Greatest Music Video of All Time? Pork and Beans! The Internet Culture and You.

[Sonic the Vampire]

Time to catch up on your internet memes!

I stole this off of Digg.com, which linked to its Youtube address, which is where I'm linking you right now. This is Weezer's latest music video, for the song "Pork and Beans."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI

The references are fairly basic, but in the event that you are missing any, here are a handful of links related to the video:

Shoes!

Dramatic golpher

Chocolate Rain (Tay Zonday)

Evolution of dance

Numa numa!

Hands

Daft Punk Girls

Ryan vs. Dorkman (The ones in the music video were not the real Ryan and Dorkman so far as I can tell, same as the Soldjya-Boyz below)

Miss Teen South Carolina

Mentos + Coke

Leave Brittany Alone! (Chris Crocker)

Charlie the Unicorn!

GI Joe Public Service Announcements

Most T-Shirts Worn at One Time

Afro Ninja

All Your Base (Somebody Set Us Up the Bomb!)

Crank That (Soldier Boy Boys) (The guys in the music video are not the original, which is why, I presume, they cut away from them so quickly.)

The duck Donald (I think this is what they were referencing here.)

It's peanut butter jelly time!

How to solve a rubix cube!

K-Fed

Will it blend?

Edit- Found them!

Sex Advice Girl

Guy catches glasses with face

UFO Haiti

Potter Puppet Pals (One of them is in there)



I missed two or three that they snuck in there and I wasn't familiar with. If anybody could link me to the girl with the rainbow socks, the japanese gameshow girls, or more accurate 3d donald duck, post em.



Anyone on the board have any of their own favorite internet memes that come to mind which weren't references in the video? I've always been deeply fascinated by the culture we've been able to create for ourselves on the internet. The more time you've spent on the web, the more you really start to absorb out of it over time. I'm a sucker for in-jokes, and these are basically lengthy compilations of precisely those. People who have spent long periods of time on the internet are almost at a point where they can speak another language, one they had a hand in establishing, that represents their interests and values as an interconnected generation of E-individuals. Give it another ten years and it well may be a language all on its own, and it may really take full courses of schoolwork to catch up on our information superhighway.

Thoughts? Opinions? Think it's just a momentary fad that'll burn itself away once the government seizes control of our servers to stop terrorism and piracy, or do you see it continuing to evolve over time into something even more complex? I think it's wonderful to be so deeply ingrained into this bizarre culture we've established, even if it is dorky.

 

[sub]

I demand two girls and 1 cup be put in there!

Nah it was a good video. South Park did an episode similar to this. As for the future of the internet, I do think we're living in the golden age of the internet right now. I hope it is one that doesn't end, but time will tell.

 

[LionHeart]

I do think we're living in the golden age of the internet right now. I hope it is one that doesn't end, but time will tell.

I agree .

 

[Zeonix]

As for the future of the internet, I do think we're living in the golden age of the internet right now.

How depressing...

There was an article recently that stated Generation Y hasn't produced anything of value to our culture, and at first I thought, "Well, none of us have even pushed 30. Give us some time.", and then I realized the guy was absolutely right. This isn't the kind of thing I want our generation to be known for.

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

I think you're coming down too hard on, what... 20-30 year olds? I'm not sure when generation Y started, but we haven't had enough time to change politics or rewrite the history books. I think it's total bull**** to assume we haven't produced anything worth-while for our culture when you take into account the free and rapid flow of information across the internet from blogs and web sources like Wikipedia, the social networking that exists on an unprecedented level across Web 2.0 websites and through instant messaging, or the artistic freedom of expression available through flash animation, youtube videos, photography and art websites like those of flickr and Deviant Art, or even peer-review websites where you can submit your writing for the world to access and respond to. Every day there are hundreds of millions of us participating in making each of these websites or pet projects impactful on others, and this is ultimately going to result in a generation of individuals who have learned, shared, and explored their own interests more than any generation that came before us and lacked the opportunities we have been so so freshly buried beneath. You can shake your fist and argue that kids today waste all their time screwing around online instead of making something of themselves, but I can personally gaurentee you our generation will accomplish more reading, more writing, and more creative thought processing than any that has come before it, only to be trumped by the generations that will proceed it.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and 'productivity' is imprinted on the same coin. I see the potential for some incredible innovation coming out of the internet culture as it continues to refine and mature.

Note that I'm not arguing that these internet memes are the pinnacle of our achievement as a species, but I do feel that they play an important role in binding us together by demonstrating that although the internet is a massive cyber-cloud of information and individualistic expression we are all utlimately sharing the same internet, and a part of the same experiences.

 

[Zeonix]

Generation Y is anyone born from 1983 to 1997. A lot of the things you've attributed to Generation Y were actually created by Generation Xers.

Here's the article:

http://www.bspcn.com/2008/05/21/generation-y-has-no-culture/

I'm not saying I agree with it, probably because I don't want to think of myself as being part of a useless generation, but a lot of the points made are on the money. There are a lot of comments defending our generation so read those too.

 

[-Origin]

Generalize an entire age-group based on the music they listen to? Idiots.

I listen to music that was made 20 years before I was even born. :/

 

[Zeonix]

Generalize an entire age-group based on the music they listen to? Idiots.

I listen to music that was made 20 years before I was even born. :/

And that music was created by a different generation, which is the author's point. We're not creating anything awesome. We're just feeding on the achievements of past generations.

 

[-Origin]

Hey I'm cool with that.

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

Generation X creates what Generation Y applies itself to. If nobody used Youtube there wouldn't still be a Youtube. Same goes for every other website on the internet. It is directly through our individual interactions with these websites and our requests for new features and innovations that the internet exists in its present form at all. Besides, we are the ones producing the culture, they are the ones creating the mediums for expression. We don't attribute the influence of a painter to the man who invented his brush, and we don't believe the printing press was produced by the same culture as the man who created parchment. It's what you do with the tools, not the tools themselves.

This article is tripping over itself as well. Why is it claiming that Juno is a product of Generation Y? Why is it saying that any movie is a product of generation Y? Juno was written by a 30 year old woman, which puts her outside of the range of generation Y altogether. The majority of script writers and directors, if not all every single one of them at the present time, is outside of this field. The author is confusing the generations with one another.

 

[Zeonix]

Hey I'm cool with that.

I'm sure most of our generation is, too.

@ Sonic: Simply using a product doesn't mean we're responsible for the creation of that product, either. We can't take credit for what those before us have done. You seem to be missing the entire point of the article, which is we haven't created anything of value as a generation. Yes, we feed on everything that's created for us by the generations before, and that's awesome for us and them, as they profit off of us using their products, but that doesn't translate us into being creators, just consumers.

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

So the generation of 27-and-under-year-olds hasn't created a great piece of art or a literary masterpiece. In other groundbreaking observations the sun came up today, the earth rotated, and gravity pulled us downwards. I find the article preemptive and prejudice, and it doesn't relate specifically to the E-culture in which I am referring to. I don't mean our overall general population of 27 and under, just the ones who are buried in the internet.

 

[Zeonix]

So the generation of 27-and-under-year-olds hasn't created a great piece of art or a literary masterpiece. In other groundbreaking observations the sun came up today, the earth rotated, and gravity pulled us downwards. I find the article preemptive and prejudice, and it doesn't relate specifically to the E-culture in which I am referring to. I don't mean our overall general population of 27 and under, just the ones who are buried in the internet.

Because art and literature are the only areas in which one may create something that the world's population can declare to be great, or a positive contribution to society.

Your first sentence is also a far cry from the following, since you obviously believe our fantastic creations (memes and other such garbage) have been positive contributions to modern culture and will help to further our society as a whole:

I think it's total bull**** to assume we haven't produced anything worth-while for our culture when you take into account the free and rapid flow of information across the internet from blogs and web sources like Wikipedia, the social networking that exists on an unprecedented level across Web 2.0 websites and through instant messaging, or the artistic freedom of expression available through flash animation, youtube videos, photography and art websites like those of flickr and Deviant Art, or even peer-review websites where you can submit your writing for the world to access and respond to.

And again, none of what you mentioned was created by our generation, and we certainly aren't using those tools to the best of our ability, although if the way our generation tends to type and write and formulate responses is any indication, we just might be.

While you may not have been addressing culture as a whole, I, as the person who initated this conversation, was. The internet sub-culture is just that: a sub-culture. It is but a very small part of the big picture, that picture being modern culture in its entirety.

But to stay on topic, I think this crap will evolve and become more complex, and will continue to bleed into the real world, as the rick roll "phenomenon" has, but I don't think it'll stray too far from my personal designation for it. If it does, awesome. But it probably won't.

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

Let's avoid battles over semantics, we agree to disagree.

 

[Chakra-X]

Internet cultures pisses me off sometimes. Esoteric jokes, acronyms, memes, ugh, it's so bland sometimes. I mean I find myself saying "oh em gee" out loud for the sake of irony, so that's part of the internet culture that comes into my real life (speaking of real life, it's been degenerated to a damn acronym , "RL").

There's also a large amount of internet dweller stereotypes: social awkwardness/distance outside the internet, cynical opinions, excessive use of e-words/meme references (for the win, epic fail, OVER 9000); I do not want our generation's culture based on that.

The internet is a fantastic tool for people and data to communicate and interact with each other. It's hands down one of the greatest inventions of mankind, and there was bound to be a culture that rose from it. But the type of people that I just listed above make the internet a joke. The internet is not always "serious business", I know that and it would suck if it was, but it shouldn't be some bull**** dump where anonymity lets people act like idiots.

 

[Deman]

Internet cultures pisses me off sometimes. Esoteric jokes, acronyms, memes, ugh, it's so bland sometimes. I mean I find myself saying "oh em gee" out loud for the sake of irony, so that's part of the internet culture that comes into my real life (speaking of real life, it's been degenerated to a damn acronym , "RL").

There's also a large amount of internet dweller stereotypes: social awkwardness/distance outside the internet, cynical opinions, excessive use of e-words/meme references (for the win, epic fail, OVER 9000); I do not want our generation's culture based on that.

The internet is a fantastic tool for people and data to communicate and interact with each other. It's hands down one of the greatest inventions of mankind, and there was bound to be a culture that rose from it. But the type of people that I just listed above make the internet a joke. The internet is not always "serious business", I know that and it would suck if it was, but it shouldn't be some bull**** dump where anonymity lets people act like idiots.

I wouldn't be too worried about that making it too far outside the internet. You know full on as I what happens when internet memes are used outside the internet. I'm certain one of my co-workers is a /b/-tard due to both his meme usage and social awkwardness. He mentions memes at work all the time and I may be the only one who understands where he's coming from. I just ignore them, haha. Last thing I want is him thinking I'm of the same breed.

 

[Zeonix]

I wouldn't be too worried about that making it too far outside the internet. You know full on as I what happens when internet memes are used outside the internet. I'm certain one of my co-workers is a /b/-tard due to both his meme usage and social awkwardness. He mentions memes at work all the time and I may be the only one who understands where he's coming from. I just ignore them, haha. Last thing I want is him thinking I'm of the same breed.

They got the Mets to rickroll their audience during one of their games. It's only a matter of time before we're seeing lolcats in newspaper ads.

Oh, wait:

http://catmas.com/images/2006/10/newspaper-filler.jpg

We need to create some kind of Net wall that keeps internet crap trapped inside of the internet.

 

[Kaination]

It's just how we are, we all grew up while the internet was still forming, and since it was new and such a massive thing, we loved to use it. We loved it so much and used it so daily that it became a part of our lives.

Me myself, I'm a /b/tard but in no way socially awkward. Hell, that's 100% the complete opposite of what I am. I tend to live two lives; an internet life as Kain/Kaination and a real life as Alex. I try to not make them two clash or collide but sometimes it does, lolar.

Regardless, it's what we grew up with and it's what we know. That's why our culture is the way it is today.

And is it fair to argue that someone who uses the internet, spouts meme's and such (a /b/tard) is 'an idiot' as a guy who wears girl pants, has weird hairstyles, wears make up (an emo kid) is 'an idiot', as well as someone who plays sports, works out, and wears popular fashion is 'an idiot'?

It all comes down to stereotyping, which if you don't believe in it, you can admit it tends to play itself out.

Funfact: I probably am not talking about the right subject. lawl. I hope I just did :S

 

[Synth]

We're MC Raiders!

 

[Chakra-X]

And is it fair to argue that someone who uses the internet, spouts meme's and such (a /b/tard) is 'an idiot' as a guy who wears girl pants, has weird hairstyles, wears make up (an emo kid) is 'an idiot', as well as someone who plays sports, works out, and wears popular fashion is 'an idiot'?

Just in case this was referenced to when I said "act like idiots", I did not mean the general use of things originating from the internet were behaviors of an idiot. I just mean the kind of behavior that goes beyond "just having fun" to just making an ass out of yourself.

But I must admit, I've never been a fan of 4-Chan, and now that "/b/tard" seems like a e-household name, I grow worried.