Ten Unforgettable Web Memes
Cats and failures highlight this list of the memes that have gone mainstream. Which ones did we miss?
- By Megan Gambino, Ryan R. Reed, Jesse Rhodes and Brian Wolly
- Smithsonian.com, April 18, 2011
(Amazon.com)
On November 10, 2008, Rutgers University law student Brian Govern was searching Amazon.com for a book he needed for class, when the site suggested he might also like a Three Wolf Moon T-shirt. Feeling snarky, he posted a review: “This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 starts by itself, but once I tried it on, that’s when the magic happened.” He spun a tale about how the shirt had an uncanny ability to attract women. Once Collegehumor.com and the content-sharing site Digg picked up the review six months later, it spawned commentary so creative (example: “You don’t put this shirt on your torso, you put it on your soul”) that the New York Times called it “a new shared literary art form.” Govern’s review inspired video parodies, one by a Brooklyn comedy troupe that sung the Amazon.com comments to the tune of “Colors of the Wind,” the theme song of Disney’s Pocahontas, and another that bills “Three Wolf Moon” as the next movie in the Twilight series. Dwight Schrute of the show “The Office” wore it in an episode, and, thanks to the wonders of Photoshop, so did Barack Obama and Steve Jobs. Let us not forget the satire’s “magical” selling power too. In May 2009, the shirt’s New Hampshire-based manufacturer, the Mountain, was selling more than 100 of the shirts an hour, up from a previous two to three a day, making it the number one seller on Amazon.com’s clothing section. It continues to rank in the top 100. -- MG
Comments (29)
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Nice, comprehensive list - but so many of these have already jumped the shark. Good new examples of some very nice YouTube lists:
http://www.ranker.com/tags/youtube
Posted by LaraP on September 28,2011 | 04:43 PM
Don't forget the best meme of all: DERP!!!
Posted by a random guy on September 27,2011 | 05:48 PM
"was the term meant teasing a provocative headline with an image of a duck on wheels."
Huh?
Posted by Gene Callahan on September 26,2011 | 09:15 AM
No goatse, no top 10.
Posted by Simon Hawkin on August 24,2011 | 12:37 AM
I would say this is fairly comprehensive for a top ten, although I agree that the scare meme (which is similar to a Rick Roll) should have been included, and Win should have been included alongside fail. Overall this is a WIN. # I totally predicted that lion cub trick... LOL
Posted by Coop on June 5,2011 | 10:48 AM
Yeah guys, we know there's 6 billion other viral videos and memes, but the idea was to keep it at 10, and the 10 most famous, not every popular phrase or chunk of information that's ever been on the internet.
Posted by Matt on June 2,2011 | 09:19 PM
The unfortunate skier on Wide World was a jumper, not a downhiller. And according to my memory, the voice-over as he crashed on the in run and slid over the lip of the jump was "the human drama of athletic competition."
The oxymoronic "act of predetermined spontaneity" (in the description of "flash mob") ought to become a meme in itself!
Posted by Ed Cash on May 24,2011 | 04:00 PM
What about "I heard you like mudkipz" :p this is so dated its a major FAIL
Posted by Mooncat on May 22,2011 | 08:22 PM
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. You have "fail" but not "win"? That's a fail all on its own...../
Posted by Rachel on May 18,2011 | 03:21 PM
What about the video-game Portal? with memes like "the cake is a lie" or the companion cube
Posted by Thomas Jones on May 17,2011 | 06:59 PM
the "scary pop up" meme?
Posted by Kyle Inlander on May 17,2011 | 05:02 PM
The cake is a lie.
This list is a lie.
This list is very incomplete.
You wouldnt want to tick off GLaDOS would you?
Posted by Josh Boyd on May 16,2011 | 09:07 PM
I think there's a guy in a bunker who is going to be very upset that he's not on your list.
Posted by Andy on May 15,2011 | 09:43 PM
What about the mother of all memes, that one commonly symbolized with two hands gripping the edges of a circle?
Posted by JM on May 15,2011 | 05:41 PM
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