Last night I went to an event called Kittencamp. It was all about what makes online humour go viral.
The first thing up on stage was two men dressed as a cat and a dog having a ‘meme off’ obviously, but amongst all the furry silliness there was an interesting point made about how the two worlds of online comedy and advertising, two things that are often seen as being quite far apart, can work together. The fear is that if one tries to use the other both will suffer as a consequence. The example they used to prove this wasn’t always the case was this ad for Peugeot featuring the YouTube dance star ‘Nonstop.’ [Nonstop Peugeot] If it wasn’t for the tagline at the end you probably wouldn’t know this was an advert at all, which is why it worked for that platform.
After watching the dog win we were given a talk by a man who’d worked with the boy band One Direction. He set up the imaginary Twitter user ‘1DCyberpunk,’ built around a bit of a game in which One Direction’s laptop went missing and ended up in the hands of this mysterious Twitter figure, who then offered followers the chance to earn supposedly secret footage of their teen idols by taking part in challenges. At its height the account had over 150k followers and was deeply embedded in the world of One Direction worship. It all linked to a website where the clues were revealed and ultimately a winner was chosen (I think they won a member of the band. Pretty sure that’s how it worked.) It showed how fast this sort of thing can spread if you do it right.
This talk was followed up by one from someone who’d done her Masters dissertation on the art of ‘lolcats’. Not only did this sound very cool, but it also taught her quite a bit about what makes things funny. She told us that there were different types of meme users: those who enjoy them, those who create them and those who judge them. It’s this vast community that keep the humour going and she said that it’s the ease in which they can be created, as in you don’t need any design skills or prior experience, that makes them so hugely popular. (You can read the dissertation here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37681185/MILTNER%20DISSERTATION.pdf )
Now you know.
Hunter S Thompson fax to Holly Sorenson.
This is the funniest rant you will ever read.
Transcript below.
Hunter S. Thompson
Woody Creek
HOLLY SORENSON / Shooting Gallery / Hollywood / Jan 22 '01
Dear Holly,
Okay, you lazy bitch, I'm getting tired of this waterhead fuckaround that you're doing with The Rum Diary.
We are not even spinning our wheels aggresivly. It's like the whole Project got turned over to Zombies who live in cardboard boxes under the Hollywood Freeway... I seem to be the only person who's doing anything about getting this movie Made. I have rounded up Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Brad Pitt, Nick Nolte & a fine screenwriter from England, named Michael Thomas, who is a very smart boy & has so far been a pleasure to talk to & conspire with...
So there's yr. fucking Script & all you have to do now is act like a Professional & Pay him. What the hell do you think Making a Movie is all about? Nobody needs to hear any more of that Gibberish about yr. New Mercedes & yr. Ski Trips & how Hopelessly Broke the Shooting Gallery is.... If you're that fucking Poor you should get out of the Movie Business. It is no place for Amateurs & Dilletants who don't want to do anything but "take lunch" & Waste serious people's Time.
Fuck this. We have a good writer, we have the main parts casted & we have a very marketable movie that will not even be hard to make....
And all you are is a goddamn Bystander, making stupid suggestions & jabbering now & then like some half-bright Kid with No Money & No Energy & no focus except on yr. own tits.... I'm sick of hearing about Cuba & Japs & yr. Yo-yo partners who want to change the story because the violence makes them Queasy.
Shit on them. I'd much rather deal with a Live asshole than a Dead worm with No Light in his Eyes.... If you people don't want to Do Anything with this movie, just cough up the Option & I'll talk to someone else. The only thing You're going to get by quitting and curling up in a Fetal position is relentless Grief and Embarrassment. And the one thing you won't have is Fun...
Okay, That's my Outburst for today. Let's hope that it gets Somebody off the dime. And if you don't Do Something QUICK you're going to Destroy a very good idea. I'm in the mood to chop yr. fucking hands off.
R.S.V.P
(Signed)
HUNTER
source-Letters of Note
