What Happened

Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

seely — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:50:09 GMT

Sorry for the thread hijack everyone, Ann85 will no longer be posting here :-)

ann85:

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ann85 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:00:28 GMT

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Re: Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

mattypro — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:21:59 GMT

Risselada:

What happened to your original message about Chuck Norris and World of Warcraft. It seems as thought it was deleted.

Yeah, I tried to post it here but it the formatting was all messed up from moving it from my email to Spout's page. So, I basically reprinted or rewrote all the info from it in that other enormous post. Sorry, I should have cleared that up a bit ago.

Risselada:

Well since you are or were talking about WOW, I just wanted to let you all know that my brother recently got first place in the first ever World of Warcraft tournament which was at the World Series of Video Games in Wuhan China.

DUDE! Not only was he a part of the winning team...he was mentioned ALL over the place as being the KEY factor to thier victory. HAWT. Tell him I am impressed with his poise and composure under fire. The vids of him are really cool too. Plus, now is a richie rich! LAWLS!

double w00t my friend....

Matt

Re: Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

Risselada — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:43:22 GMT

What happened to your original message about Chuck Norris and World of Warcraft. It seems as thought it was deleted.

Re: Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

Risselada — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:40:37 GMT

mattypro:
wonder if that sort of thing is really possible with video? Maybe if you get a couple of people who are doing CG work....I dunno. It could be fun to try that with editing...where you would send a whole clip to someone...then send your edits of that clip where you make it into something else....and they could try it too.

Wow I'm surprised I've never really thought of that before. That would be great!!! I wouldn't be surprised if someone has done that already. I just have never heard of it.

mattypro:
this has reminded me of this really funny remade "trailer" for The Shining....just called Shining. I will try to link it here...Shining Trailer recut. It is quite funny and disturbing that you can make such a creepy and awesomely scarey movie look sooo much like a family fun whatever...yuck...especially the quick cut of Jack kissing his dead wife BLEH!!! shivers...

Yeah, I had seen that before. It's wonderful. I think those people have done a couple other reedited trailers too. I love how genre is all just perspective and manipulation. You really could do the same story with the exact same events and show them in a dozen different ways to make them seem like different genres and moods.

Re: Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

mattypro — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:42:30 GMT

Totally.

I think your comment on music is very relevant as well. It reminds me of the Gnarls Barkley album that came out a while ago. The two dudes that make up that duo are named Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green. I read an interview with Danger Mouse (he is the same guy that did the incredible Grey Album...which is sort of another example of this) where he said that he and Cee Lo didnt really work in the same place very often on the album. He would record a set of beats or a background track and then send it to Cee Lo and then Cee Lo would sing something over it and send it back to DM...who would change his beats in accordance with some of the lyrics etc...and they built a lot of the album that way. Which I think is very cool. I wonder if that sort of thing is really possible with video? Maybe if you get a couple of people who are doing CG work....I dunno. It could be fun to try that with editing...where you would send a whole clip to someone...then send your edits of that clip where you make it into something else....and they could try it too.

If you get a chance, this has reminded me of this really funny remade "trailer" for The Shining....just called Shining. I will try to link it here...Shining Trailer recut. It is quite funny and disturbing that you can make such a creepy and awesomely scarey movie look sooo much like a family fun whatever...yuck...especially the quick cut of Jack kissing his dead wife BLEH!!! shivers...

Matt

Re: Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

Risselada — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:17:03 GMT

mattypro:
I suppose I wanted to talk about things that had to do with strange un-explicable cultural phenomenons that crop up in cyber life. Ideas or websites that become WILDLY popular out of the blue. Some of these cyber memes end up turning back on themselves to then influence a new set of memes. I have seen influences like this work in movie making too. Terintino is a good example of this. He made the movie Reservior Dogs which in turn influenced a movie called Battle Royale which in turn he claimed as a reference on the Kill Bill series. Pretty interesting.

Also don't forget that Reservoir Dogs, like pretty much every Tarantino film, was certainly influenced by dozens of movies. One of the most blatent one, which he almost ripped off the entire plot and several specific shots from is the 1987 Hong Kong movie City on Fire, starring Chow-Yun Fat. Considering the fact that the Japanese director of Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku, has been making movies since the '60s and many of them are Yakuza and cops and robbers types movies as these, it is not unlikely to think that Tarantino was inspired by a Fukasaku movie in the creation of Reservoir Dogs. Or at least there is the possibility that the makers of City on Fire were in some way inspired by Fukasaku or a movie that was inspired by Fukasaku. In this way people are constantly inspiring each other back and forth and back and forth.

But this has been the way that things have been since the advent of movies. Because movies could be released and seen in the same format by people all around the world at the same time, people were coming up with new techniques and being inspired by eachother back and forth constantly.

The same thing has been true with music as well ever since audio recording has been possible. And of course with the internet these things are only going to occur more rapidly. But in a way it is almost a little too overwhelming to take it all in!

Re: Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

mattypro — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:22:12 GMT

Puhnner!

Thank you for that. So interesting to see everything laid out so simply.

I suppose it was a bit naive of me to leave out the marketing aspect of this whole deal. But if one thing is certain, it is that if there ever seems to be a cheap and effective way to spread information (INTERNET!) then the advertising agencies of the world will certainly be the first to try and take advantage of it. There is an agency in Oregon (Portland I believe) that has been ahead of the curve on advertising forms for quite a while. Or at least for catching the pulse of desire in the world's markets and taking advantage of it. For instance, they coined the term "just do it" for Nike in the nineties (late eighties maybe??). I believe they are called Wieden & Kennedy. They are also responsible for the "Bo Knows" ad campaign and getting Lou Reed to work with Honda....who knew. Just recently, they had the uber-hip dance-a-thon musician James Murphy, who goes by the name of LCD Soundsystem, make a record called 45:33 which is supposed to be the "perfect" running CD...in that it creates a buildup, and climax, and a cool down all within the 45 minutes and 33 seconds that the record lasts.

All of this to say that nothing is really safe from advertising. Which is ok I guess, just as long as you keep your wits about you and try to remain from being the "sucker..."

I suppose I wanted to talk about things that had to do with strange un-explicable cultural phenomenons that crop up in cyber life. Ideas or websites that become WILDLY popular out of the blue. Some of these cyber memes end up turning back on themselves to then influence a new set of memes. I have seen influences like this work in movie making too. Terintino is a good example of this. He made the movie Reservior Dogs which in turn influenced a movie called Battle Royale which in turn he claimed as a reference on the Kill Bill series. Pretty interesting.

I think a perfect example of meme marketing in Movies would be the whole Snakes on a Plane phenomena.

The example that I was thinking of that I wrote that non-posted email to Porcupine and SkyPilot about happened in the game of World of Warcraft. You can read more about it at the link if you dont know what it is. I play...

World of Warcraft is absolutley PACKED with these internet cultural references. Whether it is a character named Linken that closely resembles the character Link from the Zelda games (you have a quest to return his sword to him in WoW), or a dragon boss referenced as the Burninator from the popular website Homestarrunner.com. There are countless examples of this. One of my favorites is an item in the game called Deviate Delight. It is a piece of food that your character can eat that turns you either into a pirate or a ninja. Now, without knowledge of this internet trend, this can still be a cool and funny side-effect of eating this particular food. However, having been in college at the time of the ninja craze on the internet, I recognize the nod to the amazingly popular site RealUltimatePower. The thing about sites like this is that thier influence goes beyond even the knowledge of its beginings. I suppose that should not be as surprising to me as it is, but I am always sort of floored when I hear someone talk about ninjas "just wanting to flip out all the time and kill people" without any knowledge of where that started.

Anyway, SkyPilot asked about a rumor he had heard: That there is a Chuck Norris craze in the world of gamers. This, I told him, is very true and entertaining. SP and Porcupine and I have a liking for that which is kitchy...and Chuck Norris is nothing BUT kitchy in my opinion. Anyhow, SP asked me to find some of the Chuck Norris jokes that I had been hearing online so I did and sent him a link which I will give here as well: Chuck Norris Jokes

Beware...they are dirty...but many are quite funny. They mostly have to do with Chuck Norris roundhouse kicking someone in the face or being manlier or stronger than anyone else. Things like "It was discovered that Chuck Norris's tears cure cancer.....Too bad he has never cried."

This then reminded me of some jokes from a set of sketches on Saturday Night Live that appeared a few years ago that were funny. They were about Bill Brasky. These occured when a group of guys all sat down in a bar and told stories...or more appropriately...one liners about their mythical friend Bill Brasky. Jokes like:

"Did I ever tell you about the time Brasky took me out to go get a drink with him? We go off looking for a bar and we can't find one. Finally Brasky takes me to a vacant lot and says, 'Here we are.' We sat there for a year and a half — until sure enough, someone constructs a bar around us. Well, the day they opened we ordered a shot, drank it, and then burned the place to the ground. Brasky yelled over the roar of the flames, 'Always leave things the way you found 'em!'"

Strangely enough, I found almost this exact same joke listed in the Chuck Norris jokes section of a different site. I suppose it just goes to show that these jokes are really just self feeding. For a very detailed look at this whole idea, you can check out the Wikipedia article on Chuck Norris. It AMAZINGLY mentions everything that I have found through some surfing and personal experience. It also mentions a World of Warcraft reference dealing with the popularity of Chuck in that game. It even goes so far as to mention the section of the game where he is talked about the most: the Barrens. Anyway, here is the link: Chuck Norris.

Anway, all this to say: I dont know how to think about these things. How do they happen? What is the average time that they last? And more interestingly, WHY do they happen? I'm sure if ad agencies could get thier hands on that information...well, I assume that would be the end of free will!

Re: Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

Puhnner — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:48:52 GMT

I don't know where I stand or where to stand on Memes; but this concept of Viral Marketing seems to me, to fit within the concept of Meme... here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

I like the concept of giving a 'shout-out' for something, anything really, that somehow begins the trend. I always ask myself questions about 'popularity'...who really gives one fig about Paris or Lindsay or Film Stars or anything that or person that ultimately does not benefit , what do these persons/thiings/styles contribute? I am not disparaging them, just asking why this person?, why this style? and why at this precise point in time???..it seems to act like an infection and spreads and spreads...and then ceases....see William Gibson's Pattern Recognition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_Recognition_%28novel%29

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can often be word-of-mouth delivered and enhanced online; it can harness the network effect of the Internet and can be very useful in reaching a large number of people rapidly.

Some of the first recorded offline/online viral campaigns were developed by Tim Nolan of Spent2000.com fame circa 1996. By placing abstract pairings of catch-phrases, quotes, song lyrics and image mashups, Mr. Nolan developed a method of creating "buzz" around a URL based installation. Phrases like "This city isn't safe" placed alongside a URL created enough curiosity in people's minds to remember a URL and visit again once they were online.

Viral marketing sometimes refers to Internet-based stealth marketing campaigns, including the use of blogs, seemingly amateur web sites, and other forms of astroturfing, designed to create word of mouth for a new product or service. Often the goal of viral marketing campaigns is to generate media coverage via "offbeat" stories worth many times more than the campaigning company's advertising budget.

The term "viral advertising" refers to the idea that people will pass on and share interesting and entertaining content; this is often sponsored by a brand, which is looking to build awareness of a product or service. These viral commercials often take the form of funny video clips, or interactive Flash games, an advergame, images, and even text.

Viral marketing is popular because of the ease of executing the marketing campaign, relative low-cost (compared to direct mail), good targeting, and the high and rapid response rate. The main strength of viral marketing is its ability to obtain a large number of interested people at a low cost.

The hardest task for any company is to acquire and retain a large customer base. Through the use of the internet and the effects of e-mail advertising, the business-to-consumer (B2C) efforts have a greater impact than many other tools of marketing. Viral marketing is a technique that avoids the annoyance of spam mail; it encourages users of a specific product or service to tell a friend. This would be a positive word-of-mouth recommendation. One of the most successful perspectives found to achieve this customer base is the integrated marketing communication IMC perspective. The use of SMS text messages is a new and growing vehicle for viral B2C campaigns Text_message_marketing

Memes: or POP culture Wierdness

mattypro — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:41:34 GMT

So, I wrote an email to Sky Pilot and Porcupine the other day and they thought it was funny enough and discussion worthy enough that I should post it here....

Beware...it is puh-retty long and doesn't have THAT much to do with movies....more just about internet culture and pop culture references in general.

It sort of has to do with memes which can be defined as such:

noun

a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation); "memes are the cultural counterpart of genes"

Basically, my understanding of a meme is an idea or characteristic that spreads through culture to create a sort of "universal" inside joke. Examples of this would be things like Napoleon Dynomite jokes or perhaps hitting a golf ball like Happy Gilmore...or maybe more specifically, calling a running golf ball swing a "happy gilmore" or saying, I'm going to "happy gilmore" this shot and having people know what you mean without really discussing that you have both seen the movie.

What I have become interested in--and SkyPilot and Porcupine and lots other have become interested in as well--is the set of these memes that revolve around internet culture. Shoot! - this very sight is an example of an internet meme: blogging.

I would love to hear what people think about all of this. The internet is a fascinating place. Also, you can feel free to make fun of me for my UTTER nerdliness.....I know....I know.

Love, Matt

P.S. DANG IT....i cant get the formatting to work....it has it all messed up and wierd looking....I will work on it later. sorry for now!

P.P.S. Could not get the formatting to work after several tries....so I just did my best to re-write/update it for this site....it is the MONSTER post just below...