Wednesday, April 29, 2009

to Meme or not to Meme, that is the question.


Today's thought is on internet memes,
Well, you either love her or hate her with a passion. That's right, I'm talking about Boxxy. To be honest, I had never even heard of Boxxy until 4 days ago, when I was browsing the interwebz and came across a .gif of a girl's facial expressions. After some digging and research, I found out that her name is Boxxy, and that she became an instantly famous and widely hated internet meme. Her videos and images were quickly posted all over the world's biggest and most feared forum, 4chan.

That's right, I delved into the depths of /b/ to find out about Boxxy. Now to explain /b/ to you, if you have never heard of it. It's the biggest and most feared forum on the internet where anything goes, you name it, it's there. It's also the place where most internet fads start. Rickroll, LolCatz, Demotivators, they all started on 4chan's /b/.

It's crazy how a video of a baby laughing, or a duck with spinning wheels (duckroll) or fake links that take you to a rick astley video (rickroll) can become famous. It all happens on /b/. People post these images, videos and then other users post replies and responses, helping them gain momentum on the internetz. They can also get famous via 'trollz' where people post meaningless replies to bump them to the top of the forum. That's what happened to Boxxy. At one point, the whole first page of /b/ was full of Boxxy threads. Everyone started to hate her and 4chan had to come up with a way to get rid of her. They attempted to hack and search everywhere for her real name, identity, address and other details, but no trace of her existing was found. She had dropped off the internet radar for now. 3 months later, she made a video replying to all the rumours that had started during that time. She had been watching silently. They had to crash 4chan to remove all traces of boxxy.

Her videos are of a completely different matter, all they are is her talking to a specific person to whom she made the video, but she is completely hyperactive and talks crazily, making for an entertaining video. She's awesome.

But what about other internet memes and fads. What of the starwars kid, whose lightsabre video made us all laugh, yet he committed suicide after the video got famous. The kid from Chocolate Rain video? Who knows where he is. Noone's seen or heard from him since that video. Can an internet meme have the same expiry date as a real actor/ess or comedian? Do they have shorter expiry dates because you can't paparazzi them in the flesh? They don't release their private worlds so we can't stalk them either.

What of internet memes? What's your favourite or least favourite meme?
Are you a hater or fellow fan of Boxxy?
/endrant//.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

manga, maniacs and superpowers

I come to you from my desk once again, with the latest Shonen Jump Magazine and a few brownies and cream in front of me. Working on a video for my dad, whilst waiting for it to render, i thought I'd kill some time.

I got to thinking, what if superpowers were real and we could all have one power? The idea of mutants, or superheroes would go out the door, because everyone would be in the same boat and it would become the norm. Personally, i reckon that the coolest super power to have is Telekinesis. No, not Telepathy, I dont want to know what you're thinking 24/7, but telekinesis, the ability to move things with your mind. You could move and levitate objects and people and that would be awesome. It would give you the ability to fly because you jsut levitate yours shoes on your feet and fly around. I think that moving things out of people's hands or pockets would be funny, to watch them scramble for them as i levitate their wallet onto the roof of a passing car. Damn, I'm clever. Note to self, steal someone's wallet and put it on top of a passing car just for the lulz.

Anywho, any other thoughts on superpowers?
/endrant//.