance of saving face
26.
27. The Racism of "Lootie" Randall, Vernellia R.
28. Heineken Beer David P. Mikkelson
29. Western Stripteaser On Internet
30. Lazy Guide to Net Culture: NSFW
31. Anatomy of a Viral Web Phenomenon
32. I Has a Bucket [1]
33. The Blair Witch Project - Marketing and method
34. Blair Witch hits the UK
35. Did "The Blair Witch Project" fake
its online fan base?
36. 'Snakes on a Plane': Phenomenon on the Net
37. 2-Channel Gives Japan's Famously Quiet People a Mighty Voice
38. Is MySpace.com Really That Popular?
39. Myspace: An Internet Phenomenon
40. The "MySpace Phenomenon"
41. On the Never-Never Net Lane DeGregory
42. You Forgot Poland
43. snopes.com – Food 911
44. thecoaches.com
External links
★
Memes on the Internet Article regarding the spread of Internet memes.
★
ultimatememedatabase Website about internet memes.
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