Internet phenomena
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Social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet include Internet memes, such as popular themes,
catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...
s, images,
viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
s, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly and become more widespread because the instant communication facilitates
word of mouth Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...
transmission. The below partial list focuses more on Internet phenomena that is not restricted by regional Internet laws; other countries such as China or Pakistan do have Internet phenomena specific there that is not blocked by regional laws. These are covered in
List of Internet phenomena in China This is a list of phenomena specific to the Internet within China. Memes *Aircraft carrier style ( zh, s=航母style, p=hángmǔ style, labels=no) – refers to the crouching and pointing position taken by two technicians on the to give the ...
and List of Internet phenomena in Pakistan.


Advertising and products

*
Beanie Babies Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, ...
– Cited as being the world's first Internet sensation in 1995. * ''Cooks Source'' infringement controversy – This publication drew backlash after it committed copyright infringement by using an online article without permission for commercial purposes. This backlash further increased due to ''Cooks Source'''s response which showed a misunderstanding of copyright and an increasing agitation to the original writer of the article. * ''
Elf Yourself Elf Yourself is an American Human–computer interaction, interactive website where visitors upload faces of themselves or their friends and have the option to post the created video to other sites or save it as a personalized short film, mini-f ...
'' (2006) and ''Scrooge Yourself'' (2007) – Interactive
website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...
s created by Jason Zada and Evolution Bureau for
OfficeMax OfficeMax is an American office supplies retailer founded in 1988. It is now a subsidiary of The ODP Corporation, which is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. As of December 2012, OfficeMax operated 941 stores in 47 states, Puerto Rico, the U ...
's
holiday season The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late Novembe ...
advertising campaign An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...
. ''Elf Yourself'' allows visitors to
upload Uploading refers to ''transmitting'' data from one computer system to another through means of a network. Common methods of uploading include: uploading via web browsers, FTP clients], and computer terminal, terminals ( SCP/ SFTP). Uploadin ...
images of themselves or their friends, see them as dancing elf, elves, and includes options to save or share the video. According to ClickZ, visiting the ''Elf Yourself'' site "has become an annual tradition that people look forward to". While not selling any one specific product, the two were created to raise consumer awareness of the sponsoring firm. *
Flex Tape Flex Seal is an American brand of adhesive bonding products made by the family-owned company Swift Response in Weston, Florida. Founded in 2011, the company employs 100 people led by its pitchman and chief executive officer Phil Swift. Flex ...
– An infomercial of the product Flex Tape. It became a meme after YouTuber
JonTron Jonathan Aryan Jafari ( /ˈɛəriən/) (born March 24, 1990), better known by his Internet pseudonym JonTron, is an American YouTuber, comedian, reviewer, and Internet personality. He is best known for his eponymous YouTube web series ''JonTr ...
made a video reviewing the infomercial. * FreeCreditReport.com – A series of TV commercials that were posted on the Internet; many spoofs of the commercials were made and posted on YouTube. *
HeadOn HeadOn is the brand name of a topical product claimed to relieve headaches. It achieved widespread notoriety in 2006 as a result of a repetitive commercial, consisting only of the tagline "HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead", stated three ...
– A June 2006 advertisement for a
homeopathic Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...
product claimed to relieve headaches. Ads featured the tagline, "HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead", stated three times in succession, accompanied by a video of a
model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...
using the product without ever directly stating the product's purpose. The ads were successively parodied on sites such as
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and
rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
per
Lil Jon Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971) better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, producer and former frontman of the rap group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz. He was instrumental in the emergence of the hip hop subgenre cr ...
even made fun of it. * Little Darth Vader – An advertisement by
Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
featuring young Max Page dressed in a
Darth Vader Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...
costume running around his house trying to use "
the Force The Force is a metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the '' Star Wars'' fictional universe. "Force-sensitive" characters use the Force throughout the franchise. Heroes like the Jedi seek to "become one with the Force", matching their personal wil ...
". It was released on the Internet a few days prior to
Super Bowl XLV Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...
in 2011, and quickly became popular. As of 2013 it was the most shared ad of all-time. * LowerMyBills.com
Banner ad A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking ...
s from this mortgage company feature endless loops of cowboys, women, aliens, and office workers dancing. * ''
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like Smell Like a Man, Man is a television advertising campaign in the United States created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy for the Old Spice brand of male grooming products, owned by Procter & Gamble. The campaign is also commonly referred to as The M ...
'' – A television commercial starring Isaiah Mustafa reciting a quick,
deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...
monologue while shirtless about how "anything is possible" if men use
Old Spice Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products encompassing aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble. Old Spice was launched as Early American Old Spice by W ...
. It eventually led to a popular
viral marketing Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way tha ...
campaign which had Mustafa responding to various Internet comments in short YouTube videos on
Old Spice Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products encompassing aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble. Old Spice was launched as Early American Old Spice by W ...
's YouTube channel. * " Mac Tonight/Moon Man" – A McDonald's commercial made to promote dinner sales. Starting in 2007, the character in the commercial, "Mac Tonight" was utilized in videos where he is depicted promoting violence against minorities and promoting the KKK with racist parodies of rap songs. The best-known parody, "Notorious KKK" (a parody of '' Hypnotize'' by
The Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...
), has accumulated over 119,000 views on YTMND. * " Nope, Chuck Testa" – A local commercial made for Ojai Valley
Taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...
, owned by Chuck Testa, suggesting that the stuffed creatures were alive until Testa appeared, saying "Nope, Chuck Testa!"; the ad soon went viral. *
Potato Parcel Potato Parcel (or PotatoParcel.com) is an American company and website for delivering potatoes with personalized messages, which are limited to 140 characters or one picture. History In May 2015, Potato Parcel was founded by mobile app developer ...
– a web site that allows the user to send anonymous personalized messages on
potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es via the mail. * '' Pepsi MAX & Jeff Gordon Present: Test Drive'' – A short film where
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
driver
Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...
poses as an average car buyer to prank a cars salesman. A sequel, ''Test Drive 2'', was released the following year, with Gordon pranking a writer who had branded the original video as fake. * "Rivals" – A commercial for video game retailer
EB Games EB Games (formerly known as Electronics Boutique and EB World) is an American computer and video games retailer. First established as an American company in 1977 by James Kim with a single electronics-focused location in the King of Prussia mal ...
that promoted '' Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare''. The commercial drew criticism for its concept and the performances of its actors. * Shake WeightInfomercial clips of the modified
dumbbell The dumbbell, a type of free weight, is a piece of equipment used in weight training. It can be used individually or in pairs, with one in each hand. History The forerunner of the dumbbell, halteres, were used in ancient Greece as lifting ...
went viral as a result of the product's sexually suggestive nature. *
Vans Vans is an American manufacturer of skateboarding shoes and related apparel, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and motocross teams. From 1996 to 2019, the comp ...
(2016) – Featured in the " Damn Daniel" viral internet meme. *''What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar?'' – A slogan at the end of commercials advertising the ice cream sandwich
Klondike bar A Klondike bar is a Good Humor-Breyers ice cream novelty consisting of a square of ice cream coated with a thin layer of chocolate. History The Klondike bar was created by the Isaly Dairy Company of Mansfield, Ohio in the early 1920s and named ...
. People on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
began posting videos depicting people in dangerous and absurdist situations attempting to reach a Klondike Bar in response to the slogan. *
Will It Blend? ''Will It Blend?'' is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, particularly the ''Total Blender''. In the show, Blendtec founder Tom Dickson attempts to blend various unusual ...
– The
blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...
product
Blendtec Blendtec is an American company that sells commercial and residential blenders. It is a division of K-TEC, Inc.
, claimed by its creator Tom Dickson to be the most powerful blender, is featured in a series of YouTube videos, "''Will It Blend?''" where numerous food and non-food items are used within the blender. * Xtranormal – A website allowing users to create videos by scripting the dialog and choosing from a menu of camera angles and predesigned CGI characters and scenes. Though originally designed to be used to ease storyboard development for filmmakers, the site quickly became popular after videos made with the tool, including "iPhone 4 vs HTC Evo", became viral.


Animation and comics

*
Animutation Animutation or fanimutation is a form of web-based computer animation, typically created in Adobe Flash and characterized by unpredictable montages of pop-culture images set to music, often in a language foreign to the intended viewers. It is not t ...
s – Early
Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...
-based animations, pioneered by Neil Cicierega in 2001, typically featuring foreign language songs (primary Japanese, such as " Yatta"), set to random pop-culture images. The form is said to have launched the use of Flash for inexpensive animations that are now more common on the Internet. * ''
Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...
'' – A 1996
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
educational series that became popular on the Internet in July 2016 through humorous stills, including a still of the title character's clenched fist. * Ate my balls – One of the earliest examples of an internet meme, which involved web pages depicting a particular celebrity, fictional character, or other subject's relish for eating testicles. * ''
Axe Cop ''Axe Cop'' is a webcomic by brothers Malachai Nicolle (age 5 when the series began) and Ethan Nicolle (age 28 when the series began). Malachai is responsible for the ideas and stories, while Ethan turns them into comics. The first four comics w ...
'' – Initially a web comic series with stories created by five-year-old Malachai Nicolle and drawn into comic form by his 29-year-old brother Ethan, the series gained viral popularity on the Internet due to the vividness and non-sequitur nature of Malachai's imagination, and has led to physical publication and a series of animated shorts in the 2012–2013 season for the Fox Television Network. * Badger Badger Badger – A hypnotic loop of animal calisthenics set to the chant of "badger, badger, badger", created by Jonti "Weebl" Picking. *
Big Chungus ''Wabbit Twouble'' ("Rabbit Trouble") is a '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and released on December 20, 1941 by Warner Bros. Pictures. This is the first of several Bugs Bunny cartoon ...
– A still frame of the 1941 Merrie Melodies short
Wabbit Twouble ''Wabbit Twouble'' ("Rabbit Trouble") is a ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions and released on December 20, 1941 by Warner Bros. Pictures. This is the first of severa ...
when Bugs Bunny mocks a fat Elmer Fudd. The meme originated from fictitious cover art for a video game titled ''Big Chungus'' (with "chungus" being a neologism associated with video game commentator
Jim Sterling James Stephanie Sterling, also known as Jim Sterling, is an English-American freelance video game journalist, critic, pundit, YouTuber, and professional wrestler. Before becoming independent in September 2014, they were the review editor for ...
), which featured a still from the scene, and was popularized by a
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
post by a GameStop manager who alleged that a colleague's mother had inquired about purchasing the "game" as a gift. Warner Bros. later incorporated Big Chungus into its own video game ''Looney Tunes World of Mayhem''. * Bongo Cat – Originated on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
on 7 May 2018 when a simple animated cat GIF, was edited for it to play the song "Athletic" from the ''
Super Mario World ''Super Mario World,'' known in Japan as is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released in Japan in 1990, North America in 1991 and Europe and Australia in 19 ...
'' soundtrack. This cat has since been edited to play various songs on bongos, and later other instruments. * "
Caramelldansen "Caramelldansen" (Swedish language, Swedish for "''The Caramell dance''") is the first track from Swedish music group Caramell's second and final album ''Supergott'' released on November 16, 2001. It became a viral internet meme in the mid-2000s ...
" – A spoof from the Japanese
visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
opening ''
Popotan is a Japanese eroge, adult visual novel developed by Petit Ferret with character creation, character designs by Akio Watanabe under the alias Poyoyon Rock. It was originally released as a Personal computer game, PC game for CD-ROM on Dece ...
'' that shows the two main characters doing a hip swing dance with their hands over their heads, imitating rabbit ears, while the background song plays the sped-up version of the song "Caramelldansen", sung by the Swedish music group
Caramell Caramell was a Swedish music group, formed by singers Katia Löfgren and Malin Sundström, and producers Jorge "Vasco" Vasconcelo and Juha "Millboy" Myllylä. They are best known for their 2001 single "Caramelldansen." The group released two a ...
. Also known as ''Caramelldansen Speedycake Remix'' or '' Uma uma dance'' in Japan, the song was parodied by artists and fans who then copy the animation and include characters from other
anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
performing the dance. * ''
Charlie the Unicorn ''Charlie the Unicorn'' is a 2005 Flash animated comedy short film and viral video created by Jason Steele of independent film company FilmCow in Orlando, Florida. The short follows Charlie, a lethargic and pessimistic unicorn, who is taken by a ...
'' – A five-part series of videos involving the titular unicorn who is repeatedly hoodwinked by two other blue and pink unicorns, Lolz and Roffle, who take him on elaborate adventures in order to steal his belongings or cause him physical harm. * '' Dancing baby'' – A 3D-rendered dancing baby that first appeared in 1996 by the creators of
Character Studio Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics software, 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, 3D models, models, 3D computer game, games and 3D rendering, images. It is developed ...
for
3D Studio MAX Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capab ...
, and became something of a late 1990s
cultural icon A cultural icon is a person or an artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic ...
, in part due to its exposure on worldwide commercials, editorials about Character Studio, and the popular television series '' Ally McBeal''. * '' The End of the World'' – A Flash animated video by Jason Windsor in 2003 that depicts a situation when the entire world is nuked by rivalling countries. * ''
Happy Tree Friends ''Happy Tree Friends'' is an American adult animated web series created by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro, and developed by Montijo, Navarro, and Jeremy Viet Duong for Mondo Media. The show had achieved a cult following on Mo ...
'' – A series of
Flash cartoon Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
s featuring cute cartoon animals experiencing violent and gruesome accidents. * ''
Homestar Runner ''Homestar Runner'' is an American Flash animated comedy web series and website created by Mike and Matt Chapman, known collectively as The Brothers Chaps. The series centers on the adventures of a large and diverse cast of characters, headed by ...
'' – A Flash animated Internet cartoon by Mike Chapman, Craig Zobel, and Matt Chapman, created in 1996 and popularized in 2000. The cartoon contains many references to
popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
from the 1980s and 1990s, including video games, television, and
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
. * '' I'll take a potato chip... and eat it!!!'' – A scene from the English-language dub of episode 8 of the anime adaptation of Death Note, showing the main character
Light Yagami is the main protagonist of the manga series ''Death Note'', created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. He is portrayed as a brilliant but bored genius who finds the Death Note, an otherworldly supernatural notebook that allows the user to kill ...
taking a potato chip from a bag of chips and eating the chip in a dramatic way. The scene includes dramatic music and action movie-style camera cuts. *
Joe Cartoon Joe Cartoon is an Adobe Flash cartoon series created by Joseph C. Shields and later animated by Mondo Media. Starting as an independent website, Joe Cartoon was later affiliated with Atom Films, before becoming independent again in 2006, then bei ...
– Creator of interactive
Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
s ''Frog in a Blender'' and ''Gerbil in a Microwave'', which were two of the first Flash cartoons to receive fame on the Internet. * Kung Fu Bear – an Internet meme involving an Asian black bear who skillfully twirls, throws and catches a long staff. *
Loituma Girl Loituma Girl (also known as "Leekspin") is a Flash animation set to a scat singing section of the Finnish song "Ievan polkka," sung by the Finnish quartet Loituma on their 1995 debut album ''Things of Beauty''. It appeared on the Internet in la ...
(also known as Leekspin) – A looped
Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
of an
anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
girl
Orihime Inoue is a fictional character and in the ''Bleach'' manga series and its anime adaptations created by Tite Kubo. She is one of Ichigo Kurosaki's friends, and later his wife. Like the many other characters in the series, she quickly develops spiritua ...
from the '' Bleach'' series twirling a leek, set to a
scat singing In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. ...
section of the traditional
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...
song "
Ievan Polkka "Ievan polkka" (Finnish for "Ieva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song with lyrics printed in 1928 and written by Eino Kettunen to a traditional Finnish polka tune. The song is sung in an Eastern Savonian dialect spoken in North Karelia. It' ...
", sung by the Finnish quartet Loituma on their 1995 debut album '' Things of Beauty''. The band's popularity rose tremendously after the animation was posted in Russian
LiveJournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, a ...
in 2006. The song clip soon enjoyed overwhelming popularity as a ringtone, with most of the young urban population aware of the "Yak zup zop" lyrics. * ''
Motu Patlu ''Motu Patlu'' is an Indian animated sitcom created by Harvinder Mankkar and written by Niraj Vikram that premiered on Nickelodeon in India on 16 October 2012. The series is produced by Cosmos-Maya Studios and Viacom 18. It is adapted from the ...
'' – An Indian cartoon aired on Nickelodeon (India), made widely popular by a Nick India ad celebrating Teacher's Day in India, which has been reposted under the title "D se Dab". *
Nyan Cat Nyan Cat is a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with a Pop-Tart for a torso flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail behind. The video r ...
– A YouTube video of an animated flying cat, set to a Utau song. * Polandball (more commonly known as Countryballs) – A user-generated Internet meme which originated on the /int/ board of German imageboard Krautchan.net in the latter half of 2009. The meme is manifested in a large number of online comics, where countries are presented as spherical personas that interact in often broken English, poking fun at national stereotypes and international relations, as well as historical conflicts. * Pusheen – An animated grey tabby cat, originally drawn as a character in the webcomic "Everyday Cute" by artists Clare Belton and Andrew Duff. Belton has since released a Pusheen book. * Rage comics – A large set of pre-drawn images including crudely drawn stick figures, clip art, and other artwork, typically assembled through website generators, to allow anyone to assemble a comic and post to various websites and boards. The ''New York Times'' reports that thousands of these are created daily. Typically these are drawn in response to a real-life event that has angered the comic's creator, hence the term "rage comics", but comics assembled for any other purpose are also made. Certain images from rage comics are known by specific titles, such as "trollface" (a widely grinning man), "forever alone" (a man crying to himself), or "rage guy" (a man shouting "FUUUUU..."). *
Salad Fingers ''Salad Fingers'' is a British animated web series created by David Firth in 2004. It revolves around the eponymous Salad Fingers, a thin, green, mentally troubled man who inhabits a desolate world. As of March 2022, there have been twelve ep ...
– A Flash animation series surrounding a green man with severely elongated fingers in a desolate world populated mostly by deformed, functionally mute people. *
Simpsonwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music from ...
– A genre of videos where clips of the American
animated sitcom An animated sitcom is a subgenre of the sitcom that is animated instead of live action and is generally made or created for adult audiences in most cases. ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''The Simpsons'', ''South Park'', and ''Family Guy'' are four of ...
''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'' are filtered with
tint In color theory, a tint is a mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, while a shade is a mixture with black, which increases darkness. Both processes affect the resulting color mixture's relative saturation. A tone is produce ...
ed, VHS-like effects and played over psychedelic
vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music fro ...
or
chillwave Chillwave (originally considered synonymous with glo-fi and hypnagogic pop) is a music microgenre that emerged in the late 2000s. It loosely emulates 1980s electropop while engaging with notions of memory and nostalgia. Common features inclu ...
tracks. * The Spirit of Christmas – Consists of two different
animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
short films made by
Trey Parker Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and '' The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Matt Stone. ...
and
Matt Stone Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Trey Parker. Stone was interes ...
, which are precursors to the
animated series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have eith ...
'' South Park''. To differentiate between the two homonymous shorts, the first short is often referred to as ''Jesus vs. Frosty'' (1992), and the second short as ''Jesus vs. Santa'' (1995). Fox executive Brian Graden sent copies of ''Jesus vs. Santa'' to several of his friends, and from there it was copied and distributed, including on the internet, where it became one of the first
viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
s. They were created by animating construction paper cut-outs with
stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
, and features prototypes of the main characters of ''South Park''. *
Steamed Hams "22 Short Films About Springfield" is the twenty-first episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 14, 1996.. It was written by ...
– Remixes of a segment of ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'' episode "
22 Short Films About Springfield "22 Short Films About Springfield" is the twenty-first episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 14, 1996.. It was written by ...
" involving Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers, in which Skinner has invited Chalmers over to dinner, inadvertently sets his ham on fire, and covers it up by serving fast food hamburgers as "steamed hams". * " This is fine" – A two-panel comic drawn in 2013 by KC Green as part of the '' Gunshow'' webcomic, showing an anthropomorphic dog sitting in a room on fire, and saying "This is fine". The comic emerged as a meme in 2016, used in situations, as described by ''The New York Times'', "halfway between a shrug and complete denial of reality". Numerous derivatives of the "This is fine" comic have been made. *"Tuxedo Winnie the Pooh" – A photoshopped image of Winnie the Pooh sitting in an armchair from the featurette ''
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree ''Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree'' is a 1966 animated featurette based on the first two chapters of ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' by A. A. Milne. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions, and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution on February ...
'', which became popular on Reddit in 2019. The meme, which is also known as "A fellow man of culture", features Winnie the Pooh wearing a tuxedo and smiling. *
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", often shortened to "The Ultimate Showdown", is a comical song and video released on December 22, 2005. The song was written and performed by Neil Cicierega under the pseudonym "Lemon Demon", with art ...
– A lethal battle royale between many notable real and fictitious characters from popular culture. Set to a song of the same name, written and performed by Neil Cicierega under his musician alias, "Lemon Demon." * Ultra Instinct Shaggy – A character interpretation that the ''
Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are ...
'' character
Shaggy Shaggy may refer to: People *Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer * Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse * Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspor ...
is immensely more powerful than he presents himself. The meme is usually presented as still frames of a behind-the-scenes interview of the 2002 live-action movie with subtitles implying that Shaggy is restraining his power to prevent catastrophe. Subsequently, Warner Bros. canonized the meme as part of a credits gag in the 2021 '' Mortal Kombat'' movie, as well as including Shaggy as a fighter in the ''
MultiVersus ''MultiVersus'' is a 2022 free-to-play crossover fighting video game developed by Player First Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game is a platform fighter, featuring characters from Warner Bros. Discovery franc ...
'' crossover fighting game. *
Weebl and Bob ''The everyday happenings of Weebl and sometimes Weebl's friend, Bob'' (best known as ''Weebl and Bob'', and renamed ''Wobbl and Bob'' for its DVD release) is a Flash cartoon series created by Jonti Picking and co-scripted by Chris Vick. About ...
– A series of Flash cartoons created by
Jonti Picking Jonathan "Jonti" Picking (born 17 May 1975), also known as Weebl and Mr Weebl, is a British Internet personality and Flash animator and is the creator of ''Weebl's Stuff''. His animations are known for repetitive melodies and surreal dialogue ...
featuring two egg-shaped characters that like pie and speak in a stylistic manner. *
xkcd ''xkcd'', sometimes styled ''XKCD'', is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. The comic's tagline describes it as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Munroe states on the comic's website that the name ...
– A webcomic created by
Randall Munroe Randall Patrick Munroe (born October 17, 1984) is an American cartoonist, author, and engineer best known as the creator of the webcomic ''xkcd''. Munroe has worked full-time on the comic since late 2006. In addition to publishing a book of th ...
, popularized on the Internet due to a high level of math-, science- and geek-related humor, with certain jokes being reflected in real-life, such as using Wikipedia's "" tag on real world signs or the addition of an audio preview for YouTube comments.


Challenges

Challenges generally feature Internet users recording themselves performing certain actions, and then distributing the resulting video through social media sites, often inspiring or daring other users to repeat the challenge.


Dance

* Coffin Dance/Dancing Pallbearers – A group of
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
pallbearers that respectfully dance during funeral processions had been covered by the BBC in 2017 and gained some initial Internet popularity. In the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, a popular
TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...
video mashed the BBC footage with the EDM song "Astronomia" from Russian artist Tony Igy, creating a meme that appeared to spread as a morbidly humorous reminder about the dangers of COVID-19. * Dab – A dance move where a person drops their head into a bent, slanted arm, with the other arm out straight and parallel. * " Dancing Banana" – A banana dancing to the song "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" by the Buckwheat Boyz. * Hampster Dance – A page filled with hamsters dancing, linking to other animated pages. It spawned a fictional band complete with its own CD album release. * Harlem Shake – A video based on Harlem shake dance, originally created by YouTube personality Filthy Frank, and using an electronica version of the song by
Baauer Harry Bauer Rodrigues (born April 30, 1989), known professionally as Baauer, is an American record producer and DJ, best known for his double platinum song " Harlem Shake". He has produced varied dance music from the age of 13 and previously prod ...
. In such videos, one person is dancing or acting strange among a room full of others going about routine business. After the drop in the song and a video cut, everyone starts dancing or acting strangely. The attempts to recreate the dance led to a viral spread on YouTube. *"Hit the Quan" – A viral dance challenge to the song "Hit the Quan" by American rapper
iLoveMemphis Richard Maurice Colbert (born March 29, 1993), better known by his stage name iLoveMemphis, or iHeartMemphis, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He is best known for his debut single "Hit the Quan" which peaked at number 15 on the Bi ...
.
Rich Homie Quan Dequantes Lamar (born October 4, 1989), known professionally as Rich Homie Quan, is an American rapper. He was previously signed to labels T.I.G. Entertainment and Motown, and is an independent artist as of 2021. Quan experienced commercial succ ...
originally performed this dance in his music video for his song "
Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh) "Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)" is a song by American rapper Rich Homie Quan. It was released on February 10, 2015, as a single from his fifth mixtape '' If You Ever Think I Will Stop Goin' in Ask RR (Royal Rich)'' & ''Summer Sampler'' (2015). It was produ ...
".
iLoveMemphis Richard Maurice Colbert (born March 29, 1993), better known by his stage name iLoveMemphis, or iHeartMemphis, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He is best known for his debut single "Hit the Quan" which peaked at number 15 on the Bi ...
produced the "Hit The Quan" based around Rich Homie Quan's dance. iLoveMemphis' song launched the "Hit the Quan" viral dance challenge because of its convenient lyrics to dance to. "Hit the Quan" reached 20 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart because of the popularity of the dance. The dance challenge was very popular on social media platforms, especially Vine. Many celebrities participated in the popular dance challenge. * " Indian Thriller" – A viral scene from the Indian film Donga with added subtitles phonetically approximating the original lyrics as English sentences. * JK Wedding Entrance Dance – The wedding procession for Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz of St. Paul, Minnesota, choreographed to the song "
Forever Forever or 4ever may refer to: Film and television Films * ''Forever'' (1921 film), an American silent film by George Fitzmaurice * ''Forever'' (1978 film), an American made-for-television romantic drama * ''Forever'' (1992 film), an American ...
" by Chris Brown. Popularized on YouTube with 1.75 million views in less than five days in 2009. The video was later imitated in an episode of ''
The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series o ...
'' on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
. *"Kiki Challenge" or "#DoThe Shiggy" – A viral dance challenge to the song "In My Feelings" by Drake. This challenge was started by a comedian named Shiggy on the night that Drake released the album ''Scorpion''. Shiggy posted a video of himself on his Instagram account dancing along to part of the lyrics in what looks like in the middle of a neighborhood street. Shiggy commented #DoTheShiggy. Drake claims the success of the song was due to Shiggy's popular dance to his song. The dance challenge is often filmed with a twist of the original. The most popular twist of the dance is filmed from the passenger side of a moving vehicle through the open driver door where the would be driver is dancing moves along with the slowly moving car. This challenge received a lot of controversy due to the fact nobody was in control of the car. Performers have received fines and sometimes suffered injury. This viral dance challenge was performed by a number of professional athletes and celebrities. The dance challenge was performed by people in the U.S. and spread to the rest of the world. *
Little Superstar ''Little Superstar'' is a video uploaded on YouTube, which is a clip from the 1990 Tamil film '' Adhisaya Piravi'', starring Rajinikanth. The clip features the Tamil actor King Kong (not to be confused with Thavakalai), and another Indian dwar ...
– A video of Thavakalai, a short Indian actor, break-dancing to
MC Miker G & DJ Sven MC Miker G & DJ Sven were a hip hop duo from the Netherlands. The duo consisted of Lucien Witteveen and Sven van Veen (DJ Sven). The 1980s saw the two launch "Holiday Rap" to international success. The song is a remixed version of Madonna's hi ...
's remix of the Madonna song " Holiday". The clip comes from a 1990
Tamil film Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywo ...
''Adhisaya Piravi'', featuring actor
Rajnikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 160 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannad ...
. *
Running Man Challenge "My Boo" is the only single released by Ghost Town DJ's. It was released on Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label and Columbia. The song, an invite by a female to a male, blends R&B-style vocals over a bass beat. It was written by Carlton Mahone and ...
– A dance move where participants in a way resembling running to the 1996 R&B song " My Boo" by Ghost Town DJ's. First posted to
Vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themsel ...
by two teenagers from New Jersey, the dance went viral in 2016 after two University of Maryland basketball players posted their rendition. The dance gets its name because it is an adaptation of the original running man dance move. *
T-pose In computer animation, a T-pose, also known as a bind pose or reference pose, is a default posing for a 3D model's skeleton before it is animated. It is called so because of its shape: the straight legs and arms of a humanoid model combine to ...
– A
surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
"dance move" that became popular in April 2018 modelled after the default pose (also known as a bind pose) that many 3D models in games, animations, and more take in their raw file form. *
Techno Viking Techno Viking is an internet phenomenon or meme based on a video from the 2000 Fuckparade in Berlin, Germany. Summary The four-minute video shot by experimental video artist Matthias Fritsch at the Fuckparade on 8 July 2000Matthias FritschThe ...
– A muscular Nordic raver dancing in a
technoparade A technoparade (taken from the German word "Technoparade") is a parade of vehicles equipped with strong loudspeakers and amplifiers playing Electronic dance music. It resembles a carnival parade in some respects, but the vehicles (called love ...
in Berlin. * " Thriller" by the
CPDRC Dancing Inmates CPDRC Dancing Inmates or the CPDRC dancers is a collective of prison inmates in Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), a maximum security prison in Cebu, in Cebu Province, Philippines where the prisoners perform dance routin ...
– A recreation of
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
's hit performed by prisoners at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) in the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
. In January 2010, it was among the ten most popular videos on YouTube with over 20 million hits. * Triangle Dance Challenge – Three individuals place hands on each other's shoulders and jump to a different point on an invisible triangle. This gained popularity in 2019.


Email

*
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
Email Beta Test – An email chain-letter that first appeared in 1997 and still circulates. The message claims that America Online and
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
are conducting a
beta test A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...
and for each person one forwards the email to, they will receive a payment from Bill Gates of more than $200. Realistic contact information for a lawyer appears in the message.Crabb, Don. "Bill Gates: An Urban Legend in His Own Time." ''Chicago Sun-Times'' 15 February 1998 *
Craig Shergold Craig Shergold (24 June 1979 – 21 April 2020) was a British former cancer patient who received an estimated 350 million greeting cards, earning him a place in the '' Guinness Book of World Records''. Variations of the plea for greeting cards ...
– A British former
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
patient who is most famous for receiving an estimated 350 million
greeting card A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays ...
s, earning him a place in the '' Guinness Book of World Records'' in 1991 and 1992. Variations of the plea for greeting cards sent out on his behalf in 1989 are still being distributed through the Internet, making the plea one of the most persistent
urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
s. * Goodtimes virus – An infamous, fraudulent virus warning that first appeared in 1994. The email claimed that an email virus with the subject line "Good Times" was spreading, which would "send your CPU into a nth-complexity infinite binary loop", among other dire predictions. *
Lighthouse and naval vessel urban legend The lighthouse and naval vessel urban legend describes an encounter between a large naval ship and what at first appears to be another vessel, with which the ship is on a collision course. The naval vessel, usually identified as of the United St ...
– Purportedly an actual transcript of an increasingly heated radio conversation between a U.S. Navy ship and a Canadian who insists the naval vessel change a
collision course {{wiktionary A collision course, also known as a ''kamikaze run'', is the deliberate maneuver by the operator of a moving object (or often in Sci-Fi a spaceship) to collide with another object. It is a desperate maneuver since it often damages ...
, ending in the
punchline A punch line (a. k. a. punch-line or punchline) concludes a joke; it is intended to make people laugh. It is the third and final part of the typical joke structure. It follows the introductory framing of the joke and the narrative which sets up ...
. This
urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
first appeared on the Internet in its commonly quoted format in 1995, although versions of the story predate it by several decades. It continues to circulate; the Military Officers Association of America reported in 2011 that it is forwarded to them an average of three times a day. The Navy has a page specifically devoted to pointing out that many of the ships named weren't even in service at the time. * MAKE.MONEY.FAST – One of the first spam messages that was spread primarily through
Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...
, or even earlier
BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...
systems, in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The original email is attributed to an individual who used the name "Dave Rhodes", who may or may not have existed. The message is a classic pyramid scheme – one receives an email with a list of names and is asked to send $5 by postal mail to the person whose name is at the top of the list, add their own name to the bottom, and forward the updated list to a number of other people. *
Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...
Cookie recipe – An email chain-letter dating back to the early 1990s, but originating as
Xeroxlore Faxlore is a sort of folklore: humorous texts, folk poetry, folk art, and urban legends that are circulated, not by word of mouth, but by fax machine. Xeroxlore or photocopylore is similar material circulated by photocopying; compare samizdat i ...
, in which a person tells a story about being ripped off for over $200 for a cookie recipe from Neiman Marcus. The email claims the person is attempting to exact revenge by passing the recipe out for free. * Nigerian Scam/419 scam – A mail scam attempt popularized by the ability to send millions of emails. The scam claims the sender is a high-ranking official of Nigeria with knowledge of a large sum of money or equivalent goods that they cannot claim but must divest themselves of; to do so, they claim to require a smaller sum of money up front to access the sum to send to the receiver. The nature of the scam has mutated to be from any number of countries, high-ranking persons, barristers, or relationships to said people.


Film and television

* ''
The Babadook ''The Babadook'' is a 2014 Australian supernatural horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her directorial debut, and produced by Kristina Ceyton and Kristian Moliere. The film stars Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hay ...
'' (2014) – An Australian-Canadian psychological horror film that started trending on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
in June 2017 when the
title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...
became an unofficial mascot for the LGBT community. Prior to that, rumors of the Babadook's sexuality began in October 2016, when some
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
users reported seeing the film categorized as an LGBT movie on Netflix. * ''
Bee Movie ''Bee Movie'' is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film co-produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG and Columbus 81 Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner (in the fo ...
'' (2007) – Sped-up or slowed-down clips of the film have become popular on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. One upload by "Avoid at All Costs" exceeded 12 million views as of December 2016. Many of the edited videos in this trend were taken down for spam due to the volume of videos posted by some channels. From September 2013 onwards, a few Internet users posted the entirety of the ''Bee Movie'' script on sites like
Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
and
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
. * ''
The Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Josh ...
'' (1999) – The film's producers used
Internet marketing The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
to create the impression that the documentary-style horror film featured real, as opposed to fictional events. * ''
Cloverfield ''Cloverfield'' is a 2008 American found footage monster film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams, and written by Drew Goddard. It stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yus ...
'' (2008) – Paramount Pictures used a
viral marketing Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way tha ...
campaign to promote this monster movie. * '' Downfall'' (2004) – A film depicting
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
(portrayed in this film by Swiss actor
Bruno Ganz Bruno Ganz (; 22 March 1941 – 16 February 2019) was a Swiss actor whose career in German stage, television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Franc ...
) during his final days of his life. Multiple scenes in which Hitler rants in German have been parodied innumerable times on the Internet, including when Hitler finds out that
Felix Steiner Felix Martin Julius Steiner (23 May 1896 – 12 May 1966) was a German SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the SS, and commanded several SS divisions and corps. He was awarded t ...
has failed to carry out his orders and when Hitler finds out '' SS-Gruppenführer''
Hermann Fegelein Hans Otto Georg Hermann Fegelein (30 October 1906 – 28 April 1945) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany. He was a member of Adolf Hitler's entourage and brother-in-law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her si ...
has gone
AWOL Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ...
. This scene often has its English subtitles replaced by mock subtitles to give the appearance that Hitler is ranting about modern, often trivial topics, and sometimes even
breaks the fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...
by referencing the Internet meme itself. While the clips are frequently removed for copyright violations, the film's director,
Oliver Hirschbiegel Oliver Hirschbiegel (born 29 December 1957) is a German film director. His works include ''Das Experiment'' and the Oscar-nominated '' Downfall''. Life and career Hirschbiegel was born in Hamburg, Germany. A Waldorf graduate, Hirschbiegel stu ...
, has stated that he enjoys them, and claimed to have seen about 145 of them. *
Figwit Figwit is a fan-created name for a then-unnamed elf in Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' film series, played by Bret McKenzie of the musical duo Flight of the Conchords. The name Figwit derives from an acronym for "Frodo is great...who i ...
(abbreviated from "Frodo is great...who is that?") – A background elf character with only seconds of screen time and one line of dialog from ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy played by
Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's come ...
member
Bret McKenzie Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie (born 29 June 1976) is a New Zealand musician, comedian, music supervisor, and actor. He is best known as one half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. In the 2000s, the duo's c ...
, which became a fascination with a large number of fans. This ultimately led to McKenzie being brought back to play an elf in ''
The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ''N ...
''. *'' Goncharov'' - A nonexistent film invented by users on
Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
. It is purported to be "the greatest
mafia movie Mafia films—a version of gangster films—are a subgenre of crime films dealing with organized crime, often specifically with Mafia organizations. Especially in early mob films, there is considerable overlap with ''film noir''. Popular regional ...
ever made," released in 1973. In 2020, a user posted a picture of a tag found on a pair of boots which featured details on the nonexistent film ''Goncharov'' in place of a brand label, which suggested it was "A film by Matteo JWHJ0715" and "presented" by
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...
. Users have inconsistently described the film as being directed by either Matteo JWHJ0715 or Scorsese. This label was speculated by several users to be a misprint of '' Gomorrah''. ''Goncharov'' picked up traction again in late November 2022 when a user created a poster for the film that featured a lineup of actors and character names, ultimately sparking an elaborate fiction of the film's existence. Discussion of the film involved detailed critical analysis of the plot, themes, symbolism, and characters, as well as creation of gifs, fan art, and theme music, all presented as if the film were real. The meme's popularity caused it to become a trending topic on the Tumblr platform. * '' LazyTown'' (2004) – A children's television program originating from
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
, which became very popular after one of the primary actors,
Stefán Karl Stefánsson Stefán Karl Stefánsson (; ; 10 July 1975 – 21 August 2018) was an Icelandic actor and singer. He was best known for portraying Robbie Rotten, the antagonist of the children's television series '' LazyTown''. Career Stefán Karl's career ...
, was diagnosed with cancer and set up a
GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the be ...
page for support. The song "
We are Number One "We Are Number One" is a song from the English-language Icelandic children's television series '' LazyTown'', composed by Máni Svavarsson. The song was featured in the twelfth episode of the show's fourth season, entitled "Robbie's Dream Team" ...
" became a meme in October 2016, and many videos were created. It became one of the fastest growing memes in history, with 250 videos uploaded in 5 days. * ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...
'' trilogy – Released between 2001 and 2003, just as meme culture was taking off, several moments from the films became part of the online culture, with, most notably,
Sean Bean Sean Bean (born Shaun Mark Bean on 17 April 1959) is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Bean made his professional debut in a theatre production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' in 1983. Retaining his Yorkshire ac ...
's character of Boromir stating "One does not simply walk into Mordor" as one of most commonly referenced. * ''
Marble Hornets ''Marble Hornets'' (abbreviated ''MH'') is an alternate reality game YouTube web series inspired by the Slender Man online mythos. The first video was posted on YouTube on June 20, 2009, following a post that its creator, Troy Wagner, created on ...
'' – A documentary-style horror, suspense short film series based on alternate reality experiences of the Slenderman tale. Marble Hornets was instrumental in codifying parts of the Slender Man mythos, but is not part of the inter-continuity crossover that includes many of the blogs and vlogs that followed it, although MH does feature in other canons as either a chronicle of real events or a fictional series. * ''
Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus ''Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus'' is a 2009 American-British monster disaster film distributed by The Asylum, released on May 19, 2009, in the United States and on August 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom. It was directed by Ace Hannah and stars ...
'' (2009) – The
theatrical trailer A trailer (also known as a preview, coming attraction or attraction video) is a commercial advertisement, originally for a feature film that is going to be exhibited in the future at a movie theater/cinema. It is a product of creative and tech ...
released in mid-May 2009 became a viral hit, scoring over one million hits on MTV.com and another 300,000 hits on YouTube upon launch, prompting brisk pre-orders of the DVD. * Minions - The mischievous yellow creatures from the '' Despicable Me'' franchise have, since their introduction in 2010, become ubiquitous in certain layers of meme culture. The memes created with images of Minions have frequently been derided as bland or unintentionally absurd. In 2022, a phenomenon known as "Gentleminions" arose, in which young men and teen boys would arrive to '' Minions: The Rise of Gru'' in formal attire. * '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' –
Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...
's 2010 animated series to revive its toy line was discovered by members of
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
and subsequently spawned a large adult, mostly male fanbase calling themselves "
bronies ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' is an animated television series produced by Hasbro as part of the ''My Little Pony'' toy franchise, which is tied in with the My Little Pony (2010 toyline), 2010 relaunch of dolls and play sets and orig ...
" and creating numerous Internet memes and mashups based on elements from the show. * Re-cut trailer – User-made trailers for established films, using scenes, voice-overs, and music, to alter the appearance of the film's true genre or meaning or to create a new, apparently seamless, film. Examples include casting the thriller-drama '' The Shining'' into a romantic comedy, or using footage from the respective films to create ''Robocop vs. Terminator''. * ''
The Room ''The Room'' is a 2003 American drama film written, produced, executive produced and directed by Tommy Wiseau, who stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. The film centers on a melodramatic love triangle between amia ...
'' (2003) – Written, produced, directed, and starring
Tommy Wiseau Thomas P. Wiseau ( or ) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for writing, producing, directing, and starring in the 2003 film '' The Room'', which has been described by many critics as one of the worst films ever made and has gaine ...
, the low- budget independent film is considered one of the worst films ever made. However, through
social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
and interest from comedians, gained a large number of ironic fans and turned into a
cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
. It is a popular source for memes based on some of the poorly delivered lines in the movie, such as "You're tearing me apart, Lisa!" (a shoehorned reference to an iconic James Dean line in ''
Rebel Without a Cause ''Rebel Without a Cause'' is a 1955 American coming-of-age drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Filmed in the then recently introduced CinemaScope format and directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social com ...
'') and "Oh hi, Mark." * ''
Sharknado ''Sharknado'' is a 2013 American made-for-television science fiction comedy disaster film directed by Anthony C. Ferrante. It tells about a waterspout that lifts sharks out of the ocean and deposits them in Los Angeles. It is the first install ...
'' (2013) – A made-for-television film produced by
The Asylum The Asylum is an American independent film company and distributor that focuses on producing low-budget, direct-to-video films. It is notorious for producing titles that capitalize on productions by major studios, often using film titles and sc ...
and aired on the SyFy network as a
mockbuster A mockbuster (also known as knockbuster or a drafting opportunity) is a film created to exploit the publicity of another major motion picture with a similar title or subject. Mockbusters are often made with a low budget and quick production to max ...
of other disaster films, centered on the appearance of a
tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
filled with sharks in downtown Los Angeles. Though similar to other films from the Asylum, elements of the film, such as low-budget effects and choice of actors, led to the film becoming a social media hit and leading to at least four additional sequels. * ''
Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 book of the same name by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' franchise. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jen ...
'' – A DreamWorks franchise that has an internet fandom who ironically liked the series. The viral video "Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life" was based on a homoerotic story on
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
depicting the titular ogre engaging in anal sex with a young boy. * ''
Snakes on a Plane ''Snakes on a Plane'' is a 2006 American action film directed by David R. Ellis and starring Samuel L. Jackson. It was released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006, in North America. The film was written by David Dalessandro, John Heffernan ...
'' (2006) – Attracted attention a year before its planned release, and before any promotional material was released, due to the film's working title, its seemingly absurd premise, and the piquing of actor
Samuel L. Jackson Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him ...
's interest to work on the film. Producers of the film responded to the Internet buzz by adding several scenes and dialogue imagined by the fans. * ''
SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character ...
'' – A
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
animated television series that has spawned various Internet memes. These memes include "Surprised Patrick", " Mr. Krabs Blur", "Caveman SpongeBob", "Handsome Squidward", and "Mocking SpongeBob". In 2019, Nickelodeon officially released merchandise based on the memes. * '' Star War: The Third Gathers: The Backstroke of the West'' – Around the time of release, a bootleg recording circulated on the internet via
peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...
sharing websites. It quickly became notorious for its notable use of
Engrish ''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of Japanese, as well as Chinese and other Asian languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to ...
, like the translation of Darth Vader's line "No!" rendered as "Do not want". About a decade after the release of the bootleg, a fandub matching its subtitles was posted on YouTube. *
Steamed Hams "22 Short Films About Springfield" is the twenty-first episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 14, 1996.. It was written by ...
– A clip from the season seven episode of ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'',
22 Short Films About Springfield "22 Short Films About Springfield" is the twenty-first episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 14, 1996.. It was written by ...
, gained popularity with many remixes and edits to the Skinner and The Superintendent segment. * ''
Take This Lollipop ''Take This Lollipop'' is a 2011 interactive horror short film and Facebook app written and directed by Jason Zada. Developer Jason Nickel used Facebook Connect to bring viewers themselves into the film, through use of pictures and messages fr ...
'' (2011) – An interactive horror
short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
and
Facebook app The Facebook Platform is the set of services, tools, and products provided by the social networking service Facebook for third-party developers to create their own applications and services that access data in Facebook. The current Facebook ...
, written and directed by Jason Zada to personalize and underscore the dangers inherent in posting too much personal information about oneself on the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. Information gathered from a viewer's Facebook profile by the film's app, used once and then deleted, makes the film different for each viewer. * ''The Three Bears'' (1939) – An animated short film made by
Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by ...
based on the story
Goldilocks and the Three Bears "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (originally titled "The Story of the Three Bears") is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an obscene old woman who enters the forest home ...
. One of the scenes from the short depicting Papa Bear saying "Somebody toucha my spaghet!" in a stereotypically thick Italian accent became an internet meme in December 2017. *''
Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...
'' (1988) - A Russian animated film developed and distributed by
Kievnauchfilm Kievnauchfilm (russian: Киевнаучфильм), also Kyivnaukfilm ( uk, Київнаукфільм, translit=Kyïvnaukfil′m), translated as Kyiv Science Film, was a film studio in the former Soviet Union located in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR. Al ...
based on the novel of the same name by
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
. A loop of a scene from the film showing three characters in a walk cycle with Dr. Livesey showing a highly pronounced swagger, often overlaid with the phonk song, "Why Not" by Ghostface Playa, became an internet meme in August 2022. *''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...
'' (2021) – A clip of the opening
long take In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take or continuous shot) is a shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera movement and elaborate bl ...
shot of "The Dance at the Gym" sequence from Steven Spielberg's 2021 film version of the musical was uploaded to
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
on February 25, 2022, and went viral over the weekend, reaching 3 million views and over 32,000 likes. It led to many users sharing images and clips of their favorite scenes and shots from the film during that time, while praising Spielberg's direction and
Janusz Kamiński Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński (; born June 27, 1959) is a Polish cinematographer and director of film and television. He has established a partnership with Steven Spielberg, working as a cinematographer on his films since 1993. He won the Academy Aw ...
's cinematography. This was further amplified by a Twitter thread by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro analyzing the camerawork and blocking on this particular shot. * Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) – A anthology thriller
true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...
series by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix. after its release, it became viral over
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and
TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...
.


Gaming

* "
All your base are belong to us "All your base are belong to us" is an Internet meme based on a badly translated phrase from the opening cutscene of the video game ''Zero Wing''. The phrase first appeared on the European release of the 1991 Sega Mega Drive port of the 1989 ...
" – Badly translated English from the opening
cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward th ...
of the European
Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...
version of the 1989 arcade game '' Zero Wing.'' It has become a catchphrase, inspiring videos and other derivative works. * ''
Among Us ''Among Us'' is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American game studio Innersloth. The game was inspired by the party game Mafia and the science fiction horror film '' The Thing''. The game allows ...
'' – A game made by game studio Innersloth released on Steam in 2018. The game reached internet fame in 2020 due to
Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
streamers and
YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...
s playing the game frequently. Still images from the game, phrases from the game like "Emergency Meeting" and "Dead body reported" as well as typical gameplay events have influenced internet memes. Other terms like "Sus", "Sussy", "Sussy Baka", "Amogus", and "When the imposter is sus" also became notable modern ironic memes on social media platforms. * Arrow in the knee – City guards in '' The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim'' would utter the line: "I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee". The latter part of this phrase quickly took off as a catchphrase and a
snowclone A snowclone is a cliché and phrasal template that can be used and recognized in multiple variants. The term was coined as a neologism in 2004, derived from journalistic clichés that referred to the number of Inuit words for snow. History and ...
in the form of "I used to X, but then I took an arrow in the knee" with numerous image macros and video parodies created. * Bowsette – A fan-made depiction of the '' Super Mario'' character
Bowser , or King Koopa, is a fictional character, the primary antagonist in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, and the arch-nemesis of Mario. In Japan, the character bears the title of . Bowser is the leader of the turtle-like Koopa race. Despite the ...
using Toadette's Super Crown power-up from the Nintendo Switch title ''
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is a 2D side-scrolling platform video game developed and published in 2012 by Nintendo as a launch game for the Wii U. It is the fourth entry in the ''New Super Mario Bros.'' series, and is the first mainline ''Mario'' game to be released in ...
'' to transform into a lookalike of
Princess Peach is a fictional character in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the 1985 original '' Super Mario Bros.'' installment. She is the princess regnant and ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, where she resides ...
. The character became popular following a four-panel webcomic posted by a user on Twitter and
DeviantArt DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others. DeviantArt, ...
in September 2018. * But can it run
Crysis ''Crysis'' is a first-person shooter video game series created by Crytek. The series revolves around a group of military protagonists with " nanosuits", technologically advanced suits of armor that give them enhanced physical strength, speed, ...
? – A question often asked by PC gaming and hardware enthusiasts. When released in 2007, Crysis was extremely taxing on computer hardware, with even the most advanced consumer
graphics cards A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer moni ...
of the time unable to provide satisfactory frame rates when the game was played on its maximum graphical settings. As a result, this question is asked as a way of judging a certain computer's capability at gaming. * Can it run Doom (1993 video game), Doom? – A common joke question with any hardware that has a CPU. It has even gotten to the point where people are developing source ports of the game to unconventional hardware such as a Canon printer, the VIC-20, the Touch Bar on the 2016 MacBook Pro, a smart fridge, an ATM, and the game itself among other things. *Doomguy and Isabelle (Animal Crossing), Isabelle – The pairing of Isabelle from the ''Animal Crossing'' video game series and Doomguy from the Doom (franchise), ''Doom'' franchise due to the shared release date of ''Animal Crossing: New Horizons'' and ''Doom Eternal''. * ''Elden Ring'' – A 2022 video game that spawned multiple memes, such as: ** Let Me Solo Her – The colloquial name for an ''Elden Ring'' player who specializes in fighting Malenia, the game's most difficult boss fight, and whose character wears no armor but a jar as a helmet. "Let me solo her" became widely acclaimed within the game's online community after volunteering to deal with Malenia on behalf of other players through the game's player summoning feature, and successfully defeating her hundreds of times without assistance. Videos of the player's performances became popular and widely shared on multiple social news websites. The player's exploits was acknowledged by the game's publisher, and became the subject of fan labor. Let me solo her was awarded PC Gamer's Player of the Year award for 2022. ** "Maidenless" – a term repeated by multiple non-player characters. Its original context is that the player character has yet to achieve an important gameplay milestone, but it has been appropriated by the player community as a joke or insult. * ''Flappy Bird'' – A free-to-play casual game, casual mobile game released on the App Store (iOS), iOS App Store on 24 May 2013, and on Google Play on 30 January 2014, by independent video game development, indie mobile app developer Dong Nguyen. The game began rapidly rising in popularity in late-December 2013 to January 2014 with up to 50 million downloads by 5 February. On 9 February, Nguyen removed the game from the mobile app stores citing negative effects of the game's success on his health and its addictiveness to players. Following the game's removal from the app stores, numerous clones and derivatives of the game were released with varying similarities to the original game. * ''I Love Bees'' – An alternate reality game that was spread virally after a one-second mention inside a Halo 2 advertisement. Purported to be a website about Honeybee, honey bees that was infected and damaged by a strange Artificial intelligence in fiction, artificial intelligence, done in a disjointed, chaotic style resembling a crashing computer. At its height, over 500,000 people were checking the website every time it updated. * Lamar Roasts Franklin – A cutscene in the 2013 action-adventure video game ''Grand Theft Auto V'' where Lamar Davis, portrayed by comedian Slink Johnson, berates Franklin Clinton, portrayed by actor and former rapper Shawn Fonteno, for Franklin's haircut and his relationship with his girlfriend, ending in Lamar uttering the word "nigga" in a condescending, sing-song voice and giving Franklin the finger, the middle finger, much to the latter's chagrin. The cutscene experienced a resurgence in popularity in late 2020 when parodies of the scene were uploaded on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and other video hosting sites. It usually involves Lamar's character model being replaced with various popular culture icons such as
Darth Vader Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...
, Vegeta, and Snow White (Disney character), Snow White among others, with Lamar's dialogue dubbed to account for the characters used. In 2021, Fonteno and Johnson reprised their roles as Franklin and Lamar respectively in a live-action re-enactment of the cutscene. Later that year, Fonteno and Johnson once again reprised their roles in ''The Contract'' DLC for ''Grand Theft Auto Online'', complete with a homage to the original roast cutscene. * 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. * Let's Play (video gaming), Let's Play – Videos created by video game players that add their commentary and typically humorous reactions atop them playing through a video game. These videos have created a number of Internet celebrities who have made significant money through ad revenue sharing, such as PewDiePie who earned over $12 million from his videos in 2015. * ''Line Rider'' – A Flash game where the player draws lines that act as ramps and hills for a small rider on a sled. *''Mafia City'' – A mobile game that has become infamous for its odd advertising involving a person drastically increasing their stats for doing various mob-related activities, and for the phrase "That's how mafia works". *''Portal (series), Portal'' – The games in the ''Portal'' series introduced several Internet memes, including the phrase "the cake is a lie", and the space-obsessed "List of Portal characters#Personality Cores 2, Space Core" character. * Press F to pay respects, Press to pay respects – A prompt for the player to press a button on the PC version of '' Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare'', where the player character would approach the coffin of a fallen comrade in response. The mechanic is repeatedly criticized and ridiculed for both being arbitrary and unnecessary, as well as being inappropriate to the tone of the funeral the game otherwise intends to convey. The phrase has since become an Internet meme in its own right, sometimes used unironically: during the tribute stream for the Jacksonville Landing shooting, viewers posted a single letter "F" in the chat. * ''QWOP'' – A browser-based game requiring the player to control a sprint runner by using the Q, W, O, and P keys to control the runner's legs. The game is notoriously difficult to control, typically leaving the runner character flailing about. The concept developed into memes based on the game, as well as describing real-life mishaps as attributable to ''QWOP''. * Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon – A trivia/parlor game based around linking an actor to Kevin Bacon through a chain of co-starring actors in films, television, and other productions, with the hypothesis that no actor was more than six connections away from Bacon. It is similar to the theory of six degrees of separation or the Erdős number in mathematics. The game was created in 1994, just at the start of the wider spread of Internet use, populated further with the creation of movie database sites like IMDb, and since has become a board game and contributed towards the field of network science. * ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' – A video game series created by Sega that has spawned multiple memes, such as: **Sonic Real Time Fandubs – The YouTube channel SnapCube has produced a series of improvised fandubs of several ''Sonic'' titles, including ''Sonic Adventure 2'' and ''Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)'' which have themselves earned their own fandom and derivative works based on jokes from the series. **Sanic – A purposely misdrawn Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic that has been referenced by Sega themselves, and used in merchandise; **and "Ugandan Knuckles" – A meme that gained high popularity thanks to the social game ''VRChat'', where players with a crude Knuckles the Echidna, Knuckles model asked other players if they "knew da wae" ("know the way"), who their "queen" was, Click consonant, clicking their tongue, and spitting repeatedly. * Surprised Pikachu – An image of the Pokémon Pikachu with a blank look and an open mouth. It is used as a reaction image to show either shock or lack thereof. * Twitch Plays Pokémon, Twitch Plays ''Pokémon'' – An "experiment" and channel created by an anonymous user on the
Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
in February 2014. Logged-in viewers to the channel can enter commands in chat corresponding to the physical inputs used in the Japanese role-playing game, JRPG video game ''Pokémon Red.'' These are collected and parsed by a chat software robot that uses the commands to control the main character in the game, which is then live-streamed from the channel. The stream attracted more than 80,000 simultaneous players with over 10 million views with a week of going live, creating a chaotic series of movements and actions within the game, a number of original memes, and derivative fan art. The combination has been called an entertainment hybrid of "a video game, live video and a participatory experience," which has inspired similar versions for other games. * U R MR GAY – A message allegedly hidden in the ''Super Mario Galaxy'' box art, which appears when each letter not decorated with a star is removed from the art. It was first noticed by a NeoGAF poster in September 2007. Video game journalists have debated as to whether the message was placed on purpose or was simply a humorous coincidence. * ''Untitled Goose Game'' – A 2019 video game developed by Australian game studio House House, in which the player controls a goose causing mischief in an English village. An early teaser for the game in 2017 led to strong interest in the title, and on release, the game quickly became an Internet meme. * ''Wordle'' – A word-guessing game similar to ''Jotto'' and ''Mastermind (board game), Mastermind'', where the player has only six tries to guess a five-letter word each day, the game indicating whether letters are in the word and/or in the correct position. The game grew popular over a few weeks after the ability to share results with others via social media was added near the end of 2021. The game's popularity led to The New York Times Company acquiring the game from its creator Josh Wardle at the end of January 2022 for an undisclosed seven-figure sum.


Images

* Baby mugging and Baby suiting – ''MommyShorts'' blogger Ilana Wiles began posting pictures of babies in mugs, and later adult business suits, both of which led to numerous others doing the same. * Baby Yoda – The popularity of the TV series ''The Mandalorian'' led to many memes of the "Baby Yoda" character. * Babylonokia – A clay tablet, shaped like a mobile phone designed by Karl Weingärtner. Fringe scientists and alternative archaeology proponents subsequently misrepresented a photograph of the artwork as showing an 800-year-old archaeological find; that story was popularised in a video on the YouTube channel ''Paranormal Crucible'' and led to the object being reported by some press sources as a mystery. * Bert is Evil – A satirical website stated that Bert (Sesame Street), Bert of ''Sesame Street'' is the root of many evils. A juxtaposition of Bert and Osama Bin Laden subsequently appeared in a real poster in a Bangladesh protest. * Blinking white guy – An animated GIF of former ''Giant Bomb'' video producer Drew Scanlon blinking in surprise, originating from a 2013 video on the website, became an internet meme in 2017. Multiple outlets have noted the versatility of the GIF's use as a reaction. * Blue waffle – An Internet hoax originating in 2010 purporting an unknown Sexually transmitted infection, sexually transmitted disease affecting only women, causing severe infection and blue discoloration to the vagina. The disease has been confirmed as false. Kathy McBride, a New Jersey councilwoman in the city of Trenton, New Jersey, Trenton, cited it in a 2013 Municipal council, city council meeting, not realizing that it was a hoax. * Kim Kardashian, #BreakTheInternet – The November 2014 issue of ''Paper (magazine), Paper'' included a cover image of Kim Kardashian in a partially nude pose, exposing her buttocks, taken by photographer Jean-Paul Goude. It was captioned "#breaktheinternet", as the magazine desired to set a record in social media response from it. Several other photos from the shoot were also released, including one that mimicked one that Goude took for his book ''Jungle Fever'' involving a "campaign incident". ''Paper''s campaign set a record for hits for their site, and the photographs became part of Internet memes. * Brian Peppers – In 2005, a photo surfaced of a man named Brian Peppers, noted for his appearance, which suggests Apert syndrome or Crouzon syndrome. Found on the Ohio sex offender registry website, the photo gained traction after being shared on website YTMND. Peppers died in 2012 at the age of 43. * Crasher Squirrel – A photograph by Melissa Brandts of a squirrel which popped up into a timer-delayed shot of Brandts and her husband while vacationing in Banff National Park, Canada, just as the camera went off. The image of the squirrel has since been added into numerous images on the Internet. * ''CSI: Miami'' Puts on Sunglasses – The cold opening for nearly all ''CSI: Miami'' episodes ended with star David Caruso as Horatio Caine, in the initial stages of an investigation, putting on his sunglasses and making a quip or pun related to the crime, before the show hard cut to the opening credits, played against the scream of "Yeah!" in The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". Image macros of Caruso putting on sunglasses, or similar images for other fictional characters, and the introductory scenes of the ''CSI: Miami'' opening became frequent, typically used as response to other puns made on user forums or with the puns and the following "YEAH!" incorporated into the image macro. * Cursed images – Images (usually photographs) that are perceived as odd or disturbing due to their content, poor quality or both. * Dat Boi – An animated GIF of a unicycling frog associated with the text "here come dat boi!" that began on
Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
in 2015 before gaining popularity on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
in 2016. *DashCon, DashCon Ball Pit – A convention held in July 2014 by users of
Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
that "imploded" due to a number of financial difficulties and low turnout. During the convention, a portable ball pit was brought into a large empty room. When some premium panels were cancelled, the attendees were offered an extra hour in the ball pit as compensation. The implosion and absurdity of aspects like the ball pit quickly spread through social media. * DALL-E - A web-based program introduced in 2022 that uses artificial intelligence to construct an array of images from a text prompt. The resulting images, often shared across social media, can from humorous, to uncanny, to near-perfect results. * Distracted boyfriend – A stock photograph taken in 2015 which went viral as an Internet meme in August 2017. * Dog shaming – Originating on Tumblr, these images feature images of dogs photographed with signs explaining what antics they recently got up to. * Doge (meme), Doge – Images of dogs, typically of the Shiba Inus, overlaid with simple but poor grammatical expressions, typically in the Comic Sans MS font, gaining popularity in late 2013. The meme saw an ironic resurgence towards the end of the decade, and was recognised by multiple media outlets as one of the most influential memes of the 2010s. The meme has also spawned Dogecoin, a form of cryptocurrency. * Don't talk to me or my son ever again – Images of a subject, be they product or individual, pictured with a smaller version of themself, captioned with the text "don't talk to me or my son ever again". Popular in 2016. * The Dress (viral phenomenon), The Dress – An image of a dress posted to Tumblr that, due to how the photograph was taken, created an optical illusion where the dress would either appear white and gold, or blue and black. Within 48 hours, the post gained over 400,000 notes and was later featured on many different websites. * ''Ecce Homo (Elías García Martínez), Ecce Homo / Ecce Mono / Potato Jesus'' – An attempt in August 2012 by a local woman to restore Elías García Martínez's aging fresco of Jesus in Borja, Spain led to a botched, amateurish, monkey-looking image, leading to several memes. * Every time you masturbate... God kills a kitten – An image featuring a kitten being chased by two Domo (NHK), Domos, and has the tagline "Please, think of the kittens". *Silvia Bottini, First World problems – A stock image of a woman crying with superimposed text mocking people with trivial complaints compared to that of issues in the Third World. *Floppa - a collection of images either portraying caracals or a specific caracal by the name of Goshe, Shlepa or more commonly Big Floppa. The collection of images don't portray to a specific theme ''per se'', but always hold Floppa as a centerpoint or personification of something. * Goatse.cx – A shock site, shock image of a distended anus. * Grumpy Cat – A cat named Tardar Sauce that appears to have a permanent scowl on her face due to dwarf cat, feline dwarfism, according to its owner. Pictures of the cat circulated the Internet, leading it to win the 2013 Webby Awards, 2013 Webby for Meme of the Year, and her popularity has led her to star in a feature film. Tardar Sauce died on 14 May 2019. * Hide the Pain Harold – A Hungarian electrical engineer named András Arató became a meme after posing for stock photos on the websites iWiW and Dreamstime. He initially wasn't very happy with his popularity, but has grown to accept it. He realized he did similar things when he was younger such as drawing on Hungarian poet János Arany, John Arany's portraits, making him look like a Piracy, pirate. The meme depicts photos of Arató smiling, while viewers believe the smile masks serious sorrow and pain, hence the name "Hide the Pain Harold". * Homophobic dog – A series of images of a white dachshund accompanied by Homophobia, homophobic captions, such as "not too fond of gay people" and "let's hope it's just a phase". According to the dog's owners, a gay couple, most of those memes were made and shared by members of the LGBT community, LGBTQ community to mock homophobic people. A fake The Washington Post, ''Washington Post'' headline describing the dog as "the new face of online homophobia" was criticized by Christina Pushaw, press secretary of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, unaware that it was not a real article. * Hurricane Shark or Street Shark, a recurring hoax circulated after a variety of natural disasters, appearing to show a shark swimming in a flooded urban area, usually after a hurricane. Several images have been used, most often one of a freeway that first appeared during Hurricane Irene in 2011. However, a 2022 video of a shark or other large fish swimming in Hurricane Ian's floodwaters in Fort Myers, Florida, proved to be real, itself becoming part of the phenomenon and leading to phrases like "Hurricane Shark is real". *Instagram egg – A photograph of an egg on Instagram, which formerly received the most number of likes on both the platform and the highest in any social media. * Islamic Rage Boy – A series of photos of Shakeel Bhat, a Muslim activist whose face became a personification of angry Islamism in the western media. The first photo dates back to his appearance in 2007 at a rally in Srinigar, the capital of India, Indian-administered Kashmir. Several other photos in other media outlets followed, and by November 2007, there were over one million hits for "Islamic Rage Boy" on Google and his face appeared on boxer shorts and bumper stickers. * Keep Calm and Carry On – A phrasal template or
snowclone A snowclone is a cliché and phrasal template that can be used and recognized in multiple variants. The term was coined as a neologism in 2004, derived from journalistic clichés that referred to the number of Inuit words for snow. History and ...
that was originally a motivational poster produced by the UK government in 1939 intended to raise public morale. It was rediscovered in 2000, became increasingly used during the Great Recession, 2009 global recession, and has spawned various parodies and imitations. * Listenbourg – An image of a photomontage, photoshopped map of Europe with a red arrow pointing to the outline of a fictional country adjacent to Portugal and Spain. * Little Fatty – Starting in 2003, the face of Qian Zhijun, a student from Shanghai, was superimposition, superimposed onto various other images. * Lolcat – A collection of humorous image macros featuring cats with misspelled phrases, such as "I Can Has Cheezburger?". The earliest versions of LOLcats appeared on
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
, usually on Saturdays, which were designated "Caturday", as a day to post photos of cats. * Pallas's cat, Manul – A Russian meme that was introduced in 2008. It is typically an image macro with a picture of an unfriendly and stern-looking Pallas's cat (also known as a manul) accompanied by a caption in which the cat invites you to pet it. * McKayla Maroney, McKayla is not impressed – A Tumblr blog that went viral after taking an image of McKayla Maroney, the American gymnast who won the silver medal in the Gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's vault, vault at the 2012 Summer Olympics, on the medal podium with a disappointed look on her face, and photoshopping it into various "impressive" places and situations, e.g. on top of the Great Wall of China and standing next to Usain Bolt. * Nimoy Sunset Pie – A Tumblr blog that posted mashups combining American actor Leonard Nimoy, sunsets, and pie. * O RLY? – Originally a text phrase on Something Awful, and then an image macro done for
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
. Based around a picture of a snowy owl. * Oolong (rabbit), Oolong – Photos featured on a popular Japanese website of a rabbit that is famous for its ability to balance a variety of objects on its head. * Pepe the Frog – A cartoon frog character from a 2005 web cartoon became widely used on
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
in 2008, often with the phrase "feels good man". In 2015, the New Zealand government accepted proposals for a New Zealand flag debate, new national flag and a flag with Pepe, known as "Te Pepe", was submitted. * Seriously McDonalds – A photograph apparently showing racist policies introduced by McDonald's. The photograph, which is a hoax, went viral, especially on Twitter, in June 2011. *Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man – An image of the episode "List of Spider-Man (1967 TV series) episodes#ep19b, Double Identity" of the 1967 TV series Spider-Man (1967 TV series), ''Spider-Man'' where the character Spider-Man and a criminal with the same costume point at each other. It is often used online when a person coincidentally acts or looks like another person. The meme was referenced in the post-credit scene of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and a real-life version with three Spider-Man actors - Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire - was tweeted by Marvel to announce the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. * Stonks – An image featuring Meme Man in a suit against an image of the stock market, used to highlight or satirize absurd topics related to finance or the economy. * Success Kid – An image of a baby who is clenching his fist while featuring a determined look on his face. * Trash Doves – A sticker set of a purple bird for iOS, Facebook messenger, Facebook comments, and other messaging apps created by Syd Weiler. The animated headbanging pigeon from the sticker set started to go viral in Thailand and it became globally viral on social media. * Jay Maynard, Tron Guy – Jay Maynard, a computer consultant, designed a ''Tron (franchise), Tron'' costume, complete with skin-tight spandex and light-up plastic armor, in 2003 for Penguicon 1.0 in Detroit, Michigan. The Internet phenomenon began when an article was posted to Slashdot, followed by Fark, including images of this costume. * 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot, Vancouver Riot Kiss – An image supposedly of a young couple lying on the ground kissing each other behind a group of rioters during the riots following the Vancouver Canucks' Stanley Cup loss to the Boston Bruins on 15 June 2011. The couple, later identified as Australian, Scott Jones, and local resident, Alexandra Thomas, were not actually kissing but Jones was consoling Thomas after being knocked down by a police charge. * Wojak – also known "Feels Guy", a bald male character with a sad expression on his face, often used as a reaction image to represent feelings such as melancholy, regret or loneliness. It has been used to convey different feelings by means of Memetics, memetic transformation and modification into many various unique forms, all with different meanings. Some represent specific ideas or roles in certain situations, such as the NPC (meme), NPC meme, which mocks supposed groupthink and a lack of individuality among a group of people. It has also spawned many derived characters, all based on the original but used to represent different emotions. * Woman yelling at a cat – A screenshot of the members of the television show ''The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'' Taylor Armstrong and Kyle Richards showing Armstrong shouting and pointing with the finger, followed by a photo of a confused cat (identified as Smudge (meme cat), Smudge) sitting behind a table with food. The meme emerged in mid-2019, when
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
users joined the photos and included texts that looked like a mockery of the cat to the angry woman. *The worst person you know, Worst person you know is a satirical article by ClickHole with a picture of Josep Maria García. * Wood Sitting on a Bed – An image of a nude man sitting on a bed that gained notoriety at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. * "You are not immune to propaganda." – A glitch art representation of Garfield, with the caption "You are not immune to propaganda" surrounding it.


Music


People

*Meme Man — Fictional character often featured in surreal memes, depicted as a 3D rendering, 3D render of a smooth, bald, and often disembodied and blue-eyed male head. *Salt Bae – Turkish chef and restaurateur Nusret Gökçe earned fame in 2017 for his camera-friendly approach to preparing and seasoning meat, including a video in 2017 which he sprinkles salt, sparkling in the sunlight, onto a steak. Gökçe's approach has been compared to dinner theater, in that his actual finished product is secondary to the performance.


Politics

* Arrest of Vladimir Putin – A viral video showing the mock arrest of Vladimir Putin and his trial. * ''Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney (video), Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney'' – A fictitious rap battle between United States elections, 2012, 2012 election candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. As of October 2020, the video has over 150 million views. * Bernie or Hillary? – A political poster that compares the positions of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on certain issues. It was typically used by Sanders supporters to make fun of Clinton's attempts to seem relatable to the voter base while they perceived Sanders to be more knowledgeable and in-depth on the issues. However, some critiqued the meme by saying that it played into sexist stereotypes. * Joe Biden – There are numerous iterations of President of the United States, President Joe Biden as a meme. The Joe Biden (The Onion), portrayal of Biden in ''The Onion'' was popular on the Internet and influenced other memes about him, as well as his broader public image. After Donald Trump won the 2016 U.S. presidential election, images of Biden as the "Biden Bro" or "Prankster Joe Biden" began circulating online. In these memes, Biden was paired with Barack Obama and captioned with various fictional conversations planning pranks and jokes on the president-elect. Biden is portrayed as the immature prankster of the duo, with Obama as his exasperated straight man (stock character), straight man. * Bush shoeing incident – During a press conference in 2008, Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at then-president George W. Bush. Afterwards, various Flash-based browser games and gifs were created to poke fun of the incident. * Crush on Obama – A music video by Amber Lee Ettinger that circulated during the 2008 United States presidential election. As well as its sequels, the video caught the attention of bloggers, mainstream media, and other candidates, and achieved 12.5 million views on YouTube by 1 January 2009. * Dean scream – Former Governor of Vermont Howard Dean's concession speech following the 2004 New Hampshire Democratic primaries included Dean rattling off a list of states in escalating volume as crowd noise rose, resulting in increasingly distorted audio and culminating in an unusual "yeehaw" scream. It was one of the first political Internet memes. * Delete your account – A phrase used on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
to criticize the opinions of opponents. On 9 June 2016, Hillary Clinton tweeted this phrase towards Donald Trump. Afterwards, the tweet has become her most retweeted tweet of all time. * University of Florida Taser incident, Don't Tase Me, Bro! – An incident at a campus talk by John Kerry, Senator John Kerry where a student yelled his now-infamous phrase while being restrained by police. * Clint Eastwood at the 2012 Republican National Convention, Eastwooding – After Clint Eastwood's speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention, in which he spoke to an empty chair representing President Barack Obama, photos were posted by users on the Internet of people talking to empty chairs, with various captions referring to the chair as either Obama or Eastwood. *Epstein didn't kill himself – A bait-and-switch joke originating on the app iFunny in October 2019, two months after his Death of Jeffrey Epstein, death in August. Many memes alleged involvement of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, or other notable figures. The meme saw mainstream popularity in late 2019, being unexpectedly snuck into cable news interviews by guests such as on FOX News and MSNBC. It was also referenced by Ricky Gervais at the 77th Golden Globe Awards due to the alleged connections between Epstein and people in the Hollywood film industry. * Camp Fire (2018), Forest raking – After U.S. President's Donald Trump's comments that Finland spent "a lot of time on raking and cleaning its forest floor", Finnish people began circulating satirical images of themselves raking the forests to stop wildfires. * Jesusland map – A map created shortly after the U.S. presidential election, 2004, 2004 U.S. presidential election that satire, satirizes the red states and blue states, red/blue states scheme by dividing the United States and Canada into "The United States of Canada" and "Jesusland". * Kekistan – A fictional country created by 4chan members that has become a political meme and online movement used notably by the alt-right. * Miss Me Yet? – Billboards that appeared on American highways in early 2010 that featured George Bush asking "Miss me yet?". Inspired a series of themed merchandise from online agencies such as CafePress. * Series of tubes – A phrase originally coined as an analogy by United States Senator, Senator Ted Stevens to describe the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
in the context of opposing network neutrality. His statement was later remixed on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and YTMND. * Strong (advertisement), Strong – A political advertisement issued by Governor of Texas, Texas Governor Rick Perry Rick Perry presidential campaign, 2012, presidential campaign in December 2011 for the Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012, 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries. The video was parodied and became one of the most disliked videos on YouTube. * Ted Cruz–Zodiac meme – A mock conspiracy theory suggesting that American Senator and Presidential candidate Ted Cruz was the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified Californian serial killer of the late 1960s and early 1970s. * Thanks Obama – A sarcastic expression used by critics of President Barack Obama to blame personal troubles and inconveniences on public policies supported or enacted by the administration. * ''JibJab#"This Land", This Land'' –
Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
produced by JibJab featuring cartoon faces of George W. Bush and John Kerry singing a parody of "This Land Is Your Land" that spoofs the 2004 United States presidential election. The video became a viral hit and viewed by over 100 million, leading to the production of other JibJab hits, including ''Good to Be in D.C.'' and ''Big Box Mart''.


Videos


Other phenomena

* "And I oop" – A video of drag queen Jasmine Masters stopping a story to say the phrase "and I oop" after accidentally hitting himself in the testes. * April (giraffe), April the Giraffe – A reticulated giraffe who had two of her live births streamed on the Internet to much fanfare. * "Banana for scale" – An internet meme that became popular for humorously measuring lengths of various objects. In this internet phenomenon, other objects juxtaposed with a banana are accompanied with the text "banana for scale". * ''Ben Drowned'' – A self-published three-part multimedia Alternate reality game, ARG Web fiction#Web serial, web serial and web series inspired by creepypasta and ''The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask'', created by Alexander D. Hall. * Binod (meme) – A internet fad which became popular in India in 2020. It originated from a comment by a user with the screen name 'Binod', who had added only the word 'Binod' as a comment. This was followed by a video by Slayy Point, mocking "Binod" and YouTube comment sections in general. People started spamming the word 'Binod' across social media, primarily in
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
comments and stream chats. A number of organisations also posted memes, including Netflix India,
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and Tinder (app), Tinder. Paytm temporarily changed its Twitter name to 'Binod'. * Brad's Wife – On 27 February 2017, Brad Byrd of Harrison County, Indiana posted on Cracker Barrel's
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page, asking them why they fired his wife, Nanette, after 11 years of service. The intense and serious nature of the post drew viral attention, and internet users began sarcasm, semi-sarcastically demanding answers, using hashtags such as #BradsWife and #JusticeForBradsWife. This meme was notable for being popular with baby boomers as well as younger internet users. After the post was about a week old, several corporations jumped on the viral bandwagon effect, bandwagon and began to publicly send job offers to Nanette Byrd. * Cats on the Internet – Images of cats are very popular on the Internet, and have seen extensive use in internet memes, as well as some cats becoming Internet celebrities. * Chuck Norris facts – Satire, Satirical factoids about martial artist and actor Chuck Norris that became popular culture after spreading through the Internet. * Creepypasta – Urban legends or scary stories circulating on the Internet, many times revolving around specific videos, pictures, or video games. The term "creepypasta" is a mutation of the term "copypasta": a short, readily available piece of text that is easily copied and pasted into a text field. "Copypasta" is derived from "copy/paste", and in its original sense commonly referred to presumably initially sincere text (e.g. a blog or forum post) perceived by the copy/paster as undesirable or otherwise preposterous, which was then copied and pasted to other sites as a form of trolling. In the pre-Internet era, such material regularly circulated as faxlore. * Harambe#Fall-out and Internet memes, Dicks out for Harambe – A slogan that was popularized months after the Harambe, death of Harambe, a gorilla in a Cincinnati zoo, which ironically told individuals to expose their human penis, penises in public in honor of the gorilla. The line was notably uttered by actor Danny Trejo. * ''Dumb Ways to Die'' – A 2012 Metro Trains Melbourne safety campaign that became popular on the Internet in November 2012. * Florida Man – Crimes involving bizarre behavior, perpetrated by men from the state of Florida. * Freecycling – The exchange of unwanted goods via the Internet. *Gabe the Dog – Gabe was a miniature American Eskimo dog owned by YouTube user gravycp. In January 2013, gravycp uploaded a short video of Gabe barking. The footage itself never went viral though it was used in dozens of song remixes, some of which accrued up to half a million views. * Get stick bugged lol a video clip of a stick insect swaying as bait-and-switch meme similar to Rickrolling, in which an irrelevant video would unexpectedly transition to the clip when the stickbug revealed with the caption "Get stick bugged LOL". * This Man, Have You Seen This Man? – A viral website that emerged on the Internet in the late 2000s, claiming to gather data about a mysterious figure only known as ''This Man'' that appears in dreams of people who never saw him before. * Horse ebooks / Pronunciation Book – A five-year-long viral marketing alternate reality game for a larger art project developed by Synydyne. "Horse_ebooks" was a Twitter account that seemed to promote e-books, while "Pronunciation Book" was a YouTube channel that provided ways to pronounce English words. Both accounts engaged in non-sequiturs, making some believe that the accounts were run by automated services. Pronunciation Book shifted to pronouncing numerals in a countdown fashion in mid-2013, concluding in late September 2013 revealing the connection to Horse_ebook and identity of Synydyne behind the accounts, and the introduction of their next art project. * HyperCam, Unregistered HyperCam 2 – The watermark which displayed in the upper-left corner of footage recorded with free versions of the HyperCam 2 screen capture software developed by Hyperionics, Inc. The software was widely used to screen record for YouTube videos during late 2000s to early 2010s, and was frequently used in the production of tutorial videos and Club Penguin gameplay. Videos with the watermark were often accompanied by "Trance" by Alexander Perls, 009 Sound System. * I am lonely will anyone speak to me – A thread created on MovieCodec.com's forums, which has been described as the "Web's Top Hangout for Lonely Folk" by ''Wired (magazine), Wired'' magazine. * Netflix and chill – An English language slang term using an invitation to watch
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
together as an euphemism for sex, either between partners or casually as a Casual sex, booty call. The phrase has been popularized through the Internet. * One red paperclip – The story of a Canadian blogger who bartered his way from a red paperclip to a house in a year's time. * Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally - A mnemonic used to memorize the order of operations (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction). Fondly remembered by students of the United States Curriculum, school cirriculum. * SCP Foundation – A creative writing website that contains thousands of fictitious containment procedures for paranormal objects captured by the in-universe SCP Foundation, a secret organization tasked with securing and documenting objects that violate natural law and/or pose a threat to humanity's perception of normalcy and further existence. The website has inspired numerous spin-off works, including a stage play and video games such as ''SCP – Containment Breach''."Welcome to the Ethics Committee"
, at Belfield FM/UCD Student Radio; by Una Power; published 8 October 2014; retrieved 15 April 2015
* Siren Head – A fictional cryptid which has an air raid siren as a head, created by horror artist Trevor Henderson. It has accumulated a fan following which has spawned numerous pieces of fan works and fan-made video games. Many video edits have depicted Siren Head playing various songs over a populated area. Siren Head has been erroneously recognized as an SCP, most notably when the character was briefly submitted to the SCP Foundation Wiki as SCP-6789; the entry was removed after Henderson and site users expressed intention to keep Siren Head independent of the SCP Foundation Wiki. Another entry, ''SCP-5987'', was inspired by the character name and the controversy from the deleted entry. * Smash or Pass – A game in which players decide whether they would hypothetically "smash" (have sex with) someone or "pass" (choose not to). * Spiders Georg - A meme which imagines that the (untrue) statistic that the "average person eats 3 spiders a year" is the result of a statistical error caused by the incorporation of "Spiders Georg", a fictional character who resides in a cave and eats over ten thousand spiders every day, into the study from which this conclusion was drawn. The meme originated with a Tumblr post by user Max Lavergne, and has inspired many derivative works about the character. Variations of the meme have imagined other characters named "Georg" to explain other real or imagined statistics and beliefs. * Steak and Blowjob Day – A meme suggesting that a complementary holiday to Valentine's Day, primarily for men, takes place on 14 March each year. *Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us, Storm Area 51 – A joke event created on
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
to "storm" the highly classified Area 51 military base, with over 1,700,000 people claiming to be attending and another 1,300,000 claiming they were "interested" in going. 1,500 people arrived in the vicinity of Area 51 the day of the event, only one of whom actually breached the boundary and was quickly escorted off the premises. * Slender Man or Slenderman – A creepypasta meme and urban-legend fakelore tale created on 8 June 2009 by user Victor Surge on Something Awful as part of a contest to Photo manipulation, edit photographs to contain "supernatural" entities and then pass them off as legitimate on paranormal forums. The Slender Man gained prominence as a frightening malevolent entity: a tall thin man wearing a suit and lacking a face with "his" head only being blank, white, and featureless. After the initial creation, numerous stories and videos were created by fans of the character. Slender Man was later Slender: The Eight Pages, adapted into a video game in 2012 and became more widely known. There is also a Slender Man (film), film released in 2018 to negative reviews. * Surreal humour, Surreal memes – A type of meme that are artistically bizarre in appearance and whose humor derives from their absurd style. Certain qualities and characters, such as Meme Man, Mr. Orange, and a minimalist style, are frequent markers of the meme. * The Million Dollar Homepage – A
website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...
conceived in 2005 by Alex Tew, a student from Wiltshire, England, to raise money for his university education. The home page consists of a million pixels arranged in a 1000 × 1000 pixel grid. The image-based links on it were sold for $1 per pixel in 10 × 10 blocks. * Three Wolf Moon – A t-shirt with many ironic reviews on Amazon.com, Amazon. * Throwback Thursday – The trend of posting older, nostalgic photos on Thursdays under the hashtag #ThrowbackThursday or #TBT. * The Undertaker vs. Mankind – A copypasta where at the end of a comment of an irrelevant topic, the event is referenced. * Vibe Check – Generally ascribed as a spiritual evaluation of a person's mental and emotional state. * Vuvuzelas – The near-constant playing of the buzz-sounding vuvuzela instrument during games of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa led to numerous vuvuzela-based Internet meme, memes, including YouTube temporarily adding a vuvuzela effect that could be added to any video during the World Cup. * Yanny or Laurel – An audio illusion where individuals hear either the word "Yanny" or "Laurel". * YouTube Poop – Video Mashup (video), mashups in which users deconstruct and piece together video for Psychedelic art, psychedelic or Surreal humour, absurdist effect.


See also

* Cats and the Internet * Index of Internet-related articles * Internet culture * Internet meme * Know Your Meme * List of YouTubers * Outline of the Internet * Urban legend * Usenet celebrity * Viral phenomenon


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Internet phenomena, List of History of the Internet, Phenomena Internet memes, * Internet-related lists, Phenomena Urban legends hu:Arató András (villamosmérnök), Hide the Pain Harold