In-Jokes of the Internet

Every so often, somebody says or does something funny and it gets posted on the Internet. Word spreads quickly and it becomes an overnight sensation, scoring thousands of hits and causing the mass forwarding of emails. Anybody who regularly surfs the Net knows about these things, while those who don't feel confused and left out. That's why I call this List the "In-Jokes of the Internet".

All Your Base...

When a video game is made in a foreign country, such as Japan, it has to be translated before it can reach an English-speaking audience. Unfortunately, the people who do these translations are often not the best English-speakers themselves. So this space-adventure game comes along (it was never actually released) with a cut-scene featuring a baddie appearing on the big screen on the bridge of a starship saying "How are you gentlemen? All your base are belong to us!" Somehow, this poorly translated statement became the most famous one of its kind, and started turning up in chatrooms and online games, being used as an expression of triumph and ridicule of the most hilarious fashion (at least to the people who were in on it). Personally, I thought the line that comes before it, where a crew member shouts "Somebody set up us the bomb!" is even funnier. You can find out more here.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

This is just one of those things that a lot of people find funny but just can't say why. It features a very simple Flash animation of a banana dancing to this crazy short song by the Buckwheat Boys. Some say it's funny because it's cute, others because it's so silly, and there are those who think it's just plain stupid. Check out the original animation here and decide for yourself. As for me, I don't think it's as funny in isolation as it is when it started turning up in other animations, such as this one (Click on Cyrax, that yellow robot guy).

1337

To many people, there's nothing particularly interesting about the number 1337. Others would burst out laughing at the previous statement. Inventing a new language that actually becomes accepted doesn't happen very often, but some n00bs (newbies) will do whatever it takes to become 31337 (elite). Originally used by the h4x0r (hacker) community, the language largely involves using numbers instead of letters when typing. Some people go even further using slashes, underscores and other keystrokes to turn the once simple process of reading a sentence into a cryptic inpenetrable fog, for example: "_|00 |2 4/\/ |_||\|1337 (_)83|2 |-|4><><0|2 ". Like me, you're probably not bothered to translate that. On top of that, it's also "cool" to misspell words like "teh", "taht" and "pr0n" (essential for breaking through chatroom filters).

The Tourist Guy

This must be the most well-known photographic hoax on the Internet. It is supposedly the last photo taken before the plane hit the World Trade Center on September 11. The picture was sent by email, claiming that it was taken from a camera found in the rubble, and that the subject of the photo was still unaccounted for. A lot of people actually believed it was genuine, probably because they thought that there was no way anyone could make a joke about it, at least not so soon after the event. Anyway, the story goes that the guy in the photo eventually came forward saying that he "photoshopped" the image for a joke between friends but never expected worldwide fame.

Origami Boulder Company

I'm not sure how famous this one is, as a friend lead me onto to it. Here we have a guy who uses some twisted logic to ascertain that since origami is folded up paper, scrunched up paper is the equivalent of an origami boulder. Believe it or not, this is NOT a hoax, as they accept credit card transactions and actually send out the boulders. As ridiculous as it may sound, it's difficult to argue against the boulders being a valid form of art. After all, each boulder is hand-made and unique within its context. I hate art. <link to site>

The Star Wars Kid

Further proof that anything you videotape yourself doing can be used against you on the Internet. This is basically a geeky schoolboy just having a bit of fun twirling around a broomstick (or something to that effect) trying to re-enact the athletic movements of Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode 1. Some of his friends found the tape and uploaded it onto a file-sharing network (I think he's currently suing them). His awkward, jerky movements made him the subject of much ridicule and teasing, and he became one of the biggest jokes on the Internet. The poor kid was quite embarrased about the whole thing. Luckily, somebody was nice enough to point out that we've all had moments like these and that we shouldn't make fun of him. They also started a fund to buy him an iPod. <link to video>

The Subservient Chicken

This is a very original ad campaign/publicity stunt by Burger King. It features video of a guy in a chicken suit, wearing garters. You type commands into a text field below and he will supposedly do anything you ask. You could get him to crawl, beg, jump, dance, do push-ups, whatever. Very clever, and slightly disturbing too. Go ahead and try it!