When meme's go mainstream

[The Curmudgeon]

Internet humour is a strange, often impenetrable beast. Trying to explain what makes meme's funny to someone not in the know is as frustrating as it is fruitless. Try explaining the "Ermahgerd" meme to your Dad. Good luck with that.

Somewhere, though, Big Business is watching. "Man, these kids today don't give a shit about anything.. but they do love those crazy internet videos. And if they like them, they show their friends them. Talk about free advertising. Isn't there a way we can make money out of this?"

And so, the new advert for 3 Mobile was born, with internet culture at its heart.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfH_p2EbRw4

Ha ha ha, isn't that just GREAT? A dancing pony. Ha ha ha. Let's share it with all our friends on our Social Networking sites!



Yeah, how about no (and there's an example of a simple, inspired, funny meme). I read the internet pre-hype on this advert, and their inspiration was a Cadbury's ad that had a "gorilla" drum along to a Phil Collins hit. That got huge attention, so why can't this? Look, it's even got it's own little # for Twitter! #Danceponydance!

The entire campaign just seems so cynical, like the obvious product of some "brainstorming" media session by 50 year old dickheads in suits talking about what the kids are into nowadays.

Going by their bombardment on Facebook and the Internet in general, they are really keen to shove this fucking pony down our throats as some kind of new meme.

You can't create a meme, though. When the half breeds who made that "you fun goofed, cyber police" video posted it online, no way did they think it was going to catch on the way it did. Net culture just doesn't work that way.

But hey, what do I know? Look at the funny pony! Share, share, share! Internet culture! Social media! This company really GETS us!

Yeah. Fuck off.

[trashcanman]

Love me some Fleetwood Mac, though. Yeah, this is a new form of what's known as "forcing a meme" which is when some asshole makes something he finds amazingly clever and makes the rounds through all of the major internet communities plastering it everywhere and encouraging people to make their own. It seldom works. The birth of a legit meme is a rare and special thing that begins with one bizarre post and seamlessly and inexplicably flows into the hearts and minds of all who see it. Most of the time it stays in it's insular community as it will never be understood by people outside of it no matter how you explain it to them:



and sometimes it spreads with a wider appeal and becomes a permanent part of internet teminology:




But creating a "meme" specifically to hype a product and shoving it down people's throats on television adverts? Yeah, only old ladies and Facebook shut-ins are going to buy into that and once a meme hits Facebook it's already dead.

[The Curmudgeon]

So... uh.. did you MEAN to post the Goatse image there, Trash? If so.. thank you. It's been a while since I've seen it and.. yeah, it never gets any easier to look at. Dunno what your other links were, they've been removed by Gremlins.

Yeah, it's always a common understanding that when a meme hits the mainstream consciousness, it's already unfunny. That sounds way too hipster and pretentious, but it's so true, especially if you've already seen 1000 other versions of the same joke.

Gotta love some Fleetwood Mac, though. Now there's a band I need to hear more of.

[trashcanman]

Fixed. Yeah, that image was not the one I posted. It had the caption "that's what you get for hotlinking!" so it was clearly a countermeasure to keep people from using it on message boards. No way I'd have posted something like that intentionally. Kind of a dick move, but I can't say I'm super surprised. That's what I get for using a meme from 4chan as an example.