It’s been a fun week for memes with budding pop stars sensationalising the inner workings of the teenage mind on a Friday, to a bullied schoolkid unleashing a motherload of fury against his assailant with some signature Streetfighter moves, to blocking Charlie Sheen – because frankly, we’ve had enough of Charlie Sheen, tiger blood or not.
Here’s our list of the top 5:
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- Rebecca Black – Friday
Amateur YouTube musician, Rebecca Black soared to fame for her music video “Friday”. The video clip, originally posted on YouTube in February 2011, quickly gained notoriety last week after popular blog The Daily What posted the video on 11 March 2011. What followed was video viral mayhem with over 10 million views by the 17 March, with the single reaching the top 100 on iTunes. With memorising lyrics “Kickin’ in the front seat, Sittin’ in the back seat, Gotta make my mind up, Which seat can I take?”, it’s not hard to see why Rebecca Black is currently the number one trending meme worldwide, with a number of mashups and alternative video takes on the hilariously dreadful ‘Friday’:
The original:
The Bob Dylan version:
The Friday movie mashup:
- Casey Heynes
Sixteen year old Casey Heynes, the real-life embodiment of Capcom’s Street Fighter pro-wrestler Zangief, became a trending sensation on 14 March after being posted via a Reddit thread titled Child finally snaps after being bullied. A violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service quickly led to the removal of the video, obviously due its violent nature which pretty much involves a smaller bully getting beaten up by the larger and somewhat passive Casey. Since then, the shock-and-awe video has had several copies being re-loaded with alternative titles:
- Jennifer Aniston‘s ‘sex tape’
In a satirical lampooning of all stereotypical viral videos such as animated dancing babies, double rainbows and lip-syncing kids, bottled water manufacturer Glaceau teamed up its spokeswoman Jennifer Aniston to promote its Smart Water range. The three minute ad, dubbed ‘Jen Anniston’s sex tape’ went viral with its clever marketing ploys. See for yourself:
- Asians in the library
Somewhat repugnant and rather insulting, UCLA student Alexandra Wallace’s video rant about Asian students using cell phones in the library went viral within hours, mostly due to Asian blogs Disgrasian and Angry Asian Man. In the video, Alexandra expresses her annoyance about Asian parents washing their kids clothes and cooking their food and further expresses her irritation at Asian students using their cell phones in the library followed by an insulting Asian impersonation. The video was quickly withdrawn and Alexandra offered a formal apology in a posting on UCLA’s Daily Bruin but the video responses have been hilarious and highlight how the Asian community view the stereotypical finger-pointing directed towards them:
Alexandra’s rant:
Response video on ‘white girls in the library’:
- Charlie Sheen browser blocker
It’s been a bad week for Charlie Sheen. For one his #tigerblood fueled trending has been unable to stop him being surpassed by both Rebecca Black and Casey Heynes. Now, Shaved Bieber creator Greg Leuch has further stopped the former Two and a Half Men star from trending with his latest project: Tinted Sheen. A Firefox/Chrome plug-in that blocks out all mentions and photos of Charlie Sheen while browsing.
