The dawn of a new age in comedy

Internet Memes

What Is A Meme?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a

meme as: an idea, behaviour, style, or usage that

spreads from person to person within a culture.

In relation to the internet, this means any bit of

media, be it an image, video, sound file etc. that

is popularly spread across a forum, blog,

bookmarking or media sharing site that is then

easily recognised or parodied is a meme.

Trollface.jpg

Trollface originated from a DeviantArt post by

an artist named Whynne, illustrating the

pointless nature of „Trolling‟ on 4Chan. This

expression was then developed in the

popularly known Trollface of today.

The act of „trolling‟ is to intentionally sabotage

a debate/argument or to say/do things to

antagonise another member. A basic example

of this would be to convince a Muse fan that a

member of Muse was dead.

There are now many derivatives of the

Trollface, including Trollmom and Trolldad-

illustrating the jokey but annoying nature of

most parents, Trolljock- to show the

scumbaggy nature of Jocks, and Trollgeek.

Left,

Whynne‟s

drawing of

„Rapist

Rodent‟.

Right,

an

example of

the basic

image of

Trollface

Rebecca Black - Friday On February 10th 2011, ArkMusicFactory uploaded a music video by one of their

aspiring „artists‟ named Rebecca Black. The video depicted Rebecca disclosing

the activities of her day, including getting ready for school, going to school, going

to a party and being at the said party.

The video was up for a month before it was posted on „The Daily What‟ website.

It was not well received with most people laughing at the songs pointlessness

and the singers inept ability to actually sing.

Within weeks, the video had over 150,000,000 views and countless parodies

either copying the Lyrics of the original or creating new ones for Saturday or

Sunday.

Rebecca Black received much abuse and as a result, removed the video from

YouTube, only to upload it herself later on.

Despite the horrible reception for the song, the video officially launched

Rebecca‟s Career, leading her onto countless talkshows, a new song and a

cameo in Katy Perry‟s TGIF music video.

The Original - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0

A Parody - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Chelwb6Ja4

Another Parody - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npgdw5Zb7TY

Bed Intruder Song On July 28th, 2010, North Alabama‟s NBC affiliate WAFF-48 News reported that

local police are searching for a man who broke into a home then got into bed with

a woman. The woman‟s brother, Antoine Dodson, rushed to her room after

hearing his sister scream. After a brief struggle, the intruder escaped through a

window. Antoine said the suspect left behind his shirt and fingerprints.

WAFF-48 sent a correspondent to speak with the victims, which resulted in the

following report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXPgjsB0Xm0&feature

On July 30th, the Gregory Brothers‟ of „Autotune The News‟ released the “Bed

Intruder Song”, which would rise to popularity as the 25th most bought song on

the main iTunes charts when it was released, selling more than 10,000 copies in

the first two days of its availability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw&feature

The Parody song itself became the main focus to the general public, spawning

countless parodies and covers of the song from around the world.

The Original Parody by the Gregory Bothers now has over 90,000,000 views and

the song entered America‟s Billboard 100 chart at the height of it‟s popularity.