Talk:List of Internet phenomena

What about this guy?

This guy, he's a meme, but I don't know who:File:Http://www.maj.com/gallery/docthory/gifs/b4-pic13.gif

Archive of talks ended by February 2006

Edward Norton

Supposedly on this list because of this site: Norton Rabbit page. Never heard of it, the website is minimal (some pictures and a looping song) and it reeks of a vanity link. Can anyone shed more light if this is indeed a valid meme? Elijya 06:03, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Never heard of this phenom before reading it here. I took it for face value, but after checking, I can't find anything to verify it. All kinds of Ed Norton fan sites, but that's nothing that any other celebrity has. Nothing on Edward Norton article about it either. I say delete it; if it's for real, someone will add it back, and have to explain it. Wavy G 08:00, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

The Tourette's Guy

This is an obvious fake. Looks like somebody trying to make a shocking video, and failing miserably. Not funny.66.161.184.138 07:48, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

totally irrelevant to it's meme-ness. i'm putting it back up. -Joeyramoney 01:41, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

It was already voted as an AfD because of its lack of notability. What is the rationale for adding it ? Sandy 15:10, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Brian Peppers

Isn't he notable, if only for the hoax by "Allen Peppers"; see WP:ANI#Brian Peppers? Septentrionalis 05:41, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Not notable in the least. We can also look at the issue from the standards of good taste perspective. Peppers as a notable figure is a losing proposition anyway you slice it. Find yourselves a new poor bastard to be cruel to. --AStanhope 06:34, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

no, he's quiteb a bit more notable than the majority of people on here. remember that wikipedia does not censor its' material? this was a tremendous lapse of judgement on jimbo's part. -Joeyramoney 18:57, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

why is it cruel to simply observe and state that OTHERS are cruel? Might as well delete the holocaust entry, if that's your criteria Elijya 09:24, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Peppers is a more notable internet phenomenon than at least a quarter of the others listed on this page. He's even been mentioned in a recent newspaper article specifically as an internet phenomenon. I can see that people don't want him to be an internet phenomenon, and I find it somewhat distasteful myself, but this page should be in the business of documenting reality, not attempting to remake it the image we think it ought to have. --Delirium 10:33, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

"Standards of good taste" sounds pretty subjective to me. See WP:NPOV. He should certainly at least be mentioned here, if we are going to redirect the article to this page. Turnstep 14:30, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Brian Peppers is a notable Internet Phenomenon, no matter how much I hate seeing that horrifying picture time and time again.Wavy G 08:27, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

even if we can't post an article on the poor guy, why can't we include him on the list? he is one of the most notable ips there is. i can't fathom why good taste should interfere with encyclopedic content. -Joeyramoney 18:57, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

i was following the debate at AfD. the general concensus was a mention on this list was sufficient but not an entire article. (which i personally don't agree with... but whatever.) i vote to re add him to this list, as long as wiki-sanitizers agree to stop censoring things they find distasteful. here is the last (and quite tasteful) text i could find. would someone with more balls than me agree to post it.

*'''Brian Peppers''' — A registered sex offender in [[Ohio]] with a physical disability. [http://www.snopes.com/photos/people/peppers.asp]

done. please people, he's worth mentioning. leave the entry be. -Joeyramoney 01:29, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

"i **** on first date"

i think that the infamous image of a young fat kid with a lunchbox and a photoshopped teeshirt that reads "i f*ck on first date" is fairly notable. it seems pretty well known. what's the consensus for this being included? i've seen it much more than a lot of these other images featured. -Joeyramoney 18:52, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

The whole "No article, no Phenomenon" debate

Let's talk about this. I think this whole "No article, no Phenomenon" is horrible logic. Just because deletionists don't want some of these things to have articles doesn't mean they shouldn't be included here. Also, I was following Brian Pepper's wikipedia article's through its deletion and what the presumed concensus was that a listing here on this list was good enough.

The Pokemon kid? The GI Joe PSAs?! C'mon! These HAVE to stay on the list!!

Sparsefarce 00:13, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

First of all, the basic idea of wikipedia are notability and verifiability. As it was repeatedly discussed in various "List of..." articles, it is very difficult to ensure both of them, as well as to monitor vandalism of many small things in a long list.

Second, if something does not warrant an article, how in the heck it may be a phenomeon worth inclusion. Today there are hundreds of thousands of pornstars circulating the 'net. Each of them may claim to me an internet phenomenon. Who and where will decide this? Votes for deletion is the only serious decision tool. 3-4 persons who monitor this article, excuse me, no disrespect, but it is a bias.

Third, isn't it time to reconsider the inclusion into this list? I would understand listing of something that made an impact on community or became a generic phenomenon, like trolling, blogs, etc. Numa Numa OK, but copycats not. Any thoughts?

As for Brian Pepper, IMO the voting was misguided. It is OK to lump minor things into one article, like, Glossary of darts or List of terms associated with diabetes, if theyu pertain to some well-defined area. It is totally other to indiscriminatively collect everything into one article with the sole criterion that more than 200,000 people watched this thing (or something like that). mikka (t) 01:14, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

As long as something complies with WP:NOR, WP:NPOV, and WP:Verifiability, it deserves a mention, I believe. An article? Not unless it is notable, highly citable, and has enough objective information to warrant an article. However, it's a different thing to add something to a list. These debates are gray areas, and thus they can become heated. Usually, in this case, a merge to a list is appropriate. Crazyswordsman 02:32, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Then put me into the list. I am a f*ng verifiable internet event with a nice round 339,000 google hits who is known as a Polish KGB spy, anti-Socialist troll, many more, and best of all: IRREDENTIST and CHAUVINIST Communist ANTI-ROMANIAN plus ANTI-SEMIT VANDAL. Never mind. I think I get your idea. Now, please explain me how WP:Verifiability can be verified for, say, "Pokemon Kid" I deleted and one of you restored? Where are the independent third party reputable references to confirm that he indeed hit the net hard? mikka (t) 04:14, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

t3h BEAST

Stop delete this post t3h BEAST have had a major influence on the contemporary culture and phenomenon of the internet!!

It's not deleted. The last two time you added it to the top, it was already further down the page. I suggest you 1. Calm down. 2. Log in and get a user name. 3. Don't add comments talking to other editors into articles. That's what the talk pages are for. BabuBhatt 04:52, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I would like to comment that this person deleted. I would also like to note that t3h BEAST is largely known for his superiority over the Internet in underground MUD games. Please note that I do not agree with the actions of the original poster, but I do believe t3h BEAST deserves recognition. I have spoken to the true Internet surfers, and I have voyaged into the heartland, and they have told me t3h BEAST is an unsung hero for his superior work. I would like to request that t3h BEAST be undeleted and moved to the bottom of the page as he deserves at least some recognition. Wayetender 03:38, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Please, your Beastliness, find it in your benevolent heart to forgive me for deleting your Holy post.Wavy G 19:19, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

what the bleeding hell is t3h beast?!?

Sparsefarce 21:48, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

A ridiculous combo of letters and a number that turns up one site on a Google search, yet somehow qualifies as an "Internet phenomenon." Prove it or lose it. BabuBhatt 22:21, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Background of t3h BEAST - most notable for his creation of 'BEAST Drink' that rapidly multiplies the power of the user (for a definite amount of time) for physically demanding activities such as Russian Soccer. t3h BEAST currently residing on earth. Being a person who prefers anonimity, t3h BEAST maintains a low profile using many pseudonyms, one of which include Mahir Çağrı. Despite having a low key lifestyle he maintains a huge, if mostly unrecognized, influence on the contemporary culture and phenomenon of the internet. An intellectual powerhouse, t3h BEAST is widely recognized by his bands of follower (as well as many other enlightened folks) as the person who opened the floodgates of internet fads that includes Numa Numa, Star Wars Kid and Leeroy Jenkins.

I will try to discuss the chronology of t3h BEAST to the best of my knowledge. It first began in the early 1990's when the popular game known as Altered Beast for the NES came out. This game featured a character known for his beastly skills. Here is a synopsis of the game:

Apparently, an evil wizard kidnapped some God�s wife (daughter?). This god, seeking vengeance, has brought you back to life to go after him in the underworld. Along the way, you can defeat certain enemies and gather special blue orbs, which power up your character. Collect 3 of them and your character will transform into a mighty animal warrior (Tiger, Bear, Pterodactyl, etc).

Later, the growth of the Broadband reveloution resulted in an uncharacteristic growth of this character. The popular MMORPG Dark Age Of Camelot was created by Mythic software, which presnted a character known as Beast in the caves of Hibernia, a realm within the game. Many usergroups referred to this MOB as "t3h BEAST." t3h BEAST was the center for most jokes and was considered one of the high points of the social weaving of the fabric of the game. Later, various fansites openned (such as [omfg beast site]) grew in popularity. Popular IRC servers also refer to t3h BEAST as a supremely intelligent and powerful figure, with many devout followers elevating him to the status equals to that of an omnipotent. Although a variant of the true t3h BEAST, many broadband surfers (especially those who use ADSL) use the mistyping of the name, The Beast, to refer to various films and entertainment sources, such as [The Beast Magazine].

A rare picture of t3h BEAST holding his 'BEAST Drink', or what many agree to be of his origin, is available at [[1]].

If you still feel this is not noteworthy, despite a plethora of information supporting this claim, I urge you to think long and hard before deleting t3h BEASTs entry. -Wayetender 03:26, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Wavy G, I would like to note that while this entry is under dispute, it should not be removed until an agreement has been reached. Please review the Wikipedia Dispute resolution guidelines:

Be respectful to others and their points of view. This means primarily: Do not simply revert changes in a dispute. When someone makes an edit you consider biased or inaccurate, improve the edit, rather than reverting it. Provide a good edit summary when making significant changes that other users might object to. The Three Revert Rule forbids the use of reverts in repetitive succession.

Thank you for your cooperation. -Wayetender 03:28, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

As far as I see it, this is not a dispute. I would even go so far as to say its inclusion is vandalism. Its tone is clearly not serious. Moreover, it is non-notable and unverifable. Its entry on this this is not a point of view - it's simply wrong. --Hamiltonian 20:51, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Hamiltonian, this is rediculous. I have Rved the edit, the long explanation that wayetender gives contains no real evidence. There's a YTMND page based off of a video game; An (unrelated) indie mag fansite; an assertion that his psuedonym is the strange (and likely unrelated) Mahir Çağrı; and a picture from Trygve Lode's site of someone holding Monster Energy drink. The addition sounds like it was written by a twelve year old, and as far as I can tell by the 114 google results for "t3h BEAST" this is an occaisional forum poster, and a wikipedia talk page dispute. -- Dragoonmac - ^{If there was a problem yo I'll solve it} 22:30, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the deletion of this "t3h". I will revert and suggest other editors do the same. BabuBhatt 22:22, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

If you read it carefully you will notice that Wayetender have said that the name of t3h BEAST have gradually evolved to 'The Beast' due to many mistyping by people who refer to him. Gradually many people refer to him simply as 'The Beast'. Admist this chaos, the original name was swept into the abyss. A google search of his commonly used name of 'The Beast' yields in excess of 80 million hits. Before jumping into conclusion and deleting entrees, I believe we should have a healthy discussion and stick to the wikipedia rules noted by Wayetender.

- monstar83457

I respect your opinion and hope you do the same with mine. As a result of this discussion I will make a category at the bottom of the page of accomodate t3h BEAST. - monstar83457

I'm reverting once more, until you can prove this fella exists. I think if the results for him (not just any "beast", as google ignores the "the" in your search and as such you will get any page with "beast" in it) can be proven (ie. you or Wayetender links to them here) we'll be a lot more receptive. Give me 2 examples, one of his "power increasing drink" and one of him introducing the numa numa dance, pre-spring 2005. You do that, I think you might be able to meet WP:Notability. -- Dragoonmac - ^{If there was a problem yo I'll solve it} 00:01, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

i can't believe you're going to keep this up so much that you'd create an entire other category for this thing! i reverted it.

Sparsefarce 23:59, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I request this edit conflict be resolved by a neutral 3rd party. Wayetender 20:37, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Oh, thank God. I for one can't wait to finally see a resolution to this highly important issue. At last, there's a light at the end of this dark tunnel. Wavy G 22:59, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, in the form of His Beastliness' Holy Light. Monstar83457 00:02, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

In response to Dragoonmac's request for proof here is the page for his 'power increasing drink' (which is sometimes called 'Beast Drink' or 'Monster Drink' (as it has no definite name) [Monster Drink]. This reference the 'Beast Drink' prototype hence it was written in 2004. As for t3h BEAST's introduction of the Numa Numa dance, the whole point of pseudonym is to retain one's anonymity. Monstar83457 00:25, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I thought for sure this guy was just putting on this fun little act for a harmless laugh, but after following his link, I realised that he actually believes he's incited some kind of web phenomenon because 5 people replied to a post of his on a web forum. If that's the case, then I'm by all means an Internet Phenomenon, and so now I'm going to have to add an entry about my me and "Myspace" blog. Wavy G 05:47, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

The Internet does not contain only the World Wide Web. There is also video games, such as Dark Age Of Camelot and IRC channels where he is very well known. He is also mentioned on a YTMND page, [[2]]. A more complete list can be found in my post above. - Wayetender 17:12, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

The post made by the website I cited above is NOT made by me but can be found easily if you google it. The site is not some random web forum, but is a professional website. Futhermore, if you look at the date of the post it is August 2004.

Monstar83457 19:17, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

That beast guy sounds kinda beastly 72.43.26.82 16:48, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

T3h BEAST has also been spotted in the Upper Blackrock Spire in World of Warcraft -Wayetender 21:25, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Tom Cruise kills Oprah

• Shouldn't this be here as a video? Danny Lilithborne 06:12, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

:Probably.  Either this, or the whole "Tom Cruise is freaky Scientologitst closet-case who wigged out on Oprah" phenomenon in general.

Indications of notability

• While I agree this page is useful, I think it's an obvious cruft magnet. I'm going to start including indications of notability - non-internet notices; mainstream internet news coverage; inclusion on some sort of legitimate "best of the web" lists, etc - for each meme, and then after a while removing the ones that don't have any indications of notability as an internet meme (this doesn't mean removing the articles - it just probably means it's not an internet phenomenon or meme). --Hamiltonian 19:26, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Reducing the size of this page

I think that this page should be split into two. One should be about internet phenomena, no list. It would be prose, and explain in more depth about internet phenomena in general. The second should be called "List of internet phenomena" (or something like that), which would function much like the page now, except it would merge in many of the articles that it links to - often they are just one or two paragraph articles that would be better served and more centralized in one article. (Obviously many of the memes will also retain their articles, just some articles only have a few sentences to say about them that are verifiable.) This might also solve some of the "deletion" wars that crop up now and then regarding such articles. I often advocate deletion because the meme's article can only be two or three sentences long while still adhering to a code of NPOV, verifiability and notability. Were they all on one page, and short I could have less problems with such articles. Thoughts? --Hamiltonian 06:14, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. -- PinkDeoxys 13:20, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

That sounds like the right way to go. Most articles with large lists separate them into their own pages. This list could potentially be huge. Right now, it really only includes things that are current trends or things still fresh in people's heads. There's a bunch of Internet phenomena from a few years ago that have since subsided, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be listed. Think about the Lars Ulrich phenom during the "Napster" debacle, or those "American Express" ad parodies from years gone by. But I personally wouldn't dare add anything more, especially with as big as it is now.

Then again...without the list, the article itself is only one paragraph. I don't mind it being whole, but if the problem is the size, it should be split up somehow. Wavy G 06:55, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I imagine something like this:

Article 1 - "Internet phenomenon": an expanded description of what they are, plus a link to the different categories of memes.

Article 2 - "List of internet memes (video and audio)": So, "Numa numa", various flash animations, the "Back dorm boys".

Article 3 - "List of internet memes (text and images)": things like "O RLY?" or "All your base belong to us" or "Chuck Norris Facts". Also, websites would likely go here, as they are text and images.

I think that actually covers it. 90 per cent of the stuff that's on this page right now fits in to one of these two categories. Things that don't, I would argue, aren't actually internet phenomena - "scams" such as Poetry.com or "internet trolling" might be perfectly notable, even important part of the internet - but are they memes? Eh. There's got to be a difference between something that's popular on the internet and and internet phenomenon. Otherwise, AOL, Google, CNN, Wikipedia - all internet phenomena too.

As for formatting, I think that other than a description of the meme - which can be shorter in the case of something with its own page, or slightly longer for something that doesn't merit one (i.e. there's just not more information than a handful of sentences to be written) - two links are required - one, a link to the meme (even through the Wayback Machine); two, an indication of notability - mainstream media coverage (I include major internet only publications too - like CNet). Some people argue that this is inappropriate because they don't cover memes - oh, but they do! CNN has a regular "Viral videos" feature; newspapers have covered a slew of them; CNet and Yahoo! have done best of the web lists. If the meme doesn't make some sort of list like this it seriously makes me question its notability - if we don't demand something like this, we're simply going to have to accept listing every little inside joke that has gone on it any forum. (I don't think that a large amount Google hits are sufficient on their own - using them to indicate whether something is an internet meme is original research; and, if someone wanted to include their own website as linkspam here, they could easily mock up many thousands of Google hits in a couple of days.) Requiring these two things proves that (a) it exists; and (b) it's at least notable.

Also included on the article would like a link to things like "List of YTMND fads" or "Something Awful" - some internet memes have not really spread outside these (and similiar types) of communities. While they might be important they are more "YTMND memes" than "Internet memes" and should be included on the appropriate page. (They might even be considered subpages of the larger internet meme project.) --Hamiltonian 17:50, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Another idea for verifying notability: How about Vh1's Web Junk 20, as another indication of notability? That is, at least for the videos (which is pretty much all they show). They would certainly have to be notable to appear on a tv show about Internet memes. Of course, the longer that show runs the deeper they would have to scour, but it would be another good starting point for checking on something, in addition to the websites you mentioned. Just a suggestion.

Love, Wavy G 05:10, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Forgot abot Web Junk, but yeah, that kind of thing, exactly. Perhaps not everything on the show is strictly an internet meme, but yeah being on this type of show says to me that it's become sufficient notable to be, um, noted. --Hamiltonian 06:09, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Will you go...

Is that annoying "Will You Go to the Prom With Me?" video (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/gotoprom.html) necessary in the Video's section?

I think I recall seeing this on WebJunk 20. Whether or not that makes it notable, I don't know. I've seen it somewhere before, but I can't say for sure where. If someone can verify its notability, we should add it.

"Yelling at Cats"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Yelling+at+Cats%22

all same film

Fakes

I'm pretty sure both the German Angry kid and the Leeroy Jenkins, were declared fake. As you could find movies of the german kid nicked "real gangster" showing his acting skills.

And about Leeroy Jenkins there are several things that point out that it is indeed staged.

References

I've added the references tag because currently the article doesn't have any. Digging slightly led me to [3], which seems to define an internet phenomenon as being something featured by notable internet websites. Is that a fair representation? Steve block talk 13:22, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

hasselhoffed

so they deleted the hasselhoffed article because it was determined it was a neologism and the creator was using wikipedia to try to start a fad, which of course is not what wikipedia is about. should we kill its listing here?

Sparsefarce 17:53, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Wavy G 22:23, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

"Bill Crum"

Not legitimate. Sounds like somebody's pissed off at his professor, and taking it out here. The name returned many search results, but only a few actually dealing with the Purdue professor. There's a few forums where the name is mentioned, as well as some Purdue websites, but nothing to be found that matches the description listed here. The rest of the search results are legitimate websites about other people with the same name.

Just letting you know, I'm removing this, in case anybody has a problem with that. Wavy G 00:49, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Cleaning up

I've cleaned up much of this article to make it read a little better. I didn't remove any content (except for "Bill Crum") but I combined some redundant entries. Such as: "Websites" listed "Million Dollar Homepage" and "Personal Sites" listed "Alex Tew" (creator of "Million Dollar Homepage"), so I combined them into one entry. I tried to remove as many sentence fragments as I could. I think fragments are okay in this sort of article (basically a list of entries with brief descriptions), but if the descriptions could be made into a complete sentence, I went ahead and changed them. Also I fixed a lot of spelling and grammar. Wavy G 03:02, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! --Hamiltonian 03:12, 30 March 2006 (UTC)