I stumbled over a Wikipedia entry named “Internet phenomenon” by chance. If you’ve ever had to try to explain phenomena like 1337-speak to people who don’t use the web for anything but e-mail, you’ve probably wondered where to start in order to describe the unique manner of propagation of memes on the internet.
What I like about the Wikipedia article however, is not the explanatory paragraph. What I like is the categorized list of dozens if not a hundred of past examples of websites, videos, pictures and ideas that quickly spread around the world, including Apple’s Ellen Feiss commercial, Limecat, Mahir Cagri and many, many other things, complete with short descriptions of the meme in question and links. As such, the article both provides entertainment and serves as an interesting and descriptive historical outlook on online culture.
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