Internet memes Video

Internet memes Video Transcript

Welcome to CNET Top 5, where each time we meet, we count down another hot CNET list. I'm Tom Merritt. Even before Mahir kissed you, the Internet has been good at spreading ideas. Some of them change the world, others are just weirdly entertaining. We loosely call these memes. Whether it's Dramatic Chipmunk, Keyboard Cat, or the Lololo guy, they all share the fast- moving viral features that spread them at the speed of em-ail and the weirdness that insures you'd only find them in the Internet age. Let's count down the Top 5 Internet memes. At No. 5, the Dancing Baby. Created in 1995 as a demonstration of 3D graphics, it gained a big boost when it was featured on Ally McBeal. It's frightening that there are still people just discovering and chuckling at this odd gyrating infant. Coming in at No. 4, All Your Base Are belong to us. An unfortunate Japanese game translation of Zero Wing led to a dance remix and hilarity for all. It really helped us all make our time. Up to No. 3, LOLCats. Their origins are shrouded in mystery. Did they arise from 4Chan's Caturday pictures. Why was lolcats.com registered on June 14, 2006? Were the SomethingAwful forums at fault? Whoever is responsible we're grateful cat. Sliding in at No. 2, the Rickroll. A variant on the practice of Duckrolling, according to Wikipedia, the first known instance of the Rickroll occurred on the 4Chan video game board in May 2007. A link to the new GTA IV trailer instead led to a Rick Astley video. A meme was born, and the Internet will never give it up. Before we get to No. 1, it's time for another lame prize. This week, you compete for the Tatooine Accessory Kit? Why? Maybe it will become a meme. Here's the question Who coined the term meme and in what book? Be one of the first 10 people to answer correctly on the post for the Top 5 at blog.cnettv.com and you could win the Tatooine Accessory Set. All right. Let's get to our No. 1. The top Internet Meme of all time. One that hasn't lost steam yet and has become an alternate definition int he dictionary. The greatest most dominant meme of all time At No. 1, it's... Spam. Yeah. You forgot that was a meme didn't you? It started in BBS's and MUDs in the 1980s when referring to the Monty Python Spam sketch, jokesters would type Spam repeatedly to scroll everyone else off the screen. Later on Usenet it came to refer to excessive multiple posting of one message to several groups at once. Many examples of this spamming were "Make Money Fast" messages. Eventually it came to refer to e-mail being sent to multiple addresses at once without approval. And we still fight it today. Well That's it for this edition of CNET Top 5. Don't forget to answer the lame prize question at blog.cnettv.com for a chance to win the Tatooine Accessory Set. Make that meme happen! I'm Tom Merritt. See you next time.