Hello blogosphere, my name is Gregory Stephens and I am a junior majoring in Applied Economics and Management at Cornell. I transferred to Cornell this year from Johns Hopkins University, where I was studying Electrical Engineering. I made the switch to business once I realized that I either wanted to go into finance or run a small business, like my dad. Unfortunately, JHU did not offer a major in business, so coming to Cornell seemed like the perfect choice, and so far I really enjoy it here.
As you may or may not know, Leroy Jenkins is a famous Internet pseudo-celebrity from the online role-playing game World of Warcraft. One day, he was questing with a group of players in-game when he “charged into a high-level dungeon with a distinctive cry of ‘Leeeeeeeerooooy... Jeeenkins!’, ruining the meticulous attack plans of his group and getting them all killed" (from the Leeroy Jenkins Wikipedia article). A video of the incident popped up on sites like Youtube [link to video] and, due to the stupidity and hilarity of the event, Leeroy’s popularity skyrocketed. The video has now been viewed over 2.1 million times and has since been remixed and put up again on dozens of video sites. Leeroy Jenkins was later featured in comic strips and TV promotions, mentioned in an episode of South Park, featured on Howard Stern’s radio show, referenced in hundreds, if not thousands, of forum threads and blogs, and even used in a Jeopardy question, all because of a single, 3-minute-long incident in which an absent-minded player returned to his computer and haphazardly ran into a dungeon before he was supposed to.
Why do these kinds of isolated events become so popular on the Internet? Leeroy Jenkins certainly isn’t the only Internet meme to have captured the imagination of millions of web surfers. Many of us remember the Star Wars Kid and have heard many a Chuck Norris “fact.” You may have even experienced the charm of the Dramatic Chipmunk meme or the laughed at the mischievous LOLcats. Many of us have probably heard the infamous phrase “All your base are belong to us,” a simple translation error found in a Japanese game titled Zero Wing that has since been repeated over a million times on numerous internet forums and blogs. But why do so many people obsess over these seemingly random and oftentimes silly or mindless events that happened to have been caught on camera and uploaded to the web? Perhaps we often get caught up in the excitement of being “in” on a joke or experience that is shared by millions of people – an experience that was never really possible before the advent of the Internet and social computing. Maybe we are still getting used to this relatively new channel of information sharing that we are still amazed by the ability to connect with people hundreds and thousands of miles away and share such unique experiences with one another. Maybe we simply enjoy laughing at the mistakes and embarassments of others because it makes us feel better about ourselves. Or perhaps it is that we are developing shorter and shorter attention spans as a result of the fast-paced, on-demand world of the Internet and we simply use these memes as disposable bits of random entertainment for our own insatiable pleasure. Who knows?
This phenomenon takes place in a combination of Wallace’s Internet Environments. It exists in asynchronous discussion forums and synchronous chats, where users often reference various memes and spread them to other people. It also takes place in MUDs and metaworlds, where users share the stories behind the memes or reference them in casual conversation with others. I will also come up with a new online space this takes place in – the videosphere, where memes are often spread through video sites or remixed into variations of the original meme.
A question remains: will the popularity of these memes eventually cause us to live our lives more cautiously in order to prevent becoming the next famous Internet meme?
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3 comments:
You have definitely addressed a powerful internet phenomenon. These silly sites and videos seem to grab the attention of millions of people at a time. As far as your final question goes, I don't think people will necessarily become more cautious. In fact, it seems that millions of people are eager to post all sorts of seemingly pointless clips of themselves or their friends on Youtube and other similar websites every single day. Perhaps some of them are even hoping to be the next "Numa Numa" kid, who actually got interviewed on at least one major TV channel. So it seems this new widespread internet fame can create fame in the more traditional sense, through publicity in the mass media. I think you made a good point as far as people wanting to be a part of a sort of "inside" joke among their friends, for example, that the professor, or the less internet savvy students will not understand.
Hello Greg,
I'm also quite interested about the rapid rise of a silly meme from complete obscurity to near ubiquity. It is rather amazing that a video of barely watchable quality can garner the attention and admiration/derision of millions. I also completely agree with your theory of why the memes spread. Internet forums, considered by some as the pinnacle of electronic asynchronous communications, are an extremely powerful drive behind most if not all of the recent memes. However, we must still recognize that the forum browsers still represent a tiny minority of the Internet users, and the ability for this minority to promote some silly home-made video to internationally renowned status is quite astonishing.
In response to your question, I think that many Internet users in fact would like to achieve some sort of popularity/notoriety even in the form of a meme. Youtube serves as an exemplary example – people do extremely stupid and, sometimes, funny acts and record them and share them with the world. For many, the attention they gain is well worth it regardless of its form, be it negative or positive. In similar ways, many other users seek the help of Internet communities, particularly forums and social network websites, to reach their Internet stardom. A good question for everyone here would be: do you have stairs in your house? (An excellent question that answers the source behind many Internet memes)
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