A short description of Internet Memes

1. Internet Memes
The dawn of a new age in comedy

2. 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.

3. Trollface.jpg Left,
Whynne‟s
drawing of
„Rapist
Rodent‟.
 Trollface originated from a DeviantArt post by
an artist named Whynne, illustrating the Right,
pointless nature of „Trolling‟ on 4Chan. This an
example of
expression was then developed in the the basic
popularly known Trollface of today. image of
 The act of „trolling‟ is to intentionally sabotage Trollface
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.

4. 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

5. 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.