Behold, the meme (from Wikipedia):
A meme (pronounced /miːm or mɛm/) consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a "culture" in a manner similar to the behavior of a virus. As a unit of cultural evolution, a meme in some ways resembles a gene.
Neal Stephenson wrote what is, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant books of all time based on the premise of a "Killer Meme" called Snowcrash that would zap your brain to bits if you came into contact with it in the Metaverse (his version of the web, before the web was the web). The title and the meme, btw, were inspired based on the Mac's crash dynamic - which caused the screen to go all "snowy".
Stephenson is brilliant, and if you haven't read Snowcrash, you owe it to mankind to put down your mouse and go right now to your local BookWareHouse and get it. Come back when you're done.
As an active participant (and enabler) of the Information Age, I am particularly susceptible to memes, both large and small. Some are extremely annoying, others can be kinda hilarious. I thought it would be fun, therefore, to list out my favorite in this, my semi-regular weekend Off-Topic post.
Number One: All Your Base Are Belong To Us
I am particularly fond of this one since it inspired the post (my wife asked me what was on my shirt), and is the "borrowed" tagline we use for SubSonic. I am sure I don't need to explain this further.
Number Two: Leeeerooooyyyy.... JENKINS!!!
The interesting thing about this is that many people will talk about LEEEERROOOOYY and not have a clue as to it's origin. I remember watching the video and laughing my ass off as my buddy John (whom I play WoW with a lot) likes to "Leeroy" us constantly.
John has the great habit of not wanting to stand around planning ... anything (in the context of a video game - he's a CPA in RL). He's all about action and would usually charge right into whatever battle awaits, muttering something about my skirt and smearing lipstick. This is what LEEEEROOOYYY is all about.
What made this video a hit was the utter geekiness of the raid leader - going through the pre-battle machinations and sounding completely ... dorky. And it's exactly accurate - that's how we talk when we play ("Christ!").
"At least I have chicken" - best line ever.
Number Three: World Of Warcraft (Kralnor)
If you can't tell I'm a bit of a WoW geek. But you don't have to be a WoW geek to dig this one - it transcends absolutely everything ... mortal. There are some who say that Kralnor is actually the Dhali Lama (who runs a Gnome Mage on Spirestone in the <void> guild) as no one could ever, possibily have uttered such... saginess.
WoW has forums which, as you can imagine, are quite lively and trollish. They gsve birth, one day shortly after the release of WoW (May 16 2005) to a singularly brilliant post by a user named Kralnor. It was pretty innocuous (as most historically meme-ish things are) - asking people to evaluate his staff (players like to show off their equipment in the forums).
The thing about the post is... there's too much to list.
It's obvious that there's a translation issue here, but if you read the post carefully, and repeatedly, it starts to worm it's way into your brain and a sort of viral confusion sets in... eventually resolving itself into a sine-wave of transcendent nothingness bliss.
Give into the magic that is... KRALNOR:
I dont like to stress the fact that the warlock rocks, but he jus does,So, for all you staff users out there, feel free to come in and post, my staff is a good one, but here is how it goes
1. post message in the room
2. LOOK IT OVER
3. dont report anything, i might get in trouble :)
and 4. Have fun!!!
Sensational.
This one post caused people to respond all over the planet, and actually shut down the WoW forums as they could not handle the 1287 replies to this post (which was growing every day).
The responses ranged from flames to praise as people flocked to this simple bit of broken prose. It became a movement in no time, and Kralnor became the spokesmen for every disenfranchised, misunderstoon Warlock (his character class) out there.
Kralnor was dubbed a "WoW God", speaking a cryptic message atop mount crazy town. An instant legend, even Blizzard had to recognize his powers and made Kralnor these offerings:
[On] the blood elf race page on Blizzard.com. There are three direct references to Kralnor in the alternate texts of the banner image here. Hover your cursor over the Ghoul.
On the 2007 April Fool's Day jokepage about a new [Tinfoil Hat], a short poem (from the "Book of Kralnor") can be seen when highlighted on the left side of the webpage, under where the webpage's navigation is halfway down the page. It displays:
To staff of warlock none compare
Leaves its enemies seeing double
To defy its power none would dare
Don't report anything, I might get in trouble
Blizzard included Kralnor in their WoW cardgame as well:
Oddly, Kralnor only responded once to the thread - leaving yet another cryptic message which re-ignited the debate anew:
ok, guys, how simple can you be? ITS A !&$%ING TOPIC ABOUT STAFF USERS, if your not a staff user, GET YOUR ASS OUT!!!!!!!! Jesus!!!!
What are your favorites?
