Bottom Line: One of the Internet’s oldest memes, Star Wars Kid is also a prime example of how leaked footage, Kazaa and bad luck can transform into an Internet sensation.

On November 4, 2002 the student made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon. The video was filmed at his high school studio, and the tape left in a basement. Inadvertently, he taped it over a portion of a basketball game (as seen extremely briefly at the end of the clip). The original owner of the videotape discovered it and immediately shared it with friends. Thinking that it would be a funny prank, one of them encoded it to a WMV file and published it over the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing network. It was also hosted on a personal website. Within two weeks, the file had been downloaded several million times. An adapted version of the video was created, adding Star Wars music, texts, and lightsaber lights and sounds to his golf ball retriever. As of November 27, 2006 it was estimated by The Viral Factory that the videos had been viewed over 900 million times, making it the most popular “viral video” on the Internet.

Meme Anatomy: Embarrassment, Kids, Pop Culture, WTF

Urban Dictionary

An overweight Star Wars fan from Quebec. He taped himself pretending to fight a lightsaber battle (every time I try to see it I’m redirected grrr) which is supposed to be so bad it’s funny. Some of his “friends” uploaded the video to the net. Soon 5 million people saw him. Oh dear.

[Link]

Other Sources

Videos: Star Wars Kid

Pictures: Star Wars Kid

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 10,300 – 4
Photo Search Results: 31,000 – 4
Search Volume: 2,240,000 – 4
Blog Search Results: 67,607 – 3.5
News Search Results: 661 – 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: This meme combines a very small amount of embarrassment with a classic trope of Internet phenomenon, children doing silly things. It’s hard to tell just how much this little boy will appreciate his stint of Internet fame but we will leave that to history to decide.

This is a video of my then 7 year old son David in May 2008 I had my Flip video camera with me. His mom wasnt able to go because of work. I taped some of the morning before the surgery to show her and was already planning to tape afterwards. He had just had a tooth removed due to Hyperdontia or extra tooth. This was taken in the parking lot of the dentist office. He was so out of it. The staff was even laughing. This lasted for a few hours and he was fine. He even laughed at the video that night.

He is very smart and always has something interesting to say about many different issues. His philosophical reaction to the medication didnt really suprise us.

David is a very good kid and I am blessed to have he and his brother William as sons.

This has been a great experience for our family. Thanks for watching.

Meme Anatomy: Kids, WTF

Other Sources

Videos: David After Dentist

Pictures: David After Dentist

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 5,130 – 3.5
Photo Search Results: 646 – 2.5
Search Volume: 13,800,000 – 5
Blog Search Results: 83,348 – 3.5
News Search Results: 37 – 2

Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: File this one under oddball human tricks. There isn’t too much more that you can see about why it is a meme.

The Fuckparade is an annual summer techno demonstration in Berlin. The event developed in reaction to the exclusion of Gabber music and commercialisation of Love Parade. The Love Parade itself, in 2000, was described as Berlin’s largest tourist attraction, drawing 1.5 million young people to the city.

The “Techno Viking” internet meme features a man dancing at the 2000 Fuckparade. The YouTube video was the #1 clip on Rude Tube’s series-three episode Drink and Drugs.

Meme Anatomy: WTF, Musical

Urban Dictionary

An internet meme created on theforum.com thanks to a video of the Berlin Fuck Parade of 2000 in which a large muscle-bound German man asserts his authority upon the people and dances to demonstrate his power. He is, technoviking.

Other Sources

Videos: Techno Viking

Pictures: Techno Viking

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 2,940 – 3
Photo Search Results: 761 – 2.5
Search Volume: 268,000 – 3
Blog Search Results: 6,979 – 2.5
News Search Results: 7 – 1.5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Like LOLCats before it, FAIL is a meta-meme. The formula is simple, take something embarrassing (preferably violent) and slap the words FAIL on it. FAIL also has the advantage of finding its way into the vernacular along with its kissing cousin Epic FAIL.

“Fail” is the name of a popular Internet meme where users superimpose a caption, often the word “fail” or “epic fail,” onto photos or short videos depicting unsuccessful events or people falling short of expectations. In July 2003, a contributor to Urban Dictionary wrote that the term, “fail,” could be used as an interjection, “when one disapproves of something,” citing the example: “You actually bought that? FAIL.” This most likely originated as a shortened form of “You fail” or, more fully, “You fail it,” the taunting “game over” message in the late 1990s Japanese video game Blazing Star, notorious for its fractured English.

[Link]

Meme Anatomy: Iconic Catchphrase, Embarrassment, WTF

Urban Dictionary

Either an interjection used when one disapproves of something, or a verb meaning approximately the same thing as the slang form of suck.

Other Sources

Videos: Fail

Pictures: Fail

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 748,000 – 5
Photo Search Results: 537 – 2.5
Search Volume: 12,100,000 – 5
Blog Search Results: 27,354 – 3
News Search Results: 17 – 2

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Another musical meme, this time with a TV cross-over. South Park has been the birth and death of many a meme.

“What What (In the Butt)” is a viral video created by Andrew Swant and Bobby Ciraldo of Brownmark Films for the song of the same name by Samwell. It is known for its numerous camp references to homosexuality and anal sex. The lyrics of the song, a production of Mike Stasny, mostly revolve around the title. The video was shot in wide-screen format and was primarily produced with a green screen. It was uploaded on Valentine’s Day 2007 to YouTube and Google Video.

With regard to the Christian imagery in the video, Samwell, in an interview with KROQ-FM, said that the opening image is “not a cross, but a flaming symbol that [he] just happened to use,” but according to Stasny, “[Samwell] wanted it because he’s a Christian but he doesn’t do Christian morality. For him, having a burning cross is a way to pay respect to his beliefs.” The video also parodies the flower petal scene from the movie American Beauty. Brownmark Films released an interview with Samwell on April 8, 2007, in which he discussed the public reception of the song at length.

Meme Anatomy: Musical, Iconic Catchphrase, WTF

Other Sources

Videos: What What In The Butt

Pictures: What What In The Butt

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 157,000 – 5
Photo Search Results: 18,900 – 4
Search Volume: 12,100,000 – 5
Blog Search Results: 27,354 – 3
News Search Results: 17 – 2

Overall Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: When absolutely repulsive footage leaks on the Internet, someone is bound to pick it up and run with it. 2 Girls, 1 Cup itself might be a meme but even more spectacular were the reaction videos born from it.

Part of what has facilitated 2 Girls 1 Cup’s spread are the reactions it causes. Thousands of videos exist on YouTube of users showing the original video (off-camera) to their friends and taping their reactions, although some videos seem to be staged. Even Joe Rogan, host of Fear Factor, a show notorious for the disgusting things its contestants are forced to eat, had to turn away in a reaction video posted to his blog. A reaction video starring a Kermit the Frog puppet proved very popular on the community-based popularity website Digg. In January 2008, Slate magazine documented the reaction video phenomenon with a slideshow featuring various reactions. Violet Blue, an author, described this website as becoming “the new ‘tubgirl’ and goatse all in one disgusting moment of choco-poo-love” in a San Francisco Chronicle article. In the “2guys1podcast” episode of Put It In Your Ears, co-host Gavin St. Ours watches the video after claiming he never will, and his entire reaction is caught on tape. “Genuine Nerd” Toby Radloff was so disgusted by the clip that he had to immediately watch it again. Veteran porn star Ron Jeremy walked off while watching the video on The Playhouse.

The video has inspired several parodies, such as a short film by singer and comedian John Mayer to his blog entitled “2 Guys 1 Cup” where Mayer and Best Week Ever correspondent Sherrod Small enjoy Pinkberry frozen yogurt in the same manner that the women in the original consumed the feces. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton also made a parody titled “1 Guy 1 Jar”, which he posted to YouTube, and began to eat peanut butter out of the jar, obviously in the same way of the original video. Filmmakers Justin Roiland and Christian Le Guilloux made a 5-minute series called “2 Girls, 1 Cup: The Show” for the short film competition site, Channel 101. It debuted in first place on January 27, 2008. Canadian comedian Jon Lajoie also made a song named “2 Girls 1 Cup song”, which described the activities in the video as if the two women were expressing their love for each other. The music video was instantly popular, gaining over 7 million views.

Meme Anatomy: Gross, WTF, Overreactions

Urban Dictionary

A 2007 viral video that shows acts of Coprophagia and Emetophilia. It is possibly the first time graphic acts of extreme fetishism have been widely viewed by the general public. Reactions to the video have become a YouTube phenomenon and have spawned other videos of this nature. Reaction to the video have included expressions of shock,hysterical laughter,nausea,and comments such as “What the Fuck” and “Why would they do that?”

[Link]

Other Sources

Videos: 2 Girls, 1 Cup

Pictures: 2 Girls, 1 Cup

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 30,000 – 4
Photo Search Results: 80,800 – 4.5
Search Volume: 111,000,000 – 5
Blog Search Results: 189,468 – 4
News Search Results: 87 – 2.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: World of Warcraft has consumed the lives of millions of adoring fans, it was only a matter of time before it become a meme in its own right. Leeroy Jenkins combines the Internet’s love of borderline psychosis with the star power that is WoW.

The video was released by the World of Warcraft player guild “PALS FOR LIFE.” It features a group of players discussing a detailed battle strategy for the next encounter while one of their party, Leeroy, is away from his computer. Their plan is ruined when Leeroy returns and, ignorant of the strategy, immediately charges headlong into battle shouting his own name as a battle cry. His companions rush to help, but Leeroy’s actions ruin the meticulous plan, and all of the group members are killed.

The Internet phenomenon started with the release of the video clip to the World of Warcraft game forum in a thread entitled “UBRS (vid) ROOKERY OVERPOWERED! blue please.,” which jokingly presented the video in a serious context. The thread requested that other players provide help with strategy and that Blizzard reduce the difficulty of the encounter. The video spread as an internet meme, and Leeroy’s response to the other players chastisements, “at least I have chicken,” was also much parodied.

When asked about his actions in the video by National Public Radio, Ben Schultz said: “We were drinking 40s and just yelling at each other.

Meme Anatomy: Pop Culture, Overreactions, WTF

Urban Dictionary

1. Leeroy Jenkins is a character from the game World of Warcraft (WoW). He is the main ’star’ in the leeroy jenkins video, where he apparently was warming up leftover chicken in his microwave, came back and had not payed attention that his Guild (Pals for Life) was not ready to run in and attempt to complete a Raid, and they all ran in after him, and died.

The famous line is “LEERROYYY JEENKIINNSS” while leeroy runs in and makes him and his whole guild die. Some of the other things that are said are: “Goddammit leeroy”, “you do this every time”, “you’re so stupid”, and the ever so famous last bit of the video, “at least I have chicken”, indicating he was heating up the leftover chicken.

The Guild has not yet stated whether or not the video is fake. Some say it is, and you can see certain images showing it was setup, while others believe it is 100% legit.

This video has millions of views on YouTube, and almost every internet user knows of it. The video is famous for it’s randomness and chaos. You really have to watch the video to understand it.

[Link]

Other Sources

Videos: Leeroy Jenkins

Pictures: Leeroy Jenkins

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 6,310 – 3.5
Photo Search Results: 708 – 2.5
Search Volume: 418,000 – 3
Blog Search Results: 16,481 – 3
News Search Results: 66 – 2.5

Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: As we may have mentioned before, the Internet loves cats. It really, really loves cats. LOLCats is a classic meme that is still running strong. Combine a picture of a cat doing something silly with an adorable broken English catch phrase and you have an instant meme.

A lolcat is an image combining a photograph, most frequently of a cat, with a humorous and idiosyncratic caption in (often) broken English—a dialect which is known as “lolspeak” or “kitty pidgin” and which parodies the poor grammar typically attributed to Internet slang. The name “lolcat” is a compound word of the acronymic abbreviation “LOL” and the word “cat”. A synonym for “lolcat” is cat macro, since the images are a type of image macro. Lolcats are designed for photo sharing imageboards and other internet forums.

The term lolcat gained national media attention in the United States when it was covered by Time, which wrote that non-commercialized phenomena of the sort are increasingly rare, stating that lolcats have “a distinctly old-school, early 1990s, Usenet feel to [them]“.

Meme Anatomy: WTF, Animals, Iconic Catchphrase

Urban Dictionary

Hilarious pictures of cats (or sometimes other animals) in cute and/or strange poses with a funny made-up caption. The most popular caption is “I can has cheeseburger?”

[Link]

Other Sources

Videos: LOLCats

Pictures: LOLCats

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 19,000 – 4
Photo Search Results: 3,500,000 – 5
Search Volume: 1,100,000 – 4
Blog Search Results: 180,646 – 4
News Search Results: 308 – 3

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: The Internet loves cute animals, this is a proven fact, if you can get a cute animals to do something that only human beings should be doing odds are 3 to 1 that you have a meme on your hands. Keyboard Cat is a brilliant example of just this fact.

Keyboard Cat is an Internet meme. It consists of footage of “Fatso”, a cat (now deceased) owned by Charlie Schmidt of Spokane, Washington, wearing a blue shirt and “playing” an upbeat rhythm on an electronic keyboard, in reality being manipulated like a puppet by Schmidt. The clip, originally posted to YouTube as “Charlie Schmidt’s ‘cool cat’”, has gained popularity by being appended to blooper and other viral videos as if to “play” that person offstage after the mistake or gaffe in a similar manner as getting the hook in the days of vaudeville, usually accompanied with the title Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat or a variant. The first such video was created by Brad O’Farrell, who secured Schmidt’s permission to use the footage. Over four thousand such videos now exist, with a website playhimoffkeyboardcat.com created to collect such videos.

Meme Anatomy: Musical, Animals, WTF

Urban Dictionary

An awesome cat with the ability to play the keyboard. Often put at the end of a video of someone failing at something and getting hurt; with the title “play him/her off, keyboard cat”

[Link]

Other Sources

Videos: Keyboard Cat

Pictures: Keyboard Cat

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 9,020 – 4
Photo Search Results: 82,400 – 4.5
Search Volume: 8,080,000 – 4.5
Blog Search Results: 48,210 – 3.5
News Search Results: 66 – 2.5

Overall Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Leave Britney Alone is a vintage embarrassment / overreaction meme that features everyone’s favorite YouTube personality Chris Crocker. If a tearful rant about a celebrity wasn’t enough to get this one on everyone’s lips he managed to do it right at the height of Miss Spears less than ideal return to the public spotlight.

Crocker is best known for his Britney Spears videos, posted to YouTube in September 2007. The first part of the infamous work though was posted September 9, 2007 called “Leave Britney Alone pt.1″ to his MySpace page, while the better-known “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!” (part 2) was posted to both MySpace and YouTube. In “Leave Britney Alone pt.1″, an emotional Crocker stated that he did not want fellow Southerner and gay icon Britney Spears to spiral out of control like Anna Nicole Smith, who had died in February 2007. As of January 2009[update], the video has been viewed over 3.5 million times and has accumulated a total of nearly 500,000 comments. It is just a few seconds shorter than the second part, and Crocker, although emotional, remains relatively calm and composed, becoming teary only at the very end.
Screen capture showing an upset Chris Crocker from his LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE! video.

In the videos, Crocker lashes out at gossip columnists such as Perez Hilton, and at reality TV star Simon Cowell, who criticized Britney Spears’ onstage music performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas. Within the first 24 hours of its posting, the video had accumulated over 2 million views. As of January 2009[update], it has accumulated a total of 24 million views and is the second most discussed video of all time on the site (in all categories), with over 350,000 comments. “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!” is one of YouTube’s fastest “climbing” videos, reaching the minimum seven million views needed (as of September 2007[update]) to be included in the “Top 100″. The video was nominated in the Commentary category in the 2007 YouTube Awards. The video received worldwide attention and earned Crocker interviews on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Today Show, Maury, The Howard Stern Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM morning show. Crocker and his video were also commented on in the mainstream media by shows like The View and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. YouTube said “the melodramatic two-minute clip made Crocker an instant YouTube star” and named it one of the top videos of 2007. Wired magazine named it the top video of 2007.

Meme Anatomy: Iconic Catchphrase, Celebrity, Embarrassment, WTF

Urban Dictionary

An exclamation made when your friends or family are teasing you to a point where you can’t handle it anymore and a hissy fit is in order.

Derived from a YouTube user’s famed outburst following Britney’s lackluster performance at the 2007 VMA’s.

Other Sources

Videos: Leave Britney Alone

Pictures: Leave Britney Alone

Meme Strength

Video Search Results: 9,350 – 4
Photo Search Results: 39,500 – 4
Search Volume: 259,000 – 3
Blog Search Results: 23,299 – 3
News Search Results: 487 – 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars