This presentation, delivered at the 2013 NCTIES Conference, is designed to introduce educators to the world of Internet Subculture, Memes, and Viral Videos.

1. When The Internet
Chooses You A Primer on Viral Videos, Memes, and Internet
Subculture for Educators
The Claw by Danny Handke - http://disney.go.com/disneyinsider/galleries/wonderground-gallery/p/WonderGround-Gallery-The-Claw
When The Internet Chooses You - A Primer on Viral Videos, Memes, and Internet Subculture
for Educators

2. Lucas Gillispie
Instructional Technology
Coordinator
Pender County Schools, NC
On Twitter:
@PCSTech

3. www.edurealms.com
All of the resources shared in this presentation are linked from http://edurealms.com/?
page_id=701. Keep in mind, some of the resources and communities linked and discussed in
this presentation may not be suitable for everyone. They are included for informational
purposes.

4. Why? What are those kids in the hall
talking about?
It affects our learners... and US!
Because I never want to be at a loss for
something to share at the water cooler
or copy machine.
Some of this stuff is really funny.
The Interwebz (People) Fascinate Me!

5. The Sub-Culture Is Invading The Mainstream
What used to be sub-culture is now becoming part of mainstream culture. The Big Bang
Theory is a perfect example of how elements of Internet culture are increasingly becoming
mainstream.

7. How Ideas Spread
As technology has developed over time, so has our ability to communicate ideas. The
development of the Internet and the ease at which digital media are created and shared has
fostered the development of memes and viral videos.

8. http://cdn.crowdscience.com/blog/2011/08/internet-60-seconds-infographic.jpg
This infographic gives examples of what happens in a typical minute online.

9. How Did It Come To This?
So, how did we go from cave paintings to Chuck Norris jokes?

10. Let’s Travel Back
In Time To Get
Some Perspective
Let’s look at the history of the Net to get some perspective. What’s better for time travel than
a Tardis (ala Dr. Who)!

11. 1982
The Emoticon
This is Scott Fahlman. He’s credited with the first use of “digital” emoticons while proposing
their use on an Internet message board at Carnegie Mellon so readers could distinguish
comments that were jokes. (Avoiding Flame Wars!)

12. 1989
The Internet Oracle
The Internet Oracle would allow users to send questions that would, in-turn be answered by
others asking questions. All messages would flow through the Oracle, and be anonymized
making them seem they’d come from the Oracle itself.

13. 1993
The Trojan Room
Coffee Pot
The Trojan Room Coffee Pot was arguably the world’s first web cam. Originally, it was
designed as a high-tech way for those working in the University of Cambridge to see if it was
worth the effort to travel from one’s office to the Trojan Room to get coffee. Empty pot?
Don’t bother.

14. Then Came...
The World Wide Web
Though the Internet already existed, the development of the World Wide Web brought even
more people to the ‘Net.

15. 1996
The Oracle of Bacon
Website that linked articles in the IMBD to determine the number of degrees of separation
between any actor/actress and Kevin Bacon. (Based on the Six Degrees of Separation idea).

16. 1996 The Rise of the Viral
Video
The Dancing Baby
aka - “Baby Cha-Cha”
The Spirit of Christmas
(pre-South Park)
The Dancing Baby was created by animators Michael Girard and Michael Lurye. They shared
it via email and it began to spread. The dancing baby even made regular appearances on Ally
McBeal as she often had hallucinations featuring the dancing baby. Around the same time,
an animation created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone was commissioned Fox executive, Briad
Graden. It was passed around and spread across the Internet catching the attention of
Comedy Central. South Park was born.

17. 1998 The Rise of “Photo-shopped”
Images
Bert Is Evil
In 1998, Dino Ignacio began the Bert Is Evil website, featuring images of the popular Sesame
Street character in digitally-edited images of Bert in disasters or historical events, often with
a small backstory. Since Ignacio allowed the site to be mirrored, the idea spread.

18. 1999-2003
Flash Animations Attack!
Xiao Xiao
JibJab
Frog In A Blender
Badger, Badger
Zombocom
Sponge Monkeys Homestar Runner
In the late 90’s, Flash-based animations and sites began to appear all over the Web. Many of
the early examples were animations that were developed in Flash, exported and shared via
email and file transfer. Soon, sites that hosted this sort of content sprang up.
Newsgrounds.com and Weebls-Stuff.com are early examples.

19. 2001-2005 The Pressure Builds
Chuck Norris Facts (2005)
Numa Numa (2004) The “Internets” (2004)
Tron Guy (2004)
All Your Base Are
StarWars Kid (2003) Belong To Us
ORLY? (2003)
Trunk Monkey (2003) (2001)
As more individuals came to the Web in the early part of the 21st-century, affinity groups
emerged. People with very specific interests in skills were able to more easily connect with
each other, develop content, share it, and critique each others’ work. Community norms
emerged as well as cultures in these communities began to develop.

20. 2003 Meme “Breeding
4chan (2003) Grounds” Emerge
My Little Pony Obsession
(2010)
RickRoll (2007)
Chocolate Rain (2007) LOLCats (2005) Anonymous (2003)
One early community, still active today, is 4chan. 4chan allowed its users to create image
content and share it anonymously. Some of the earliest memes and viral videos owe their
start to the 4chan community. Likewise, segments of the 4chan community began to become
Internet-based activists. A well-known example is the group known as Anonymous.

21. 2005 Here Comes Everybody
In 2005, YouTube launched, providing a platform for easy content uploading and sharing.

22. Critical Mass
The launch of YouTube, the growing use of camera-enabled phones and smartphones, and
the emergence of social networks brought increasing numbers of people to the Web. The
increased ease by which ideas were shared and spread also meant an explosion of user-
generated content.

23. Early YouTube Stars
Ask A Ninja (2005) Evolution of Dance (2006) David After The Dentist
(2009)
Leeroy Jenkins (2005) Charlie Bit My Finger (2007)
Benny Lava (2007)
These are some of the earliest examples of YouTube videos that went viral. Some, like “Ask A
Ninja” evolved into regular series and gave rise to YouTube channels.

24. Viral For Profit
Subservient Chicken (2004)
Old Spice Responses (2010)
It wasn’t long before corporations began to take notice of the viral spread of ideas. What an
ideal way to spread your brand! Burger King was one of the earliest (pre-YouTube) with the
Subservient Chicken website. A later example of a viral campaign incorporating YouTube
video and social media stemmed from the success of Old Spice’s “Smell Like A Man”
campaign.

25. “Me” Tube
Leave Britney Alone (2007)
Boxxy (2009)
Keenan Cahill (2010)
Double Rainbow (2010)
With all the webcams pointed at users, a new generation of stars emerged, no agents
required. In fact, stars like Justin Bieber owe their start to YouTube.

26. Viral Backfire!
Rebecca Black’s Friday (2011)
Some individuals began to capitalize on this potential. Hiring a production agency, Rebecca
Black uploaded her now-infamous “Friday” music video. Though receiving millions of views,
it became one of the most down-voted videos on YouTube.

27. “We” Tube
Fillipino Prison Thriller (2004)
Harlem Shake (2013)
YouTube has also emerged as a creative, playful outlet for groups of people, too. One of the
earliest examples of a group-based video project going viral is Michael Jackson’s Thriller
covered by prisoners in the Philippines. A more recent example, The Harlem Shake, features
30-seconds of music and wildly dancing individuals. To date, the original has spawned over
40,000 spinoffs and over 175 million views.

28. The News Goes Viral
The Whistles Go...
woo.. woo... (2006) I Like Turtles (2007)
Ain’t Nobody Got
Antoine Dodson Time For That (2013)
(2012)
Sometimes, video from outside the Internet finds it way there and goes viral. Local news
interviews are a great source of personalities.

29. prosumer
/pro-SOO-mer/
Noun
1. a consumer who becomes involved with
designing or customizing products for their
own needs.
The ease and fluidity with which digital media can be shared online propelled a new type of
person into spotlight... The Prosumer. These individuals are neither fully consumers or
producers, but rather expect to be able to both consume media, remix it to their own creative
whims, and re-share it online.

30. The Re-Mix!
Star Wars Friday (Parody) (2011)
Charlie Bit My Finger - Remix (2007)
This participatory culture spawns countless spinoffs of memes.

31. Image-based
Memes

32. LOLCats
LOLCats emerged as an early image-sharing topic early on the Web. Somewhere along the
line, patterns emerged including the cats’ poor speech/grammar, a love of cheeseburgers,
and the likelihood that the cat was destroying your personal property.

33. Rage Comics
The “Troll” The “Derp”
Raging
LOL Guy
Gasp Guy
Forever Alone
Y U No? Challenge Accepted Me Gusta
“Rage Comics” owe their origin to 4chan. They are typically poorly-drawn faces/figures
designed to express common emotions. The Reddit community has expanded considerably
on the variety of “rage faces” and they are showing up in more mainstream online media.

34. Here’s a classroom example of a six-panel rage comic.

35. ____ all the things.
A spinoff image series that began with rage comics is the “Clean All The Things” comic. A
variety of these have emerged and typically follow a X all the Y format.

36. Not Sure If...
The squinting image of Futurama’s Fry has recently emerged as a common meme. They
typically follow a “Not sure if.... X or... Y” pattern.

37. The Most
Interesting
Man in The
World
“The Most Interesting Man in The World” is a meme based on Dos Equis Beer advertising.
They typically have a pattern of “I don’t always X, but when I do, I Y.”

38. What my friends think I do...
An image-based meme that has become a frequent visitor to your Facebook feeds is the
“What my friends think I do...” picture. Typically, these refer to the realities and perceptions
of a person’s career from different points-of-view.

39. Ermahgerd!
The ermahgerd meme began in 2012 on Reddit. Originally, uploaded as an image of girl
showing off her Goosebumps books, it evolved certain patterns. Typically, they include
speech meant to sound like someone whose speech is impeded by an orthodontic retainer. A
number of variations have emerged.

40. ...Stahp!
Stahp (“stop”) comics are typically four-panels. They often feature a disturbed-looking
subject and a progressively zoomed in shot. They follow a pattern of 1. X 2. Wat R U Doin?
3. X 4. Stahp!

41. Grumpy Cat (“Tard”)
“Tard” the Grumpy Cat resulted from an image of an Arizona cat uploaded to Reddit. Within
the first 48 hours, it received over 1 million views and instantly spawned a series of images
with grumpy phrases.

42. Demotivators
Despair, Inc. is credited with the development of Demotivational Posters. Typically, they
feature some optimistic characteristic or phrase, an inspiring image, and a comically
pessimistic line.

43. Other Notable
Personalities
Scumbag Steve
Ridiculously
Photogenic Guy
Bad Luck Brian
Overly-attached
Good Guy Greg Girlfriend
Content-sharing communities like Reddit consistently give rise to new meme-based
“personalities.”

44. Hijacked
Product
Reviews
Another viral phenomenon is in comical product reviews on e-commerce sites such as
Amazon.

45. Three Wolf Moon
Shirt
The Hutzler 571
Banana Slicer
Two notable examples include the Three-Wolf-Moon shirt, famed by reviewers for it’s
mystical, aphrodisiac-like properties and the Hutzler 571 banana slicer.

46. Where Memes Are
Twitter.com
4chan.com
Starting Today
9gag.com
YouTube.com
Imgur.com
Reddit.com Facebook.com
More people and more communities result in a faster and more widespread propagation of
user-generated content. The Reddit community (and the related imgur) is a major source of
memes today. YouTube is still the king of viral videos as the de facto video-sharing site.
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are typically secondary networks.

47. Some Common
Appeal to Emotion
Elements of Viral
Videos
Brevity
Community Participation
Surprise
Humor
Follow Trends
Irony
Low Budget Unexpectedness
Brevity
There are certain characteristics that are common among viral videos and memes.

48. What Does This Mean For
The Classroom?
So how does this all relate to the classroom and our practice?

49. An Opportunity for Cultural
Awareness and Relevance
More and more of our learners are plugged into these communities. They’re not just
consuming. They’re contributing content as well. Inevitably, the content emerging from
online communities like Reddit and YouTube will be a topic of discussion in the hallway or
over lunch. Engaging students where they are is strategy employed by the most effective
educators. An awareness of the Internet culture gives us an opportunity to be culturally
relevant. Perhaps we may even utilize memes and viral videos (or their characteristics) to
better our instruction. What if you patterned a project after a popular viral video?

50. Embrace the Re-Mix
Our learners have embraced the re-mix culture of the Web. They expect to be able to not
only consume media, but custom tailor it to meet their creative needs. Give students that
same sort of freedom with your content. Do you allow them any choice? Can they select the
media of their choice (video, images, blogging, etc.) for projects? Does your instructional
design allow for synergy between ideas and for students to build upon each others’ work?

51. Foster A Participatory
Culture
The participatory culture of communities like YouTube and Reddit is part of what makes them
so successful. People want to create and express. Foster that environment in your
classroom!

52. Laugh More!
Lastly... Laugh more. You never know what a student’s home life is like. We’re all stressed,
and laughter is healthy. Try it.