What's New, Memecat?

Andy Baio has posted Meme Scenery, a series of images from which the celebrity has been removed using photoshop or gimp.

Source: Waxy.org

Removing the main act from images and videos sheds light on the strange sort of idolatry that pervades the internet. The scene without the actor is a mundane and disturbing place; without a celebrity, it seems like nowhere. The deeper implication is that the internet celebrity is really a nobody that we have artificially built up, perhaps someone we should have just left alone. Jon Haddock used this technique to great effect when he depicted the dim surroundings from amateur photos of sexual acts.

The subject removal technique takes an even more extreme expression when police investigators such as the Toronto Police remove images of victims of horrible abuse from photographs in order to enlist outside help in rescuing them. In these cases of identification by background-recognition, the public thankfully were able to assist the authorities in finding and helping the unknown subjects in the photographs.

The Internet is now blessed with a new angel of FAIL: Keyboard Cat. He even has a nifty soundtrack.

Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat. Him being Lasier Martins [en], a Brazilian television host who gets attacked by some grapes. Warning: some serious WTFness in this clip.

Play the Cops Off, Keyboard Cat Warning: Contains bad language.

Laughing Haitian Weather Man Meets the Keyboard Cat

Play Her (Fainting Volleyball Player) Off, Keyboard Cat

A harmless fad is spreading among teenagers that is sure to scare the hell out of parents: faux smoking and snorting of crushed Smarties candies. Expect the national scare to begin once American adults are done with their two minutes' hate against the executives of AIG.

How To Smoke Smarties by ballerboy4life is either the best or worst thing to ever happen to Ce De Candy.

Thankfully, she did not inhale the crushed Smarties. I think that her future in politics is assured.

Snorting Smarties. In a Pink Floyd t-shirt.

I realize that it was only a matter of time before these magical, cool-to-the-mouth candies were used for evil. Ban them.

Will Tribble and crew performed Forrest Gump in One Minute, in One Take, introducing a new format that will no doubt bring on copies.

An abundance of tributes to the real estate crash and ensuing financial crisis are being uploaded to YouTube. These information montages mix visceral news footage, fear-inducing music, and bold text in order to reinforce a message of doom and gloom.

In stressful times like, say, right this instant, superstitious narratives provide false comfort by filling in the gaps with conspiratorial mumbo jumbo. After all, weren't we all prone to believing in UFOs during the Cold War?

No? Well, some people were.

The inevitable day the Dollar crashes

Except that the dollar is currently rising against most major currencies. Well, never mind that. Inevitable doom feels good. Hypnotically good.

Symphony of the Falling Dollar

And now for something even more hallucinogenic. Robot voice over. Hubble space shots, cave people, CNBC swivel graphs. This montage will be looping at raves held in soon-to-be abandoned trading floors across NYC and London.

Our economy: Headed to collapse, recession, depression?

Obviously, there is a Part II. While this is a gift, we will understand it if you don't want to watch any more. Because you must be very recessed by now.

But remember that even the Great Recession can proceed to an upbeat. Beat.

Mr. Recession Strikes AGAIN!!!.

Jack Conte defines a "videosong", an interesting type of music that is emerging on YouTube:

A VideoSong is a new medium with two rules: What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice). 2. If you hear it, at some point you saw it (no hidden sounds).

Push

The Giant

Demon Face is a meme that I've randomly come across over the past few months, so I decided to add it to the directory. There are several takes on it, but usually it is a guy quietly sitting in his chair in front of his computer. He then turns to the camera and makes an impossible and horrifying expression.

All made possible by Adobe After Effects.

If you are interested in scaring the hell out of fellow YouTubers, check out Andrew Kramer's After Effects demon face tutorial.

Richard Krolewicz (flickr id boyshapedbox) is promoting a hilarious new photo meme: song chart. He also created a flickr group to track it.

Spotter: Neatorama.

YTCracker of nerdcore fame has created a meme that, while it is just getting started, has the potential to go wide.

LOL Money, Hot New Freestyle.

LOL Mana

LOL Flyers.

LOL Ketchup

We've all ordered from someone like Bon Qui Qui before, and, while she got the order wrong, we will always come back for more.

Suhkerity!

The King Burger skit was so outstanding and relevant that people have begun uploading their interpretations of the Bon Qui Qui rap. Mad TV would be wise to keep this character and skit going!

Bon Qui Qui Rap by Cat and Glenn

Bon Qui Qui Rap by John, Rocel, Sheryl, and friends

Bon Qui Qui Rap by Hayley

He stares, and stares, and stares some more. And then he scares the living daylights out of you. He is the Dramatic Lemur.

dramatic maki (original version)

Dramatic Lemur THX

Dramatic Wagner Lemur

This is Sparta!!! - Dramatic Lemur

Andy Baio interviewed the maligned creator of Colin's Bear Animation (also known as Thanks For Nothing).

Did you actually turn it in with the "Thanks for nothing" ending?

The version I handed in listed my student number as well as the professor's name instead of "UOIT" and "Thanks for nothing" respectively. One of my friends wanted to post the video on YouTube because he thought a lot of people would enjoy it, so I made the "director's cut" to show my displeasure for having spent a considerable amount of money for what was actually very little.

Source: Colin's Bear Animation

Colin's hilariously defiant work has gone memetic in a big way, inspiring the creation of many remixes and recasts.

Colin's Bear Animation

You Just Got Rick Bear Rolled!

Colin's Bear Is F***ing Over

Boing Boing has been covering tasering incidents, and now points to a meme emerging from the John Kerry / University of Florida tasering incident. Already, there is the remix and the t-shirt.

Joey Moggie is getting a new sort of blog meme going: Emo Image Thursday.

The self-promotional "list of things about me" blog memes are somewhat cumbersome to read, and seem socially imposed at times. This image list concept could catch on in a big way as a reaction.

Joey has also been participating in Cats on Tuesday - perhaps this is where she originally got the idea. I think that others are going to join in. Watching the ecclectic image and video categories emerge in the blogging scene and social nets is going to be entertaining!

A snap from Emo Girl by soschuck:

A machinima capture from The Emo Kid Song - Sims 2 Version:

Without a doubt, the hottest video meme this week is Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain. His amazing, Broadway-style performance is being remixed and remixed again.

Chocolate Rain McDonald's Spot, as sung by nerdy mc-muppet.

Chocolate Reign, as gasped through a breathing filter by Lord Darth Vader.