A meme is a unit of cultural information that propagates between minds. There were memes before the internet but now they spread much faster through sites like Digg and Fark. How many of these memes do you know?
Personal favorites
Chuck Norris facts: satirical “facts” that exaggerate Norris’ masculinity, attitude, and power.
Re-cut trailers: Parody trailers that mash movies together or represent films as belonging to a different genre.
Ask a Ninja: greater comprehension of the universe via ninja wisdom.
Flying Spaghetti Monster: deity of a parody religion founded in reaction to the Kansas State Board of Education decision requiring that intelligent design be taught in schools.
Requiem for a Tower: a powerfully orchestrated version of Clint Mansell’s “Lux Aeterna” (the theme of Requiem for a Dream), perhaps this decades “Adagio for Strings,” used in countless ads and video remixes.
This Is How You Remind Me Someday: an audio demonstration of how Nickelback released the same song twice (with different lyrics), and thus had two hit singles seperated by two years.
Evolution of Dance: comedian Judson Laipply does a routine on the evolution of dance.
Terms & Phrases
All Your Base Are Belong To Us: an Engrish phrase found in a Japanese video game.
Boom Goes the Dynamite: an awkward news anchor fumbles through a segment and utters this absurd phrase.
It’s a Trap!: Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar states the obvious. Parodied in forums everywhere.
Ate My Balls: a page recounts how “Mr. T Ate My Balls,” and soon after other pages are created with stories or comics of other celebrities or characters eating balls.
Do a barrel roll!: a phrase from videogame Star Fox 64 is used in Internet forums as mock advice and problem-solving.
Captain Obvious: a sarcastic term popular on Internet forums, for example when someone states the self-evident, one might reply: “Captain Obvious to the rescue!”
Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten
Pwn: Slang from computer security and gaming culture for defeating or controlling an opponent.
First post!: Internet discussion group participants race to be the first commenter on a post.
More cowbell: a line from an SNL sketch, no a pop culture catch phrase.
Narn Bat Squad: a phrase popular in Usenet discussion about sci-fi writers who make bad puns.
O RLY?: a sarcastic bit of Internet slang, usually followed by YA RLY, then NO WAI! then YA SRSLY.
Russian reversal: a popular Internet joke. Example: “In mozilla, you keep tabs on your browser. In Soviet Russia, the browser keeps tabs on you!”
Snowclone: a formula-based cliche, for example: “If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z” or “What happens in X stays in X.”
YTMND: short for “You’re The Man Now Dog”, an online community that creates images to comment on inane bits of pop culture.
You’re with me, leather: a journalist is flirting with a woman in leather pants. Chris Berman walks by and says, “You’re with me, leather.” She immediately leaves with Berman. Spawns numerous knockoffs: “You’re with me, _.”
Q33NY: a 9/11 hoax. Supposedly the flight number of a hijacked plane, and when typed in the font Wingdings, appears as a plane flying into two skyscrapers.
People/Characters
lonelygirl15: actress Jessica Rose fakes a video diary on YouTube.
Lemon Demon: Internet personality, musician, and Flash animator.
Anabukinchan: a young girl, mascot for Anabuki Construction, featured in commercials dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.
Brooke Brodack: a maker of short, comedic videos.
Lynne & Tessa: two German girls post videos of them lip-syncing to pop songs.
Dog poop girl: a woman refuses to clean up when her dog poops on the floor of a subway car.
Domo-kun: a TV mascot appears all over the web.
Dopefish: a minor Commander Keen enemy appears in dozens of videogames and websites.
Vincent Ferrari: one man has an absurdly difficult time cancelling AOL, and later appears on The Today Show.
MacKenzieHeartsu: a YouTube user is presented with a red Saab convertible as a birthday gift, and complains that she wanted a blue car. It turned out to be a viral marketing campaign.
Fred Fredburger: a creature from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
Gert Jonnys: a Swedish band of the 70s and 80s, resurrected by the blogosphere.
Gröûp X: a satirical rap/rock band.
Anton Maien: gained fame by singing over MIDI versions of Iron Maiden songs.
Icy Hot Stuntaz: a trio of white rappers derided across the web.
Cory Kennedy: a teenage Internet celebrity turns her MySpace popularity into a fashion model career before her parents knew about it all.
Krzysztof Kononowicz: a Polish mayoral candidate who produced hilariously bad political advertisements.
Floyd Lloyd: he tries to get celebrities to say “Floyd Lloyd Rocks”, then uploads the proof to YouTube.
Man-Faye: Damon Evans, a cosplayer who dresses up as Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop.
Mustard Man: a widely circulated photo of a fat man holding a jar of mustard.
Sasebo Slasher: describes an 11-year old schoolgirl charged with murdering her schoolmate, now the character of an Internet cartoon series.
Pico: video game character, mascot of Newsgrounds.
Jack Rebney: known as “The Angriest Man In The World” due to his wrathful outtakes from an industrial video.
Rosie Reid: auctioned off her virginity online, eventually claiming $20,500.
Soy Sauce Warrior Kikkoman: superhero of a flash animation.
Spongmonkeys: singing tarsiers that have appeared on many websites and TV commercials.
Liam Kyle Sullivan: comedian and creator of popular Internet videos.
Video Game Pianist: Martin Leung became popular for playing video game tunes on the piano.
Carson Williams: known for computer-assisted musical light shows given from the roof of his house during Christmas.
Dawn Yang: a Singaporean blogger caught in a controversy over her alleged plastic surgery.
Zladko Vladcik: fictional character, macot of the fictional nation Molvanîa.
Ellen Feiss: there was speculation that she was on illicit drugs while filming a popular Apple commercial.
Wesley Willis: a schizophrenic musician who gained popularity through the original Napster.
Ken Jennings: longest winning streak on Jeopardy!.
Videos/Films
The Blair Witch Project: Internet buzz claims the upcoming movie records true events, leading to a massive box office gross.
Star Wars kid: a teen posts video of him imitating lighsaber tactics with a golf ball retriever, inspiring several parodies.
Homestar Runner: a popular Internet cartoon.
Xiao Xiao: a series of stick-figure martial arts animations.
Numa Numa: a webcam recording of an enthusiastic fan singing along to a Moldovan pop song.
Canon Rock: a rock guitar arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon in D by Jerry Chang. Here’s Chang’s performance, but far more popular is this one.
Matrix ping pong: Japanese ping pong players imitate The Matrix.
Crazy Frog: the character of a purposely annoying musical cartoon featuring Axel F.
Bad Day: a viral video of an office worker smashing his computer in rage.
Dancing baby: a 3D animation of a dancing baby, with many appearances in mainstream media.
The Bus Uncle: on a bus, a young man taps an old man on the shoulder, asking he lower his voice while talking on the phone. The old man lectures the young man angrily.
Hurra Torpedo: a band that played a cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” with kitchen appliances.
Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: a battle between notable characters from fact and fiction.
Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out: a bride is so upset with her wedding day hair that she begins cutting it off. Later revealed as a promotional video for hair care products.
Snakes on a Plane: a film that generated incredible advance Internet buzz due to its title and premise.
Here It Goes Again: a music video featuring band OK Go on treadmills.
Fener icin Opera: Turkish football club fans cover a famous tune to mock a rival club.
Badgers Badgers Badgers: an animation of badgers doing calisthenics.
Chad Vader: a fan film series about Darth Vader’s brother, a supermarket shift manager.
Chechclear: graphic, true video of a Russian officer being beheaded by a knife.
Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner: comedian Stephen Colbert delivers a controversial attack on the president and media.
Dance Monkeyboy: a remixed video of Steve Ballmer dancing to “Get on Your Feet” by Gloria Estefan.
Dick in a Box: an SNL short parodying sex ballads, itself parodied by My Box in a Box.
Here Comes Dr. Tran: a popular animated short.
Over 9000!: an edited clip of the English-dubbed Dragon Ball Z TV show.
Edgar’s fall: an angry kid falls into a river.
G.I. Joe PSA: a Fensler Films series of parody videos.
Flashback: a flash animation by Danny Gomez with psychedlic visuals.
Flea Market Montgomery: a very bad TV commercial.
Giant Enemy Crab: a presenter claims a video game is based on actual historical events, and the immediately proceeding gameplay footage shows a battle with a giant crab monster. The moment is parodied on numerous websites and in other videogames.
Hatten är din: a flash animation with bizarre visuals.
HeadOn: a commercial for headache relief inspires numerous parodies.
Hasselhoff’s Hooked on a Feeling: a music video of Hasselhoff performing “Hooked on a Feeling.”
Hot Hot Hot: a promo video for Appalacian State University.
How to Kill a Mockingbird: a parody flash animation.
I Am Not Canadian: a parody of a TV commercial called I Am Canadian.
Loituma Girl: a flash animation set to gibberish.
Leeroy Jenkins: a popular World of Warcraft video.
Lazy Sunday: an SNL music video.
Little Superstar: an Indian actor dances to a Madonna remix.
Mama Luigi knockoffs: fans remix the last episode of the Super Mario World cartoon.
“Don” by MeAnda: a Mexican satirical music video.
Milk and Cereal: two students sing “Milk and Cereal” using spoons and other props, spawning similar videos.
Napster Bad!: an animation series spoofing the controversy around the original Napster.
Everyday: Noah Kalina takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years.
Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006: an animated short depicting a fictional video game.
Raw Tea: a viral video campaign for an alcoholic malt beverage by Smirnoff.
Real Life Simpsons Intro: a live action rendition of the famous Simpsons opening animation.
Snowmen Hunters: an online video series about two men’s fight against the snowmen they think are taking over the world.
The Spirit of Christmas: two animated shorts, the precursors to South Park. First is Jesus vs. Frosty, second is Jesus vs. Santa.
The Dildo Song: a spoof of “Slinky Song” commercials.
The Juggernaut Bitch!!: a web short based on X-Men: The Animated Series.
The Spirit of Truth: a televangelism program held by an erratic, swearing preacher.
Tokyo Breakfast: live action short spoof sitcom.
Tunak Tunak Tun: music video for a bhangra/pop song.
Nutri-Grain commercial: a popular commercial by Turnpike Films.
Aleksey Vayner video résumé: an inadvertantly funny addendum to an Uzbekistan-born student’s résumé.
I Must Be Emo: a news report on emo lifestyle.
Will It Blend?: viral marketing compaign for a blener that can blend golf balls, marbles, cell phones, hockey pucks, and more.
Yacht Rock: a fictional online show about the lives of some soft rockers.
John West Salmon: a TV ad in which a man and bear fight over a delicious salmon.
Chocolate Rain: YouTubers upload dozens of video performances of the song “Chocolate Rain.”
Images
Edited Garfield comic strips: with removed thought bubbles offer a more subtle humor.
Little Fatty: a teen’s face is superimposed onto celebrity photographs. Video montage.
The Saugeen Stripper: a resident of Suageen-Maitland Hall at the University of Western Ontario performs a strip tease, and photos make it to the Internet.
Blue Ball Manipulator: a complex set of animated images of a blue ball passing through many devices like a Rube Goldeberg machine.
Dancing Banana: a highly popular emoticon, also featured in the Peanut Butter Jelly Time animation.
Dysfunctional Family Circus: edited Family Circus cartoons.
Eul-Yong Ta: a Korean football player slaps a rival in the back of the head, inspiring numerous parodies.
Get Your War On: a comic strip by David Rees.
HA! HA!: a vintage advertisement is parodied.
Helicopter Shark: a composited image of a shark attacking a diver as he climbs into a helicopter.
Jesusland: a parody of the red state vs. blue state divide following the 2004 U.S. Presidential election.
London Underground anagram map: a parody map of the London Underground using anagrams.
Michelle Biggens: a movie still from The Hills Have Eyes showing a deformed girl is given a full, satirical biography.
Oolong: a rabbit famous for balancing things on its head.
Preved: an image of a bear surprising a couple having sex in a forest is circulated and edited.
Sugar Bush Squirrel: a squirrel is photographed in over 2000 outfits.
The Hands Resist Him: a supposedly haunted painting is sold on eBay.
Tourist: image of a tourist is Photoshopped into photos of disasters and tragedies after 9/11.
Vacanti mouse: a human ear is grafted onto a lab mouse.
Canabilistic performance art: Zhu Yu, performs a work involving canabalism. A picture of the performance is circulated on the Internet, provoking investigation.
Gendo Ikari image macros: a popular image of a Neon Genesis Evangelion character’s hands, superimosed on other images.
Audio
The YTMND Soundtrack project is a growing collection of audio tracks used in Internet memes.
O Holy Night: an ear-splittingly awful performance of “O Holy Night.”
Ding Fries Are Done!: song mocking Burger King employees.
I Want My Western Barbecue Burger!: a woman calls 9-1-1 demanding that police force Burger King employees to make her a certain burger.
Bananaphone: a humorous song by Raffi inspires many flash animations.
Cows With Guns: a humorous rock song by Dana Lyons.
Diary of an Unborn Child: A song sung from the perspective of a male fetus is spread throughout the pro-choice blogosphere.
Ding Dong Song: a Swedish parody of 1990s Eurodance.
Moskau: song by a 1979 German pop band revived by the blogosphere.
Mr. Bergis prank calls: deejay prank calls to a bigoted redneck, Mr. Bergis.
OnyxiaWipe: a sound clip from a session of World of Warcraft featuring an overbearing group leader as the guild attacks a monster.
PopoZão: Kevin Federline’s rap song, so bad the album was cancelled.
Yasuri Yamileth: a joke song is set to Reggaeton music and becomes a hit across South America.
Yatta: song by comedy bad Happa-tai, inspiring several music videos and animations.
The Internet is for Porn: Broadway song used in many music videos and animations.
You Kicked My Dog: A famous prank call.
Thundercats Outtakes: with much swearing and hilarity.
Websites
Goatse.cx: a shock website featuring a famous, shocking image. (The original site is offline. I link to a mirror.)
The Hampster Dance: Animated hampsters dance to music.
Mahir Çagri: a badly-designed personal webpage in broken English about the creator’s love of accordion and travel, which spawned numerous parodies and preceded Borat.
Randy Constan: a personal website with pictures of the creator wearing Peter Pan costumes.
Asian Prince: a parody website about an Asian rocker searching for a girlfriend.
B3ta: British humor website featuring regular animations, image contests, and the like from its community.
Bert is Evil: a website shows muppet Bert with notorious figures of history.
Bonsai Kitten: an internet hoax giving instructions on how to grow kittens in bottles like a bonsai trees.
Sorry Everybody: invited U.S. citizens to apologize to the world in advance for the actions of their president after the 2004 elections.
Hitch50: a website tracks two people who hitchhike to all 50 U.S. state capitals in 50 days.
One red paperclip: through a series of trades, a blogger barters his way from a paperclip to an entire house.
MilkandCookies: an archive of internet memes of all kinds.
Ninja Burger: a parody website claiming that ninjas secretly deliver fast food anywhere within 30 minutes.
Porkbusters: an effort to cut pork barrel spending to pay for the Hurricane Katrina recovery.
Real Ultimate Power: a fansite for ninjas.
Reznor’s Edge: in 1995, pretended to be the official home page of Trent Reznor, and thus spread a series of satirical rumors.
Skippy’s list: 213 (humorous) things Skippy is “no longer allowed to do in the US Army”
Smash Our Stuff: Canadians purchase a product and destroy it in front of others waiting in line to purchase it.
Superdicker: a gallery of strange, funny, and sexually suggestive comic book covers.
The last page of the Internet: a series of joke sites with no links.
Weebl’s Stuff: home of several popular Internet cartoon series.
Zombo: a simple humor website claiming that users may do anything on the site, but there is nothing to do.
Others
Division by zero causes the end of the world: a humorous idea spawns many videos.
Atlanta Nights: a purposely awful collaborative novel written to test whether PublishAmerica would still accept it. They did.
Bad Times: a computer virus hoax making absurd claims, for example that it will it will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine.
Chaos Cloud: a news hoax about an outer space cloud that would soon destroy the earth is debated ferociously on the internet until it is debunked.
Claire Swire e-mail: a personal email supposedly from Claire Swire, a law film employee, that was circulated widely on the internet.
Densha Otoko: a Japanese geek intervenes when a drunk harasses several women on a train, inspiring a movie, TV series, manga, novel, and much more.
Stupid laws: for example, boogers may not be flicked into the wind in Alabama.
Exploding whale: authorities explode a beached whale.
Flash mobs: people assemble quickly in a public place, do something, and disperse. For example, sudden, massive zombie walks.
Free Hugs Campaign: a video inspires numerous many to give out free hugs.
Front Deutscher Äpfel: a parody organization that satirizes right extremist parties in Germany.
Gay Fuel: an energy drink marketed to homosexuals.
Hipster PDA: a PDA made of paper.
Homokaasu: a fictitious poison, supposely used by the Roman Catholic Church to gain mind control over victims.
Hong Kong 97: a terrible videogame.
Honor system virus: a fake virus that depends on human cooperation.
Hopkin Green Frog: fliers requesting the whereabouts of a lost frog circulate the Internet. The lost frog turns out to be a toy, and the author, an autistic teen.
Intelligent falling: a supernatural explanation for gravity, parodying intelligent design.
ManBeef: an email hoax about a company purported to sell human meat.
Megyeri Bridge: a bridge in Budapest subjected to a naming poll. Comedian Stephen Colbert rallied his TV viewers to vote for his name, and won the poll. But the Hungarian ambassador decided that Colbert would have to be fluent in Hungarian and dead for the bridge to be named after him.
Mentos eruption: a backyard science experiment becomes a performance art on YouTube.
Miko Miko Nurse: a PC erotic videogame spawning fanmade animations.
Moe anthropomorphism: giving “moe” qualities to inanimate objects. “Moe” refers to a fetish for video game and anime characters.
Olympic Torch: the name of a widespread virus hoax.
Pirates vs. Ninjas: an ubiquitous Internet debate about who would win in a fight, pirates or ninjas.
Political Google bombs: geeks find a way to bring search terms to the top of Google results, for example a search for “miserable failure” brought up results linked to George Bush.
The Smurfs and communism: vast discussion the Internet about parallels between The Smurfs and communism.
Unboxing: the thrill of watching others unbox packaging from high demand products.
Voyage to the Lan of the New Gurus: a TV documentary is uploaded video sharing sights, the producers sue, landmark court cases are decided.
Xianxingzhe: the first bipedal humanoid robot in China, inspiring parodies due to the “cannon” in its crotch.
Beer Launching Fridge: a grand feat of practical engineering.
Replacing words from Star Wars dialogue with “pants”: arguably, improves the dialogue.
Line Rider: A drawing tool/game for creating fun movies.
Desktop Tower Defense: A wildly popular and addictive game.
