A visit to the website. (knowyourmeme.com) will drown the unexpected viewer in a sea of nonsense, not from an internet perspective but from a real world one.
Anyone remember the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2008. The parade wasn't anything special but the appearance of a certain someone was. Singer, Rick Astely appeared on a float with some puppets and sang his popular hit from the 80's. "Never Gonna Give You Up." which wouldn't have had much meaning on it's own.
Rick Astely's magnum opus was recently abused by internet tricksters who used a hyperlink to direct the unsuspecting to a Youtube video of Astley's music video instead of whatever it was they wanted to watch on the internet. The joke was supposed to be brief, but in a online society that thrives on blowing things out of proportion, this was the joke of the decade.
The practice of hyperlink redirection to Astely is now known as "Rick Rolling." This strange phenomenon is no longer limited to the 4chan anime image-board. It has gone beyond viral and into the global mainstream media. As the puppet said at the end of the parade performance, "I love rick-rolling."
It's no doubt that the collective internet conscience loves rick rolling, but the average person who works for 40 hours a week, and then goes drinking on the weekend, has no idea that this elaborate and growing phenomenon exists.
Rick Rolling is but one instance of what is known as a Meme, an internet phenomenon. The website, Know Your Meme, is now a centralized database for every random internet sensation that is currently in use on the world wide web, and even those that might be. On the site you can get detailed information on the origin, history, current use, and even spinoff's of internet trends.
As a geeky, internet savvy professional, I have indulged in more than a few Meme's. I get a kick out of going on the site and watching the state of chaos that is the ever changing internet.
I recently asked two people if they knew about a popular internet Meme. One was a church going, fellow bible study group member and the other was a mid twenties secular college student with a wife and kids. Neither of them had any idea what I was talking about, even after I explained it to them.
It was then that I realized how much the general public knows about the virtual world; almost nothing. The problem is that a lot of the Meme's originate from 4chan; a site used mainly for posting images of anime and obscure popular culture. 4chan has grown over the years to include posts about almost anything. Since most who flock to 4chan are internet savvy, anime and game loving, geek culture aficionados, it only makes sense that most of the Meme's would be created and enjoyed by them.
Shout out a well known Meme at a game or anime convention, and everyone can get in on the fun. Sometimes fellow attendees will be irritated at you because they are already sick of hearing about that particular Meme, having become bored by seeing it on their favorite internet sites, message boards, or other associations. I remember being introduced to a Meme involving cats recently by my friends, only to see the vary same Meme prominently featured at a convention the very next week.
Meme's seem to have a shelf life however. The Rick Roll is old news now and other more popular Phenomenon have sprung up to take it's place. No matter how popular a given Internet sensation is, most of them tend to grow old about as fast as they grew up. Even the most popular Meme's tend to dwindle into internet obscurity.
What was the point? None of the internet trends I have been involved with have ever really stuck with me and no one around me, at least in the real world apart from my fellow internet savvy geeks has cared. In twenty years, are we still going to be falling for the Rick Roll relocation trick, or singing the Double Rainbow song?
In conclusion, I believe that Meme's have their place in internet culture and that they are good to share with others and even indulge in as a temporary exercise in entertainment. In this world of economic troubles, war, natural disasters, and even the good things like relationships with our families and children, Meme's will always take back seat. If any person ever uses a Meme to take the place of something that really matters, then that person has just lost The Game of reality.
http://knowyourmeme.com/
My Personal Favorite Meme's:
RickRoll
The Game
Bronies
All Your Base are Belong to Us
Over 9000
Youtube Poop
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