MEMES! Probably the best thing to come out of the Internet besides free stream porn. I joke, it’s THE best thing.
““In its most basic form, an Internet meme is simply an idea that is propagated through the Web. This idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, website, hash tag, or even just a word or phrase. This meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, news sources, and other web-based services.” (Internet Meme Wikipedia, 2011)
As the year winds up, here a few of my favourite memes to come out of the year that was 2011.
*image and video heavy
@nancy_magoo
Rebecca Black – Friday
Just a sweet face akward 13 year old girl who got the bizzare gift of having a few songs produced for her by Ark Music Factory and this was the result. The worst/best song of the year. Whatever you thought of it, it was super catchy and I bet you know the words. The song turned into endless remixes, parodies, photoshopped images, commercials, covered by artists such as Katy Perry andJustin Bieber and featured in shows like that horrid brain melter, Glee and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Even the girl dancing awkwardly next to her in the car got her 15 minutes of fame. Rebecca Black may have gotten death threats but hey, at least she has a song that made a blip in popular culture. I just hope those music producers aren’t so deluded they think they are legitimately talented.
Kim Jong Il Looking At Things
This was by far my favourite single topic blog of the year. The late supreme leader of North Korea just hanging out, looking at things on the Tumblr site Kim Jong Il Looking At Things, but if you didn’t get that from the name there’s no one that can help you. Even though it started in 2010, this site really picked up internet momentum this year. Since his death earlier this month, it’s spawned similar single topic blogs like Kim Jong Un Looking At Things and Kim Jong Il Dropping The Bass.
Nyan Cat
A cute animation of a cat with a pop-tart for a body created by Chris Torres and set to super kawaii/annoying music became a hit and spawned such things as; Non Stop Nyan Cat and heaps of gif variations replacing the cat with things like Pikachu and other animals like Nyan Llama and Fiesta Dog. Currently the video has over 56 million views, proving that if your video has a cat on it, you’ll get over a million hits.
Steve Buscemeyes
Well all you have to do is find a photo and replace the person’s eyes with forever creepily (but always awesome) actor Steve Buscemi’s eyes. You can check some out on Chicks With Buscemeyes or with the help of the Internerd you can even do it in real life.
Paula Deen Riding Things
Paula Deen is an American Cook and Cooking Host who has a love for butter and also has a meme which uses an exploitable image. All you have to do is grab one of the 3 images and make Paula Deen ride something. You know you’ve become a memorable meme when people start dressing as you for Halloween. See more at Paula Deen Riding Things.
Honourable Mentions:
Good Guy Greg: An offshoot of Scumbag Steve, Good Guy Greg is an image macro series with a twist, which points out the kind of qualities and actions you would actually want in a friend.
Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop: students attending an occupy protest at a university in California became an exploitative image meme when the group were pepper sprayed after refusing to move. The lackadaisical demeanour of the officer was shocking to say the least and just one of many memes to come from the Occupy Wallstreet movement, which is a meme all of it’s own.
Shit Girls Say (Episodes): Videos spawning from the Twitter feed of the same name shows common things girls say. While the first two episodes are spot on, the third is a pretty poor effort. There are now also pretty funny spin offs like Shit Black Girls Say and Shit Asian Girls Say
Zangief Kid: When a video of western Sydney teen (Casey Heynes) being provoked by a bully (Ritchard Gale) and his understandable retaliation back became viral, he became a hero for millions around the world. What came after were Street Fighter paradoies and a saga of A Current Affair and Today Tonight interviews with both the Casey and Richard AND their parents. Ugh!
Dishonourable Mention goes to:
Planking: Fuck off oh and it’s not new, it started in Korea as the playing dead game, morphed into the Lying down game in the UK… watch the Know Your Meme episode on it.
Hipster Ariel: Fuck off
Charlie Sheen (Winning): Fuck right off
stephaniele.net 