CPFOG the blog: TOP FIVE FAVOURTE INERNET MEME for Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The word “Meme” (Pronounced meem) originates in 1976 from evolutionary biologist, noted atheist and former Vegas showgirl Richard Dawkins. It’s from his book The Selfish Gene, which was a biography of Match Game host Gene Rayborn. (and if it isn’t, it should be.)
The word basically means a cultural idea that is passed on through some form of communication, in this case the Internet. Of course an Internet Meme is probably something Dawkins never thought of because a: He didn’t have the internet in 1976, and b: His cat probably didn’t haz cheeseburger.
There is no consensus of what was the very first internet meme, or what are the best internet memes, but there is a consensus that everyone loves top five lists.
So here one is. My favourite Internet Memes.

This little ditty is from a guy called Mark Kump and is a tribute to his uncle Walter who, I believe, was dying of some way not mentioned. It is also a tribute to the famous course from the Mario Cart video game series.
Now Mark Kump is a stand up comic, but there is no way he could have purposely make something so bad that is so good. (The Uncle, to the best of my knowledge, is still alive.)

Above you see a maddening one minute and fourteen seconds of the badger song. Consider yourself lucky. The original was a flash video that just kept going .. and going .. and going.
The video was created by a British animator named Jonti Picking, hereby known as Mr. Sadistic Bastard. The problem is, the damn thing is catchy, so much more that anytime I hear someone say “Badger” I just start into the song, mostly to stares of people who think I’m on something. (Which I may well be.)
BTW: HERE is a link to the original Flash version. Enjoy your madness.

I love this video.
I know the first minute or so is just boring World of Warcraft getting ready for a raid crap, but boy does it pay off.
What is happening here is that a group of WOW players are preparing to enter a room filled with particularly nasty beasties. The leader of this group is making sure everyone has their spells and chainmail in order, all the while a player named Leeroy Jenkins is away from his computer.
The players are just told that even with all of their preparation they have a lousy chance of success when Leeroy (who hadn’t heard a thing the other guy’s were planning) returns to the computer, yells out his name as a battle cry, and runs into the room. Hilarity ensues.
Now for those who are wondering, yes there is a real Leeroy Jenkins, and what happened in the video really did happen, and the whole gaming world caught on. Tributes to Leeroy Jenkins can be found in an episode of South Park, collectible card games and even as a question on Jeopardy. The video was also used for a credit card commercial.

The idea, thought up by Dustin McLean, is take a music video, remove the existing lyrics and replace them with lyrics that just describe what is happening on screen, but to the original tune. Result, brilliance.
Above is the first video, a take on A-ha’s Take On Me. Since then dozens of videos have been made, but no one does it better than McLean.

As far as I’m concerned, this is the best five seconds you can waste on the internet.
The clip is just a small chunk of a longer segment from a Japanese educational show Hello! Morning where a host and some children were admiring a prairie dog. The camera got in nice and close just before the prairie dog turned suddenly.
Now I don’t know who saw this clip and decided it needed a little music, but whoever did it is a genius. He uploaded it onto the site College Humor and it took off from there.
But wait, there is more. People took this five second clip and ran with it. Below is a compilation of ten different variations, all comedy gold.