Category Archives: Digital

Contemporary Legend/Prank

Nationality: English
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: West Hills, CA
Primary Language: English

“There was this website online called Bonzai Cats that was really controversial for awhile.  No one could tell whether it was a practical joke or not, but basically it was about this Japanese guy who was selling pets called Bonzai Cats.  These cats were treated horribly, put in cages and fed through tubes, and given muscle relaxants and then shoved into different bottles so they would morph into these really bizarre shapes.  Then the cats are sold as souveneirs.  Some people got so outraged by this that a huge petition was created to stop the guy from making Bonzai Cats, even though no on even knew for a fact if it was even possible to do something like this.  The problem was that there were pictures posted online that show what a Bonzai Cat looks like.  But no one could determine whether the pictures were Photoshopped or edited to make them look like they were being mistreated.”

The controversy over the Bonzai Cats hoax shows the power and dangers of the internet.  Because everyone with internet access could view the Bonzai Cat site, it quickly became a topic of conversation (and anger) for many people.  However, because it was online and not able to be viewed live, no one could actually verify if such a practice actually existed.  Even so, the shock and outrage that many viewers of the website shared united people and actually led to the creation of a petition and legal action against the alleged Bonzai Cat operation.  This group formation eventually exposed the Bonzai Cat hoax, which was actually run by a group of MIT students.  While this hoax is pretty clever and humorous on one hand, it is also dangerous because it convinced so many people of something that was not true.  Also, it may have opened the door for copy-cat hoax websites that could potentially manipulate audiences into believing in something that is not true.  Fortunately, in the case of Bonzai Cats, the public was united in order to fight against animal cruelty.  This shows how society values fair and humane treatment of living creatures and is willing to stand up and fight if those values are violated.  However, it is interesting that the people who fought against Bonzai Cats did not invest more time verifying the legitimacy of the website and company before creating a petition.  Perhaps this is because Bonzai Cats was created a few years ago when technology like Photoshop was relatively new.  Many people probably thought that images could not be manipulated in extreme ways and considered the photos concrete proof of animal cruelty.

Dylan said that he first heard about Bonzai Cats when he was at a friend’s house and his friend showed him the website.  He said that the pictures looked very realistic, but he still could not believe that it was physically possible to deform the cats in such a drastic way without killing them.  More so than that, Dylan doubted the cats could legally be sold as “art”, since it was such an obvious demonstration of animal cruelty.  For Dylan, critical analysis of the website allowed him to make a rational judgment that the website must be a prank.  However, many viewers were less sure and believed that Bonzai Cats actually existed.  This varying level of belief shows how the website was able to perpetuate this prank and turn it into a legend that was not readily verifiable.

Like Dylan, I was initially shocked when I saw the Bonzai Cats website, but then decided that it must be fake.  Even though a part of me was fascinated by the idea of growing cats as decoration, I could not actually believe that something so cruel would actually be posted online and used to generate sales.  I think that the younger generations that are more familiar with computers had an easier time discriminating this site, whereas adults and people that had not used a computer often were more likely to be convinced by the images posted online.

Chain E-Mail

Nationality: American
Age: 43
Occupation: Florist
Residence: Tucson, AZ
Performance Date: April 19, 2008
Primary Language: English

*Below was in the e-mail*

Subject: The Passover Toilet Seat – Isn’t this the refined Passover gift for which you’ve been waiting?

“I received this chain e-mail, just recently around the Jewish holiday, Passover.  The initial email had been forwarded and sent to hundreds of people.  What is funny is that another Jewish friend of mine sent me the exact same e-mail and she does not even know the first person who sent this to me.  In fact one woman is from Dallas and the other woman is from Arizona.  I thought the image [above] was pretty funny, even though I usually just delete chain e-mails.  I didn’t forward the email to anyone else cause, that’s just something I don’t do.  The toilet seat cover is designed to look like matzo and the phrase “Let my people go” is the phrase Moses used to demand freedom from Pharaoh of Egypt.  Obviously this is a play on words referring to releasing your bowels or letting them go.”

Chain e-mails have become a very modern form of folklore.  It is almost impossible to trace an original source to this e-mail, and it is an artistic means of communication between people.  In this case the folk are Jews and the lore is Passover, specifically Passover jokes.  What is interesting is that Susan received this identical email from two people located in completely different places across the country.  The picture itself is a folk joke, and it has cultural meaning behind it, as Susan mentioned the story of Moses demanding his people to be “let go” from Pharaohs command.  It is also interesting to note how many chain e-mails go around a day.  Susan mentioned how she gets so many chain e-mails that she just deletes them because there is too many to go through.  This is also a seasonal chain email because if this were sent out in July, it would not be as funny, but in the context of Passover season, it is appropriate.

Internet Culture

Nationality: Mexican, Jewish
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bonsall, CA
Performance Date: April 21, 2008
Primary Language: English

(Romanian words. Doesn’t actually mean anything in Romanian, just works with the    music. Original Song by O-zone.)

Maya Hi, Maya Hu, Maya Ha

Maya Haha, Maya Hi, Maya Hu,

Maya Ha, Maya Haha

Ross Chris Newman – Famous Numa Numa Dance

In 2004, Gary Brolsma never thought that a video that he created in his bedroom would become a national internet phenomenon. Let alone a video not even in English and the performance merely being a glorified lip sync. The video popped up on a site named www.newgrounds.com. After only a few months of being online, the video recorded over a million hits. And after 6 months the video had been viewed tens of millions of times world-wide with many “Numa Numa” impersonations popping up everywhere trying to copy the original. While none were quite as good as Gary’s, they were valiant efforts.

After a year went by Gary Brolsma was featured on a CNN broadcast and on the Today Show, the shows asked him questions about his influence in making the video and also toured his home. The craze for the “Numa Numa” guy was so intense that he eventually created a new Numa video and posted that online as well. He named his new video, “New Numa, the Return of Gary Brolsma.” It was evident that Gary put much more post-filming effort into this video because unlike the first one, there were special effects and video editing. The response to this video was equally as insane as the first. In the first week of its lifetime online, it had already succeeded in reaching over one million hits; a feat normally not possible in prior internet culture and unheard of as early as five years ago.

With the advent of his New Numa video, Gary also created his own website commercializing his name and his Numa dances. The website is called www.newnuma.com. He decided that he was not going to be the only unknown to receive internet attention. Because of his great success in becoming an internet icon, he prepared a Numa Numa song/dance contest. Where the winners would receive $50,000 in prize money and have the chance for internet stardom. It is nice knowing that there are people such as Gary Brolsma who choose to give a chance to other unknown internet surfers to possibly have their chance to be an e-lebrity.

This new internet cultural phenomenon is being seen all over the world with hundreds of people deciding to put their own personal antics online and wait to see what other people say about their performances. Perhaps this will be the new method that humor is transferred because of the fact that it allows normal people around the world to express their comedic talents and have millions of people be able to view it. If they are lucky enough, they might even have the chance to become an icon just like Gary Brolsma.

Annotation:

Newspaper Article:

Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California: Dec 3, 2006 pg. E.4

Original video can be found at the following website. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/206373

Other sites where this video is located are at the following.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=60og9gwKh1o

New Numa Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gg5LOd_Zus&feature=related

Numa Three

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGXiN-_BCts&feature=user

Numa Numa Spoofs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=L7si10ipel0 (3 million views)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=N6j475XI1Xg (7.5 million views)

Original Song by O-Zone. (Dragostea din tei)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BgU_m3SuYPE

Folk Language/Internet Culture

Nationality: Mexican, Jewish
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bonsall, CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2008
Primary Language: English

Ross Chris Newman – Nerd speak

Recently, because of the internet boom, more and more people are becoming versed in technology language.  Just a few months ago, there have been cell phone commercials that have made acronyms once only known by teenagers who used instant messaging programs a nation-wide phenomenon. Phrases such as “Idk,” “brb,” or “roflmao,” are now common speech in society. (They stand for I don’t know, be right back, and rolling on the floor laughing my ass off.) If you do not know these terms, then you can be immediately known as not “tech-savvy.” However, there is a whole other hierarchy of language known as “Leet speak,” or “Nerd talk,” that allows those who truly are computer geeks to unite under the same banner to create and perform new technology folklore.

In the previous paragraph, Leet is not actually spelled like that. My brother told me it is actually spelled, “L33T.” At first glance, most people would get confused as to its meaning because of the numbers, but anyone who knows what this phrase means can be considered a part of a special group of underground or gaming computer users. L33T speak is generally used in various computer games to shorten the amount of text characters used so that players do not spend too much time typing and spend more time playing. Mostly, because in the time that it takes to type a sentence, you could get fragged. Confused? To frag someone is to kill them in a game. Fragging is another commonly used word in the nerd realm. If someone does not know something as simple as what the word frag means, or the actual definition of L33T, then they do not deserve to be called a gamer. Ross Chris was very passionate about letting me know how proud he is to understand these various words and that it makes it even more special knowing that not everyone else understands them.

L33T is a shortened way of saying “elite.” So if you are a good gamer, you might type a phrase such as this. “I just fragged your ass, I am L33T. You got pwned.” While it didn’t save that much time, it did show that the person who said this sentence is truly a gamer because of the special wording that he chose. While “I just killed you, I am elite, you suck,” means generally the same thing, it doesn’t exude the same meaning to a true gamer. It actually comes off as awkward and unusual.

To tell you the truth, the previous statement merely grazed the surface of L33T speak. Gamers tend to change the wording to most things they see around the web. Why do they do this? RC said that it’s merely a way of defining themselves as a part of a group. While typical people may see them as strange, true nerds laugh and enjoy the numerous concoctions of new words among their own internet community. For example, instead of saying hacker, they would call them a “Haxxor.” Instead of saying, “I stole your food and ate it,” they would say, “I’m in your kitchen, stealinz your foodz,” with a funny picture of a cat in a refrigerator. This specific LOLcats example has become a world-wide phenomenon with thousands of other pictures popping up around the web and is just another example of the new internet culture that world web wide users are producing daily.

A simple search on Yahoo and anyone can find thousands upon thousands of funny pictures or videos that make fun of things in daily life. I understand why they do it. It is a nice way to remove yourself from reality and create your own humor and then post it online and receive feedback from the thousands of people who appreciate your work. The personal gratification that these internet artists get from their work is more than enough for them to continue this new revolution. Eventually, I believe that in just the same way, “lol” and “brb” have progressed into general society, new technology terms will eventually become mainstream media. I can only imagine what the nerds will come up with next.

Annotation:

Time Magazine:

Anonymous. “Dashboard.” Time 17 Sept. 2007: 16.

Network World:

Carooso, Jeff. “Are You 133t?” Network World 21 (2004): 1-2.

Customer Relationship Management Journal

Lager, Marshall. “Let the Games Begin!” Customer Relationship Management 11 (2007): 50.

Internet Popular Culture

Nationality: Mexican, Jewish
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bonsall, CA
Performance Date: April 21, 2008
Primary Language: English

Ross Chris Newman – O RLY?

O RLY is another way of saying the phrase, “oh really.” It was first seen used on the Something Awful Forums in 2003 (www.somethingawful.com). The original picture is of a snowy owl with a caption at the bottom that reads, “O RLY?” (See above) This act of putting captions on pictures has become common internet culture over the past 5 or 6 years. O RLY is similar to the LOLCats phenomenon in the sense that it takes pictures of awkward animals, people, or events and then places a caption on it that pokes fun at it. Sometimes they can be quite crude, at other times they can be hilariously funny, and sometimes they can make no sense whatsoever. For example, the picture of the person in a taekwondo gi with a photo shopped owl head on top is just plain retarded. This is a prime example of the limitless content that can be transformed into something with O RLY in it.

After the O RLY franchise took off in the latter half of the decade, companies started taking advantage of its marketability and famous name. It started being used away from the internet quite frequently, mainly in video games. Young people are dominantly the ones who are playing video games. So publishers and developers insert small O RLY goose eggs into their games to give them an extra laugh. For example, in a Game Boy Advance game, Mega Man Network Battle 6, there is a scene where Mega Man is talking to another character in the game. And he responds with the phrase “O RLY.” While some might not understand its importance to popular internet culture, others would get a real kick out of seeing something so blatant in one of their video games.

Whenever Ross Chris would see things like this, he told me it would immediately put a smile on his face for two reasons. The first is that it is just funny. And the second is that when he sees O RLY in a game he realizes that he is part of a special internet community who appreciate humor such as this. Not everyone understands or gives internet humor a chance. They think it is too nerdy. I have many friends such as this who believe it to be “uncool.” However, as time goes by, and more and more people begin to laugh these non-believers will eventually laugh and enjoy the digital revolution that is concurrently taking place and join the ride with us.