Meme_Background-Research

= Research and Information:  = = Know Your Meme - //Background Research// =

__Objective__ To help with this, each member of the group should review of one of the episodes of Know Your Meme where they deconstruct a given meme and provide some humorous insight as to why its memetic.

**"One Take" ** //Camilo Diez // media type="youtube" key="fApXQ0efyo0?fs=1" height="169" width="281" align="left" After watching the 'one take' video on know your meme, I started to think how many of these videos I have seen and enjoyed. from 'OK GO' treadmill video to 'Daft Hands' (and its many variations). the videos are popular because they are one take and fully unedited; it is very impressive to see the success of one take videos.

Also, many Fail Blog videos use this technique making it seem more real and fun. Therefore my suggestion to the group was to make a video that is one take, unedited and real! this type of meme style is great for our meme video because it would make for a very presentable, natural and funny meme. Nobody wants to wait on YouTube for a 5 minute long meme video about some student being stupid, viewers want something quick (short attention span), and simple.

//Justin Antidormi //
 * "i-Gun Traffic Rampage"**

The i-Gun Traffic Rampage first appeared on YouTube in May of 2009. Since then the minute long video has been viewed about five and a half million times. The clip is simple - a frustrated and aggravated man is stuck in a traffic jam. Then he films himself slaughtering everything and everyone around him. Well, it’s actually an imaginative slaughter. With his iPhone hooked up to the speakers in his yellow interior sports car, he uses the i-Gun App to shoot up all the cars surrounding him. It is a minute of screaming, profanity, gunshots, and hilarity. Just the spontaneity alone makes the i-Gun Rampage successful, let alone the actual content and story. media type="youtube" key="UlzoL-wQwio?fs=1" height="238" width="295" align="right"

Why I think this meme is so brilliant has to do with the universal anger of being stuck in a bumper to bumper traffic jam. This guy indirectly took his frustration with highway monotony and lashed out in a minute of sheer fury. Most highway drivers have probably had some kind of traffic-repelling fantasy before, and now there’s a memetic one that never gets boring. There are a few unknowns about the main character in the video however: his location, where he’s going, how late he is, and who “Kevin” is. He keeps referring to someone named Kevin throughout the entire minute. It’s almost as if the video is bring sent to Kevin. Or the other possibility is that his own name is Kevin, and he’s just talking in third-person. I think that these unknowns make the whole spectacle more authentic. It truly feels like a spur-of-the-moment, impulsive act of imaginary terrorism. This is the kind of meme that appeals most to my group. We all want to make something that feels unrehearsed and instinctive. Even if the act isn’t actually spontaneous we want it to feel that way. This will be a challenge, because it is way too easy to find useless, trying-too-hard crap all over youtube - failed memes if you will. We have discussed various spontaneous acts, many of which rely on surprises, catch-phrases, and taking advantage of others’ fears. We’re also exploring the possibility of creating a series of the same meme done on different people.

__Another notable meme __ media type="youtube" key="GHuiPAhNCDE?fs=1" height="134" width="250"

**"Double Rainbow" ** //Kleine Achiles //

media type="youtube" key="1qyQIKd_B68?fs=1" height="170" width="280" align="center"

Double Rainbow (from Know Your Meme) is a viral video featuring Paul Vasquez, who exclaims and mumbles in sheer joy after witnessing a double rainbow in the sky while hiking in Yosemite National Park, California. Towards the end of video, Paul breaks into tears with many notable quotes like “it’s so bright and vivid”, “it’s starting to look like a triple rainbow”, and “what does it mean, I don’t know what this means."

The Double Rainbow video from user hungrybear9562 has over 18 million pageviews since its broadcast on January 8, 2010. What makes this video so hilarious and so different from other "double rainbows" videos on Youtube is Paul Vasquez's extreme rapture with the double rainbow. His reaction is so genuine and so exaggerated(perhaps he's high) that you can't help but laugh. The double rainbow (I've only ever seen two in my life) is such a simple phenomenon but Paul Vasquez grabs our attention to give a humourous and genuine appreciation for the double rainbow.

 In the Know Your Meme episode, the host points out that it wasn't until Jimmy Kimmel's Twitter post on July 3, 2010 which skyrocketd the pageviews of Double Rainbow and blasted it into Meme history. Twitter does have its usefulness - I definitely suggested to make use of Twitter and get as many re-tweets of the video as much as possible. Facebook can also be used as a launch platform, posting our potential meme video on friends' profile pages to get as many views from friends also visiting that profile page.

 And from watching a lot of the Know Your Meme episodes, some of the best Memes were simple, spontaneous and unedited. We want to create a video that encapsulates those three things. When we first brainstormed, we thought about remixing or making a song from a well known video, but after a few suggestions like:
 * = media type="youtube" key="sUdEoFwSr7M?fs=1" height="167" width="206" ||= media type="youtube" key="-HePTmrV-og?fs=1" height="163" width="341" ||
 * = Miss Philippines "Major Mistake" ||= We love you ||

//Paulina Filewska//
 * "Numa Numa"**

After watching episode 7 of <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">KnowYourMeme, Numa Numa Dance stood out to me. Do people really find it entertaining to watch other people make a mockery of themselves? Is it really a mockery in this case then?

<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">Numa Numa has received 11,010,5## hits since it was released December 2004. It made Gary Brolsman a 'break out video start' because everyone thought it was such an interesting new idea. Well, we all do it. Maybe not film ourselves rocking out to a song or jumping around to one of our favourite songs but you defintely do it on occasion... even if you won't admit it. How about all those people who jam to music in the car, imagine if someone filmed that and put it on YouTube. Sometimes I catch people jamming so hard it makes me laugh. But that's the point of videos or 'moments' like this, they are intended for entertaining purposes, to make us smile and the more realistic these moments are the more amusement we get from them.

KnowYourMeme continued to explain how interest around the original song peaked whenever interest in the video picked up, creating more hype around the videos. People were recreating the video by themselves and artists were recording different versions in different languages.

However, what sometimes happens is when someone tries to recreate the video again and expects the same results. When Gary did similar videos, it just wasn't the same. The videos were no longer as effective as the original because it's a reenactment of what was real, it simply lost its sense of originality and creativity.

Here are some more examples of people doing the same thing. We all do it, just who has the guts to put up a video of it for the online world to notice? Do you? The purpose of analyzing these specific memes is to show how spontanous moments of time actually entertain viewers and have them coming back for more. People like to see something real. They like to be entertained in the moment as if they were at the same location, at the same time, at the same moment with that person experiencing exactly what the 'character' in the meme feels. The idea of spontaneity is what keeps people interested it allows for anything to happen at any given moment, it is not rehersed or played out - it is real and true.
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 * = Public Affair (2006) ||= Hips Don't Lie (2007) ||= Dj got us fallin' in love again (2010) ||